Barry Murphy writes:
This ‘Streetwise’ campaign is very victim blamey. Good to see the boys in blue are getting their excuses in early.
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Everything. As It Happens.
Barry Murphy writes:
This ‘Streetwise’ campaign is very victim blamey. Good to see the boys in blue are getting their excuses in early.
Reminding people to be aware of their surroundings is as far from victim blaming as you can get.
So giving saftey advice to help people avoid being victims is victim blaming now? Crime will happen. Labelling crime prevention tips as victim blaming is yet another new low. Sure, it’s a shame a young woman can’t walk alone through a dark, remote park at 3am for fear of being assaulted, but the guards telling her it’s probably best not to is not victim blaming. It’s crime prevention.
+1. A father telling his son / daughter to have a 10er for a taxi home is not victim blaming.
This is a stupid attempt to generate comment on a null topic.
It strikes me as pure common sense, and I’d be very much surprised if most women didn’t have a ‘plan’ in place should anything happen on a night out.
That said, if you are attacked, for example, it may be worth absolutely nothing if you are overpowered by your attacker(s).
Having your keys wedged between your fingers when on the way home from a night out will only do so much, even if it was one of the first things I was taught about being safe on a night out.
@ Mildred: Having my keys in between my fingers prevented me from being attacked (or worse) one night, simply because it saved me a few seconds when entering my apartment. I was living abroad at the time and I lived in a 1st Floor apartment with 15 steps up to it. I got an uneasy feeling as I was walking home but I couldn’t see anyone behind me, so, I put my keys between my fingers in case I needed to defend myself, but I kept walking, and I didn’t run until I got to the steps of the apartment; I put the key in the lock immediately and as I was closing the door behind me, a man came bounding up the steps and straight for me. I will never forget the look on his face – his intentions weren’t good – but I still shiver when I think what could’ve happened had I spent a few seconds searching for the keys in my bag, instead of having them available in my hands.
Are you still together?
I was under the impression that these ads were more about making sure pissed people don’t walk into traffic at 3am on the way home from the pub.
Yeah, they are.
But there’s a chance for offence to be taken!
I saw this ad on a bus stop last week. I’m surprised is taken so long for someone to take offence.
Generation Outrage.
Yes I sometimes have a plan when I go out..a plan or scheme..I’m more of a schemer than a planner though
‘very victim blamey’? Tiresome nonsense. grow up.
Now don’t be blaming them for getting annoyed by this campaign, it would be victim blaming to blame their annoyance on them self.
Not sure a faintly paternalistic piece of advice about belongings constitutes “victim-blaming” – we’re never going to live in a society free from crime, the idea that the police’s role is to stop all crime ever is in fact quite a strange and right wing criticism.
It’s good to get into the habit of looking after your belongings when out and about – by doing so I don’t feel I’m making it my own fault if something gets robbed, it’s just common sense. This ad is fairly asinine and you might argue about the Gardai wasting money to dole out a life lesson, but the idea it’s akin to rape apology is scraping the barrel in a serious way.
i see where you’re coming from, but the “plan” thing is common sense AND there are man versions of this campaign as well.
Victim blaming me eye…. what nonsense.
Does Barry believe in the nanny state and that it should protect him from everything including personal responsibility?
Sure looks that way….
I would encourage anyone here who thinks this is victim blaming to go hang out on the boardwalk on the liffey without a plan for a saturday night. Enjoy yourself sure.
Guards were all over the local radio telling folk to lock their houses because there’s been a spate of thefts in the area. Is that victim blaming as well, then?
Yes yes yes, bad things happen, but it behoves all potential victims to minimise risks to themselves, and suggesting that, perhaps, walking home alone isn’t a good idea doesn’t strike me as particularly offenselve.
Now if the beermat said ‘Don’t be wearing skimpy outfits, girls’ I could see a reason for outrage…
“Guards were all over the local radio telling folk to lock their houses because there’s been a spate of thefts in the area. Is that victim blaming as well, then?”
I dunno. Is there a long-observed phenomenon where homeowners testifying in court see their burglars walk or receive reduced sentences because of the ‘provocation’ presented by not having Phonewatch or whatever?
‘Cos I’d say that if there is, it very well might be, and if there isn’t, you’ve got yourself a bog-standard MOR right-wing false equivalence, very common this time of year and nothing to worry about.
I’ll grant you there’s not such a long-observed phenomenon with regard to burglaries and provocation. However, that doesn’t – of itself – mean that the advert above is victim blaming.
Perhaps my point was clumsily made – and if so my apologies – but whilst the provocation ‘defence’ certainly has, shamefully, been used plenty in the past,I was of the impression that its use was dwindling. If it isn’t, my bad. Even Homer nods.
As a matter of interest, do *you* consider the beermat as it is to be victim blaming?
The use is dwindling, but I believe that’s at least in part due to a certain vigilance when it comes to this sort of thing. Which will involve edge cases, a certain amount of humourlessness and probably the odd false positive.
The beermat as is I wouldn’t consider directly victim-blaming. But it belongs to a genre of preventative law enforcement and social policy which has traditionally entailed or abetted victim-blaming. As such, I’m not surprised it would raise an eyebrow. It might be better to think of it as an unwitting set-up which has the potential to cause or foster victim-blaming.
tl;dr in 100 years nobody will care about the beermat, which doesn’t mean nobody should care about it now. There is tension among different feminist tendencies about this very issue, with some regarding what was once seen as empowerment in a ‘Reclaim the Night’ sense as reinforcing harmful ideas.
I think the real crime here is her hat.
correct
it’s probably full of humous
This place is a right moan-fest on a Monday. BS MOANDAY.
I wonder if Barry thinks the male version equally victim-blamey, or if, in this great time of equality, only females can be victims?
http://www.garda.ie/Documents/User/Mindyourself%20-%20wallet%20phone%20keys.pdf
I don’t think this campaign is remotely victim-blamey (it makes sense to have a plan), just that the female edition is really stupid. According to the two versions of these beermats the essentials for a man are phone, wallet and keys; for a woman they’re phone, “lippy” (ugh!) and hat. Sure why would a woman need money. And no keys, no worries, just fashion your ugly hat into some kind of door-opening device.
The campaign doesn’t need to be gender segregated: every poster and coaster is only targeting half the relevant audience. Just make one that says phone, money, keys, with a guy and a girl on it. Easy and at least twice as effective. (Far more, actually, as the original female version loses the attention of the many women who don’t wear lipstick or hats, and those who do but cringe at the word “lippy”.)