Cathy Young

About the author: Cathy Young is a journalist and the author of Ceasefire! Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality, from which this viewpoint is taken. She is cofounder of the Women's Freedom Network, a forum for moderate feminists, and a research associate with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

Definitions of what constitutes rape have become overly broad and unclear. Force or threats of bodily harm, factors that defined rape prior to the "date rape" movement, are no longer considered relevant to many anti-rape activists—if explicit consent for sex was not granted by the woman, then a man has committed rape. Calling instances of sexual miscommunication rape trivializes real rape in which a woman's life is truly in jeopardy. Due to pressure from feminist groups, many states have...