Having a glass of wine (or three) on a date and then retiring to the bedroom for some consensual sexing is not unknown in the liberal, feminist circles long-derided by the conservative media. So imagine my confusion when I read National Review writer and self-appointed expert on what “feminists” think, A.J. Delgado, argue that feminists “define rape as including any sexual activity in which the woman is not sober, claiming that consent is never truly given if one has had a few drinks.”

So sure is she of this assertion that she fails to cite any of the “prominent scholars and activists” that have offered this definition. I want to know who they are, so I can avoid drinking with them.

It is true that “radical feminists” such as the Department of Justice have argued that rapists often use drugs and alcohol to facilitate rape. Partially, they believe this because rapists themselves admit to it. Delgado seems to assume that there’s a lot of drunken sex that the man believes was consensual, but is later told that he’s being charged with rape. But researcher David Lisak found the opposite was true: Rapists deliberately seek out very drunk women or deliberately get women very drunk in order to rape them.

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While Delgado doesn’t have any examples of “prominent scholars and activists” redefining consensual drunken sex as rape, she does have a “friend” who, in a remarkable stroke of good luck, appears to be a living, breathing misogynist stereotype of a clingy, vindictive bitch. Her friend, “Amy,” carried a torch for a guy named “Steve” for awhile and, after going home with him after a night of drinking, gets all bent out of shape because he blows her off. She then calls Delgado, saying, “I think he raped me.” Delgado talks her out of feeling this way concluding triumphantly that it wasn’t rape, but just “regrettable sex,” and Amy’s motivations were vengeful.

Interestingly, Delgado never explains what exactly made Amy believe it was rape and Delgado to believe it wasn’t. She never mentions, one way or another, whether her friend consented or did not consent during the encounter. Was Delgado convinced it wasn’t rape because Amy told her, “Well, we were drunk, sure, but at the time I couldn’t get his pants off fast enough.” Or did Amy say, “Well, I was drifting in and out of consciousness, so when he started to take my clothes off, I tried to say no, but found that I couldn’t stay awake long enough to do it.” Or was it something in between?

TPM