The Boston Public Library

There is a statue in the courtyard of the main branch of the Boston Public Library in Copley Square.  It is a statue of a naked woman, holding a naked child.

A few years ago, it occurred to me that the statue was probably meant to relax men during breaks from studying or working in the library.  It is a reminder of home and hearth.  It is also a reminder of the social superiority of men; women and children are clothed at the discretion of men.

To be clothed at others' discretion is one of the oldest forms of subjugation.  I don't know if there ever was a time or culture in which naked women weren't treated as a form of recreation for men.  That's probably why so many men are uptight about or indifferent to the idea of women saying "You don't have the right to see me naked if that's not what I want."
Society in some areas of the world has progressed past the point of merely killing women who make statements like that, but the United States is not the only country where progress had stalled.  Few Americans would like to be thought of as people who think that women shouldn't have privacy rights, but the extent of stagnation is evident from the endurance of victim-blaming narratives.  "She asked for it." "She wants it." "She likes it." "She's lying." "She's confused."  "She is manipulative."

The idea that I am gaining power by being criminally victimized is another old form of subjugation.  It is victim-blaming presented as a reason not only to continue to abuse me but to spin even more narratives about what an evil person I am.