What were your first thoughts when the news started leaking about Jian Ghomeshi? Chances are, you doubted the alarming accusations. He’s a celebrity, so maybe you wondered if the women were making up stories to extort money from him. Maybe you wondered if they were wearing sleazy clothes and therefore somehow deserved to be violently assaulted.
When it comes to rape, victim-blaming is so engrained in our society that such thoughts cross the minds of even the most ardent feminists. So embedded is this notion that even judges have blamed victims for their own rapes by suggesting what they were wearing made the barbaric act of sexual assault somehow their own fault.
In 2011, a judge decided not to send a Manitoba man to jail for sexually assaulting a woman because the victim was wearing heavy makeup and “wanted to party” on the night of the attack, according to a Globe and Mail report. In May 2014, a U.S. judge called a 14-year-old girl “promiscuous” and sentenced a man who had admitted to raping her to 45 days of community service instead of 20 years in prison, CNN reported.
It’s clear that our attitudes toward sexual assault need to change. As a society and individually, we need to acknowledge that sex crimes are acts of violence, and victims should not be blamed but emboldened to seek justice. Sexual assault has nothing to do with the way a woman dresses or acts. Sexual assault is entirely the fault of the perpetrator.
It’s good to see that public awareness campaigns are finally starting to target potential rapists rather than victims. Statistics Canada reports 1,200 people are sexually assaulted every day. With the constant violations of bodies, are women really safe in Canada? And if they don’t feel comfortable reporting the assaults, is our justice system failing them?
And why, in Squamish, does a woman who has just been sexually assaulted have to
drive to Vancouver so that doctors can collect evidence from her body? She is likely still shaking with confusion and anger, and now she must travel across the mountains to be prodded instead of going somewhere local. Why are we adding this trauma to an already traumatic experience, an obstacle to what is already a difficult court process, when it would cost only $30,000 to set up the service here?
When it comes to rape, we still live in the dark ages.
