They took naked pictures and kept them on their personal
phones, but they were on the cloud so the hacker did the right thing.
Those girls
got drunk and wore revealing clothing, so the rapist did nothing that wasn’t
coming to them.
That boy is
gay, so those bullies should have shut him in a locker or beat him up.
Those
people went to the resultant and paid with their credit card, so the waiter
should use that information to finance a nice vacation.
People keep bank information on
their phones and personal computers, so any hacker that can steal their
information has every right to.
The family on vacation deserves to
come back to house ransacked by thieves.
A girlfriend deserves to get beaten
when she disturbs her boyfriend.
I hope that all of these sentences
are equally offensive to you. No one deserves to be victimized. No one has a
right to harm anyone else.
Why is it okay to blame the victim,
haven’t they been harmed enough? Victim
blaming is only defending the offender.
You see victim blaming all over the
Internet.
Jennifer Lawrence and others
victimized by the hacker that stole their personal photos are being blamed by
society. “Don’t take naked pictures if you don’t want them online,” has been
the go to for those who blame the celebrities that had their photos leaked. I
have seen my own Facebook feed fill with people blaming the victims. People
deserve a right to privacy. A hacker stealing secrets from a digital device
isn’t much different than a burglar stealing valuables from a safe. Don’t blame
the victim; blame the criminal.
I have heard to many times of girls
or someone who has heard their story blaming the girl for her own rape. Why
were you alone? Why were you drinking? Why were you wearing that? Why did you
leave your beverage?
This makes the system, run by the
blamers and bystanders, fail on girls who need justice on their side. Few girls
report incidents; many go silent, blaming themselves. Shame of being labeled as
a victim of sexual assault can be as harsh as being a silent victim.
Don’t blame the victim; blame the
perpetrator. Their actions should not be defended by someone putting down their
victim, it is as harsh as victimizing the person yourself. I challenge everyone
to fight for justice for every victim from theft to bullying to rape because it
is never the victim’s fault.
We need to get justice for victims
and bring perpetrators to justice. Don’t stand idly around and defend the
action with “they had it coming.” Victim blaming harms everyone in society.
There will always be another victim, it could be you or a friend and you
wouldn’t want that shame on you or your loved-one.
We can each make the conscience
effort to not blame the victim and to stand up for a victim being blamed. If we
change the way we see victims there can be a bigger social change in the
criminal system. Less rape cases will not go unsolved due to the judicial
system, prosecutors or juries not believing seeing the victim for who they are.
No matter victims of leaked nude
photos or victims of rape, they are never to be blamed. The perpetrator should
be brought to justice for their offense.
If victims didn’t face as much
criticism maybe more victims would tell their story with hope for justice, or
at least to be able to not live in fear of being labeled and blamed as a
victim. Our judicial system would be stronger.
Don’t blame victims, and don’t
stand by letting them be blamed. Be the one that says “it is the hacker that
stole the pictures in the wrong, not those who took the pictures. And be the
person that can be there for a friend, instead of saying “I told you so.” We
can make a change by standing with the victims not against them.
Be the change, make the change.
Resources:
If you or a
friend has been sexually assaulted or bullied you can go to a consular and they
can help you without breaching whatever confidentiality you want to keep. You
can also call the National Sexual Assault Hotline: (800) 656-HOPE or the
Thursday’s Child National Youth Advocacy Hotline (800) USA-KIDS.
Other articles:
