This year for Valentine's Day I'm getting my girlfriend a shiv. Not just because it will match the Taser I got her for Christmas, but because I worry. This quarter our campus has seen some disturbing crimes perpetrated on women. Kristen Wisler was grabbed on Congress Street -a block away from my house -and taken for a drive against her will. A female student was raped in Grover Center on a weeknight by a stranger. Another student was held in a dorm room and sexually imposed.
Sexual assaults are a sad fact of college life. A 2000 study by the Bureau of Justice found that 27.7 female students out of 1000 were raped (the study can be found at http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/182369.pdf). Even these statistics are problematic because there is no way to tabulate unreported rapes perpetrated by strangers or acquaintances. This being said, there are ways to improve protection from heinous acts like getting raped in a university building.
Everyone knows to walk in groups, especially if you're tipsy or in an area you are not familiar with. Wisler was within a few yards of her friend when she got abducted. So what do I suggest? Weapons. Seriously. Women on campus, I implore you: Carry pepper spray, anything that can be used to incapacitate an assailant. Take kickboxing lessons. Join the mixed martial arts club. Protect yourself.
I don't mean to perpetuate hysteria, but these crimes are happening, and they are happening consistently. So while the guy who whistles at you might be a jerk and won't need a right cross to the jaw, it doesn't hurt to know how to throw one.
It seems like there is a column annually that suggests women wear more sensible clothes: no miniskirts, no high heels -you can't run in them. Those accommodations will never be commonplace, so let's compromise. Let's say sensible shoes, mace in the purse and rings with pointy ends.
I'm not a blame the victim kind of guy. Women who don't protect themselves are not the reason rapes occur. I mean, who wakes up in the morning thinking, This is the day I could be sexually assaulted. It's a morbid thought, but a true one. And it's always been better to be safe than sorry. Perhaps it's time for a militant defense of female self-interest.
Most rapes are still perpetrated by acquaintances. The stranger in the bushes is an anomaly, but with mace you can protect yourself from both.
I'm not saying this because I'm paranoid (my paranoia has nothing to do with this). I'm saying this because I have friends on campus I care about, and I don't want anything to happen to them.
The best way to guarantee your safety is to do it yourself.
-Jason Lea, a senior magazine journalism major, is a Post crime and courts reporter. Send him an e-mail at jason.lea@ohiou.edu.
17 Archives
The Post Editorial
