Rape Culture and the Drunken Whore Fallacy by Jen McClendon

Another great post, written by Staff Blogger, Jen McClendon.  All thoughts, ideas, words, opinions are those of Jen and do not necessarily reflect those of the One Weary Soldier. 

Rape Culture and the Drunken Whore Fallacy

By

Jen McClendon

Introduction:

I will be writing a series of articles that address one or more of the components of rape and abuse culture. In this article I will address the issue of alcohol. The alcohol fallacy is nicely expressed here in a Washington Post Op Ed. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/alcohol-abuse-is-fueling-military-sexual-assault/2013/06/13/da2f5ada-d37c-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html

            Rape culture is a term that is thrown around often enough that most of us think that we know what it is. What is rape culture? Does “Rape culture” promote rape or merely condone it? What is the source of rape culture? How do we learn not to promote rape? I will take several months to effectively and holistically address a global Meta CBT about rape and violence. We need to go here if our daughters and sons are to live more safely than we did.

We start learning not to promote rape with a broad but inclusive definition of rape culture. We offer examples of rape culture and then we make proposals for sustainable change. In other words, we have to think about what we think about rape. Then we have to challenge those thinking patterns on a macro level. Think of this as Meta CBT or Meta Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Think, identify, challenge, and actively change. Then sustain that change with practice.

Let us distill this through the alcohol fallacy. If we can blame alcohol for rape than we do not have to blame rapists. If we continue to blame alcohol for rape than military commands, police divisions, businesses, churches, fraternities, parents, and college campuses do not have to address the problem of rape culture. This social problem should be called what it is and that is letting everyone off the hook but the victim.

Prima Fascia the alcohol fallacy is a seemingly plausible explanation but it falls short of being a comprehensive approach. I would ask whether rape statistics receded during prohibition but rape data was not systemically collected and people drank during prohibition.  The global “We” have a long way to go and much learning ahead of us on this matter.

We call arguments like the alcohol fallacy half-truths in logic and debate. Alcohol is often present and a person that is drinking is less capable to defend himself or herself against the rapist. In all cases the absence of a rapist leads to the absence of a rape. The absence of alcohol and the presence of a rapist do not guarantee that a rape will be avoided. Nevertheless, many commentators on rape place an absurd emphasis on alcohol, which deflects blame from the attacker. See the June 13^th 2013 Op Ed in the Washington Post by Lt. Colonel Elizabeth Robins. Thank you for your service Colonel Robins.

Here is a chart

Alcohol + rapist =probable rape

No alcohol + rapist = possible rape

Alcohol + no rapist = No rape

© Jen McClendon 2013

Alcohol is not the common denominator here.

There is an active tendency to allow more bad behavior from men than women. This is the boys will be boys fallacy. We have all heard that boys will be boys. Men are allowed to get drunk and go brawling. If a man commits an act of rape while he is drinking many people think of that man as a victim of his own drinking. Many people describe drunken rape in terms of “Accidental rape”. Perhaps he would not have raped someone if he were not drunk. We would not let a drunk driver off this easily.

If a woman is drunk while being relentlessly violated then she should have been more responsible and she should not have been drunk enough to “Get herself raped.” We want women to be responsible and proper while men do as they wish. Just to recap, a man is not at fault if he is drunk and commits rape but if a woman is drunk then she failed to keep herself safe. A significant degree of cognitive dissonance is necessary to cling to this double standard.  

What rape survivors call the “Drunken whore fallacy” is alive and well in discourse on rape. This is not different than the Saudi woman that was sentenced to 200 lashes for being raped. The only component that is absent is the post assault physical abuse. The post assault psychological abuse is part of the main course in the treatment of the American rape victim. The case against the midshipman that was raped at the United States Naval Academy illuminates this double standard. A rape victim is being punished in order to exonerate her attackers.

The case should be against her attackers but whether or not she was drunk has taken center stage.  There is a very well written article in the September 7, 2013 Washington Post local blog about the Naval Academy trial and what it tells us about culture at America’s Naval Academy.

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-09-07/local/41851297_1_midshipmen-binge-drinking-midshipman

Would what is happening to this Naval Midshipman be acceptable if this were your daughter? Our current approach will not suffice for my children. I will not subject another person’s child to something that I will shield my own children from experiencing. We have to do this Meta CBT.

Inequality is the foundational philosophy of rape culture.  Red herrings and the half-truths that we tell ourselves lay at the heart of rape culture. Holistic and comprehensive facts lay the foundation for solving this problem. The whole population needs to think about what we think and determine whether our opinions about rape are exportable to other situations. We need to ask if we would participate in the excuses that promote rape today if they were used by parents that rape their children. What if the child was taking cold medicine? If a drunk woman is walking home and a drunk man is driving home and the drunk man hits the drunk woman with his car, is she guilty of getting herself struck?

What do we think about what we think?

This is the first in a long series of articles that will attack the fallacies that promote rape culture. If we are to undermine rape culture then we have to talk about everything that it is and not just throw around the term.