After reading the opinion piece “Minorities shouldn’t define the majority,” on TheAppalachianOnline.com, I was confounded by the fact that Scott seems to feel inconvenienced by women trying to actively protect themselves against rape.
I’m sure from Scott’s perspective as a male, it is easy to say that the woman he offered a cookie to was “taking things too far.” However, I highly doubt that Scott has ever felt uncomfortable walking home at night or felt concerned taking a drink from a stranger… or a cookie for that matter.
83,425 reported rapes a year is no small number. It’s 83,425 rapes too many, and the idea that women are taking too many precautions to protect themselves from being one of them is ludicrous.
There’s no way to distinguish a rapist from a crowd – I’d imagine anyone who has ever been date-raped can attest to that. Scott’s cavalier attitude toward this topic is appalling, his perceived annoyance at women is disgusting and his inference that women are being too dramatic about the topic of rape is insulting to women’s intelligence.
The next time Scott is asked to do something kind for someone, instead of buying a cookie, he should use his time to educate himself on the topic of rape.
Hannah Pomphrey
Former editor-in-chief of The Appalachian