Yahoo News How Not to Make a PSA About Rape
Hungarian democracy has suffered a number of blows in recent years, including the erosion of media and religious freedoms and the rise of the fascist, anti-Semitic, homophobic Jobbik Party, while also producing more curious plans like a "fat tax" and the world's first "Internet tax."
These developments have been accompanied by setbacks in the World Economic Forum's gender-equity ranking, which measures the quality of life for women around the world. In 2006, Hungary ranked 55 in the index. But earlier this year, the Central European country fell to 93. Sure, the number of ranked countries expanded from 115 to 142 during that same period, but the trend is not encouraging.
Hungary's Ranking in the 2014 WEF Gender Gap Index
But the numbers don't tell the story nearly as strikingly as a new video released by a county police department in Hungary. The clip, which was released to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, is meant to be a public service announcement, but smacks more of satire. It's four minutes of high production value and extremely questionable messaging.
The key takeaway from the "You can do something about it, you can do something against it" campaign? Hungarian women should not invite rape by drinking, flirting, dressing scantily, or dancing suggestively.
One police department issued a statement warning that "flirting by young women can often elicit violence."
In case the message was lost, another county police department in the country issued a statement on Tuesday warning that "flirting by young women can often elicit violence," according to the AP.
It's already been a particularly difficult week in terms of government-sponsored blaming of women. On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan chastised feminists for "rejecting motherhood." More controversially, he added that men and women simply aren't equal:
You cannot put women and men on an equal footing. It is against nature.
The comments were made at a women's conference.
This article was originally published at http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/how-not-to-make-a-psa-against-rape/383201/
