Before I begin I want to acknowledge that I do not condone the incident that occurred during Homecoming Weekend on Court Street. In fact, this letter should not been viewed as a commentary on said incident but rather as a response to all the talk about rape culture on our campus.
It has come to my attention that for some reason many people at this school feel as though there is a prevalent culture of rape, as if it's some underworld culture that everyone knows about, but nothing can be done about it but to advocate and spread awareness. I'm simply here to ask: What culture is this? And what can be done about it?
Sure, handfuls of people have pointed out in the discussion that consent cannot be given if either subject is intoxicated. And as we all know sex without consent is indeed rape. Thus, in that case, every year hundreds and hundreds of rapes occur in Athens. Yet, only a few report it.
There is a vast difference between a violent sexual assault and a drunken hook-up where neither individual is able to give consent and so they end up "raping" each other after a night of flirting and the like. This is where the idea of blaming the victim comes into play.
In a serious sexual assault one should never, ever blame the victim if that victim was coerced into doing something that he or she didn't want to do. But, if both parties head home inebriated and one party calls rape on the other party this serious accusation should be taken with a grain of salt. If both individuals were incapacitated enough to not be able to give proper consent, did the accuser then not also act as the perpetrator to the other party at the same time?
I know of no one to trivialize the horrible crime that is rape. I just can't buy into the idea that Ohio University harbors this much talk about rape culture. If anything we have a drinking problem (like many other universities) that causes such incidents but that is still a far cry from the idea of rape culture I've been hearing so much talk about this year (which is my first year even hearing about it since enrolling in the fall of 2010). The majority (one would be hard-pressed to not find outliers at any campus) of OU students and all the staff and faculty are extremely supportive of people dealing with the traumas of rape.
Rapes (as well as rape accusations) have very serious long-term implications. Maybe we should rethink what the term rape means and what situations it applies to? And maybe, just maybe, we should think twice about who we engage in sexual encounters with?
Tom Pernecker is a senior studying journalism.
