If you grew up in the 90s, you definitely had a poster of her on your wall. If only you could go back in time and tear it down.
Warning: This article could be triggering for those who have been the victim of sexual assault.
Stacey Dash, the actress who played Cher’s best friend Dionne in the 1995 cult classic film Clueless, has today been criticised for implying that college rape victims are just ‘naughty’ and ‘bad girls’.
From left: Stacy Dash, Alicia Silverstone and Brittany Murphy
Since her Clueless days, Dash, now 48, has gone on to become a conservative commentator on the US Fox News Channel. Outnumbered, the show on which she’s a panellist, yesterday had a segment covering sexual assaults on college campuses.
Since more and more victims have come forward in recent years, the issue of a pervasive US ‘college rape culture’ has become much more widely covered by mainstream media, and it was revealed yesterday that some female sororities are even banning women from going to college parties to ensure they aren’t assaulted.
When discussing this on the show, and whether it’s fair to expect young women to stay locked indoors rather than to expect men not to rape, Dash indicated that it’s only the ‘bad girls’ who end up in these situations anyway:
The other bad girls–bad women–are the ones who like to be naughty, might go out and play and get hurt and then, you know… But the other thing about this is that it then blames the alcohol instead of the person who over-drinks. So it’s like, the same thing with guns. Guns don’t kill people; people kill people. Alcohol doesn’t get you drunk; you get yourself drunk.
Yes, you do get yourself drunk, but YOU DON’T RAPE YOURSELF. A rapist rapes. And expecting women to spend their entire college education indoors to avoid being assaulted is ridiculous. A women who (gasp!) goes to a party, and (horror!) gets drunk, is not ‘naughty’. She’s not ‘bad’. She’s living her life, and she’s not doing anything wrong.
Cher would be disappointed, Dionne. So, so disappointed.
Top Comments
As someone who was abused as a child and raped as an adult due to rohypnol, I can see what Dion was trying to say. It is worth discussing. Should women knowingly put themselves in situations where they run the risk of being abused? however, having such a discussion in no way means that rape is brought upon. I think its important to empower our girls with responsibility. there are kids out there dressing and acting like women, and their parents need to teach them the emotional maturity to understand what they heck they are doing. the same here. I think its a fair discussion point but I don't believe girls are bad/naughty. that is a judgement and that has no place here.
The issue I think she is trying to raise is that the definition of consent has been muddied a little bit with this idea that someone was too drunk to consent. Not to be confused with someone who was too drunk to be able to give consent - I'm talking about someone who fully consented to the sexual act, perhaps even initiated it, but was then considered too drunk to be able to give that consent.
And while the law is written in gender neutral terms, it does seem to be the onus on the man to ensure that the woman is sober enough to consent. Which in effect puts men in the position of policing women's actions.
For instance; http://www.businessinsider....
But I guess my question would be; Why would anyone have sex with someone who might later wake up and think/feel they were raped? Probably best to avoid that situation. (In cases where the 'initiator' is also blind drunk, there's a defense in Victoria of 'honestly believing' the person was consenting, or you could argue that you were too drunk to form the 'mens rea'.)
I do understand the scenario you're talking about, where the person was completely gung ho and keen for sex but then becomes blind drunk. But if they were also so drunk they were about to pass out/didn't have control of their faculties, then the plain fact is that legally they can't consent, so someone shouldn't have sex with them.
If the person is so desperate to jump on the opportunity to have sex with someone when they're that drunk, it almost raises the question of whether it's because the initiator thinks the drunk person wouldn't be up for it if they were more sober.
You're asking people to judge what other people might be feeling in the morning? She's sitting there, in your room giving an enthusiastic yes, i'm very sure that would be enough for most men. (Just going with the 'man rapes women' scenario here for now)
As for your other points,if a sober person is preying on drunk people then yes, that is absolutely rape, but if both people are drunk it makes it a lot tougher. I know you mention mens rea but in a college situation, according to reports, that isn't going to help the man if it gets reported as rape.