Last week, a 27-year-old man was found not guilty of raping a 17-year-old girl in a laneway in Cork.

During the trial, the counsel for the accused told the court they should consider the idea that the girl may have been "open to meeting someone and being with someone" because of the underwear she was wearing.

"You have to look at the way she was dressed," she said. "She was wearing a thong with a lace front."

This kind of remark is sadly not unusual in rape trials, and in the recent Belfast rape trial, the jury was also shown the woman’s knickers.

Can you imagine being the victim of a sex attack, finding the courage to report it and go to court, then having your dirty underwear displayed to the world?

I don’t remember ever hearing of a man's boxers on display in a rape trial, but the double standard seems to pass people by.

It’s all part of a wider rhetoric that uses a woman's clothes, her demeanour, the amount of alcohol she drinks and a host of other things to blame her for being attacked or suggest that she consented to sex.

If I wear a thong, that doesn't necessarily mean I want to have sex. In fact, it usually means it's laundry day and that's all that's left in my underwear drawer.

Sometimes I wear one because I want to feel good about myself, or because I needed new underwear and lacy thongs are only €1 each in Penneys.

Even if I do wear sexy lingerie because I want to meet someone, I have a right to decide who that person is and how far I want to go.

According to the most recent statistics from Rape Crisis Network Ireland, less than half of survivors of adult sexual violence report the incident to a formal authority like the Gardaí or the HSE.

People constantly ask why more victims don’t come forward, or why they wait so long.

How can you not understand that, when you look at the shockingly low conviction rates and the humiliating court process? Or when you go on social media and see rape victims denounced as "sluts" or "liars"?

Cases like this will only add to the problem. Women will be even more terrified to report their attackers, and sex offenders will continue to roam the streets.

The treatment of rape victims in the courts desperately needs to change.

Wearing a thong isn't consent. Going out in a short skirt isn't consent. Kissing someone isn't consent. Getting drunk isn't consent.

Consent has to be freely given by someone who is awake and aware, and it can be revoked at any time.

The sooner people get that into their heads, the better.