#yoffe

I guess Slate realized they lost a bunch of readers -- myself included -- today, as they have already published their own rebuttal to yesterday's "quit drinking, you slutty slut sluts, and maybe you won't get raped” article. Today's article is awesome:

Rape is a societal problem, not a self-help issue. Parents can tell their own daughters not to get drunk, but even if those women follow instructions, it won’t keep other people’s daughters safe. It will just force campus rapists who rely on alcohol to execute their crimes to find other targets. As Yoffe notes, the research of David Lisak suggests that most rapes are committed by a small group of predators who claim a large number of victims. We can prevent the most rapes on campus by putting our efforts toward finding and punishing those perpetrators, not by warning their huge number of potential victims to skip out on parties.

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Yoffe writes that if "female college students start moderating their drinking as a way of looking out for their own self-interest—and looking out for your own self-interest should be a primary feminist principle—I hope their restraint trickles down to the men." But a "feminist" impulse for women to protect themselves by staying sober will not "trickle down" to boys, because they’re situated at the top of the social ladder. Booze may be a common accessory of powerful men on campus, but banning it won't rob them of their influence. We'll see real change on college campuses when we focus on dismantling the social structures that prioritize white, straight men and marginalize everyone else.

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When you tweet that you are “warning young women that there are rapists who use alcohol, not violence,” you reinforce the idea that rape does not constitute a violent crime if alcohol is involved. Banishing that idea is central to preventing these crimes.

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It’s important to remember that our approach to sexual assault on college campuses won’t just influence the numbers of women who are victimized, and the percentage of perpetrators who are punished. Our approach will also affect the health and happiness of victims after the fact. Rape is damaging not just in a physical sense but also in a psychological one. It’s common among victims to internalize the crime and blame ourselves.

Read the full incredible article, written by Amanda Hess, here. Huffpo has their own rebuttal to Slate's awful piece, written buy a guy named Tyler Kingkade, here, and the Atlantic weighed in, too, here.