George Will has said a lot of short-sighted and just plain wrong things over the years. But he may have outdone himself in yesterday’s column, when he actually suggested–presumably with a straight face–that liberals and progressives are using the recent spate of rapes and sexual assaults on college campuses to give rape victims “a coveted status that confers privileges.”
Studies show that 19 percent of female students are sexually assaulted, and only 12 percent of those assaults ever get reported. Yet Will dismisses those statistics as an attempt to hype up what he calls “the supposed campus epidemic of rape.”
Will objects to what he calls the Education Department’s “capricious” definition of sexual assault to include non-consensual touching as well as sexual penetration. Apparently Will has forgotten that kids have been told for over 30 years that improper touching is every bit as bad as actual penetration. But if it were up to him, all those lessons would get thrown in the dumpster once they make it to college.
Perhaps Will needs to ask his daughter, Victoria, if she would feel any less violated by someone improperly touching her than if someone actually raped her.
He also objects to new rules that mandate the adoption of a “preponderance of the evidence” standard in adjudicating reported cases of rape. Has it occurred to Will that maybe, just maybe, this standard might be necessary to ensure that these cases do get investigated?
The biggest reason sexual assaults don’t get reported is that the victims fear that no one will believe them–or worse, that they somehow did something to deserve what happened to them. Will complains that this standard violates the rights of males. However, according to the FBI, only three percent of reports of sexual assault end up being false.
Even that figure is too much, and there certainly needs to be more due process in these matters. Not only would it ensure palpable attempts to frame men up for rape don’t go anywhere, but it would also ensure resources are devoted to situations where these assaults really did happen. Nonetheless, it doesn’t make Will’s suggestion that this confers “privileges” on rape victims any less ignorant.
If Will has anything in him, he should apologize–and none of this “sorry if anyone was offended” baloney, either. Otherwise, it might be time for The Washington Post and Fox News to send him packing. There are certain issues where there is no other side–and this is one of them.
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Darrell Lucus is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
edited by tw
