So I was looking at the stuff that Morgan set aside earlier, and the article on rape really startled me.
It makes me sick that the things they were telling women to do to prevent rape or during a rape to prevent getting hurt worse (in the 1970s) are still being told to women today.
Here are a few satirical videos about this that, frankly, sound a LOT like the article:
How not to get raped
How to not get raped
On another, more serious, note- here is a Rape Prevention video that I believe is from 1977. I don't know if it was made before or after the episode of All in the Family, but I think it was a few years after (correct me if I am wrong). Despite being created later, it does share the same sort of rhetoric that the article did (and unlike the videos above, is NOT being satirical at all).
Rape Prevention Documentary
(all of the below are paraphrased)
"Women should lock their cars"
"Women should not hitchhike"
"Women should keep an eye on the gas gauge, because if they don't they might run out of gas and get raped by the side of the road"
"Women shouldn't go out at night"
"A rapist's strength and ruthlessness will give him the advantage"
"A woman's home has become one of the rapist's favorite places to commit his crime"
This video and the article treat rape as something that is inevitable that a woman must protect herself from. Neither the video or the article put any responsibility on the rapist to not rape and both assume that a rape victim will always be a woman. While I do agree with some aspects of the article and the movie (lock your car, don't walk home by yourself at night when you have a safer option, etc), there are some that make me almost physically ill. The article said that women will lessen their chances of being seriously injured if they cooperate with the rapist or try to do things to make him not want to rape her. It even encouraged women to not scream. I think Edith's reaction mirrors some of this as she tries to distract the rapist.
I can't blame this article for this viewpoint, because it obviously had to stem from somewhere.
I was wondering if anyone else had a similar reaction to this article/episode and what you think about it.
And lastly, here is a video by Deaf-Hope. Deaf-Hope Video After watching all of the horrible stuff I did, this made me smile.
Megan--thanks for this! A horrible topic, and, as recent events show, not limited to the 70s. Really grateful to you for giving us more context.
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