Columnist Dishes Dangerous Logic About Rape

A recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal promotes the idea that men are essentially violent and women just have to learn to deal with it.

Um, ok.

In the April 14 Wall Street Journal opinion piece headlined, "Ladies, You Should Know Better: How feminism wages war on common sense", Naomi Schaefer Riley declares women "moronic" for "engaging in behavior" that makes them rape-magnets.

So, I'm moronic for walking down the street? I'm moronic for thinking that I can just eat my dinner without it meaning I am going to have sex with you? I'm moronic for letting a friend over to study? I'm moronic for accepting a drink my new boyfriend made for me?

Do tell, woman-hater. Ms. bag-o-douche proceeds to blame victims, not the perpetrator. For example: When discussing the recent rape and subsequent death of a New York student, Ms. bag-o-douche explains: "Ms. St. Guillen was last seen in a bar, alone and drinking at 3 a.m. on the Lower East Side of Manhattan," Shaefer Riley writes, and "more than a few of us have been thinking that a 24-year-old woman should know better."

You stupid, stupid, dead girl. How dare you be alone? How dare you drink? Aahh, the sheer stupidity of that moronic dead girl. You should know better then to be alone, cause you are a rape- magnet you fool.
While it's certainly important and essential for women (and men) to evaluate our social behavior with an eye toward safety, staying sober and staying home does not inoculate women against sexual violence. Ask any woman whose home was broken into and raped thereafter. You stupid moron, you.

The moral of her story: Women who go out to bars in the city ask for rape. Strippers who work bachelor parties ask for rape. College students who get plastered ask for rape. And men who rape? It's not worth holding them accountable for their behavior.

The contention that men are essentially violent and women just have to learn to deal is a useless strategy for sexual assault prevention. In fact, it's downright dangerous, perpetuating the regressive idea that men can commit abusive, criminal acts with impunity and the only thing women can do to cope is to avoid alcohol, parties and miniskirts. It's a depressing view of the world that offers women no hope of societal change, only fear and disempowerment.