As feminists and community activists, we were disturbed by the Collegian's editorial response "Penn State students should exercise caution when alone" to the rape that occurred last Thursday in State College. Although we recognize and support efforts to increase safety awareness within the community, it is socially irresponsible, politically misinformed and symbolically contradictory to write such an editorial in response to the sexual violation of a young woman.

Although the Collegian qualified its editorial by stating that "it is never the rape victims fault," its message is diluted and powerfully transformed into a "blame-the-victim" mentality by listing activities and precautions that can be taken to prevent rape and assault — as if a woman can anticipate and avoid having a knife held up against her body while she is violently assaulted.

First, rape will not disappear if more women take self-defense classes, or purchase pepper spray, as alluded to in the editorial. While these techniques may under some circumstances protect a woman from being raped, they do not remedy the problem of rape.

In order to lower the risk of being victimized, we need to question why rape occurs and what we as a society have (or have not) done to end this form of violence against women.

Rape, and the threat of rape, is a means of controlling women and creating an environment of fear for all women. This fear results in women losing their personal freedom of movement. Women are unable to jog alone in the evening, walk across campus alone at night or even be alone with a man without the inherent fear of being raped.

By suggesting that women not walk alone, or take courses to fend off attackers, we not only place the blame of rape on women, but more importantly legitimize the loss of freedom for women — a message that directly contradicts the meaning of the annual Take Back the Night rally and march.

Second, the majority of rapists are men known to the victim. Stranger-rape represents a small minority of rapes, particularly rapes against college-aged women. The editorial's preventative measures do not address the risk that women face simply by going on a date, attending a social gathering or being in the company of a trusted male friend.

Rape does not occur because a woman is walking alone at night, does not know self-defense or is at the wrong place at the wrong time; rape results from a lack of respect for the integrity of women's bodies.

Rape is a matter of legitimized male access to women's bodies.

The preventative measures discussed in the editorial do not adequately address the impact of rape, or fear of rape, for women as a collective class. Protecting women by telling them how to behave, what to carry and where to walk masks the true nature and motivation behind rape.

It is our conviction that this type of editorial work is careless and deceptive in content. It is not only disrespectful and re-traumatizing to rape survivors, but it also ignores the larger social context in which rape and the threat of rape functions as a mechanism of power and control used by men to keep women fearful and in their rightful place.