I read this article in The Age yesterday and am fascinated by the case. The case is about a stripper accused of rape as she penetrated the groomsman with a sex toy during a Buck’s Night.
I am not disputing that the act of using a sex-toy against an unwilling participant is rape, and obviously this is the case here, what bothers me is the context in which this incident occurred.

Firstly, the show started with the stripper whipping a man next to the groomsman in the groin. There were topless strippers serving the party-goers and the groomsman was on his all fours, with his pants down and top off being ridden by the stripper. Obviously this was a show that was designed for the not-so-faint-of-heart.

Furthermore, the party-goers were supposedly cheering in a ‘mature manner.’ This sentence really bothers me. I think if we took a moment to imagine the cheering of the crowd it would more likely resemble the baying of wild dogs.

Reading this article it seemed to me like the stripper was hired to do some really raunchy stuff, and was encouraged by the crowd to push the show (I can just imagine what the crowd was cheering when the stripper was handed the sex toy) and the groomsman is the victim of the night. While I completely feel for the groomsman’s violation, I also can’t help but feel that the stripper is a victim too.

She was hired to put on a performance and is then being vilified for this. Presumably they would have known what sort of a show she would perform and there were no complaints as this was progressing, so can she really be held completely accountable for this unfortunate incident?

But by arguing this am I doing the typical argument leveled at female victims-she was dressed like a slut and therefore asked for it. What if the situation were reversed and it was a male stripper and female victim… but this is where my imagination fails me. I cannot imagine a hens night that would follow this same protocol.

Yes, I know women can be just as raunchy as men, but the image I have of this Buck’s Night is a misogynistic free-for-all. The women were there to inflame their base instincts and the party-goers lost all sense of decency in the hedonism of the night.

Perhaps this is where my sexism comes into play and I judge the men more harshly than the woman, and therefore I’m practicing reversed sexism where the women are always the victims and the men always the villains.

Whatever happens I’ll be watching this case with interest to see what the court decides.