UK Celebrity Lawyer Says Women in Racy Clothes Can Victimize Men
A British lawyer who has defended celebrity clients is taking heat from anti-rape activists for a blog post that asserts women who dress provocatively can victimize men.
DUI and traffic defense lawyer Nick Freeman is controversial and so proud of his nickname “Mr. Loophole” that he had it trademarked, according to a 2008 profile in the Independent. Now he is raising hackles for a blog post for the Manchester Evening News, according to the Daily Mail Online.
Freeman notes a recent “slut walk” held to protest a Canadian police officer who said women law students should “avoid dressing like sluts” to prevent sexual assault.
“Those taking part claimed women should be able to wear whatever they like in public—including racy red underwear—without being judged and their motives questioned,” Freeman wrote. “But, as a red-blooded alpha male, let me state unequivocally that I believe how a woman dresses (and behaves in that dress ) tells a man what’s on her mind.”
Freeman says he abhors rape, but he nonetheless think that women who dress provocatively send “a certain message” that can victimize men. He offers an example from personal experience. He once attended a party during his first year in law school in which he was greeted by a fellow student in a “skimpy dress” who led him upstairs. At “the critical moment,” she suddenly shouted, “No, stop, what about my boyfriend?”
Freeman says he mustered “every fiber of willpower” and jumped off the bed. He was both disappointed and “victimized,” he wrote. “So, ladies, when you say you dress for yourselves and not for us males, I don’t believe you,” he wrote. “It’s time to take responsibility for how you act and what you wear.”
