One Is Too Many

The zealous feminists that speak the loudest seem to represent the entire movement. And I think because of that, the “feminist movement” often presents misleading statistics. Some people just like to get angry about things, without making sure they're actually correct. 

Example: Women make eighty three cents for every dollar that men make for the same work. It is true that if you add up all the incomes of women in the United States, and all the incomes of men, and find the median of each, it ends up being that women make about 83% of what men make. This doesn’t account for the line of work, number of years in the position, and whether or not the employee works full or part time. It’s an issue that women aren’t encouraged to study science and mathematics, but only under uncommon circumstances are women paid less than men for the EXACT same work.

I approve of people debunking these things. If we’re going to argue over something, we should at least make sure it’s true, right? It’s harder to get people to join the movement if we’re getting worked up over nonexistent issues.

But there has been one statistic that’s been getting a lot of attention for being falsifiable, and to be quite honest, I don’t think the truth matters.

Sexual assault numbers.

Yes, the Campus Sexual Assault survey that concluded with the result that one in five women will be sexually assaulted during her college career was a bit confusing, especially living in a society where we don’t really understand what sexual assault IS. Rather than straightforwardly asking if a student had been “raped,” it asked about students having sex while “incapacitated” by the use of drugs or alcohol. Many women answered yes to this question, but when asked later if they had been “raped,” they said no.

…so, what does this mean? Are women invalidating their own experiences, or is this study complete BS? According to Michigan law, a person cannot consent to sexual activity with ANY amount of alcohol in their system. It isn’t right to take advantage of a person’s vulnerability, but I know plenty of women who have felt completely comfortable giving consent while intoxicated. I’d love to say that the lines are clear here, but it’s a lot more complex than sex + alcohol = rape.

But I don’t want to get into that, because that isn’t the problem here.  

I want to know why people are so interested in proving these statistics wrong. Does it make a difference if one in five women are sexually assaulted during college versus one in ten? One in one hundred? Does the problem lessen if the statistics do?

Because quite frankly, I don’t give a damn if this is an issue that happens to one in five women, or one in seven billion. One isolated incident of sexual assault in the history of the universe would still outrage me. One act of total violation would still disgust me. One criminal walking free on the streets, while his or her victim suffers in silence would make me want to give a voice to someone who lost theirs. I’d like to believe I’d stand up, speak out, and put justice to that wrong-doing.

While maybe an inflated statistic could light a spark of fear that spread like a forest fire over college campuses everywhere, what other harm could it really do? Facts are important, but it doesn’t seem like anyone is trying to get the facts here, just make the problem small enough to sweep it under the rug.

I appreciate every effort the White House is putting in to fight sexual assault. I’d love to learn the actual statistics, but I really hope that people are trying to gather correct data for the right reasons.

Because really, one assault is too many.