Stripper Ergo...Rape?

With all of the controversy surrounding the current rape scandal involving the lacrosse team at Duke University, one detail continually makes its way to the forefront of the media storm: The alleged victim is an exotic dancer. Of course, it’s to be expected that people would take at least some notice of this fact, given that it is a crucial part of the sequence of events that explains why she was at the team party in the first place. However, in a troubling number of newspaper articles, radio broadcasts, television discussions, and my own daily conversations, the fact that this woman is a stripper is advanced as some sort of explanation as to why the alleged rape occurred: “Well, she is a stripper,” they say. “I’m never surprised when strippers get raped.”

And, if we’re being completely honest here, neither am I. Saddened, appalled, and troubled, yes. But never surprised. This lack of shock comes as a direct result of the way we’re socialized to think of people’s behavior in completely linear fashion—if A, then B. In this logic, if she is a stripper, and consents to have her body objectified on a regular basis, then she must on some level be open to the possibility of complete violation of her body as well. That—the idea that being a stripper can actually be a “step” on the way to rape, rather than an end in it itself—seems like the logical conclusion.

This inability to view people’s—particularly women’s—actions as independent and not necessarily indicative of some other aspect of their lives extends outside of the issue of rape to many smaller concerns, the most familiar of those being the tried-and-true idea that if a woman dresses a certain way, dances a certain way, or flirts with too many different men, then she must be a slut. These assumptions—whether they prove to be true or not, and they often don’t—have ruined reputations since time immemorial.

The easy thing to do in this situation would be to blame men for kissing and telling, destroying women’s public images and reputations, and propagating words like “slut” and “ho” in everyday conversation. But men aren’t really the problem. How often do you really hear a guy call a woman a “ho” in daily conversation, at least in mixed company? These days, most don’t have the nerve to do so in front of other women, for fear of having a pack of pseudo-feminists jump down their throats hurling accusations of misogyny. However, not a day goes by that I don’t hear a woman (sadly, often myself included) making derogatory remarks about another female in front of other women, in front of men, in front of anyone really. Usually based on evidence that is questionable and unconfirmed at best—if it even exists at all—these remarks are nevertheless allowed to go unchecked, quite often with other women joining in on the fun. It is a double standard that no one ever talks about.

However, when women treat each other in such a cruel and disrespectful manner, it opens the door for men to do the same. Essentially, women help to create a culture of assumption that establishes—especially in terms of sexuality—damaging and incorrect ideas about the implications of other women’s behaviors. This, in turn, can lead others to act out against marked women by speaking unkindly about them (as Rush Limbaugh recently did, calling the alleged rape victim in the Duke case a “ho” on his nationally syndicated radio show), shunning them, or, in extreme cases, raping them. Further, this culture makes it acceptable to disrespect or minimize the plight of alleged rape victims of “questionable character,” because we assume on some level that rape was an inevitabile or a logical conclusion to their behavior.

By focusing on “explanations” for why rape occurs—explanations that subtly shift blame onto the alleged victim—we can lose sight of the most important facts of the situation. In the Duke lacrosse case, the alleged victim is not a ho or a stripper, she is a woman, a human being who has been through a traumatic experience, and, as such, is worthy only of our deepest sympathy and support, not attempts to use her behavior to rationalize or excuse what may have happened to her. To create a culture that is truly safe for and respectful of women, we women must first learn to treat each other the way we expect men to treat us, hold everyone to the same standard, and check our assumptions at the door.



Ashton R. Lattimore ’08 is an English concentrator in Dunster House. Her column appears on alternate Wednesdays.