How To Write About Rape Prevention Without Sounding Like An Asshole
LatestThis morning, Slate ran a rape prevention piece by Emily Yoffe with the aggressive headline: COLLEGE WOMEN: STOP GETTING DRUNK. Subhed: “It’s closely associated with sexual assault. And yet we’re reluctant to tell women to stop doing it.” The URL of the piece advertises telling silly women to stop drinking is “the best rape prevention.” Unsurprisingly, this bit of e-prudery by the woman otherwise known as Dear Prudence was poorly received because, you know, we’re all pretty tired of the “ladies be getting themselves raped” trope — and for good reason. Is there a way to discuss rape prevention and personal safety that both acknowledges the sad, rapey reality of the world without blaming the victims and, by extension, coming across like a scoldy asshole? Of course. Here’s how.
DO encourage people of both genders to pay attention to their personal safety
As Jennifer Marsh, VP of Victim Services at RAINN (the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network) explained to me by phone, “[Rape prevention literature] shouldn’t just be about sexual assault and awareness; it should be about being safe in the face of general danger.” Excessive alcohol consumption, in addition to being Bad For You, can make a person vulnerable to anyone — muggers, robbers, evangelizing Christians trying to engage you in a conversation about America as a modern Gomorra. It’s not victim-blamey to suggest that a person of any gender be mindful of their laptop bag on the bus, or to discourage a person who has been drinking from walking home alone through a neighborhood with a high crime rate. Promoting personal safety and vigilance for the safety of others is a good practice, and doesn’t constitute “blaming the victim.”
It’s true that alcohol consumption compromises a person’s personal safety, and it’s true that rapists sometimes use alcohol to weaken their targeted victims. All of these things are helpful things for college-aged women to know. That being said…
DON’T write a piece admonishing women for not doing enough to stop their own rapes.
Yoffe’s assertion — that alcohol plays a role in a lot of on-campus sexual assaults — is a valid one, and she’s got data to back it up.
A 2009 study of campus sexual assault found that by the time they are seniors, almost 20 percent of college women will become victims, overwhelmingly of a fellow classmate. Very few will ever report it to authorities. The same study states that more than 80 percent of campus sexual assaults involve alcohol. Frequently both the man and the woman have been drinking.
Fair enough. Yoffe totally has the “booze-in-rape” game on lock. Unfortunately, she doesn’t seem to understand that while alcohol plays a role in many sexual assaults, there’s only one element that plays a role in all sexual assaults: a rapist. Which brings me to my next point.
DON’T write a piece about rape prevention without talking about rapist prevention.
If alcohol plays a role in so many rapes, then ostensibly encouraging men to stop drinking excessively would prevent rapists — and therefore rapes— from happening. Right? I mean, if you locked me in a room with a handle of vodka and told me to drink it until I couldn’t walk, at no point would a rapist materialize from the ether to sexually assault me. Drunk potential victims don’t make rapists appear; for as miraculously good a dancer it makes me think I am, alcohol isn’t magic. Therefore, a piece about the role of alcohol in rape that doesn’t acknowledge the role of alcohol in rapists is half-written. Yoffe makes an effort to state, multiple times, that it’s not a victim’s fault for getting raped but it sort of kind of is the victim’s fault for being a drunky mcdrunkpants, and does nothing to explain the role of alcohol in the lowering of inhibitions of rapists.