she said/he said
Remember that hateful Heather MacDonald essay in the
Los Angeles Times where the conservative pundit claimed that the oft-quoted statistic that 1 in 4 college women is sexually assaulted was
grossly overinflated? Well, today, University of Virginia senior Patrick Cronin
takes on MacDonald's screed, which he calls "damaging and demeaning," and counteracts her statistical claims. (Because college women drink so much, MacDonald argues, "most campus 'rape' cases exist in the gray area of seeming cooperation and tacit consent, which is why they are almost never prosecuted criminally.") Cronin fights back with a well-reasoned retort: "If people like MacDonald stigmatize a survivor as a promiscuous, irresponsible alcoholic, is there really much incentive to come forward? And if a victim convinces himself or herself that no assault took place, why use the resources available?"
Dayum, skippy!
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shades of gray (rape)
Heather MacDonald, a fellow at the conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute, had an essay in yesterday's
Los Angeles Times railing against the "phony"
rape epidemic on America's college campuses. MacDonald claims that the statistic used by many university rape crisis centers — 20-25% of college women will be sexually victimized — is grossly over-inflated. The statistic, she says, comes from a 1988 study commissioned by
Ms., in which a researcher, Mary Koss, classified things as rape that the respondents didn't construe as rape
themselves. Writes MacDonald: "One question, for example, asked, 'Have you had sexual intercourse when you didn't want to because a man gave you alcohol or drugs?' — a question that is ambiguous on several fronts, including the woman's degree of incapacitation, the causal relation between being given a drink and having sexual intercourse, and the man's intentions."
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Jezebel
