Women activists are split over
the claim of a British rape
victim that some women are to
blame for being raped.
LUCY JOHNSTON and
VICTORIA CLARK report.
LONDON Jill Saward, who was raped in a vicarage in Ealing, west London, some years ago, found a Powerful supporter in Camille Paglia, a leading American feminist and author, who told the Observer Newspaper in London: "Being beaten up is a feature of risk-taking sex;
"We can't keep blaming men for all our misfortunes," she said.'Sex- uality Is a combustible power and the word 'no' can never control it. It Cannot be controlled.
"Women are grossly hypocritical if they think that by wearing short skirts and behaving sexually they are not sending out the wrong message. If you advertise, you'd better be ready to sell."
But her comments causedso much fury that keynote speakers at a "Rape and the Criminal Justice System" conference in London amended their lectures to criticise her.
Alice Vachss, one of America's toughest rape prosecutors, responded: "All rapists believe women really want to be raped. If you go with what he argues in court about consent and what is in his mind, there is no such crime.
"It is frightening to think that people here believe that some victimisation is less than another. The fact that men can get acquitted in your country by using this argument is awful and horrifying"
Another speaker, Dr Lit Kelly, from the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit at the University of North London, told the conference that such a redefinition of consent was one of the most pernicious elements of rape law. She said this was one of the reasons for Britain's Poor conviction rate in rape cases.
Speaking afterwards she said: "Jill is making a disitinction between a good rapist and a bad rapist, which is wrong.
"I don't believe that consent canean be presumed in any circumstances other than a woman saying, I want to have sex with you now and continue to have sex.
"Jill has got caught up in mythologies around rape which pervade the criminal justice system. It's creating a hierarchy of victims and Survivors, which is totally wrong."
However, a date-rape victim said that the degree of trauma she experienced from an acquaintance cannot be equated virith a case of violent Sexual assault by a stranger,
"I was date-raped when I was a student, but I wasn't traumatised by it - I was just annoyed and told everybody about it."
Author Bea Campbell commented: 'I feel sorry for this woman. She has experienced the worst thing in the world and I expect she longs for us to understand that.
"However, whatever signs are given out by the woman should be accepted. It doesn"t matter at what point she says no.
Jill Saward, herself a leading campaigner for the tighteing of. rape laws, told a news magazine programme, "Some women will say no when they actually mean yes, because they Want that kind of thrill
So we've got to be really clear and everybody has got to understand what everybody else means."
She also told the programme: "Often there's a lot of people [women] who push it right to the extremes and go and sell their wares on the street, invite people in, go all the way, and then turn around and say no.
I don't feel I ought to be defending those peeple, because they've kind of opened themselves up and put people in a situation where they are almost entrapping them. I think they must be more responsible."
Later, from home, Jill Saward defended her views and described her critics as extremists who view all men as potential rapists.
Observer