Judges are clearly being held to a different- and sexist- standard when they conduct sexual assault trials with a female complainant. Questioning that would be normal in other trials can bring hellfire down on the judge. Nowhere is this more obvious than the furor over Robin Camp's question, “Why couldn’t you just keep your knees together?”

Consider that question in the context of an assault accusation brought by a male. Say I accuse someone of striking me after a verbal altercation to which there were no witnesses. Would it be improper of the judge to ask me, "Why didn't you just walk away from the verbal altercation?" No, of course not. He's trying to get a clear picture of the facts of the case. He wants to know how I was behaving, and what role that may have played in the alleged crime. Yet if a judge in a sexual assault case with a female complainant asks the same sort of question, he's excoriated for it.