My friend told me that her ex-boyfriend had often said that women shouldn't wear revealing clothes and expect men to not hit on them/harass them. This is scary because it is the same defense that rapists use - women shouldn't have dressed/walked/spoken the way they did if they didn't want to be harassed/attacked/raped.
And my response was that the problem isn't the woman or her clothes; it's the act of rape. How a woman chooses to dress her own body is up to her. It isn't an invitation for a man to treat her how he sees fit. Each person is responsible only for what they do, not for what others do to them. A woman shouldn't have to dress for how a man would react to it and, likewise, a man shouldn't act on how a woman is dressed. Women (generally) don't harass a man based on how they are dressed so why is it any different?
To put things simply, if I stole something out of an unlocked car, the problem isn't that the car was unlocked. The problem is that I stole. Likewise, don't blame the victim for doing what she wanted to do to her body, blame the person who violated her body and her rights.
What are your thoughts on the article or feminism in general? Do you think it's okay for women (and men) to be harassed based on how they are dressed? Are they "asking for it"? I'd love to know your point of view even if it's different from mine so feel free to leave a comment below or tweet me @SundayWardrobe!
Disclaimer: Before people get all #NotAllMen on me, I know all men don't blame the victim - a lot of the men I personally know believe that this is wrong. The point isn't that all men do this, the point is that all women have felt this way before.
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