Women, Alcohol and Perceived ‘Sexual Availability’

“When Brock Turner, the former Stanford swimmer who was found guilty in 2016 of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman on campus, appealed his conviction, he and his lawyers devoted 60 pages to how intoxicated the victim seemed. He lost the appeal.

Last year, a Yale student, Saifullah Khan, was found not guilty of sexually assaulting a fellow student. His lawyers worked relentlessly to discredit the account of the woman, repeatedly asking how much she’d had to drink.

Using alcohol to cast doubt on women’s reputations, particularly in cases of sexual assault, in court and in life is not rare. Now a new studyfrom researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the University of Nebraska and Iowa State University finds that women who drink are in fact judged more harshly than men who do the same.”