News Flash #3: Rape on College Campuses: Who’s to Blame?
http://www.theeagleonline.com/opinion/story/dealing-with-aus-anti-sex-brigade/ (Link to full column)
According to an April 1 article from ABC News, American University (AU) in Washington DC, is dealing with date rape on campus. The Eagle, which is the American University student newspaper, wrote a column titled “Dealing With AU’s Anti-Sex Brigade.” The column asserted that “some women who survive date rape invited it” (ABC News Article). This controversial comment was met with 300 online comments and significant rage from feminists and others on campus. Alex Knepper, the author of the column, states “Let’s get this straight: any woman who heads to an EI (fraternity) party as an anonymous onlooker, drinks five cups of the jungle juice, and walks back to a boy’s room with him is indicating that she wants sex, ok?” (ABC News Article). The article refers to date rape on the college campus specifically with drinking involved at fraternity parties by the boy and or girl. Knepper continues to assert that “To cry 'date rape' after you sober up the next morning and regret the incident is the equivalent of pulling a gun to someone's head and then later claiming that you didn't ever actually intend to pull the trigger” (ABC News Article). Many students at other colleges hold this view. For example, Princeton University ran a similar story in their student newspaper (ABC News Article). A 20 year old female at Texas A&M was reported saying "Rape is always a touchy subject, but in this case, where you are drinking and letting your guard down, you cannot say you were taken advantage of unless someone drugged your drinks” (ABC News Article). However, these views are starkly contrasted by Katherine Hull’s perspective. (Hull is the spokesman for Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN)). Hull was reported in the article saying “It's not your fault. Even if you drink and wear short skirts -- that is not consent. If someone doesn't have the capacity to consent, they can't” (ABC News Article).
According to Department of Justice, “in more than three-quarters of all college rapes, the offender, the victim or both had been drinking, which impairs good judgment” (ABC News Article). If both parties are intoxicated, this lack of good judgment can be attributed to both victim and offender and creates for a gray area because information about the incident could be missing and no one else is there to fact check. “Though laws vary from state to state, a person's consent can be compromised because of age, mental disability and lack of consciousness (under drugs or alcohol) or even a state of duress, according to Katherine Hull.
Alex Knepper from American University did clarify that "While it's not a woman's fault, it's incredibly stupid behavior to go to that party, knowing what you are getting yourself into is what being an adult is, knowing the risks and the signals beforehand."
So the question is cast: are girls partially responsible? Part of being an adult is making responsible decisions and being smart about the decisions you make and not drinking from a punch bowl where you don’t know the ingredients. While intoxication is never an excuse for any sort of violence, physical or sexual, when both parties have been drinking and to an unknown degree, it creates a gray area for blame to be laid and for consequences to be given. While it is probably a very small percentage, it is possible that some girls could cry rape because they regret their decision the next morning, which would not actually be rape. Similarly, it is possible that if the girl is drunk to the point that she cannot clearly remember all aspects of the previous night but in the morning thinks that she would never have had sex with that boy and calls rape, that is not in fact rape either. It then becomes very difficult to have enough evidence to assign a consequence to the offender. At that point it is one person’s word against another’s. Furthermore, consensual but unwanted sex which Levy describes in her “Pigs in Training” chapter is not the same as rape. The fact that there is such a sentiment on college campuses about girls crying rape after a regretted decision is incredibly problematic on a broader level. Is the prevalence of girls crying rape after a regretted decision so great that it has generated this kind of sentiment? If so, this kind of “crying wolf” undermines the seriousness of the crime and most likely contributes to women not reporting a real case of rape. It also can make the woman feel that she is responsible when she is not. That isn’t to say that she should run around in a bra and underwear and not expect to get unwanted attention from men, which Levy would criticize, but that type of behavior does not explicitly mean she is giving consent for sex. Steinem argues in “Supremacy Crimes” that everyone is implicated in this. It is not just the offender’s problem. It is not just the victim’s problem. It is not just both of their problems. Everyone is playing into this system by letting issues such as rape and other forms of sexual violence and the motives behind those crimes fester. This can be very much applied to these cases of date rape when both parties have been intoxicated. It is not just the offender’s problem or the victim’s problem. It is the problem of those who ignore it, those who falsely cry rape, those who don’t report rape cases, those who demean the severity of the crime, and those of us who just read about it and write our responses to it.
