Rocker Chrissie Hynde came under fire after making comments that suggest a woman should take responsibility for her own rape if she was dressed provocatively or drunk, The Guardian reported.
The 63-year-old Pretenders front woman made off-color rape remarks in a recent interview with the U.K.'s Sunday Times after she opened up about how she blamed herself for her own rape when she was 21 years old. She recanted her attack after a motorcycle gang in her home state of Ohio threatened her to perform sexual acts.
"Technically speaking, however you want to look at it, this was all my doing and I take full responsibility," Hynde told the Sunday Times, according to The Guardian. "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."
She expanded on her comments and said that women who have been raped while wearing provocative clothing or while they were drunk should also take responsibility for their attacks and blame themselves, not their attackers.
"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," she said. "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."
Lucy Hastings, director of the U.K. charity Victim Support, spoke out against Hynde's comments.
"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," Hastings said.
Hynde's interview with the Sunday Times comes just before the Sept. 8 release of her memoir "Reckless: My Life as a Pretender," according to Billboard.
