Does women way of dressing affect the possibility of sexual assault?

[murtad]

I do think that a women dressing provacatively will invite the notice of predators more, therefore yes I do think women’s dress can affect an attack.

I voted ‘yes’ because IMO, all human women should dress moderately as our Lady, ever-virgin Mary the Theotokos. Even Mother Teresa dresses that way, and Roman Emperor Constantine’s mother St Helena also dressed that way and so did St Augustine’s mother St Monica.

We should never emulate immoral and indecent people such as Britney Spears, Nancy Ajram, or Princess Diana who dress provocatively.

 

[tkdnick]

Looking at it from the marital arts/self defense side of things, yes dressing more provokatively could lead to a greater risk of sexual assault, but there are other factors as well. Predators are looking for someone who won’t make a scene. Someone they believe will be easy to grab without people finding out. Also, sexual assaults are often times more about control and power than actual sex. So while I believe dress can impact sexual assaults, I believe there are other issues that are at least as important, if not more important.

 

[inJESUS]

I voted ‘yes’ because IMO, all human women should dress moderately as our Lady, ever-virgin Mary the Theotokos. Even Mother Teresa dresses that way, and Roman Emperor Constantine’s mother St Helena also dressed that way and so did St Augustine’s mother St Monica.

We should never emulate immoral and indecent people such as Britney Spears, Nancy Ajram, or Princess Diana who dress provocatively.

Nancy Ajram is much more decent than Hayfa Wehbe

haifawehbe.com/haifa2005/about.html

 

[murtad]

The ones in their underwear would be more likely to be solicited for sex, but being solicited for sex is not the same thing as being “sexually assaulted.”

Also, a man thinking 'I would like to have sex with her" is not thinking like a rapist.

A rapist doesn’t think about sex at all - he is thinking about power and about inflicting pain. A rapist isn’t looking for someone who looks sexy, but rather, for someone he can inflict pain on without getting caught.

This is false reasoning. Rape is about both sex and violence. A rapist normally has high lust and wants free sex. In order to satisfy himself, he resorts to violence on a weak woman.

A woman should always dress moderately and never dress provocatively.

 

[murtad]

I agree too. It’s a nonsense to say this is about sex. Obviously al-lah didn’t realise that when he got women to be covered up:thumbsup:

Its not al-lah but Allah Subhana Wa Taala. That’s how Muslims refer to their Moon deity, the Lord of the Arabs.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Murtad, actually studies show that rapists do not have high sex drives. How often must we say it–rape is NOT about sex, it is about power. Because a man can use his physical sex organs to overpower a woman and FORCE her, doesn’t mean that he ‘lusts’ for her or that she has ‘provoked’ him.

Using the term ‘free sex’ in conjunction with rape just shows twisted thinking. Rape is not ‘free sex’; sex is something between a man and a woman and involves either love or lust, and it is MUTUAL. Rape is NOT mutual–the sex actions are not used for love or lust but for power, often with hatred.

Rape is not sexual; it perverts sex itself and is to be utterly abominated. And women do not ‘deserve’ to be raped because they ‘dress for it.’ And women do not ‘provoke’ rape by their dress. For heaven’s sake, women walk around NAKED in some societies and are not attacked. How ‘provocative’ is provocative, anyway? Even the highest mini skirt still covers the buttocks and crotch; even the lowest plunging neckline doesn’t reveal the full breasts. . .so what is so ‘tempting’ about a woman in a low cut blouse and high cut skirt that a man ‘HAS’ to rape her, while another woman wearing a blouse 0.1 mm higher cut, or a skirt 0.1 cm longer, can walk past that same man without him losing control? These rapists do not rape or even attempt to rape EVERY woman in ‘provocative attire’ that they see, so why blame ‘the woman’s dress’ for his CHOICE to overpower any given woman?

 

[LeahInancsi]

I think there needs to be a diffentiation made between a woman who is sexually attractive to a man and a woman who looks sleezy. It’s in the eye of the beholder. The rapists don’t rape because they find a woman sexually attractive. If appearance is a factor, it’s because a rapist disapproves of her appearance or the message she is trying to convey and seeks to punish her through the violence of rape.

 

[VociMike]

put the blame where it belongs…on the" looker" and not the “lookee”
Kathy

But the question is not about blame, it is about affecting possibilities.

If I put $1000 in twenties in plain view on the front seat of my car, that is going to affect the possibility that my car will be broken into. The thief is still the guilty party, not me, but what I did did affect the possibilities.

I sense a very strong reluctance by many to deal with the actual question posted by the OP, a question that does not involve assigning any blame to victims of sexual assault, but only asks about affecting the possibility of such assaults. The fact that nuns and old ladies are also sometimes assaulted is not in any way an answer to the question of affecting the possibilities.

 

[bella5110]

hi,

I just read the thread about the Australian Imam . I think his way of expressing his idea was very crude. But i wonder if he is wrong in principle.

I personally believe that women way of dress can considerably affect the possibilities of sexual assault.

Do you ?

