Why it's impossible for John Kasich to talk about college rape and alcohol

Republican Gov. John Kasich sparked controversy at a presidential campaign event in Watertown, New York, on Friday when he told a young female college student who'd asked about campus sexual assault policy that she should avoid parties where a lot of alcohol is served. 

Critics instantly cast the comment as victim-blaming. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund issued a statement from its vice president Dawn Laguens noting Kasich's callousness toward women. 

“John Kasich’s plan for combating sexual assault as president is to blame women who go to parties," she said. "John Kasich’s pattern of dismissing the concerns of women is disturbing enough." 

That's a tempting take for partisan politics, but the truth is that Kasich's response had far more integrity before he mentioned the role of alcohol, perhaps the most fraught aspect of campus sexual assault. 

While research shows that drinking is associated with "incapacitated rape," it has become impossible to discuss the connection because victims have long been blamed for their sexual assault, particularly when alcohol is involved.  

The woman who posed the question, a first-year student at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, asked Kasich what he would do as president to "help me feel safer and more secure in regards to sexual violence." 

Kasich then talked about his work on this issue in Ohio and listed several important policies:  

In our state, we think that when you enroll, you ought to absolutely know that if something happens to you along the lines of sexual harassment or whatever, you have a place to go where there is a confidential reporting, where there is an ability for you to access a rape kit, where that is kept confidential, but where it gives you the opportunity to be able to pursue justice after you've had some time to reflect on it all. We are in the process of making sure that all higher education in our state, and this ought to be done in the country, that our co-eds know exactly what the rules are, what the opportunities are, what the confidential policies are so that you are not vulnerable, at risk and can be preyed upon. I have two 16-year-old daughters, and um, I don't even like to think about it.

The young woman replied, "It’s sad, but it’s something that I have to worry about."

That's when Kasich, who seemed to speak with conviction on the subject, began sounding less like an ally and more like a patronizing dad. 

"Well I would also give you one bit of advice," he said. "Don't go to parties where there's a lot of alcohol." 

His campaign later issued three tweets to counter the victim-blaming narrative. "Only one person is at fault in a sexual assault, and that's the assailant," read the first tweet.

While it's unclear what Kasich originally meant to imply, it makes sense to avoid parties where perpetrators might take advantage of binge drinking to rape someone — or are even known and expected to do just that. The problem is that this hyper-awareness puts an unfair burden on women, who should be able to attend any social function without fearing sexual assault. 

Kasich also isn't helped by the fact that his record on supporting a woman's right to control her body is arguably lacking.

He's signed legislation that defunded Planned Parenthood and prohibited rape crisis centers that receive state dollars from giving victims information about abortion clinics. It's unsurprising that his critics would immediately see his remarks on Friday as yet one more example of misogyny. 

Yet there is a complicated relationship between rape and alcohol, and it's essential to find a way to talk about women, drinking and the risk of assault without placing blame.

A study published last year found that 15% of 483 female first-year students at a private university in the northeast said they'd been raped, or had experienced attempted rape, while incapacitated by drugs or alcohol during their first-year of college. One in six women also said they'd been raped while incapacitated between age 14 and before entering college. That experience was a key factor in predicting whether they would report the same type of assault in college.

While the results aren't nationally representative, they are in line with previous studies that show a connection between heavy drinking and marijuana use with the risk of sexual assault.

"We all need to agree that drinking to the point of intoxication is not 'asking' to be assaulted." 

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the study was that survey participants who’d been raped while incapacitated continued to associate alcohol with sexual enhancement. 

Kate B. Carey, the study's co-author and a professor of behavioral and social sciences at Brown University, said women don’t always label sexual experiences as assault even if they didn’t consent, particularly if intoxication played a role. None of this means, however, that sexual assault is what happens when you drink too much or irresponsibly. 

"We all need to agree that drinking to the point of intoxication is not 'asking' to be assaulted," Carey told Mashable last year.

The public debate, however, must make space to hear these women's stories and understand the complex role alcohol played in their assault, because the victimization they're experiencing is not acceptable. 

And perhaps if Kasich fields this question again, he can talk instead about predatory behavior and tell young men to also avoid boozy parties and always obtain consent from a potential sexual partner, regardless of how much she's had to drink. 

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