Author Susan Patton, best known as “Princeton Mom,” waded into the debate over sexual assault on campus Thursday by suggesting that it’s a “learning experience” for a woman to be taken advantage of while drunk.
In an interview with CNN’s Carol Costello, Patton lamented that the definition of rape has been so stretched that “it no longer is when a woman is violated at the point of a gun or knife.”
“We’re now talking about — or identifying as rape — what really is a clumsy hookup melodrama or a fumbled attempt at a kiss or a caress,” she said.
Costello asked Patton if she’d ever spoken to a rape victim and what she thought of the victim’s story.
“Well, I thought there’s rape, and then there’s rape,” the author responded.
Patton said the woman she spoke with said she was very drunk at the time of the incident and “regretted” it next morning.
“To me, that’s not a crime, that’s not rape,” she continued. “That’s a learning experience that has to do with making choices and taking responsibility for the choices you make.”
Costello asked Patton to clarify whether she was saying women “deserve” being taken advantage of by a man if she’s drunk or passed out.
“No, of course not,” Patton said. “I’m not talking about a woman who is blacked-out drunk. But I’m most certainly suggesting women that be smart for themselves, remain sober enough to extricate themselves from a situation that’s headed in a direction they’re not comfortable with.”
She went on to insist that she was “not blaming victims” with that line of argument.
Watch below via Media Matters:
