peruvianskys said:
This to me seems like a strawman because I really don't think it happens as often as people seem to believe. If both parties are drunk and they both consent then sure, it's not rape. But if one isn't drunk, or one is filling the other with alcohol with the express intent to bang him or her, etc. then it is, and the latter is almost always the truth of the situation when you have these "She was totally fine with it last night, fuckin' ladies" stories that bros like to throw around.
(Emphasis added for reference)
I think a major problem is exactly this above. People assume
that represents "almost always" That assumption is based on a lot of other assumptions, and those assumptions are often being made by witness who were
also intoxicated at the party.
Some of these assumptions include things like:
1. "He didn't seem drunk to me." They're not staggering or falling over, but their judgment may still be severely impaired.
Just like with women, they don't have to look drunk to be drunk.
2. "He wasn't
as drunk as she was." Judgment and inhibitions are among the first things to go, well before physical coordination. This fact makes drunkenness a lot less obvious. Couple that with the fact that many people are experienced at masking the
physical effects of drunkenness (ie, they can keep their balance while drunk), but that doesn't mean they're immune to the
mental effects.
3. "Anyone who questions an alleged rape victim's story is taking the rapist's side." This is the biggie. For one, it
assumes the accused is guilty -- conviction by sympathy, rather than evidence. Beyond that, it scares people out of any sort of defense, including bullying witnesses out of bringing important facts. "Frat boy accused of raping young nursing student" might make front page news, but "Frat boy acquitted of rape charges" barely ever makes print at all, because no one wants to be the one that picked on that poor rape victim
even when the law has decided she wasn't raped.
I'm certainly not saying it doesn't happen, because it
definitely does. A completely sober person preying upon drunk girls, that's clearly predatory behavior.
Anyone taking advantage of a passed-out drunk girl, whether they themselves are sober or drunk? Clearly the same.
But we don't want our hatred of those people to be shoveled upon the
next guy to get accused. Justice isn't about "odds" or "almost always." It's about evidence and finding the truth. And
people lie. All of them. They lie for money, they lie for power, they lie to get out of trouble, and they lie for sympathy or attention. But we shouldn't
assume either side is lying, but rather point to the evidence.
Sometimes, what we do is more like punishing one alleged murderer
triple because we're pissed that a
different alleged murderer "got away." We're using these people for catharsis, and it's not right.
Joshic Shin said:
As you set it up, no, it would be hard to prove it as rape. But then, you have put up a highly controlled straw man here that is very easy for you to take down.
It's more common than you might think. You can't measure drunkenness by appearance. Someone could be upright and speaking, but so drunk they're pissing whiskey. I think what the OP is pointing out is the possible double standard that applies to the
public view of these cases:
Alcohol impairs our ability to judge, so a woman can be so drunk that her "Yes" doesn't mean "Yes," but a man can
never be so drunk that he is unable to distinguish between a "real Yes" and a "false Yes." If both parties are drunk, it will probably end up as a "wash" in court -- neither was thinking right, so it's just two stupid people that did something one (or both) of them regrets. But to the public, that guy is "the one that was accused of rape."