So this Irishman is acquitted for raping a 17 year old girl because she was wearing a thong.
How does that justify rape? Was it because the other foot was bare?
“Oh Heck no. Not that kind of thong you idiot.”
It was the only kind of thong I could think of that anyone would see. Would the rapist run up and down the streets and flip up all the skirts and de-pant all the girls until he found someone with sexy underwear? News flash: Not every seventeen year old girl wears thong underwear. Are they saying that if you wear granny underwear you’ll be safe from rapists? What a load of crap.
RAPE IS ABOUT POWER NOT SEX! In fact if you look at serial murders, they refer to the knife as a penetrating weapon in some cases…a substitute for sex. Rapists are using other things to penetrate (and I don’t mean that euphemistically) as a substitute for murder. Women have been raped and sodomized by broom handles, coke bottles, and any manner of hardware in addition to men’s genitalia. Rapists don’t care what kind of underwear she’s wearing any more than a serial killer only murders people because of the way they’re dressed. “That jacket was SO 80’s, it was a crime against fashion! I had to kill him! So I stabbed him right in the ill-fitting polyester, turquoise, inside pocket.”
So unless ALL she was wearing was the thong and everyone could see it, she wasn’t consenting to anything. In fact, if she doesn’t lean into your window and ask for money or accost you on the street, she’s not asking for it. Prostitutes make it a business process– marketing if you will–and you wouldn’t know they were prostitutes unless they talked to you because they dress like a lot of other women. They will stake out a territory and read men to see who would be looking and which man they’d be willing to engage because prostitutes have a choice too. So, yes! Prostitutes can be raped. Their business is sex, and they dress for sex, but it doesn’t mean they consent to every man. It is therefore NOT the clothes that incite rape. It is Hate and a Craving for Power.
What I don’t understand is this: Why didn’t the prosecution use this argument?!!!! Does he/she deep down think it is possible for the victim to invite rape?
Women, we have to educate people! We are just as likely to blame victims as everyone else, right up to the point where we are raped. Is it so hard to imagine someone using sex as a weapon? We use sex for entrapment, for bargaining, for blackmail, for selling cars and deodorant, manipulating men to get us what we want. The men, then, see women using sex as a weapon. Men use sex to mark territory, to assert power, to intimidate rivals. Women see men using sex as a weapon. Sex is NOT a weapon.With society’s cavalier attitude about sex before marriage, we get shamed for being virgins at our weddings. “What? this is the third date and you haven’t had sex yet? You’re going to lose him!” Men get shamed if they’re virgins past age 20. “What? you haven’t been laid yet? We gotta get you a piece!” That isn’t the purpose of sex! It is for the expression of love beyond the love of friends and family. It’s something only the two of you share.
Anything in the world that is good and pure and right can be perverted into something dank and dark and demeaning. Anything can be used as a weapon of manipulation. We just have to recognize the weapon for what it is. Take it in context. Don’t take away the responsibility for the crime from the perpetrator. No one asks to be robbed or mugged or beaten or killed. No one asks to be raped.
Measureable progress 