Unfortunately, blaming the victim for the crime against them is nothing new in this society, especially when it comes to men’s violence against women. Kate Clark’s article, “The Linguistics of Blame,” looks at the language that media uses to cast blame onto the victim. Clark focuses her attention on The Sun, a British tabloid/newspaper. Although she focuses only on this one source, her ideas can be easily extended to other areas. Blaming the victim is something that many people do, not only the media, often times without even realizing it. It is engrained in western society. Blaming a woman for her own rape is yet another way women are kept oppressed in society.
Clark’s main focus in her article is the use of language and naming as a tool in laying blame. She discusses how language can heighten blame or minimize blame. Some of the names she mentions are “unmarried mum,” “blond,” and “divorcee,” these are labels of an “available” woman (184). In other words, woman who are not attached to men. Clark gives the examples of, “wives,” “mothers,” and “girls” as “unavailable women” (186). It seems to be that there is less blame put on attackers or rapists of available women. In our western society it seems that it is a greater wrong to rape an “unavailable,” woman than one who is “available.” It seems to be less favorable to rape another man’s woman. Clark also discusses the term “Lolita,” which she states that “in Sun language means sexually active under-aged girl” (186). The use of the term Lolita is bringing attention to the fact that an underage girl is either sexually active or dresses/acts in a percieved provocative manner. By bringing attention to these attributes of the victim it is placing less blame on the attacker, because the man was supposedly provoked by the young girl, and more blame on the victim. It suggests that the crime would have been less severe if it was done to a girl of the same age who was not sexually active or did not dress/act in a manor that could be perceived as provocative.
It is not only the media that places blame on the victim. Society as a whole has a tendency to place blame on rape victims. The article, “The Moderating Role of Ambivalent Sexism: The Influence of Power Status on Perception of Rape Victim and Rapists,” by Niwako Yamawaki, Ryan Darby, and Adriane Queiroz, explore what variables seem to cause blame to be minimized for the perpetrator and put on to the victim. They discuss how variables such as socioeconomic status, attractiveness, and relationships between the victim and the perpetrator can effect the amount of blame placed on the offender or the victim.
Yamawaki, Darby, and Queiroz discuss a study in which the conviction rate of unattractive offenders was higher than that of attractive offenders, and another study where the offenders perceived guilt was greater if their victim was attractive (Yamawaki et al, 42). This really reflects on western culture as a whole, where perceived beauty is valued very highly. Yamawaki, Darby, and Queiroz also examine study results which show that victims are blamed more if they are raped by a stranger instead of someone they know (Yamawaki et al, 45). This is especially true if a husband rapes his wife. Many people have a hard time understanding, or even acknowledging that there is rape occurs marriages. This may stem from the historically patriarchal ideal that it is a wife’s duty to have sex with her husband, not a choice. It is especially disturbing that women who are raped by men they know get blamed more than women raped by strangers. It has been proven over and over that higher percentages of rapes occur when the victim knows the perpetrator.
Blaming the victim and minimizing the guilt of perpetrators has happened throughout history. Perhaps it is done to help alleviate the fear of rape, placing blame on the victim indicates that the woman somehow provoked the rape, therefor placing fault on the woman. Perhaps more likely, this blaming the victim has stemmed out of a historically patriarchal society. A society which blames its women victims for their own rapes only to oppress them more. Until more women realize that this is not an abnormal occurrence and start fighting to stand up for the victims, not much will change.
Works Cited
Yamawaki, N., Darby, R., & Queiroz, A. (2007). The moderating role of ambivalent sexism: The influence of power status on perception [Electronic version]. The Journal of Social Psychology, 147(1), 41-56. from EBSCOhost.
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