Sexual assault story offered misguided advice

It was with both appreciation and disappointment that I read Kacie Foster's article, "Prevention methods key to stopping sexual assault" (June 13). I commend the IDS for its efforts in raising awareness of a topic often shrouded in silence. As the statistics suggest, the problem of sexual assault on campus and in the community is indeed one that demands attention.\nThus it distressed me that Sgt. Leslie Slone suggested that women can prevent attacks by "taking self-defense classes," confidently assuring women that "(They) are protected by the State of Indiana to protect (themselves) from harm." Her advice fails to take into account that violent reactions often escalate a perpetrator's violence toward the would-be victim. Nor can this solution (or any amount of pre-planning for "imagined scenarios") assist victims who are assaulted while unconscious due to the effects of intoxication or "date-rape" drugs. \nTo be sure, pre-planning and self-defence are useful skills, but to fetishize them as talismans against sexual assault is absurd, dangerous and ignorant. Case in point: I have a red belt in tae kwon do. I can kick a telephone pole in two with my bare feet. And I was still raped. Sadly, I am not alone. A recent national survey of college women found that "some type of self-protective action was involved in two-thirds of completed rapes." Rape occurs whenever a victim does not consent to sexual activity, regardless of whether she attempts to defend herself physically or not. Why isn't "no" important enough?\nThrough its promises of empowerment, the culturally-endorsed "solution" of self-defence conceals the fact that taking responsibility for one's own protection in this way is also taking responsibility for a crime over which potential victims ultimately have no control. Instead, empowerment must come from holding perpetrators responsible and by educating potential offenders how to change their behaviors and attitudes. Perhaps a lesson in vocabulary is also needed: "no" means "no," whether physically or verbally expressed.