Seriously good column in the Daily Cardinal: “Safety tip” for spring break: don’t be a rapist

This is why “safety tips” are a sham. Safety tips get trotted out as an example of how people who are assaulted deserved it or did it to themselves. Safety tips are used to justify sexual assault, as though the appropriate punishment for having too much to drink is getting raped. Safety tips get held up as a kind of rape life preserver when we want to believe it won’t happen to us. Every day of spring break, there will be people who do everything “wrong” and are still not assaulted. Every day of spring break, there will be people who do everything “right” and are still assaulted. Except when we rely on “safety tips” and are assaulted anyway, there is always something that we could have, should have, and should have not done to have prevented it.

This is exactly right. Naturally, people should use common sense, but rape happens because someone decided to be a rapist, not because of the victim.

I mean, look at this police report (emphasis mine):

An adult female was grabbed by a stranger while walking in the 2600 block of McKenna Blvd. this morning and dragged behind a residence. The man (described above) sexually assaulted the victim. She was able to fight him off and escape. This happened around 8:15 a.m., and the victim believes there were cars in the area when she was attacked.

What would a safety tip for avoiding that say? Don’t leave the house?