...and when it constitutes rape

BY JESSICA MEYER

While we tend to classify all cases of nonconsensual sex as rape, I realized as I began to write that there are really two types of rape. The first might be described as the rape forceful, where the woman is forced to have sex under circumstances where she has clearly declared it to be against her wishes. The other could be called the rape oblivious, when a man has sex with a woman who is unable to object because she is unconscious due to coma or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. It is the latter form that I am addressing here.

Sex with a woman in a coma is clearly rape. I have heard of only one case, which involved a comatose woman in a New York hospital; it ended with the conviction of the defendant on rape charges. The situation involving a woman under the influence of drugs or alcohol is a good deal more complex. It is, however, still a situation in which a woman in a vulnerable position is taken advantage of against her will. That should be considered rape, with all the attached legal consequences.

The vulnerability stemming from intoxication evolves from the woman's own actions--her decision to drink. But before submitting to this argument, two points should be noted. First of all, men have been known to spike drinks in efforts to make women more pliable and compliant. Alcohol has been used for this purpose, as has a drug familiarly known as "roofies" which causes loss of memory of all that occurs while under their influence. In this situation, the woman clearly cannot be held responsible even for choosing to put herself in a potentially vulnerable position: she did not willingly chose to drink nor to take the drug, which made her susceptible to rape. Both the sex and the vulnerability which allowed it to occur were out of her control, and forced on her against her will.

Obviously, spiked drinks are not the only way a woman gets drunk. This leads me to my second point. Even if a woman has chosen to drink, she should not be held responsible for sex that might occur while she is drunk. Getting drunk can be a stupid move, I admit. Unwanted sex, however, with the feelings of violation and depression that often accompany it, is far too high a price for her to pay. Her choice to drink does not imply a choice to have sex--an assumption made by asserting that a woman is responsible for her behavior, drunk or no.

We can hold a woman responsible for conscious, careless actions that put her in a position of vulnerability. Drinking to the point of incapacitation is simply stupid, whether you are a man or a woman, not to mention illegal under the age of 21 in Connecticut. We cannot, however, hold her responsible for the actions of others who take advantage of her vulnerability. To do so is to imply that a woman is "asking for it" merely by having a drink.

Jessica Meyer is a sophomore in Jonathan Edwards.

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