Derec
Contributor
That may be the PR, but the reality is very different.No. Feminism is about gender equality, not gender bias, or hating men, or any of that scary bogeywoman bullshit about feminazis plotting to expel men from college.
Right now colleges and universities are engaged in a witch hunt against male students, fueled in no small part by politics who demand stricter rules and more expulsions despite mounting number of cases of wrongful or at least questionable expulsions.Right now colleges and universities are trying to craft and enforce new rules about sexual conduct on their campuses, and some students have suffered as a consequence.
These are not analogous situations. If there is not sufficient evidence "sexual predators" should not be punished. The present situation where burden of proof is so low innocent male students get expelled is a situation desired by feminists who are still not satisfied because still not accused male students get expelled (see Mattress Girl).It appears that sometimes sexual predators were allowed to remain on campus because the rules and process were poorly crafted and poorly enforced, and that sometimes innocents were suspended or expelled for the same reason.
Campus feminists and feminist politicians have been the driving force behind this manufactured "rape culture" witch hunt against male students. To say rules that make it more difficult for male students to defend themselves or draconian "affirmative consent laws" have nothing to do with feminism is highly disingenuous.But that isn't because of feminism, it's the result of changing times, the need to address the persistent problem of sexual assaults and rape on campuses, and the impossibility of creating perfect tools that yield perfect justice every time.
The rules may have been written in a formally gender neutral fashion but they are applied very selectively. Drunk female == victim. Equally drunk male == rapist. See this case among others.The rules I've seen wrt sex on campus have all been gender neutral. If the enforcement isn't, that's a problem.
Occidental Expels Student for Rape Under Standard So Low That the Accuser Could Have Been Found Guilty, Too
Don't tell me this has nothing to do with feminism especially when the false accuser was convinced by a feminist professor that she was "raped" when in reality it was a consensual drunken hookup .Reason Magazine said:The student, identified only as "John Doe," had sex with his accuser on September 8th, 2013, according to details of the case obtained by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Both Doe and his accuser had been drinking. By several accounts, the sex was consensual. The accuser sent Doe a text message beforehand asking him if he had a condom. She also texted a friend and clearly announced her intention to have sex with Doe.
After that night, the accuser spoke with several Occidental employees, including Danielle Dirks, an assistant professor of sociology. Dirks told the accuser that Doe "fit the profile of other rapists on campus in that he had a high GPA in high school, was his class valedictorian, was on [a sports team], and was 'from a good family.'"
A week later, the accuser filed a sexual assault report against Doe.
We have seen in numerous cases, at Vasser, Occidental, UGA, UND and others that the rules are very strict and selectively applied and that calling the "disciplinary process" kangaroo court is an insult to large footed Australian marsupials.But if it is, and men like Charlie and Ben are treated with the same respect and consideration as females making similar claims, then the only problem that needs to be addressed is about the quality of the rules and the disciplinary process.
It matters that if both violate the code of conduct (by for example both being drunk) the female is treated like a victim and the male like a rapist even though they did exactly the same thing. It matters that the burden of proof is very low and that the ability of the accused to defend himself is significantly curtailed.If the actual facts are that the student violated the Code of Conduct, it doesn't matter if the student is male and the alleged victim is female.
And it certainly matters that the codes of conduct recently adopted are way too strict such that most sexually active students run afoul of them. They are often not 100% sober when having sex and they do not solicit explicit consent for every new thing they do.
We need realistic codes of conduct, they need to be investigated while respecting due process and sensible burden of proof (preponderance of evidence is not it) and the rules must be applied to both genders equally. None of these things is the case presently.
The rules are neither just nor fair and they are very selectively enforced.It doesn't matter if there is enough evidence for a criminal prosecution. What matters is that the rules and disciplinary process are well crafted, just, and fair, and that they are consistently enforced.