In Defence of Liz Jones
I’ll admit I was as offended as anyone when
Liz Jones claimed that clothing could invite rape. Her exact words when
describing Rihanna were that “she promotes drug-taking, drinking and the sort
of fashion sense on stage that surely invites rape at worst, disrespect at
least. “ Ouch!
But to be fair to Liz Jones, she did
elaborate, albeit under duress that “I’d been listening all day to reports
about the trial of the men in Oxford who held girls captive, beat them and
abused them. They preyed on the vulnerable ones.” And she’s right that women
and girls who dress a certain way are likely to be treated a certain way. If I’m
out late at night wearing a full length evening dress, with a clutch bag and
demure make up, hair and jewellery I’m likely to be perceived very differently
than if I were wearing ripped fishnets a leather mini skirt and a sequinned
bra-top.
Only stupid or evil people think that dress-style can invite rape but then
Liz did refer to a very specific photograph of Rihanna that was on her mind
when she wrote that stupidly offensive paragraph. And to be fair, although the
way she is dressed in the picture doesn’t ‘invite rape’ it is certainly
provocative and perhaps that was the point that Liz was attempting to make.
Initially when I read the article that
Rihanna had responded to Liz’s article I was quite impressed. For most of us in
the UK, Liz is a semi-famous figure. She almost has a cult following, be it
haters or fans, who have heard of her and who read her work. It was hard to
believe that a world famous musician from across the pond had even heard of Liz
Jones in the first place and the fact that she’d read the article at all, let
alone chose to respond was surprising to me.
I thought we’ll
never hear the end of this because Liz Jones just loves attention and to
humblebrag to the point that even a spat with a world famous person will be column fodder
for years to come.
I was surprised. She actually seemed
genuinely hurt, which I found strange. Surely she has to have a thicker skin
than that to work in the field of confessional journalism, especially for the misogynistic
Daily Mail. At least the comments on
today’s article have been mostly refreshing. Yes Liz is quite rightly criticised for
her nasty and quite frankly spiteful recent article where she slates Pippa Middleton
for her fashion sense but most people seemed to sympathise that Liz is getting
attacked yet again. Yes she DOES bring it on herself but a good analogy that I
heard recently likened it to making fun of the crazy homeless person in your
neighbourhood. Let it go already. It’s not big or clever to kick people when
they’re down.
Liz Jones needs help. Criticise if you feel
the need but making fun of people who have real problems is akin to starting a
twitter feud with Amanda Bynes. Ugly.
