Rape: A true story
By: Thuto Thipe
Issue date: 5/2/08 Section: Opinion
With the exception of my RA's bulletin board, I don't remember seeing any information about, or resources related to, sexual assault throughout my freshman year at Macalester.
Based on this, I thought it was safe to assume that rape was something that just didn't happen here. I assumed that, given the gravity of rape, if it was happening I would be aware of it. I assumed that the college would keep me informed in an effort to protect my safety. In any case, no one I knew at Mac would ever do such a thing. No one I lived with, went to class with or partied with would ever rape someone.
I believed this all until one day the mirage of my liberal utopia was shattered and I was faced with the painful reality that ours is not an exceptional campus but that rape happens here as it does elsewhere.
One Saturday morning a distraught and frightened friend broke down in my arms as she told me about her Friday night. She had been at a party and had some drinks, but afterwards didn't remember more than waking up, naked, in someone else's bed the next morning. She looked to me for guidance, but I was unable to help.
It sounded like rape, I thought it might be, but I wasn't certain. For a moment, my desire to comfort and to support her was overshadowed by my own realization of the fragility of our safety on campus, my anger at the institutional blindness that was enabling this violence and my complete bewilderment at what to do in the situation.
Trusting first that Mac would offer us the guidance that we sought, we searched the Macalester homepage for 'sexual assault' hoping to find the resources we needed to discover how the college defines rape and what we should do in the event that what happened was rape.
After over an hour of searching the college's website we were as lost as when we had first started. The most relevant information we found was that there were only three reported sex offenses at Macalester the year before, an extraordinary figure given the national average that one in every six college women is affected by sexual violence. The maze-like search for resources on how to respond to rape gave the impression that the college was under the same illusion I had been. That, "we don't need to talk about, or provide information about, rape because it doesn't happen here."
Based on this, I thought it was safe to assume that rape was something that just didn't happen here. I assumed that, given the gravity of rape, if it was happening I would be aware of it. I assumed that the college would keep me informed in an effort to protect my safety. In any case, no one I knew at Mac would ever do such a thing. No one I lived with, went to class with or partied with would ever rape someone.
I believed this all until one day the mirage of my liberal utopia was shattered and I was faced with the painful reality that ours is not an exceptional campus but that rape happens here as it does elsewhere.
One Saturday morning a distraught and frightened friend broke down in my arms as she told me about her Friday night. She had been at a party and had some drinks, but afterwards didn't remember more than waking up, naked, in someone else's bed the next morning. She looked to me for guidance, but I was unable to help.
It sounded like rape, I thought it might be, but I wasn't certain. For a moment, my desire to comfort and to support her was overshadowed by my own realization of the fragility of our safety on campus, my anger at the institutional blindness that was enabling this violence and my complete bewilderment at what to do in the situation.
Trusting first that Mac would offer us the guidance that we sought, we searched the Macalester homepage for 'sexual assault' hoping to find the resources we needed to discover how the college defines rape and what we should do in the event that what happened was rape.
After over an hour of searching the college's website we were as lost as when we had first started. The most relevant information we found was that there were only three reported sex offenses at Macalester the year before, an extraordinary figure given the national average that one in every six college women is affected by sexual violence. The maze-like search for resources on how to respond to rape gave the impression that the college was under the same illusion I had been. That, "we don't need to talk about, or provide information about, rape because it doesn't happen here."
Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 6
Robert Kelly
posted 5/03/08 @ 5:13 AM CST
I was deeply saddened to read the article, "Rape at Macalester; A True Story". I am aware of the plethora of reasons why a victim of sexual assualt would not approach a campus security officer regarding their attack. (Continued…)
Katie
posted 5/05/08 @ 4:10 PM CST
Mr. Kelly,
Please submit your letter, exactly as you wrote it, to the print edition, too. I think it is very informative. (Also, thanks for having spent the time it takes learning to be able, today, to think of "a plethora of reasons" for various behaviors in difficult situations. (Continued…)
Wes
posted 5/09/08 @ 8:14 PM CST
I'm confused by this article. What I understand is that a woman was at a party, got drunk enough to black out, and then woke up naked in someone's bed. (Continued…)
Drive by poster
posted 5/09/08 @ 10:08 PM CST
The woman was raped if she blacked out and a man penetrated her without her consent.
Rape is sex without mutual consent. This woman did not choose to have sex. (Continued…)
Julia Quanrud
posted 5/10/08 @ 5:59 AM CST
You're right Wes in the fact that nowhere in this article did it actually say that there was proof she had been raped. The woman's situation upon waking, however, definitely suggests foul play. (Continued…)
Wes
posted 5/13/08 @ 2:55 AM CST
The article title, "Rape: A true story", is interesting because the author doesn't know what that story is. If that "true story" is that the man involved was sober and took advantage of a drunk woman without her consent, then this article makes sense. (Continued…)
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