Photo: WENN
The Runaways' Jackie Fuchs, who recently accused the band's late manager Kim Fowley of drugging and raping her, has spoken out against Chrissie Hynde's recent comments about rape victims, saying, "It's a really dangerous message."
Hynde, formerly of The Pretenders, was speaking to the Sunday Times magazine when she made the remarks. After detailing a traumatic incident during which an Ohio gang member promised to take her to a party but took her to an empty house instead, she said, "Technically speaking, however you want to look at it, this was all my doing and I take full responsibility."
She added, "You can’t fuck about with people, especially people who wear ‘I Heart Rape’ and ‘On Your Knees’ badges ... those motorcycle gangs, that’s what they do. You can’t paint yourself into a corner and then say whose brush is this? You have to take responsibility. I mean, I was naive."
As the interview progressed, Hynde made several further misinformed and damaging comments regarding rape victims: "If I’m walking around and I’m very modestly dressed and I’m keeping to myself and someone attacks me, then I’d say that’s his fault. But if I’m being very lairy and putting it about and being provocative, then you are enticing someone who’s already unhinged – don’t do that.
"Come on! That’s just common sense. You know, if you don’t want to entice a rapist, don’t wear high heels so you can’t run from him. If you’re wearing something that says ‘Come and fuck me’, you’d better be good on your feet ... I don’t think I’m saying anything controversial am I?"
Now, in a new interview with Yahoo, The Runaways' Jackie Fuchs has responded to Hynde's comments. "Don’t put your heroes on pedestals. I don’t want to cast a stone at Chrissie Hynde — just at that one particular statement. Because it’s a really dangerous message."
She added, "It bothers me, because I don’t know that she’s gone out there and talked to [other] rape victims. If you had seen the messages that people sent me, so many of them were about ‘I’ve always thought it was my fault.’ We already think that anyway. So this is just telling people who’ve recently gone through this experience of being raped or abused, ‘Yeah, you’re right, it is your fault.’ But there’s no such thing as asking for it. And poor judgment is not an invitation to rape, nor an excuse for it."
Back in July, The Huffington Post published an extensive indictment of Fowley, which included testimony from Fuchs (better known as Jackie Fox) that says she was raped during a New Year's Eve party in 1976.
According to Fuchs' testimony, she was forced to take a Quaalude by a roadie, before being raped by Fowley in front of several other people. "I remember opening my eyes, Kim Fowley was raping me, and there were people watching me," she said. The article goes on to describe how "she looked out from the bed and noticed Currie and Jett staring at her. She says this was her last memory of the night."
