Rape is a subject that should be broached with dignity, sympathy and a certain level of respect. However, judging from the conversations about rape lately, it doesn’t really seem to be getting the respect or empathy that it should … like the whole “your body has ways of shutting down so you can’t get pregnant during ‘legitimate’ rape” thing, or the notion that “a pregnancy resulting from rape is what God intended,” or the statement saying “rape doesn’t happen on college campuses that often.”
Judging from the amount of men that think they know what is best or what is going on when a woman is raped, you would think by now they would have it mastered the subject, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
The University of Colorado has become the latest entity to put its foot in its mouth concerning rape. According to Jezebel, the Colorado Springs Department of Public Safety’s website had updated its “What to do if you are attacked?” page this week to advise female students to pee, vomit, and menstruate their way out of being rape victims.
Ridiculous tips included telling your attacker that you have a disease or are menstruating. “Vomiting or urinating may also convince the attacker to leave you alone,” another bullet point read.
I can’t even begin to decipher if they were serious or not, but judging from their response to the firestorm their “tips to avoid rape” caused, it seems they were.
After some obvious controversy, the university said the page “was created in 2006 as supplemental material for women who had completed an internationally recognized Rape Aggression Defense course offered free of charge to UCCS students.
They subsequently took the whole thing down, but it may have just been easier to use a little bit of common sense and not put it up in the first place, amirite?
