Defining Rape and Rapists

King and McCaughey stated that “getting your date drunk to get sex from her” is rape. But how can a man possibly get his date drunk? Does he put a funnel in the woman’s mouth and pour alcohol into it? Does he inject alcohol into her bloodstream intravenously? Does he force her to drink at gunpoint? I don’t think so.

If a woman voluntarily goes out with a man, voluntarily drinks alcoholic beverages until she is drunk, and then (while still conscious) fails to resist her date’s sexual advances (or fails to otherwise indicate that she does not consent to his advances), then her date has the right to assume that she has consented to his sexual advances, and the resulting sex at is not rape. This is true even if she later regrets having had sex with him and even if she would not have had sex with him if her inhibitions had not been lowered by the alcohol.

DAN ARKOFF

Canoga Park