Absence of evidence finally proves evidence of absence!
posted by saurabh in Faminism, Galloping idiocy |In this article in the LA Times, one Heather MacDonald contends that there is no “rape crisis” on college campuses and the idea that a significant number of young women in college are raped every year is a ridiculous myth advanced by crazy feminists. Her evidence for this claim is that college rape crisis centers don’t receive many calls. Using similar logic, I have deduced that no one actually uses this new-fangled “Internet” contraption because our blog readership still hovers in the low single digits.*
MacDonald spends a good deal of time critiquing the methodology of one Mary Koss, who did some pioneering work in the late 1980s on the subject of date rape on college campuses. MacDonald finds Koss’s methodology suspect and concludes it is designed to inflate the numbers and manufacture a “rape crisis” so that feminists can get on with the program of reducing men to castrated tote-bag holders and baby-nappy changers. Rah rah rah!
It may surprise you to learn, however, that Koss’s paper was not the only one on the subject! Using my favorite methodology, “a few minutes of careless searching”, I found one of these papers, which you can read here (but only with a JSTOR subscription). The authors are quite careful about their methodology (which is relatively unambiguous in its manner of questioning), and they find 20% of women reporting unwanted attempted intercourse and 10% reporting unwanted intercourse (rape - 71% said “no” explicitly) out of a sample of 518 college women. Female alcohol use was present in the majority of cases (65% in the third category), but even if this puts rape in a “gray area” (as MacDonald suggests), this only eliminates 65% of incidents, still leaving a substantial number of rape incidents going on every year. Criticisms could be made of this methodology, of course, but we shouldn’t expect the numbers to change by an order of magnitude. Shockingly, MacDonald presents no studies that manage to knock down the basic claim.
Most interesting to me, however, was who the women described unwanted incidents to:
| Unwanted contact | Attempted unwanted intercourse | Unwanted intercourse | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No one | 23% | 30% | 41% |
| Roommate | 41% | 38% | 25% |
| Close friend | 59% | 54% | 41% |
| Counselor | < 1% | < 1% | 4% |
Saaaayy… do you think that might explain why no one is ringing up rape crisis centers? Because talking to a stranger is like, the hardest possible way to deal with a rape? Surely no…
The real problem, as Heather MacDonald tells us, is that women are tarting it up instead of keeping their chastity belts on:
Many students hold on to the view that women usually have the power to determine whether a campus social event ends with intercourse. A female Rutgers student expressed a common sentiment in a university sexual-assault survey: “When we go out to parties and I see girls and the way they dress and the way they act … and just the way they are, under the influence and um, then they like accuse them of like, ‘Oh yeah, my boyfriend did this to me’ or whatever, I honestly always think it’s their fault.”
And that, my friends, is evidence you can take to the fucking bank.
* Hi Bob!
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Yep - anecdotes and opinions beat data any day of the week…
If I wasn’t so lazy I’m sure I could find a half dozen of the denialist deck of cards in MacDonald’s article.
“tories do it thinking of england”
The rape and sexual abuse hysteria is the Reichstag Fire of the left.
You are a liar. Period.
And a rather vicious one at that.
Shouting Thomas - I’m not lying. At least, my intent is not to lie. I’m not even making claims about a “rape culture”, simply that rape happens on college campuses. It’s perfectly possible I’m incorrect, of course. But I’ve laid out what I think is a reasonable set of evidence that my case is correct, and that MacDonald is wrong. I can easily furnish more corroborating evidence. If you’re aware of compelling evidence that I’m wrong, please let me know.
I assume we’re in agreement on the basic premise - if, indeed, rape is reasonably prevalent on college campuses (at a rate above, say, 2% a year), then it behooves us to do something about it?
Also, I’m not sure I understand your Reichstag Fire analogy - what, exactly, are you suggesting that the left is attempting to accomplish by discussing rape on college campuses? Other than ending rape on college campuses?
[...] Rhinocrisy Absence of evidence finally proves evidence of absence! [...]
I am appalled that this piece of right-wing propaganda made it into the LA Times in the first place. The response,written by SAFER’s Nora Niedzielski-Eichner, does an excellent job at exposing how the tired rape denialism argument has been repackaged over and over again by the same set of “culture war”-fueling right-wing institutions and, specifically, MacDonald’s connections to these institutions.
Not only is this denialism argument old and discredited, it is part of a larger effort by right-wing organizations such as the Manhattan Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and the Independent Women’s Forum to delegitimize and combat feminist successes on campuses nationwide, particularly the rise of women’s/gender studies departments, rape crisis centers, and other anti-violence programming. This is a longstanding strategy bankrolled by the top right-wing foundations (Scaife, Olin and Bradley, among others) and implemented, in large part, through a great deal of media savvy and a suspect ability to place even the most discredited propaganda in the pages of respected news publications.
Even the most minor of fact-checking endeavors would reveal MacDonald’s op-ed as not only dated, unoriginal and a complete rehash of numerous past efforts bankrolled by the same institutions, but also one that has been torn apart time and time again in a wide variety of forums. The Times owes its readers an explanation of how it is that think tanks such as the Manhattan Institute, with their old, discredited propaganda, have such access to their op-ed pages.
Check out the united bloggers’ responsesto this disgusting distortion.
on february 20, 2008, shouting thomas said:
I truly am uninterested in politics. Obama’s speech was a litany of empty platitudes. Hillary is no better.
I do, however, get what excites their followers, because when I was much younger I believed many of the things they believe. The kids have had the race and sex hysteria beaten into them through a relentless indoctrination campaign in the media and the educational system.
Most of the kids didn’t get a traditional religious education. In fact, their religious education was the race and sex indoctrination. As has often been pointed out, original sin has been redefined for them. Racial and sexual prejudice is original sin for them. And, like all true believers, the kids are convinced that rooting out this prejudice will solve all the problems of the world.
“rape” is the battle cry of feminazis?
Good piece, its enough to make me want to see editorials peer-reviewed.