The Commodification of Our Bodies: Capitalism, Privilege, and Rape Apology

“I’m not saying she’s ‘asking for it,’ but as a woman it seems like pretty common knowledge that wearing a tight, short dress and drinking 2 bottles of wine along with whatever else is pictured in the poster is a bad idea (…) if the girl is too out of it to say no, it’s of her own doing.”

“It’s become very popular lately to say women should be able to drink any amount they want, wear whatever they want, etc. and not get raped. Of course, this is completely true. It’s also true that I should be able to leave valuables in my car in plain sight without locking the doors and not have them get stolen. Neither of these expectations are REALISTIC, however.”

“I could and should have every right to wear a Rolex up and down the streets of Compton. Smart idea? No. Probably one that would get me mugged and/or killed. So be smart and not wear it around. In a perfect world, no one would have to worry about such things, but alas, the world is not perfect.”

-Selected quotes from the comments on Anna Joseph and Erin Oleson’s “Sexual Assault at CMC, Time to Talk”

Discussions of sexual assault and the policies surrounding issues of assault and consent have become increasingly frequent on the Claremont campuses, both in official forums such as the Deans’ panel at the Motley and the student forum at the Queer Resource Center, as well as in unofficial settings ranging from Facebook’s Claremont Confessions page to informal discussions among friends. These discussions absolutely need to happen, but I think they often fail to recognize that consent simply isn’t as complicated as we are making it out to be. Terms like “grey rape” are used to justify sexual assault that takes place between friends, partners, or lovers, suggesting that intimacy or previous sexual contact imply consent, or that the lack of physical resistance is somehow close to consent. The presence of alcohol at 5-C parties is used to justify the frequent sexual assault (sexual assault is defined legally as any non-consensual sexual touching) that occurs on the dance floor, typically in the form of victim blaming—i.e. if we don’t want to get raped or sexually assaulted, we shouldn’t wear “revealing” clothing or drink. The natural extension of this flawed logic is that dressing in “revealing” clothing, drinking alcohol, etc. are equivalent to consent.

It’s impossible to discuss sexual assault without looking at privilege and power, and yet both are notably absent from discussions around sexual assault (Especially official discussions/policies). Rhetoric around both sex and sexual assault exists in terms of gendered capitalism and commodification: a man “gets some” while a womyn “gives it up.” The economic privilege that many Claremont students have access to can lead to a level of entitlement. It isn’t surprising, then, that in a society where womyn’s bodies[1] are seen as commodities that exist for the pleasure of men, and the majority of men have access to their choice of inanimate commodities (cars, expensive electronics, etc.), that some of these men expect to have equally unchallenged access to womyn’s bodies. I think this sense of entitlement can lead to confusion about signals of consent. If one’s default assumption is that bodies are there to be touched, stared at, and used, then an absence of repetitive and forceful refusal may perhaps be read as consent. Our bodies are being compared to Rolex watches and valuables left in cars, with the implication that, like any other commodity, the body must be hidden to avoid being “taken,”  and it is considered unreasonable to expect the female body to be any safer in public (or in private, given that the vast majority of sexual assaults are perpetrated by those close to us, not strangers). This suggestion is insidious in its uncritical acceptance of the view of the female body as a public commodity, available for exploitation until proven otherwise. In order to have more meaningful discussions on eliminating sexual assault, we all need to be more aware of how systems of power (economic class, gender identity, sexuality, and race) interact with patriarchy and capitalism such that womyn’s bodies are seen as commodities and those in various positions of privilege and power see themselves as being owed access.