Les usagers de drogues sont les victimes oubliées du viol
Malgré des décennies d’activisme anti-viol, certaines personnes continuent de croire que les consommatrices de drogues auraient « tout fait pour » être violées en altérant leur jugement et se rendant vulnérables. Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.
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Rape has been in the headlines lately. That’s partly thanks to a Rolling Stoneexpose last month detailing a gang rape of a first-year student at a frat party at the University of Virginia. The story went viral and sparked campus protests. Then discrepancies emerged in the account the victim told the reporter. Amid a flurry of stories slamming Rolling Stone for setting back sexual assault victim advocacy efforts, the magazine issued an apology.
Despite this problematic incident, the recent coverage has sparked much-needed discussion. Aside from the UVA story, there have been a number of interesting developments regarding sexual assault and sexual harassment, such as California’s controversial affirmative consent rule, the report by the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault and Senate draft legislation that would create tougher penalties for colleges that mishandle sexual assault cases.
Some talk has focused on the interplay between alcohol and sexual assault (including so-called date rape drugs). Although estimates vary widely, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism suggests that half of all sexual assaults involve alcohol use by one or both parties.
Yet there has been almost no mention at all about (other) drug use. One might easily conclude that drug users are simply never assaulted. I mean, surely we would be talking about it if they were, right?
Of course, people who use drugs are raped every day, but “drug addicts”—and, by implication, any drug users—are a group that few people are willing to defend.
Think about what the narrative would be like if among the other discrepancies in the Rolling Stone article, it was revealed that the victim had used drugs like heroin, hallucinogens, meth, or even cocaine. Her story would still have been discredited, but instead of criticisms being directed at Rolling Stone, the young woman herself would bear the brunt (along with a fair number of insults).
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