We are told that things are different now. We are told that times have changed. That maybe back in the 1960s, the criminal justice system was unfair on victims of sexual violence but that, around the world, things are fine now. Just fine.
After all, we’ve had #MeToo, that apparently universal panacea that has resolved all issues of sexual harassment, abuse and violence. Since women started speaking out, it’s true that abusive men may be quaking a little more in their boots, but that’s from a starting point of near zero and the distance we still have to make up before survivors are truly on a level playing field is vast.
That’s why this week, women’s underwear has been held up for display in the Irish parliament, on the streets, on the internet and on the doorstep of the courthouse in Cork in Ireland. The old chants that I remember from Reclaim the Night marches in the 90s are still being heard, especially in Cork, after a defence barrister in a rape case described the alleged victim’s underwear in her summing up arguments.
“My little black dress does not mean yes”, we yelled, and again they are yelling it. “Whatever we wear, wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no” is in the air again because of the lawyer, Elizabeth O’Connell, telling the jury, “You have to look at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a thong with a lace front.”
The jury retired, deliberated for 90 minutes, and acquitted the accused man. The #ThisIsNotConsent underwear campaign began several days later, when feminist activists on Facebook discussed the case and were enraged.
This happened in Ireland but it is not a situation peculiar to that country. We can’t blame Irish culture, as if British, American, German, and any other Western culture is any different. The laws about victim blaming in court cases may vary from place to place, but we are all familiar with the sentiments and the ways lawyers and police – and perpetrators – set women up to not be believed.
“She was wearing a tiny top! Her skirt was pretty much a belt! What else can we expect men to do?”
We can expect them to listen to the “no” they hear and respect it. It is that simple. Our clothing does not in any way represent our opinions on whether or not we want to have a sexual relationship with somebody. When that clothing is underwear on the inside of our clothes, it seems even more ludicrous that it could be portrayed as consent.
The girl in this court case was 17 years old and the assault she called the police over was the first time she had had sex. But that does not matter to a barrister and to a jury because her thong had had a lacy front.
Well, so what?
Insinuating that consent comes from anything other than our mouths and our enthusiasm to dig in presents a dangerous situation for women. When a woman was raped in a swingers’ club in Sheffield in England, her attacker’s defence was that she had been in a sex club, so she must have wanted sex.
This was a flawed argument in two key ways:
- It’s just not true. The woman said that she frequently went to La Chambre with friends to socialise, not to have sex with the other people there.
- Even if she had gone to La Chambre to have sex, she should still have a choice over who she would have sex with. Turning up at a venue where people can have sex on the premises is not a message of consent to anybody and everybody else who turns up there. You might be desperate to have some fun but not meet anybody suitable. That does not mean that any Tom, Dick or Harry can pounce on you and get his rocks off.
Relentless depressing arguments took place on a local online forum and I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised when Jeremy Frazer Newsome Smith, the rapist, was found guilty by a jury. I had imagined that the prevalence of rape myths surrounding this horrific case might take over from the evidence they were seeing.
Sadly not so for thousands of other women who are blamed for their attacks. And as long as lawyers can present our underwear as evidence, and judges can refer to how “well developed” a child victim’s body is, we cannot rely on justice being served when we are assaulted and report it to the police.
In Scotland, Lindsay Armstrong, a rape victim who was forced to hold up her underwear to show a jury, and read that it said “Little Devil” on it, killed herself two weeks after the trial. Her Mum Linda is supporting the Irish #ThisIsNotConsent campaign.
Photo: Jack Lawrence