Step 2 of 3

Female responsibility

If you ask a woman what she does when walking down the street alone at night, you can expect many different answers. But there will be answers.Katz, Jackson. The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help. Sourcebooks, Inc., 2006. Young children receive specific instructions from their parents/guardians: don't accept candy from strange men, or don't just get into a car with anyone. For young girls, this continues well past puberty. You learn that you always have to be careful, especially when it's dark. It gives the idea that the responsibility somehow lies with you, and as long as you take on that responsibility, less, or even nothing can happen to you. Consider, for example, the question, "What were you wearing?" We all know this question. It is the question often asked after a woman has been sexually harassed/assaulted. This is an example of a phenomenon also called victim blaming.Rebeca M Hayes, Katherine Lorenz, and Kristin A. Bell, "Victim Blaming Others," Feminist Criminology 8, no 3 (2013): 203. The victim is blamed for something that has happened to them because they have not met certain socially imposed conditions. Therefore, this phenomenon causes women to have the internalized sense that they can do something. That they can make specific preparations. So how does a set of keys fit into this whole story?

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