When reading Feministing today, I stumbled across a blog post that got me really heated. Being a college student and a female, I am well aware of the common misconception of sexual assaults. Most people, the majority of them being men, have this notion that if a woman has had too much to drink and is sexually assaulted, it is her fault and as a result, was not really sexually assaulted. This is a belief that angers me to the core on so many levels and the Telegraph's recent article entitled "Date-rape drink spiking 'an urban legend'" did a phenomenal job of reinforcing this idiotic notion. Being a survivor of sexual assault, especially under the circumstances at hand, I am fully confident to say that what happened to me when I had too much to drink was not my fault! Nor is it ever the fault of the victim, regardless of the situation.
The article goes into detail about how many people are in "active denial" if they think that consuming too much alcohol does not impair their ability and can leave them "incoherent and incapacitated." I will venture to argue this statement in two different ways. First of all, those who drink alcohol are almost always aware of the risks involved in drinking too much...namely, becoming "incoherent and incapacitated." Therefore, I would not say that anyone is in denial of this fact. Also, I feel that in a way the writers of this article is beating around the bush at something else...not that people (women) are in denial of the effects of alcohol, but rather that if they are sexually assaulted it was their own fault. This article also talks about how because of how much our society emphasizes the effects/risks of date-rape drugs, that people often fail to consider other risky situations that could lead to sexual assault, such as "being drunk, taking drugs, or walking alone at night." Wow, talk about victim-blaming at its finest. It's quite amusing to see how skewed this writer's vision of sexual assault is. Those three "important factors in sexual assault" all put the victim at fault for what could happen to them. Not once do they mention that it is, in fact, the perpetrator who is responsible.
Perhaps the most infuriating parts of the article is this: "Among young people, drink spiking stories have attractive features that could 'help explain' their disproportionate loss of control after drinking alcohol." Disproportionate loss of control? I pose this situation to the writers of this article...So let's say, for example, that a man is heavily intoxicated and becomes involved in a verbal argument with another male. The other male, without any threat of physical violence from his counterpart, punches the intoxicated male in the face. Who would you blame in this situation? The man who, although he was drunk, did not instigate or provoke any physical altercation? Or the man who was responsible for hitting someone? If you think about it in the scope in which they think about sexual assault cases involving alcohol, the man who was punched for no good reason is at fault. Doesn't make much sense now, does it?
The article also argues, as one of their key points, that "there is no evidence of widespread use of hypnotics in sexual assault, let alone Rohypnol, despite many attempts to prove the contrary." While this may be true based on the lack of statistics, who are they to argue that just because the statistical evidence is lacking that it does not happen? Simply by looking at some of the street names for Rohypnol and GHB (another commonly utilized hypnotic drug), one can note that although the number of sexual assaults that are reported were as a direct result of the victim being drugged, the inference is that these drugs are utilized as agents in such a situation. For example, Easy Lay, the Forget Pill, and Grievous Bodily Harm are all slang terms that imply that the use of these drugs will result in some sort of harm to the person taking it.
Enough of my ranting. I hope you can see the ways in which this article does what should never...I repeat, NEVER...be done in instances of sexual assault: blame the victim. I don't care where you are, who you are with, how much you have consumed of whatever it is that you have consumed...if you are sexually assaulted, it you are never to blame. And, regardless of what this article says (for those of you who, after reading it, still believe their claims that date-rape drugs are an urban legend) they do still exist and they are still a risk. The necessary precautions should always be taken in social situations where alcohol is involved.
Take care of yourself and look out for others.
<3
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