The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde made some rather unfortunate comments about rape in an interview with The Sunday Times. Hynde, herself a rape survivor, blamed her own actions for her rape and extended that victim-blaming mentality to other women who have been raped. The internet noticed and attacked her, but she’s sticking by her original comments and refusing to back down.
In another interview, this time with The Washington Post, she doubled down on her previous statements, including her advice that “If you don’t want to entice a rapist, don’t wear high heels so you can’t run from him.”
“Sounds like common sense,” she said.
She reiterated her belief that she was to blame for both instances of sexual assault detailed in her new book: once by a biker gang (“if you go into the club house of the world’s most notorious bikers, it’s not going to be for a Bible reading”) and a stranger who she hitched a ride from (“I knocked on the guy’s car door and said ‘Can you give me a lift?’ to a stranger. What was I thinking?”)
As for the critics, Hynde doesn’t seem too concerned. “They’re entitled to say whatever they want. Do I regret saying it? I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it.”
“At the moment, we’re in one of the worst humanitarian crises in our lifetime,” she said. You see that picture of “a Turkish policeman carrying the body of a 3-year-old boy who got washed up on the shore. These are the heartbreaking images we have and we’re talking about millions of displaced persons and people whose families have been destroyed and we’re talking about comments that I allegedly made about girls in their underwear.”
All things considered, Hynde does seem to have a sense of humor about the sudden spotlight.
“I’m just a rock star. And now a leading authority on rape,” she said to end the interview.
