A Massachusetts state official has apologized for sending out a tweet last night in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month that declared sexual assault “always avoidable,” like we live in a world where we are video game avatars spending our days just dodging the rapes that happen to fly our way.
The tweet, which was left up for 12 hours, also linked to a website that contained non-terribly worded sex assault literature. Despite this, Twitter users were understandably displeased, since the implication that women (and men) are responsible for “avoiding rape” feeds into the harmful notion that sexual assault victims have had to face since forever. And blaming victims for failing to prevent their own victimization is not helpful. It’s never been helpful. For thousands and thousands of years we’ve been doing this and it continues to not be helpful.
This morning, Geoff Kula, the director of Mass.gov apologized in a series of Tweets that read,
“An apology from Geoff Kula, Director of Mass.gov: I deeply regret the message sent last night regarding sexual assault and apologize to all sexual assault victims. We in no way meant to suggest that victims of sexual assault are to blame for the crimes committed against them. To learn more about what you can do to combat violence or if you need assistance, please see this blog: ”
The link leads here.
A merry Sexual Assault Awareness Month to one and all.
GET JEZEBEL RIGHT IN YOUR INBOX
Still here. Still without airbrushing. Still with teeth.
