February 22, 2007

"Rape Zones"

Max Bryer, this doesn't make sense.

"the charge that all fraternities across the board are either directly responsible or inherently complicit in sexual crimes is simply too broad to command much credence."

So generalizations are bad, huh? Funny you should think so, because in a preceding paragraph, you come up with this whopper:

"Sexual assault is the truly unfortunate consequence inherent in any large social gathering. A large social event is bound to contain any number of scumbags who will try to take advantage of someone... Rape happens wherever people congregate because schmucks are everywhere."

Right.

So frats aren't all bad, but big groups of people--all big groups of people--are. We shouldn't generalize about frats, but generalizing about the whole human race is perfectly acceptable.

Strange, but I'll grant you both the generalization and this odd exception for the moment.

The problem I have with your argument is that you have no idea what Andreadis's "rape zones" plan was for. It was not, as you seem to think, intended merely to compare frats and prove which ones are the "worst." It wasn't even designed as a way to prove to the campus that sexual assault happens om the frats. The project was by no means even supposed to be limited to fraternities at all—it would have included all spaces which students frequent. The intention was to give students the information which would allow and encourage them to take responsibility for the spaces over which they have some control.

If I were a brother at a frat, even if I was sure my fellow brothers would never, even under the influence of alcohol, sexually assault women, I would want to know if somebody else was at one of my parties. If Bryer's generalization about big groups of people--that they'll always have scumbags among them--is even often true, I'd want to know if those scumbags are showing up at my house and assaulting women in my space. If it turned out that my house and my house's hospitality was being used in this way, I would use that information to figure out what kind of steps needed to be taken to make my parties safe for everyone. On a personal level, I'd try to look around a little bit more when the basement's open or the dance party's on and see if I can help head off any problems. At any rate, if I know that sexual assault occurs in my house, I'd certainly feel more impelled to consider sexual assault as something that affects me and isn't just something that happens at other houses.

But maybe that's just me.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous10:16 AM

    I swear to God if I heard the phrase "social spaces" one more time I'm taking an assault rifle up Baker Tower.

    ReplyDelete