Worlds of Rape, Words of Rape.

Dr. Block’s post is insightful in its treatment of the problems that women (men) encounter when claiming they have been raped. In this piece she seems to concentrate her intellectual discussion to the realm of higher education.

In my opinion most of the hurdles that these student victims face are related to questions of fairness and proof. Apparently Dr. Block believes that where a rape is alleged to have occurred there should be a bias towards accepting the victim’s account of what happened. The post suggests that “big time” universities with their male fraternity houses frown on women student’s claims of being raped while on campus. I think she means to say that there is a cultural of indifference to these claims or women victims.

As of yet there is no universally accepted legal standard or strategy that can govern a university’s response to a student’s claim of having been sexually attacked. In my opinion this is good; there should not be any standard response. Each claim of rape or sexual abuse must be investigated on its own without any deference being given to the alleged victim. According to the Rolling Stone (The Rolling Stone?) the U of Virginia’s Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house represents one visceral part of the a much larger problem.” If you take alcohol out of the equation rape and sexual abuse would dramatically decline on American campuses. The intellectual and factual battles over “informed consent” would melt away. Don’t we use alcohol to lower our inhibitions when contemplating sex with someone? Both men and women of all ages use alcohol in this fashion.

Professor Block’s academic credentials are beyond reproach. Her intellectual contribution to this critically important public topic should not be underestimated. Yet, I believe that Dr. Block glosses over the impact that booze has in all of these recent high profile claims of rape and sexual abuse that are marching across today’s news.