we saw this in class and most said 'what did she expect?'

Your classmates sure sound arrogant for teens. It pisses me off how judgemental some nasty females are of other girls that get hurt. Yeah, she made bad choices; sometimes that does lead to bad consequences, a "duh" factor. The point of the story isn't to focus on her poor judgement and point fingers; we all make bad choices, especially at that age, she was just a young kid and there with friends she trusted. The point was how she handled it, how her pain and strength went in the following year. Those kids need to get with the program.

^this. thank you. you're absolutely right. there's not enough awareness which is why people are so bloody ignorant.

To expand upon thenYES's point, I think the OP is extremely sad and depressing, and confirms fears that the younger generation have not become less ignorant by being born in generally more enlightened times.

Although you could certainly say that Melinda was unwise, you absolutely cannot infer any blame in her direction. If we were talking about stabbings, there is no way on earth somebody would suggest that a young man should expect to get stabbed if he goes to a particular party.

As with all crimes, blame goes to the perpetrator. It ought to be offensive to men to suggest that sexual assault is an inevitability of some kind. Indeed, it is in no way inevitable and to suggest that it should be seen as such is to minimise the severity of the crime and to diminish the criminal responsibility that the perpetrator has.

Worse, to suggest that Melinda should have expected to be raped by getting in the back of a car with a boy, is to suggest that boys/men can be expected to demand full and total sexual access to a girl just because she's agreed to make out with him.

It's all pretty disgusting. The fact that sexual assault is such a commonplace event at parties these days indicates that there is something deeply wrong with the boys doing that, not with the girls to whom it is done.

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It's sad, but not stupid. It's far smarter to teach people to be prepared to avoid/resist/escape rape than just say "don't rape". Unfortunately there will always be bad men out there, but that doesn't have to mean that their will always be rape victims.

We teach people not to set themselves on fire, but we still teach them stop-drop-and roll.

We're the A.P.B, and this thread is officially crashed.

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Sad that that is rarely the message in movies. But I do know that it is a very pervasive message with real consequences here in "flyover" country.

No, it isn't. It's common sense.

In much the same way that we don't actively teach people not to become murderers, we simply raise them as best we can. We do this because we accept that violence can happen in the world through consequences beyond individual choice.

Sadly, feminists have spent decades teaching the ludicrous narrative that men choose to be rapists. No, they don't. Like all complex things, it is a combination of countless factors.

We teach people not to steal but when you leave the house, you don't leave all the doors and windows open. Why not? Because life isn't always straight forward.