Rape and the Responsibilities of Women

One of the topics of discussion that really stood out to me on Tuesday dealt with the Duke lacrosse team rape scandal. We talked about how rape and sexual harassment cases are sometimes disregarded because of the circumstances or because of the individuals that are involved. I remember becoming very frustrated while watching and reading about the coverage of this case because of how the media repeatedly portrayed the victim. Reporters never failed to mention that the victim was a stripper, which almost seemed like they were trying to say that her job provided some kind of justification for the terrible things that allegedly happened to her.

Another interesting connection that I have to this same topic is from an article called “Rape and Fraternities” that I had to read for my Sociology class. This article focused on the gang rapes that often occur at fraternity parties when a group of males tries to get a female drunk so that they can then take advantage of her and show their “brothers” how popular they are. One student in my class made a comment to the effect of, “what is the girl expecting when she goes to a fraternity party and has a few drinks?” This comment angered many people in the class, including myself, because our peer was insinuating that the girl was basically asking for unfortunate things to happen to her. I don’t believe that this would ever give the men an excuse to take advantage of the woman. There were also comments about how the female in a particular incident was dressed, like that too would justify and make what happened to her acceptable. In my mind, there is no way to justify an incident of rape or sexual harassment. A person’s job and what they happened to be wearing on the night of the incident should never really even be given any thought.

I do think however, that in cases like the two I have referred to, women have a responsibility to use their good judgment when they are entering certain situations. They should think about the potential consequences of their actions, such as drinking excessively at a fraternity party or wearing a short skirt, and change their behaviors as necessary.