by Emme Setter

Created on: March 10, 2009

Being a victim of rape is a horrific reality for many people, and deserve support and understanding while recovering from such a traumatic experience. This is not a topic even worth debating because rape is rape, regardless of the situation, the feelings are the same almost universally amongst victims. This being said, their are many types of rape, and some do involve irresponsible people putting themselves in risky situations. No one questions the stupidity of a teenager who drinks himself to death, they mourn the unfortunate circumstance and rape, which is not the same as teenage alcoholism the victim carrying some blame is.

A young girl recently met with a stranger she'd talked to only online. He raped her on the first date. Another young woman went to a party and drank far to much, the rest of the story is known on every college campus. The fact that men may take advantage is an entirely separate issue and in no way acceptable, but it is known and woman should act accordingly, choosing not to can and should be considered irresponsible. The only way you can learn from a mistake and prevent the repeat of history is admitting a mistake was made.

Knowing a victim was some how irresponsible about the situations leading up to their rape, it is important to always remember a victim is a victim and no one can blame them as much as they already blame themselves. Education about safer practices is ideal, but only after enough time has passed for it to be seen as an appropriate conversation, not an accusation. It is easy to want to blame the victim when you hear absurdly unsafe situations as the precursor to the event, but remembering that something else more significant caused the behavior to begin with is key- as is knowing irresponsibility is not the same as 'asking for it'.

Some people, usually the rapist want to claim that woman 'ask for it' by certain behaviors, whether it be a style of clothing or a specific mannerism, or men seeing what isn't there. This train of though is very similar to Wahabism, the extreme version of Islam. This religion believes that everything about a woman excused sexuality and must be covered because it can tempt men beyond their self control. This implies men have no control, and that thought alone I'm sure men would find offensive. It's an excuse, believing woman are to blame because just by being female they are seductive.

Irresponsibility is part of maturing, and maybe young adult make mistakes out of irresponsibility or immaturity that lead to life altering and painful consequences. This action however does not mean they have asked for the rape and these victims should always be treated with the same respect as others.

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