I would like to commend the IDS for offering another article about raising awareness of sexual violence on campus. This past year has posed some incredible challenges to the IU community with regard to how we will confront sexual violence as a community. Kacie Foster's June 13 article "Prevention methods key to stopping sexual assault" offered some guidance for women living in a campus environment such as IU. Consistently, IDS representations of sexual assault place the responsibility of ending violence on victims rather than challenging the rape culture that enables such widespread attacks. Recommending that women take self-defense classes, for example, while certainly a good tip for increasing self-esteem and assertiveness, is not a responsible (or responsive) suggestion to ending sexual violence. The rhetoric of "self defense" presumes the inevitability of an assault -- rape is something that "just happens" and women must be ever vigilant in fighting back. If self-defense is the key to ending rape, what then of the victim who freezes in the moment of her attack? What of the woman who knows her assailant (as most do) and does not want to physically harm him? What about the potential to increase the stakes of physical violence by making it more likely that a victim will be more injured in the assault?
Certainly some women have been fortified through learning self-defense techniques; but we do little to challenge the culture that enables sexual violence by placing responsibility to end this crime back on women. Even if a victim is able to fight off her perpetrator, she has still been attacked. The Rape and Incest News Network (RAINN) reports that "74 percent of college men would intervene to prevent a sexual assault" and that "83 percent of college men respect their partner's wishes about sexual activity." These are encouraging statistics but not encouraging enough. What these numbers do offer is an important shift in perspective -- rather than placing the brunt of stopping sexual violence on victims. These numbers challenge potential perpetrators and encourage all men to take a stand. As a campus community, where we know that nearly 80 percent of victims will know their assailant. In situations where individuals know their would-be assailant, it's entirely unlikely that typical self-defense moves would be effective.
Instead, we need to start challenging men to take a stand against sexual violence. For too many years, stopping/preventing sexual violence has been "women's work" -- housed in the Office of Women's Affairs, backed by the Women's Student Association and the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance and taught to women from an earlier and earlier age. Please don't misunderstand my point -- raising awareness among women is necessary but raising awareness among men is crucial! When 95 percent of all assailants of sexual assault are men, the ability to stop rape lies in the hands and hearts of men. As a campus community, we must shift the burden of ending sexual violence away from the victims and onto the perpetrators and culture that fosters tolerance of such assaults.
Suzanne Enck-Wanzer
Associate instructor and Ph.D. candidate
IU Department of Communication and Culture
Column based on interest group
The column "Planned Parenthood on Parade" written by Lindsay Kerrigan for the June 6 editorial page is not an appropriate piece of journalism and therefore does not have a place in a publication that is supposed to be as respected as the Indiana Daily Student. This column is based entirely on an organization called Life Dynamics Inc., whose slogan is "Pro-life -- without compromise, without exception, without apology." This is based entirely upon an extremist interest group, filled with unsupported slander and name calling upon a deceased historical figure (Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger), among other journalistic travesties. To learn more about the life of the alleged belligerent drunk and Nazi, Kerrigan might want to refer to the Time Magazine 100 Most Influential Figures of the 20th century issue published in April of 1998. To give the reader a taste of what Kerrigan feels is a refutable source, Life Dynamic Inc. keeps a counter of abortions that have taken place since Roe v. Wade, refers to abortion clinics as death camps and claims that abortions are worse than lynching. I urge the Indiana Daily Student to raise their standards as to what appears in their editorial page.Steve Hinson IU alumnus
Dems have more important flaws
I am writing in response to the "Ditch Dick" column by Lindsay Kerrigan. I was greatly disappointed by "Ditch Dick". Perhaps the author should have viewed the tape of Senator Durbin's remarks before she wrote about it. Her opinions are little more than recycled propaganda from pre-existing sensationalized coverage of the issue. Dick Durbin never compared America to Nazi Germany. He read the reports of abuse and simply made the claim the abuses sound like something Nazis would do but unfortunately the reports were coming out of America. He never claimed American treatment of prisoners is equivalent to the treatment of prisoners by Nazi Germany. Perhaps Kerrigan should spend more time studying the remarks in question as opposed to spreading senseless propaganda -- something Kerrigan criticizes Durbin for doing. Just when Kerrigan begins to make a valid point, it is promptly negated by the xenophobic statement "These guys live better at Gitmo than they ever have or ever will back home!" Since the 2000 election, the democrats have failed to secure any semblance of identity. It is a party without a face, without a heart and without direction. Rather than misunderstanding and sensationalizing one man's statements, Kerrigan would be wise to focus on more significant flaws of the Democratic Party. On a liberal campus such as IU, it is going to take a little more effort than is displayed in "Ditch Dick." I realize this is an opinion piece but insulting your readers' intelligence with sensationalistic rhetoric is not the best way to get your message across.Ryan Dyer Student
Name-calling is childish tool
Glad to see that the IDS has its typical token far-right columnist (Lindsay Kerrigan), who is oh-so-good at echoing the party line without so much as having to have an original thought to add. Those poor College R's always feel so unrepresented and make a point of proclaiming it at every opportunity. It's too bad they don't teach these folks manners, however; constantly ridiculing a U.S. Senator as "stupid" isn't exactly a mark of grace, nor of rational temperament. From years of writing experience, I've found that it's entirely possible to disagree with someone, on all levels, without resorting to insult and name-calling. That's so ... childish, eh? And what she misses from Sen. Durbin's comments are the points that we, the United States of America, have had a reputation for fairness in the matters before now. The current administration has ignored the American notion that people aren't accused and held indefinitely, with no recourse; that we don't torture our prisoners; and that we treat them with the same respect we hope they would treat us with, were the roles reversed. Kerrigan, like so many on the right (and the GOP mouthpiece, FOX "News") is engaged in the Big Dodge, where the real problems we have (the chaos in Iraq, torture allegations by various groups, no exit strategy) are ignored in favor of the smokescreen thrown up by these diversions. It's somewhat amusing to watch, wondering how long some people can fool themselves. It's also amusing to watch, wondering why the Democrats would take advice from someone who so clearly hates them (just kidding ... hate is what the GOP is always accusing everyone to their left of, so I thought I'd try it to see how it feels. Not that good, really). I'd suggest that if she really wants to hear pompous displays of lack of knowledge, she read Sen. Frist's greatest hits. Start with Richard Clarke, head over to John Kerry, make a stop at Terri Schiavo. Here is a man who truly has no shame. Kerrigan, if you want to be taken seriously, act like an adult. And write like one. I'm only telling you this for your own good.Kevin Kleine IU alumnus, class of '74
