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From: "Beth Benoit" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: FW: Plotnik text and date rape paragraphs
Date: Sun, May 16, 1999, 4:15 PM
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From: "Beth Benoit" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Plotnik text and date rape paragraphs
Date: Sun, May 16, 1999, 3:07 PM
I am aware that this discussion may well
- though I hope not - become a polarized
one:
the "don't-blame-the-victim" advocates
on one side and the "become empowered"
ones
on the other. This is unfortunate, IMO,
because we're all saying the same thing:
(underline here!)_No one deserves to be
raped_. I know that it's tremendously
PC to
be an advocate of the first side ONLY -
I've taught Psych. of Women, and will be
teaching
it next semester too. But there are
some practical considerations about the
issue.
Plotnik's text is very big on applying
what we know from psychological research
to life
issues. (And he does have a chapter in
the text on scientific method, of
course.)
It has occurred to me that all the talk
about the Columbine tragedy has resulted
in a
discussion that could never take place
on the subject of another violent act:
date rape.
Most of the Columbine discussion
centers on what we could have done
differently,
what we did wrong, what we can do.
(Headline in our local paper today:
"Where
did we go wrong?") In the present
rape-consideration scenario, one would
have to
tread _very_ carefully before proposing
any arguments along the same lines for
date-rape prevention. Yet I have seen
and heard countless times the situation
Plotnik describes - both on my own
campus and in stories my college-age
children tell me. If there ARE things
we can teach women to do to help them
avoid date rape, should we opt NOT to
teach them, so that we don't tread on
the hallowed ground of victim-blaming?
This seems to be sophistic, at best.
Dave Myers' social psychology text,
which I'm happily using this semester,
includes a section about how "social
skills training" has a stronger emphasis
now in clinical settings. Let me
emphasize that his reference is to
breaking
the cycles of depression -> loneliness
-> social anxiety, not to any scenario
including rape, but this is the sentence
that echoes a little of the sentiment
Plotnik was trying to convey: "By
observing and then practicing new
behaviors in safe situations, the person
may develop the confidence to behave
more effectively in other situations."
I felt this point was so important -
that
"social skills training" rather than
"self-esteem therapy" is the wave of the
future - that I spent a fair amount of
time on it in class, and have included a
question about it on the final.
I hope I can safely make one more point
on this subject. So far, as I expected,
all the responders on this sensitive
topic have been female. I realize that
men
are understandably a bit gun-shy on this
subject. The very interesting topic of
not allowing men to take psychology of
women's courses is a hot one at Boston
College, for example, as one well-known
researcher is fighting B.C. over her
"right" to exclude them. (More on that
in another post.) I hope the male TIPS
members will feel comfortable enough to
comment on this subject without
worrying that the females will flame
them with "You can't begin to
understand"
and "That's just like a man" comments.
I think we're above that. (Aren't we??)
Looking forward to an interesting
discussion, without too much venom.
Beth Benoit
University of Massachusetts Lowell
