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‘Old school’ Dem congresswoman sets off firestorm: Women can play a role in sexual harassment

October 19, 2017 | | Print Article

Amid the Harvey Weinstein sexually abuse scandal that has rocked Hollywood to its soul — assuming it has a soul — the party of feminists and women’s rights advocates continues to place some of the blame for sexual assaults on the victims.

Democratic Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson said in a recent interview with NBC DFW that women had equal responsibility to prevent being attacked.

…by pointing to what they wear and how they act.

“I grew up in a time when it was as much the woman’s responsibility as it was a man’s — how you were dressed, what your behavior was,” the Texas lawmaker said.

Feminists often referred to this as “slut shaming.”

“I’m from the old school that you can have behaviors that appear to be inviting. It can be interpreted as such,” Johnson said. That’s the responsibility, I think, of the female.”

“I think that males have a responsibility to be professional themselves,” she added.

Johnson said her message is meant to empower women to prevent harassment and assault, NBC DFW reported.

“I think we also need to start talking about the power that women have to control the situation,” she said.

Slut shaming, also known as victim blaming, is denigrating women for loose sexual mores, to include criticizing a woman’s appearance for being overtly sexual. This being a means to blame women for being sexually assaulted.

And feminists frequently jump to call such behavior out.

Fashion designer Donna Karan has tried to walk back her earlier defense of Weinstein when she said his victims may have been “asking for it” by the way they dress and present themselves.

“Are we asking for it by presenting all the sensuality and all the sexuality?” she said.

And actress Mayim Bialik, a self-proclaimed “proud feminist” who plays Amy Farrah Fowler on the CBS hit sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” came under fire for a recent New York Times op-ed that blamed victims and their “impossible standard of beauty.”

Social media users did not take too kindly to the Texas Democrat’s remarks… here’s a sampling of responses from Twitter:

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