From Jemma Almond

Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011

Dear Editor,

I am a student at FAU enrolled in a Sexuality and Gender class. Through this class, I read the short document on the Busted page in the University Press titled, “Case of the Girl Who Cried Wolf…Or Rape.” I found this article interesting due to the fact that it relates to my class study’s. In this article, the girl who claimed that she was raped seemed very luring and showed off her promiscuous side. She constantly invited different guys over to her room and consumed alcohol irresponsibly, putting herself into an undesired position. In my class, I have learned that performativity is when one acts out their assigned gender roles. This theory relates to the article because the girl was acting “sexy” and trying to fulfill the woman sex role to please a man. In the way we are socially constructed, society scripts out our roles of a female demonstrating weakness and innocence, whereas on the other hand, a male role is scripted differently showing a more aggressive side. The article states that, “She was not resisting the male and she was clutched onto the guy and enjoying what she was doing.” Sex is considered to be rape when it is a forceful act and there is no consent from the other person you are sexually engaging with. I also find it interesting that no where in the article was there a statement regarding the male that was accused of raping the girl. Does this mean that he was let up off the charge? There was also no mention or follow up after the night of the incident. As human beings we essentialize, in order for people to make judgements, I personally think that there needs to be more information about the action that was taken regarding this particular event.