In his 1971 book Blaming the Victim, sociologist William Ryan defined it as “justifying inequality by finding defects in the victims of inequality.” Ryan’s focus was on urban African American families and the systemic social forces that kept so many of them in poverty, while most of white America saw “the negro problem” as an epidemic of laziness and weak character. Just as racism fueled (and still fuels) that sort of victim blaming, sexism is the chief driver of the type that holds rape survivors responsible for failing to prevent their own attacks, female employees responsible for keeping their bosses’ hands off their asses, and domestic violence victims responsible for all the years they stayed with abusers who threatened to kill them if they left.