Many students are outraged that he's not being expelled and that Harvard is not treating date rape seriously. What seems outrageous to me is that the young man is being punished at all. It's always hard to determine the truth of a sexual assault allegation that hinges on whether the accuser was sufficiently conscious to consent. It's particularly difficult when there has been some consensual sexual interaction. Our recollection of what we do when inebriated is not always reliable.
Willing participation can turn into morning-after regrets.
Once, feminists brought attention to real inequities in how our culture viewed rape. Very few people would want to go back to such attitudes. But the pendulum has swung too far. The dynamics of sexual encounters are complex and often muddled. Studies show that both women and men sometimes send mixed signals due to game-playing or real ambivalence, and both women and men are sometimes pressured or cajoled into unwanted sex.