In Jakarta last week some women held a Slutwalk, inspired by similar Slutwalks begun first in Toronto, then spreading throughout the world. In Toronto the walk began because of comments from a police captain. He blamed assaults on women on the way they dressed. In other words, he blamed the victims, not the criminals. In Jakarta the offending remarks were very similar but came from an elected official who has since apologized.
Again, the problem is that the victims were blamed. Only criminals should be blamed, the ones who did the crime hold all blame, and absolutely no one else.
But there’s another problem with this idea, that the women and girls who get assaulted, abused, molested, or even raped somehow caused what happens to them. So many people seem to assume that men cannot control themselves, that if a man sees a woman’s leg or part of her breast, or even tight clothing, he will lose control and assault or rape her.
None of that would be a problem for a society that is more open about sex and sexuality, where there was both more sexual freedom and women were treated as equals. One is tied to the other.
The most sexually open countries today are in North America but in northern Europe, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. Also in many ways, Japan. And all those countries have in common a very strong women’s rights movement.
If men have a sexual outlet, then it is not bottled up in unhealthy ways. They do not twist their psyches in unhealthy ways trying to deny their sexual appetites.
What happens in a sexually open society when a man has desires? He finds a partner, or he masturbates or looks at pornography. The second one is completely healthy. The third one is mostly healthy. (Sometimes the images are not healthy, such as when the women dye their hair or get implants to look a certain way.)
The first one, of course it is healthiest when the partners love each other. But there is nothing wrong, in my view, with sex for its own sake, for enjoyment, as long as both know that is what they are doing and both take care to avoid pregnancy or disease.
Looking at those photos of the Jakarta Slutwalk, I’m surprised that anyone finds the clothing to be that skimpy. In much of the world those skirts would not be thought of as short. In America some women wear such skirts to work, school, or church.
Again, how they dress should not make any difference. No woman or girl should be assaulted, whether she is a nun or a prostitute wearing a thong and nothing else
On a purely male level, I support lovely women dressing sexy. On the level of a human wanting to see other humans treated well and protected, I say the liberation of women will bring less sexual repression for men too, and less assaults (source)
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