Culture of blame.

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I usually save topics like these for my blog (which nobody reads, and that's kind of the point :lol:), but I think that it's pertinent to dA because we see a lot of this here.

I will give you some examples.

A woman gets raped; people point out the things she did that put her at risk (skimpy dress, walking alone, provocative behaviour). A girl hits her brother; the parents point out to him the things he did that put him at risk (got into her personal space, was annoying her). And more recently, on a photo on dA of a woman who is perceived as a "sex object" in that photo, reasons offered for why she's coming across as an object instead of a person: she's looking away from the camera, she's not got much expression, she's looking too perfect, almost plastic, and so on.

Wherever you look, in today's world, you will see people making excuses for the guilty parties. In all the above examples, the real problem is with the perpetuator. In the first scenario, the problem is with the rapist. Who cares what the woman was wearing and how she was behaving? The rapist has a brain - they're not an animal, to just react to a dress. That's inexcusable. In the second scenario, the same thing can be said. Somebody can be really annoying, but we're not push buttons to just hit out when somebody presses our buttons.

And in the third scenario, the real problem is with the viewer. No matter how the subject is portrayed, the viewer is the one seeing a sex object or a fashion icon or whatever they're seeing, and failing to see the woman. It's not the woman's doing. It's not the photographer's doing. It is solely the viewer's.

We like to soften our lives. We like to turn our eyes away when there is something unpleasant in front of us. We can't face the real issue. We'd rather try to excuse the inexcusable by bringing up all sorts of reasons.

But let's not. It's 2014. It's high time we were able to look the real monsters in the face. There are no excuses for rapists, psychopaths, murderers; there is no excuse for violence, insults, ignorance.

:heart:
Exillior

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TheMaidenInBlack's avatar
As a victim myself, I'm partial to this kind of arguments, of course. Still, I agree with you about everything, especially about the part where people need to find excuses for the wrong way they feel about certain things or for the wrong actions they willingly decide to take.

Have my favourite emote. :iconbwavoplz: