Stanford Revises Alcohol Policy, Continues To Not Understand The Problem

August 23, 2016 12:17 PM

In response to the recent conviction of Stanford student and rapist Brock Turner, Stanford University has revised their alcohol policy, claiming to be doing so to combat sexual assault. But as observers and critics point out, the revisions place the blame on women and alcohol consumption, while protecting rapists.

The two big takeaways are a ban on large containers of alcohol, and a newly posted page on the Stanford website called Female Bodies and Alcohol. This page was then scrubbed of a section regarding sex and alcohol (an archived version can be found here.) The page focuses on alcohol consumption, with no regard paid to the legal consequences of rape.

posted by NoxAeternum (49 comments total)

Truly horrible.

This page was then scrubbed of a section regarding sex and alcohol (an archived version can be found here.) The page focuses on alcohol consumption, with no regard paid to the legal consequences of rape.

Given recent rulings/sentencings, you could say they left that part in there, its just there aren't any consequences so the section is blank/written in invisible ink.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 12:30 PM on August 23, 2016 [8 favorites]

Whoo buddy. Here are my suggestions What to do (or not to do) while you're waiting for help to arrive:
Do not equate the person's degree of intoxication with consent or acquiescence to any kind of sexual activity.
Do not assault the person.
Do not rape the person.
Do not touch the person at all unless you are carrying them to safety, why the fuck else would you be touching someone who's so drunk that they can't function?

It's also helpful to be told to "make a decision about sex that night before you go out," because there's definitely not any situation I can imagine in which a person's pre-made decision about sex could ever be unilaterally overruled by anyone else.

Stanford's whole schtick is predictably heavy on reminders to women that we are ultimately responsible for whatever other people choose to do to us and predictably light on reminders to men to refrain from committing rape, assault, and battery. Like why do you feel the need to tell women that not drinking will make us less susceptible to being assaulted (love that passive language!) but you don't feel the need to tell men that -- according to the testimony of ~every rapist ever, along with a slew of brave keyboard warriors -- drinking makes their inhibitions go out the window to a degree that regularly results in them committing sexual assault?

Why are women told that we have to control ourselves? Because it's apparently beyond the pale to imagine that men might ever be anything except patently unable to stop themselves from raping us, especially if we're drinking too much or not drinking enough or acting prudish or acting slutty or acquaintances or complete strangers!
posted by amnesia and magnets at 12:39 PM on August 23, 2016 [73 favorites]

Seriously, if you cannot control your sexual urges because you've been drinking, that means you shouldn't drink. Not that everyone should be on guard around you.
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:46 PM on August 23, 2016 [36 favorites]

The pre-scrubbing version of the Female Bodies and Alcohol section is unspeakably, shockingly awful, but the post-scrubbing version isn't great, either. Do men get told not to drink when they're Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired? If not, why not?
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:46 PM on August 23, 2016 [14 favorites]

My cute way of saying this is that now that I'm sober, at least I'm making the bad decisions for myself, and other people aren't making them for me.

The less cute way of saying it is that I've recently been re-evaluating some experiences in my heavy drinking days, and it's this kind of narrative that's made it take over 5 years to stop blaming myself for things I've felt upset and confused about.

This framing is contributing to rape culture and harmful for both men and women.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 12:46 PM on August 23, 2016 [6 favorites]

Make a decision about sex that night before you go out; bring protection

• Make a decision about raping someone that night before you go out; bring a friend who will physically restrain you if you decide to attempt rape; strongly consider therapy

It's not that bad, just needs a few slight revisions.
posted by phunniemee at 12:46 PM on August 23, 2016 [84 favorites]

Make a decision about sex that night before you go out; bring protection

So, basically, if a woman claims rape, but had a condom with her, she's obviously lying because she clearly went out drinking with the intention of having sex? Um, did anyone actually consider the logic of these statements? Unfortunately, they probably knew exactly what they were saying, which is worse.
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:48 PM on August 23, 2016 [27 favorites]

This all makes my brain hurt. There's so much wrong with all of this that I can't even know a place to start.

Not the least of which is ..... half of the Female Bodies and Alcohol section is advice for... any human and alcohol. It's basic drinking advice to avoid getting too drunk so why is it only aimed at women? And that information ISN'T under the main "Staying Safe" info on the left.

And you know when you just burst out laughing at something because it's so ridiculous that if you didn't laugh you'd end up a broken shell sobbing on the floor?

Well I can't contain my laugher at the fact that there's an ENTIRE section on Alcohol and Athletics in the "staying safe" section but there's nothing about "don't rape someone" in that section. But sports ball, you guys. You really gotta think about how that drink my affect your sports career.

