Alcohol or drugs give a person permission to assault. Conversely, victims are more vulnerable because their judgement is impaired and because their physical ability to react to danger or threat is hampered, sometimes severely. It is because of the feminist movement that rape, sexual assault, incest, child sexual assault, and battering, have been redefined, at least in part, to match the realities of those who live with this fear on a daily basis. Why this is so has not yet been explained, although as more research is done, we will learn more about this issue. In part, this may have to do with the fact that most women still must struggle against a system which places them in a position of having to work harder, against difficult odds and a hostile climate, to gain acceptance in the world as human beings.
Rape is an act of possession, of power, of control.
Black feminists have compared the rape of women to the lynching of African-Americans. Comparatively, the assault of a college student may seem banal, yet the impact is unmistakable. The effect is a form of class oppression.