Responsibility

[andrewducker]

This is inspired by the comment here, where ladysysiphus says "If you have consumed enough alcohol to impair your judgement, I believe you then have to take at least some responsibility for putting yourself in a position where something like this might happen."

[Poll #619684]

Comments

[0olong.livejournal.com]

You've certainly made a compelling case that excessively drunken sex happened.

A convincing case that rape happened requires more than that, though. The fact that someone remembers nothing the next day certainly suggests they're drunk enough that it would be wrong to take advantage of them, but it doesn't rule out that they may have consented at the time. For that matter, they may have consented enthusiastically, in a corridor; people do regrettable things like that sometimes when they're drunk. Clearly, if she consented, it wasn't rape.

If you want to argue that someone that drunk cannot give consent (I'm not sure if this is your position or not?), in much the same way as under-16s are deemed to be incapable of giving consent in law, and therefore any and all sex with them constitutes rape, then that's not unreasonable - but it does take us into very sticky territory. It's not always easy to judge how drunk a person is; you'd need to draw the line somewhere, obviously, but where?; also, many people are very much in the habit of having drunken sex - indeed, I am led to understand that going out, getting drunk in and hoping to get a shag is a popular pastime in this country, among members of both sexes and all sexualities.