Well, What Were You Wearing?

[Me.]

Am re-posting this in view of Marcy Kaptur’s statement that women’s clothing is an ‘invitation’ to harassment.

People Ask ‘What Did You Wear’ When Women Were Sexually Assaulted. These Answers Have Gone Viral

These photos will change the way you look at the victims of sexual assault and prove that what a person wears doesn’t impact whether they are assaulted.

Katherine Cambareri was a senior at Arcadia University when she decided to do something truly innovative for her thesis project. Her project is called, “Well, What Were You Wearing?” and captures images of what victims were wearing while they were sexually assaulted.

https://shareably.co/what-were-you-wearing-assault/

[Equinox Moon]

1. Powerful!

Thanks for posting

[Me.]

3. Welcome

I wonder what Congresswoman would say about the badge

[leftstreet]

2. DURec

[mcar]

4. K&R

[delisen]

5. Any objection to men in congress wearing tights and codpieces?

I think its time for men in congress to drop the power suit. Casual wear should be allowed- part of the reason for the dress code was projecting power with suit and tie. the other was to keep the men from beating up on each other (men used to tend to get emotional and combative-maybe still do).

I hope myremraks are not seen as sexist-but there have been incidents of violence in state legislatures and US Congress.

[Me.]

10. Is This Meant To Be Satire

[delisen]

17. Eldridge Cleaver designed what he called Penis Pants in the 1970s

Don't know whether he was serious, being satirical, or maybe was just losing it mentally after years of activism

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1975/9/26/eldridge-cleavers-new-pants-peldridge-cleavers/


The fact is codpieces and tights were a fashion once- don't know whether they will return.

In general, I do think it may be time to consider male clothing and the power suit.

There is a professor of fashion at Pasadena City College who has done some interesting research on fashion and politics and revolution. Some of the nobility in France prior to the Revolution started dressing down-to fit in better or tp not make themselves targets, or other reasons. Maybe it was as part of that movement that Marie Antoinette began dressing up as a milkmaid.

At the Smithsonian, years ago, I remember the display of clothing worn by women at different period in our history. I was struck by the lightness, almost flimsiness of ball gown reception-wear in the late 1700s. Dresses that were almost like the beach dress fashions in the 1960s that many women started to wear to parties. It seemed especially significant because there were very cold winters then yet those fashions were worn to winter events.

So I think I am asking a serious question.

[Me.]

18. Fashion In The !8th Century Tended Toward Simplicity

Part of the back to nature movement espoused by Rosseau, a simpler way of life that became more fashionable. Some men today don't dress for winter and wear shorts during the coldest days.
But, and pardon me if I'm being dense, but what does a relaxation of men's clothing have to do with women being blamed for being assaulted because of what they were/ were not wearing.

[BigmanPigman]

6. They want us to wear chastity belts...fuck them!

[NanceGreggs]

7. There is a difference ...

... between sexual harassment and sexual assault. There is a difference between sexually inappropriate comments and rape.

Lumping them together serves no purpose, other than to diminish the victims of actual molestation/rape by putting their experiences on the same par as women who are harassed by unwelcome comments of a sexual nature.

“Well, What Were You Wearing?” captures images of what victims were wearing while they were sexually assaulted, NOT what they were wearing when they were sexually harassed. And there IS a difference between the two.

[Me.]

11. Very Well Said

[NanceGreggs]

14. Thank you.

So that begs the question: Why are you conflating sexual harassment and actual molestation/rape by bringing up the "What were you wearing" project in response to Kaptur's comments about sexual harassment?

[Me.]

16. I Didn't Think I Was

She said that what one wears invites harassment. Which it doesn't any more than it invites assault. But in either, it often becomes a question of what were you doing/wearing.

[NanceGreggs]

20. There are instances ...

... where what a woman wears does invite undo attention to her "natural assets".

By way of example, I worked with a woman who was "abundantly endowed in the chestal area", as Archie Bunker would put it. She always wore skin-tight, low-cut tops to work - and then complained that men were looking at her breasts. It was impossible NOT to look - it was like she was serving her rack up on a platter, and even the straight women in the office found it hard not to stare. It was THAT blatant an invitation to look at her breasts - which she then insisted was not an invitation at all.

Wearing clothing that is meant to accentuate one's sexual assets and then being infuriated that people notice is like wearing a neon sign that says: "Warning - DO NOT LOOK AT THIS NEON SIGN!"

Inviting unwanted attention happens. Most women don't do it - but some women do. And comparing an invitation to LOOK to an invitation to rape/molest is like comparing a shoplifter who pockets a stick of gum to someone who robs a store at gunpoint; they are NOT equal crimes of theft.

I believe that women should be equal to men, in terms of equal pay for equal work, equal opportunity for advancement in their careers, et cetera. The idea that women never knowingly invite sexual harassment regardless of what they say, or do, or wear promotes the idea of being not equal, but of women requiring special treatment by virtue of their gender.

If modern men wore codpieces to accentuate their "natural assets", would you fault the women who commented on their obviously-displayed penises as "uninvited" sexual harassment? Would you compare that harassment to being physically molested or forcibly raped?

[BumRushDaShow]

8. As a note, Arcadia is just outside of Philly

(used to be called Beaver College years ago).

[DURHAM D]

9. If a man carries a wallet that is rather thick is that an open

invitation to be robbed?

[Me.]

12. What?

How is that equated with the topic of this conversation, is he going to be raped for it?

[DURHAM D]

13. The point is that neither is an invitation.

Thought it was obvious.

[Me.]

15. Aah

[Hekate]

19. I saw a similar art installation at a So Cal college campus...

Stop conflating rape with "having sex." If a man walks down the street and is overpowered, beat up, and his wallet stolen, NObody asks what he was wearing or if he secretly wanted it.