What is the line between teaching people to defend themselves, versus blaming them for getting attacked?

I see this all the time in discussions of sexual assault. Obviously sexual assault is totally fucking wrong. But is teaching women to defend themselves with pepper spray, etc. victim blaming or just teaching them to be smart?

Teaching them self defense prior to getting attacked is not victim blaming.

Blaming them for not fighting off an attacker is victim blaming.

Is this a serious question? Do you not know what victim blaming is?

Well I've come across people who would tell you that even insinuating that women should learn to defend themselves is victim blaming.

Nobody would say that. An idiot would.

But that should not be the first suggestion. The first suggestion should be to teach boys/men to STOP ASSAULTING WOMEN. But even so, everyone should know how to defend themselves.

Probably Republicans who would say that.

Oh zawckerm. The gift that keeps on hgiving

When do we ever say that boys should assault women? That's common sense that that's wrong.

You'd think so. But how often do you hear the parents of a male assaulter say "boys will be boys" or "she shouldn't have worn that" etc etc...

You may THINK it's common sense, but it's not.

Boys will be boys is usually more common when boys fight each other, I think.

I agree that women shouldn't be "slut shamed" for wearing revealing clothing.

I don't think women should feel they have to dress modestly. But it does seem that men view scantily clad women as hookups, and they're more likely to want to date a woman who dresses modestly. Scantily clad women are viewed as "easy" and "having no self respect". So I think it's quite silly to wear revealing clothing unless all you're looking for is sex.

Of course that may be the case for some women. Not all of them want relationships. And they totally should be able to reject anyone they don't want meaningless sex with. But I hear women go to parties dressed like that hoping for a relationship, and they almost never get it.

Your point? They can wear whatever they want. That doesn't mean they should be harassed.

There is a fine line here. Better question is do we favor freedom or justice more? Would we rather let a guilty man go unpunished or punish a possibly guilty man in the name of justice.

That's definitely an issue.

I don't understand the "line" you are referring to.

Sometimes people say "she dressed slutty/acted slutty and brought it on." This is stupid thinking but I've never heard of the line regarding defending oneself and being blamed for failing to defend oneself.

I guess z is imagining a scenario in which a man says, "Hello, woman. You may be raped one day, so you need to learn martial arts." And he is wondering if this constitutes a type of advance victim blaming if she is indeed later raped and never became a kung fu master in the interim.

Pretty much!

Jesus Christ!

To defend Zwack.

He is maybe visiting too much of those gender equality extrem feminist classes in college. This might confuse his young soul.