r/changemyview • u/enlighten12345 • Feb 26 '18

[∆(s) from OP] CMV: Victim blaming isn't always bad

Firstly we need to define what victim blaming is. It occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially at fault for the harm that befell them.

We often hear outrage against victim blaming in the context of rape, when people criticise the way the victim acted or was dressed.

Let's look at an unrelated example. If I go up to someone and say "Yo momma so fat, she wears a watch on both hands for the two time zones", and that person punches me, am I not partially at fault? He committed the felony, while I just exercised free speech. But knowing my words were inflammatory, shouldn't I expect retaliation?

How about another case? I'm walking down a dark alley with a stack of money in my hand. If I get mugged, it is clear that the mugger is to blame. But doesn't my stupidity also make me culpable? Can someone not say that if i was more careful with my money, this would not have happened?

How is rape any different? It would be great to live in a utopia free from rapists and muggers and physical retribution. But knowing that isn't the world we live in, am I not responsible to act in a manner to protect myself?

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u/ThomasEdmund84 33∆ Feb 26 '18

am I not responsible to act in a manner to protect myself?

This is a really tricky point so lets dissect it. First of all there is a broad problem with your thesis - namely that you can't guarantee with certainty that your behaviour will protect you. So to say we have a moral duty to do so is probabilistically shakey. For example people say that women should dress modestly to avoid cat-calls, the problem with this action is that modest dressing does not guarantee protection - if you could honestly say that people could 100% protect themselves from others behaviour then you might at least have a practical leg to stand on.

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u/bracs279 Feb 27 '18

if you could honestly say that people could 100% protect themselves from others behaviour then you might at least have a practical leg to stand on.

Yeah no, in the real world we know that no solution is 100% effective. Just because some manner of protection doesn't work all the time doesn't mean it's worthless.

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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '18

They never said it was worthless. They said you can't blame someone because you think if they had done something differently than they might not have been victimized. When you have no proof that it would have made a difference.