Sexual abuse is always a serious matter. No wonder posts about rape get many reactions from netizens. One example is a photo released by the Philippine National Police on their Facebook page.
Netizens labelled PNP’s Public Service Announcement or PSA as “sexist.” They questioned why it becomes the responsibility of the women to protect themselves instead of the rapists’ responsibility not to harass anyone in the first place. Other netizens also said that even women who wear “decent” clothes are also victimized by the sexual abusers–debunking the myth that women should act in a certain way to avoid being raped. However, another netizen brought up a fair point: even men could also be potentially targeted by rapists.
Other netizens also questioned the helpfulness of the PSA. “You can also use any thing in your hand like pen, pencil, vegetables…hot tea…as an emergency self-defense tool to escape from the attackers.”
PNP did state that each attack plays out differently from the next, and that no “tactic” is effective for all situations. Although this was released almost a year ago, netizens have recently started to share it again and react to the PSA.
What do you think about the culture of rape and victim blaming? What could you say about this PSA?