Posted on 09/08/2014 4:28:04 PM PDT by rhema
Speech codes won’t fix what ails a relationship marketplace that aggravates—rather than relieves—the risk of sexual violence. California’s proposed law will simply multiply accusations, legal proceedings, and judicial headaches.
President Obama is right. Our nation has a problem with sexual assault. The Relationships in America survey project, a large national data collection effort I oversaw earlier this year, suggests that the president’s “20 percent” figure on college sexual assault is not far off. When I limited my analyses to those women no older than age 25 who’ve already earned a college degree, I learned that 19 percent of them report having been physically forced to have sex against their will at some point in their life.
But some proposed solutions wouldn’t help much. Last week, sociologist Michael Kimmel and author Gloria Steinem took to the pages of the New York Times to express their support for pending California legislation that would require verbal consent for all sexual activity on the state’s college campuses. Couched in protective language aimed at vilifying “anti-feminists” and “opponents of women’s equality,” Kimmel and Steinem make a case for an admittedly odd law by attempting to shame the unconvinced. The only predictable thing missing was a “right side of history” reference.
I don’t think Kimmel and Steinem are foolish to be concerned. We do have a social problem here. But what Kimmel and Steinem do not do is adequately wonder about how and why things have gone awry. They grasp at speech codes, unwilling to admit the profound trade-offs that have, in part, stimulated the development of a relationship marketplace that is more vulnerable to sexual violence.
Legalism Won’t Fix the Mating Market
(Excerpt) Read more at thepublicdiscourse.com ...
I read where some jock said if she’s unconscious and can’t say no, then it’s yes. Really.
They can make all the laws in the world to force behavioral changes but those laws will never work. Our behavior is, and will always be, dictated by our (fallen) nature.
Hey!
After all, rape is speech.
Women having some sense of modesty and valuing virginity before marriage would go a long way to solving the problem.
How many of these “rapes” are called such just because he fails to call her again after a bout of consensual drunken sex? Such cries of rape are hurtful to real rape victims.
On today’s campuses, Christian organizations are banned as intolerant and hateful for requiring that their leaders not engage in sex outside marriage; but sexual assault is condoned and tacitly encouraged.
...Women having some sense of modesty and valuing virginity before marriage would go a long way to solving the problem....
Also remove the habit of young women attending parties till unknown hours at night, with unknown members with unknown intent, and then remove alcohol, and I would bet the percentage would drop by over half.
You are right.
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