Also this talking-down mansplaining is so thick in this sentence that it hurts.
"If you have a headache, you might take one or two aspirin—not ten! The same concept applies to alcohol."
posted by Crystalinne at 12:50 PM on August 23, 2016 [6 favorites]

Well, if the school makes a rule, they have to enforce it. If the rule is broken and a woman is raped, the school will be liable as standing in loco parentis. So good luck with that Stanford.
posted by janey47 at 12:51 PM on August 23, 2016 [3 favorites]

Where is the Male Bodies and Alcohol page?

< /rhetorical mode>
posted by Dashy at 12:53 PM on August 23, 2016 [16 favorites]

have we considered just burning Stanford to the ground
posted by Kitteh at 12:54 PM on August 23, 2016 [60 favorites]

Wow. Fuck you too, Stanford. Fuck you very much. Unbelievable.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 12:54 PM on August 23, 2016 [6 favorites]

The fact that they posted guidelines they then rescinded shows that they are not cognizant of what they are trying to say or how they are saying it. Didn't anyone read the guidelines before posting it? Didn't anyone involved have any sense at all about the real issues they are trying to address? I would say the answer to both questions is probably No. It's clear that they held the idea that the issue is women and alcohol. Recent events at Stanford didn't change their ideas. They provided guidelines to women. What is this moral blindness to the actions of men? Why do we still have these blatantly wrong ideas and still act as if they are true? Will we ever see guidelines that start out: Men. Don't be rapists. Period.
posted by njohnson23 at 12:57 PM on August 23, 2016 [11 favorites]

From the archived version of "Female Bodies and Alcohol:"

Alcohol affects both sexual
 intent and aggression


It is impossible to talk about alcohol and not talk about sex. Meeting potential partners (from steady dates to one night hook-ups) is a big part of the drinking scene. That alcohol makes it easier for some to meet and talk to new people is seen as a positive by most people who drink alcohol. The down side is that, by some accounts, alcohol is involved in as many as 75% of sexual assaults on a college campus....

....Other research studies have shown that men who think they have been drink
ing alcohol—even when they have only consumed a placebo—feel sexually aroused and are more responsive to erotic stimuli, including rape scenarios. For some, being drunk serves as a justification for behavior that is demeaning or insulting, including the use of others as sexual objects.

Why, that looks like it should actually be in the "Male Bodies and Alcohol" section, doesn't it. Oh but wait, it was never classified that way, and then scrubbed from the public facing website.

Frankly, they ought to take down the whole page and just put back up those two paragraphs with a DON'T RAPE addendum.
posted by Existential Dread at 1:02 PM on August 23, 2016 [13 favorites]

So, um, were any women involved with this revision? Or was it a bunch of male administrators? Because it reads a lot like the latter, and in the article from Stanford, the four people named are all dudes:

- Ralph Castro, director of the Office of Alcohol Policy and Education;
- Greg Boardman, vice provost for student affairs;
- President John Hennessy, and
- Provost John Etchemendy
posted by filthy light thief at 1:04 PM on August 23, 2016 [20 favorites]

This is not to say men are incapable of writing to men about not raping while also thinking of the issue from a woman's perspective, but apparently it's not possible for these men.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:06 PM on August 23, 2016 [17 favorites]

Research tells us that women who are seen drinking alcohol are perceived to be more sexually available than they may actually be. Therefore, women can be targeted with unwanted attentions due to that misperception.

tl;dr: Drunk women bring it all on themselves.

Large volume containers 750 mL and above – the volume of a standard wine bottle – have the capacity to deliver many more shots of hard alcohol than smaller-volume containers.

Hey thanks, that's super useful, because there's no maximum total volume, just maximum volume per container. If you have lots of small volume containers, do you know that will add up to MORE than one larger volume container?
posted by jeather at 1:09 PM on August 23, 2016 [8 favorites]

This is particularly galling because part of the rapist's defense WAS THAT HE HIMSELF WAS DRUNK. (Let's set aside the fact that intoxication is apparently a valid defense for him AND an indicator of guilt for her, because I can't even with this right now and my head is full of fuck.) His whole AMAZINGLY STUPID poor-me schtick was that he was now going to go and become a motherfucking motivational speaker and teach boys about the dangers of underage drinking (i.e. you might slip and fall and land with your dick in someone, which apparently is what happened here). Even in the mirror universe victim-blaming bizarro land that this asshole and his lawyers live in, he admits that this happened because he, a man, was intoxicated. And what do we get? More instructions for women. BURN IT TO THE GROUND.
posted by sunset in snow country at 1:13 PM on August 23, 2016 [67 favorites]

