I have been thinking a lot lately about our society's rape culture; we spoke in class a few weeks ago about how the focus towards preventing rape always seems to center around what the potential victims, usually women, can do to lower their chances of being raped.
Obviously, there are some deeply rooted problems with this tendency: women are held responsible for their own safety and this contributes greatly to victim blaming.
One of the specific issues we raised in class was that parents of girls often give them speeches on the importance of walking home in groups and never drinking too much, especially around strangers. e talked of how parents rarely sit their sons down to make sure they understand the importance of consent. While this is very unfortunate and harmful, I can understand to some extent where these parents are coming from.
As the only girl especially, my parents have always been extremely protective of me, while showing a slightly more relaxed attitude towards the safety of my brothers. I could imagine myself just naturally feeling the same about my sons and daughters. I think the reason behind this behavior is that it is easy for any parent of a daughter to see her as a potential victim, but I am sure that it would be much more difficult as the parent of a son to imagine he would ever rape someone.
Parents want to believe the best in their children, and obviously it is their job to ensure that they instill a proper system of values in them: respect for all humans and empathy. I just believe that these sort of social factors are important to consider when studying the ways in which our society inadvertently encourages rape culture's existence.
Obviously, there are some deeply rooted problems with this tendency: women are held responsible for their own safety and this contributes greatly to victim blaming.
One of the specific issues we raised in class was that parents of girls often give them speeches on the importance of walking home in groups and never drinking too much, especially around strangers. e talked of how parents rarely sit their sons down to make sure they understand the importance of consent. While this is very unfortunate and harmful, I can understand to some extent where these parents are coming from.
As the only girl especially, my parents have always been extremely protective of me, while showing a slightly more relaxed attitude towards the safety of my brothers. I could imagine myself just naturally feeling the same about my sons and daughters. I think the reason behind this behavior is that it is easy for any parent of a daughter to see her as a potential victim, but I am sure that it would be much more difficult as the parent of a son to imagine he would ever rape someone.
Parents want to believe the best in their children, and obviously it is their job to ensure that they instill a proper system of values in them: respect for all humans and empathy. I just believe that these sort of social factors are important to consider when studying the ways in which our society inadvertently encourages rape culture's existence.
I agree that girls are more unsafe, but i think for the child to understand equality parents need to sit down every child rather than just the girl. I think it is important that we have the same talks with boys so they are aware of how to respect a female and to teach them about equality.
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