There's nothing more enjoyable with your Sunday morning coffee than watching a man
define what constitutes a sexual assault to the female panelist sitting next him. The episode started on ABC's
This Week when liberal pundit Van Jones cited statistics
from a 2009 study finding that one in five women is sexually assaulted in college.
"That's completely bogus," countered National Review editor Rich Lowry.
What made it "bogus?"
"That statistic is based on a survey that includes attempted forced kissing as sexual assault," Lowry explained.
Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez jumped in immediately. "That is a sexual assault," she said, raising her hands in disbelief at Lowry's assertion.
"That is not a real number—it's an advocacy number," he responded.
Lowry then continued explaining to Sanchez why it's not actually sexual assault … because, you know, men should really be the authorities on what it's like to be physically forced to do something you don't want to do.
In the meantime, panelist Van Jones attempted to illustrate to Lowry why forced kissing is in fact sexual assault. "Do you want me to attempt … could I kiss you?" Jones posited to Lowry. "Could I kiss you here?" (Of course, the difference is that Jones was giving Lowry an option.) In Lowry's world, it's not an assault because it's not a crime that "that the police are going to be involved in and prosecute." This whole thing somehow reminds me of the Rush Limbaugh "No Means Yes If You Know How To Spot It" school of wooing women. Because he knows, and they don't.
The exchange arose from a discussion around the now infamous and very flawed Rolling Stone story of a University of Virginia student who was allegedly gang raped on campus. Rolling Stone has since apologized for the story. But at the very least, the conversation on This Week elicited some good points from the panel.
Panelist Matthew Dowd worried that the controversy over the story would discourage more women from coming forward. "If you think about the history," Dowd said, "no woman has ever gained fame or fortune by falsely accusing a man of rape or sexual assault. No woman has ever gained from that. It takes courage."
Rep. Sanchez also questioned why college campuses are handling rape investigations at all. "For me, a bigger issue and the issue that sort of gets buried in this is, should a university be handling the investigation of sexual assault?" she asked. "It's like they're saying that sexual assault is not a crime."