Crying Wolf

There is a logical answer to all of these questions. It is that women are scared. They are scared that every man they know might be a potential rapist. They are scared because they have been told that there is a chance of being raped on a date by someone they know and trust. They are scared because Ms. magazine reported that one out of every six college women has been raped. Women at Penn are scared because this newspaper told them that 3.7 percent of their fellow classmates who had been surveyed said they had been raped by a man they knew, and that twenty date rapes were reported to the Women's Center within a year. Should college women be scared? Does a legitimate problem exist? Yes. Even if only one-fifth of one percent of the female student population reported being victims of date rape within the last year. This still represents twenty real people who had to live through such a horrible experience. It is understandable that women would be so dramatically affected by the issue of date rape. But what about men? How are they affected by all the information and endless news stories coming out about date rape? They too are scared. They are scared that women now view all men as potential rapists. They are scared that women believe they cannot trust their closest male friends and even their boyfriends. Helen Jung, the DP executive editor, in a recent column called this mutual fear "equitable." I call it a horrible way to carry out human relations. This is why so many males are wary of the ideology espoused by activists who are bringing date rape to the forefront. Women should be made aware of the dangers that exist and must be advised to use precaution as they would in any other situation. However, there are limits to the type of propaganda that should be used in "educating" women. For example, all men are not potential rapists. They can be considered potential rapists only as much as they can be considered potential murderers. After all, there is always a chance a person will do anything. This applies to women as well as men. In any case, it is not something you stay up at night worrying about while in a relationship. Suffice it to say, most men will not rape, and that is not what should be at the front of a woman's mind when she goes out with a man. You see, men have this uncanny knack for being human just like women, with the same set of morals and principles that are characteristic of the species. In the end, activists do a grave injustice to their cause when they overstate the case for date rape. When claims are made that a woman may be raped without her realizing it, the definition of rape itself becomes blurred. Common sense leads one to believe that a woman knows if she has been raped or not. After all, rape is supposed to be a brutal violation of a person's being, if not physically, then at least psychologically. People can distinguish between that and enjoyable intercourse, can't they? A great example of stepping beyond the bounds of reason is the Lisa Niver case. For fourteen months she stays in a relationship where she has sex on a regular basis and apparently does not mind. But one night amidst a great many nights of sexual abandon she does not explicitly state, "Yes, I want to have sex again tonight." She makes no physical or verbal signs that she does not want to have sex. Then four years later she claims what happened was rape. I could feel comforted in the fact that this is a case of a deranged woman having no particular attachment to reality, were it not for the fact that feminist activists seem to support her view of what happened. They even go as far as conjuring up ludicrous hypotheses to explain her actions. They claim she must have been so traumatized by the incident that in order to avoid the conclusion that she was raped she continued to have sex with her rapist for the next nine months. If true, this must be the most prodigious case of cognitive dissonance ever recorded. Can activists not see that they make their cause look ridiculous when they make such outlandish claims rather than address the real problem at hand? Date rape is a serious issue that must be discussed. However, it must be addressed in a productive manner that stresses education and prevention. Pursuing the matter to the heights of absurdity only belittles the cause. Trying to fit this issue into the lexicon of women victimology also trivializes an issue that is far too serious to use towards personal political aims. Cenk Uygur is a senior Management major from East Brunswick, New Jersey. How You Like Me Now, Baby? appears alternate Fridays.

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