Dartblog

Kathleen Mayer’s recent three-part series on the serious problem of sexual assault at the College (Part 1; Part 2; Part 3) has elicited a great deal of praise — and some well-thought-out criticism. A few thoughts from my corner:

Among the more doctrinaire positions that one hears on campus is the strident feminist notion that “it is my right to be drunk at 3am in a frat basement just like anyone else, and be safe.” In formal terms, there is no disputing this point: legally and morally, the position is correct. But one hears this comment often enough, in just these terms, to assume that it is passed on without thought.

My response is always an indirect one. “Do you lock your bicycle?” After a wary answer, “Yes,” my conversation partners see where I am going. Of course, we all have the legal right not to lock a bicycle when we leave it unattended, but we don’t do so. We recognize the existence of thievery in the world, and though we attempt to combat it by, among other things, paying taxes so that the judicial system can eradicate theft, taking basic precautions on a personal level is just common sense.

If my daughter took this rigid position, I’d move the conversation from one about legality, to a simple cost/benefit analysis. Sure you can stand on your legal rights, but what is the benefit from taking this position? Slight, if anything. And what is the cost? Kathleen details that pretty well.

One other query that I have had concerns the nature of women’s response on campus to the problem of assault. Have no doubt that it is a problem. The first time that an undergraduate friend — a trusted, reliable one — described the frequency of ugly events that had occurred to people in her circle of acquaintances, I was profoundly shaken. Subsequent accounts from similarly situated people have had the same effect. Why don’t women do more to combat the problem? The efforts of the Panhellenic Society to boycott fraternities that don’t sufficiently investigate accusations of assault are a start. But have they been effective? I was surprised at the controversy that they caused.

Let’s flip things around for the purpose of analysis. Imagine that a slightly built fraternity brother was plied with liquor and then sexually assaulted by a member of a gay organization, perhaps someone living in the College’s planned LBGT housing? How would the fraternity brothers of the aggrieved student respond?