Patriarchy and respectability: the two pillars of victim blaming.
The term slut-shaming, coined by the new-generation feminist movement, refers to the behavior of those who blame, humiliate, and demonize women who don’t conform to the “standards of behavior” considered acceptable by a respectable, patriarchal society like ours. For centuries, this society has imposed and continues to impose on women a code of behavior based on guilt and designed to control women by repressing their instincts and freedom.
The so-called “whor3 stigma,” another name for the phenomenon, consists of labeling a woman as a bad girl solely because of her dress or sex life.
This problem, harmful and counterproductive to the development of society, has powerful and tragic effects, as we’ve already discussed when discussing secondary victimization, on victims of crimes such as sexual assault or the non-consensual dissemination of intimate images or videos. Public opinion often paradoxically sides with the perpetrator, blaming the victim for her “uninhibited” behavior.
This reversal of position, as already mentioned, unexpectedly and sadly produces what, in technical jargon, is defined as a reversal of the burden of proof in the eyes of society’s ethical tribunal: in fact, it would be absurdly the victim who would have to justify himself and attempt to prove his innocence.