Victim blaming by Mrs Hughes?

I see what you mean, tomcervo, but I am thinking more of the fact that Mrs Hughes considered Jimmy responsible for what modern audiences would describe as a sexual assault by Thomas, or at best an unwanted sexual approach, since Jimmy didn't consent. Mrs Hughes is implying that despite his lack of consent he has still somehow brought the assault on to himself because he is a vain young man. To me, it's a bit like suggesting that a pretty woman who puts a lot of effort into her appearance is to be blamed when a man kisses her against her will.

My feeling is that Fellowes would never have included that line from Mrs Hughes about Jimmy being at fault had there been a female servant in Jimmy's place.

Carson did a worse Victim blaming, he Basically said boy will be boys but Ethel was at fault for not saying no

Slainte 🇮🇪 I am who I am your approval isnt needed or required.

I was talking of victim-blaming in the sense that a person who is subject to an unwanted sexual approach is somehow considered to be responsible for the approach in the first place. Ethel's case isn't one of victim-blaming, as there was no unwanted advance. Ethel was a willing participant in the affair with the Major until she was found out. So Mrs Hughes couldn't have been guilty of victim blaming her anyway.

Mrs. Hughes assisting Anna is a more comparable example. She told Anna it wasn't her fault Green raped her.

Re Ethel, I don't condone what Mrs. Hughes did, but that was the practice at the time. If Mrs. hughes had turned a blind eye, eventually Ethel would have started to show and Carson would have fired her. And in real life, Mrs. Hughes's own position would have been in jeopardy as well if she hadn't dismissed Ethel right away.

Why do you think Mrs. Hughes would be innocent of victim-blaming in the case of a woman servant? She blamed Ethel as much as the Major, and Ethel was the one who suffered the consequences. Mrs. Hughes may have helped her later, but she was the one who kicked Ethel out.

I agree with you but I was surprised that critics and viewers didn't comment on that, because I am pretty sure that had it been a woman in Jimmy's place, the element of "victim blaming" in Mrs Hughes' comments would have been discussed more.

But the show doesn't take place in "today's time." It took place in the 1920s and Mrs. Hughes definitely was, for the most part, a woman of her time.

http://currentscene.wordpress.com

Well, they weren't backward for the time this series is set in. We should not look on the attitudes of that time through the lenses of ours. Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Carson were loyal retainers, careful above all things of the honor of the household they served. Their function was to serve and protect their employers from unpleasantness and inconvenience.
Even among the common people, a woman who had been raped was usually blamed, and sometimes discarded by her husband. Anna's relief at Bates' love, support, and sympathy for her after he found out about the rape is an indication that she, seeing herself as sullied and unworthy of her husband, expected to be blamed and rejected. It still happens that even now some husbands blame and reject a wife who has been raped.
Since homosexuality was not publicly acknowledged, the idea that a man could possibly be molested by another man would certainly be kept in the shadows, and as when a woman was molested, the victim would almost certainly be under suspicion of somehow having provoked the assault.
We have come a long way.

Like many of us,though, I am becoming thoroughly tired of so many looking for offense in every single thing that is said or done.

I could be a morning person if morning happened at noon.