Move over, Dear Abby – Australian blogger, Hilary Bowman-Smart, just might be next up for best advice column. Only this time, it’s on Twitter, and the advice is about one particular hot topic: rape prevention. In response to an article on The Punch explaining that “advocating risk management is not victim blaming,” Hilaroar came out swinging. After shaming the media for continuing to perpetuate the assumptions that women can prevent rape with better safety precautions, more “rules” and “hot tips,” Hilaroar broke it down to the basics.
“Stop writing stupid, patronising bullshit articles telling us WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW. Plus. Half your tips are fucking stupid anyway.” She wrote, “So, in response to the stupid Punch article, I decided to start tweeting my own ‘hot safety tips’, with the hashtag #SafetyTipsForLadies.”
Within hours of creating the hashtag, Bowman-Smart found herself surrounded by new Twitter friends seeking advice, and some offering their own. Don’t let fan base and the hashtag fool you – while the intention is to get your attention, the Twitter feed is also looking to satirize the kind of useless advice usually offered up for rape prevention. This also stirred some responses, but the tips are just too funny to worry about those who don’t get the joke.
Below are some of our favorites. Feel free to add your own tips to the list, but please remember to include both #SafetyTipsForLadies and @Bust_Magazine.
Thanks to Hilaroar, images via Twitter
