Experts Discuss Alcohol, Sex

Several speakers explored the relationship between alcohol and sexual assault at last night’s talk "Rape or Sex with a Buzz?" as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month and discussed the difficulty in distinguishing victim and felon in rape cases involving alcohol.

Susan Lewis, Senior Communications Advisor for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, said that alcohol-induced physical and cognitive impairments can complicate a situation.

"The assumption is often that the woman was drunk and the man was not at fault," she said, adding that the victim is often blamed for appearing promiscuous or not putting up a fight. "In the face of general and even legal acceptance of violence against women, we need to work to change attitudes and laws, and individual awareness is especially important."

Wendy J. Murphy, a criminal justice system expert, also spoke about the legal difficulty of determining what constitutes rape, especially when alcohol is in the picture, rebutting arguments that a case in which two people are equally drunk—and thus equally unfit to make decisions—cannot be considered rape.

"Two equally incapacitated people are not suffering the same harm," Murphy said. "People have the right to know what it means to make the choice to have alcohol or drugs and either impose yourself on another or submit to having sex."

She said that the law offers protections for inanimate property—for example, if a person is too drunk to sign a contract about his or her house, the contract is considered involuntary and therefore null. But the law falls short in terms of evaluating consent regarding autonomy over one’s body.

"Every person has 100 percent authority to decide who touches them," Murphy said. "To say that someone was drunk so she deserved what she got deflates that 100 percent authority."

She also said the argument that a man was intoxicated and didn’t mean to commit rape similarly diminishes the woman’s right to her body.

"In these cases, she loses fundamental autonomy over her body, and he loses an erection," Murphy said.

Michael D. Burks ’11, a member of the Drug and Alcohol Peer Advisors and the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response’s Advisory Committee, said that consent is the most important consideration.

"Consent IS sexy," he said, referring to the Sexual Assault Awareness Month t-shirts. "There’s nothing wrong with asking, but having that conversation is something people shy away from because they think it’s going to interrupt the flow of the night."

He added that being an active bystander can help both women and men in potentially risky situations.

"People need to watch out for each other," Burks said. "Whether you don’t want to intrude on another person’s rights or you don’t want to get in trouble, it’s important to be aware."

—Staff writer Alice E.M. Underwood can be reached at aeunderw@fas.harvard.edu.