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Old 06-24-2004, 08:08 AM   #32 (permalink)
brianna
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Location: nyc
insisting that a rapist is motivated by a woman's appearance is a common misconception that assumes that rape is a sexual act. Virtually all researchers agree that rape (yes, even date rape, which is the most common) is very rarely about sex it most often motivated by anger and/or a desire to have power over a woman. the following websites have a good section on the myth's of rape including information on motivations for rape.

http://www.rapecrisisonline.com/articles.htm http://www.gynpages.com/choices/7.html

Claiming that a woman could avoid being raped if she would dress more conservatively does place some of the blame for the crime on her as it suggests that there was something that she could have done to stop the rape. since there is a wide variation in what people think constitutes inappropriate dress it would be next to impossible for a woman to make an informed decision about her clothing in an effort to avoid rape. what you find revealing and sexy the next man (or rapist) may find overly conservative.

Please do not insist yet again that rape is motivated by appearance unless you have some reference to back this up. unless you are a rapist yourself I find it very unlikely that you can predict what motivates one, especially when all of the studies I could find reported no connection between dress and victim (in fact most rapists cannot remember what their victims were wearing).

when you correlate dress with violent crime you trivialize sexual assault and further the virgin whore myth. it is perfectly acceptable for a woman to embrace her sexuality and in a society that idolizes naked female flesh one would think that people would be a bit more wary of hypocritically stating that such women who dress to fit this ideal are doing so at the risk of being sexually assaulted.
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