The Rice Thresher, Vol. 94, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 12, 2007 Page: 3 of 16
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THE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 2007
Rice Voices
Men suffer false rape accusations on campus
One of the greatest legal rights that
we have under the U.S. Constitution
is the presumption of innocence in
the event that we are accused of com-
mitting a crime. The Fifth,
Sixth and Fourteenth
Amendments provide us
with due process, a speedy
and public trial and equal
protection under U.S. laws.
Then why has the climate
surrounding rape accusa-
tions in this country taken
such a disturbing turn
towards a presumption of
guilt, particularly the guilt
of accused men?
'Hie Rice Wellness Cen-
ter has a Web site with invaluable in-
formation regarding rape and sexual
assault, both on college campuses
and outside the hedges. While the
ubiquitous one-in-four rape statistic
has always been grossly unreliable at
worst nnd suspect at best, the point
of fact remains that rape can happen
to anyone. 1 do not dispute the reality
of rape. To do such a thing would be
careless and insensitive, especially
in Rice's environment of glorifying
binge drinking and blitzed hookups
— a sure-fire way to raise the prob-
ability of sexual assault.
Indeed, just this past October,
Rice University Police Department
Lieutenant Dianna Marshall stated at
a sexual violence forum that about
two or three sexual assaults were
reported to RUPD last year.
Hut, with the undeniable reality of
Rice's celebratory mindset towards
intoxicated sexual encounters, two
or three seems like a gross underes-
timation of how many assaults may
have occurred.
I believe that everyone should
educate themselves beyond the
"No means no" rhetoric of rape
Philip Arthur
Moore
talk and instead focus on the ac-
tions that actually constitute sexual
assault — especially on Rice's wet
campus. I do not take issue with
groups like Students
Organized Against Rape,
which does a great ser-
vice with its education
programs. What I do take
issue with is the way so-
called feminist jurispru-
dence injects itself into
the national and collegiate
dialogue about rape and
sexual assault. Women
who make sexual assault
claims against men are no
longer treated like plain-
tiffs in a courtroom subject to the
burden of proof. Instead, it seems
as if rape claims are granted instant
evidentiary value and justification.
As a consequence, the women who
make such claims — a number of
which are undoubtedly bogus—are
approached by public perception as
demigods and victims, while their
alleged attackers are presumed
guilty until proven innocent.
In Febrary 2001, a female Rice
Hurling bogus charges
to excuse a lapse in
judgment is a disservice
to both men and actual
rape victims.
undergrad sent out a mass e-mail
accusing another student of raping
her friend. Hie e-mail warned: "Don't
let yourself or your best girl friends
be the next victims!" The male, a
new student at Rice and innocent
of any wrongdoing, was forced to
release an anonymous statement
to the Thresher to try to recover his
barely-formed freshman reputation
("Statement from accused male
student," Feb. 16, 2001).
What compelled the female stu-
dent to write the mass e-mail was
neither evidence nor consent of
disclosure from her "victim" friend.
It was idiotic, and false, campus
gossip — not unlike the kind Rice
feverishly enjoys the morning after
a booze-filled, sexually-infused
public party.
The Wellness Center warns us:
"No one deserves to be sexually
assaulted." We hear statements like
this time and again when parties
involving alcohol and the potential for
drunken sex sprout up around cam-
pus. It would be nice if the Wellness
Center would include the following
on their Web site as well: "No one
deserves to be falsely accused of
sexual assault."
Rape is terrible. But hurling
bogus charges to excuse a lapse
in judgment is a disservice to both
men and actual rape victims. Like
nearly all men, I am not a rapist. It
is beyond a shadow of a doubt that
I have never been and will never be
a rapist. What is not so certain is
that I will never be accused as such.
In the event that this does occur in
my life, all I want as a man is clue
process without reactionaries call-
ing me a rapist or treating me like a
criminal just because it feels like the
self-righteous thing to do.
The Constitution does, after all,
protect that right.
Philip Arthur Moore graduated from
Ij>vett College in 2006.
Self-proclaimed gadfly
Shock-jock senator tunes out left, turns off right
For American politics in 2007, the
focus is largely on the Democratic
Party's sweep into power on a wave
of Republican corruption and failed
policy. Hut just to the west
of Rice, the deep-red Dis-
trict 7 bucked the trend,
electing conservative talk
radio host Dan Patrick to
the Texas Senate.
Patrick goes beyond the
talk radio stereotype of the
millionaire egocentric self-
promoter who repeats the
xenophobic talking points
that allow white, middle-
age males to think they are
an oppressed minority. On
air, Patrick cornered the market on
attacking not just the usual political
enemies — the growing Hispanic
population and Democrats — but
going after moderate Republicans
who did not see policy differences
as personal differences. This style
has made Patrick more enemies
than a satirically racist Backpage
editor — but it has also brought him
fame, fortune and electoral victory.
Now Patrick will try to bring
his slash-and-burn politics from
Houston's radio waves to the Texas
Senate, and very few people are
happy, including Patrick's fellow
Republicans. Former state Senator
Jon Lindsay, whom Patrick is replac-
ing, has expressed extreme doubts
about Patrick. "I think he would
be terrible in the Senate," Lindsay
said in an interview with the Texas
Observer. "He'd be a difficult person
for the lieutenant governor and the
leadership to work with."
After all. Patrick is going to have
a hard time working with bis self-
declared enemies.
