The Force of Myth
Yet public opinion about the complainant shifted dramatically as soon as the defense claimed that she had had consensual sex in the days preceding her encounter with Bryant. The defense's transparently specious justification for raising this "fact" at a preliminary hearing was the possibility that the gynecological signs of forcible intercourse may have been caused by someone other than Bryant. The unstated argument raised by this claim (and the one directly targeted at the media) is that this victim is "unworthy." Because still another rape myth is that "a slut cannot be raped."
There is no criminological data to support a correlation between the prior sexual activity of a victim and the likelihood of sexual assault. Prostitutes are no more likely to be raped than virgins.
�Alice Vachss/Daily Camera/Common Dreams 11.09.0
Yet public opinion about the complainant shifted dramatically as soon as the defense claimed that she had had consensual sex in the days preceding her encounter with Bryant. The defense's transparently specious justification for raising this "fact" at a preliminary hearing was the possibility that the gynecological signs of forcible intercourse may have been caused by someone other than Bryant. The unstated argument raised by this claim (and the one directly targeted at the media) is that this victim is "unworthy." Because still another rape myth is that "a slut cannot be raped."
There is no criminological data to support a correlation between the prior sexual activity of a victim and the likelihood of sexual assault. Prostitutes are no more likely to be raped than virgins.
�Alice Vachss/Daily Camera/Common Dreams 11.09.0
