Posted on 04/11/2016 10:09:56 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo
Are American college campuses “rape cultures?” Are they dangerous places where sexual assaults against women are happening at an alarming rate?
According to many gender activists, academics and politicians, the answer is yes. Here’s what the Vice-President of the United States, Joe Biden, said in 2014.
“We know the numbers: one in five of every one of those young women who is dropped off for that first day of school, before they finish school, will be assaulted, will be assaulted in her college years.”
Let’s take a closer look at the Vice President’s claim.
Rape is a horrific crime, and rapists are rightfully despised. We have strict laws against sexual assault that everyone wants to see enforced. But, while rape is certainly a very serious problem, there is simply no evidence of a national campus rape epidemic, and there’s certainly no evidence that sexual violence is a “cultural norm” in 21st century America. In fact, rates of rape in the US are very low and they’ve been declining for decades. Why would it be any different on a college campus? Where, then, does the 1 in 5 rate that Vice President Biden cites come from?
Well, it turns out it comes from a study conducted over the Internet at two large universities, one in the Midwest and one in the South. The survey was anonymous, no one’s claims were verified and terms were not clearly defined. In round numbers a total of 5,000 women participated. Based on their responses, the authors, not the participants, determined that 1,000 had been victims of some type of “non-consensual or unwanted sexual contact.”
And voila! From one vaguely worded, unscientific survey we suddenly arrive at “a rape culture on college campuses.” Tellingly, the study authors have since explicitly stated that it is “inappropriate” to use their survey to make that claim.
Much more comprehensive data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) estimates that about 1 in 52.6 college women will be victims of rape or sexual assault over the course of four years. That’s far too many, but it’s a long way from 1 in 5.
The same BJS data also reveal that women in college are safer from rape than college-aged women who are not enrolled in college.
But the truth doesn’t serve the purposes of feminist activists or vote-seeking politicians. Lies work much better. And the 1 in 5 claim is tantamount to a lie. Here are just a few examples of what this lie has wrought.
At Scripps College, Pulitzer-Prize winning commentator George Will was disinvited from giving a speech. The reason? He had dared to question the “rape culture” mantra in a column he wrote.
At the all-women Wellesley College, students demanded that the administration remove a campus sculpture of a sleepwalking man wearing only underpants. Why? Well, because the image of a nearly naked male could "trigger" memories of sexual assault for victims.
According to Harvard Law professor, Jeannie Suk, students now ask teachers not to include questions about rape law on exams for fear that such disturbing questions might cause them to perform less well.
And at Brown University, students were so traumatized by a debate on the subject of campus sexual assault that activists organized a “safe room” equipped with coloring books, Play-Doh, calming music, and a video of frolicking puppies.
No less absurd are the attempts by colleges and legislators to cure this non-existent plague. In California and New York, students now have to live by so-called “Affirmative Consent” laws. The California law says that affirmative consent by all parties must be “ongoing throughout a sexual activity,” while the New York law says that “silence or lack of resistance, in and of itself, does not demonstrate consent.”
Confused? Pity the poor college students who have to figure this out. If it wasn't so serious, it would be laughable. But it's not funny to a growing number of young men who find themselves accused of sexual assault, publicly shamed and then brought before campus judicial panels that are guided by rape-culture theory. In such proceedings, due process is an afterthought: it's guilty because accused.
But here’s the best way to prove that the 1 in 5 number is phony. Ask yourself this question: would you send your daughter to a place for four years where there was a twenty percent chance she would be raped or sexually assaulted?
Of course not.
Good rarely, if ever, comes from lies. The one in five “rape culture” lie is no exception.
I’m Caroline Kitchens of the American Enterprise Institute for Prager University.
Coming from ancient laws, rape historically meant forced sexual acts involving physical contact. Only within the past few years does it now include consensual sex remorse, social revenge and shaming, even perceived intent from non sexual contact like a hug or a kiss on the cheek. OK That can be creepy at times, but my relatives never raped me when we got together at reunions.
In college “no no no” means “yes yes yes”.
I have seen a college directive that considered sex as a result of ANY pressure to be "sexual misconduct". A specific example was a threat to break up if she wasn't interested in sex.
As far as inebriated sex, since legal drinking age is 21, one good measure would be to make underaged drinking an expulsion offense. Then, if she says "I was too drunk to give consent", the administration could say "Well, we don't know that. But have just confessed to being intoxicated while underage, so YOU are expelled".
From my viewpoint, the word "rape" should be confined to sexual intercourse where threat of violence was used to impose submission (the classic definition, before modern Political Correctness).
The definitions that are being used trivialize rape.
College is for education, not hooking up, especially if their education is on the taxpayers’ dime.
It’s just like those commercials you hear on the radio.
Every 2 seconds someone dies of this or is abused with that.
The more you think about it, the more likely you will come to the conclusion that if it was true, there would be no people left.
Yes, and speaking of hate crimes and fake hate crimes, the media never wants to go into who are the majority of perpetrators and predators.
I wish they’d make up their minds. Rape is horrble, unless a rapefugee commits it, or some lefty is wishing it upon Sarah Palin.
Is anyone else stunned by this passage? The students in question presumably are not 3-year old toddlers but college students.
And to further confuse the issue, rape doesn’t happen at all when it’s a rapefugee. That’s just a cultural exchange, no matter how brutal.
Oh, I quite agree. Rape was, after all, once a capital offense. Now one who has been physically assaulted and violated is considered the equivalent of someone who has heard words she doesn't like. The only loser there is the former.
I had two close friends raped at college over past few years.
One had her drink drugeed and was raped by several of Obama’s sons. One or two eventually caught and prosecuted.
The other was raped by middle eastenn classmate who was in her study group. He had to flee the country to avoid prosecution.
“Come to think of it, more than one in five male college students has had similar ‘buyer’s remorse’.”
Close as I could get, but still good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXNHTROcoSs&nohtml5=False
Let me look at it in a slightly different way. You did an excellent analysis.
Start with a college with 8000 female students distributed equally among the four years.
2000 freshmen
2000 sophomores
2000 juniors
2000 seniors
Now assume that 20% of women are raped each year again evenly distributed among the four years.
400 freshmen
400 sophomores
400 juniors
400 seniors
Now an important assumption each woman is only raped once during her four years and each class size remains at 2000 with no transfer students, dropouts etc. As a women progress from freshmen year to senior year, 1600 members of her class of 2000 are raped, or 80% of a graduating class has been raped. Of course those numbers are very unlikely.
Please check my logic.
If they want to see rape culture they should go to any muzliym country. They will see, hear and experience rape.
If they are, it is undeniably a feminist created situation.
With today’s snowflakes, assault can be as simple as “that boy looked at me with what I think was lust in his eyes”. So yes, 1 in 5 are assaulted.
And if you’re a REAL Social Justice Warrior, that “look of lust” alone is fully equivalent to rape.
1 in 5 lust after mandingo boa bone....There...end of thread.
Thank goodness they found some way to get rid of that completely tasteless sculpture.
He had to?
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