Clever catch phrases undermine efforts to lower rape statistics

Clever catch phrases undermine efforts to lower rape statistics

The devastation of rape has been lost to political rhetoric. “Rape culture” is one of the most overused but highly effective catch phrases of the decade. The term implies that rape can be linked to social practices and attitudes which excuse and tolerate sexual assault. The subliminal message is that all men are rapists. 

Fear is a great marketing tool. Since most people never question the so-called facts that are fed them via television, the internet and multi-media sources, they are inclined to believe academics and other assorted “experts” who have never been on the receiving end of sexual assault. As a result, rape is no longer a crime we need to eliminate but rather a rallying cry for those seeking political favor. Much like questions surrounding whether Big Pharma really wants to cure life threatening diseases, you must question whether politicians and certain advocacy groups want to make rape a crime of the past. When money and votes are at stake, where is the incentive to finding solutions? 

In a recent New York Times editorial, journalist Ross Douthat wrote “… we’re searching ineffectively for better after-the-fact responses because we aren’t willing to deal with some of the root causes or upset the underlying legal and cultural status quo.” 

My interpretation of that statement is that it takes two… two people, regardless of gender, acting sensibly… two people being respectful of each other… two people who understand that they are each responsible for their own actions and the outcome of those actions. 

In a perfect world women would have the same freedoms as men but that world has yet to be discovered. We are not equal to men when it comes to protecting ourselves. We are vulnerable. We must teach our daughters to take responsibility for their own safety. That includes not drinking to oblivion at parties or in nightclubs no matter how much fun it might appear to be or the amount of peer pressure exerted. 

Douthat suggested that blackout drinking, which is often implicated in college rape scenarios, would be less of a problem if the legal drinking age was lowered from 21 to 18. While I agree we should lower the drinking age, it isn’t because I think this is a cure all for binge drinking. If a person is old enough to vote and put their life on the line while serving in the military, they should be able to drink alcoholic beverages. From that perspective, the present law doesn’t make sense. 

However, getting drunk is not the result of being forced to buy beer while flashing a fake driver’s license. It has to do with not being able to set limits on one’s own behavior. Responsible drinking means accepting that your life may depend on staying aware of who and what is around you. 

Jonathan Zimmerman, a history and education teacher at New York University, wrote an editorial entitled “Hookup culture contributes to unwanted sex,” which was published in the Los Angeles Times on May 7. To say it was confusing is an understatement. “Hookup culture” and “rape culture” are identical twins in the game of political volleyball. 

Zimmerman began by stating that a 2013 study by author/educator Donna Freitas proved that sexually active college students were intent on avoiding intimacy and that drinking to excess allowed them to separate mind from body during intercourse with a person/persons known or unknown. If we take the few quotes he presented to back up his theory as representation of a larger survey, it would appear his statement is true. 

However, rather than presenting additional facts, he segued into this quote by Vice President Joe Biden. “Colleges and universities can no longer turn a blind eye or pretend rape and sexual assault don’t occur on their campuses. We need to provide survivors with more support and we need to bring perpetrators to justice.” 

Vice President Biden is correct but I have no clue as to why Zimmerman included it in his “hookup culture” editorial. Casual sex is not rape. Rape is an assault… a violent crime akin to all violent crimes. 

Judging by his final words, I have to assume that Zimmerman believes providing students with a “different model for sex,” one based on human intimacy, will lessen the incidence of rape on campus. He couldn’t be more wrong. There is a distinct difference between two people too drunk to know what they are doing and a woman being raped. 

I’m reminded of the line from King Kong, “Oh, no, it wasn’t the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.” In much the same way, it isn’t liquor that makes a rapist. They are born, not made by external forces, and nothing… not behavioral modification, chemical castration, religion, or “a different model for sex” can change that. 

One of the reasons why female college students do not always report assaults as rape is because the conditions under which the assaults happened could not be clearly defined. Douthat suggested that colleges return to the days of supervised living in both single sex and co-ed dorms. It should be so easy. No matter how many rules are enacted, if students do not recognize and understand the consequences of their actions, nothing will change. 

On June 7, Washington Post columnist George Will published a column entitled, “Colleges become the victims of progressivism,” in which he questioned the accuracy of campus rape statistics as presented in a White House report on sexual assault. Will felt that Vice President Biden’s comment, “We know the numbers: one in five of every one of those young women who is dropped off for that first day of school, … will be assaulted in her college years,” was intentionally meant to bolster support through propagandizing the rape culture and hookup culture mentality. He’s not wrong, but expressing his views in our Venus Fly Trap nation cost him dearly. 

In truth, the statistics first quoted by President Obama in January of this year and then reiterated by Vice President Biden this past April were loosely taken from the 2007 Campus Sexual Assault Study conducted by the National Institute of Justice (U.S. Justice Department). The actual number of assaults: not one in five but one in seven. 

One in five! One in seven! One in a hundred! One in a million! One… one single rape of one woman or man is unacceptable no matter how, when or where. However, we can’t talk about rape statistics without considering the circumstances under which those rapes and attempted rapes occurred. The victim is never at fault. But… and this is the “but” that feminists don’t want society to hear… rape would occur less often if people took responsibility for their own safety. 

Now we have Mary Sanchez writing for the Kansas City Star. I agree with the opening paragraph of her editorial but not for the reasons one might suspect. Sanchez wrote, “If we want to do something about sexual assault on college campuses, first we have to deal with the excuse makers.” Yes, we do, and that includes the two people involved in the assault. Sanchez herself makes excuses by saying that when she arrived for her first year of college, she was unprepared for the effects excessive drinking would have on her diminutive frame. I don’t know Ms. Sanchez’s age. Maybe, when she was going to college, girls were less aware of the dangers of binge drinking; today, no one is that ignorant. This is where shared accountability comes into play. No one should be punished for being stupid, but when I think of all the girls who could have been spared the trauma of rape had they just used the “smarts” that got them into college in the first place, well… 

The idea that preaching “shame on you” to sexual predators or talking to them about the importance of intimacy in a relationship will change them is laughable. Shame requires a conscience and the ability to feel empathy. Rapists have neither. Are there rapists in college? Absolutely! Is every male who has sex with a female while under the effect of alcohol a rapist… no. Rape is a conscious act. 

No one and nothing can protect us from danger as well as we can do it ourselves. Casual sex is not a guarantee of being raped. Drinking to oblivion, however, can result in the same outcome as lying down on the railroad tracks as the warning bells are clanging and the crossing gates are lowering. 

Mottos and slogans can’t save your life, but here’s one that might detour you out of harm’s way: “Think before you drink.” Here’s an even better one… Just think! And don’t expect someone else to protect you. That’s your job!