it's about society trying to eliminate rape.

if you are drunk, in flashy clothes, making a specatcle of yourself in the ghetto and get mugged, it's not your fault. but if you don't want to get mugged, don't get drunk and make a spectacle of yourself in the ghetto. why is this so hard to understand?

While we may not "commission studies" when someone in a bad neighborhood, out walking late at night, gets mugged, many certainly do question that person's judgment. I should be able to go jogging through the Tenderloin at 2 a.m., clad in shorts and a jog bra. I CAN, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea. And because I take personal responsibility for my actions, I don't jog through the Tenderloin late at night.

If you get falling down drunk in a bar, I'm not saying you deserve what you get. But you should EXPECT that bad things will happen. Where is the personal responsibility, people? You must, and this goes for women, too, take responsibility for your own actions and your own personal safety. Getting outraged over this study is just more passing the buck, pointing the finger anywhere but ourselves, oh it's not my fault I had a bad childhood crap. At some point you have to stand up and say, "I am responsible for my own actions, and if I do something ridiculously foolish like get falling down drunk in public, it is to be expected that something bad will happen."

In legal terms, it's called "assumption of risk," if you contribute to your injury through your own negligent conduct, then you have assumed the risk that something bad will happen, and the defendant's penalty will be reduced as a result. Same thing should apply here. If the woman WAS raped (and not just experiencing sober buyer's remorse),then yes, the guy should go to prison. But the fact that both of them may have been drunk should mitigate those circumstances. Why is the woman allowed to have absolutely no personal responsibility for what happened to her because she's drunk, but the fact that the guy was also drunk has no bearing? THIS is what's sexist. A drunk woman can't think clearly but a drunk guy CAN? This is not equality, this simply bolsters the idea that women are the weaker sex, and I don't buy it for a minute.

It's not if you have contributed to your injury through your own negligence, it's if you participate in an activity you knew to be dangerous (like getting falling down drunk in public). My torts prof would be aghast at my mistake.

Okay, so I'm a lawyer, and I have represented rapists (and worse) at times, so I amight not be completely unbiased in my thinking, but there is absolutely a difference- just not the way you might think.

If a person slips a roofie into your drink, then that person has taken an affirmative act to render consent meaningless. That is a rape. If a person waits until someone has had enough to drink so that they are willing to do something they would otherwise not do sober, then that is not rape. This is the law in most jurisdictions.

Of course, if someone has sex with a completely unconscious person who has no idea what is happening, then it doesn't matter who administered what to whom.

So why would someone want to have sex with a "half-comatose, vomit covered" woman? Because she probably wanted to- and because the guy is also probably vomit covered and half comatose.

There is a very real issue about who did what to whom.

If a man slips a woman something, and she becomes unconscious and the man has his way with her, he has raped her.

If a woman gets drunk and has sex with a man, has he raped her?

What if she was so blind drunk she doesn't remember coming on to him?

What if they were both so blind drunk neither remembers who came on to whom?

That's the problem. People routinely use alcohol as an excuse for behavior they later regret. And a drunken woman claiming to be drugged after an unpleasant sexual encounter is the nightmare one night stand of any man.

The problem isn't rapists exploiting innocents, its innocents being railroaded by circumstances. And quite frankly, if a woman willingly imbibes alcohol to excess and winds up in a sexual situation, it does make the case that much harder to prosecute in situations when a real crime has occurred.

I once dated a girl who when drunk became a sexually adventurous woman. Our relationship was based solely on sex, and that sex only occurred when she had a few. Does that mean I was a rapist? She was never unconscious when we had sex, but she was behaving differently than her sober self (something I never realized until after she had broken up with me). By contrast if a woman (or a man for that matter) goes off their meds and becomes hypersexual (a common occurrence with many people suffering from numerous disorders) is the person they choose to have sex with while in that state a rapist. The woman is not in control of her actions, but the man is not necessarily aware of that fact.

What if a girl takes some club drug making sensations that much more pleasurable, and she has sex with a person in that inebriated state willingly, she is not responsible for her actions but is the recipient of their advances a rapist? What if both parties were on the same drug, and both became touchy feely and that lead to more?

Rape is a powerful word, and in my opinion it is cheapened when there is an effort to define as rape what is in truth bad judgment. Yes men rape drunk women, and yes drunks get mugged to, and maybe telling people about the dangers of drinking to excess when you are unaccompanied is important. Just as we tell people about the dangers of drinking and driving, maybe the dangers of drinking in general should be held up for people? Maybe a very powerful PSA has a woman telling people she went to a party, got drunk, and woke up in some guy’s bed. She felt raped, but no one believed her, and no crime could be prosecuted because she was an unreliable witness to the event. Yes it's harsh but it gets the point across. We do need personal responsibility when we drink. We need to be aware of our surroundings, and yes if you are unable to walk, you shouldn't drive, and you should walk down dark alleys.

There are numerous horrors in this world, and it is impossible to protect against them all, at some point we need to protect ourselves.