Women in Swaziland can now be arrested for wearing mini-skirts or cropped tops because they are responsible for provoking their own rapes. The government has announced that it will now enforce an 1889 law banning “immoral” dressing. Of course, the same week an Iowa court held that employers could fire attractive women who may be too great a temptation for them.
Women can now be jailed for up to a year if they fail to pay a fine for dressing in this way. The female spokesperson for the government, Wendy Hleta, warned that “[t]e act of the rapist is made easy because it would be easy to remove the half-cloth worn by the women.”
By the way, there is an exception for the annual dance for Swaziland’s monarch King Mswati III, when scantily dressed women dance for the King before he choses a new wife. He currently has 13 spouses. This includes bare-breasted virgins on display for the King.
Source: BBC
Are dress codes legal in some circumstances?
In the US, public nudity may be an offense, but does not act as a defense for a crime. Would it be a factor in the sentencing?
Ariel, I’m just going back now and looking at this:
😮
First of all, let me address “There is nothing redeeming about your sex.” Weird. We are the sex who gestates and gives birth to children. If that ain’t redemption (considering the way the world works), what is?
Then: “Your [sic] are as mean, cruel, even violent, as men.” Uh…no we’re not.
And finally: “If there is a distinction, your sex is more relentless in it’s [sic] vileness.” Oops. 😳 That’s misogyny. Now I’m not gonna say that you have not come by your misogyny honestly, Ariel. Possibly your mother…oh nevermind, I ain’t about to play the dozens witchoo. Allz I’m sayin’ is…wow, you done really got pretty hot and bothered there for a minute, man. You oughta chill, maybe talk it out with a supportive male.
I’m writing a comment that I frankly got from someone else years back, and I can no longer remember who said it so I print it without attribution.
A man gets out of his car (a Rolls Royce) in front of the most luxurious hotel in Swaziland and hands the keys over to the “valet parking” guy and the woman with him steps out of the car in her white fur coat. She has diamond earrings; he is wearing a $25,000 watch and gold cufflinks and $2,000 shoes, etc. blah blah blah. Somebody comes up and robs the couple at gunpoint.
Didn’t they invite the robbery by their manner of dress? They were flaunting all those riches; it was irresistible to the thief; he could not resist stealing from that couple. (He did not also rape the woman because her gown covered her quite demurely.)
Ariel, just a minute here. I said:
From that you get somehow that I need education about how vile women are and how much violence men are subjected to, and a snide comment about how rape is not “special” enough for women to think it’s a serious thing? It’s just like violence and men are subjected to more violence — your implication is that we women are really complaining too much about rape. Then you point out that domestic violence is about 50/50 — this, Sir, is a fiction.
You can go ahead and think, and certainly you can go ahead and say, that rape is just violence and therefore it’s not fair for women to be especially annoyed by it and so forth; presumably we should be glad that most of the beatings administered on a daily basis are being administered to men rather than to women, is that the idea? Well the day that Swaziland or any other country passes a law that a man cannot complain to the criminal courts about being beaten up because he dressed “weak and cowardly,” we can certainly engage in that conversation. Until then, my take on what you said to me is that it’s nonsense but I am presuming that you are not a policy maker so that’s OK.
Are you acquainted with Anon?
I didn’t even know the GOP had a branch in Africa!
Does he emperor have clothes….
I suppose the women in Iowa are not good enough for the packers…..
Yikes! Considering this story and the ones from Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia, it looks like the forces of repression around the world had a big week.
Malisha,
Even though think I think women, or men for that matter, shouldn’t walk around with their butts or genitalia exposed, I do get your “labor-saving” argument for rapists.
For muggers, I’ll hang my 20s out so they can have easy access.
If you don’t get it, it doesn’t matter if my 20s are visible, or your pudendum. Both should be only accessible by permission.
Going further though, you do realize that males are subjected to violence in the neighborhood of 10 times more often than females, and that that violence has a psychological effect similar to what females experience in rape? No of course not, rape is special, only you experience it. Men more often by far get beaten to a pulp but that’s just not the same because it’s men on men, or in DV it’s about 50:50, the winner the loser by sex.
I’ve had to deal with elementary school, middle school, and high school. There is nothing redeeming about your sex. Your are as mean, cruel, even violent, as men. If there is a distinction, your sex is more relentless in it’s vileness. This isn’t the 19th Century.
Could there be a waiver if the woman wore a chastity belt under the mini skirt?
Anything goes in Pirate Territory. Iowa is Unreconstructed. Those judges dont think that all citizens are equal and have rights under the 14th Amendment. They are way north of the Mason Dixon Line to be such schmucks.
It’s good to be the King …
Like I said men simply should not be allowed out alone in public. They simply are uncontrollable monsters. When is someone going to do something about this. Besides the obvious,The most depressing thing about this is that there are many “Christians” and other religious fanatics in the US would agree with this law, not the least of which in IOWA.
OK, the real reason for this law is that if a man wants to rape a woman, there should be no “labor-saving devices” (such as scanty clothing) provided. The providing of labor-saving devices to rapists has long been a problem in civilized countries.
After all, how much energy is a man supposed to have to expend in accomplishing a simple rape? Do we want to encourage a race of weak, incompetent rapists who do not have the cardiac fitness to undress a fully clothed woman before raping her?
When in Iowa hump anything that moves.
When in Iowa do as the Swazilanders.