Published as blogs on Timesonline on March 10, 2009
Posted by Jennifer Howze
Women deserve beatings and rape, survey says
The more things change...
So I thought that time was behind us, when a girl could be said to be "asking for it" - "it" being a slap, a beating or rape - because she was wearing a short skirt or talked back. But a new survey conducted for the Home Office shows that one in seven people believe it is acceptable in some circumstances for a man to hit his wife or girlfriend if she is dressed in “sexy or revealing clothes in public”.
A similar number believed that it was all right for a man to slap his wife or girlfriend if she is “nagging or constantly moaning at him”.
It may not surprise you that men and women over age 65 (and who grew up in a different era) believed that a woman should be partly held responsible for being raped or sexually assaulted. The lower social classes tended to agree as well.
There's so much of this story that needs examination: what are we doing about domestic violence, how reliable are these results, how does the way we deal with rape and domestic assault feed into these values, the list goes on....
And when you think about the children in these homes - who grow up believing that a recalcitrant woman just needs a good seeing to, in one way or another - it seems almost inevitable that they will carry on the torch.
But one thing that always occurs to me about domestic violence and rape is how it affords so little power to men. They are incapable of controlling themselves around a V-neck jumper. They can't hold their own in an argument with their partner so they have to roll up their sleeves. How can the people who espouse these ideas think anything other than men are weak, pathetic creatures who are powerless in a world of women? I wonder if that thought occurred to them, if they would condone the behaviour after all.
The more things change...
So I thought that time was behind us, when a girl could be said to be "asking for it" - "it" being a slap, a beating or rape - because she was wearing a short skirt or talked back. But a new survey conducted for the Home Office shows that one in seven people believe it is acceptable in some circumstances for a man to hit his wife or girlfriend if she is dressed in “sexy or revealing clothes in public”.
A similar number believed that it was all right for a man to slap his wife or girlfriend if she is “nagging or constantly moaning at him”.
It may not surprise you that men and women over age 65 (and who grew up in a different era) believed that a woman should be partly held responsible for being raped or sexually assaulted. The lower social classes tended to agree as well.
There's so much of this story that needs examination: what are we doing about domestic violence, how reliable are these results, how does the way we deal with rape and domestic assault feed into these values, the list goes on....
And when you think about the children in these homes - who grow up believing that a recalcitrant woman just needs a good seeing to, in one way or another - it seems almost inevitable that they will carry on the torch.
But one thing that always occurs to me about domestic violence and rape is how it affords so little power to men. They are incapable of controlling themselves around a V-neck jumper. They can't hold their own in an argument with their partner so they have to roll up their sleeves. How can the people who espouse these ideas think anything other than men are weak, pathetic creatures who are powerless in a world of women? I wonder if that thought occurred to them, if they would condone the behaviour after all.
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