This is 2016 and people in power still refuse to tell men not to rape. Sickening.
posted by agregoli at 1:15 PM on August 23, 2016 [17 favorites]

A woman who is sexually assaulted while intoxicated really should have taken more responsibility about her alcohol intake; her drunk rapist is a victim of youthful bad judgement, impairment because of drunkenness, and the collapse of traditional gender roles THANKS A LOT FEMINISM. {/}

Sigh.
posted by rtha at 1:15 PM on August 23, 2016 [9 favorites]

It's a patronizing shitdisaster from the title on down. "Female Bodies"? FEMALE BODIES?!? I can't think of any cutting snark in response, I'm just stunned and sad.
posted by Metroid Baby at 1:16 PM on August 23, 2016 [18 favorites]

While this is awful, can I just say that the opening words of the post make me happy, and that society should forever refer to this asshole as "rapist Brock Turner"?
posted by xedrik at 1:23 PM on August 23, 2016 [3 favorites]

Will we ever see guidelines that start out: Men. Don't be rapists. Period.

Yes! ("Use the Buddy System! If it is inconvenient for you to stop yourself from raping women, ask a trusted friend to accompany you at all times.")

For real though, I think the most intractable part of the difficulty with teaching men to not rape (vs. teaching women not to be raped... again with that passive language, like rape is something that just falls from the sky) comes from the socially sacrosanct idea that women are not people, exactly.

I mean, OK, we are visibly similar to people, in that we eat and sleep and shit and breathe and everything, but we are not considered people in the sense that we have independent lives, thoughts, or feelings that are entirely worth respecting, I guess because Lady??? And like the near-universal acceptance of the idea that non-human animals do not deserve the full slate of behaviors associated with human respect and regard, women are consistently spoken to and treated as though we are not fully deserving of (among many other things) bodily autonomy.

So the world continues to treat male on female rape like an unavoidable reality that only affects completely random individuals as opposed to a series of decisions and actions that are chosen by individual men but supported, enabled, and minimized structurally, culturally, and politically to the detriment of women as a class. And when you teach both men and women that women deserve to be treated like idiot children who can't be trusted to know our own minds or bodies, you make it basically impossible to draw a line in the sand and point to rape as a kind of treatment we don't deserve.

I hear about the rapes one by one by one by one by one, which is also how they happen. Those statistics are not abstract to me. Every three minutes a woman is being raped. Every eighteen seconds a woman is being beaten. There is nothing abstract about it. It is happening right now as I am speaking.

And it is happening for a simple reason. There is nothing complex and difficult about the reason. Men are doing it, because of the kind of power that men have over women. That power is real, concrete, exercised from one body to another body, exercised by someone who feels he has a right to exercise it, exercised in public and exercised in private. It is the sum and substance of women's oppression.

posted by amnesia and magnets at 1:26 PM on August 23, 2016 [32 favorites]

Gaaaah! I'm with burn Stanford to the ground. I'm with using Judge Persky as a rotating target for an inept knife thrower.
Part of the problem is judges who care more about male athletes than about any sort of women.
The least we need in the US is the Gulabi Gang. We need SOMETHING or someone to put the fear of God in these males. The legal system isn't cutting it.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 1:28 PM on August 23, 2016 [3 favorites]

This is a shitshow, but the "female bodies" title was apparently an effort to be gender inclusive rather than objectifying. Although they even fucked that up. Witness this:

When speaking in terms of biological sex, there are some important physiological and social differences that suggest alcohol has a different impact on men and women

(emphasis in original). So right from the start it goes straight back to a cisnormative gender binary. And even assuming 'biological sex' is meaningful here, how does that square with the alleged 'social differences' between men and women?

More highlights:

Imagine you are a 130 pound female...

Uhh...presumably the audience for this page primarily consists of people who identify as female, so "Imagine" is a weird framing.

What about the guys? If a guy is about
 170 pounds and drinks an equal amount
of alcohol in the same amount of time, his estimated BAC would be about .07, almost half the BAC of the female in this scenario.

Notice the juxtaposition of "female" and "guy". Who wrote this? A Ferengi MRA?

All information provided by Garnett Health Services, Cornell University. See their great Smart Women Campaign highlighting the issues mentioned above.

It's actually Gannett Health Services with two n's. Someone at Stanford can't read; there's even a broken link on the page.

If you read the original Gannett / Cornell material [pdf] it's much better written. For starters, it consistently uses "female-bodied person" and "male-bodied person" and includes a primer on sex and gender terms including intersex, transgender, and cisgender.

