Political correctness and common sense in 'victim blaming'
Updated: 2013-05-24 06:14
By Jony Lam(HK Edition)
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For a change, the public chose to hang Secretary for Security Stephen Lai Tung-kwok last week for his alleged victim-blaming statements. Among all the animosities towards him, a much quoted line sticks in my mind: "Women do not get raped because they drink too much alcohol. In many cases, they are raped because they have too much trust in their friends who rape them."
Most of the newspapers used this quote, which is uttered by Linda Wong Sau-yung, "a leading campaigner against sexual violence". Take a guess at her organization's name; it is the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women. Compare this name with RainLily, a "rape crisis center", and you know the importance of picking a name that is straightforward.
Stephen Lai was grilled because he blamed the victims, so we are told. Is it just me, or was Linda Wong also blaming the victims? If it is not politically or morally correct to say "women were raped because they drank too much" (Lai actually said no such thing, as will be shown below), isn't it as wrong to say "they are raped because they have too much trust in their friends who rape them."
Wong was, in effect, saying that the rape victims had it coming because they had poor judgment and were too trusting. Perhaps she ditched too many training sessions on anti-sexual violence, but it did not take a genius to realize she was not the person that you turn to for a quote against victim blaming.
However, nobody seems to notice the irony, and Linda's quote is featured prominently everywhere, including the online version of South China Morning Post's "Security chief Lai Tung-kwok denies blaming rape victims" (May 16). You cannot miss it: it is in a quotation box. You can also see Linda holding a placard with the words "Being sexy is not a crime!" on the SCMP website - I thought this technique can only be employed by a person who really is sexy, but I was wrong again. These all point to the importance of having an organization with high-sounding names and calling oneself an expert on all purposes holy.
Of course, SCMP and other newspapers were out for blood on this one. The SCMP piece above actually did justice to Stephen Lai by quoting his comment on the rape cases in full. "They (the victims) are either friends, close friends or they just met a few hours ago," he said. "Some of these cases also involved the victims being raped after drinking quite a lot of alcohol. So I would appeal that young ladies should not drink too much."
To some extent the local newspapers are motivated by a perceived need to be politically as correct as Westerners. They did not make too big a deal out of Stephen's words at first, but their inferiority complex kicked in after foreign newspapers including The Telegraph made headlines such as: "If women don't want to be raped they shouldn't drink too much, says Hong Kong official" out of Lai's innocent words. Fearing that they are not sensitive enough towards the phenomenon of victim blaming, they overcompensated by finding it everywhere.
If victim blaming is a "crime", to a certain extent it is also a culturally relative one. When I was in secondary school, our teachers would tell the female classmates to "bring their own beverages" to Christmas parties. The idea behind this advice was to prevent the girls from consuming drinks that were tampered with at parties where they met strangers. Today, teachers receive complaints for offering advice like this. To be politically correct and commonsensically wrong, you don't take safety cautions. All you have to do is report to the police - heads up with pride - after you are raped.
"Yes, I followed that guy home. No, I don't know his name." You tell the police. "And yes, I drank strange things." If you sense a smirk hiding somewhere behind the policeman's face, you will make it clear to him: "Are you trying to blame me, the victim? I can flirt all I want: being sexy is not a crime."
Of course, being foolish is also not a crime. One thing is certain: sane parents will continue to teach their kids not to stay out late, no matter how politically incorrect that is. It will be fun if someone proposes to legislate against this.
The author is a current affairs commentator.
(HK Edition 05/24/2013 page1)