Recognizing Bias

I read the article “Why dress codes can’t stop sexual assault” by Mikky Kendall and I thought that it said a lot of really great things about the role bias plays in sexual assault. This is a debate that I hear about often because many people have strong opinions on the subject. My own opinions on the subject are heavily based off of what I read and hear, because I haven’t experienced anything like it in my life. I agree with the article I read, and I felt really strongly in accordance with a lot of the things it said. I would like to concede that, to those that disagree, I can see where you are coming from. It’s hard to not feel, at least a little bit, that what girls wear do have an impact on their chances of being assaulted. Looking at women and what they are wearing, it’s often even subconscious that we see those dress scantily as more susceptible and almost deserving of being raped. But from my own perspective, just because I may wear shorter shorts one day, it doesn’t mean that I’m any more willing to be raped than I am on any other day. I think that this belief is simply part of the bias, and we need to recognize it as bias, and realize that as the article emphasizes, what girls are wearing really has no correlation to whether or not they are raped, or whether they ‘deserve’ it or not.

The article made a few other points that I really agreed with. One thing it acknowledged was the double standard we have for women. When they get raped, we blame them for not being careful enough, or how they were dressed, or the situations they put themselves, thinking that they were at least somewhat responsible for being raped. But on the other hand, women are judged or chided for being overly cautious in certain situations or around certain people. When women are suspicious of strange men, they are judged for stereotyping or assuming the worst of someone. It puts women in a tough position when we tell them that how they act and what they wear is the determinant of whether they are raped or not, but we judge them for being overly careful or suspicious of strangers.

Another thing the article focuses on is the difference between men and women being raped. Society blames rape on what the woman is wearing, but do you ever hear someone blaming a male being raped on what he was wearing? If a man is raped, it never crosses our minds that he was somehow responsible or deserving, so why is this the case for female rape victims? It is an interesting contrast, that should definitely be considered and kept in mind.

I think overall, the most important part of the article was when it focused on what we can do to improve the current situation. Instead of putting the blame on the victims and their actions, why don’t we put the blame on those who are actually doing the crime. The article said, and I agree, that we need to instead focus on changing the behavior of the perpetrators by increasing anti-rape education and teaching people not to be rapists.

There are many opinions on the matter and many people feel strongly about this topic. I have my opinions but in the end I think it’s most important to remember that for me, I haven’t experienced this particular experience or extreme emotional ordeal. I have never been in that position so I have no right to judge those that have. I am not responsible for deciding who was at fault because what authority or experience do I have that makes me qualified to do that? I think that if more people could adopt this idea and be a little more open minded on the subject, our society would be a little bit better off on the whole.