Rape! (Just Kidding)

Once omnipresent, the Duke rape story is now nowhere to be found. This could merely be further evidence that the collective American attention span barely surpasses that of the goldfish. Alternatively, the priveleged white boys, once guilty as sin--or the secular equivalent thereof--now appear to be nothing more than victims of calumny, which is almost as shocking as the announcement from the revered tabloid that yet another celebrity marriage fell apart.

The day after the March 13 team party where a 27-year-old black woman claimed she was raped, Durham police told campus officers that "this will blow over," the report said. The woman initially told police she was raped by 20 white men, then said she was attacked by three, the report said.

Being a prospective engineer, I'm tolerably good at math. The number twenty is greater than the number three. We can glean one of several conclusions.

1) The accuser was in an altered state such that she mistook three men for nearly seven times that many. In this case, her testimony is unreliable. If a woman can't distinguish between twenty and three of an object that is, on average, six feet tall and one hundred ninety pounds--note, these numbers are made up; just pretend I work for the New York Times--she cannot be a worthy source of information in determining whether or not she was raped. The DNA tests have thus exonerated the men.

2) The accuser is lying outright. She was never raped, and is, in fact, only conjuring up a story because she can. Even when the men are acquitted, the apologists for this poor woman will see further evidence of privelege trumping the rights of the commoner. Oh the calamity of a jury which clings readily to facts, and uses the obvious lack thereof which coincide with the woman's allegations to return a just verdict.

When honesty is no longer honored, lying becomes permissible. When the reasons to lie are many, and the reasons to tell the truth, few, weak constitutions will find excuse to forgo the path of noblility. Since women who lie about rapes suffer few consequences, and reap the rewards that come with media exposure, women lie about rape, and will continue to do so. This is not to say that rape never happens, of course, but when making up a story lands one a scholarship, well, you do the math.

On a related note, it seems we have another bogus rape claim--great name for a band, by the way.

A 13-year-old girl who told Zion police she was raped by seven boys in an apartment complex laundry room last month has recanted her original statement that she was forced to engage in the sexual activity.

See, abstinence doesn't work. Because, I mean, kids are going to have sex, you know. With multiple partners. In the same day.

We are in a strange stage culturally, where, despite valiant attempts by those opposed to traditional Judeo-Christian values, specifically in regard to the sexual ethic, something innate in people tells them that having gratuitous sex is not something of which to be proud. It is deemed less dishonorable to invent claims of rape than admit that one is, in fact, a dirty tramp or a misguided fool.

I for one will be estatic when we erase all this silly Christian guilt. In twenty years, this girl will be proud of having sex with seven boys, and the bogus claims can all go away. Ah, the sweet smell of cultural demise under the guise of liberation.