Hofstra, rape culture, and the bigger picture

After hearing that a woman at Hofstra University who accused four men of gang-raping her this week had recanted, my immediate reaction was more or less the same as Gina’s: “No doubt this will be used against future victims.” That sad truth is just the surface.

We typically every rape story framed as two-sided: His (I didn’t rape her) and hers (He raped me). She’s a victim, he’s a villain. Or she’s a liar, he’s completely innocent. To a large extent, I agree with to Amanda Hess:

Most of the time, we, armchair rape analysts, launch into these arguments before we have any actual idea whether a particular person has raped another person. In most cases, we will never know. What we do know, all the time, is that rape is a problem, and false rape accusations are a problem. The meaningless squabbles between the two camps tend to overlook the fact that people concerned about rape and people concerned about fake rape accusations are both fighting against the same thing: rape culture.

Rape culture does not just encourage men to proceed after she says
“no.” Rape culture does not simply teach men that a lack of physical
resistance is an invitation. Rape culture does not only tell men to
assert ownership over whichever female body they desire. Rape culture
also tells women not to claim ownership over their own bodies. Rape
culture also informs women that they should not desire sex. Rape
culture also tells women that saying yes makes them bad women.

Absolutely, we can blame the fucked-up narrative around rape (and race — all of the accused were men of color) in this country for the total media meltdown that ensues after something like the Hofstra incident occurs. Like Amanda, I want to get beyond the situation at hand and focus on the broader picture — after all, none of us know what actually happened in that Hofstra dorm room. And we can agree that, like rape, rape accusations are a problem.

But I keep coming back to the fact that trying to compare the two is problematic. In our culture, the incentives for rape are strong. All sorts of social messaging says women are just bodies, not agents. That women are passive and men are powerful, especially when it comes to sex. Women are not very likely to report being raped — or even acknowledge that “rape” is the term for what happened to them. The incentives for false rape accusations, on the other hand, are few and far between. Think about how we treat women who stand up in public and say that they were raped. They are vilified.

We should be asking why a woman is saying she was raped and then recanting. We should be looking at the campus culture and racial dynamics and history. We should be talking about what we can do about how rape is portrayed in the media. We should not just scream “LIAR!” and leave it at that.

Note: Because we’ve gotten so much hateful email on this topic, I’m going to make comments subject to approval. If you leave a comment, be aware it may take a bit of time before you see it published.