Friday May 30, 2008
How women dress is not a factor at all
I AM writing in response to the letter “Why some men rape?” (The Star, May 29).
I would like to question the writer’s assertion that “the rapists in them emerge” when men see sexily-dressed women in the media. This implies that TV-watching, newspaper-reading men are beasts who cannot control their lust, and hence rape women.
Yet, statistics show that 2,431 rape cases happened in 2006 (source: Polis Di Raja Malaysia, 2007) among a population of 26.64 million people. Assuming that half of this population is men, only 0.02% of Malaysian men rape women.
Therefore, how can the writer claim that watching sexily-dressed women in the media is the main factor causing men to rape, when 99.98% of men who watch TV or read newspapers do not rape women?
The writer also stated that “they are not rapists if they do not have the victims”, implying that the victims are to be blame for rape crimes. When will people stop pointing their finger at the victim?
We keep saying “it’s her fault for getting raped because she dressed sexily, went to secluded areas, visited her boyfriend’s home alone, etc etc”. It’s easier to blame the victim as we rationalise and comfort ourselves by saying that if we avoid the above things, we will not get raped. The fact is women get raped wherever they go, however they dress, whatever they look like.
I also would like to question the writer’s assertion that rapists rape old women and babies because they see a sexy woman in them. On what basis does he make such an assumption? If that were the case, then all men might as well be locked up and kept apart from women so that they don’t go out acting out their fantasies. After all, it is the men who are sick, not the women.
The writer said that many rapes happen in secluded areas. Statistics in fact showed that nearly 70% of rape cases in 2002 happened at home and that nearly 80% of rape victims know their rapist (source: Women’s Aid Organisation).
This shows that women’s dressing is a negligible (if it even exists) factor in causing rape. Rape doesn’t happen just because a man cannot control his lust. It is a complex phenomenon caused by both social and psychological factors.
R.K. BOO,
Kuala Lumpur.
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