Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Famous Victim-Blaming Quotes

 TRIGGER WARNING!


Victim-blaming, meaning giving the victim of a crime (especially common in sexual violence cases) the fault for what happened to them, is unfortunately extremely common in the rape-culture, we all live in. I dont know a single survivor, who hasn't been subjected to victim-blaming-comments. Not just that those comments excuse rapists and set up a very wrong image of sexual violence and blame within society. They are also an (often times very successfull) attempt at controlling women, as if they were safe as long as they know their place and behave like a "good girl" (whatever that means). And victim-blaming will hurt most those that have already been so intensly hurt: The survivors of those crimes. Victim-blaming can lead to retraumization, which can lead to severe mental illnesses and consequences including suicide.

I've already posted on this blog's facebook-page a "victim-blaming-bullshit-bingo" with common victim-blaming-statements (including stuff that has been said to me).

With this post I want to collect some victim-blaming-quotes that have been said by famous politicians or celebrities. I have not found so many quotes of Germans, though I'm sure they exists (I just follow more American feminist pages than German ones). If you know more quotes from German celebrities and politicians please let me know and I will add them to the list.
So here you go (again trigger- and bullshit-warning):


1.
Talking about Abortion and pregnancy after rape

“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways of shutting that whole thing down.”
 - Todd Akin, representative of Missouri


2.
Comparing bad weather to rape

“If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.”
- Clayton Williams, Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate in 1990


3.
Regarding the Steubenville-victim (a 16-year old girl that got gang-raped while drunk)

“She’s 16, why was she that drunk where she doesn’t remember? It could have been much worse. She’s lucky.”
- Serena Williams


4.
Regarding the case of director Roman Polanski raping an underage girl (and it wasn't just statutory, which is bad enough, it was clearly non-consensual).

"I know it wasn't rape-rape. It was something else but I don't believe it was rape-rape."
 - Whoopy Goldberg


5.
"If a woman has (the right to an abortion), why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman?"
- Lawrence Lockman, State representative of Maine


6.
Questioning wether or not it can be rape if the victim is unconscious

"Women who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!"
- Cee Lo Green


7.
Regarding false rape accusationes supposedly becoming a huge thing.

"Das ist das Opfer-Abo, das Frauen haben. Frauen sind immer Opfer, selbst wenn sie Täterinnen wurden. Menschen können aber auch genuin böse sein, auch wenn sie weiblich sind." (Unwort des Jahres 2012: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opfer-Abo)

"That is the victim-subscription that women have. Women are always victims, even when they became perps. Truth is humans can be extremely evil, even when they are female."

- Jörg Kachelmann


8.
Regarding rape crisis centers and other organizationes, that help and/or support victims of sexual violence. 

"Es gibt eine Opferindustrie, die in dieser kranken Form endlich weg muss."

"There is a victims-industry, that needs to be eliminated in it's sick way."

 - Miriam Kachelmann

(mehr zu den Aussagen der Kachelmanns und zum dazugehörigen Faktencheck: http://ifgbsg.org/faktencheck-fur-kachelmann/ )

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