Describing her feelings on the matter as “old school,” Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) said that avoiding sexual harassment is “the responsibility, I think, of the female.” In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein allegations, many women have taken to social media to discuss their past incidents and outline a path a forward on sexual inappropriateness. But, instead of joining this productive conversation, Bernice Johnson thought it was okay to victim blame.
She told a local Texas news station that “how you were dressed, what your behavior was. […] you can have behaviors that appear to be inviting. It can be interpreted as such.” She also claimed that women can simply refuse to allow men to take advantage of them — “you can refuse to cooperate with that kind of behavior. I think that many times, men get away with this because they are allowed to get away with it by the women. When you have an expectation that that might happen and that’s how you have to do it to make it, that’s a mental thing that has to change with the woman.”
If this representative was a Republican, the mainstream media would be out with pitchforks. But she can blame women for getting molested, harassed, and intimidated, and we just need to accept that because she has a “D” after her name?
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