April 7th Class Period

I was glad that we watched "consent" in class. This was an episode I was (am) planning to use in my research paper. I think that it presents a lot of great material about what rape is and does an accurate job of presenting a situation that a college student might find herself in. This episode highlights that you can't trust those you think you can (in this case the sorority sisters) and that, sadly, many will try to blame the victim of rape/sexual assault.

A lot of the blaming of the victim in this episode, I think, accurately represents what a victim any where might go though. The questions of how much she drank, what she was wearing, and if she was flirting were brought up.... but these don't matter. She was not able to consent to anything and so sexual act she engaged in, or was engaged forcefully in, was rape.

This episode leaves a bitter taste for me because the only people who were punished were the sorority sisters who concocted the date rape drug. At the end you kind of scream at the tv: how can the men not be punished in this?? They had sex with her while she was drunk/under the influence of GHB! Clearly, she was not in a state of mind where she could consent.

On to the speaker... I really enjoyed the speaker and thought she presented on a lot of good topics. I know most people were interested to hear about the challenges she faces in trying to be a mother and a prosecutor. She said that its not really possible to do both effectively and that when she was interviewing for jobs she and her friends were concerned about showing their engagement rings. This made me think of something closely related, people with disabilities, and the problems they face in the workplace. Someone with a visible disability is clearly disadvantaged and I want to remind everyone that you are only a car accident or a sports accident away from having a permanent disability. Also, there are "invisible" disabilities such as chronic diseases (like juvenile diabetes) which affect every part of a person's life and their needs are not always covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Also, any person can be affected by something like this at any time. I kind of just felt like saying, "Well having a family and choosing to stay at home is a CHOICE whereas a having a disability is not a choice and often there are far less protections and accommodations made for those people.

Anyways..... my thoughts on that is probably influenced by the fact that I have juvenile diabetes and that was not something I chose to "get" and it has made my entire life/career very different than a totally able bodied person.

In other news.... I got engaged this last weekend!