But I find the mentality exhibited by Rottenberg's critics to be almost as scary as that mob's.
Immediately after the column appeared on the Broad Street Review website, the backlash began.
Tara Murtha in the Philadelphia Weekly penned a tirade titled "Dan Rottenberg Spews Vile Rape Commentary."
Murtha, a writer I admire, made this rather spurious comment, which makes sense only if you think there's no difference between L.L. Bean and Frederick's of Hollywood: "The majority of my female friends have been molested, sexually assaulted or raped at some point in their lives. In most cases, no one paid for these crimes even when the attacker was identified - in part because the culture of victim-blaming trumpeted by Rottenberg enables it to happen without consequences."
Actually, Tara, there are a lot of reasons rape accusations do not always result in convictions. One of them was on display in Durham, N.C., when three young men were falsely branded criminals on the word of a drunken, revenge-fueled stripper. (Is calling her a stripper victim-blaming?)
Another is playing itself out in New York, where an immigrant who apparently lied on her asylum application is now suspected of having fabricated a rape claim against Dominique Strauss-Kahn for mercenary reasons.
So it's not just (or even primarily) because society can be judgmental about women's attire that the number of rape accusations doesn't match the number of convictions.
I also know people who've been sexually assaulted, and they certainly didn't ask for that hell. But to go from that to a flat claim that women should never take responsibility for their own safety - even if it means foregoing the fishnets for the knee-highs - is ridiculous.
