An Opinion 

I just finished reading two essays on the subject of date rape, one by Calille Paglia entitled “It’s a Jungle Out There” in which the author claims that men are barbaric brutes, women are defenseless victims, and somehow the feminist movement is to blame.  The other, by Susan Jacoby, entitled “Common Decency”, floats from topic to topic before the author finally states that only a small minority of men are actual rapists.
 
I didn’t find either essay very convincing.   Whereas the subject matter is definitely a hot topic full of emotionalism and moral values, both authors seemed to have a personal axe to grind and spent a significant amount of time bashing some group or individual.  I’ve never perceived grandstanding or mudslinging to be very valid methods for getting a point across.  To be honest with you, I’m not even sure what the point of these essays was.  Neither one comes out and says clearly and concisely that “rape is bad”.  Nor do either one list some possible scenarios to avoid, preventative methods or defensive tactics to be employed in the advent of an actual emergency.
 
Another personal peeve of my own was that here again were yet more articles on the subject of rape that completely ignore the fact that men too can be victims.  For some reason both these authors were under the impression that women and women alone hold a sole monopoly on violent crimes against the body.  I find this attitude to be very narrow minded and more than a trifle ludicrous.
 
Whereas the subject matter is definitely controversial and I whole-heartedly agree that “rape is bad”, I would have to conclude that I found both essays to be rather mindless party platform propaganda and not true studies into the matter at hand.