To the Editor:
Ana Catalano's op-ed ("Sexual Assault: The Culture of Protection," Feb. 28) raised important questions about who is responsible for preventing sexual abuse. I agree with her argument that men should be expected to do more to prevent sexual abuse. In fact, I said as much to the reporter from The Dartmouth who interviewed me earlier this month for a series of articles on sexual abuse at Dartmouth, which makes it hard not to take it personally that Catalano misrepresented my views in her op-ed.
In this case, Catalano ignored several quotes from a Feb. 7 article in The Dartmouth ("First-years lack sexual assault resources") and placed others rather oddly out of context to suggest (incorrectly) that I believe college women, rather than college students (men and women) have a role to play in sexual abuse prevention.
To give credit where it is due, the Feb. 7 article in The Dartmouth quoted me accurately when I said, "There's way too much commentary aimed at what a person could have done to be less at risk or to have avoided a particular situation. On some level, there may be some value in looking at that, but you do have to take a look at the bigger picture. Sexual abuse can happen to anyone. The majority of victims are women. The people that could change this are men."
In the next article in the series ("Harassment, abuse cases remain issue at College," Feb. 8), The Dartmouth again quoted me accurately when I said that I believe that "men can play the most important role in preventing sexual abuse against women."
To be fair, Catalano did quote me correctly (and in context) when she reported that I believe that sexual assault is "the problem of every man and woman, every faculty, staff, and student on campus." On that point, I suspect that Catalano and I would agree -- something she could have easily learned by re-reading all of my quotes or by simply contacting me for clarification about my views before she misrepresented them in her op-ed.
Because Catalano and I agree that sexual abuse prevention ought to be everybody's concern, I hesitated to write this letter to the editor. But I believe it is important to get the facts straight on this topic, and I also want to clarify that I believe that she and I are in agreement that this topic deserves, indeed demands, greater discussion.
