By the time we finish high school, our brains are already filled with such rape-proofing basics as the appropriate skirt length for discouraging violent attacks (long); the number of alcohol units that can be consumed before one is thought to have invited sexual assault (one, tops); a list of acceptable neighborhoods to visit alone in the daytime; another of acceptable neighborhoods to visit alone after dark (just kidding — there are none); and a set of rudimentary self-defense moves ("Solar plexus! Solar plexus!").
This ubiquitous idea that by controlling our behavior, appearance, and whereabouts we can keep ourselves from being raped does nothing to help women (let alone potential victims who aren't women). It merely takes the onus off the rest of society to seriously consider what we can all do to prevent sexual violence. It keeps our focus on what the victims did "wrong" instead of on what type of person rapes, or how he chooses his victims, or how we can prosecute sexual assaults more effectively. It trades on reductive, sexist ideas about how "good" and "bad" women behave and strongly suggests that some victims, frankly, had it coming.
