Yahoo News Chrissie Hynde says feminists who don't want to be ogled should 'put some clothes on'
Feminists who don’t like being treated “like hookers” should “put some clothes on” according to Chrissie Hynde.
The Pretenders singer did not hold back in a recent interview, saying a woman who “walks around looking like a sex worker will probably be treated like one”.
In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, the musician said: "How you dress and how you present yourself to the world is totally how people will treat you.
Read more: Hear the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde Cover Bob Dylan’s Standing in the Doorway
“All these so-called feminists who complain because people treat them like they're hookers? Well, put some clothes on!
“If you walk around looking like a sex worker you will probably be treated like one, and if you walk around in a nurse's uniform people will call you when they're sick. And if you walk around dressed like a roadie, like I do, people will leave you the f*** alone."
Hynde has made similar comments in the past. She faced criticism five years ago when she said women can be at fault for being raped depending on their actions and what they are wearing.
She told The Sunday Times in that 2015 interview: “If I’m walking around in my underwear and I’m drunk? Who else’s fault can it be?
“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. That's just common sense.”
Read more: What Pretenders musician Chrissie Hynde is reading
These comments faced criticism at the time, including from the charity Victim Support.
Lucy Hastings, the charity's director, said: "Victims of sexual violence should never feel or be made to feel that they were responsible for the appalling crime they suffered – regardless of circumstances or factors which may have made them particularly vulnerable.”
US-born Hynde gained mainstream popularity in the late 1970s as part of the punk movement with The Pretenders, the band she fronts to this day.
