Comment: Victim blaming at the heart of rape case ‘thong’ comment
My thong days are long gone. But for women everywhere this week the revelation that a teenager’s choice of underwear — in this case a thong with a lace front — signalled an availability for sex, was simply too much.
The episode surrounds a 27-year-old-man who had denied raping a 17-year-old girl in a laneway in Cork. He was found not guilty by the jury of eight men and four women at the Central Criminal Court.
In her closing address, senior counsel Elizabeth O’Connell told the jury they should have regard for the fact that the girl was wearing a thong with a lace front.
Upon first reading it I had this crazy image of women everywhere, first thing in the morning, arranging an array of underwear on the bed. Needless to say they would range in size, style and colour. The internal female monologue would consist of asking themselves which of their many knickers would suit the day/activities to come.
Would it be a regular briefs kinda day or maybe a Sunday where they were going to stay at home on the sofa, lessening the chances of meeting anyone, so opt for a big, comfy pair, or alternatively a thong/rapey kind of day/night.
Perhaps, covering all bases, they’d opt for a more bikini style in a bright colour — purely on the basis that you can never really predict what any day is going to bring in terms of potential underwear action.
After the sarcasm/anger stage came the despair. It was fuelled by imagining a maternal conversation with daughters coming into teenagehood and the sort of “advice” necessary, based upon what gets said in courtrooms, on underwear choices.
Should it be as basic as “no matter what, always, always, to avoid allegations of sluttery, have your bottom cheeks fully covered, and under no circumstances whatsoever opt for lace, it is seen as a true enticement”?
Sitting at my computer screen yesterday, writing this, and at the back of my mind having that female thing of not being seen to overreact, up pops another court case on the Irish Examiner website.
It involved two men jailed for sexually assaulting a teenager while she was slumped over on a couch in a private room in a Dublin nightclub.
The 21 and 22-year-old both claimed they had no memory of the offence, but pointed themselves out on CCTV footage that showed them sexually assaulting the woman.
One admitted to gardaí he could be seen performing oral sex on the woman.
As well as being disgusted by the details I found myself wondering sardonically if, by chance, her underwear choice had played a part.
Just two weeks ago I wrote a column about the daily dose of court cases and news reports involving women who had been raped and abused and murdered that I had noticed over a particular two-week period. Things have not improved since then.
On the thong case, in her closing address to the jury what Elizabeth O’Connell SC told jurors was that they should have regard for the underwear the complainant wore on the night.
“Does the evidence out-rule the possibility that she was attracted to the defendant and was open to meeting someone and being with someone? You have to look at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a thong with a lace front.”
It is indeed the job of any defence barrister to defend their client to the best of their ability. The reality also is that such remarks are not entirely uncommon in court rooms, and elsewhere around Ireland, with victim blaming at their heart.
It’s hugely depressing.
