When it comes to avoiding potentially dangerous encounters or escaping life-threatening situations, we try to focus on things like staying alert, practicing good situational awareness, and using Jeff Cooper’s color codes of awareness. We live in Condition Yellow. We pay attention to who and what is around us. We use common sense and listen to our instincts — from avoiding the shortcut down a dark alleyway to leaving an area if we feel uncomfortable or threatened. I also like to say that we can consciously make the decision to be “the wrong person.” In other words, we can choose to be a person who uses good judgment, who is alert and aware, and who does not enable criminals with an opportunity to sneak up on or surprise him or her.
I don’t think there’s anything very profound, groundbreaking or questionable about basic safety. These are the kinds of things we teach our children — and learn for ourselves — from a young age. And I believe these are important topics for everyone — of all ages, of either gender, of any background, and in any location — to address and utilize. Planning ahead and thinking about our surroundings are effective ways to be safer as we’re out and about in our daily lives. You’d think that most people would agree. But I was astonished when I read an article that basically bashes every one of these personal safety messages. It was an article included on a website for women … a website that claims to support and represent women’s empowerment. And yet, the author viciously picks apart various crime-prevention programs with a very slanted (and incorrect) interpretation. In summary, she labels this type of preparation and training as “preemptive victim blaming.”
She writes, “The underlying theme echoes that of your typical victim blamers: It is a woman’s responsibility to stop violence from happening to her. What my family and friends, the NRA and an army of victim-shaming internet trolls all fail to acknowledge is the number of women who die each year in the hands of family and friends, presumably by people they loved and trusted. It is irresponsible to suggest that a woman is at fault for her death because she was unaware of her surroundings, or failed to follow a gut feeling or didn’t have the right personal safety strategy.”
As irrational as it sounds, this author claims that teaching (and I hence assume employing) strategies for evading crimes or attacks is just another way for “gun-pushers” to place the blame on victims. Apparently, in her eyes, helping people recognize potential dangers and utilize methods for avoiding said dangers is a way to point fingers at the innocent and give criminals a pass. What this author fails to recognize is that it is never a person’s responsibility to stop violence from happening. But it is each person’s responsibility to make wise choices. And while the fault of a crime most certainly falls on the person who chooses to be violent, I refuse to be so self-important, ignorant and unaware that I just float through life, expecting bad guys to start behaving themselves.
