Long as I’m wearing the full-on prudish libertine hat, who, exactly should we be warning not to drink if we’re concerned about sexual assault? Because while there’s certainly evidence that alcohol can make potential victims more vulnerable to sexual assault but… but… there’s even more evidence that alcohol makes potential perpetrators waaaaaaay more likely to, well, perpetrate sexual assault!

And yet we tell women to stay away from bars. We tell women to stay away from parties where alcohol is served. We warn women to call cabs instead of walking home alone from clubs.

Because… what? Men in bars, at parties, and outside clubs are all sober, confident stalwarts sipping ginger ale and herb teas waiting for an opportunity to strike? Um, yeah, that happens but I don’t think it happens a lot.

See, the problem with making gendered men the standard against which all humanity is measured is that we don’t consider what policies might alter men’s behavior. And the problem with accepting the anti-feminist ideal of gendered men as ravening, uncontrollable, bestial, irresponsible, incapable, juvenile, undisciplined, dick-following, fart-lighting, dangerous (but, for some reason, also inherently superior?!?!?!) who’ll fuck anything that moves… or just moved recently… is that we don’t consider what policies might, y’know, chill us out a bit.

No, instead it’s all “ooo, them ladies orta watch what they drink or they’ll get what’s coming to them for not being more careful.”

Yeah, how’s that been working for, oh, the last 3,000 years? Not so great?

I don’t have numbers at hand but I think there’s evidence that where women are persuaded to reduce alcohol consumption and/or otherwise drink “responsibly” rates of sexual assault drop by about 10%. And I don’t have numbers at hand because as far as I know there aren’t any but I’ll give you a nickle if persuading men to reduce alcohol and/or otherwise drink “responsibly” rates of sexual assault would drop by, um, a lot more. Not 100% and maybe not 80% but, yeah, more than 60% so…