Fox News on Sexual Assault: Uh Oh

Fox News has an interesting way of recognizing Sexual Assault Awareness Month—it minimalizes rape. How appropriate.
Wendy McElroy (more about her later—yikes!) wrote a piece yesterday on the University of Colorado at Boulder’s rape scandal, in which at least 8 women have come forward against Colorado football players.
McElroy focuses on Richard Grego, a former undergraduate peer educator in the Colorado University Rape and Gender Educators (COURAGE), who now says the program spread “lies” in its services: “We created at CU a culture of false awareness. … [S]ince I left the group I have suspected that many women have been making false allegations to obtain the attention, sympathy, kid-glove treatment, and power that comes with being a victim of sex assault.” Ah, yes, the power of being a victim of sexual assault. Of course.
The “lie” that McElroy refers to is a statistic COURAGE uses in its advocacy materials: that 1 in 4 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. In fact, it’s not even the statistic that McElroy and Grego take issue with—it’s the methodology behind it and the fact that it came “from a feminist study.”
Interesting, considering that McElroy is the editor of ifeminists.com. Not so interesting once you check out what “ifeminism” is all about (complete with a glamour shot of McElroy):
“…ifeminists accept personal responsibility for their own lives. They do not look to government for privileges any more than they would accept government abuse….”
And check out this gem:
“Women’s studies programs are a good example of why universities should not be publicly funded.”
You’ve gotta love women like this: willing to benefit from all of the hard work feminists have done, but completely unwilling to recognize the reality of women’s lives.
McElroy ends the piece by suggesting that rape advocates have no place helping survivors of sexual assault: “It is time to get tax-funded advocates out of the equation and deal with crime on the basis of the evidence presented by each individual case.”
Uh yeah, I’m pretty sure that evidence is taken into consideration whether or not a woman chooses to seek support from an advocate.
Thanks Fox News, you never stop reminding me how much work still needs to be done.