Listen and Believe

So there's this thing called victim blaming. And it's not great. Victim blaming is when something awful happens, when somebody hurts somebody else, and instead of holding the perpetrator responsible for their actions, people pass judgment on how the victim should have behaved differently in order to avoid being victimized in the first place. They oughtn't have worn that skirt, had so much to drink, stayed online, walked through that part of town etc. I'll bet the language sounds familiar; it happens all the time. And I'd wager some of you even fail see to the problem with this line of thinking. Here, let me help you out: When someone gets assaulted/raped/bullied/victimized, it has nothing to do with the victim's actions/motivations/thoughts/past behavior. It has everything to do with the bully/rapist/perpetrator and his or her inability to behave like a human. Unfortunately, devastatingly, this victim-blaming mentality is not merely prevalen...