Rock singer Chrissie Hynde arrives at the first ever PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) Europe humanitarian awards at the Stella McCartney fashion boutique in London,Britain June 28, 2006. (Reuters)
Some rape victims “have to take responsibility” for what happens to them — especially if they are drunk or dress provocatively, insists rocker Chrissie Hynde.
Sparking outrage among women’s groups, the 63-year-old lead singer of the ’70s-’80s band the Pretenders said in an interview published Sunday that she was speaking from experience after being raped by a biker gang at age 21.
Hynde (left in 1978) said she “takes full responsibility” for having gone along with a biker who said he would take her to a party.
Instead, the motorcycle gang took her to an abandoned house in Ohio and forced her to perform sex acts under threat of violence, she said.
“You can’t f- -k about with people, especially people who wear ‘I Heart Rape’ and ‘On Your Knees’ badges — those motorcycle gangs, that’s what they do,” she told Britain’s Sunday Times Magazine.
“If you play with fire, you get burnt. It’s not any secret, is it?
“Technically speaking, however you want to look at it, this was all my doing, and I take full responsibility,” she said during the interview, which was meant to preview her new memoir “Reckless: My Life as a Pretender,” out Sept. 8.
Hynde also suggested that rape victims who were drunk or dressed provocatively at the time are to blame, not their attacker.
“If I’m walking around in my underwear and I’m drunk? Who else’s fault can it be?” she asked, calling it “common sense.”
“If you don’t want to entice a rapist, don’t wear high heels so you can’t run from him.”
Backlash from women’s groups was immediate.
“Victims of sexual violence should never feel or be made to feel that they were responsible for the appalling crime they suffered, regardless of circumstances or factors which may have made them particularly vulnerable,’’ said Lucy Hastings, the director of the group Victim Support.
A columnist for Britain’s Independent newspaper, Holly Baxter, added, “This persistent belief that men are naturally inclined towards rape and that women have to dress or act or behave accordingly . . . is one that prevents so many assaults from being reported or prosecuted every year.”
This article originally appeared in the New York Post.
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