From Sarah Jenkins, William Rickards and Megan Tomei
Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011
Dear Editor,
I am emailing you regarding the recent article in the UP entitled “The Girl Who Cried Wolf…Or Rape.” This article is insensitive to the experience of rape, trivializing it and contributing to a cultural bias that blames sexual assault on victims. In general, the article creates a dangerous environment for women, displaying a possible rape as a joke and as an occasion to stigmatize and scold a woman’s drunkenness, rather than highlight the dangers of sexual assault on campus and the ways that alcohol contributes to such assaults. The article stated that this rape victim was “extremely intoxicated” and had to be taken to the hospital. What the article fails to point out is that alcohol is a common factor in rape, especially on college campuses. Also, if the woman was intoxicated to the point of hospitalization and was “disoriented,” how could she consent to sex in any meaningful way?
In order to “prove” her consent, the article brings in the anonymous statement of a roommate who says that the woman was “clutching” the man and seemed
to be enjoying herself. A bystander cannot determine consent from seeing only a few seconds of sexual activity.
The article also mentions that the victim “had different guys in her room” implying she was promiscuous. Her sexual history is not relevant. Anyone can be raped regardless of how sexually active they are. The article seems to set up the familiar and prejudicial good girl/bad girl binary in which only virgins, or those with a minimal sexual history can be raped. This is a failure to understand what rape truly is: sex without consent.
This article presents this story as entertainment. Violence is not entertainment. Pain is not entertainment. Prejudice is not entertainment.
I feel sorry for this woman who reads this and sees her trauma laid out for all the student body to laugh at, and I worry for every woman on this campus if this is how a potential rape is treated. If this woman is mocked for mentioning rape to a medical attendant, how are other women to feel about reporting if they are raped or otherwise sexually harassed or assaulted? Are they to fear that they will be laughed at? Or worse, that they themselves be accused of bad behavior? The article ends by stating that “rape is a serious allegation” and this was the only sentence I agreed with. Unfortunately, the article goes on to say that it is serious to accuse someone of rape, instead of pointing out that is.
