Enough with the knee-jerk reaction already

Judge Lindsay Kushner got in hot water with women's groups over her remarks that women should be cautious about getting falling-down drunk in public places, or perhaps anywhere else. She didn't say that offers a licence for men to rape them, and she didn't say it would be their fault if they did, she just said they should be careful.

Sounds like good advice. I'm a man, but there are places in Cardiff I wouldn't visit at night- the back lanes in the area I live, for instance. They are magnets to junkies and drunkies who congregate there (in the daytime as well, actually) and might see me as legitimate prey. Similarly if I told you I was thinking of taking a city break in Mosul or undertaking a driving holiday in rural Afghanistan you'd think I was nuts.

Judge Kushner took care to say what has become a mantra of the women's movement for more than 30 years:
"Whatever we wear and wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no"
But her remarks have been distorted by those same women's movements as granting a charter to rapists. She said nothing of the kind. All she was doing was pointing out the realities of the world we live in: a world peopled by very unpleasant men who are waiting for the opportunity to abuse and mistreat women, and that it makes sense for women to take sensible precautions to protect themselves.