Letter’s take on gender relations was distressing

TO THE EDITOR:

Kudos to Jake Fraser for his creative interpretation of women’s empowerment (“Project Dinah’s definition of rape puzzling, shocking,” Aug. 31). I’m sure Betty Friedan would be thrilled to know that drunken hookups now fall under the banner of “progressive gender relations.”

As it happens, Project Dinah’s “bizarre logic” about the definition of rape is shared by the General Statutes of North Carolina, which define sex with a person who is “mentally incapacitated” as second-degree rape. Note it well, Mr. Fraser: If the girl you take home from the bar is too drunk to “appraise the nature” of her own conduct, you need to keep your pants on. (N.C. General Statutes, 14 27.1)

I would ask that Fraser consider, in the midst of his valiant defense of women’s liberation, that the vast majority of rape and sexual assault on a college campus does not happen in dark alleys when some stranger leaps from the shadows. It happens in dorm rooms and at house parties, when social pressure and alcohol conspire to blur the line between what’s consensual and what’s not. That is not empowering. It is predatory.


Eric Johnson
UNC ‘08
Johnson is a former public editor for the Daily Tar Heel.