Nothing excuses sexual assault of any kind.
I know that being a woman I have a different view of this to most men, but it ought to be safe to wander around wearing whatever you like, or nothing if you like, without a man thinking that this means you are 'fair game'.
To my mind it doesn't matter what you look like or what you are wearing or not wearing, you have the right to be safe. It is up to men to control themselves. I cannot think I have ever heard of a situation where a nicely dressed young man walking alone at night was attacked by a woman. And yet men attack young women in these situations all the time. The papers are full of their stories, and these are only the ones that actuallly report it.
I know there are some wonderful men out there, and I know there are some truly vile women out there too, and perhaps it is just that the nice young men don't report the incidents, so that's why we don't hear about them.
But to me the more acceptable it is to think that any woman dressed in a way that could be termed provocative is 'asking for it', then the easier and easier it becomes to lower the age when such things are not looked upon as all that unusual.
If a 10 year old can now be partly blamed for her attack because she "led him on" by the way she was dressed, then I fear for the future of all our daughters, no matter what their age.
Rape is not acceptable, no matter what age, what sex or what provocation. The right to say no and be heard should be a right we all have.
