Chrissie is "not contrite"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/music/chrissie-hynde-no-regrets-about-rape-comments/2015/09/03/de321e0c-5277-11e5-8c19-0b6825aa4a3a_story.html
So many of you gentle readers responded sympathetically to my post a week ago about rocker Chrissie Hynde and thoughts on her rape some 40 years ago. I was happy to read a follow-up piece this morning, again in WPost, and I figured you'd all be interested. (The reason for the new interview was the countrywide reaction [mostly negative] to her view that she had to some extent provoked her rape.)
She wasn't upset about the furor raised by rape-victim defenders. (The interviewer didn't ask about SlutWalk demonstrations.) But she was a bit bemused: "I've just had some e-mails from friends saying, ‘Do you want to hide at my place?’"
She thought the subject was overblown: "comments that I allegedly made about girls in their underwear [at SlutWalk events]" were inconsequential compared to the immigration crisis now shaking Europe.
Much of her new book regards her teen years in Akron, Ohio. "It was a wonderful time to grow up, and anyone who... didn’t want to be in a band was dead from the waist down." (Sex was a big deal to aspiring rock stars -- who knew?)
As for her rape at age 21, "I would say there was an element of sexual assault, but frankly, if you go into the club house of the world’s most notorious bikers, it’s not going to be for a Bible reading... most people aren’t as stupid as me...
"But then again, most people don’t get to be a rock star. I don’t think [stardom] is a sign of intelligence. I don’t know what [it] is a sign of...
"I’m not saying I was asking for it. [Still] it wasn’t the same as walking down a street ... and somebody dragging you into a bush with a knife [at] your throat."
Not to be gratuitously personal, but I gotta say I understand her point. There was no weapon in my case, either. But, for me and for Chrissie, rape is rape -- we certainly didn't want or seek the rapists' attacks on us.
So many of you gentle readers responded sympathetically to my post a week ago about rocker Chrissie Hynde and thoughts on her rape some 40 years ago. I was happy to read a follow-up piece this morning, again in WPost, and I figured you'd all be interested. (The reason for the new interview was the countrywide reaction [mostly negative] to her view that she had to some extent provoked her rape.)
She wasn't upset about the furor raised by rape-victim defenders. (The interviewer didn't ask about SlutWalk demonstrations.) But she was a bit bemused: "I've just had some e-mails from friends saying, ‘Do you want to hide at my place?’"
She thought the subject was overblown: "comments that I allegedly made about girls in their underwear [at SlutWalk events]" were inconsequential compared to the immigration crisis now shaking Europe.
Much of her new book regards her teen years in Akron, Ohio. "It was a wonderful time to grow up, and anyone who... didn’t want to be in a band was dead from the waist down." (Sex was a big deal to aspiring rock stars -- who knew?)
As for her rape at age 21, "I would say there was an element of sexual assault, but frankly, if you go into the club house of the world’s most notorious bikers, it’s not going to be for a Bible reading... most people aren’t as stupid as me...
"But then again, most people don’t get to be a rock star. I don’t think [stardom] is a sign of intelligence. I don’t know what [it] is a sign of...
"I’m not saying I was asking for it. [Still] it wasn’t the same as walking down a street ... and somebody dragging you into a bush with a knife [at] your throat."
Not to be gratuitously personal, but I gotta say I understand her point. There was no weapon in my case, either. But, for me and for Chrissie, rape is rape -- we certainly didn't want or seek the rapists' attacks on us.