Kansas University Exhibition Powerfully Answers The Question 'What Were You Wearing?'

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Priyasha Khandelwal

IWB Blogger

Kansas University Exhibition Powerfully Answers The Question ‘What Were You Wearing?’

IWB Post

September 18, 2017

What is the first question you ask a person who is sexually assaulted?

The most common question asked to rape victims around the world is “What were you wearing?” From hospitals to police stations to courts, a rape victim is asked about the clothes that she was wearing. After all, it’s important to know which part of her body was showing, right? Because it’s not the lecherous men but the evil, seductive women whose sole purpose is to titillate. That’s what a 6 month, 5, 15, 25, 40, 60-year-old woman wants!

She is given suggestions on what to wear that would not “excite” men. In fact, arguments often come down to a point “Arey, aise kapde pehnoge toh yahi hoga,” meaning “If you wear such clothes what else do you expect.” Few saints have crossed the line by saying that city girls get raped because they wear jeans.

To bring light to this thought-stirring topic and educate always-blaming women society, University of Kansas’ students exhibited powerful instances from real rape survivors against the clothes they wore when they were raped. The clothes are not of the victims and are collected on the basis of the description. The exhibition makes it clear that the only reason behind rape is rapists. No clothes, no situation, no excuses can ever justify the awful act of rape.

The director of the university’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Education Center, Jen Brockman, said “We’re hoping students can see that this narrative they’re fed — that someone’s clothing causes sexual violence — is false.”

Scroll through the powerful pictures: