irsp: Slut Walk
I concede that a would-be victim dressing provocatively does not write blame off of a rapist for their actions. However, it should be taken into account that women who do dress in such a way are in fact making a mistake. Not to say that certain types of clothing are universally problematic, sans leather underwear, but dressing in such a way as to highlight sexual characteristics, or as to imply some looseness in one’s sexuality, can bite you in your partially exposed ass.
It’s like being dressed especially nice in a bad neighborhood; if somebody’s looking for a target to rob, chances are marginally higher that they’re going to pick you. This doesn’t mean the thief has done no wrong, obviously, but the victim should have some understanding of why it was them out of everyone else, and how they could have avoided losing their wallet. They should acknowledge how their actions lead them to that situation, and steer themselves and others away from similar circumstances.
That’s all anyone sensible is saying when they say a rape victim shouldn’t have dressed so provocatively. They also shouldn’t have been alone, at night, in a public but secluded area. Since we can’t go back and fix our mistakes, what we tend to do is apply these hypotheticals and shoulda-coulda-wouldas to the past to come up with memorable anecdotes to guide what we’ll do in the future. We live and learn, hanging on the edge of tomorrow.
So basically, yes, it’s her fault for looking the way she did in the place she was, and she should act differently in the future. But obviously it’s also his fault, and he should be punished accordingly so that he will act differently in the future.
