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From: mccolm@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Provocative clothing...
Message-ID: <5697@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 27-May-85 22:06:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.5697
Posted: Mon May 27 22:06:22 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Jun-85 02:20:24 EDT
References: <186@timeinc.UUCP> <252@spar.UUCP>
Reply-To: mccolm@ucla-cs.UUCP (Eric McColm)
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 41
Summary: 

> > If I told you that I was walking in a "bad" area of town, late at night,
> > and had $100 bills sticking out of my pockets, and that somebody
> > mugged me, would you be shocked???
> > Chances are you would tell me: you should have known better.....
> > So why shouldn't the same caveats apply to a women in some provocative
> > clothing?.....

The following is quoted out of context:
> From what I've heard, all it takes to provoke a rapist is to be
> perceived as a woman....

Let's suppose we draw a different analogy.  If I, a white male (boo-hiss)
walked through Watts, Harlem, downtown Cleveland, or Chinatown (S.F.) late
at night, am I "asking" to get robbed?  Similarly, if a black male walks
through Bel-Air, Cleveland Heights, or Los Altos Hills, or any one of
hundreds of rich neighborhoods, in the middle of the day, is he
"asking for" police harassment?

Remember, the question concerns not having money showing, which we can
control, but color if skin.  Don't show your skin, you say?  Okay, the black
man who's just been stopped by a cop in Los Altos Hills is now wearing
a ski mask.  Now did that really help?

There's more to this analogy than meets the eye.  White middle-class
people are most afraid of people doing them physical harm, while
black people have just cause to be suspicious of the police.  Now into
this thoroughly unpleasant fear, inject the idea that the attack is
caused by something we cannot hide or control:  race.

It is interesting that racism is justly regarded as one of the great
evils of society.  Why not draw the same conclusion regarding harassment
because of sex?

I hear a flame with my name on it....
--fini--

Eric McColm
UCLA (oo' - kluh) Funny Farm for the Criminally Harmless
UUCP:  ...!{ihnp4,trwspp,cepu,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!mccolm
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"Scrabble is Wit; Link-Sausage is Obscenity; UNIX is Maddening."