"American University is in an uproar over an anti-feminist diatribe in the student newspaper charging that some women who survive date rape invited it. ... (Courtesy Drew Franklin) "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?" columnist Alex Knepper, 20, wrote in the Eagle, the school paper. "
OK, many women believe the guy when he says, let's go someplace quieter so we can talk. Believe it or not, many women want to talk! Many women think the man wants to get to know them because they dressed pretty and were funny and witty at the party.
Also--even if she is "indicating she wants sex"--doesn't
a semi-intelligent man with a hint of decency Make Sure and actually get consent? and the Law is, if she is too wasted to give consent, it is rape, regardless of what he thinks was "indicated."
By the way, many women may want to kiss a little or neck or throw a few practice balls but had no intention of playing a full game of baseball, let alone hitting the homerun that can lead to pregnancy, disease, or regret.
"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," he said."a semi-intelligent man with a hint of decency Make Sure and actually get consent? and the Law is, if she is too wasted to give consent, it is rape, regardless of what he thinks was "indicated."
By the way, many women may want to kiss a little or neck or throw a few practice balls but had no intention of playing a full game of baseball, let alone hitting the homerun that can lead to pregnancy, disease, or regret.
Oh, so the criminal penalty for pulling a gun on someone and actually shooting them in the head should be the same as well, eh?
Others from American's Community Action for Social Justice Coalition (CASJC) hung a sign: "No room for rape apologists." Knepper, an openly gay political science major and a two-year columnist with the Eagle, is known as a provocateur, according to CASJC member Drew Franklin. "It's not typical of what you see at American, a very liberal school, but it is typical of Alex," he said. "This sparked a lot of outrage. It's a pretty big deal on campus."
Franklin, 22, and an audio production major, said he wasn't protesting Knepper's ideas, but rather the platform the newspaper gave the writer for "hate speech.""The column -- "Dealing With AU's Anti-Sex Brigade" -- sparked a backlash and nearly 300 online comments on the newspaper's Web site, chastising the Eagle for being "open-facedly offensive" and publishing a "slap in the face to so many women, and men, in our generation." Students bombarded the Eagle's office, gathering the March 28 issue from dispensaries and stacking them outside the door. More protests were planned today as letters to the editor poured in to the newspaper.
(I don't call this "Hate Speech-- I call this stupid speech.)
The Eagle has since apologized. "They crossed the line when they marginalized survivors of sexual assault," he said.
One in six women will survive sexual assault in her lifetime, and college-age women are four times more likely to be victims than others, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). Only about a third of all rape victims report these crimes and about 73 percent know their assailants.
About 90 percent of college women who are victims know their assailants -- usually a classmate, friend, boyfriend, ex-boyfrend, or other acquaintance, according to 2006 statistics from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services at the Department of Justice.
Most acquaintance rape victims do not label their assault as rape, perhaps because they know the assailant, and often initially blame themselves.
Advocates worry about rhetoric like Knepper's because when women blame themselves they are less apt to report these crimes. Survivors are also more susceptible to eating disorders, drug abuse and post traumatic stress disorder, according to RAINN.
The issue of consent is at the heart of the crime.
"It's not your fault," said Katherine Hull, spokesman for RAINN. "Even if you drink and wear short skirts -- that is not consent."
Our University paper,
the KSU Collegian, once published a column from a guy who said that
wearing certain clothing was
in fact
giving consent to sex.
This was yes, in the new millenium. And he was chastised severely by readers in the online "forum". And the paper reported that they only published it to provoke discussion, but then they only published 4 or 5 letters to the editor, while I am privy to the fact that at least 50 letters were sent.
So much for discussion.
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