General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Victim-blaming and woman-shaming claim another victim [View all]niyad
(113,302 posts). . .
Rehtaehs rapists are still out there. They are still in high school, they are still going to parties and they are, quite likely, still raping. Why wouldnt they? They got away with it once, didnt they? Rehtaehs rapists are still living normal, untroubled lives, and she is dead.
Shes dead, but even in the wake of her suicide and the attention her case has gained, government officials are refusing to review why the RCMP declined to lay charges against Rehtaehs rapist.
Instead, Nova Scotias justice minister, Ross Landry, released this fucking joke of a statement:
As a community, we need to have more dialogue with our young people about respect and about support to educate our young boys and our young girls about whats appropriate behaviour, whats not appropriate behaviour, Landry said.
We have to make sure that were cognizant about what gets online and what doesnt get online and what the impacts are, so its having that dialogue.
That still doesnt take away the fact that weve lost a beautiful young woman
and Im very upset about the loss.
Saying that we need to educate boys and girls about appropriate behaviour is victim-blaming. Saying that this wouldnt have been a problem if the pictures hadnt ended up online is like saying that rape is fine, but publicly broadcasting it isnt. Calling Rehtaehs death a tragedy because weve lost a beautiful young woman is a joke seriously, what bearing does her appearance have on how sad her death is? And since Landry is refusing to open an official review into how the RCMP handled this, isnt he basically saying, I think she was lying about the rape, but gosh, she sure was hot
. . . .
http://bellejarblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/rehtaeh-parsons/