Please lets keep this thread civil.

thanks

meedo

I am a woman and I cannot even see this as being a thread someone would actually start. If you don’t know the answer, I am afraid.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Mike, I respect you. I understand that (especially to a male) the idea that there is an ‘occasion of sin’, that somebody can be PERCEIVED of as being ‘provocative’ and that because of that perception by somebody else, would have that person ‘share in’ the blame of any wrong actions. I likewise understand that it is easy to assume that, as in your analogy with the $20 bills, if a man perceives of a woman as ‘goods’ or as something ‘packaged’ or just some ‘thing’, that ‘dressing sexily’ is making that woman appear ‘available’.

However (you knew this was coming), the point is that this type of thinking (even if all men did it, which they do not) is WRONG. Even if women were TRYING to entice men into the sexual act, (and most are not), there is such a great difference between the sexual act, which involves LOVE or at worst Lust, and is MUTUAL. . .and the act of rape, which is NOT Love, is NOT Lust, and is totally and solely for the ‘satisfaction’ (and I’m talking power satisfaction, not ‘sex’ satisfaction here) of ONE PERSON.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter whether every woman on the face of the earth was totally naked; no woman is ever, ever, soliticiting RAPE–a hideous MISUSE of the sex act that is never about sexual gratification but only about the assault and overpowering of one human being to satisfy the power urge of another human being.

No, dressing like a ‘slut’ does NOT, NOT, NOT affect the possibility of a woman being assaulted. What affects the possibility is the sort of SOCIETAL APPROVAL and the WAY OUT that society hands to men by making women bear the brunt of ‘blame’ for their reckless and wantom ‘arousal’ of that poor. pitiful, ‘sex starved’ male who can’t BEAR to see that ‘slutty dressing’ but simply must fulfill his NEED. BAH HUMBUG.

The only reason you hear about this sort of thing is that some men (and I don’t mean YOU) WANT to have themselves validated and to hear the implicit sort of approval in that, should they ever find themselves in this situation, it wasn’t really all their OWN FAULT but that the woman ‘tempted them’.

Baloney.

 

[Pug]

No, dressing like a ‘slut’ does NOT, NOT, NOT affect the possibility of a woman being assaulted. What affects the possibility is the sort of SOCIETAL APPROVAL and the WAY OUT that society hands to men by making women bear the brunt of ‘blame’ for their reckless and wantom ‘arousal’ of that poor. pitiful, ‘sex starved’ male who can’t BEAR to see that ‘slutty dressing’ but simply must fulfill his NEED

Are you saying that dressing in an immodest manner leads to a woman being more likely to be chosen as a victim because the rapist sees that woman as a target that society will be less likely to blame him for raping? If so, you appear to be saying that immodest dress does affect the possibility of being assaulted.

 

[Jeanette_L]

I personally believe that women way of dress can considerably affect the possibilities of sexual assault.

Do you ?

meedo

I think there’s a difference between whether a woman’s dress can affect the possibility of sexual assault and whether it should be so.

In other words, we need to separate saying a woman is responsible for some types of assault because of her dress, and saying that a woman could be more wise in how she presents herself so as to possibly avoid being targeted for some types of assault.

Not all sexual assaults are the same in nature. We are told over and over that all sexual assaults are about power and control, and not about sex. I believe this to be true in most cases, especially with repeat offenders. But I do not agree that this is true in all cases. And even some cases of repeaters, a woman could become a target from her appearance/and or dress, as some serial rapists go for a certain type or look.

We do have to take each cultural norms into consideration as to what is provocative and what isn’t, and a woman should be wise and pro-active in her own self preservation. Just because she shouldn’t have to be worried about it, doesn’t make it so.

 

[Montalban]

But the question is not about blame, it is about affecting possibilities.

If I put $1000 in twenties in plain view on the front seat of my car, that is going to affect the possibility that my car will be broken into. The thief is still the guilty party, not me, but what I did did affect the possibilities.

Are you saying people are soooooo weak that they’re being compelled to do these things?

I sense a very strong reluctance by many to deal with the actual question posted by the OP, a question that does not involve assigning any blame to victims of sexual assault, but only asks about affecting the possibility of such assaults. The fact that nuns and old ladies are also sometimes assaulted is not in any way an answer to the question of affecting the possibilities.

Actually it does. The same with the fact that nudist camps aren’t high in rape stats.

 

[laurenzia]

A woman does not have to be dressed immodestly to provoke a sexual assault on her. Men don’t rape women because they ‘look hot’, they rape them because they choose to and have the power to, regardless of what the female is wearing. There are plenty of rape victims who did not dress as if they were ‘asking’ for it. Not that I am advocating provocative dress, but I think that a woman who dresses to get attention is more aware of herself and is less likely to be assaulted because she is more conscious of the reactions she is getting and stays aware, whereas the women who are dressed decently don’t expect that kind of attention as much and are less guarded in many ways, ironically, making them more vulnerable.
In cases where the woman was dressed indecently, it is more likely that they were under the influence of alcohol and therefore more of an easy target rather than a result of their attire.