Even members of the radically
right-wing forum freerepublic.com
are uncomfortable with Patrick, with
a user by the alias of RedWhileBlue
lamenting: "I also don't enjoy listening
to him on the radio. It's |sic| his tone,
Evan
Mintz
or something... like he's talking down
to everyone." Freerepublic.com is no
place for bipartisanship, and often
blocks members who express views
contrary to the majority
1 opinion. The simple fact
that commenters there
view Patrick as going too
far should be a warning to
the rest of the Senate.
Patrick's rage stems
from the Senate rules
themselves: Two-thirds
of the 31 Senators must
approve before a bill can
be considered on the
floor. Like most rules in
the Texas government,
its original purpose was to slow the
legislative process and tend Texas to-
wards small government. However,
this rule also encourages coopera-
tion and ensures that no matter who
is in the majority, the minority's voice
will always be heard. In other words,
Republicans and Democrats have to
work together. But against the opin-
ion of even his own party, Patrick is
attempting to destroy this rare civil-
ity of the Texas Senate and replace
it with all the dignity and common
sense of shock-jock talk radio.
Patrick only has to look across
the capitol to see the consequences
of ruling with an iron gavel. Texas
State Speaker of the House Tom
Craddick just had to face off a chal-
lenge from fellow Republican Jim
Pitts. Craddick's strong-arm tactics
of forcing votes and shutting out any
minority opinion have finally caught
up with him. Now Republicans and
I )emocrats alike are uniting to elect
a Speaker who will give every mem-
ber a full and equal voice.
More importantly, Patrick should
remember that Craddick was the first
Republican Speaker in overacentury.
Political winds are fickle, and what
may benefit Republicans now can be
a later tool of parliamentary revenge.
After all, Republicans in Washington
are kicking themselves for not passing
Nancy Pelosi's minority party bill of
rights when they had the chance.
In the end, Patrick will probably
end up learning a lesson in political
enemy-making not from Republicans
or Democrats, but from his own
constituents. In only a few years, the
rising Hispanic middle class may
start tocall Patrick's suburban district
their home And I am sure they would
rather tune their political radios to
someone who did not make hiscareer
blaming Hispanic immigrants for the
collapse of civilization.
Evan Mintz is a Hatiszen College junior
and opinion and Backpage editor.
Political yard stick
Activist T-shirts cannot
dress up uninformed support
Just before we left for winter
break, flyers around Rice informed
students about World AIDS Day
events, touting the free T-shirts
available for students
who attended. Ill admit,
I picked one up — after
all, there is something
appealing about free T-
shirts. In fact, I already
have a pile of similar
shirts: "I Iheart] Consen-
sual Sex" from Students
()rganized Against Rape,
"This Is What a Feminist
Looks Like" from the
Rice Women's Resource
Center, an evolving fish
from Secular Students of Rice, and
so on and so forth.
These shirts all represent
issues 1 agree with but have not
taken any major steps to change.
It made me wonder: Instead of
sit-ins or divestment movements,
will our generation be defined by
T-shirt activism?
Kirti
Datla
Now is the time to
demand more of
ourselves than simply
sporting a slogan.
Mobile slogans are the logical
extension of our modernized so-
ciety, in which we have little time
for ourselves, much less distant
causes. They are a way to stand
for something without actually
having to do anything. There is
nothing new about the phenom-
enon — wearing a T-shirt with a
slogan is no different from putting
a bumper sticker on your car or a
button on your messenger bag.
What may be new is the sheer
volume of causes, rapid flow of in-
formation and ease of distribution.
Web sites such as cafepress.com
and spreadshirt.com streamline
the process of designing, submit-
ting and receiving shirts to sell in
support of a cause.
Gabriel Harvey, a student at
Ixmisiana State University, decided
last September that the way to
affect presidential politics was to
make a T-shirt with "Mark Warner
is Good" emblazed on the front to
support his preferred candidate. It
has become something of a trend,
with supporters of John Edwards
and Barack Obama launching
similar campaigns. According to
Harvey's Web site, he wanted to
make progressive politics fashion-
able. Is that it for politics? Does the
candidate with the best
T-shirt win?
There is a problem
with this form of activ-
ism that may not be
obvious. We have come
to think that buying a
T-shirt means we have
adequately supported
a cause, but one has to
wonder what support-
ing an issue by wearing
a T-shirt really means.
Instead of truly thinking
about what it would take to resolve
an issue, we simply say we sup-
port it. And if the evidence proves
anything, support is not enough.
A Jan. 2(X)6 Pew Research Center
poll showed that a clear majority
of Americans support pro-environ-
mental policy. But when these same
people go to vote, environmental
issues actually have little effect on
which candidate they support. Dis-
connects like this are problematic
and occur in a variety of causes.
As students, there are oppor-
tunities available to us that most
people do not have. We have
courses we can take, professors
we can consult and intelligent
peers we can talk to. Even though
it often seems like there are too
few hours in the day, we have time
to think things through and to
develop our positions. Now is the
time to demand more of ourselves
than simply sporting a slogan.
I will not deny that I picked up
a T-shirt for World AIDS Day. But
in my defense, I also organized an
event and read several Congres-
sional Research Service reports on
the lYesident's Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief. That probably is not
enough to be well-informed on the
problem of AIDS, but it isa start. And
that is really the point — we each
need to make a start. I do not have
any delusions of influence — this
column will not stop anyone from
picking up a free T-shirt. However,
I hope that it convinces people
to try to unravel the causes and
issues sported on their clothes.
T-shirt activism does not have to be
superficial as long as we can give an
informed, persuasive explanation
of the issue on our shirts when
someone stops to ask us.
Kirti Datla is a Sid Richardson
College junior.
the Rice Thresher
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Brown, David. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 94, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 12, 2007, newspaper, January 12, 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443068/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.