Short answer: No. But the feminist response to her common sense words were just as ridiculous as her claim that she “took full responsibility” for being gang raped decades ago.
Rock and roller mom, Chrissie Hynde, has been interviewed several times recently about her controversial assertion that our culture has become overly pornographic and that women need to pull the plug on that by changing their behavior and “stop acting like prostitutes.”
That seemingly common sense position has provoked a stinging backlash from feminists on both sides of the Atlantic. As Julia Hartley-Brewer from the Telegraph put it, “Chrissie Hynde has committed the ultimate sin for a former feminist icon: She has offended the sisterhood.” That is certainly true, and for that, I applaud Hynde. The feminist notion that the behavior of women can never be criticized, either for local incidents or for more widespread degradation of the culture, is bizarre, and it needs to be confronted.
Furthermore, many of the things she’s stated recently in her interviews are very reasonable. When she criticized pop performers like Miley Cyrus and Rihanna, for example, for behaving like “sex workers” and doing “a great deal of damage,” that can hardly be refuted.
However, many of Hynde’s statements about rape could be characterized as irresponsible. When she says she’s taken “full responsibility” for her own past rape incident, because she was foolish and on drugs, that pushes believability. She’s also commented that when women enter situations where they are provocatively dressed and drunk, they should ‘expect’ to be raped, and that also violates Western sensibilities and Christian moral values on guilt. Unlike Islamic cultures, where woman are frequently blamed entirely for provoking men into sin, holding the men essentially blameless, westerners do not see it that way, nor should they.
In Christian moral thought, making a sin easier for the sinner may still be somewhat sinful, but it does not absolve the sinner. Being an apologist for rapists doesn’t solve anything and may actually make things worse. Perhaps Ms. Hynde should re-think some of her rhetoric on that, but in general, her message aimed at women is a healthy one, and I hope some are listening.
Cross-Posted at PoliNation.
The Blog Of Monte Cristo 
Nice “pot” head!
I think it’s part of the mind reading equipment! 😉
One difference I have noticed between Japanese culture and American is that for us, explainable and excuseable are synonymous. The Japanese regularly make their villians out to be victims of circumstance, yet excecute them anyway for their crimes.
Americans preerf their villians to be truly evil. I think our revulsion towards ambiguities does us a lot of harm, western feminism is probably a case in point.
In my opinion claiming that (for instance) that rape
isn’t[is?] a reproductive strategy because it somehow excuses rape merely announces that you are an idiot and a moral pygmy.Even if men who rape couldn’t control themselves it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t execute them. On the contrary, there is no reason to execute someone who we believe will better himself. An inveterate danger to society forfiets his humanity and is no better than a wild dog.
Absolutely. I agree, if I understand you right. I made a small correction above in one of your key statements that I think is just a typo, but makes the comment ambiguous. (Heh!)
I might prefer to state our problem as more of a “revulsion toward actual justice” rather than a “revulsion towards ambiguities.” In a way, I think our problem is that Americans have a warped view of morality as it applies to justice, especially Christians. Jews seem a little better anchored in the old Scriptures. Christians forget that mercy was also part of the Old Testament scriptural teaching; that Jesus was emphasizing its importance, but he was not “throwing away” the teachings about the critical nature of the need to carry out justice. That includes protecting the community from rapists and murderers by KILLING THEM. Americans are pussies. Plain and simple. (Ok, not all the time, but lots of the time.)
It wasn’t a typo. Shes pretty, I couldn’t control myself (wouldn’t?) Is biologically equivilent to I wanted to get her pregnant and she was to good to pass up. Obviously its a reproductive strategy, one that animals use all the time (I recently saw a huge cat do it to a small kitten that was vigorously fighting back) which humanity has declared for thousands of years is utterly unacceptable. (Talk about deprivation of choice by force!)
For the record the Bible doesn’t actually. Prescribe death for those who rape unmarried girls, however based on biblical case law (Dinah, concubine of given, ammon and Tamar) appearantly mass murder of anyone potentially accusable of ignoring the crime was entirely understandable. My history professor explained to us that in a village (had she agreed to marry him) he probably would have suffered lynchings when ever the victim showed up with a bruise, failed to show up for a date with a friend, seemed tired, unhappy, just to make sure he knew they hadn’t forgotten, etc.
There is a talmudic Rabbi who understood his punishment to mean he was flogged daily untill he convinced her to marry him, or married someone else, when he was flogged one more time for failing to convince her. Apparently sadism towards rapists was quite acceptable.