On October 29, a court in Peru dismissed a rape allegation because the victim wore red underwater to a party. The 20-year-old woman (anonymous) fell unconscious at a party and woke up to find her clothing missing in the accused’s bed. According to local media and other partygoers, the accused originally told the victim that he was going to collect some official documents and shortly after, left with the partially conscious victim.

In court, the judge ultimately ruled that the victim was “willing or prepared” for sex insinuating that wearing red underwear meant she wanted sex and that therefore, she had/has no right to complain. The defendant’s lawyers claimed that the victim was misrepresenting herself by appearing shy and timid when the red underwear proved otherwise. The judge ultimately agreed with this point and found the defendant not guilty.

Shortly after, this case got attention from the media, protestors took the streets, some of whom outwardly wearing red underwear to show solidarity with the victim and to prove that they were not asking for it. Many of the protestors had signs with sayings like “Lace is just lace, not insinuation” and “Don’t use my underwear to justify rape.” Protestors chanted and sung songs including one called “A Rapist in Your Path,” a popular feminist protest song. The lyrics of this song are powerful and translate to things like “The fault was not mine, nor where I was, nor what I was wearing” and “The rapist is you! The rapist is you!” (intended to point out that victims are often blamed when they are victims, not perpetrators).

 After all of the media attention and backlash that this case caused, Peru’s Public Ministry requested that a new trial take place in a different court, and said that the current decision should be nullified. While this is progress, women all over the world are being faced with countless acts of violence and this is not even close to the first case of victim-blaming, nor the first case where clothing was used as an excuse for rape. In 2018, in Ireland, a defendant was found not guilty after pointing out that his 17-year-old accuser was wearing a lace thong. In 2002, another victim from Scotland was forced to hold up her own underwear during a rape trial and after this humiliation and constant blaming, she took her own life. Victim-blaming is never okay and while this case in Peru was thankfully overturned, women everywhere are still being treated unfairly and unjustly for things that are not their fault.