UK judge suggests drunk women beget rape like unlocked doors beget burglary

Impact

The U.K. judge who recently argued that women who "drink themselves into the ground" should "be aware" that alcohol increased their risk of being raped has more to say on that score.

In a Tuesday interview with Susanna Reid and seasoned, sexist mansplainer Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain, Judge Lindsey Kushner granted that rapists are "absolutely" to blame for rape, but we can also maybe blame the victim if the victim is very drunk. Explaining that she just wanted to "stop [women] getting raped in the first place," she offered an analogy:

"We don't like burglars and they shouldn't burgle," Kushner said. "But we do close and lock our doors at night and anybody who leaves them open, they're not protecting themselves and their belongings."

Morgan saw no issue with this line of reasoning, but then again, he wouldn't. More surprisingly, the woman at the center of the case that prompted Kushner's judgments — Megan Clark — agreed, at least to a certain degree, although she maintained that being sexually assaulted wasn't her fault. According to the Huffington Post, she was less agreeable when it came to Kushner's light sentencing of the rapist, who was then 18 and whom the judge deemed "fairly young" and not "fully formed." 

Ultimately, Reid was the only placed the blame for rape solely on the rapist.

"I think this is part of the problem for some women who were concerned about these comments, is that women often get told that their behavior, the things they're wearing, going out late at night — I mean, historically, these things, women have been told they might reconsider because of what it provokes in men," Reid said. "The fact of the matter is, the only person responsible for rape is the rapist."