#victim blaming

[whump-in-the-closet]

“They did that to you? And you let them?”

“You think I had a say in how I was fucking tortured?”

[learn-how-to-love]

I think it’s good— and a moral imperative, even— to check claims you see against marginalized figures before believing them. However, if you wrap back around to essentially the same rhetoric ppl use about “promising” young cis male athletes who “don’t deserve to have their future ruined even if they DID do something horrible”, you’re a bad person and a danger to victims. No identity or social position in the world gives you free rein to abuse others and no victim is “too privileged” to be believed. Rape culture has no place in the queer community.

[nivora128]

Victim blaming can be defined as someone saying, implying, or treating a person who has experienced harmful or abusive behaviour like it was a result of something they did or said, instead of placing the responsibility where it belongs: on the person who harmed them.

Robin (1993) #0

This is victim blaming. To say that "Jason openly defied Batman's orders and that's what killed him" is victim blaming.

Instead of this, Dick could just simply say that "The Joker killed him", but he said "Jason was reckless, he defied Batman's orders and went solo against the Joker and that's what killed him" and that is victim blaming.

And I will say this again and again and a thousand times more if I have to, but: Jason didn't go after the Joker. He didn't go into the warehouse knowing that Joker was in there. He didn't recklessly go after the Joker. He went into the warehouse because he was following his mom. He was lied to and was betrayed.

New Teen Titans 1988 #55

This is another example of Jason being victim blamed for his own death, and yes, I will break it down for you all. For context, this happened after Dick found out about Jason's death and came to find Bruce.

B: I didn't expect to see you. D: I heard about Jason. I'm really sorry, Bruce...

This is their conversation after that:

D: Come on, Bruce, talk. Don't turn your back on me. I'm here... now. B: You were lucky. When you didn't listen to me, your injuries weren't fatal. Of course, by the time I properly trained you...

Dick came to Bruce to talk about Jason's death. When Bruce brought up this subject about how Dick was "lucky" and that his injuries weren't "fatal" when he didn't listen to him, he was implying that "You were lucky when you didn't listen to me, but Jason wasn't. When he didn't listen to me, it got him killed."

He was implying that Dick got injured before because he didn't listen to him, and Jason died because he didn't listen to Bruce. This is victim blaming.

Now let me ask you a question, do you think that Bruce was victim blaming Dick when he said that Dick was injured because he didn't listen to Bruce? Do you think it's okay to say that "Dick got injured because he didn't listen to Bruce," do you think that this is true and a completely normal thing to say and is totally not victim blaming at all? Do you think it's fine when you hear someone says that "Dick got hurt because he didn't listen to Bruce"?

If you can actknowledge that that was victim blaming, you can actknowledge that Jason was victim blamed when someone said that "Jason was killed because he didn't listen to Bruce." It's not that hard.

D: Jason wasn't me. I was a trained acrobat. I could think quickly in perilous situations. But why did you let him become Robin before he was ready?!?

In this sentence, Dick was saying that Bruce held responsible for Jason's death, because he let Jason become Robin before he was ready, but this is also implying that Jason's death was caused because of Jason's lack of skill, or because Jason wasn't ready to become Robin. To say that Jason wasn't Dick or an acrobat, implying that he died because he wasn't as good as Dick is victim blaming. To imply that Jason died because he "wasn't ready to become Robin", is victim blaming.

To say that Jason's death was because of anything he did, because of any traits that he carries, because of his actions, because of his lack of skills, because he was not good enough or strong enough, to say or imply that anything he did or said is something that lead to his own premise instead of Joker's action of murdering him, is victim blaming. To say or imply that the victims hold responsible, in whole or in parts of the crimes that've been commited against them, is victim blaming.

[glitter-stained]

Incredible how dc pushes the "Jason died because he was reckless" narrative to try and absolve Bruce of blame because, victim-blaming aside, that's worse, right? You understand how that's worse?

No matter how you interpret it, in Jason's post-crisis run, Bruce is gonna be partially responsible for Jason's death, because he was the one to offer him Robin in the first place in exchange for a good foster home (Batman 1940 #408), and because he had fucked up with Jason to the point he felt the need to run to a whole other continent in search for family (Batman 1940, a death in the family). Like, that part of responsibility, that remains no matter how you spin it, because regardless of why specifically Jason went in the warehouse, that's why he was in Ethiopia with the Robin suit in the first place.

But this aside, in canon? Jason goes in the warehouse because Sheila betrays him and he does what any hero, and many children, would do in his place: he wants to help Sheila, he listens to her, he trusts his mother. The people directly responsible for Jason's death, in canon, are Joker, Sheila, and crowd of goons that helped Joker and Sheila take Jason down in the warehouse. It's clear as day who the villains are in there and it doesn't add any stain on Bruce's ledger.

But according to that victim-blaming narrative that Alfred and Bruce (and others later on) spin in-story, and that dc spins in meta? Jason died because he was reckless. So it's Jason's fault right? Yes and no. I need to write a more detailed meta about the two types of recklessness and how confusing the two accidentally led to Starling writing a compelling narrative with Jason, but basically the important question here is why was Jason reckless. And Starlin answers us, in text, in a death in the family: Jason has been behaving abnormally recklessly recently, because he's suffering. Bruce tells us, straight up, that he suspects Jason to be suicidal. This isn't the first time Starlin's Batman says Jason is suicidal: even in Batman (1940) #416, Batman explains Jason's "reckless" behaviour to Dick as a symptom of being mentally unwell, and very clearly implies Jason already struggles with suicidal thoughts (which I maintain is the reason why Dick changed his mind on Jason so quickly and gave him his number with a "you can reach out to me, don't let a lack of communication become your achille heel" talk at the end of #416.)

