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Serena Williams' comments on rape victim

applecorped

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applecorped
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"I'm not blaming the girl, but if you're a 16-year-old and you're drunk like that, your parents should teach you: Don't take drinks from other people."

"... she shouldn't have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that's different."

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireSt...nts-rape-case-interview-19432591#.UcIpwOszKzw


She has since apologized.


"What was written — what I supposedly said — is insensitive and hurtful, and I by no means would say or insinuate that she was at all to blame."


Supposedly? Sounds like she is saying that Rolling Stone misquoted her?:confused:
 
It's increasingly common in such cases (especially in political circles when someone makes a monumental gaffe) to claim "mis-spoke" or "misinterpreted" or "out of context" or somesuch.

It's a fig leaf that covers a little embarrassment until the issue goes away.
 
I can't stand that. Either don't apologize, or actually apologize. A hedged apology like that is just an insulting way of saying "I'm sorry this has damaged my public image."
 
Sounds perfectly sensible to me, I mean if you go to a party and get too drunk to care for yourself you can expect to be taken advantage of.

It is not as if you could expect there to be any friends or just regular decent people present ensuring that inexperienced or unfortunate drinkers are cared for. :mad:
 
Charles Barkley used to get misquoted like that. Sometimes, even the audio tape misquoted him.
 
If those two quotes are what all the fuss is about, I don't get this controversy.
 
IIRC aren't the Williams family Jehova's Witnesses ? If that's the case then this may be the reason why she felt compelled to make an anti-drink statement without thinking though the consequences.
 
Well she might have said "supposedly," if she didn't remember saying it, or didn't remember exactly what she said.

Whoops, I mean, BURN THE WITCH! ALL TEENAGERS SHOULD BE AS DRUNK AS POSSIBLE!
 
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"What I supposedly said" most likely refers to the strawman argument that she is (the only one) to blame for being raped. She should indeed not have been drinking until passing out. PERIOD.
 
Rolfe said:
News flash. Serena Williams is a tennis player.

Rolfe.
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No. She's a target, and an undeserving one. To your point, I frankly don't give a hoot what Serena Williams says.



To the OP, this is utterly ridiculous that -- even if Serena Williams were someone to be listened to on this topic -- the uproar is manufactured.

Good Message: Don't take advantage of girls. Don't rape them.

Good Message: Don't get blindingly drunk. Don't put yourself unnecessarily in high risk situations.

Apparently Bad Message: The above two together.
 
Simon666 said:
Sports people, actors, artists and the likes are not supposed to have opinions on political/politicized issues. You didn't know that?
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Ah! but when they do have opinions, that opinion is several times more correct than all the sociologists and/or scientists who have studied the case/scenario...
 
Garrette said:
No. She's a target, and an undeserving one. To your point, I frankly don't give a hoot what Serena Williams says.



To the OP, this is utterly ridiculous that -- even if Serena Williams were someone to be listened to on this topic -- the uproar is manufactured.

Good Message: Don't take advantage of girls. Don't rape them.

Good Message: Don't get blindingly drunk. Don't put yourself unnecessarily in high risk situations.

Apparently Bad Message: The above two together.
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No, the bad message is the victim-blaming inherent in a "what did she expect" comment. Reasonable people react poorly to that. The second quoted comment makes clear that she thinks a woman who is drugged isn't responsible but a woman who voluntarily gets drunk is - you see, "that's different."

As a society, in our laws, the US has pretty much done away with the "she was asking for it" rapist excuse. The quoted comments indicate that Ms. Williams disagrees with that.
 
I have to agree in part to what Serena said. In fact I told a 13 year old girl who passed out after taking dope once. She was my cousins daughter and she hung around dopers. I don't know if anyone took advantage of her but being unconscience around a group of teenage boys is just asking for trouble.

I believe the boys who took advantage of her should be punished but had the girl used common sense and not gotten drunk it probably wouldn't have happened.
 
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Fascinating.

So some are reading this: "Williams also is quoted as saying: "... she shouldn't have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that's different." as saying the girl asked for it. And some are reading the same quote as a warning to not get drunk around men with rapey wands concealed in their pants.
 
marplots said:
Fascinating.

So some are reading this: "Williams also is quoted as saying: "... she shouldn't have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that's different." as saying the girl asked for it. And some are reading the same quote as a warning to not get drunk around men with rapey wands concealed in their pants.
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It's one thing to offer that warning. It's another to frame that warning (particularly publicly) in a way that puts any responsibility for a specific rape on the victim.

In other words, if I'm telling my daughter it's dangerous to go out and get stinking drunk with strangers, that's one thing. On the other hand, if I go out and tell people that women who get raped while they're drunk should have known better, that's out of line. Rape victims blame themselves more than enough - often far more than is healthy - without ******** piling on.
 
Babbylonian said:
It's one thing to offer that warning. It's another to frame that warning (particularly publicly) in a way that puts any responsibility for a specific rape on the victim.

In other words, if I'm telling my daughter it's dangerous to go out and get stinking drunk with strangers, that's one thing. On the other hand, if I go out and tell people that women who get raped while they're drunk should have known better, that's out of line. Rape victims blame themselves more than enough - often far more than is healthy - without ******** piling on.
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Is this a general principle one can use to evaluate other crimes or is it limited to rape?

If I leave my car unlocked in a high crime area, do I bear some responsibility when I become a victim of theft, or is that out of bounds as well?

And a follow-up. Is there any behavior that should be considered contributory to the crime of rape? Any at all?
 
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