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Is There Such A Thing As A Rape-Proof Outfit?

If you haven't heard of SlutWalk yet, you'll most likely know all about the globe-sweeping event if you're anywhere near Dolores Park this Saturday, August 6, at 2 p.m. It's there that thousands of women are expected to gather and promote equality in what will be San Francisco's first SlutWalk, a protest that started in Toronto after the city's police constable suggested women "avoid dressing like sluts" in order to not get sexually assaulted. The SFGate profiled a few former rape victims from SlutWalk Seattle who shed some light on the connection between a victim's actual clothing and the violent act it supposedly initiated. One woman was wearing jeans and a hoodie (her sign read, "I was raped when I was wearing this. Am I a slut?"). Another revealed that she was raped while she was a child in her PJs. The author herself revealed that she's been verbally harassed while wearing a knee-length skirt and opaque tights—hardly a provocative outfit, by anyone's standards. You tell us. Is there a such thing as an outfit that prevents a woman from being—according to the constable's ill-informed words—prone to victimization? (SFGate)

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