After four years of careful consideration, I find I remain perfectly ambivalent about Little 500.
Having conducted extensive research, I can conclusively state that the parties are amazing, the people are amicable and the alcohol is plentiful.
On one hand, it’s a magical night of peace on earth, like Christmas with more anonymous sex.
But there seems to be an inescapable pallor of a not-so-quiet desperation that hangs over the Bacchanalia. Go to any bar, and you’ll see hordes of casual drinkers snapping their fingers at bartenders and ordering another rum and Coke, grimly determined to enjoy themselves.
Snapping at a bartender is a great way to inspire someone to spit in your drink, which really should be the least of concerns this week.
While I hope that everyone has a great Little 500 weekend, even if they don’t remember the specifics, we need to talk about responsibility.
Not responsible drinking, necessarily. Even if that topic didn’t feel somewhat hypocritical, I know a lost cause when I see one. No, I mean responsible behavior in a far more general sense.
The trouble with having the greatest college weekend on earth is that it causes some people to believe that getting drunk and laid is mandated.
It seems like people become so self-absorbed they forget their responsibilities to the community and world around them.
We talk about questions of safety and victim-blaming, but fundamentally we see rape as a woman’s problem.
Many people probably realize that rape is one of the most under-reported crimes, with statistics that suggest it’s possible that as many as 75 to 95 percent of rapes are never reported.
What we don’t talk about is that this means there are rapists out in society today who have never been charged or might not even realize they’ve done something wrong.
As someone who writes for, if not a living, then at least for bourbon money, let me assure you: words matter. That is why consent is so all-important.
Flirting isn’t consent. Being unconscious isn’t consent. Maybe isn’t consent.
If the answer isn’t an explicit “yes,” then it is a “no.” In short, if you have to wonder whether something qualifies as consent, it doesn’t.
This is not some sort of semantic game being played, it’s another human being’s life and well-being.
Little 500, college in general and from a broadly philosophical perspective, life itself, is a time for making poor decisions. Don’t let rape be one of them.
— stefsoko@indiana.edu
Consent to responsible Little 500
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