And Bruce's POV mind be often biased, but we see, ourselves, Jason jump in front of bullets in aditf and it's like... As much as I'm not convinced with Bruce's random explanation for Jason's struggles in aditf, I do agree that he is being suicidal (and considering the stories that come right before this one, I completely understand why he would be.) So that's why Jason is reckless in aditf. It's not why he died, but if we listen to that victim-blaming narrative that claims his recklessness is indeed what killed him, doesn't that make Bruce more guilty? Because that means Bruce knew Jason was suicidal (literally jumping in front of bullets with apparently no consideration for his life) and left a fifteen years old active suicide risk alone in a completely foreign environment after having messed up very severely with him during the whole issue, and then he told him "do not go into that warehouse alone, there's a very dangerous guy who wants to kill you." In terms of responsibility, Bruce is actually very damn lucky Jason, like some impulsive suicidal teenagers his age would have, didn't think "oh well, I'll try my luck against the guy who wants to kill me alone and that way either I win and get reassured in my heroism and right to be alive, or I die and that saves me the trouble of buying rope and a step ladder!" Bruce took the Robin costume from Jason to protect him from this exact type of situation but didn't seem to realize the danger he was putting Jason in at that moment. And it's not just me saying that! I don't have the exact reference (I think it was in Gotham Knights?...to verify) Barbara, after finding out about Jason's death, literally tells Bruce that this is his fault and that she warned him Jason had issues.

Of course, all of this is moot point, because it's not why Jason went in the warehouse in the first place, but I can't help but feel baffled at the audacity of DC, who are so deep into their psychophobia, classism, general victim-blaming bullshit and ingrained stereotypical conception of the "troubled teen" that they don't realize that the revisionist interpretation of Jason's death they are defending is literally worse for Bruce. And I have to say, it certainly doesn't paint people trash-talking Jason and blaming him for his death to prop Tim up as "better" and "different" in a very good light either (especially since, if i'm not wrong, there's an arc in which Tim struggles with suicidal thoughts himself... especially since Tim's trauma happened after he became Robin and is, for the most part, a direct consequence of his heroism. Doesn't exactly paint the adults in Jason and Tim's life in a favourable light...)

Anyway, stop blaming Jason's death on his recklessness to absolve Bruce: you're only making it worse.

[inthemoodforblastt]

Snape is punished for not being the perfect victim, for not lowering his head or staying curled up crying in a corner. He is punished because when two rich kids come after him, backed by their friends, their surnames, and their numerical superiority, instead of running away or collapsing into a ball on the ground, he fights back, and he fights back with rage, with ferocity, with everything he has. He is punished for refusing to give up, for not accepting the role of victim assigned to him, for wanting to return the blows and to punish his abusers in his own way.

He is punished for not being submissive and compliant, just as so many other victims of abuse are punished when they do not fit the stereotype of the trembling, helpless lamb that has been drilled into our heads as the only acceptable image of an abused person. But the reality is that Severus Snape did not deserve punishment: his abusers did. And the fact that he constantly confronted them does not make him any less of a victim, nor them any less guilty. It only makes him someone with far more guts than they ever had, because while they attacked him as a group, he stood up to them alone, with nothing but sheer nerve.

[defire]

I did it in love

Content: implied noncon, noncon touch, restraints

"You didn't like it?" Whumper's hand tickles the swollen flesh around the bindings on whumpee's ankle.

Whumpee twitches away, voice hoarse and broken.

"Are you deaf? I told you to take your hands off me like a hundred times!"

"No, I heard you begging for me to stop, but you don't understand... I did it because I love you..." Their hands slide up whumpee's trembling legs.

Whumpee grimaces in disgust, letting their head drop back onto the pillow and trying not to feel the hand smoothing across their naked, sweaty back.

"You'll understand..." Whumper's fingers catch a tear rolling down whumpee's nose, wiping it away with their thumb. "We'll do it until you understand, don't worry."

"No no, I understand!" Whumpee's eyes fly open, desperately turning to whumper, voice barely controlled. "I understand. I swear."

"Then let's do it again." Whumper smiles. "And this time, try to enjoy it. Let me love you, whumpee."

[nivora128]

Victim blaming is a social phenomenon where individuals or groups hold victims responsible for the harm or misfortune they experience.

Victim blaming can be defined as someone saying, implying, or treating a person who has experienced harmful or abusive behaviour like it was a result of something they did or said, instead of placing the responsibility where it belongs: on the person who harmed them.

Batman (1940) #617-618: Batman: Hush

"Jason saw being Robin as a game. It's probably what got him killed."

"Thinking what we do is a game is what got Robin killed."

-> "Tell me what else these characters would have to be saying for people to acknowledge it as victim blaming" is so real.

-> its-not-lookin-good has a post with more panels about this than me, but I remember about these two panels where Bruce say it as straight as possible that Jason is responsible for his death.

[thegoodmorningman]

It's not victim blaming if you're complicit!!! Good Morning!!!