Recently Catie Warren, a correspondent for the website Total Frat
Move, wrote an article titled “Stop Crying Rape.” In this article,
Warren describes college-aged girls who go out, drink excessively, and
subsequently sleep with their male peers, only to claim they have been
raped when they wake up the next day regretting their actions. Warren
believes that this practice creates a mockery of actual sexual assault
victims. While I agree with her that a remorseful sexual encounter is
not rape, I do believe there are a few points which should be discussed
regarding this article.
In Catie Warren’s article, there is an overgeneralization of exactly
what rape is. She writes as though the only victims of rape are
college-aged women who have had too much to drink and fall into bed with
someone. Sexual assault is very prominent on college campuses, but it
happens in many different situations as well. Women can be victims; men
can be victims. The attacker and the victim may be of the same sex.
It can occur drunk or sober. The attacker may be a stranger, or it may
be someone you have known your entire life. Even when it occurs on
college campuses, only 5% of students who have been sexually assaulted will report the case. So why should we try to discourage others from
doing so?
There is a lack of knowledge about consent, making it more difficult
to know exactly what is and is not considered rape. Consent is an
agreement between two people who voluntarily and willingly want to have
sex with each other. Consent is discussed before sexual activity has
commenced and is consistently revisited regarding different sexual acts.
Consent is not implied or assumed, even if you are in a long-term
relationship or have had sex with that person before.
Catie Warren’s article gives several examples of victim shaming
(making a victim feel responsible or ashamed of his or her own
victimization), a huge problem which attributes to today’s rape culture.
Rape culture is an environment where sexual violence is excused in
reality as well as in media and pop culture. Some examples of rape
culture include blaming the victim, sexually explicit jokes, gender
violence in movies and television, sexually fueled song lyrics, and
refusing to take rape accusations seriously. Some ways we can avoid
rape culture are to avoid using language that is degrading to women, to
speak out when someone makes an offensive joke, define your own manhood
or womanhood without letting stereotypes shape it, and communicating
with sexual partners about consent.
Yes, Catie Warren was right to stress the fact that sex which you
agreed to, though you may regret, is in not considered rape. But this
article is missing several key points which I felt should be emphasized.
Rape is not just something that happens to girls at parties. It can
happen to anyone in almost any situation. Consensual sex occurs when
two people have previously discussed that they want to have sex with
each other. Therein lies an issue that needs to be discussed. How do we
empower young women and men to have that clarifying conversation?
Talking about and defining consent is the beginning and needs to be the
norm. As a society we have to stop tolerating “rape” as a casual term.
For example, “our football team raped in intramurals” or “I raped that
calculus exam.” It is a powerful word with an emotional connotation
and should not be used so innocuously it seems like an attempt to make
an action of the word. We must band together to abolish a culture where
it is okay to excuse or joke about rape.
Originally written for the Georgia College Women's Center.
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