If a man assaults someone, he is held accountable and punished.
If a man robs someone, he is held accountable and punished.
If a man drives a vehicle and causes an accident, he is held accountable and punished.
If a man murders someone, he is held accountable and punished.There are many other scenarios that can be listed; I wanted to highlight the most prominent.
Additionally, being intoxicated in the above scenarios does not absolve or lessen the impact of the crimes performed.
We give no excuse because of intoxicants; being under the influence does not anyone a pass. If the person assaulted/robbed/collided with/murdered was also intoxicated we do not lessen the punishment or share the blame between the two. (Though in some cases the victim can be punished for also being intoxicated but not for causing the crime, except perhaps for drunk driving (double fault).)
Does this sound familiar?
“Oh, [rape victim] should not have been in [place] at [time] / [doing activity] at [location] with [other people] / without [an escort or protection] / with [the wrong escort or protection] / [wearing whatever attire] / because of [favourite cop-out].”Men are beasts unable to control themselves at any time, right?
If a man gets drunk and rapes someone, we blame the victim for being in the company of drunks and should have known better.
If a man gets drunk and rapes another drunk, “oh [victim] should not have consumed alcohol because [of reasons]. If only you were not intoxicated you could have stopped it.”
I say these things knowing that men also get raped by both men and women, but their respective numbers are significantly smaller than instances of men raping women. And if we would stop victim blaming and
punish only the perpetrator it would be a whole lot easier to reduce rape in the first place.In rape we consider rape the crime and punishment for the person onto which the act was committed and additionally continue to punish the victim through shame and ridicule.