March 4, 2014



The New Sexual Double Standard: When Alcohol Is Involved, Men Are Rapists And Women Are Rape Victims

It sounds like a cartoon of a standard, but it's one many are taking seriously on campuses: If a man has a beer and has sex, he is a rapist. If a woman has a beer and has sex, she is a rape victim.

Margaret Wente writes in The Globe And Mail:

So here's the $10 question. Can a woman consent to sex when she's been drinking? Universities have decided that the answer is no. "We heard that students don't understand that it is illegal to have sex with someone who is drunk because they can't give consent," says the Saint Mary's task force report. Although that sentence is crafted to be gender-neutral, its warning is directed at men. It means that drunken sex is tantamount to rape. Is there a double standard here? Indeed there is. Men are treated as potential rapists, and women as their helpless victims (or, in current parlance, "survivors"). If two young people get hammered and have drunken sex, he is responsible for his behaviour, but she's not responsible for hers. And even if she does say "yes," it's up to him to figure out whether she means it. As Wayne MacKay, the law professor who wrote the Saint Mary's report, told Maclean's: "Clearly the focus needs to be on the fact that men need to have a better understanding and stop raping." Let's be clear about a few things. Obviously, someone who is passed out or barely conscious cannot consent to sex. Men, who have physical size and strength on their side, have an extra duty to rein in their disinhibitions whether they are under the influence or not. And some men really are predators who deliberately target women. But the truth is that a great deal of alcoholic sex basically involves "stuff I wouldn't have done if I was sober."

via @walterolson



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