Women’s group decries frat party

Dear Michael Yee,

Thank you for your interest in preventing rape. I urge you though Michael, imagine you are a 17 year old young woman. And yes, at 17 you are no longer a "girl." I know, it is difficult to put yourself in a female's position, but really, try. If you really still can't, just picture your sister or your female friend as soon as she graduated high school. Ok. Now, do us all a favor and look up the statistics for rape. To help you out, they have been estimated at 1 in 3 to 1 in 4 women are raped in their lifetime. Now, the number one date rape drug is NOT ghb, it's alcohol. This article is to inform both men and women that if someone is intoxicated then they cannot legally consent, something I think everyone who attends parties at all should know. If you would like any more information on how men can prevent gender violence please see our website at http://www.csulb.edu/org/college/wssa/. There you will find a top ten list of ways to help as written by anti-sexist educator Jackson Katz as well as a link to a video of a workshop on violence against women. I hope this is helpful to you.

I've been challenged, so let me go on a tl;dr rant for why I don't like this article. Not heavy enough. Shock me. Make me scared. How many cherry bust parties are held every semester, what is % of rapes reported while at parties? What do the experts think about the percentages of this reportage? Is it higher than usual or way lower? Is there a distinction? Can the number of "cherry bust rapes" be ascertained, or are there too many party-related rapes? Is the number not reported separately? Maybe Hale and Wood can do some calculations for us and explain how many rapes they think are done. Whip me. Make me frenzied. Make me want to pick up my pitchfork and scream and yell and start setting fire to those frat houses where they host these parties. In fact, now that I'm on the topic, some history would make me even more interested. Because nothing happens in a vacuum. Nothing. Are these cherry bust parties a more official sanctioning of the old practice of putting gamma-hydroxybutyrate in drinks when young men order drinks for young women or when that young woman puts her drink down? Who knows? I'd like to know. I wouldn't do the research on my own, but now that the Daily 49er has put it on the table, I want to read a short but effective article on the history, action to take, etc. And then, what do we do about it? This opinion promotes no action. Just contact WSSA. An educational mission? Are their seminars? Do you raid parties to tell women to get out and men to stop raping? How can I help? Should I talk to my male friends and ask them not to attend these parties? This comes off as bitterly sarcastic, but I am not very moved by this. Like I said, make me frenzied into taking some action, because I imagine this is an epidemic (or I cannot because no stats were presented). In fact, maybe my perception of cherry bust parties is completely wrong. I'm talking completely off-the-wall here, but maybe these so-called cherry bust parties are simply promoting good, clean fun. You seriously cannot let me think that the organizers of these parties would completely support and condone rape. I just don't. As Godot from Phoenix Wright put it, once you've eliminated the impossible, what must remain is the truth. I can't eliminate this as impossible because the Wood and Hale don't present their viewpoint. I WANT you to debunk it. Prove me wrong. Say that I'm full of shit. Until then, let me present my antithesis. Maybe the promoters of the party don't have alcohol at all, or if they do, there's so little that all the people still have sound judgment. Maybe they want both parties to equally lose virginity. No? Is this wrong? Do they in fact promote rape? Tell me, how is the party hostile to women? Do the men ration the beer and give the women twice as much as the men? Do they institute quotas and make sure there are more women than men at the party? Please. I want to know. I know nothing, and as you can see, I'm making shit up because I am otherwise not informed. Finally, the article takes me right out. The article even STARTS by alienating the male audience. "Imagine you're a 17-year-old girl." I'm sorry, I can't. (On an unrelated note, it would be statutory rape if that cute guy raped that girl, and if you're 17 you're not a woman, but a girl.) But on the topic, that takes me right out. For one, only gay guys would approach me to invite me to a party, and if the guy is gay, I don't think that he's going to be invited to a cherry bust party - or is he? At this point I'm losing interest and my eyes start fluttering, escaping, less interested in it. I think that ill-thought start just alienated half of the audience - making the less enthusiastic men even less interested in finishing the article and even the most concerned men puzzled and wondering when the article is going to pick up.

Perhaps you need to read more commentary pages in a wider scope of publications to find that visiting articles are more singularly focused, Michael, much like letters to the editor and public service announcements. It almost seems like you have something against women's magazines by the intonation of your commentary. Op-ed rarely requires quotes and responses from the other side because opinion is based on the writer's perception, and by nature tends to be "one-sided." Do use a huge and write some opinion pieces so we might be able to scrutinize your interpretations, rather than criticizing from the sidelines about what others believe.
-Peace