Victim Blaming or Empowerment

The unofficial FeMRADebates fanclub is also having a lively debate on this issue with many different viewpoints presented.

A big hello to any visitors from that discussion. I'll be signing autographs after the thread.

Telling women they should be more assertive in order to not become victims of domestic abuse isn't victim blaming because I say so.

The argument is not "becasue I say so." the argument this:

There is a difference between:

  1. recognizing that someone's actions were steps in a chain of causality which let to something bad happening to them, and

  2. blaming them for the bad thing which happened to them.

If we are unable to make this distinction then pedestrians are partially to blame when they are run over by drunk drivers. Their choice to be on or near a road at that point in time was an absolutely vital step in the chain of events which led to them being hit. Had they not been there it could not have occurred.

this resonates with my 33 years of experience with human behavior

Well geez, give the man a doctorate already.

I thought "lived experiences" were meant to be valued. Or is it only when those experiences match up with the narrative... and belong to a woman.

Not that it really matters. This was not intended to bolster the credibility of the following statement (which was completely ignored). The intention was actually the opposite. It was to qualify the statement as nothing more than personal experience and leave it open for others to respond with their own contradicting experiences.

/r/FeMRADebates Thread