I can't promise that this entire post will be up to my usual standards of writing (not that I'm exactly Samuel Coleridge to begin with) because this fucking rape culture misogynist bullshit makes me that angry.
I don't know how many times this needs to be said, but I'll say it again: in an attack of any kind, from unwanted touching to rape to acid thrown in the face, the blame lies with the attacker, not the victim. There is nothing anyone can do to "deserve" having acid thrown in their face. Nothing. Certainly not being confident and independent.
Yeah, you fucking read that right: A woman being confident and independent is asking to be raped and have acid thrown in her face. What does that little slut expect when she leaves her house without a male relative to escort her? What are those dumb bitches thinking when they walk around acting like human beings with rights? Don't they know any better?
Katie Piper is the Englishwoman who, as a beautiful 26-year-old, embarked on a relationship with a thuggish looking man named Daniel Lynch. When Lynch became possessive and angry, Katie Piper tried to break off the relationship. Lynch responded by raping her and then arranged for an accomplice to throw acid in her face, disfiguring her.
See, he was "thuggish looking", what else did she expect besides rape and acid? Because dangerous men always look dangerous. You can tell just by looking, unless you're some dumb slut trying to be all independent.
Why revisit this story? Katie Piper has now explained in more detail what happened in the relationship with Lynch. And I was struck by this brief description of her childhood:Born in Hampshire in 1983, I had an idyllic childhood. My father David owned a barber shop and my mother Diane was a teacher.They doted on my brother Paul, sister Suzy, and me.As a youngster I was independent and fearless. I never suspected there was any badness in the world. 'You can be anything you want to be,' Dad used to tell me.
There is a clash between the traditional and the modern here. Girls are not naturally independent and fearless. Traditionally they grew up in the protective warmth of the family. Katie Piper had a traditional childhood in this sense and seems to appreciate it.
But she was also raised with very modern expectations. Her father drummed into her that she could be anything she wanted to be, in other words, that the highest good to aim at was that of maximum autonomy.
See, now there's the problem- daddy didn't protect her enough. Daddy told her that she was a human being who could dream and strive and be autonomous- and we all know what that earns you. This Lynch guy is basically just an innocent bystander, caught in Katie's web of autonomy. If she had just been a good little girl and never dreamed of anything more than being the possession of a man, this never would have happened.
Really, Katie basically raped herself and threw acid in her own face.
In brief, Katie Piper had been protected as a girl by her secure family life; she made a great deal of being independent and fearless; and she saw the world as perfectly open and unlimited and without the restricting presence of evil or malevolence.
Which left her like a babe in the woods. How could she learn prudence, a "caution or circumspection as to danger or risk," when she saw herself as a fearless woman in a world without evil?
Dear Mark Richardson: I am confident in speaking for all women everywhere when I tell you that no woman, no matter how independent, is fearless or views the world as lacking in evil. Every single one of us is well aware that every man we meet could be a rapist. In fact, we're a little more aware of evil than most men are, in that men don't generally expect to be raped at some point in their lives, so let me ask you something: do you expect every person you meet to be the embodiment of evil? Do you hide in your home and only go outside with a full military escort armed with automatic rifles and rocket launchers?
Of course you don't. Because no one can live that way. You go out into the world aware that bad things can happen to you at the hands of bad people and hope for the best. And most days nothing happens. But when something bad does happen- to a man- we don't blame the victim, we blame the perpetrator. Well, from now on, when men are robbed or beaten, we should remind them that that's just the price you pay for leaving your home. You idiot.
So there is little guidance to women in these feminist campaigns about how to evaluate the risk of a particular situation or relationship. And sometimes feminists go further in hindering a sense of prudence in women, by fiercely objecting to any discussion of the issue on the basis that it represents "blaming the victim". Feminists want to focus on "changing men," in the belief that the cause of violence is a political one so that it's possible to eliminate violence against women through political reform.I suppose, for the time being, it's up to fathers to try to cultivate the quality of prudence in their daughters (without going so far as to scare them from relationships with men).
"Now, honey, if you leave the house without a male escort, you will be beaten, raped and disfigured. What do you mean you don't want to get married?"
Mark Richardson, Mark, Mark, Mark, you fucking . . . obscenities fail me, but just assume I said whatever would offend you the most (liberal, prochoice, feminist probably), but is there any other arena where we don't try to prevent the offenders of crimes from offending? We don't blame anyone but the driver themselves when they drive drunk, do we? We don't blame anyone but the user or dealer of the drugs, do we? And while insurance will give you a discount if you have an alarm system on your home or car, the police don't drag you away if you don't have them, do they?
Yeah, it's just those dumb bitches trying to act like people we blame, right Mark?
Go fuck yourself.
