cancel2 2022
Canceled
By Sarah Vine
PUBLISHED: 01:56, 1 January 2014 | UPDATED: 02:21, 1 January 2014
Sex without consent, whatever the circumstances, is always a crime. Whether a woman is drunk, sober, unconscious or conscious, dressed as a nun or channelling Rihanna, if she is sexually attacked then it is never, ever because she was ‘asking for it’. There is only one person who is to blame for a rape, and that is the perpetrator. No one would dream of blaming a minor for being the subject of sexual abuse on grounds of diminished responsibility; and the same principle must apply to all victims, whatever state of dishevelment they happen to find themselves in.
Nevertheless, I refuse to join in the chorus of feminist disapproval aimed at Calderdale Council in West Yorkshire, which has caused outrage among anti-rape campaigners for a poster featuring a young women, make-up smudged, hair dishevelled, dress wonky, shoes in hand, clearly not much in control of her faculties. The caption reads: ‘When you drink too much you lose control and put yourself at risk.’ At risk of what? Being run over by a passing taxi, losing your house keys or eating a dodgy kebab? Maybe.
But the real risk that’s implied, though never stated, is rape. Get too drunk and insensible, the poster is saying, and you could end up the victim of a sexual assault. Why is that so offensive? It is, after all, the truth. It’s not a nice truth, or one that anyone condones. It is, however, a truth that might save some women from a horrific ordeal.
But there are some feminists who are, as ever, more anxious to take offence than help a fellow woman. Advice on how to protect yourself from crime — whether it’s a crime against property or person — is a service to us all. Karen Ingala Smith, spokesperson for the anti-violence charity Nia (no, me neither), may want to believe that the poster reinforces ‘the excuses made by rapists as they attempt to discredit the women they rape and justify their crime’.
But no one I know is going to start sympathising with rapists because of a poster campaign. Whereas I can think of an impressionable teenager or three who might just hold back a little if the warning is stark enough. As someone who lived on their own from the age of 17 in a not terribly salubrious part of Brighton, I learned my lesson early on. My parents lived abroad so I had no one to rely on for lifts, and there were no mobile phones back then.
PUBLISHED: 01:56, 1 January 2014 | UPDATED: 02:21, 1 January 2014
Sex without consent, whatever the circumstances, is always a crime. Whether a woman is drunk, sober, unconscious or conscious, dressed as a nun or channelling Rihanna, if she is sexually attacked then it is never, ever because she was ‘asking for it’. There is only one person who is to blame for a rape, and that is the perpetrator. No one would dream of blaming a minor for being the subject of sexual abuse on grounds of diminished responsibility; and the same principle must apply to all victims, whatever state of dishevelment they happen to find themselves in.
Nevertheless, I refuse to join in the chorus of feminist disapproval aimed at Calderdale Council in West Yorkshire, which has caused outrage among anti-rape campaigners for a poster featuring a young women, make-up smudged, hair dishevelled, dress wonky, shoes in hand, clearly not much in control of her faculties. The caption reads: ‘When you drink too much you lose control and put yourself at risk.’ At risk of what? Being run over by a passing taxi, losing your house keys or eating a dodgy kebab? Maybe.
But the real risk that’s implied, though never stated, is rape. Get too drunk and insensible, the poster is saying, and you could end up the victim of a sexual assault. Why is that so offensive? It is, after all, the truth. It’s not a nice truth, or one that anyone condones. It is, however, a truth that might save some women from a horrific ordeal.
But there are some feminists who are, as ever, more anxious to take offence than help a fellow woman. Advice on how to protect yourself from crime — whether it’s a crime against property or person — is a service to us all. Karen Ingala Smith, spokesperson for the anti-violence charity Nia (no, me neither), may want to believe that the poster reinforces ‘the excuses made by rapists as they attempt to discredit the women they rape and justify their crime’.
But no one I know is going to start sympathising with rapists because of a poster campaign. Whereas I can think of an impressionable teenager or three who might just hold back a little if the warning is stark enough. As someone who lived on their own from the age of 17 in a not terribly salubrious part of Brighton, I learned my lesson early on. My parents lived abroad so I had no one to rely on for lifts, and there were no mobile phones back then.
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