Alyn Pearson

About the author: Alyn Pearson wrote the following viewpoint while attending Bard College in New York State. She was a member of Bard's Response to Rape and Associated Violence Education (BRAVE), a group that deals with rape and sexual assault within the college community.

American popular culture reinforces society's unspoken tolerance for date and acquaintance rape by depicting women as passive receptors of male aggression. Through magazines, television, and the movies, women are bombarded with the message that they must defer to the desires of men—pressure that too often translates into sexual assault. These powerful cultural signals make it difficult for women to say no to rape—commonly mislabeled "unwanted sex"—and leave them feeling afraid, ashamed, and depressed. Women must act with conviction...