A top barrister in the UK caused something of a stir last week when she spoke out against what she called “the ideology of sexual victimisation”. Barbara Hewson claimed that in our culture, we are too quick to entirely blame the rapist, and we should instead consider the role that the victim had to play in her attack.
Although she recognises the legal responsibility of the rapist, she argued that we have to learn the difference between legal and moral blame. In a somewhat shaky analogy, she stated that if you injured yourself while drunk, people will blame you for getting drunk in the first place, so it is “a little sanitised” to assume a rape victim who was intoxicated holds no responsibility for their assault.
Hewson’s ‘drunken injury’ analogy does little to support her claims. While it is true that being intoxicated makes injury much more likely, there is a clear difference between a perpetrator-free accident and a sexual assault in which there is obvious intention. Fay Birch, 2nd year Law student, was angered and confused by the argument put forward by Hewson. “You shouldn’t have to live your life in fear of being attacked – a woman should be free to drink alcohol without having to worry that she’s at risk of sexual assault. To claim that being drunk makes the victim partly responsible is ridiculous”. It is certainly a step back 100 years for equality to suggest that a drunken woman is asking for someone to attack her. The claims could be seen as a harsh warning that women aren’t free to drink alcohol in the same way that men are, and the danger of promoting this sort of thinking shouldn’t be underestimated.
The statements have been seen by many as a cruel attack on innocent victims of crime, and have caused victims of sexual assault to feel that huge progress made by society in understanding rape victims over past years has been for nothing.
Further to these much contested statements about where blame should be attributed, Hewson also caused anger when she put forward what she sees as common misconceptions around rape, one of which was that it has ‘long term damaging effects’. This ‘misconception’ is difficult to correlate with a wealth of research showing that victims of sexual assault are much more likely to experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sleep disorders, eating disorders and depression, as well as physical injuries including internal damage and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Rachel* spoke to Her Campus about her life after she was sexually abused at the age of nine. “At the age of 11, I brought a bottle of pills to a weekend church retreat. I wasn’t expecting to come home.” Luckily Rachel didn’t go through with her planned suicide, but she continued to feel the effects of her assualt. “I didn’t have a boyfriend in high school. I couldn’t handle that level of emotional closeness; I couldn’t trust anyone again.”
Another ‘misconception’ put forward by Hewson is that “rape and sexual abuse is very widespread but largely unrecognised even by victims themselves”. Rape can occur in numerous different contexts, and this statement suggests that it is always obvious when rape has occurred. Paula* told Her Campus how her boyfriend sexually assaulted her for 5 years. “I never told anyone it happened. It’s incredibly ignorant to say that rape isn’t always the rapists fault. If you say no to sex and it still happens against your will, it’s rape”.
Rape is still something of a taboo subject in our society, but we’ve come a long way since the days when it wasn’t always recognised as a crime and victims were largely held responsible. Michelle Tin, a member of University of Notre Dame’s FIRE Starters team, who run a sexual assualt education programme, said “our rape culture is a serious problem, and comments like Hewson’s show a grave misunderstanding of sexual assualt.” With victims of sexual crimes still seen as criminals in many countries across the world, as a nation who see ourselves as ‘developed’ we need to set an example for how we treat victims. Comments like Hewson’s are a small step in the wrong direction.
Do you see any truth in Hewson’s claims? Tweet @HCNottingham to have your say.
Visit http://www.rapecrisis.org.uk/ for help and advice.
*Names have been changed to maintain confidentiality.
Sources
http://www.rainn.org/get-information/effects-of-sexual-assault
http://peterknecht.com/sexual-assault/
http://grc.nd.edu/get-involved1/fire-starters/
Edited by Faiza Peeran