Singer and frontwoman of The Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde – the same Chrissie Hynde who once posed in a pair knickers with a red ‘S’ drawn across her buttock to promote Vivienne Westwood’s infamous shop Sex, has given a somewhat surprising, and disappointing, interview in The Sunday Times apparently blaming women for ‘enticing’ rape.
The 63-year-old, who has long been held up as one of the strong female icons of punk, told Krissi Murison that, ‘You know, if you don’t want to entice a rapist, don’t wear high heels so you can’t run from him. If you’re wearing something that says ‘Come and f*** me’, you’d better be good on your feet…’
She also reportedly said, ‘You can’t paint yourself into a corner and then say whose brush is this? You have to take responsibility. I mean, I was naive…’
And in her new autobiography, Reckless, when recounting a sexual attack by an Ohio motorcycle gang, Chrissie writes: ‘Technically speaking, however you want to look at it, this was all my doing and I take full responsibility. You can’t f*** about with people, especially people who wear ‘I Heart Rape’ and ‘On Your Knees’ badges.’
While there has been widespread and understandable fury about Hynde’s victim-blaming – especially statements like ‘If I’m walking around in my underwear and I’m drunk? Who else’s fault can it be?’ – there are other examples in the interview of a less than cutting-edge approach to sexual politics.
‘Men need someone to look after them,’ Hynde apparently told Murison. ‘They’re the weaker sex — you see it wherever they are in the world. Men might be out ploughing the fields, but women are keeping the shit together. I mean, I’m too independent. I’m not proud of it.’ What exactly she means by ‘too independent’ isn’t clear.
Later in the interview the singer also, apparently, argued that, ‘A pop star who’s walking around, parading themselves as a porn star and saying they’re feminists. They’re prostitutes. I’m not making a value judgement on prostitutes, but just say what you are.’
And yet, Hynde seems thoroughly confident of her feminist credentials, claiming that such standards aren’t controversial. ‘As far as I’m concerned, I’m the poster girl for feminism,’ she said.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.