Are Women'S Dress Issues a Major Cause of Rape?

Nowadays, raping about DIDI APP usually can be heard from the news in China. Many people sympathized the victims, while there were some people said it was girls’ revealing clothes led to their suffering and these girls deserved it. “Victims of sexual violence are often blamed for precipitating their own assault with their so-called “provocative” body-revealing style of dress, which is viewed as conveying consent for sexual advances.” (Moor, 2013) Is the thought that women’s dress can be regarded as inviting circumstance right? What is the real relationship between the rape and dress issues?

I write this essay to people who have such a silly thought and I hope victim blaming can be reduced for pitiful sufferers. “The vast majority of the sample (75%) disagrees that women’s behaviors and dress are responsible for rape. The public also rejects, although by a lesser margin (59%), the notion that rapes are ’caused’ by pornography.” (Rich & Sampson, 1990) There are few persons look things in a different view. I write this essay to this 25% persons to evaluate their thoughts. This paper will evaluate the thought that women’s dress issues are a major cause of rape with the scenes, type of rape, victim blaming and psychology.

To begin with, we can evaluate the thought by the true scenes for Actions speak louder than words. “ In a 1996 survey of judges in India, 68 percent of the respondents said that provocative clothing is an invitation to rape.” (Khazan & Lakshmi, 2012, sec. 3) According to an interview video about the Indian males’ opinions on rape in the YouTube, if the video is edited is not clear, but the several interviewees told that it is women’s dress issues that result in the rape. However, we can find an amazing truth from the comparison of Canada and India. Women in Canada usually wear fashion and short clothes and their rape is rare, while the Middle East countries have high rates of raping and the women there always wrap around their bodies. Someone may say the difference is caused by the education and law systems, this comparison can’t prove dress issues and rape have nothing to do with each other. But the exhibit in Brussels clearly showed us the clothes women wore was not the cause of the rape. “A pair of pajamas. Track pants. A child’s T-shirt. The clothes, which were reportedly being worn by rape victims at the moment they were attacked, are part of a chilling exhibition in Brussels intended to dispel the “stubborn myth” that clothing can be used as justification for sexual violence.” (Bever, 2018) Those women wore different kinds of clothes when going through the same agony. What the victim wore when they were dragged into the black area were just most people will wear in their daily life. Therefore, the thought we mentioned was proved wrong by the truth.

Besides, we can also evaluate the thought in other aspect like the type of rape. “The experiences reported by victims of stranger rape (n = 52) were compared with those of victims of acquaintance rape (n = 416). Then, the experiences of women assaulted by different types of acquaintances were compared including nonromantic acquaintances (n = 122), casual dates (n = 103), steady dates (n = 147), and spouses or other family members (n = 44).” (Koss, Dinero, Seibel, & Cox, 1988) According to the series number we can get that a large proportion of rapes are acquaintance rapes. The loathsome persons usually target the victims secretly for a long time, they tail after their targets to get more information to do next step. What moreover decides the rape happens are places and the time instead of looking if the targets wear beautiful clothes. So the people result in the sad dream is criminals not the victims, it is criminal that look for and decide the time and places.

When it comes to the aspect of psychology. Victim also like to find the target by looking the psychology. “Bullies don’t pick on just anyone. Like wolves culling caribou, they single out the wounded, the stragglers, the loners who stray from the herd. ”( ADRIANA BARTON,2016) It is same that criminals are ready to regard the coward as targets, because these victims won’t ask help for polices and usually never told others. Furthermore, the long-ankle-length skirt and conservative clothes are often a sign of resigned acceptance. Skinny jeans, a sleeveless T-shirt or a tuxedo skirt and high heels often reveal a woman’s confidence and stronger personality, who are more inclined to resist or report a case, a confident victim is not a good choice for rapists.

Victim blaming means people blame the victim instead of criminal, which is not a correct action. The thought that think victim’s clothes mean seducing or acceptance is also a kind of victim blaming. Victim blaming even prevent many rapists from law’s blaming, while pushing the victim into a deeper marsh. “Back in 2006, a rapist in Canada, was given no jail time because the woman met the rapist under ‘inviting circumstances.’ He noted that she and her friend were wearing, per the Winnipeg Free Press, ‘tube tops with no bra, high heels and plenty of makeup.’”(Rachel Lubitz, 2016, Here Are 9 Times Clothing Was Blamed for Sexual Assault — Rather Than the Obvious) What we should do is beautify this world, both justice and equity are important to have. Helping the evil is not a good choice. The thought maybe cause the second hurt to victims, and the world will be in a mass. The bad guys are not in jail, and the innocent are burdened with social blame and pain. The world is not still pure. That society must not be a crazy world. Therefore, we shouldn’t create such a world, we should walk on the right path.

I write this essay to evaluate the thought women’s dress issues means acceptance to rape. Suffering something awful is terrible for girls. The society shouldn’t blame them again. Chinese girls sometimes joke in the internet that if one day a man was sexual harassment at a bus, they would turn the saying he was deserve it for his clothes to males. Whereas I believe this world could be justice and just. People punish the bad men and protect the vulnerable.

References

1. Khazan, O., & Lakshmi, R. (2012, December 29). 10 reasons why India has a sexual violence problem – The Washington Post. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2012/12/29/india-rape-victim-dies-sexual-violence-proble/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.fa01303e0985
2. Koss, M. P., Dinero, T. E., Seibel, C. A., & Cox, S. L. (1988). Stranger and Acquaintance Rape: Are There Differences In the Victim’s Experience? Psychology of Women Quarterly, 12(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1988.tb00924.x
3. Moor, A. (2013). She Dresses to Attract, He Perceives Seduction: A Gender Gap in Attribution of Intent to Women’s Revealing Style of Dress and its Relation to Blaming the Victims of Sexual Violence. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 11(4), 115–127.
4. Rich, R. F., & Sampson, R. J. (1990). Public Perceptions of Criminal Justice Policy: Does Victimization Make a Difference? Violence and Victims; New York, 5(2), 109–118. http://dx.doi.org.kean.idm.oclc.org/10.1891/0886-6708.5.2.109
5. Olga Khazan et al (2012) 10 reasons why India has a sexual violence problem. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2012/12/29/india-rape-victim-dies-sexual-violence-proble/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.545d98c92898
6. Lindsey Bever (2018) The persistent myth that revealing clothing leads to rape.https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/01/10/the-persistent-myth-that-revealing-clothing-leads-to-rape/?utm_term=.ba4ab5badc48
7. Rachel Lubitz (2016) Here Are 9 Times Clothing Was Blamed for Sexual Assault — Rather Than the Obvious. https://mic.com/articles/141781/here-are-9-times-clothing-was-blamed-for-sexual-assault-rather-than-the-obvious#.lml4Gshl6
8. Adriana barton (2016) What to do if your child is being bullied at school https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/back-to-school/what-to-do-if-your- kid-is-being-bullied/article31895235/

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