Ladies, if you’ve ever wondered what you could do to possibly prevent someone from sexually attacking you, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs has offered some (not so) great tips.
When everything you learned in that self-defense class becomes a distant memory and those Uggs don’t seem to run fast enough, try employing some bodily functions such as vomiting or urinating to deter your attacker. If those tips don’t work for you, UCCS also suggests telling the attacker that you have a disease or are menstruating. While UCCS also posted eight other prevention tips on their public safety page, these two ridiculous tips sparked an outrage – rightfully so – on various social media platforms.
UCCS’s Public Safety Department may have had their hearts in the right place, but their thinking caps were certainly misplaced when those two tips were approved for a “What To Do If You Are Attacked” list. In fact, after viewing the list in its entirety, I myself have been left puzzled and doubting if anyone who contributed to this list even owns a thinking cap.
On Feb. 19 the “What To Do If You Are Attacked” list was deleted from UCCS’s public safety page and the only viewable list was a “Crime Prevention Tips” list that includes tips for all sorts of attacks, not only those specific to rape prevention.
On the same day, Tom Sutton, a spokesperson for UCCS stated in a press release that “The recent circulation of a web page containing information about rape prevention at the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs was taken out of context on popular social media sites.” He also goes on to state, “The 10 tips are considered last resort options when all other defense methods have been exhausted.”
The last quote from Sutton is a point that UCCS is trying heavily to draw the public’s attention to but regardless of whether these were last resort tips or not, at the root of these tips is the suggestion that women should make themselves less attractive to avoid being assaulted, and that UCCS, is why the public is outraged.
The undertones of these tips suggest that women should do all they can to seem less attractive to avoid being attacked, which is a deplorable stance because it takes blame and responsibility off the perpetrator and places it, if only slightly, onto the victim. Attraction is erroneously seen as a possible answer to the question of why someone is raped. Yet, the answer to this question is simple: the rapist.
This answer isn’t good enough for those who ask this question. For them, it had to have been something she did, therefore the attacker can never be entirely at fault, as he should be, because one way or another the victim had something to do with it besides just being a victim. Furthermore, attraction is so subjective; it is nonsensical to even suggest it as the reason for attacks. These tips are akin to the beliefs that women who are victims of sexual assault entice their attackers with provocative clothing. What people with this mindset, and whoever wrote these tips, fail to realize is that rapists aren’t men who are simply driven to rape by temptation from the victim, the only cause for a rape is a rapist and to say otherwise is cruel and insensitive.
One point I want to address is the absence of any male-specific tips to help men know what to do if they are attacked. UCCS’s tips were clearly geared towards women but women aren’t the only victims of sexual assaults; it can happen to men too, you know. Overlooking the fact that men have been and can be victims of sexual assault is just as erroneous as assuming a woman’s attraction is the reason for her being attacked. While this UCCS situation has lead to some dialogue regarding victim blaming, I think it would be a great step forward for improved gender equality if men were given just as many tips on crime and attack prevention as women. It would also shine a light on a segment of rape victims who are unjustly overlooked in our country.