Article Analysis Of Camille Paglia's On Date Rape

In the article “On Date Rape”, Camille Paglia argues that the reason why women are falling victims of date rape is because they want freedom but do not act responsibly. She says that freedom comes with responsibility which women should take as they are always at a higher risk of being overpowered by men. The responsibility she refers to is being alert and being on the lookout for signs of possible sexual assault. An analysis of Camille Paglia’s “On Date Rape” shows a fallacious argument resulting from personal attacks, hasty generalization, and false cause.

1.Based on Serono’s ideas rape culture is something that cannot be solved with “single-tact solutions”. The “men-as-predator/sexual aggressor assumption” (Serano 422) allows women to believe that the man is always a predator, and therefore leads to men being aggressive leading to the cycle of rape culture. Overall to change rape culture we must change this assumption that currently dominates out thinking.

In order to establish a more conclusive rate of effectiveness, the study would need to

Researchers have come up with various explanations trying to explain the sexual abuse cases in the globe. Some of these explanations form a basis on psychological perspectives, biological perspectives, and criminal perspectives. Despite these differences, rape cases are considered a violation of an individual right and the traumatizing effects are reported to be similar. The paper will focus mainly on the criminological approach to rape cases (Grooth & Jean, 1979). Various criminologists’ literature will be reviewed in association to rape as an offense against the law.

Granting to the article "On Date Rape" by Camille Paglia, each paragraph of her article frame the main idea about why women should pay more attention to their safety. The first paragraph of the article explains how the author thinks about the freedom when she was a college student. When she was a college student, she insists on breaking the rules to run outside and enjoy the freedom with a man, and even her aunt advised her not to do that. As well, the author points out in paragraph two, women should acknowledge the risk when they are having fun with men (Paglia). I believe that these two paragraphs give us the background information and the main argument of this article. But the author uses an instance of the different racial group in paragraph three, to explain the white feminists were lack of self-protection awareness compared with black or Hispanic. She explains that because the black and Hispanic women come from a culture fill with sexuality and dangerous, that's why they will be more vigilant (Paglia). In my view, I think this is an odd example because it seems rushed to the conclusion without considering all of the variables about the different racial group. In the fourth paragraph, Paglia uses a metaphor to explain even the women will have

“Rape is unique. No other violent crime is so fraught with controversy, so enmeshed in dispute and in the politics of gender and sexuality… And within the domain of rape, the most highly charged area of debate concerns the issue of false allegations. For centuries, it has been asserted and assumed that women “cry rape,” that a large proportion of rape allegations are maliciously concocted for purposes of revenge or other motives.”

“Feminism has not prepared them for this,” states Camille Paglia in her essay “Rape: A Bigger Danger than Feminists Know.” The “them” in Paglia’s statement is referring to women, and she is discussing the topic of date rape. Susan Jacoby, on the other hand, writes in her article “Common Decency,” that feminism is not responsible for the rising cases of date rape, but that it is the men who are at fault. Paglia’s argument is insightful and accurate, but Jacoby’s writing is flawed and not well-researched. Paglia includes all rhetorical appeals and persuasive techniques, while Jacoby lacks in some departments of persuasiveness and fills the gap with logical fallacies. Comparing both of these papers will help the reader see why

To elaborate further into Paglia’s text, she feels that men cannot control themselves sexually and they are biologically created to rape women, it is in their nature. She also argues that women are the ones to blame for date rape, women must keep themselves safe by distancing themselves and always being in control. Paglia believes that “women will always be in sexual danger,” and argues that she cannot experience the freedom that a male can experience, simply because she is a female.

My inbox was instantly filled with hate-mail from feminists who were literally calling me every single name in the book while trying to inform me that I was a sexist. Mind you, all I had done was posted a list of things that women could do to protect themselves from being raped. Knowledge is power, I thought. Apparently, the tip-sheet that I shared was originally written by James Fenske, and he was concerned with the uprising of rape. Not as a sexual and sexist victimizing crime, but as a criminal act of violence. As he took it, with any other act of violence, rape was something to be defended against. So, he continued on, writing about things that women could do to protect themselves and gave little insights about the psychology of a rapist. The tip-sheet included when rapists attack, who they attack, and why they attack. By knowing all of these things, women are better prepared. Does this mean that women are helpless treasures that require constant male supervision? Absolutely not! Does this mean that it’s not a logically smart idea for a woman to walk around aimlessly or by herself in a place she is unfamiliar with at night? I think so. His tip-sheet coincides with my findings of FBI rape profiles and psychologist typology of rapists which are that most rapists strike at night, especially between the hours of 8 pm and 2 am, which are all prime-time “going-out” hours. It is also important to note that while rapists do pick specific targets, they

In current days, date rape is an obvious risk for modern women. The criminal cases with regard to date rape and robbery are not unusual. In this context, many sociologists, researchers, and even police are warning young females to pay attention to personal safety when going for a party or having a date at night. However, in spite of these good-willed and well-intentioned warnings, there are also some comments and opinions putting forward advices on protecting personal safety for young girls based on the false ground, making their ideas lack of reason and reliability. The editorial, On Date Rape, written by Camille Paglia, is one of these opinions with obvious fallacies and weaknesses in reasoning. There are three most clear fallacies in this article.

On the article On Date Rape, Paglia discussed what contemporary women should think about rape risk. She believes that even though women already won the freedoms, they still need to be aware about rape risks constantly, and keep themselves be safe. Because she thinks today males still are dominant on sex. This is a thought-provoking article. However, even though the author is an authoritative professor, there are still some fallacies and weakness in this article.

Paglia’s unsympathetic comparison of a car being stolen because the keys were left on the hood of the car to a girl being raped because she drank alcohol is preposterous. The loss of a vehicle is mild in comparison to the theft of a woman’s most intimate possession. Sure, you may have lost your means of transport but a stolen car can be recovered, or a new vehicle purchased upon receiving funds from the insurance provider. A rape victim goes through many psychological and emotional changes. They often blame themselves and feel unclean. Their relationships and trust of other males in their life may be terribly altered also. In many cases, victims are haunted by the memories of the actual act. Depression and an addiction to pain pills may also be acquired as a way to escape from and alleviate the painful memories. Plenty of date rape cases are unreported because the victim feels that she will be harshly judged.

While there are many problems in the world, like poverty, famine, cancer, and an abundance of carbon emissions into the planet, there is one that has been in the back of my mind for quite some time: rape culture. This issue is vastly popular in the world of bloggers and social networking site, tumblr. It’s slowly progressing into an important issue that the public is acknowledging. Reviewing the issue’s historical, social, political, cultural and economic perspectives will entail rape culture’s controversy.

Feminist scholarship has argued that rape ideology encourages and justifies sexual coercion, trivializes sexual violence and demeans and devalues women who have experienced sexual assault. The foundation of this argument is based on women's experiences in patriarchal societies. Due to the fact that

College-age adults are known to be high risk for sexual violence and most studies show that one in three women have experiences some type of sexual assault whether it was through physical force or harassment. These statics are known by most women on college campuses to ensure that women know and understand that this could happen to them. The issue is more than ensuring that women are aware of how protect themselves and know how to avoid these situations because it shouldn’t even be happening. When women are taught that they should know how to defend themselves we are saying that this type of behavior is normal and inevitable. We should shift from this dynamic and start teaching both men and women that this behavior is completely unacceptable and that sexually assaulting or harassing someone is NOT normal. This paper will mostly focus on incidents of rape and sexual assault on college campuses and what the outcome and reactions of these incidents were.