Yet again, with "Daisy's case" in Maryville, a familiar storyline has played out: A young woman was allegedly raped after getting drunk. There's no arguing with the facts, writes Emily Yoffe in Slate: Alcohol and sexual assault are inextricably linked. One study found that more than 80% of sexual assaults on college campuses involve alcohol. Another found that voluntary alcohol consumption, not date rape drugs, typically precedes campus sexual assaults. And yet, Yoffe writes, we shy away from advising young women not to get drunk, because we have "a misplaced fear of blaming the victim."
"Let’s be totally clear: Perpetrators are the ones responsible for committing their crimes, and they should be brought to justice," Yoffe writes. "But we are failing to let women know that when they render themselves defenseless, terrible things can be done to them." Being able to drink as much as a man is not a "feminist issue," and biologically speaking, women simply get drunk faster than men do. It's possible to have fun without binge drinking—Yoffe's advice to her own college-bound daughter is to nurse no more than two drinks—and giving young women that advice is "not blaming the victim; that's trying to prevent more victims." Click for her full column. (More alcohol stories.)
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