Word: raped
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Roiphe does make several persuasive points. She charges that college feminists, in their zeal to raise awareness about date rape, have given new life to an old stereotype: the innocent woman who must be constantly protected from men's dangerous sexuality. Definitions of date rape, she contends, now include circumstances ("verbal coercion") that trivialize real acts of sexual violence. Regretted indiscretions of the night before, Roiphe insists, cannot become rape the morning after...
...most provocative chapter, Roiphe examines the Take Back the Night march, an annual event at many colleges in which self-identified rape victims march through campus and speak out about their rape experiences. Take Back the Night isn't a personal gesture of reaffirming control over one's life, Roiphe contends, but rather a form of public group therapy. The speak-outs have more in common with TV talk shows that feature recovering alcoholics and incest survivors than with the efforts to end violence against women...
...Roiphe's shrewd observations have an ugly undercurrent. At one point she suggests that accounts of rape given at the marches may be fabricated or embellished: "The line between fact and fiction is a delicate one when it comes to survivor stories," she writes. "It's impossible to tell how many of these stories are authentic, faithful accounts of what actually happened. They all sound tinny, staged." Her insinuation is a cheap shot, unprovable and callous...
When Roiphe alleges that date-rape awareness and campus safety lights create a climate of anxiety where none existed, she implies that fear of rape is irrational hysteria, churned up by frantic activists. But women do get raped, and being aware of one's vulnerability is prudent, not alarmist...
Alternative rock: however Nirvana defines it. Despite the fears of some alternative-music fans, Nirvana hasn't gone mainstream, though this potent new album may once again force the mainstream to go Nirvana. In Utero's one misstep may be the dubious song Rape Me: "Rape me, my friend . . . rape me again." It's meant to be antirape, but beer-blown frat boys may or may not get the irony. The last and best song, All Apologies, seems to anticipate and confront such questions: "What else should I be/ All apologies . . . What else could I write...