Response from Stephanie Ye to Joshua Nachowitz

I thank Joshua Nachowitz for his response to my article, though I would first like to note that the Viewpoints section of this paper is meant for the free expression of opinion, and hence Nachowitz should not be taking THE CHICAGO MAROON to task for publishing my article.

Nachowitz frowns at what he perceives to be my “disturbingly callous attitude” toward sexual assaults. But if he would care to re-read my article, he would realize I was pointing out the fact that rape is not a major concern of most U of C students, and not that rape should not be a major concern. To use a crude but effective example, before September 11, terrorism was not a major concern of many citizens of the United States, although terrorism should have been a major concern. Similarly, though rape should be a major concern among U of C students, for many students it is not. And, as it took September 11 to make every American pay attention to terrorism, it would take (God forbid) more reported rapes than current statistics indicate in order to drive home the message to U of C students as a whole that they are in danger of being sexually assaulted. This prompted my comment “these numbers aren’t something for U of C students to lose sleep over.”

As for Nachowitz’s point that U of C males would be more prone to committing sexual assault precisely because of their “geek” nature, I admit that the psychology of “repressed, socially useless, and generally peculiar men” is not one I am familiar with. I would like to thank Nachowitz for sharing his thoughts with our readers.