Just my two cents…

 

[inJESUS]

all in all, it was shown that rape is not about sex. Now, in case immodest dress is the “pretext”, then the problem is with the man who lacks faith and self-control and who looks at women as an object…to such people, anything is a reason for rape. Hence the immodest dress can be a pretext and not a reason .

 

[TheGarg]

hi,

I just read the thread about the Australian Imam . I think his way of expressing his idea was very crude. But i wonder if he is wrong in principle.

I personally believe that women way of dress can considerably affect the possibilities of sexual assault.

Do you ?

Please lets keep this thread civil.

thanks

meedo

ABSOLUTELY YES

 

[kellie]

But the question is not about blame, it is about affecting possibilities.

If I put $1000 in twenties in plain view on the front seat of my car, that is going to affect the possibility that my car will be broken into. The thief is still the guilty party, not me, but what I did did affect the possibilities.

I sense a very strong reluctance by many to deal with the actual question posted by the OP, a question that does not involve assigning any blame to victims of sexual assault, but only asks about affecting the possibility of such assaults. The fact that nuns and old ladies are also sometimes assaulted is not in any way an answer to the question of affecting the possibilities.

I am no mathematician, but I do know there are mathematical laws “possibilities”.

If the way women dressed effected the possibility of her being raped, then over time, and I mean as in centuries, the notion for women to dress provocatively would be nearly non-existent, as the number of rapes occurred due to the way the women dressed would be so prevalent.

The very fact that women still dress provocatively shows that the possibility of women being raped for this reason must be low, as women don’t give this possibility a second thought whilst dressing up.

Men use rape for power, and their penis just happens to be a natural appendage that can be used as a weapon to gain this power.

That’s why rape involves sex. It isn’t because the rapist wants sex. All he wants is to gain power through violence, and rather than using a gun, or knife, he uses his natural weapon.

 

[VociMike]

This will be my absolute last post on this subject, since I think it’s generating more heat than light.

Statistic from the U.S. Department of Justice: 45% of rape victims are under 18, 80% are under 30.

In the population, about 25% of females are under the age of 18, and about 42% are under the age of 30. Thus, young women are twice as likely to be raped in proportion to their numbers in the population. Women over the age of 30, by contrast, are raped in numbers much smaller than their numbers in the population (58% of the female population, 20% of the rape victims).

If there were no component of physical attraction involved in rape, these statistics would not exist. I don’t think it’s beyond the pale to include provocative dress as one aspect of physical attraction.

 

[Jeanette_L]

This will be my absolute last post on this subject, since I think it’s generating more heat than light.

Statistic from the U.S. Department of Justice: 45% of rape victims are under 18, 80% are under 30.

In the population, about 25% of females are under the age of 18, and about 42% are under the age of 30. Thus, young women are twice as likely to be raped in proportion to their numbers in the population. Women over the age of 30, by contrast, are raped in numbers much smaller than their numbers in the population (58% of the female population, 20% of the rape victims).

If there were no component of physical attraction involved in rape, these statistics would not exist. I don’t think it’s beyond the pale to include provocative dress as one aspect of physical attraction.

I agree with you and am probably a minority among women who would. I just don’t think it serves the female population to remain naive because they don’t want to think about what they might do to keep themselves from becoming a target.

The typical rape (but not all) for the most part is about power and control. But that doesn’t mean that the rapist doesn’t have a type, or trigger, that sends him in the victim’s direction. It starts out as a sexual trigger and ends as a sexual act, but in between is about power and control, which is still a part of the sexual turn on.

I think that women get caught up in the wrong argument. We can’t keep saying that because we are not ultimately responsible for rape, that we can’t smarten up about what might set us apart and make us a target. This is common sense that keeps getting lost in counter-productive arguments.

This doesn’t mean that we have to become completely paranoid and cover ourselves from head to toe. It means that we should think about whether our appearance may cause attention that is not healthy or smart. It’s about being street smart. We live in that kind of world.

Just my :twocents: , once again.

 

[kellie]

This will be my absolute last post on this subject, since I think it’s generating more heat than light.

Statistic from the U.S. Department of Justice: 45% of rape victims are under 18, 80% are under 30.

In the population, about 25% of females are under the age of 18, and about 42% are under the age of 30. Thus, young women are twice as likely to be raped in proportion to their numbers in the population. Women over the age of 30, by contrast, are raped in numbers much smaller than their numbers in the population (58% of the female population, 20% of the rape victims).

If there were no component of physical attraction involved in rape, these statistics would not exist. I don’t think it’s beyond the pale to include provocative dress as one aspect of physical attraction.

That is a ridiculous assumption to make as to why the statistics show more younger women get raped.

The statistics exist for reasons other than provocative dress.

Here are some very very generalised reasons as to why the statistics show younger women more:

a) younger women are more likely to be single, so go out with female friends, most of time not having a man with them when getting back to their car after a night out with their friends,older women are normally married or in a relationship so when they are out they have a man with them

b) younger women go out more to places such as nightclubs and bars, where men on the prowl may gather

c) older women have children who demand much more of their time, so these women dont go out as much and most of time are not alone when out

d) women are being brought up to be brave to speak out when violated against, the youth of today are being brought up to know their rights, younger women may report the rapes more than the older generation