Has this been posted yet? 'Dangerous' short skirts

[EauRouge]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-15287760

Great patriarchal myth number 1. Men can't help themselves.

Oh please

Read again. SOME men. Pretty much all men I know can help themselves. Put in a similar situation as described as above they know hat to do, but a select few wont be able to control themselves

You're right Dave, it is fiction and pretty atypical of the type of rape and sexual assault that actually goes on. But it's a good rape myth film.

SOME men is precisely what I said Dave. And I ask you again - why should ALL women modify their behaviour for what SOME men do?

Wouldn't it just be easier to reeducate those "SOME men" rather than telling women to be constantly vigilant about how people perceive them?

All men can control themselves. Some men choose not to.

This is no reason for all women to change their behavior in order to 'protect' themselves against the few men who prefer to think societal rules don't apply to them. Not that it makes any difference anyway. These men rape regardless of what women are wearing.

The following mythbuster (from the UK Muslim feminist website BigSister) can be applied in this case too:

"Are men really morally that weak or is it an excuse?

A woman going to the mosque, raising her voice, driving a car, travelling unaccompanied by a male, not covering her face and hair, is apparently creating intolerable seductions and temptations for all those poor men then I the following questions arise:

· If men are so morally weak, then why should women suffer?

· If men are so morally weak then why should men be heads of family and leaders of society?

· If men are so morally weak then why are they considered more rational and less emotional than women?"

Excellent comments here Dooin, lenin, messy and slug (sounds like a surreal firm of solicitors! [hgrin])

I respect men as intelligent, humane individuals capable of making the choice not to harm another person. I don't buy the rubbish that men can't control their sexual urges because it patently isn't true and it tars all men with a nasty brush that they don't deserve. It's not feminists who are the man-haters in reality!

However, I think there are some men who like to identify themselves as "neanderthals" in some contexts, because they think it lets them off the hook for their "bad" behaviour.

Nope, men need to be holding other men accountable for their behaviour, not buying into the macho-use-and-abuse-women-that's-what-they-are-for-isn't-it-a-funny-joke mentality and challenging those who feel entitled to rape and assault with impunity.

Most women are quite capable of not wanting to smack idiots in the face when they promulgate this shit that girls put themselves at risk by means of their skirts.

But when a man provokes them through repeated assertions of nonsense, you can't be surprised when some women aren't able to control themselves.

Idiots need to be more aware of the effect they can have.

It's aso a very strange idea that rapists can't control themselves. Looking at the actual crime, control appears to be a key part of it, rapists intend to rape, they are perfectly in control of themselves, and the poor women they target (whose clothes and behaviour on the whole tends to be fairly unremarkable).

Many more articles in the same vein as the OP will surface over the coming months. Is the risk mentioned potential rape victims, or suggesting the young females are sending out messages they are sexually aware, suggestive and need protecting from their possible naivety, if not open signal sending ?

Schoolgirls have been wearing shockingly short skirts since the 1960s. I'm not bothered about it at all.

And very short skirts are a sensible thing to wear, from a self-defence pov (in a stranger rape scenario) because you have full freedom of action to run. A longer, tight skirt would be far more inadvisable because it restricts movement.

But not all rape is a stranger/attacker scenario. If a victim is targeted by someone known to her, it's unlikely to be because of her choice of dress at one particular encounter.

totally agree.

Did anyone hear about the 'slut walk' which took place this summer. i believe it was in protest to a particularly enlightened statement made by a canadian police chief stating that women dressing provocatively were basically "asking for it"! the article was accompanied by a photo of a young lady in a summer dress holding a banner reading "its a dress- not a yes".

this is a subject i feel very strongly about however i believe that many children (and i do mean children- not older teens) are unknowingly dressing in a provocative way, as they see it as cool and they way to be accepted.

i hate seeing a little girls in a boob tube and heels but this is because i feel that parents should be encouraging their children to be children- not because i'm expecting that little girl to become a victim of rape.

If the school doesn't like short skirts then they should act to enforce their uniform policy.

This is the second headteacher who has come out with a load of rape myths. I would have hoped that headteachers would be bright enough and aware enough of issues surrounding sexism not to come out with this shit. Apparently not.

mommon, My mum had me wearing cute dresses with hemline just below the buttocks , frilly drawers, and poodle socks up until about the age of 8. By todays standards I must have looked a paedos dream. It's cringeworthy to think back but thats how little girls dressed. She probably drew my little girl phase out longer than the average, as she liked my younger sister and I to dress exactly the same.

If I forgot to lock my front door and I was robbed would people accuse me of asking for it?

Well, yes they would. Not in so many words - that phrase is only really used for sexual violence - but yes, you would be partly to blame for not taking sensible precautions. If I drive without a seatbelt and someone else causes an accident, is it my fault I'm injured. Yes, partly.

Because no-one should go round breaking in to houses, and no-one should drive too fast, and no-one should rape - but they do.

"watch the film the accused"?

I have. It's message is not that girls should modify their behaviour, but that rapists are 100% culpable, regardless of how a girl or woman dresses or behaves.

Did you miss that message dave?