24 min

Victim blaming The Why Factor

    • History

The trauma of sexual assault is both personal and brutal. But what may be an indisputably traumatic event for one person is often challenged by another, and the responsibility for events gets scattered in the process. Why is it so common for people to look for reasons to blame the victims of sexual assault for what has happened to them?

Nastaran Tavakoli-Far finds multiple reasons from this, speaking to experts and to victims. We hear from Dr Mithu Sanyal about the role of long-standing attitudes towards gender and sexuality. New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey tell us about power and the workplace and who is more likely to be believed. Dr Jackson Katz and Dr Laura Niemi explain the roles of both group dynamics and the language we use and how these often work to protect perpetrators rather than to support victims
Presenter and producer: Nastaran Tavakoli-Far
Editor: Andrew Smith
(Photo: Protest sign held up during 'Slut Walk' protests against victim blaming in Munich, Germany / Credit: Alexander Pohl / Nur Photo / Getty Images)

The trauma of sexual assault is both personal and brutal. But what may be an indisputably traumatic event for one person is often challenged by another, and the responsibility for events gets scattered in the process. Why is it so common for people to look for reasons to blame the victims of sexual assault for what has happened to them?

Nastaran Tavakoli-Far finds multiple reasons from this, speaking to experts and to victims. We hear from Dr Mithu Sanyal about the role of long-standing attitudes towards gender and sexuality. New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey tell us about power and the workplace and who is more likely to be believed. Dr Jackson Katz and Dr Laura Niemi explain the roles of both group dynamics and the language we use and how these often work to protect perpetrators rather than to support victims
Presenter and producer: Nastaran Tavakoli-Far
Editor: Andrew Smith
(Photo: Protest sign held up during 'Slut Walk' protests against victim blaming in Munich, Germany / Credit: Alexander Pohl / Nur Photo / Getty Images)

24 min

Top Podcasts In History

myanmarstory
myanmar story
Lore
Aaron Mahnke
Oh What A Time...
CBW Productions
Mandela: The Lost Tapes
Richard Stengel
理性批判
理性批判
In Our Time: Philosophy
BBC Radio 4

More by BBC

ဘီဘီစီမြန်မာပိုင်း ညနေခင်းသတင်းအစီအစဉ်
BBC Burmese Radio
Learning English Vocabulary
BBC Radio
6 Minute English
BBC Radio
Learning English Conversations
BBC Radio
Global News Podcast
BBC World Service
Learning English Grammar
BBC Radio