Liam Neeson tells you not to be like Amanda

The topic of whether rape victims who dress provocatively are somewhat at fault has always been an interesting subject for me. You would think that most of the people that believe so would be male but surprisingly there are also females that believe so as well.

http://www.care2.com/causes/she-asked-for-it-survey-finds-women-blame-victims-for-rape.html

Women in the survey felt that women who wore attention seeking clothing were partly to blame for becoming victims of sexual attack. This idea of a "promiscuous female stereotype" is discussed in Ferguson's study where the perceptions of female victims of sexual harassment are compared after watching a variety of depictions of "promiscuous females" on the Jerry Springer Show. The study found that when exposed to promiscuous behavior, viewers were more likely to perceive the harassment as less traumatizing and the victim more responsible for the incident.

I've found that this stereotype of promiscuous female behavior shows up very often in our media as a generally negative trait. One example is in the movie Taken, when Liam Neeson's daughter arrives in Paris with her friend Amanda and they meet Peter, a classically hot guy.

Amanda is clearly attracted to Peter's great looks and starts flirting and even accepts Peter's invitation to a party in the evening. Little does she know, Peter is malebait to lure girls into kidnapping. Later, when Amanda and Liam Neeson's daughter are alone, Amanda declares that she is going to sleep with Peter to which Ms. Neeson questions, "But you just met him." Amanda replies that Peter is hot and that French guys are supposed to be amazing in bed. This dialogue sets up Amanda's archetype as a promiscuous female perfectly. In contrast, Neeson girl plays the foil to Amanda by being more cautious. While she is dismissive of her father's concerns that Paris can be a dangerous place, she still questions Amanda's reckless choice to sleep with strangers. In a way, Neeson's daughter plays the nonpromiscuous female. Moments later, both Amanda and Neeson girl are kidnapped. While the audience may feel sympathy for both girls, there is definitely more emphasis on the innocence of Neeson's daughter especially because she quickly becomes apologetic and is eventually rescued by her loving father.

Amanda, on the other hand, is kind of "killed off" like an insignificant character. This is interesting because the movie plays off this sequence as if Amanda was deserving of her fate because she was more easygoing with her sexuality. This portrayal of promiscuousness as negative is overwhelmingly common, as seen in other studies such as "Virginity Narratives." This is an interesting perspective on female sexuality because if Amanda was just Aman, the incident would definitely not be portrayed as negative and may even be portrayed as very positive. Is the movie and the media at fault for perpetuating these stereotypes then? While I cannot say for sure that the media is the cause and origin of the stereotype, I think that viewers perhaps have defaulted to that type of thinking and perspective in that it is convenient to think a promiscuous girl is at fault for becoming a victim, and as an inherent consumer himself, the director of this film unconsciously portrays Amanda as the person you don't want to be. Certainly principle dictates that a person should be able to wear whatever he/she likes and behave however he/she likes and that rapists simply should not rape, and I do agree that films should sympathize with the "Amandas" more because otherwise they will just be forgotten and the idea that women that are more easygoing with their sexuality are bad and deserve their doom will be wrongfully perpetuated. However, I also disagree with people that argue that it is completely the fault of the rapist/sexual harasser because no matter how shallow or superficial it seems, there comes certain expectations with certain behaviors and types of clothing and Amanda may have averted her demise if she had played a safer hand.



Ferguson, T., Berlin, J., Noles, E., Johnson, J., Reed, W., & Spicer, C. V. (2005).
Variation in the application of the 'promiscuous female' stereotype and the nature of
the application domain: Influences on sexual harassment judgments after exposure
to the Jerry Springer Show. Sex Roles, 52(7-8), 477-487. doi: 10.1007/s11199-005-
3713-y