For HuffPost, Candice Frederick chronicled Freaknik, an yearly festival held in Atlanta, a Black female sexual liberation renaissance-of-sorts that came from it, and how sexual violence impacted it all:
“Women down here dress like hoes with the short skirts and all that,” says one woman. “They don’t have any respect for themselves. They want that negative attention. I’m sorry — you’ve got a mind, you’ve got a brain, you’re intelligent. You don’t need to act and dress that way.”
Gwen, the “classy hoochie” seated nearby, is quick to defend herself: “I had on less clothes. But that didn’t mean I was less intelligent. That didn’t mean I was asking you to grab my ass.”
Then a man in an Iota Phi Theta sweatshirt brings this debate to a near end. “If you were dressed inappropriately, I don’t care how much intelligence you got,” he says. “I don’t see intelligence. I see your naked flesh. Now, I would not grab your body. But there are people that will. So, you should dress appropriately.”
A statement like that reflects rape culture and undercuts the very notion of freedom of sexual expression. As does this one from the same person: “If you walk around naked and you get grabbed, don’t come crying at the end and saying, ′Oh, I didn’t know I was going to get raped’ or ′I didn’t know I was going to get fondled.’”
You can watch a trailer for the Freaknik documentary referenced in the essay as well.