A Guide to George Will’s Decades of Attacks on Sexual Assault Victims and ‘Rape Crisis Feminists’
In 2014, Will Claimed Sexual Assault Victim Is A “Coveted Status” And Criticized Efforts To Combat The Epidemic
Washington Post’s George Will: Sexual Assault Victim Is “A Coveted Status That Confers Privileges.” In a June 2014 column, Will suggested that college sexual assault victims — and people Will suggested were pretending to be victims — enjoyed “a coveted status that confers privileges.” He also disputed the statistic that 1 in 5 women experience assault on college campuses in the U.S., and dismissed the story of an individual survivor from Swarthmore College, whom he suggested didn’t qualify as an actual “victim.” He concluded by mocking efforts to combat the growing epidemic, criticizing the Obama administration for “riding to the rescue of ‘sexual assault’ victims.” [The Washington Post, 6/6/14, via Media Matters]
Will Refused To Back Down. After facing criticism for his remarks, Will told CSPAN he refused to apologize:
C-SPAN: You wouldn’t take back any of the words you used?
WILL: No, no. [CSPAN, 6/20/14, via Media Matters]
Will: “I Think I Take Sexual Assault Much More Seriously” Than U.S. Senators. When four U.S. senators criticized Will’s “coveted status” comments on sexual assault, he responded by claiming he thinks he takes “sexual assault much more seriously” than them, because he believes in a more narrow definition of the crime:
As for what you call my “ancient beliefs,” which you think derive from an “antiquated” and “counterintuitive” culture, allow me to tell you something really counterintuitive: I think I take sexual assault much more seriously than you do. Which is why I worry about definitions of that category of crime that might, by their breadth, tend to trivialize it. And why I think sexual assault is a felony that should be dealt with by the criminal justice system, and not be adjudicated by improvised campus processes. [Media Matters, 6/12/14; The Washington Post, 6/13/14]
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Will In 1996: Hyped Claims That “Battered Woman Syndrome” Reinforces Stereotypes Of Women As “Frail Creatures, Easily Unhinged”; “Yes Means Yes” Consent “Patronizes Women.” A 1996 Will column opened by citing a Cato Institute study which dismissed women who said they suffered from Battered Woman Syndrome when charged with their husbands’ murders, implying that the use of the condition reinforced women as “frail creatures, easily unhinged” and had overturned “the traditional rule that deadly force can only be justified by an imminent threat.” Will’s piece went on to claim that feminists were defining sexual harassment too broadly, and to criticize “yes means yes” consent law, citing an unnamed feminist to claim the need for explicit consent “patronizes women”:
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