There is an apology in the comments. I think he thought his message would come across and then realized he ended up sounding ignorant and insensitive.

Ha, he was being arrogant and insensitive.

Yeah, I read the apology in the comments, written not long after I posted this in the forums, but I believe that was the wrong place for an apology. The comments are not the place for an apology, the comment section's for readers to express their opinion about the article and they shouldn't have to be influenced by his retract. His weekly article is where an apology should be published. Nor does an apology in the comments mean I can't continue to be angered and demand a official apology in the paper itself. He started the flames and needs to take responsibility and hear from women who were affected by his article. To think of survivors of rape who read this article...

Oh wow, that's disgusting. You're right to address it.

Of course you are justified in being angered and demanding an official apology. From his comment, it appears that he fully intends to put out an official apology in his weekly column. It also appears that he felt that he was in the wrong enough to request special permission to even respond with an apology. That doesn't make it right, and it doesn't erase his actions.

We know that women are not responsible for rape, and we know that it is up to the rapist alone to prevent rape. I read the article as a man showing how stupid the mentality of wanting sex so badly that you will violate a women to get it is and condemning those people that would do that. But a lot of people don't get satire and there is a huge risk that some men will read this and think it is validating their feeling that getting a woman drunk and taking advantage of her is okay.

He also wrote the article with a huge privilege blind spot and that is absolutely unacceptable. Especially considering that from his apology, he is obviously aware of the privilege he has as a man. He should have known better, he should have known that as a man he may not have considered the effect of what he was saying. It seems like it would be obvious even to a man that publishing something like that in a school paper would be hugely triggering to a large amount of the people reading.

i wrote a letter to the editor in cheif here it is

Mr Thomas,

I had the displeasure in reading an article written in your school paper about a one night stand and how to take advantage of a woman should she not want to go along with the act. I find that this is a disgusting way for your school to represent themselves and the person who wrote this article should publically apologize and resign from the paper.

You ( or the person who wrote the article) cannot possibly imagine the amount of distress and hurt you have caused the victims of rape who have read your article. The article was insensitive, and down right uncalled for. How someone would have proofread this an approved it to be in the paper makes me want to vomit. Rape is already something that women are afraid to report or talk about and the tone of the article just explained the reason why.........

I sincerly hope you address this situation in a manner not like your original student who wrote the article.

Lisa

i also wrote to my local paper about this

Rape is already something that women are afraid to report or talk about and the tone of the article just explained the reason why.........

How does the tone of the article do that?

Tell me to shut the fuck up if I'm being overly insensitive here, but aside from safe space feminist places, I really haven't seen it acknowledged that getting a woman drunk and "sleeping with her" is a crime. The article at least points that out, and I think it is a step forward. Although I think it would have been more effective to actually come out and call it what it is, rape.

because of men that dont care, because of people that have that kind of attitude, thats why women don't report it, because they beleive that someone will say that they were drunk, or yada yada yada. because of articles like that woman are afraid that everyone feels like that and the rape will be blamed on them.

and the article tells a guy to inject her with something that will make her pass out and then proceeds to say that if you ask her and she doesnt say anythng just go ahead and pull your pants down and do it.
that is telling someone how to rape someone or giving them the go getter attitude to do it....if thats not insensitive to women who were raped I don't know what is.

I go to this college, too. I don't care that he apologized, it does not make up the fact that he completely triggered many womyn on campus (me being one of them). I also spoke to a counselor at the UND counseling center and he said some people have come in specifically about this issue.

Part of rape culture is taking light of these issues. There are so many things wrong with this article. It is so ridiculous. Also, the fact that this paper never printed my article about white privilege but then posted a sick guide on how to rape womyn (joke or not!). Some man could read this article and be like, "oh I am SO glad someone else thinks this way." If he wanted to approach "sex", rape and womyn - he could go about it in a totally different way. I found this article completely appauling. It reminded me of my BD and the things he did to me.

Also, he missed the HUGE link (I've spoken to him through facebook) that what he described IS rape, not sex. And that rape is about power NOT sex.

Sure, he and the newspaper are going to make an "official" apology about it, but that surely will not erase the damage they've done.

I didn't say that the article is not insensitive to women that were raped. It absolutely is. But I fail to see how the article is going to make women less likely to report a rape. If anything, it may make a few women who have been in that situation stop and realize that what was done to them was against the law.

The article is satire, it is intended to show how stupid that line of thinking is. It even states that it is illegal and requires a complete lack of respect for the woman as well as self respect.

A word of warning: my method requires extreme concentration, a willingness to disregard what we know as "the law," and, most importantly, a complete lack of respect for not only the person you plan to involve, but yourself.

That does not sound like the words of someone who is advocating that particular action, nor condoning it.

ok pardon me for saying that then. that one statment I made wasn't the point. The letter was to adv the editor of the problems with this article. my mistake i guess.

and also to add, he compares it to another article another student did......well i pulled up that other article and it was in no way offensive or even half as absolutly disgusting as this one.

Canadian Mama,

Sure the article was a satire, but there are certain topics that should not be satired, period. In the article this fucker (ok, sure his 'character') acted like the rape was no big deal, the girl will just be pissed at him and so will her friends. This article normalizes rape on campuses and gives a voice to a fucking rapist. Instead he could have talked about ways men could help to dismantle rape culture. If women assume all guys make light of situations like the one described in the article out then if they are ever raped they too may assume everyone else will think nothing of it.
Do you realize how lightly people brush off rape? One look at the comments made on the article and you'll see countless idiots who think the issue of rape is only caused by drunk whores. His article gives a voice to rapists who think little of rape. I think you are being fucking insensitive. Rape must be taken seriously or those who are raped will continue to only blame themselves, believing that no one will give a fuck about their experience. Believe me, women don't go to the police around here if their raped. Making a satire of rape (yeah bro!) is not taking a issue seriously.

I think ramonegirl covered what I was going to say.

*More rape trigger below*

In my school paper a couple years ago there was a similar article written anonymously, actually portraying a prominent student activist being raped to teach her a lesson. But relax, says the editor, get over yourself, it was a joke, why should we apologize. Infuriating. Protests were held, students, staff, and community members were outraged, and the school president threatened to withdraw funding from the paper. But as far as I know the editor wasn't even fired and no apology was to be had. My school is very conservative, and I'd thought this could only happen here.

I'm not going to argue. If you think I am being insensitive I will keep my opinions to myself on this one. I'm sorry if anything I said hurt anyone further.