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Who is victim blaming? We talk about emotional investment because it’s something that is actually under your control to change, unlike your manager or “wider so

Who is victim blaming? We talk about emotional investment because it’s something that is actually under your control to change, unlike your manager or “wider sociological issues”

mlthoughts2018 7y ago
Exactly. Trying to turn it around like the issue is due to the agency (hence blaming) the victim, when really it’s not down to that person’s agency at all, rather something they are subjected to through no choice of their own. Your comment in fact is one of the worst forms of victim blaming, and you may not be aware that you’re even doing it: justifying victim blaming as though it is some sort of justified focus on “what you can do” when the problem should not be made to be about that or justified as such.
- boronine 7y ago
  I am not blaming anyone, I don’t care whose fault it is. I am focusing on what an individual can do because focusing on anything else is a waste of time.
  - kjsbfkjbf 7y ago
    Since when was societal change a waste of time? Was the civil rights movement a waste of time? Fighting for worker's rights? Independence?
  - mlthoughts2018 7y ago
    Focusing on what the individual can do _is_ a tacit form of victim-blaming in many situations. For many types of victims, drawing attention to remedies that rely on that person’s agency, rather than wider remedies predicated on greater social responsibility to fix the underlying problem, is a tacit way of putting the onus on a class of victims to “deal with it” and to view whatever type of abuse was inflicted on them as if it is their own private burden, instead of being _everyone’s_ burden to fix. In other words, changing the conversation to be about “what you can do” tacitly reinforces the stance that it’s nobody else’s problem to fix, which is precisely blaming the victim for being in the situation (e.g. “if you want things to be different, it’s on yourself to do it”). You may not be consciously aware that your behavior is tacitly blaming victims, but nonetheless it still absolutely is.
    - boronine 7y ago
      If “drawing attention to remedies that rely on [one’s] agency” is victim blaming, then I’m all for it.

Who is victim blaming? We talk about emotional investment because it’s something that is actually under your control to change, unlike your manager or “wider sociological issues”

mlthoughts2018 7y ago

Exactly. Trying to turn it around like the issue is due to the agency (hence blaming) the victim, when really it’s not down to that person’s agency at all, rather something they are subjected to through no choice of their own. Your comment in fact is one of the worst forms of victim blaming, and you may not be aware that you’re even doing it: justifying victim blaming as though it is some sort of justified focus on “what you can do” when the problem should not be made to be about that or justified as such.

boronine 7y ago
I am not blaming anyone, I don’t care whose fault it is. I am focusing on what an individual can do because focusing on anything else is a waste of time.
- kjsbfkjbf 7y ago
  Since when was societal change a waste of time? Was the civil rights movement a waste of time? Fighting for worker's rights? Independence?
- mlthoughts2018 7y ago
  Focusing on what the individual can do _is_ a tacit form of victim-blaming in many situations. For many types of victims, drawing attention to remedies that rely on that person’s agency, rather than wider remedies predicated on greater social responsibility to fix the underlying problem, is a tacit way of putting the onus on a class of victims to “deal with it” and to view whatever type of abuse was inflicted on them as if it is their own private burden, instead of being _everyone’s_ burden to fix. In other words, changing the conversation to be about “what you can do” tacitly reinforces the stance that it’s nobody else’s problem to fix, which is precisely blaming the victim for being in the situation (e.g. “if you want things to be different, it’s on yourself to do it”). You may not be consciously aware that your behavior is tacitly blaming victims, but nonetheless it still absolutely is.
  - boronine 7y ago
    If “drawing attention to remedies that rely on [one’s] agency” is victim blaming, then I’m all for it.