Most discourse about rape prevention is stale at best and counterproductive at worst, so it was downright exciting to see a genuinely intriguing idea on how to prevent rape, coming not from a women’s studies department or a feminist blogger retreat, but from the sorority system. The New York Times reported earlier this week that many in the sorority sisterhood are starting to agitate to break the long-standing tradition of alcohol-free sorority houses, not because they are sick of having to wear shoes to parties but as a form of rape prevention.
Right now, most fraternities allow parties that serve alcohol and almost no sororities do, but sisters are arguing, according to the Times, that sorority parties would allow students “the option to attend Greek house parties that women control, from setting off-limits areas to deciding the content of the punch.” It’s an idea that is startling in both its simplicity and its brilliance. Of course it’s going to be harder for rapists to rape in female-controlled environments. It’s no cure-all and there are some implementation issues, but having more parties where women are controlling the alcohol and the space would be a really great step towards reducing the opportunities for would-be rapists to get access to potential victims.
What really jumped out at me is how different it is from the usual “rape prevention” advice that is out there. Traditional rape prevention advice is usually focused on telling women to give up freedom and control over their own lives: Don’t go out at night, don’t be alone with men, don’t drink alcohol, don’t wear sexy clothes, don’t don’t don’t’. Feminists object to this advice because it’s condescending and ineffective, but also because putting the onus on women to prevent rape often provides a get-out-of-jail-free card for rapists. After all, if you got raped, many people reason, it’s because you failed in your duty to follow that extensive list of “don’ts”. In the eyes of police and juries, that often makes it the victim’s fault and not the rapists.
Traditional rape prevention advice also has a deeper, more philosophical problem, in that it basically concedes to rapists’s power. After all, rape is a crime of dominance, usually of men asserting dominance over women. By telling women to give up freedom that men get to have, rapists win. Even if they aren’t dominating a woman directly by raping her, they are dominating women generally by taking away control over our own lives.
But this idea proposed by sorority sisters subverts that by suggesting that what women need is not less control over their lives, but more. Instead of telling women to give up freedom by going to fewer parties, they are telling women to seize power and not only party if they want, but to be in charge of the parties themselves. Instead of trying to fight rape by giving into male dominance, they are undermining male dominance.
All of which suggests that this can be more than just a small fix to reduce rapes that happen within the Greek system, but the beginning of a real paradigm shift. Instead of narrowly focusing on a bunch of individual choices women can make that will supposedly stop rape, perhaps the real key is to confront male dominance over the social sphere and find ways to give women more power and more control over partying, dating, and other social occasions that are all too frequently treated as opportunities by rapists. It’s a much better bet than telling women to give up enjoying their lives and live in fear of rapists.
Lead photo: Huw Williams (Huwmanbeing), via Wikimedia Commons
Amanda Marcotte is a freelance journalist who writes frequently about liberal politics, the religious right and reproductive health care. She’s a prolific Twitter villian who can be followed @amandamarcotte.
So I guess what my question is, is this article advocating exactly what it is railing against? Women, don’t go out to Frat parties, stay at the sorority. Don’t go places by yourself, stay with friends who can watch out for you. Make sure you know what is in the drink in your hand.
It is the exact same advice the author spends a ridiculous amount of effort chastising men for giving women. Don’t get me wrong, it is all good advice. It is just the cognitive dissonance within the piece is stunning. I’m glad the advice that you have been deriding as sexist all this time is finally starting to sink in now that you have found a way to take credit for it.
Remember, if women only go to sorority parties and stop going out, the rapists win.
Why, Amanda, what next? Will you be advising young women to dress modestly and only go out at night to safe places and with a male escort? My Grandma, dead at 95 in Y2K, would have felt quite at home with that advice. Ah, the old ways are the best ways!
Kinda off topic: I wonder what the stats are for rapes that occur in Greek environments vs. non-Greek for college age students.
Why is rape the only crime where suggestions targets of the crime can take to reduce their chance of being a victim is seen as a negative? To be completely clear, women should be able to go wherever they want, do whatever they want, wear whatever they want, etc. and never have a fear of being raped. We should never stop working to make that reality, but unfortunately we don’t yet live in a perfect world.
It’s also true that I should be able to go anywhere and do anything I want without a fear of being robbed. If somebody writes an article on how to avoid being mugged though nobody attacks the author and says if you encourage people to wear a money belt the thieves have won.
Yes, I know women have frequently been portrayed as causing rape, and that is horrendously unfair. That doesn’t mean that every article or comment on how women (or anybody) can help reduce their chance of being raped (or any crime) is somehow an attack on them. It doesn’t mean we should stop doing other things to reduce rape (or any crime) in every situation.
If rape at fraternity parties is a significant issue by all means lets try and solve that. But as long as it is an issue it might be a situation worth minimizing your exposure to. Sororities hosting more parties might help with that… and to be fair even ignoring any rape issues it seems like it’s a step forward for equality.
And I didn’t see it in the article, but who the Sororities let attend the parties should also be a factor.