The idea (one intended to be of neo-feminism) is, don't drink and you may have saved yourself from rape. Does the argument hold? SPM writer Lily Lieberman takes a look.Photo by Noemi Gonzalez
Recently, consuming alcohol while in the possession of a vagina has become a topic of debate. Why? You can’t exactly leave them at home when you head out to Mill with your friends.
Emily Yoffe, a regular Slate contributor best known for her Dear Prudence column, wrote an article on what she intended to be a neo-feminist view of rape prevention titled “College Women: Stop Getting Drunk."
As expected, Yoffe’s article received more backlash than praise. Yoffe claims her words were taken out of context. Here are a few excerpts from her article.
“Young women are getting a distorted message that their right to match men drink for drink is a feminist issue. The real feminist message should be that when you lose the ability to be responsible for yourself, you drastically increase the chances that you will attract the kinds of people who, shall we say, don’t have your best interest at heart. That’s not blaming the victim; that’s trying to prevent more victims.”
[Explaining what she will tell her daughter when she goes to college] “I know alcohol will be widely available...but that she’ll have a good chance of knowing what’s going on around her if she limits herself to no more than two drinks, sipped slowly—no shots!—and stays away from notorious punch bowls. 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.”
"Let's be totally clear: Perpetrators are the ones responsible for committing their crimes, and they should be brought to justice. But we are failing to let women know that when they render themselves defenseless, terrible things can be done to them."
“If I had a son, I would tell him that it’s in his self-interest not to be the drunken frat boy who finds himself accused of raping a drunken classmate.”
Charles Clymer, internet sensation, army veteran and feminist, was the first to call out Yoffe in a blog post that went viral and coined the term “Don’t Drink and Vagina,” claiming she had joined the national campaign, “composed of persons in authority (or whom attempt to speak with authority) who seriously believe the answer to stopping rape and other sexual violence against women is by encouraging women to alter their behavior.”
Clymer adamantly states in his blog that Yoffe uses the guilt of ingesting alcohol to lay blame to victims of sexual assault. Yoffe rebuts by refusing to concede this is blaming the victim, instead she claims she’s preventing more potential victims from being assaulted.
Most nights of drunken fraternizing end with a permanent-marker penis elaborately drawn on one’s forehead. Case closed. But oftentimes, Friday nights take a darker turn. SPM spoke with ASU students to determine the relationship between alcohol and sexual assault. We found there’s a difference between correlation and causation and the one taking the risk versus the one who carries the responsibility.
Social work and English sophomore Jessie Martin empathizes with both Clymer and Yoffe.
“I mean I understand where she’s coming from but that’s really extreme,” Martin says. “There’s lots of ways to protect yourself from rape, in like drinking you can drink reasonably, you can have a spotter, have somebody watch out for you, put yourself in safe situations without getting raped just because you’re drinking.”
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, at least one-half of all violent crimes involve alcohol consumption by the perpetrator, the victim or both. Sexual assault fits the same pattern. Alcohol consumption by perpetrators and victims tends to co-occur, so if the victim is drinking the perpetrator is as well.
But there’s a difference between correlation and causation; a relationship between two variables does not imply that one leads to the other. This is where the true controversy lies: does the consumption of alcohol directly lead to being raped?
Economics sophomore Kyle Hildebrand chose to look at it from both genders’ perspectives, coming to the conclusion that it’s easier to get into a mindset when intoxicated.
“Guys find it easier to convince themselves when they’re drunk, ‘oh this is ok’ and some people don’t even realize they’re actually raping someone,” Hildebrand says. “From a girl’s perspective, I think it can affect their behavior and their behavior can lead up to that [assault] but I don't think alcohol is the main reason of why it happens.”
“It’d definitely be good to educate women on being safe and altering some of their behaviors to help them not be selected as victims but ultimately, when they are raped, they are a victim and they are not responsible,” Martin says.
Countless studies have compared the personality characteristics, attitudes and life experiences of women who were sexually assaulted with those of other women. The results showed small amounts of variants indicating that women’s personal characteristics are not strong predictors of victimization.
Family and human development senior Brooke Manley stated that women shouldn’t have to alter their behavior for preventative measures.
“A girl should be able to wear whatever she wants, she should be able to do whatever she wants and not have to worry about a guy ever taking advantage of her,” Manley says. “Like I said before, I think guys just get it wrong and really misconstrue things and take things out of context. It’s not the girl’s fault so she shouldn’t have to change. If anything the guy should just listen and be respectful.”
However, alcohol can inhibit the part of the brain that processes intentions. Studies have confirmed that if a man hopes to have sex with a woman, he will only pay attention to social cues that fit his expectation and disregard ones that deny his interests, thus leading a man’s misperception of a woman’s degree of sexual interest a factor in sexual assault. Likewise, if a woman has felt she’s made it clear she isn't interested, alcohol will inhibit her from processing the man’s cues indicating that he has misread her intentions.
“A women can be swinging naked from a chandelier and that’s not an invitation to assault. It may not be considered normal behavior but it’s not an excuse,” Deborah Dyer, Ph.D., licensed psychologist and ASU alum, bluntly explains. “The general aspect here is that alcohol as a drug tends to lower inhibition and when alcohol is involved in any situation, there is a higher risk of any bad choices being made. But a higher risk does not mean a cause and effect relationship between alcohol and sexual assault. That’s just simplifying it.”
Dyer cited a power differential between genders as the reason we blame the victim over the assaulter; blaming the victim gives the perpetrator power. Although we’re beginning to change the dialogue, it has been deeply engrained in our society and is a politically active belief structure.
Not unlike the ASU students interviewed, she mentions education and awareness as key areas to focus on if we aim to change society’s thought process.
Dyer thinks the reaction to a reversed campaign of Don’t Drink and Penis, where men are asked to have control over themselves and not rape women wouldn’t have quite the same effect.
“Socially the reaction would be negative if men were asked to stop drinking," Dyer says. "‘That doesn’t have anything to do with that! You can’t control me, I’ll do whatever I want.’ I suspect both young men and women would not appreciate being told this. The men campaign is a hell of a lot less likely to even occur.”
Until the day comes when we have to start locking up our vaginas along with our backpacks at the campus bookstore, Dyer's explanation points out that we need to start attacking rape at its source: rapists.
Reach the writer at lily.lieberman@asu.edu
Correction: Due to a reporting error, Deborah Dyer was attributed as an area psychologist. She is a licensed psychologist. The story has been updated.
