Stacey Dash: Girls Who Are Raped Are "Naughty"

If you thought everyone was finally finished saying ridiculous things about campus rape and rape culture in general, you're wrong. Horribly, awfully wrong. In the most recent "foot-in-mouth" foul, during a Fox News Outnumbered panel on Friday, Clueless actress Stacey Dash suggested that rape victims are "bad women" who like to be "naughty". (Feel free to make your own Clueless joke right about now.)

Dash and her fellow panelists were discussing the Thursday announcement from national heads of 16 different sororities which advised members to avoid nationwide fraternity "Bid Night" recruitment parties this weekend in order to keep themselves safe, as well as the recent Dartmouth campus ban on hard liquor. Responded Dash,

I think it's ridiculous ... I think it's a good thing for the good girls — sorry, "women" — to be told, you know, "Stay home. Be safe." The other bad girls — bad "women" — or the ones who like to be naughty, might go out and play and get hurt.... But then, you know, it blames the alcohol instead of the person who over-drinks ... It's the same thing with guns. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Alcohol doesn't get you drunk, you get yourself drunk.

Face, meet palm.

Of course, it wasn't the only horrific statement made during the segment. Host Andrea Tantaros decided to chime in with the strawman argument that such a ban proved feminists (presumably) don't actually want women to be independent:

I would just like someone to tell me the rules. Are women strong enough to take care of themselves, or are they not strong enough to take care of themselves? Because we're getting so many mixed messages. And I do feel for some of these fraternity guys because you look at UVA, none of them have been convicted of anything.

... I think a lot of boys are feeling like the minute they step foot on college – let me finish, they step foot on college and they are immediately considered to be guilty. I mean girls are given rape whistles and boys aren't allowed at frat parties – either women can handle liquor and make responsible choices or they can't. And they're a bunch of babies who need to be kept away from liquor and boys.

(If you're keeping track, female campus rape victims are now "naughty, bad-woman babies".)

It's not exactly clear why both Dash and Tantaros believe that only wild party-girls get raped by fraternity members or that frat boys are sad, picked-on puppy dogs who just can't catch a break. After all, there is such a thing as Rohypnol. And Ketamine. And GHB. And, according to a study by consulting group EverFi, which runs a popular online rape-prevention program called Haven, the small "unhealthy" minority of students on college campuses (i.e. those who are "more likely to report sexually assaulting another person" or experience negative consequences from drinking) tend to be primarily male and are likely to be athletes and Greek members.

Perhaps Dash and Tantaros shouldn't be as concerned with punishing women who enjoy socializing as they should be with figuring out how to remedy the disturbing mindset of those fraternities who willingly put brotherhood above the safety and well-being of their fellow students.

Images: parksdh/Flickr; Getty Images (1)