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.*

Ke$ha, Ke$ha, Ke$ha

Ever since it's release a couple of weeks ago, I have been obsessed with Ke$ha's new album, Animal. My roommate knows better than anyone how I have been playing it on repeat morning, noon, and night. This party girl's semi-offensive music has recently exploded on the charts and has managed to either get people dancing or piss them off.

I am slightly ashamed to admit that I am guilty of being ignorant of the lyrics because my judgment is clouded by the catchy-ness of it. After a couple of run-throughs of the album, the feminist in me starts pointing out all of the things wrong with her lyrics. Part of the appeal of Ke$ha's music is that she is bold enough to write songs some of these songs without worrying about who she's offending. It is the shock and awe mentality. This audacity can sometimes be a good thing, but a lot of the time it can be shocking in a bad way.

Blah Blah Blah is one of her songs in particular that I've been trying to decide whether it is okay or not. I had kind of lost steam in on my inter-cranial debate until I saw Feministing, The Sexist, and bitchmedia's commentary on the song.


Ke$ha is basically telling a guy to stop talking and just have sex with her:

"Don’t be a little bitch with your chit chat
Just show me where your dick’s at.

...Meet me in the back with the Jack and the jukebox
So cut to the chase kid
Cuz I know you don’t care what my middle name is
I wanna be naked but you’re wasted.

A surprising switch in gender roles. Most of the time we assume that guys want to avoid the talking and get down the business but Ke$ha is turning the tables. It is good to see females breaking out of the docile, prude mold and showing they can be openly sexual. Ke$ha's music gives females a role model who shows them it is okay to be loud and say whatever outrageous things they want to say. Now is Ke$ha a good influence for young girls who are listening to her lyrics about drinking, partying, and having casual sex? Probably not, but that's a whole other debate.

While she is showing the public that women can break the stereotype, she hints at non consensual sexual activity, which is not something we want males or females doing. A lot of people will make the argument that she is not being serious and she is not actually an advocate of date-rape, but why is it okay that she's joking about it? Date-rape affects both males and females in a very non-humorous way so why is it funny to make a joke out of their experiences?

If a man wrote a song with the same lyrics, feminists would pounce on him in an instant, but because Ke$ha is a female does that make it okay?

Thoughts on whether or not Ke$ha's song is acceptable or not?
Comment or email me at mkirschen@feminist.org

photo courtesy of Edo Peltier via Flickr

Ditch the candy, this Halloween sign yourself up for some good ol' fashion fear mongering!

Everyone has their own Halloween traditions. In his documentary Hell House, director/ producer George Radliff shows the not-so-common Halloween traditions of a town on the outskirts of Dallas, where the production of "Hell House" is annually held.

Hell House is a haunted house-style play focused on decisions that will exempt a person from the pearly gates. Teens and parents alike try out in large numbers, hoping to play "rave master" or"school shooting kid."

During Halloween season, "those who dare enter" watch a series of five-minute skits, showing what each character did to get in Hell. There's the boy who "chose the gay lifestyle" and became HIV positive; the woman who cheats on her abusive, alcoholic husband; the girl who took the abortion pill and died from blood loss, the boy who was so fed up with teasing that he commits suicide in front of his class and (can't forget this one!) the girl who goes to a rave, gets drugged and raped and commits suicide because of her guilt!

After seeing the characters tortured and burned in the final "Hell" scene, the audience is taken to calm room. Here, a person asks the group if they know where they would go if they were to die that night. Those who would like to go to heaven are offered entrance into a room where they can pray with church members.

This is where I sat on my couch, watching and thinking "WHAAAAAT! WAY TO BLAME THE VICTIM!"

This movie put things in the most disgusting terms: It's not the rapist who goes to hell, its the poor survivor. It's not the abuser or the mean students, it's the abused and the taunted.

It's time to identify this as what it is: fear mongering! They are showing extreme situations as scare tactics to sway their audience towards their unrealistic cause. To find out more about Hell House, rent it!

DNA Evidence Leads to Sexual Assault Arrest in LA County

The LA Times reports that a Long Beach, CA man, arrested on domestic violence charges, is suspected of sexually assaulting an 83 year-old woman earlier this year. The man underwent a DNA test upon his recent arrest, and his DNA matches that which was collected from the sexual assault case.

Los Angeles County currently has a backlog of untested rape evidence collection kits, which contain DNA samples from sexual assault cases, totaling around 12,000 kits! About half of the cases these kits are tied to have passed the statute of limitations.

By allowing rape kits to go untested, LA County has been depriving sexual assault victims of the justice they deserve, while allowing dangerous criminals to run free. In fact, in Los Angeles County, sexual assault has the lowest arrest rate of any violent crime - only about 25% of cases ever end in arrest.

When New York City began testing their recent backlog of nearly 17,000 rape kits, the arrest rate skyrocketed to 80%, with a very small dismissal and acquittal rate. Through examination of the DNA evidence contained in the kits, the city was able to not only find and convict serial rapists, but serial date rapists, as well.

This is extremely notable because date or acquaintance rape is often considered a less serious crime by authorities, and some recent investigation in Santa Barbara, CA shockingly revealed that SBPD will immediately dismiss acquaintance rape cases that involve alcohol. With a prominent university and community college located in Santa Barbara this unjustice is absolutely inexcusable.

Human Rights Watch has been investigating the LA County rape kit backlog and suspects the backlog is not isolated to Los Angeles, but is most likely a national crisis.

What can you do? Start investigating! Ask your local police department if they have untested rape kits. Find out what their procedure for testing rape kits is. If you find disturbing information, contact your FMF Campus Organizer.