The headlines in this morning's Metro is:
Flirting women "asking for rape". And here’s a link to this story in The Telegraph
According to a new Amnesty International telephone survey around a third of British respondents believe that a woman really can't expect not to be raped if she's being a bit flirty.
We haven't come a long way, baby. After all a (flirtatious) wink is as good as a nod.
Similar attitudes prevail over the wearing of tight clothing and about 20 percent thought a woman was at least partly to blame for her rape if she was "known to have had several sexual partners".
Part of me is shocked, but part of me is not in the least surprised. Egalia of Tennessee Guerilla Women covered this topic back in June with a Tennessee billboard advising girls to “cover-up, if it’s not for sale” or presumably just there for the taking…
This same survey found that 3% of men and 5% of women thought a woman was “totally responsible” if she was drunk.
I can find similar attitudes to rape in my own family (you know who you are) that were not just held but acted on in defending a young man against an allegation of rape. The statement “____ was drunk” which applied to both of them in that case was used as an excuse for his behaviour and a reason to blame her. In fact, she was passed out and was penetrated without her awareness much less her consent.
When I first arrived in the UK the legal position of rape claimants was shockingly poor. A valid and often successful legal defense was assumed consent. That's right - so long as the alleged rapist could convince a jury of his peers that he thought she wanted it (maybe she was being a bit flirty, maybe she was passed out – which seems to be as good as a wink or a nod) even if he and/or the jury later accepts she didn't, it wasn't rape. Until relatively recently, a rape victim's previous sexual history was also admissable and could be raised regardless of relevance.
Investigation of rape allegations is still poor. Only 10 police forces in the England and Wales (out of 43) have specialist rape investigation teams.
UK convictions for rape are shockingly low - only 6 percent of reported rapes lead to conviction. But to be fair this is probably nearly as attributable to the general incompetence of the Crown Prosecution Service and the poor administration of the courts as it is to attitudes toward rape.
Tags: Feminism, Sexual Assault,Rape
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
The way the Today Programme reported it, apparently "getting drunk out of your skull while wearing very little" *is* the UK definition of "flirting". :-O
I expect the French are just loving that.
I don't know if Today or the questionnaire respondents were confusing "moral desert" with "causal link", a confusion which seems widespread these days, as in the government's insistence there was 'no link' between the Iraq war and the 7/7 bombings.
Post a Comment