Fashion and "Risk Management"

Also, slut-shaming and victim-blaming.

When we tell girls, "dress like a slut, expect to get raped", we're discouraging girls from dressing like sluts, while reinforcing the stereotype of the neanderthal man who demands (out of some blind sense of entitlement) sexual satisfaction at the merest hint of arousal. But what kind of person is that? And what kind of a world would it be where women had to cover up their bodies in public so as not to "entice" men? (Doesn't this already happen in some parts of the world?). How much would that suck?

You might be one of the lucky ones who has a wife or a girlfriend who "puts out" every time you get horny. But you don't own women. You don't even own the woman who is your wife or girlfriend. If she wants to give her body - or even just the merest sight of her body - to you and only you, in the privacy of your shared bedroom, as some kind of gift, that's her business. If other women choose otherwise, that's their business, not yours.

I am a sensual creature. I like to be surrounded by eros - and it doesn't need to constantly be coupled with tactile stimulation and satisfaction. Maybe you're not like me. Maybe there is no compromise to be made between us. But I want to live in a world where all kinds of women can dress like sluts in public, and feel comfortable and confident in their safety, because the men of that world have enough self-control not to rape at the sight of a woman's body, and enough graciousness to appreciate the pleasant eye candy that those women are providing for the men, instead of insulting them for it and treating them like objects - either to dictate their wardrobes, or to punish their "impropriety" and teach them a lesson (a likely excuse for their raging hormones) by subjecting them to guilt-free acts of sexual abuse.

Seriously. Just think about that for a moment. What kind of example are we setting for mankind when we behave that way? It's enough already.