We don’t live in a rape culture, but we
do inhabit a culture saturated with gender
propaganda.
Call it a Ms.Information culture.
And nowhere is the Ms.Information more rampant
than in the area of sexual assault.
Coming up next Factual Feminist: The two biggest
myths about women and sexual violence.
Myth number one: 1 in 5 college women are
raped or sexually assaulted.
This claim has been repeated over and over
by journalists, political leaders; it's been
said so many times it's almost beyond the
reach of rational analysis.
As I and many others have said, the figure
is wrong, and now there is new data, just
released last month, from the U.S. Bureau
of Justice Statistics which gives us a much
more reliable estimate.
The 1-in-5 claim is based on a 2007 internet
study with vaguely worded questions, a low
response rate, and a non-representative sample.
And other studies with similar findings have
used the same faulty methods.
The real number, according to the US Bureau
of Justice Statistics is 1 in 53; too many,
but a long way from one in five.
Does that mean that sexual assault is not
a problem on campus?
Of course not.
Too many women are victimized, but it is not
an epidemic and it is not a culture.
Exaggeration and hysteria shed no light and
produce no solutions; they actually distract
from a real problem.
Myth two: Women almost never lie about rape—no
more than 2 percent of rape charges turn out
to be false.
Rape crisis activists often urge us dogmatically
“believe women, always believe what women
say."
 They do this for a reasonl they're reacting
to a long history where victims were routinely
disbelieved and blamed because of their choice
of clothing or sexual history.
But the answer to bad old practices is not
bad new practices.
As Cathy Young has noted in an excellent discussion
in Slate: “The myth of the lying woman,”
has been replaced by “the myth of the woman
who never lies.”
 Why replace one myth with another?
Of course women lie.
Not because they are women, but because they
are human.
And human beings lie.
Especially about sex.
Now women make false accusations for different
reasons.
I mean, some do it because they want to explain
away an embarrassing sexual encounter, or
sometimes they're disturbed and seeking attention,
sympathy, or revenge.
Sometimes they've taken one too many feminist
theory seminars and came to believe that drunken
or regretted sex constitutes felony rape.
The claim that 2 percent of rape accusations
are false is unfounded.
It seems to have started with Susan Brownmiller’s
1975 feminist manifesto “Against Our Will.”
Other statistics for false accusations range
from 8 to 43 percent.
But these studies also have flaws.
The truth is, we have no idea right now what
the right number is.
And it may be unknowable.
For one thing, it is hard to define what we
mean by a false accusation.
Is it a case where the police refuse to pursue
a claim because of too little evidence?
I mean that doesn't prove it’s false.
On the other hand, it would be wrong to assume
that just because someone is found guilty
and sent to jail, that means the charge was
legitimate.
 We know that many men have been found guilty
of rape, and later exonerated.
Think of the high school football star Brian
Banks who served 5 years in jail and afterwards
his accuser admitted that she fabricated the
accusation.
And recently, we have seen dozens of high-profile
campus rape cases revealed to be born of false
accusations.
The bottom line: false accusations are nearly
impossible to define, let alone quantify.
We can’t know for sure how common they are.
But we do know that they happen far too often.
There's no alternative: we need to treat the
alleged victim seriously and respectfully,
while at the same time being vigilant about
protecting the rights of the accused.
That’s called due process.
Next week I will address more myths about
rape and sexual assault.
Let me know if you agree, if we live in a
culture saturated with gender propaganda.
Please let me know what you think in the comments
section.
If you appreciate this series, please show
support by subscribing.
Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook,
and thank you for watching the Factual Feminist.
