Is There a 'Rape Culture' on College Campuses?: Live Debate Tonight

Cathy Young and Michael Kimmel square in Reason/Soho Forum debate in New York. Buy tickets or watch here at Reason.

Soho Forum

"There is a rape culture on college campuses that creates an unsafe environment for female students."

That's the resolution that will be debated at tonight's Reason-Soho Forum debate, which takes place at the Subculture Theater tonight in New York's East Village. Doors open at 5:45 P.M. and tickets must be purchased online (go here or see below for details).

Co-founded and moderated by Gene Epstein, the Soho Forum is "a monthly debate series that features topics of special interest to libertarians, and the series aims to enhance social and professional ties within the NYC libertarian community."

The Soho Forum is an Oxford-style debate, which means that the audience votes before and after the proceedings. The participant who moves the most people to his or her side is declared the winner.

Details on the event:

Dave Smith, comedian and host of the podcast Part of the Problem, will begin the evening with a set of observations and insights tailored to tonight's highly charged topic.

For the affirmative:

Michael Kimmel is the SUNY Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Stony Brook University. Among his many books are Manhood in America; Angry White Men; The Politics of Manhood; The Gendered Society; and the best seller, Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men. With funding from the MacArthur Foundation, he founded the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities at Stony Brook in 2013.

For the negative:

Cathy Young is a contributing editor at Reason magazine, a weekly columnist at Newsday, and a regular contributor to the Jewish Daily Forward and The Weekly Standard. She's the author of two books: Growing Up in Moscow: Memories of a Soviet Girlhood (1989) and Ceasefire: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality (1999). A frequent speaker on college campuses, Young has also been a regular participant in the "Battle of Ideas," a unique annual weekend-long event in London that brings together speakers of diverse perspectives for dozens of panels on various issues.

Monday, March 19, 2018

Cash bar opens at 5:45pm
Event starts at 6:30pm
Subculture Theater
45 Bleecker St
NY, 10012

Tickets cost between $10 and $18 and must be purchased in advance.

Seating is limited, so buy tickets now.

Reason is proud to partner with the Soho Forum, to livestream each debate as it happens, and to publish the debates both as videos and as episodes of the Reason Podcast. Go here for our archive.

You can set a Facebook reminder to watch the event by going here or returning at 6:30 and refreshing this page.

Comments

[Jerryskids]

There absolutely is a rape culture on college campuses - it's the culture attempting to change the definition of rape such that the male/female power dynamic perpetuated by the patriarchy makes all male/female interactions rape. If you look at a female, attempt to talk to a female or even think about a female, the fact that you've objectified her by mentally identifying her as a female makes you a rapist.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

Jimmy Carter approves this message.

[DajjaI]

There are strong feelings on both sides. America is probably the only country in the world where we could have such a discussion. In any other country it would be shut down for 'hate speech' or 'immodesty' or any number of a million other false allegations - and they probably have far worse rape epidemics than we have here. Honestly we are too good for this world. (I'm only half joking.)

Thank you Reason for doing this! We all have an obligation to ensure it proceeds seamlessly, and let the best man, er woperson, er woperchild win!

[esteve7]

The burden of proof is on them for alleging it, and there is no evidence to suggest that. What little they have has been widely debunked. Sorta like the wage gap myth

[AlmightyJB]

"Cash bar opens at 5:45pm"

You probably don't want to allow the women to drink, they may get tipsy and have sex with a guy aka be raped. They're not in control of their own sexual impulses.

[EscherEnigma]

Last week I said that a guy that continues to have sex with a woman that's so drunk she's thrown up twice was an idiot. For this comment I got attacked by a surprising number of folks, some of who were labeled "Tulpa" by regulars, but also by some regulars themselves.

So I don't know if there's a "rape culture". But I do know there are some folks that are very invested in the right of men to think with their dicks without criticism.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

No, you got shot down for dancing around the issue of how a drunk man could be more responsible than a drunk woman for consensual sex which the woman later regretted.

[oliviareid]

According to Online essay help At English Essays "Sociology" is the expansive train intrigued by the investigation of social orders. "Sociology education" is a subset of this, similar to the social science of work, of gender, of the family, of advancement, of associations, and so forth. It is a topical subset of the more extensive train.

[Edward William]

On paper, We at Best Essay Writing Service UK research those legislative projects create that sense-good environment, however, in fact, college campuses have way too much to lose by means of absolutely encouraging students to document crimes of a sexual attack on campus. The sad reality is that near 30% of all college-age women will revel in a few forms of sexual attack of their four years at a University.