Exhibition Of Clothes Worn By Rape Survivors Proves That Clothing Doesn't Incite Attacks

The exhibition attempts to dispel the myth that certain clothing incites rape

Anonymous

Published Jan 15, 2018, 16:24:10 GMTLast updated Apr 20, 2018, 10:16:56 GMT+1

An exhibition depicting the clothing worn by the survivors of rape has been opened in Brussels.

A joint venture between The University of Kansas and the municipal authorities of Molenbeek, the exhibition dispels the myth that certain clothing incites rape.

'What Were You Wearing?', at the Centre Communautaire Maritime (CCM) in Brussels, is described as a 'visual exhibition that highlights that a sexual assault never occurs because of what a person wears, but because one person attacks another'.

CCM

Jen Brockman, director of the University of Kansas' Sexual Assault Prevention and Education Centre, told the Chicago Tribune: "We want people to be able to see themselves reflected in the installation, in the description, in the outfits.

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"That someone's clothing causes sexual violence is false."

Host to 18 replicated pieces of clothing from real victims of rape, the exhibition tells the story behind each garment.

Items on display include pyjamas, a child's 'My Little Pony' t-shirt and a policed officer's uniform.

CCM

With reference to the 'My Little Pony' shirt, Lieshbeth Kennes, a training and counselling employee of victim support group CAW, told VRT1 Radio: "The exhibition is a harsh reality; most victims of rape still know what they were wearing at the time."

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"What you immediately notice when you walk around here is they are all very normal pieces that everyone would wear."

CCM

In 2014, Twitter user Christine Fox asked the question 'What were you wearing when you were assaulted?', to which she was flooded responses off thousands of men and women. This kickstarted a campaign and the hashtag of 'what were you wearing?' The creation of the Kansas University and Brussels exhibition soon followed suit.

The Prevention Service of Molenbeek said that the exhibit creates a 'tangible response to one of our most pervasive rape culture myths' because 'the belief that clothing or what someone what wearing 'causes' rape is extremely damaging for survivors'.