This article (URL posted below) discusses whether attire correlates to risk of sexual assault:
http://www.law.duke.edu/shell/cite.pl?14+Duke+J.+Gender+L.+&+Pol%27y+125#H1N3
For those of you who don't want to read the whole thing (having just graduated college, I completely understand...), here's the short version: it really doesn't.
Although "people perceive dress to have an impact on who is assaulted, studies of rapists suggest that victim attire is not a significant factor." The reason some (including women) seem to believe that victims' clothing choice plays a role in the assault is that "blaming the victim...by believing she provoked the behavior by her dress, makes other[s] believe that dressing differently...will prevent it from happening to them" or their friends/family.
More importantly, though, the study references studies of rapists and how they choose their victims. As it turns out, rapists "look for signs of passiveness or submissiveness, which, studies suggest...are more likely to coincide with more body-concealing clothing." In fact, '"those females high in passivity and submissiveness...wore noticeably more body-concealing clothing."' Now, this doesn't mean we should be advocating for everyone to start wearing shirts with plunging necklines and short skirts; the key here is confidence. Wear what makes you feel comfortable, whether that's a tiny dress or a long-sleeve floor-length dress.
This study reveals that anyone who tells us our clothing plays a role in whether or not we are assaulted inadvertently endangers us further. The best way to avoid victimization (although there's no surefire way) is not to "avoid dressing like sluts," but rather, to carry ourselves with confidence and assertiveness, embracing our clothing choice--whatever it may be.
And that's why women have every right to be angry. For years, we've been told that we ought to live our lives in fear, avoiding any sort of situation that might possibly lead someone to misinterpret or take advantage--that we somehow bear responsibility for preventing rapists from targeting us and so we must dress carefully, hide any semblance of sexuality from our behavior. We've been taught that "men can't control themselves," our clothing might "attract the wrong kind of attention," that we might find ourselves at the mercy of some sex-crazed maniac that doesn't care if we say "no" or resist. After all, in the minds of those who turn to victim-blaming, attire can say "yes." But that's wrong: nothing can say yes if the victim says no. And as for the clothing myth, if we are confident, dominant, filled with self-esteem in our sexy, revealing, form-fitting dresses, studies show that we are less likely to be assaulted than if we are subdued, insecure, vulnerable in our loose-fitting, drab, concealing outfits.
That is why I and many other women are angry. Many (if not most) women out there, have been constantly told by society to keep ourselves from looking too attractive, to modify our appearance and behavior so that no one will take the fact that we are women as an invitation to rape us. As a result, many have lived in fear, insecure in their clothes and in social situations, worried that a rapist might take any sort of outgoing behavior as an excuse to attack them. And all this time, it's been the complete opposite: the more shy and subordinate that we are, the more that some people think we look like ideal victims. If we fear the world, it's actually more likely that some a**hole out there will try to hurt us.
We're tired of being told to "act confident" but feel terrified. Because that is what we're being told, really. Most people will tell you that you're less likely to be attacked if you make yourself "look less of a target" by acting self-assured--but then many of those people will go on to tell you that you can "make yourself a target" through clothing and "flirtatious" or outgoing behavior, too. Essentially, they tell us that we make ourselves targets simply by being women. Well, as women, we've had enough. Don't teach us not to wear certain attire; teach us how to resist if someone decides to assault us. Don't tell us that we're somehow responsible for what some jerk decides to try to do to us; tell those jerks to leave us alone.
And if we are unfortunate enough to be attacked, judge our attackers, not us.