Apparently, it is forbidden (in certain circles, such as NPR’s “The Diane Rehm Show”) to say that college women should learn how not to drink too much, in order to fend off date rape. The former president of George Washington University said something to that effect and was reamed by comments and emails saying that he was blaming the victim.

An online petition tried to get him to apologize. One commenter said: “10 out of 10 rapes are caused by rapists. Not survivors who were drinking too much, wearing ‘too little,’ or walking alone at night.”

Trachtenberg explained his position further–to the Washington Post–but where was he wrong? We are witnessing an explosion of victimology surrounding the issue of date and acquaintance rape at college. It’s called that less and less, however; now it’s sexual assault or just plain rape and it apparently doesn’t matter what the victim was doing or what the relationship was with the perpetrator before she was raped. It’s rape and it justifies spending millions of dollars to provide counseling and advice and sensitivity training. Meanwhile, the other party in the date rape may have his life changed by being expelled from school.

As Trachtenberg remarked after the surge of negative reaction, in today’s environment “Don’t drive drunk is okay. Don’t date drunk, not so much.”