The Case for Taking the Date Out of Rape Book

When date rape hit the headlines with a series of highly publicized cases, the media had a field day. "Feminism has gone mad," "Men-the innocent victims of political correctness," "Women don't take responsibility for bad sex" screamed the headlines. Suddenly, thanks to feminism, there was an impossibly fine line between consensual sex and rape.

As Aileen McColgan powerfully and persuasively argues, only the terminology is new in this debate. Throughout history women who complain of rape have been marginalized, trivialized and ostracized. Rape has been denied or belittled, rapists unacknowledged or forgiven. Date rape is simply the latest in a long line of strategies to cover up the reality of rape: it happens to an awful lot of women and it is most often perpetrated by the men they know.