Blaming the victim

Autor(en)
Paulina Sliwa
Abstrakt

Feminists critique acts and practices as victim-blaming. Victim-blaming is a moral phenomenon: to call a communicative act victim blaming is to criticise it. It is also a political phenomenon. As feminists point out, it plays a important role in perpetuating oppression. But what makes a communicative act an act of victim-blaming? I propose that victim-blaming communicative acts attribute responsibility to the victim for the wrong in contexts in which such attributions are morally improper. Attributions of responsibility can be morally imporoper in virtue of what they make salient in a conversation. Making salient the victim's conduct and backgrounding the conduct of the perpetrator can run afoul of the duties we have to the victim: including the duty to listen to the victim, to support her, and to hold the perpetrator responsible.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Philosophie
Journal
Philosophical issues
Band
34
Seiten
150-166
Anzahl der Seiten
17
ISSN
1533-6077
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/phis.12281
Publikationsdatum
09-2024
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
603103 Ethik
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Philosophy
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/dcec6291-46a6-4ec5-a1cc-9c83d72f8bad