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Students at Ohio's Miami University were horrified when a flier titled "Top Ten Ways to Get Away With Rape" appeared in the bathroom of a coed on-campus dorm. The stomach-turning list includes disgusting ideas such as putting roofies in drinks, "practicing" rape by doing it repeatedly and sexually assaulting women while they sleep.....
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<p>And it goes downhill from there....</p>
<p>This is someone's idea of a JOKE?? Words fail me.</p>
<p>What concerns me is the title of the first article… The flier, which the article notes, " includes such suggestions as: “slipping roofies in women’s drinks, targeting women who walk alone, sneaking into women’s unlocked rooms and slitting their throats if you’re afraid they will talk” only warrants a suggestion in the title that it <em>raises concerns</em>? Thats all? Really?</p>
<p>Well, obvious the point is to gross out and upset people. One wonders why the author didn’t add an 11th way: “Find a cow or sheep because they won’t report you.” Maybe the author feared the involvement of PETA?</p>
<p>I didn’t say I approved of the flyer- but it doesn’t surprise me n the least. What surprises me is that some women live in a world where violence against women is unheard of and unexpected.</p>
<p>Based on what I was actually able to read of this list from the picture, it seems pretty clearly to be a monumentally lame attempt at “humor.”</p>
<p>Not even faintly amusing. Nor is a hockey team naming themselves “TheRapists” even faintly amusing. At least there is some faint possibility that the list-maker intended it to be an anti-rape statement. Can’t say that for the hockey team. Some of the items seem very clearly ironic to me, such as saying that an unconscious body “counts.” Also, “honesty is he best policy,” and if a girl says she won’t have sex with you you should TELL HER that you are going to buy her a drink, slip her a roofie, and take her home and rape her. I mean, come on: is anyone seriously suggesting that this is a “rape manual”? Tell the girl you are going to give her a roofie? Admittedly, the ironic intent of some of this is open to interpretation, due to lack of punctuation. Maybe I’m being naive in thinking it must be intended as irony.</p>
<p>This reminds me of the boys in the Savannah Dietrich case. They decided to take pictures of themselves putting their fingers in her vagina because they thought it would be funny. But it wasn’t, at least one of them added. Duh.</p>
<p>Where is it that kids are getting the idea that rape is a subject for humor?</p>
<p>I read the whole list. It feels really off to me. It’s not some serious rape manual, but it’s not humor either. Nor is it the work of some feminist agente provocateuse. My strong gut feeling is that it’s the work product of someone with serious psychiatric issues, possibly a boy who is very socially conservative, personally, and feels horrified/assaulted/attracted by the behavior of his classmates.</p>
<p>Not that this information makes this any better, but the rest of the story is the RA on the floor had made a nice, legitimate poster on how not to get charged with rape -or some title like that - with things like : No means No, and dont’ have sex with someone who has been drinking, etc. Certain boys on the floor took down the poster and rewrote it with the new list.</p>
<p>S said the university is looking at serious sanctions for these boys.</p>
<p>Since Miami is a public university, it will face some obstacles in punishing speech. As others have suggested, I think this list is intended to be “humor” or “satire.” If it is a parody of another list, that might even be clearer. Jokes that are offensive are still speech.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of law on regulation of speech, but in general the government can’t regulate speech just because it’s offensive–it can prohibit “fighting words” (speech designed to incite immediate violence), and it can increase the punishment for conduct motivated by racial bias–and several other exceptions–but a printed flier is so clearly speech and not really conduct that I find it hard to see how in could be punished–especially after the Phelps case in the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>I predict that there will be an effort to say that this flier “incites violence” or “is intended to intimidate,” but I think those arguments will be weak under the facts of this case. (Note, for example, that as far as we know the single copy of this flier was posted in a men’s bathroom.)</p>
<p>Apparently the attitude of some people at Miami of Ohio towards women is one of the few things Ben Roethlisberger learned while he was the quarterback there several years ago. Seats of higher learning? Hardly…at least in this case. And unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated incident.</p>
<p>Gee, I don’t know. Maybe from the kind of people who promote distinctions on “legitimate rape” or say “some girls rape easy” in public speech? Like I said, it’s open season on women these days, and I am guessing that a conservative, fratty environment like Miami University might attract some people with misogynistic views or find this kind of list funny.</p>
<p>Universities can regulate conduct, including speech, as a condition of attendance. Of course, that can always be challenged in court (but doesn’t mean it would prevail). Many colleges have honor codes, football players have curfews, substance-free dorms have different alcohol/drug policies, etc., etc.</p>
<p>And they can defund groups as well. Why is the state funding a hockey team that publicly calls itself “The Rapists”?</p>
<p>That is an excellent question. Of course, destruction metaphors are common in sports, and often flaunted with pride. (The Four Horsemen, Murderer’s Row, the Broad Street Bullies, etc.) Testosterone poisoning?</p>
<p>Before people start issuing wholesale condemnations of the Miami U male student body, please note that the opinion piece deploring this was written by a Miami U male. And so far, this has nothing to do with frats.</p>