Stanford had a (not perfect but much better) model to follow and actively made it vastly worse.
posted by jedicus at 1:32 PM on August 23, 2016 [32 favorites]

Sadly, Stanford is a bastion of the highest privilege.

And this horrible statement is consistent with that blind, unthinking privilege.
posted by Existential Dread at 1:33 PM on August 23, 2016 [3 favorites]

In case you were inclined to give Stanford the benefit of the doubt...the Stanford "Female Bodies and Alcohol" page was cribbed (in some sections, word for word) from a Cornell guide called "Why Your Biology Matters When It Comes to Drinking." However, Stanford chose to make some big changes, and it's extremely instructive to examine them. For instance:

- The Stanford version replaces the term "female-bodied" with "female" or "woman" and the term "male-bodied" with "male" or "man", and omits a sidebar that defines sex and gender terms like like "transgender," "cisgender," and others.
- The Cornell version includes a section called, "Research on alcohol’s effects on transgender and intersex people is seriously lacking," which the Stanford version omits.
- The Cornell version contains the following sentence in its section on alcohol and sexual violence: "While drinking less may help reduce your risk, deciding to drink more does not excuse or justify violence. The perpetrator of sexual violence is always the one responsible, no matter what choices were made by the individual targeted." The (now-scrubbed) Stanford version specifically omits this sentence while retaining most of the rest of the section.

There are many other changes in the Stanford version, most of them just as bad. They had a better model sitting right in front of them -- they were literally copying this content from someone else! -- and they purposely chose, over and over again, to make their page stupider, more exclusionary, and more victim-blamey. I don't know -- does "fuck-up" even cover this? What do you call something that's fucked up, but knowingly and repeatedly?
posted by ourobouros at 1:36 PM on August 23, 2016 [96 favorites]

Mod note: Couple comments deleted; misunderstanding, plus let's not copy-paste huge long texts into the thread.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 1:39 PM on August 23, 2016

> What do you call something that's fucked up, but knowingly and repeatedly?

Elite education in America.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 1:39 PM on August 23, 2016 [11 favorites]

To expand on filthy light thief's point a little, there are at least two different kinds of misogyny going on here - the more immediate kind in the form of these disgusting policy decisions, and the long-term systemic kind which means that there are either no women with enough seniority to be consulted on this policy, or that there's a cultural thing going on that makes it extremely difficult for women/feminist allies to effectively challenge it.
posted by terretu at 1:42 PM on August 23, 2016 [12 favorites]

Rapist Brock didn't only stick his fingers and dick into Jane Doe; he also stuffed pine needles into her vagina. Members of the Stanford women's swim team also reported that he had harassed them.
posted by brujita at 1:48 PM on August 23, 2016 [4 favorites]

At least when my alma mater futilely banned hard liquor it was to combat binge drinking.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:53 PM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]

Comparing this version to the original Cornell version is certainly confusing. They really did take something that was positive (and informative, regarding gastric alcohol dehydrogenase) and made it more exclusionary and less powerful. Why not just copy all of the text and edit the specific references to Cornell's services. I really don't think getting permission would be hard.
posted by demiurge at 2:00 PM on August 23, 2016 [3 favorites]

Ctrl+F "transgender"

OK, that's what I thought.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:12 PM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]

As this exact problem comes up again and again, I keep wondering -- do the administrators just not get the damage that putting stopping rape on women does to female students? Are they incapable of seeing that excessive drinking and rape are different problems with different solutions? Are they simply uncomfortable with challenging their own patriarchal allegiances to put the blame on rapists, where it belongs, because that would mean telling (generally privileged) male students that sex is not a right or spoils to be "won?" It's maddening and puzzling. These are not stupid men, but they are really really blind to the roots of the problem they claim to address.

Sadly, it is not puzzling why they scrubbed trans people from their version of the document. It is maddening, though.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:21 PM on August 23, 2016 [7 favorites]

I mean, OK, we are visibly similar to people, in that we eat and sleep and shit and breathe and everything, but we are not considered people in the sense that we have independent lives, thoughts, or feelings that are entirely worth respecting, I guess because Lady??? And like the near-universal acceptance of the idea that non-human animals do not deserve the full slate of behaviors associated with human respect and regard, women are consistently spoken to and treated as though we are not fully deserving of (among many other things) bodily autonomy.

This exactly.

Everything about structural sexism comes back to the fact that no one in our culture, of any gender, can view women as fully human without a lot of hard work.

