Texas Democratic Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson said Wednesday women have a responsibility to be aware of how they dress and behave to prevent sexual assault and harassment.
“I grew up in a time when it was as much the woman’s responsibility as the man’s — how you were dressed, what your behavior was,” Johnson told NBC 5. “I’m from the old school that you can have behaviors that appear to be inviting. It can be interpreted as such. That’s the responsibility, I think, of the female.”
Johnson was addressing the allegations of sexual assault, harassment, and rape leveled against Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein by former employees, producers, and actresses.
A major Democratic donor, Weinstein was fired from his company — the Weinstein Company — and resigned from its board of directors after the New York Times revealed three decades of sexual assault and harassment allegations made against him.
While Johnson said women have a responsibility to prevent sexual assault and harassment, she acknowledged men have a responsibility to be professional. The Democratic congresswoman also said men “get away with” misconduct because women allow them to.
“I think we also need to start talking about the power that women have to control the situation. There’s law enforcement, you can refuse to cooperate with that kind of behavior,” she said. “I think that many times, men get away with this because they are allowed to get away with it by the women. When you have an expectation that that might happen and that’s how you got to do it to make it, that’s a mental thing that has to change with the woman.”
