While Mona Charen concedes that some of the hysteria over campus sexual assaults is based on bogus statistics from the White House and its allies (here and here), she nevertheless is concerned about the sexual atmosphere on campus:
The young women who find themselves in a rough world of sexual insensitivity and sometimes even brutality are looking in all the wrong places to lay blame. They should look left; to the cultural left, that is, including the feminists.
The modern campus is a little hothouse of leftist ideas about human nature and the ideal human society. The universities are devout propagators of false nostrums about sex differences and sexuality. The world that the Left (very much including the feminist Left) has created is one that could have been designed by a poorly civilized teenaged boy. Far from teaching that women are more sensitive and vulnerable than men, the Left encourages a sexual free-for-all.
Every freshman on campus is invited to the bacchanal. At Yale, they call it “Sex Week.” At Columbia, the health service hosts a website called “Go Ask Alice” where the curious can learn about many things. Interested in a threesome? Alice replies: “For many in the bedroom, three (or more) may be a welcomed crowd. For others, two is the better number.” Good to know. Alice offers advice about everything you can think of and doubtless things you haven’t. She’ll enlighten you about “scat play” and educate you about how many calories are in semen and whether “eating feces” is “safe.”
The left promotes the notion that there is a “rape culture” on campuses. The left sees the remedy as regulations that can deprive he accused of due process.
Perhaps what the campus really needs is a different attitude about casual sex and an understanding that such sex is harmful to young women (and young men).
It would also be nice if we could restore a notion that pre-dates the hook-up culture: than young men should aspire to be gentlemen and treat young women (who should aspire to be ladies) accordingly.