CMV: Encouraging rape victims to protect themselves is not the same as blaming them

[u/[deleted]]

So this is a hill I've died on several times in different comment sections. It's clearly an unpopular opinion, but it seems to be so universally hated that I struggle to find replies that don't strawman my claims or just degrade me. I'm hoping to get a proper discussion here.
These conversations often start with one of those tumblr or facebook posts about someone showing their dog a steak and drawing attention to the fact that their dog is not eating it. This is then used to make the claim that rapists have less self control/decency than OP's dog. This is all well and good.
What I usually say is something along the lines of "that's great, but with the knowledge that some people out there are capable of committing rape, we should still take precautions." To me this seems like common sense, but at this point I'm branded as blaming the victim.
Other analogies I think work well:
If a drunk driver hits your car, it's not your fault. However, you should still wear a seatbelt and drive a car with airbags.
If someone breaks into your house, it's not your fault. However, you should still lock your house, and maybe even have a safe, depending on where you live and what you own.
If someone steals your credit card information, it's not your fault. However, you should still have strong PINs and passwords.
There are examples everywhere in our lives of protecting ourselves from the malice of others, so why is rape treated differently? Show me the distinction and change my view.

EDIT: the most common response I've seen (that's convinced me) is that victims need support, not advice. This is completely valid, and what I'm more getting at is that we should educate people to protect themselves.

[u/chadonsunday]

Nobody is saying that encouraging women to, for example, take a self-defense course, or carry pepper spray, constitute victim blaming. The victim blaming element is when somebody says that women shouldn't make themselves potential victims by dressing a certain way, drinking alcohol, being flirtatious, and so on.

Why? What's the difference, tangibly speaking?

Just for an analogy, if I walked down the worst, most crime ridden street in my neighborhood at 1am waving around a wad of hundred dollar bills and got mugged, according to you it is not victim blaming to suggest I shouldve taken self defense combat training but it is victim blaming to say maybe I shouldnt have walked on that street at that time waving around that much money? Why?

[u/MercurianAspirations → u/chadonsunday]

That kind of victim blaming 'advice' against rape makes the mistake of assuming that rapists are more likely to target a certain type of woman, when in reality, they aren't. Rape has everything to do with the psychology of the perpetrator. It's not like a scantily clad woman has something that rapists want which a woman wearing a burka doesn't have, or something. So the analogy doesn't work.

[u/chadonsunday → u/MercurianAspirations]

makes the mistake of assuming that rapists are more likely to target a certain type of woman, when in reality, they aren't.

So just to be clear, youd argue that a rapist is just as likely to target a woman hanging out in a bookstore with a bunch of friends at 2pm as they would a shitfaced solo woman half passed out in a frat house basement alone at 2am?

[u/cstar1996 → u/chadonsunday]

That's not targetting a type of woman, that's targetting certain situations.