BU Today Article Says Women Increase Their Risk for Rape

The most recent headline article in BU Today started with this sentence: "Women who start drinking freshman year of college or who increase their consumption once on campus face a greater risk of sexual or physical assault than nondrinkers, according to a new study from the Research Institute on Addictions at the University at Buffalo." Wow. I mean, I know this article was written by a man, based on interviews of 2 men and no women, and written for notoriously anti-woman BU, but wow. The whole article focuses on women's alcohol use and why that makes them more likely to be assaulted. The tone makes women not-so-innocent victims -- only assaulted because they're drunk but only drunk because of societal factors (i.e. marketing of alcohol directly to young women). The entire concept that women shouldn't put themselves in vulnerable situations is practical but puts all the responsibility on women, saying it's our job not to put ourselves out there to be assaulted. What about the guys? Maybe we should put some responsibility on them to not "identify women whom they plan to assault" and then "use alcohol as a tool to lower someone’s defenses" as a BU's Director of Health Services says "many men" do. Why is it still acceptable for people to use this "she was asking for it" excuse? And why is did this article not even mention that men can victims of abuse too? And why did the author see it acceptable to focus the entire time on why women's drinking is what creates the at-risk situation, not men's drinking or behavior or mindset?

At all the parties I saw freshman year there were lots of guys and lots of girls, both drunk. This is just another example of how there are different societal consequences for men and for women for the exact same behavior: They both get drunk, but one has a 38% chance of being raped if they do so. BU's women's groups (Every Person Counts, etc.) have been trying for years to get a Rape Crisis Center on campus and have been told it's not necessary since there's one close enough to campus to count. Even the assaults that happened at BU at the beginning of this academic year that were discussed in the FreeP for weeks didn't prompt any action. They haven't even been able to get a Women's Center, let alone some better support system for women who are raped or some kind of preventative education for men. It's time BU took this seriously and stopped sending out articles that further the problem by victimizing and blaming women.