Art Exhibit About R-pe Answers One Of The Most Sickening Questions In The World – "What Were You Wearing"?
"What were you wearing?" is one of the most disturbing, shocking, and degrading questions rape victims can hear. If a woman is dressing provocatively, she wants to get raped?
And her answer should determine the level of empathy she gets? No matter how it is asked, it places blame on the victim rather than the attacker. Somehow, we get the feeling that this question doesn’t serve anything but propagating rape culture.
A new exhibit in Belgium called "What were you wearing?" was created at the Centre Communautaire Maritime in Brussels by prevention service Molenbeek. It displays clothing items copied from those the victims were wearing when they were assaulted.
The point is to bust the myth that dressing provocatively provokes rape. The visitors can see clothing items such as tracksuits, pajamas, even a child’s My Little Pony shirt.
Molenbeek created the exhibit to “create a tangible response to one of our most pervasive rape culture myths” as “The belief that clothing or what someone what wearing ’causes’ rape is extremely damaging for survivors.”
Lieshbeth Kennes, a teaching and counseling member of CAW staff, spoke to VRT1 Radio and said: “What you immediately notice when you walk around here is they are all very normal pieces that everyone would wear. The exhibition is also a harsh reality: most victims of rape still know exactly what they were wearing at the time.”
An art project similar to this one was conceived in 2013 by Jen Brockman and Dr. Mary A. Wyandt-Hiebert from the University of Kansas. "Participants can come into the gallery and see themselves reflected in not only the outfits but also in the stories," Brockman said.
"To be able to create that moment in this space where they say, 'Wow I have this outfit hanging in my closet,' or 'I wore this week.'"
