Alcohol Education Is Not Rape Apology [View all]

[cali]

Yesterday, Slate writer Emily Yoffe published a story on the importance of teaching college women that binge drinking raises their risk of being raped. It was a story your mom probably would have approved of—prescriptive, groaningly fuddy-duddyish (“it’s possible to have fun without being drunk”), with the cadences of a health education video.

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The Internet, apparently, did not agree. Within hours of publication, the story was generating furious responses.

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These responses are distressing. The link between drinking and the risk of sexual assault is indisputable. And teaching women this fact should be seen as empowering, not victim-blaming.

As Yoffe wrote, sexual assault is horrifyingly common on college campuses. A full 20 percent of college women will be sexually assaulted before graduation (men are not immune either; 1 in 10 rape victims are male). Eighty percent of the time, alcohol will be involved.

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But this doesn't make her points about women and drinking any less true. Educating women on the factors that make them vulnerable to assault is not victim-blaming. It is simply practical advice backed up by data. We tell travelers to be aware of their surroundings in unfamiliar cities to reduce the risk of mugging. We teach new drivers defensive strategies to avoid being hit by drunks and speeders. This should not be any different.

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Rapists are criminals who are solely responsible for their crimes. But until rape is eradicated from the face of the earth, women must be empowered to do what they can to protect themselves.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/alcohol-education-is-not-rape-apology/280661/?google_editors_picks=true