Sexual assault is a serious matter and should always be taken seriously, but I feel that today’s climate is leading to the dangerous scenario of punish first and ask questions later. Especially in relation to men.

Yes, rape culture is dominated by male perpetrators, but that does not mean all men are rapists. The idea that men are always the villain in rape cases is so deeply connected to the idea of sexual assault that it is never questioned anything else could possibly happen.

Society must change the concept of rape being a man-on-woman crime and realize that it is a crime with numerous kinds of victims. Women are not the only rape victims, and men are not the only predators.

With that in mind, something that has always confused me is when two intoxicated people have sex, the man is always painted as the rapist. Many rapes occur when the victim is drunk and not capable of consenting, and I am not denying that is indeed rape. Instead, I argue if both parties are inebriated, why is the blame shifted to one side?

“A subsequent group of researchers found that drinking increases levels of norepinephrine, the neurotransmitter responsible for arousal,” Dr. Joshua Gowin said in his article “Your Brain on Alcohol.” “Elevated levels of norepinephrine increase impulsivity, which helps explain why we lose our inhibitions drinking. Drunken brains are primed to seek pleasure without considering the consequences.”

Alcohol already affects how the brain responds to making decisions, which can lead to regretful choices. When both people are drunk, there is no real accurate way to determine who would be in the wrong in that situation. If someone were to walk away from that encounter and feel like they were violated, I believe there needs to be a real discussion before we immediately say that it is rape. Just as we wouldn’t blame the victim for having sex while drunk, we cannot blame the other person if they, too, were intoxicated.

Another idea that has always disturbed me was the “yes meaning no” concept. I have been to several bystander or rape-culture workshops here on campus, and one thing that has been said at many of those is: Someone can say yes to sex but mean no. But how can someone ever know what a person means if they blatantly lie to them?

It is true that someone can coerce a person into saying yes, and that is rape; but I am not arguing for those people. I argue for the honest men who truly do not think they are in the wrong; how can those men read someone’s mind and tell when they say yes but mean no?

There are nonverbal cues — like avoiding eye contact, lying still, or pulling away — that can help someone understand how their partner is feeling. But the best way to determine consent is for a completely honest conversation to happen in which both parties say yes.