Ex-Runaway Jackie Fox has spoken out over Chrissie Hynde’s comments about rape at the weekend.
Pretenders vocalist Hynde drew controversy by suggesting that women could sometimes be at fault over sex attacks, citing her own experience of being the victim of a biker gang assault at the age of 21, while under the influence of drugs.
She said: “If I’m walking around and I’m very modestly dressed and I’m keeping to myself and someone attacks me, then I’d say that’s his fault. But if I’m being very lairy and putting it about and being provocative, then you are enticing someone who’s already unhinged — don’t do that.”
In July Fox said she’d been raped by Runaways impresario Kim Fowley in a hotel room in 1975, while members of the band and their entourage looked on.
And while she refuses to criticise Hynde personally, she’s critical of the message she may have sent.
Fox, real name Fuchs, tells Yahoo: “It bothers me, because I don’t know that she’s gone out there and talked to rape victims. If you had seen the messages that people sent me, so many of them were about ‘I’ve always thought it was my fault.’ We already think that anyway.
“So this is just telling people who’ve gone through this experience of being raped or abused, ‘Yeah, you’re right, it is your fault.’
“But there’s no such thing as asking for it. And poor judgment is not an invitation to rape, nor an excuse for it.”
She continues: “I know so many women who were raped while they were drunk or high, and they all blame themselves.
“To say that a woman can’t misjudge how much she’s drinking, or dress in a way that makes her feel good about herself for fear that men aren’t going to be able to control themselves, or that she has to be able to know who is dangerous and who isn’t, is asking an awful lot of men and women — especially young people.”
