Hey all, This is a letter I wrote to the Star that got published, in response to a letter which really ticked me off. Read her letter and judge for yourself.
Stop blaming it on rape victims
I AM writing in response to Sylvia Hsu-Chen Yip’s "Sexy dressing can be provocative" (The Star, Nov16). Her statement that rape victims who dress provocatively "asked for it" is an insensitive and outdated stereotype of why men rape.
Since the 70s, rape is no longer explained as a sexually motivated crime. Instead, rape is now generally accepted as an act of violence for men to gain power over women. However, current research indicates that rape is far too complex to be oversimplified either as an act of sex or an act of power.
Thus, until we have further proof, we should not inflict even more trauma on the rape victim by condemning her as the cause of the rape. Why is it that when a sexual crime is committed, attention is always paid first to the victim, not to the perpetrator?
Many do not excuse the wrongfulness of a man committing sexual crimes. Yet, the fact that the victim is scrutinised more than the perpetrator already puts the onus of the crime upon the victim. Rather than the perpetrator being judged, the victim is on trial instead.
Is this fair, considering the fact that we do not have concrete evidence regarding the role of a woman’s dress in sexual crimes? Why do we condemn a murderer so quickly, but yet ignore a rapist?
A further complication with blaming a woman’s "provocative" dressing for a rape is the definition of "provocative dressing" itself. What one man may consider provocative may not be considered so to another. Who then defines what provocative dressing is and what is not?
Instead of getting tangled up in such problems, perhaps we should focus our attention where it is due: the rapist. No matter how "tempted" he was, that does not excuse him from scarring a woman for life.
Stop blaming the victim. Without a perpetrator, there is no crime.
RK Boo, Kuala Lumpur.
By Chien Wee Yoon
PETALING JAYA- A team of five female students from different colleges has set up a blog named S.A.S.H. It stands for Students Against Sexual Harassment to encourage students to speak out against sexual harassment.
One of The Founder of the SASH blog, Dahlia Martin spoke to The Break during their blog launch at Monash University on 8th of March.
Due to the many cases of sexual harassment happening around school areas, Dahlia said the initial idea of the SASH blog is to show students how directly sexual harassment relates to their life.
"Sexual harassment affects people of all ages and what can we do to educate people more? We need people to be more aware about gender inequality." she said.
As there are many people experiencing sexual harassment and gender discrimination, SASH blog was established for people to discuss about women and gender issues.
Dahlia told The Break there are a lot of support services in the community to help victims against sexual harassment, but the options are limited.
Though there are codes of conduct in some companies that enable employees to take action for security purposes, there is a lack of laws pertaining to sexual harassment in Malaysia.
The SASH blog team believes society can act collectively to end sexual harassment by the most obvious thing: to end gender discrimination.
"We won’t have such thing as grouping gender roles anymore, if people generally respect each other regardless of gender", said Dahlia.
The administrator of SASH blog, Rachel Ng Koon Ling said the SASH blog function is to create a catalyst for students to help each in stopping sexual harassment.
They believe that most of the time it occurs in the workplace.
Rachel added that sexually harassed victims will feel psychological and physical trauma, and this will handicap them from doing anything including being friendly with other people.
The SASH blog team advises females that sexual harassment is not the victim’s fault.
They should feel free to ask for advice from support centers or click in to their site to obtain more information about the issue.
"If everyone put one step forward to bring up this unspoken topic and bring the issue into the open, people would tend to be more aware and cautious about sexual harassment", said Rachel.
The SASH blog team welcome readers to speak out against sexual harassment and their posts in the blog will be free from censorship.
For people who are interested to write to the SASH blog, their email is at my.sash@gmail.com and their website can be accessed at: http://sash.blogsome.com.
-Published in The Break, 27 March 2006, (Taylor’s College Petaling Jaya, students monthly laboratory newspaper)
More often than not, when we speak of sexual harassment, we instantly form a mental picture of the harasser as a male figure. What happens if a girl sexually harasses a guy instead?
An incident which happened 2 years ago during National Service:
A guy was leaning against the wall and all of a sudden, a girl walked past him, deliberately brushing her hand against his penis. The guy was shocked; no, horrified. He didn’t do anything about it at the time as he thought no one would believe that he felt violated.
Sexual harassment is an exploitation of power. It can happen to anyone regardless of gender, race, creed or social standing. There are many who keep silent for fear of being labelled prudish, egotistical or even a freak. Know that you are not alone. Don’t be afraid to speak up against it. You have the right to a life free of gender discrimination. Exercise your right. Speak up.
Yee Mun
