American University rape apologist reminds us why feminism is needed

Monday's edition of American University's The Eagle featured an article titled "Dealing with AU's anti-sex brigade", which does a great job at offending victims of date rape. Here's a snippet of the article:

"Let’s get this straight: any woman who heads to an EI [an unaffilated fraternity] party as an anonymous onlooker, drinks five cups of the jungle juice, and walks back to a boy’s room with him is indicating that she wants sex, OK? To cry “date rape” after you sober up the next morning and regret the incident is the equivalent of pulling a gun to someone’s head and then later claiming that you didn’t ever actually intend to pull the trigger.

“Date rape” is an incoherent concept. There’s rape and there’s not-rape, and we need a line of demarcation. It’s not clear enough to merely speak of consent, because the lines of consent in sex — especially anonymous sex — can become very blurry. If that bothers you, then stick with Pat Robertson and his brigade of anti-sex cavemen! Don’t jump into the sexual arena if you can’t handle the volatility of its practice!"

Understandably, this has sparked mass amounts of controversy throughout the AU community. I'm hesitant to give this article any more attention that it has already received, but I think it is important to remind people why there is a need for feminism. As Jezelbel outlines, the writer's opinion is not an original one. There will always be people like this and it is our job to help people block out their voices.

Former FMF intern, Maggie, has written her opinion on The Eagle's blog.

Unfortunately, the writer's 15 minutes are not up. The attention he is receiving is exactly what he wants, but on the other hand silence is not the solution. This is not the first time his misogynist beliefs have found there way into the pages of the paper.

Here are some letters to the editor written by members of the AU community. Also, take a look at the comments on the original article. *Note that they all occured in the 3 hours after the article was posted, before the comments were disabled.*