In this case it's clear Stanford doesn't.
posted by winna at 2:24 PM on August 23, 2016 [13 favorites]

When I was an undergrad (at Stanford) some 1.5 decades ago, they had a much more permissive alcohol policy- essentially we were told that we would not get in trouble if we went to find an RA for help in an alcohol-related emergency.
By the time I graduated, and in the years since, the policy has become more and more restrictive. It seems the admin has seized on the need to improve their policy to instead make it a) more punitive/restrictive (banning large containers?), and b) no less regressive towards women.

I'm not sure how they screwed up this way. But Stanford, you can and should do better. Not that you care what I think, I'm not a rich or famous alum and I don't donate. But I care what I think, and Stanford, you should do better.
posted by nat at 2:56 PM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]

From the archived version: Alcohol poisoning can be fatal, so it’s vital for women to look out for one another while drinking

You guys you guys you guys each time I think my heart can't break any more it gets broken again. I honestly don't know how to keep taping it back together.
posted by Squeak Attack at 6:31 PM on August 23, 2016 [9 favorites]

I honestly don't know how to keep taping it back together.

Glue made from the bones and connective tissue of the idiots that made this, along with anyone at Stanford convicted of sexual assault, perhaps.
posted by mephron at 6:47 PM on August 23, 2016 [4 favorites]

That document (pre and post redaction) was even more horrible than I thought it would be, which is saying something.

Everyone involved in this should be publicly excoriated.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 7:22 PM on August 23, 2016 [3 favorites]

"Female bodies"? Hey, that's what I am! Truly they are speaking to my demographic!
posted by a strong female character at 8:13 PM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]

Mod note: ArticTusk, that is not an appropriate way to engage here. If you have a problem with the post, flag it or contact the mods - don't complain in the thread.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 8:35 PM on August 23, 2016 [7 favorites]

Rapist Brock Turner is ready for his speaking gig, c'mon Stanford, he can do walking tours of the dumpster while telling women not to drink.
posted by benzenedream at 11:38 PM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think Stanford's main concerns (and Columbia's and Duke's and etc etc etc) are liability and publicity, in that order. I think the actual safety of women is low on that list. I'm sure many of the people involved in the internal response really are trying to make things better for women, if my experience at Columbia is any judge, but the people (men) at the top are mostly worried about legal action and what the NYT writes. It's no wonder that the result is this horrifying victim-blaming shit.
posted by Ragini at 1:34 AM on August 24, 2016

Alcohol poisoning can be fatal, so it’s vital for women to look out for one another while drinking

This again. This shit again. Archiving it doesn't take away from the fact they wrote and published that shit to begin with. Why are we always responsible for taking care of each other? Why is there no thread in this entire fucking piece about sexual assault and alcohol that even vaguely begins to attach to the needle of maybe men could just not?

Yeah. It can be fatal. What makes it even more likely to be fatal is that goshdarned thing dudes do where they feel entitled to adulterate other people's drinks, collude with each other to adulterate other people's drinks, and lie to their intended victims about their alcohol consumption. I know, how outlandish a concept that maybe dudes aren't entitled to fuck with other people and their property!

It's even too outlandish for Stanford. It must be really out there. Wow. I can't believe my overheated tipsy ladybrain can begin to tolerate this level of wacky radicalism. I better have another drink so these zany thoughts of holding men responsible for their criminal actions have a chance to settle down. Whew!
posted by E. Whitehall at 1:46 AM on August 24, 2016 [6 favorites]

This is bad enough that I hope at least some of the (male) administrators responsible for signing off on it suffer consequences. This isn't a minor oops with some light editing needed, this is a terrible piece of work from top to bottom.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:27 AM on August 24, 2016 [4 favorites]

This post is a great test to see if your anxiety medication is working! If anyone is that are concerned about adjusting their dose, they should just bookmark this and pull it up in their prescribing doctor's office.

So, is raping women is just the natural, expected consequence of attending a coed party where alcohol is being served, what's the deal with all those young men who end up not raping somebody before the night is over? Are they asexual, impotent, or just plain weirdos whose mommas didn't raise them right? Too drunk to get their flies open; stuffed from too much pizza?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:25 AM on August 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think Stanford's main concerns (and Columbia's and Duke's and etc etc etc) are liability and publicity

lol how's that working out for them
posted by sunset in snow country at 9:38 AM on August 24, 2016 [3 favorites]

It is impossible to talk about alcohol and not talk about sex. Meeting potential partners (from steady dates to one night hook-ups) is a big part of the drinking scene. That alcohol makes it easier for some to meet and talk to new people is seen as a positive by most people who drink alcohol.

ok, then. That's a good reason why you might not want have a beer with grandma if you are deviant with twisted ideas of alcohol and sex.
posted by JJ86 at 10:29 AM on August 24, 2016 [2 favorites]