An offensive remark about rape

By Sharon Grigsby

The Dallas Morning News

Texas state Rep. Myra Crownover did women in Texas the greatest of disservices, ironically on International Women’s Day, when she made this myth-perpetuating statement Tuesday morning: “I would be curious to see how many times a pure, sober sexual assault happened. The best chance is being sober.”

My first thought was of the young woman who recently came forward at Baylor to report her sexual assault, allegedly by a fraternity president, last month. The latest alleged rape out of Baylor had all the earmarks of the sordid stories we know so well: She went to a party, was handed some kind of punch, lost consciousness and awoke to being sexually assaulted.

But beyond that date-rape scenario is the idea that a woman is somehow complicit in her own sexual assault just because she chooses to drink alcohol. That thinking is tantamount to “wearing provocative clothing” or similar nonsense.

Yes, as I’ve written previously, of course alcohol is part of the conversation, but often because sexual predators use intoxication as part of their plot. Yes, alcohol smears the lens in these stories. But it’s not the start or end point of the conversation. If we don’t get more sophisticated in this thinking, we’ll never get to solutions.

Here’s the place we need to start the discussions, neatly summed up by Jessica Valenti in her book “The Purity Myth”:

“Women don’t get raped because they were drinking or took drugs. Women do not get raped because they weren’t careful enough. Women get raped because someone raped them.”

Crownover made her remark at a House Higher Education Committee hearing. In many ways, it’s comforting to remember that Crownover did not seek re-election and is ending her time in Austin. Good riddance, if she can’t get past this old understanding of rape and women’s so-called complicity in it.

But it’s worth noting that people far more nuanced than Crownover have also tried to engage on this topic – only to have similar backlash. Putting pitchforks into the backs of one another can feel good – especially in an outrageous example such as this. Yet the social media tar and feathering doesn’t push the conversation forward any more than Crownover’s remarks did.

We’re all replaying the same old tapes. And that’s not helping young women try to figure out how to navigate these waters one bit.

My hope is that we can channel our anger about incidents like this one to change the culture and bring about the honest discussions that are necessary. So as we all fire off a tweet of outrage over Crownover’s ignorance, let’s consider how we can be part of constructive solutions as well.