Are there any studies on dress?

[mumwithdice]

I'm getting very tired of reading everywhere about how dressing 'modestly' reduces your risk of being sexually assaulted. Are there any academic studies about this idea?

The reason I ask is because when I was the victim of a minor sexual assault (grope of the breast by tosser on bike), I was wearing long sleeves and an ankle length skirt so dressed relatively modestly. And I'd like to know if there was something I ought to have done to prevent it.

There's nothing you "ought to" have done to prevent it. He ought to have not assaulted you. Are you ok?

Dressing 'modestly' does not reduce your risk of being sexually assaulted. The only thing that reduces women's risk of being sexually assaulted is men choosing not to sexually assault. The rest is magical thinking .

There was nothing you 'ought' to have done, he ought not to have done it. End of story. He was wrong, you were not.

I hope you're OK.

I'm fine. It happened years ago. I've just been reading many threads and blogs and there's so much saying that women must do x or dress y to avoid z. It's driving me up the wall and I wondered if there was any hard evidence for this. (Sigh, I admit to bad form, 'tis a bit of a thread about a thread)

I was being sarcastic about what I ought to have done. I know there wasn't anything I could have or should have done. Sorry it didn't come across.

Or rather, I should say I was looking for hard evidence against this idea and I thought if there was any, you guys would point me in the right direction.

Not as far as I know. Probably asking people what they were wearing when they were assaulted is not the done thing for good reason, so there aren't records?

You could try and find stats for assaults in countries where "modest" dress is the norm - to show that it still happens. Although in many of those countries there would be different levels of reporting etc so you wouldn't be able to do a direct comparison with eg the UK. It would show that women get sexually assaulted whatever they are wearing though.

The other point is that if eg wearing a floor length skirt and long sleeves meant that you never got sexually assaulted, women and girls all over the world would know and would wear that and nothing else!

True. Just am finding magical thinking disheartening.

Oh, OK

I haven't come across any studies but clearly there's loads of anecdotal evidence - I don't want to say too much but suffice to say sexual assault still happens in countries where women, for example, wear the hijab (sp?), it happens to elderly women in their homes, it happens to very young children. It has F all to do with what women wear.

IMO any blog or commentary which suggests this is either trying to victim-blame or I referred earlier to 'magical thinking' which is a term I first heard on here, where basically women (and it usually is women) believe if they do certain things, go or don't go to certain places, use certain modes of transport at certain times, dress certain ways, avoid alcohol and drugs, then bad things just can't / won't happen to them.

X post I am doing well on this thread, amn't I?

Well, that's what I thought, that it was victim blaming. But often those who claim that magical thinking works will dismiss anecdotal evidence because anecdotes are not data. Thanks all.

Of course it's victim blaming.

Thinking that having a certain length skirt will stop a rapist is ludicrous.

Recently two head teachers have told their students to stop wearing short skirts as they "send out teh wrong signals".

Yes that's right - skirts signal things to people.

FGS

Sardine - the Deputy Head of our DSs school recently very publicly pulled up the sixth 6th girls in a letter home to parents. The stipulation is that 6th form boys and girls have to wear clothes that are suitable business attire. Included in the message home was that 6th form girls had to wear skirts on or just above the knee (or tailored trousers) and sensible shoes. There was also the threat of being sent home if this was not complied with.

I agree with her. Girls/women should be expected to wear a similar dress code as men in formal or business situations. It sends the right signals that someone is serious about what they are doing at school/work.

It has nothing to do with the main point of this thread though.

The thing is, people never want to believe that it could ever happen to them. So they want to believe they are safe because they don't wear short skirts, don't go out late, don't walk home down that dark alley, don't flirt with strangers in bars, don't...... whatever.

If they believed that it could happen to them while coming back from the library in a well-lit street, while wearing modest clothes, then they wouldn't be able to go out. So they prefer to think that it can't happen. That those who it happens to did something wrong, made a mistake. Something which they wouldn't have done.

I found these two articles just with google scholar. They're not exactly what you asked for, but they're related

Effect of Dress, Cosmetics, Sex of Subject, and Causal Inference on Attribution of Victim Responsibility
LaCinda Lewis Kim K.P. Johnson

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of dress, cosmetics, sex of subject, and causal inference on attribution of a rape victim's responsibility. Six hundred ten university students served as subjects. Each subject received a questionnaire with a photograph attached, a vignette of a bogus rape victim and a responsibility scale. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance and the Neuman-Keul's test. Results indicated that both dress and causal inference exerted a significant influence on subject's attribution of victim responsibility. Subjects attributed more responsibility for the rape to victims appearing in the most provocative dress than those victims appearing in provocative or least provocative dress. Those subjects who indicated they believed victim ability or effort may have contributed to the rape attributed more responsibility to the victim than those individuals who indicated the situation or chance contributed to the rape. Results are discussed in terms of attribution theory.

and

Predicting Objectification: Do Provocative Clothing and Observer Characteristics Matter?
Regan A. R. Gurung and Carly J. Chrouser

This study provides empirical evidence for the objectification of women and unearths factors that increase objectification. Objectification theory (Fredrickson and Roberts 1997) suggests that women from Western cultures
are the targets of male gaze. Although this seems self evident from a look at the media, little empirical evidence exists to document the phenomenon or unravel underlying processes. Undergraduate female participants (N=82) from the Midwestern part of the United States rated three photographs of well-known female Olympic athletes shown either provocatively dressed or in sport-appropriate outfits. Results showed that when shown provocatively attired the women were objectified. Furthermore, participants? own levels of social physique anxiety were significant predictors of objectification. Sexism and trait objectification were not significantly related to ratings.

morebeta and I wouldn't have a complaint with that

The head teachers who have stated that the skirts send the wrong signals to people on the street are wrong however.

If they want children to wear longer skirts then don't make the reason, that the short skirts are provoking others into inappropriate behaviour.

Bennifer, thanks. I had forgotten about Google Scholar. Thanks for showing me and not telling me to JFGI (though I will now).

Hi
I'm a 'modest dresser' by choice- generally I cover from knee to about my collar bone, and quite often my hair too, I don't look that different from a lot of women but probably more covered than some if you know what I mean. I still get 'looks' off blokes and comments too, so I don't think my dress would make any difference to my likelihood of being assaulted. It doesn't make me feel safer or protected.

Just personal experience though!

there was a study, from an American university I think (sorry I can't remember any more details and no time to hunt for more) which looked at what women had been wearing when they were assaulted and they found that, surprise surprise, the most common form of dress was jeans, most likely because that is what women are most likely to be wearing.