Why does Chrissie Hynde say it might be a woman's fault if she's raped?, It's one thing for iconic female rocker Chrissie Hynde to take the blame for being raped 40 years ago; it's another thing when The Pretenders frontwoman says women rape survivors were "asking for it" if they wore high heels and revealing clothes.
Wait, what? Men can't stop themselves when they see a woman in a pair of heels so it's her fault if she's raped?
It's an attitude widely prevalent for, well, millennia, all the way to the 1970s, when Hynde, 63, became one of the first American women to front a major rock band. She was a star for her music, her cool, her don't-give-a-damn swagger, her female power.Now, in the service of promoting her memoir, Reckless: My Life as a Pretender, Hynde has recalled the bad old days, telling London's Sunday Times that she was to blame for her own rape by an Ohio motorcycle gang when she was 21.
“This was all my doing and I take full responsibility,” she said. “You can’t paint yourself into a corner and then say whose brush is this? You have to take responsibility. I mean, I was naïve.”Then she went further. Women who dress provocatively and get drunk in public are to blame if they're attacked.
"If I'm walking around in my underwear and I'm drunk ... Who else's fault can it be? You know, if you don’t want to entice a rapist, don’t wear high heels so you can’t run from him.
"If I'm walking around and I'm very modestly dressed and I'm keeping to myself and someone attacks me, then I'd say that's his fault. But if I'm being very (flashy) and putting it about and being provocative, then you are enticing someone who's already unhinged ... that's just common sense."
Well! Predictably, feminists were aghast. Predictably, anti-feminists were smug. The shouting began first in London, where the reaction among the chattering class broke along, um, predictable lines.Chrissie Hynde is a heroine to me, but she is so wrong on victim blaming," declared Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett in the left-leaning The Guardian.
"Chrissie Hynde was right. Now feminists want to silence her," asserted Julia Hartley-Brewer in the right-leaning Telegraph.
Immediately, the debate moved to Twitter, with tweets weighing in on both sides.
Wait, what? Men can't stop themselves when they see a woman in a pair of heels so it's her fault if she's raped?
It's an attitude widely prevalent for, well, millennia, all the way to the 1970s, when Hynde, 63, became one of the first American women to front a major rock band. She was a star for her music, her cool, her don't-give-a-damn swagger, her female power.Now, in the service of promoting her memoir, Reckless: My Life as a Pretender, Hynde has recalled the bad old days, telling London's Sunday Times that she was to blame for her own rape by an Ohio motorcycle gang when she was 21.
“This was all my doing and I take full responsibility,” she said. “You can’t paint yourself into a corner and then say whose brush is this? You have to take responsibility. I mean, I was naïve.”Then she went further. Women who dress provocatively and get drunk in public are to blame if they're attacked.
"If I'm walking around in my underwear and I'm drunk ... Who else's fault can it be? You know, if you don’t want to entice a rapist, don’t wear high heels so you can’t run from him.
"If I'm walking around and I'm very modestly dressed and I'm keeping to myself and someone attacks me, then I'd say that's his fault. But if I'm being very (flashy) and putting it about and being provocative, then you are enticing someone who's already unhinged ... that's just common sense."
Well! Predictably, feminists were aghast. Predictably, anti-feminists were smug. The shouting began first in London, where the reaction among the chattering class broke along, um, predictable lines.Chrissie Hynde is a heroine to me, but she is so wrong on victim blaming," declared Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett in the left-leaning The Guardian.
"Chrissie Hynde was right. Now feminists want to silence her," asserted Julia Hartley-Brewer in the right-leaning Telegraph.
Immediately, the debate moved to Twitter, with tweets weighing in on both sides.
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