What were you wearing? Had you been drinking? Did you say no? Did you put up a fight?
These are the questions still posed to sexual assault victims who come forward. A new sketch from PYPO and Rocliffe Forum in collaboration with the White House's It's On Us campaign highlights the absurdity and misogyny of this line of interrogation. The video opens on a woman in a chicken suit relaying the details of the sexual assault she has just experienced to a man who appears to be a law enforcement officer. "What were you wearing?" he inquires. "Just what I've got on now, I came straight here," she responds.
"Gosh, very figure-hugging isn't?" he shoots back. "No," she replies, confused. She is, after all, wearing a chicken suit. The officer isn't done yet. "Try not to dress so provocatively," he suggests, all the while assuring her that he has her best interests at heart. "Avoid busy, well-lit areas in the middle of the day; don't go to work, maybe don't leave the house."
These tips are, of course, preposterous, but they're also the logical extrapolation of often-repeated advice about avoiding sexual violence — advice that assumes assault is the victim's fault, rather than the perpetrator's. The message of the sketch is clear: Victims of assault are never "asking for it"— regardless of what they're wearing. Watch the full video above.
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