"Women shouldn't dress a certain way." - Victim-blaming!
"Women should watch their drink so nothing gets slipped into it." - Victim-blaming!
"Women shouldn't accept rides from strangers." - Victim-blaming!
"Women should stay out of dark alleys in bad neighborhoods at night." - Victim-blaming!
"Women shouldn't walk home alone." - Victim-blaming!
"Women should try to reduce their risk of..." - Victim-blaming!
The popular slogan out there right now is "Don't teach women not to be raped, teach men not to rape!" and anything to the contrary elicits the accusation of "victim-blaming!"
Well, are smoke detectors a form of "death-in-a-housefire-blaming"? Are bulletproof vests a form of "getting-shot-blaming"? Are locks and alarms a form of "theft-blaming"? Are seatbelts, airbags, speed limits, stop signs and traffic lights a form of "car-crash-blaming"?
Let's say just for the sake of argument that preventative advice and defensive precautions actually are a form of "blame."
Doesn't that mean convenience stores and gas stations blame the cashiers for being robbed?
Doesn't that mean fast food restaurants blame their employees for being murdered?
Doesn't that mean we blame children for being offered drugs?
See, the difference between protection and blame is "this will help you" versus "this is your fault." Just because the rapist, or house fire, or shooter, or thief, or other driver, or robber, or murderer, or drug dealer, or whatever may actually be at fault, doesn't mean you shouldn't try to protect yourself from them. If you make every effort to be as oblivious and vulnerable to the danger as possible, bad things happening to you may be no fault of your own, but some of them may still have been avoidable.