feminism and rape

Megan McArdle's post about feminism and rape is a must-read:

In my ideal world, men would not be tempted to commit rape. Sexual encounters would be handled with negotiation, not with one partner's insistence on getting what he wants at the expense of another. Men would respect the desires of women to control what happens to their bodies, whether they've known each other for ten minutes or ten years.

And in my ideal world, the fear of rape could not be used as a justification for slut-shaming.

Let's rephrase that bolded part a little bit: "In my ideal world, people would not be tempted to take things from other people that those other people do not freely choose to give them." I endorse that statement wholeheartedly. But that doesn't mean I leave the door unlocked.

There is a strain of feminism that encourages women to behave as if we have arrived in some feminist utopia where rape is impossible. This stems from a very admirable desire to put the responsibility for rape on the men, not the women, and is an understandable backlash to rape trials that used to investigate whether the woman was "asking for it".

Nonetheless, it's stupid. Not only are we not in this utopia, we are never, ever going to be in that utopia. Even if we achieved a marvelously gender-blind society, there would still be some people who want to have sex with people who do not want to have sex with them. Indeed, the variety of human sexual fantasy being what it is, there will be some people who are almost exclusively interested in that sort of activity.

That means women are going to have to take action to protect themselves. If you don't want to stop engaging in risky behaviour, then vote libertarian and buy yourself a gun. But don't just stick your head in the sand and claim that it's all society's fault, so you're not going to do anything until society takes care of the problem.

Feminists (and liberals in general) would be wise to stop confusing the ideal world for the real world. I've heard too many date rape stories in the press that could have been easily avoided if the victims had understood that parties featuring hormone-driven men, alcohol and an absence of sober friends are a really bad idea. This doesn't excuse the perpatrators--any man that would take advantage of a woman in those circumstances fully deserves to be locked up until he needs Viagra to pose a threat.