Women Should Take Personal Responsibility Instead of Blaming Men for Regretted Sexual Encounters
Source: Jennifer Galardi. "I Was Once Jane Doe. Blaming Men Didn't Heal Me." October 7, 2026. thefederalist.com
The Gist
The author argues that women, using her own past experiences as an example, should stop blaming men for bad sexual encounters and instead take responsibility for their own choices like drinking heavily and pursuing risky situations. She believes modern feminism has wrongly taught women they're always victims and never at fault, and that this victim mentality is harming both the culture and women's own healing process.
Conclusion
Women, including Jane Doe, should examine their own behavior and take personal responsibility for their choices rather than solely blaming men when sexual encounters go badly or are later regretted.
Premises
- The author's personal experience of voluntarily getting drunk and pursuing sexual encounters she later regretted, mirrors Jane Doe's situation, and healing came through personal responsibility and faith, not through blaming the men involved
- Modern feminism has created a culture where women are seen as infallible victims incapable of wrongdoing, while men are held to impossible standards
- Data from the Survey Center on American Life shows liberal women tend to blame men for their problems despite lacking objective basis for complaint
- A culture that refuses to acknowledge women's capacity for wrongdoing infantilizes them rather than protecting them
- Treating serious accusations as automatically credible without scrutiny of women's own choices makes fairness in public debate impossible
- The current adversarial dynamic between the sexes is destructive, contributing to declining fertility rates and replacing grace and forgiveness with rage and blame
Assumptions
- Women who voluntarily consume alcohol/drugs and enter risky situations bear significant moral responsibility for negative outcomes that follow
- The author's personal experience and conclusions generalize to Jane Doe's situation and other similar cases
- Feminism as a movement is primarily responsible for a culture of female victimhood, rather than other social or institutional factors
- Personal/religious responsibility-taking is incompatible with or superior to legal accountability for alleged perpetrators
- Acknowledging a victim's prior choices (intoxication, risky behavior) is relevant to assessing culpability for others' alleged criminal actions
- The cited survey data about women blaming men is representative and causally linked to the specific dynamics in sexual assault cases