Rape is the service we provide to tell you your stylist sucks

This morning (or last night depending on where you live), I was ready to go at 05:30 Polish time a bit upset I hadn't managed to access much English-language news while away from home. I'd hoped to be able to find some info on how the Poles are reacting to the lies they were fed by Bush & Blair, so I was excited to see an English language paper at the hotel as I was checking out. The first thing I noticed was an article about how clothing is a "flash point" in India's changing society. As you can guess, the incendiary device is clothing women wear that induce men to commit acts of violence against them.

In mid-May, a Delhi university student was abducted as she walked home with a friend in the early hours of the morning. Although the friend alerted the police immediately, they were lethargic in their response, and the victim was held for four hours and gang-raped before her attackers dropped her back at the spot where they had kidnapped her - just opposite the headquarters of the Delhi Police's Crime Against Women Cell.

Initially there was widespread media criticism of police incompetence, but this was swiftly followed by speculation about the role of the woman's outfit in provoking the attack and disapproving discussion of why she had stepped out at such an "unearthly hour."

When a policeman raped a 16 year old girl in May, the extremist political party Shiv Sena, stopped short of saying the officer had done his duty to rape the girl for her own good by publishing a statement in the party newspaper claiming that one cannot blame a man for being incited by low-riders and mini-skirts. Lukcily for Indian women, the Minister in charge of Women's Affairs, Kanti Singh, quickly came to the rescue defending college girls rapists/potential rapists by saying that women's clothing does incite men to violence.

"The guardians should see what kind of clothes the girls wear when they go out," she said. "I keep meeting college girls and some of them have said that girls are also responsible for provoking men to an extent by the way they dress."

Who knew that clothing could turn a moral, law-abiding man into a violent criminal? I guess we should reconsider banning onesies and diapers next.


Tags: rape; Feminism

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