
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 5, 1993                   TAG: 9305050302
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

WHEN ANSWER IS NO, IT MEANS NO

I HAVE read Justin Askins' April 7 commentary ("Women should take their part of responsibility for `date rape' ") three times, and I still can't believe what I have read. I am amazed that someone with the education level of a professor could show such ignorance when it comes to a matter this serious. No matter what the circumstances involved, if a woman says no and is forced to have sex, then it's rape.

Calling date rape "understandable assault" is the most ludicrous idea I have ever heard. By classifying date rape as "understandable assault," you are telling men that they don't have to stop because the woman aroused him. No one deserves to be raped, and rape victims don't need to be told that they are partially to blame. It is not understandable if a man rapes a woman under any circumstances.

One out of four females is raped while in college, 80 percent by someone they know. I am glad that I am not an "understandably assaulted" woman sitting in Askins' class. STEPHANIE SLUSHER BLACKSBURG

by CNB