Dear Dean of Student Affairs and Tufts Daily Editors,
I was appalled at the insensitivity and ignorance demonstrated by the Tufts Daily editorial staff, in regards to their editorial note "Safety first, political correctness second."
The article vehemently defends the argument that if a woman dresses "more revealingly" she may have a higher likelihood of being raped than if she wore "more conservative clothes." This may have been well-intentioned on the part of the Tufts University Police Department and the Tufts Daily editors, but it does not excuse it from the actual damage such statements perpetrate on victims of sexual assault.
This problem is not simply a matter of political correctness, as The Tufts Daily editors imply. I know several women in my immediate family and circle of friends who have been raped, and I have come to understand the real psychological trauma triggered by the use of such language, as well as the manner in which it perpetuates rape culture.
I tried submitting a bias incident report, but apparently only students are allowed to log into the relevant website (https://webcenter.studentservices.tufts.edu/login.aspx?page=bias).
I believe The Tufts Daily editors must be brought to task on this egregious display of insensitivity. I expect the Daily to issue a prompt and unequivocal apology to the women in this community, and to follow up by publishing informed articles that put the recent string of sexual assaults on campus in their proper perspective — for example, not as isolated incidents brought upon by a woman's inappropriate choice of attire, but rather as the sad but unsurprising reality of a culture in which one in four women, nationwide, will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.
Sincerely,
Martin Hunter, Ph.D.
Lab Coordinator
Department of Biomedical Engineering
