The Pennsylvania Liquor Board has received a lot of criticism for one of their recent advertisement.
The intention of the ad was to raise awareness of the link between alcohol and sexual assault. Except what they actually did was place blame on the victims and their friends for the assaults that happen. While victim-blaming happens all the time in our society, this ad and the message it sends is unacceptable. Erin Gloria Ryan, a blogger from Jezebel, wrote "rape is not just a bad thing that happens to someone after drinking too much. It is a deliberate act on the part of the rapist, a violation of another person committed solely because the rapist wanted to rape. The sooner we acknowledge this, the sooner we'll be rid of stupid, finger wagging ads like these."
Maybe instead of spending time and money on victim-blaming ads like this, we should change the way our society responds to women that are victims of sexual assault after having been drinking. So often a woman who has been drinking is not believed or is told that she probably just regrets the hook-up. I know many women that I went to college with that were sexually assaulted when they were drunk and never reported it because they believed no one would believe them. That is the real atrocity.
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