Blaming the Victim

As limelight on the number of rapes in India increased in recent times, some politicians responded with offensive lines like “It’s the woman’s fault to be out alone/dress ‘provocatively’/to be out with a guy”. The victim was partially to blame, if not entirely.

And now we have similar “advice” going round the Internet in the West. But first, the background: Nude selfies stored by celebrities on Apple’s cloud recently got hacked; and then posted online. Note that these were private naked selfies they took and stored; not shoots they did for magazines or for publicity. One would assume that the criticism would have been directed at Apple for (possibly) having a not-so-secure cloud and at whoever posted them online. But no…

Some blamed the victim(s), Indian politician style: Did you need to take nude selfies and store it on the cloud, asked some. A reader of Dish blew their top at this:
““Is your life going to suck if you can’t take nude pics on your telephone?” What the hell kind of question is that? Why exactly “can’t” a person take nude selfies?...Do the people asking these questions not hear themselves and recognize they might as well ask women, “Is your life going to suck if you can’t wear a short skirt?””
The reader then cited their own experience when their debit card info was obtained and misused by someone to make purchases:
“At no point in the process did anyone think to ask, “Would your life really suck if you just paid cash for your purchases?” At no point did anyone suggest that if I didn’t want to have money stolen from me, that I shouldn’t purchase anything over the Internet.”

Perhaps, some of this is the perverse enjoyment of taking down a celebrity. I was reminded of Alan Shore’s superb closing in Boston Legal where he ended his defense of a celebrity client charged with murder with this line:
“The only possible route to a guilty verdict here is Schadenfreude.”
(“Schadenfreude” is the spiteful, malicious delight in the misfortune of others).

“Creating risk” is the only thing that the celebrity was guilty of here, if they were guilty of anything at all. And like it or not, the moral angle seems to come into play in all such crimes, especially when the victim is a woman and nudity/sex is involved. All over the world. Both in the physical and digital worlds. Sad but true.

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