Victim blaming: how to not do it and how to be supportive instead

The Gender Knot

We’re back with a bonus hiatus episode and we’re talking about victim blaming, especially as it pertains to sexual assault. This is when a victim of an alleged assault is blamed, ranging from being asked what they were wearing, if they’d drunk alcohol, all the way to people not believing their story. Sometimes friends also don’t know how to handle the situation so either engage in victim blaming or simply disappear.
Nas recently made a documentary exploring the reasons behind victim blaming, and interviewed the NY Times’ Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who broke the Harvey Weinstein story, as well as Gender Knot favourites Dr Mithu Sanyal and Dr Jackson Katz. Check it out here for background: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csyv0q
In this episode Nas and Dan talk about ways we can help victims instead. We’d also like to know your experiences if you’ve been in this scenario, as either a victim or someone being told of an assault, and any tips you have for how to help victims.
We also talk about an excellent podcast from Slate you should check out called Man Up... check it out here: https://slate.com/podcasts/man-up
We’re on hiatus and will be back with a new season in March. Keep writing to us until then.
Hosts:
Nastaran Tavakoli-Far and Daniel Carroll
Producers:
Sam Baker and Jonathan Blackwell
Write to us at: [e-mail]
https://www.thegenderknot.com/
Music: Government Funded Weed by Black Ant (used under Creative Commons)