Short Skirts Risk Rape? Comment Fuels Outrage for UK Women's Groups
A prominent politician in the United Kingdom is at the center of a growing controversy after comments he made regarding they style of clothes a woman may wear and the potential for rape.
Richard Graham, during an interview, was detailing how a woman might increase her chance of risk if she is wearing certain types of clothes, as it may prevent her from defending against a predator.
"If you are a young woman on her own trying to walk back home through a park early in the morning in a tight, short skirt and high shoes, and there's a predator … if you are blind drunk wearing those clothes how able are you to get away," Graham told The Gloucestershire Citizen of Friday.
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Graham added that even with a large police presence, it is still not enough to prevent every crime that may take place and that woman should take the appropriate precautions.
"Although we have a pretty heavy police presence, life doesn't give you full protection from a predator all the time. You have got to help look after yourself as well," Graham added. "It's not about the impact of your clothes on a potential predator in my view – it's about whether the clothes you're wearing make it harder to get away from a predator."
However, his comments did not sit well will women's right advocates, who feel that the onus should be placed on the potential criminal, not the potential rape victim. For them, punishing criminals should be the priority, not commenting on women's attire.
"Such comments frighteningly normalize victim-blaming. They reallocate blame from the perpetrator to the victim," Vivienne Hayes, of the Women's Resource Center, told the Daily Mail.
"The problem is not female vulnerability but a macho culture which produces the notion of male entitlement – a culture which consistently fails women through disbelief, victim-blaming and failure to investigate," she added.
