When a man attempted to rape me, it was at a job site. I was dressed in baggy jeans with some paint smears on one leg. I was wearing a tool belt, a long-sleeved shirt that did not reveal cleavage and was not tight, sneakers, and had my hair in a braid. I was one of only four females employed at the company, and the only one who ever spent any time at the job site. The others were the bookkeeper, the receptionist, and the friend of the boss who collected a paycheck but never actually did any work. There were other people at the job site working on various projects and up until a couple minutes before the attack, I'd been working nearby a gentleman that was trustworthy. He ran out of materials and had to get more.
So where was my responsibility to avoid the attack?
Should I not have been a woman in traditionally a man's field? Should I not have tried to hold a job at all? Should I have declined my recent raise for hard work that caused me to earn more than my attacker? Should I not have tried to work at a job where men could see me? Should I have realized that drywall was a super turn on for guys and known not to be anywhere near it when a guy was around? Should I have stayed with the other man so he could protect me instead of doing the job I was hired to do? Should I have known some men find tool belts sexy on a woman and thus used much less convenient methods of carting my tools around?
Please let me know what responsibility I should take here and what I should have done differently to avoid the attack. I'd really like to know what portion of the attack was my fault.
There is nothing women can do to avoid being raped. The problem isn't that women wear sexy clothes, it's that some men think of women as objects and view the sexy clothes as permission to touch the objects.
So where was my responsibility to avoid the attack?
Should I not have been a woman in traditionally a man's field? Should I not have tried to hold a job at all? Should I have declined my recent raise for hard work that caused me to earn more than my attacker? Should I not have tried to work at a job where men could see me? Should I have realized that drywall was a super turn on for guys and known not to be anywhere near it when a guy was around? Should I have stayed with the other man so he could protect me instead of doing the job I was hired to do? Should I have known some men find tool belts sexy on a woman and thus used much less convenient methods of carting my tools around?
Please let me know what responsibility I should take here and what I should have done differently to avoid the attack. I'd really like to know what portion of the attack was my fault.
There is nothing women can do to avoid being raped. The problem isn't that women wear sexy clothes, it's that some men think of women as objects and view the sexy clothes as permission to touch the objects.
