Elle Beau ❇︎
1 min readDec 31, 2022

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I do think that more judges in the US probably advise the same in a court situation these day, but I do know that it's still a part of the cultural dynamic to blame the victim. And yes, sexual assault and rape are not about desire - they are about dominance and exerting power using a sexual weapon to do so. But this narrative about women who are "asking for it" by what they have on continues, even as you note, no-one would say that to a robbery victim, or the victim of any other sort of crime. And the default for reporting any other sort of crime is to believe the victim out of the box until such time as an investigation indicates that there is a reason not to. But this is still not the usual case for sexual violence where the story that women make things up - because they changed their mind, because they are vindictive, because they like having power over men - those beliefs are still widely held, as we saw when the #MeToo movement broke. Also, sexual assault victims don't always behave the way that we think they ought to - which damages credibility as well.

We have a long, long way to go before these misogynistic, retrograde beliefs can be put to bed for good.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2013/06/why-cops-dont-believe-rape-victims-and-how-brain-science-can-solve-the-problem.html

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Elle Beau ❇︎
Elle Beau ❇︎

Written by Elle Beau ❇︎

I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a mother, I'm a sinner, I'm a saint. I do not feel ashamed. I'm your hell, I'm your dream, I'm nothing in between.

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