Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 22, 1993 TAG: 9304220106
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But the woman, back in Roanoke on Tuesday, said she'd have no qualms about wearing again the sheer one-piece black lace outfit she wore to the Guns N' Roses concert last Thursday.
When she told her mother that one of the band's crew members had pulled her top down and rubbed ice on her breasts and that another pulled the bottom of the outfit up, her mother said it was her own fault for how she was dressed.
"Women should be able to wear whatever clothing we want without men bothering us," the woman said. She asked to be identified as Jane, which is not her real name.
Tuesday, she wore a black knee-length dress with a full skirt and short sleeves. But as she left Spinnaker's in Valley View Mall, a man standing at a nearby cash machine did a double take when he saw her.
Then he shook his head, licked his lips and whistled.
"I am so sick and tired of this," she said, lowering her eyes as she pushed a stroller and held her 1-year-old son in her arms.
Jane is a single mother who works in Appomattox.
"People are just getting used to the idea that I have the baby," she said. "I'm afraid of making my son's life even tougher someday because my name was in the local newspaper."
She admits that what she wore to the concert was provocative. Still, she says she can't understand why men made such a fuss.
"I've had a baby and I'm fat," she said matter-of-factly. "To be honest, I like that outfit because it looks sheer, but isn't. You can't see my stretch marks."
Jane found herself in a situation she thought she could handle, but which soon escalated out of her control. When she was invited backstage to meet the band, she never thought she would be the only woman in the room.
"I would never go backstage again," she said. "When I hear everyone talking about how great Guns N' Roses were, I get really mad."
While Jane still isn't sure whether she'll press charges against the roadies she accused, she says the decision won't hinge on any sort of embarrassment about how she was dressed.
"Women who dress like this at concerts are doing it to fit in," said Theresa Berry, director of SARA - Sexual Assault Response and Awareness.
Even if women don't use the best judgment in what they wear to an event like the Guns N' Roses concert, "poor judgment is still not a rape-able offense."
When attention is focused on what the victim was wearing, Berry says, it unfairly shifts the focus of the responsibility issue to the victim.
Ellen Flaherty of WROV-FM thinks it's wrong to assume women who dress for concerts are doing so to win the attention of the band.
"More than likely, it's a young girl who wore what she wore because she's sure some really cool guy from school will see her there and think she's really cool, too."
Flaherty admits she once bought a black leather bustier to wear to a Metallica concert, but says she wore it to fit in.
"Certainly not because I expected to wind up backstage with Metallica," she said.
by CNB