Yay, Theo, that is super awesome to read!

has there ever been any correlation proven between the way a woman dresses and her risk of being victim of rape or sexual assault? I mean, are the jackasses that are saying "Dressed like that, she was asking for it" contradicted by numbers?

I don't know how you'd quantify "dressing sexy."

Indeed, if police noted "sexiness of rape victim's attire" on a scale of one to ten on the police report they'd get pilloried right quick.

You could start by examining rape stats in a culture where women wear burkas or similar obscuring clothing. Also, you wouldn't need police to note the clothing. People do studies and shit all the time and do their own research. Grants are levied on less precise language than that all the time.

If you can determine that "walking like a victim" is supposed to put you at higher risk for being mugged, why wouldn't you be able to investigate this?

Unrelatedly (because everything is unrelated), why did I not know Christina Aguilera had a song about cunnilingus? Possibly because I won't let the kids stay long on my lawn.

There's this AMAZING notion: you don't have the right to fuck whoever you want by your opinion alone.

You do have the right to chose, by mutual agreement, to have sex with someone.

This shouldn't be so hard.

You could start by examining rape stats in a culture where women wear burkas or similar obscuring clothing.

Good luck with that. From what I've seen in the media, grossly underreported as the victims are often blamed. You know, for making eyes. Or existing.

Unrelatedly (because everything is unrelated), why did I not know Christina Aguilera had a song about cunnilingus?

Of course she does.

I did not know that about Xtina. But there are a few songs about that...I'm a fan of the Lil' Kim one. :)

I think it would be hard to define your criteria. I mean, you'd have to first decide which rapes you were going to filter out, and then some sort of sexiness scale (like, is it how much skin? Is a skirt sexier than shorts? What if they're shorter than the skirt? Do heels make it sexier? What about wedges? Jewelry?) And then like...is it different than how that person dresses normally? Different than the other people around? I mean, are you comparing "of the 10 people in the vicinity, she got raped because she was dressed sexier than 7 of them" or like "This person always wears a burka, whereas the raped person always wears stilettos and a miniskirt"?

My gut instinct is that in violent rapes that happen away from the home (as opposed to date rapes happening in familiar settings), victims are going to be chosen on criteria of how vulnerable they are and how far away help is likely to be rather than how attractive the rapist finds them.

ita, google found me

A Federal Commission on Crime of Violence Study found that only 4.4% of all reported rapes involved provocative behavior on the part of the victim. In murder cases 22% involved such behavior (as simple as a glance).

- Most convicted rapists do not remember what their victims were wearing.

from [link]

Thanks, -t. I couldn't work out what to google. That's very interesting.

People who do studies like that define "provocative behaviour" and its ilk all the time. It's their job.