Campus sex screed rings hollow

In my opinion, Heather MacDonald’s screed is absurd — and fallacious. Take her reference to the Occidental College student found responsible in the sexual assault of a female student, though text messages sent by the woman indicated her intention to have sex with him.

MacDonald claims that this single episode “illustrates the reality behind so-called campus rape.”

Really? Let’s assume for argument’s sake that this case is utterly without merit. Let’s assume that the woman regretted her behavior after the fact and sought to blame the man. Would it prove that a widespread problem — one that has finally come to national attention more than 25 years after the first studies of acquaintance rape — is not really a problem? That what happens is merely “so-called rape,” not the real thing?

Of course not. But MacDonald is less interested in making a reasoned argument than in vilifying feminists and raising hackles — at the expense of students of both sexes who are assaulted.

Moreover, if she genuinely believes that we are dealing not with sexual assault but only with a lack of “decorum,” then I believe it is she who personifies the “Victorian” attitude she attributes to feminists. I say this as a scholar of Victorian literature who also teaches feminist theory.

Beth Newman, Dallas