I am currently an undergraduate at N.C. State, and I would like to point out some facts that I think people are missing when discussing the topic of sexual assault. The Frances De Los Santos letter to the editor made some good points that we shouldn’t blame the victim for rape, but the fact that “he” is always raping “her” is not truthful. Yes, the majority of rapes that occur are male-female. But statistics sometimes do not include female-male and female-female rape. Less than 10 percent of rapes are reported when a male is raped. This says something about the impact these statistics have on our opinion in society. “We need to focus rather on how we can stop men from raping.” This statement irritates me, and reasonable people will agree that this is stereotyping to the extreme. The most effective movement is to focus on preventing all sexual violence. Stereotyping men as always being aggressors and women as always being victims oversimplifies sexual violence. Brian Clements freshman, biomedical engineering
Letter to the Editor: Response to “We Don’t Need to Blame the Victim”
April 9, 2011