Asserting the prevalence of rape lends urgency, authority to a broader critique of culture. Wolf's rhetorical excess serves her larger polemic about sexual politics. Her dramatic prose is a call to arms. She is really trying to rally the feminist troops. Wolf uses rape as a red flag, an undeniable sign that things are falling apart.
Rape is a natural trump card for feminism.
Arguments about rape can be used to sequester feminism in the teary province of trauma and crisis. By blocking analysis with its claims to unique pandemic suffering, the rape crisis becomes a powerful source of authority. Dead serious, eyes wide open with concern, a college senior tells me that she believes that one in four is too conservative an estimate. This is not the first time I've heard this. She tells me the right statistic is closer to one in two.