To the Editor:
In your article "Investigation stalls pending victim report" (The Dartmouth, Feb. 14) Hanover Police Chief Nick Giaccone is quoted regarding the alleged difficulty of pursuing investigation of rape assault complaints. In many sexual assaults, he said, "people with good intentions force people to do things they are uncomfortable with," leading to "he-said, she-said" confrontations.
The fact is that people with good intentions do not force people to do anything. Chief Giaccone needs to rethink his frat- boy attitude towards rape and start fulfilling his obligation to enforce laws against assault without sex-political bias that favors the perpetrator.
Unfortunately, readers of The Dartmouth may be just as confused as the Hanover police chief about what constitutes nonconsensual sex if they buy into guy-style sexual fantasy, as Kate Carolan does in her review of the CD musical version of "'Debbie Does Dallas' cast recording is wholesome fun," (The Dartmouth, Feb. 12). What the title hails as "wholesome fun" is an all out celebration of a man's dominance and a woman's submission to do whatever gets him off.
Whatever Carolan thinks, men's definition of what the musical represents as "sex" is men paying women to accept with a smile treatment that men see as demeaning to them.
Why act surprised when callow young men attempt to realize the fantasy by "forcing people [read: "young women"] to do things they are uncomfortable with"?
