Does dressing ‘provocatively’ invite rape?

I WAS raped on New Year’s Eve in my own home by a lodger. I’m 70, he was 23. I was left bruised and bleeding and in a state of shock, and was very ill. The police were thorough and there was plenty of evidence, but my attacker got off, thanks to a clever lawyer and an inexperienced jury. The whole system needs changing. It doesn’t matter what clothes the victim wore. I was dressed in old jeans and a scruffy old jumper which I wear only at home.

Name and address supplied.

RAPE is abhorrent and rapists should always be held to account, but women have a choice as to whether they dress and act provocatively. If they do so, whether inebriated or not, it increases their risk by inciting a basic animal response in men they might be unable or unwilling to control. Many women don’t understand or recognise the power of the male response to sexual stimuli, including imprudent displays, which draw the man’s focus to particular parts of the woman’s body. What is indisputable is that men don’t choose the level of response they experience — it is innate. Happily, most men are able and willing to control it appropriately.

DAVID WATSON, Waterlooville, Hants. THANK goodness someone has spoken out about how women dress (Mail). Not only is there an increase in ultra-low necklines and skirts so short they leave nothing to the imagination, we also see quite young girls in most unsuitable garb. School uniforms are often impractical, and there’s certainly not enough of them to keep limbs warm when winter comes. I wonder how many women have even looked at their fat, bulgy legs in these tiny skirts. I’m over 80 and, for some time, have referred to the current fashion trend as ‘tarts on the pull’. Doesn’t that seem to sum up so many of them?

Miss B. DAVIES, Bury, Lancs. DO THE feminists who object to Chrissie Hynde’s remarks have half a brain cell? Everyone, female or male, is more vulnerable to any sort of attack if they’re drunk. For goodness sake grow up: such thinking is dangerous.

PATRICIA MORGAN, Deal, Kent. JULIE BINDEL says Chrissie Hynde is a musician, not a role model — but this seems as wide of the mark as saying parents are parents, not role models.

JACQUELINE DEEKS, Rustington, Sussex.