The line seems to be blurred in cases of drunken college rape cases because of the unreliability of both sources. Colgate’s campus has seen a large enough presence of sexual violence on campus to warrant mandatory sexual misconduct meetings and an update to the sexual misconduct policy, and an administration crackdown. The girls who stumble downtown in 30 degree weather with skirts that barely cover their butts and make other irresponsible decisions are not asking for rape and certainly do not deserve it. However, both parties involved need to be making more responsible decisions and learning to behave like adults. It is hard to take one person’s word over another in the case of a drunken rape because there is the potential that someone innocent gets punished and the risk that you are not punishing someone who deserves to be punished. A more open sex culture where the topic is not so touchy and suppressed would help people to understand this from an earlier age and be more informed about rape. With this, there would be a more serious understanding of rape and a reduced sentiment that women cry rape after regretted decisions.
http://www.theeagleonline.com/opinion/story/dealing-with-aus-anti-sex-brigade/
Gloria Steinem, “Supremacy Crimes”
Ariel Levy, “Female Chauvinist Pigs”
I think that the addition of alcohol to these situations definitely makes the issue of rape on college campuses worse than it already is, and I agree that it can sometimes be hard to pinpoint the accurate information of events if both parties are intoxicated. However, I think that one of the most frustrating things is that women have to even worry about this being a possibility in the first place. A girl should be able to go to a party and not have to worry about being taken advantage of because she is too drunk. I think that there are so many external factors in society that perpetuate this male dominant culture that college campuses serve as a prime example of how our society is failing to see the bigger picture, which is that rape comes from an ideology and lifestyle that places men in a dominant and superior role. Because men are placed in this role they are able to control the environment at these parties and are able to take advantage of women without there being proper consequences.
ReplyDeleteI agree with some of your news flash. I like how you shed some light on how this "Crying wolf" issue is becoming a big problem. however I think the one example an author of how if a girl goes back to a guys room that means she wants to engage in sex. Ever heard of liquid courage? maybe biting off a bigger piece than you can chew? or sobering up before getting to the dirty deed?
ReplyDeleteThere is no denying it is wrong to cry rape after waking up next to an ogre, but perhaps because of the fact that a male has a supremecy presence can contribute to why when a girl doesnt remember, the word rape flashes into her mind... rape is something that needs to decline in our society, but in order for it to happen, issues need to be sorted out with both parties
I think date rape and sexual harassment on college campuses is an extremely difficult topic, because it is usually associated with alcohol, and though it is no excuse, nevertheless when alcohol comes into the picture the social rules in college seem to change. While I don't mean to undermine the women who actually are victims of date rape, because this is a large group of college women, but I think women do hold a sense of responsibility. If a girl drinks way too much and blacks out, only to wake up in the morning next to a stranger then automatically assumes she was raped, takes all sense of responsibility away from the girl and places it on the guy. I think girls need to be aware of the consequences and possibilities of what could happen when they are at a college party and alcohol is involved. Does the fact that girls have to worry about this and most boys don't point towards the inherent inequalities between men and women? Yes, but in order to decrease the number of women who are victims of rape and sexual harassment, girls need to be responsible about the amount they drink to prevent getting themselves into situations like this.
ReplyDeleteI would just like to point out that under California state law, when a woman is intoxicates she does not count as having given legal consent to sexual contact. As such, any sexual intercourse that occurs while both parties are intoxicated is, in legal a sense, un consentual. As a student at Colgate, I think i can say pretty confidently that more than 60% of first time sexual contact at this school occurs while both parties are intoxicated. This really has interesting legal and social implications not only in terms of rape, but how people socialize at Colgate and at universities in general.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I am appalled at Jackson's post. Forget Colgate, how about at schools like UGA or Penn State where there are twenty times as many sorority girls and frat boys running around drinking and fornicating.
ReplyDeleteAnyways I thought the strongest part of your post was when you discussed Steinhem and how this is not the fault of any two individuals but the system. With the culture changing and women dressing and dancing more erotically every day, sexual contact has become more accepted. Whether it's touching a girl's butt as she walks by or a night of drunken debauchery at the Gate, sexual assault has become desensitized in our society.