PunkAssBlog.com

Two women were raped last Friday in their dorm rooms at York University, and the rapists tried for a few others before being chased out. I was hesitant to read about the attacks in any detail, figuring that any news coverage would be chock-full of the usual victim-blaming, but I finally caved and checked out the far-right National Post. Their article did not disappoint.

The details that we know are as follows: There were two attackers, both white men in their early 20s. The dorms are only accessible by swipe cards. The victims’ rooms were unlocked.

The Post doesn’t stop at reporting those facts, though. They’ve got to get some racism and classism in there:

Students at York say they are inured to a certain amount of insecurity after a series of random sex assaults on the vast, sprawling campus last year and due to their proximity to a troubled neighbourhood that is often the scene of gang, drug and gun violence. But many were reeling yesterday from the brazen nature of the most recent attacks.

York, for those of you who haven’t had the dubious pleasure of attending, is bleak and, yes, quite sprawling. It’s also fairly isolated from the “troubled” (read: primarily black and lower class) Jane and Finch neighbourhood. Most of the people who live in the surrounding community don’t have the money or opportunities to attend university. One of the big problems with Jane and Finch is its awful urban planning—there’s nowhere to walk to. So York students, most of whom commute, don’t really venture off the campus, and people who live nearby don’t really venture on campus.

[York University spokesman] Mr. Bilyk said no one is sure how the two suspects managed to gain entry to the dorm, which requires use of a swipe card and where visitors are supposed to sign in. He speculated the pair might have slipped in behind a larger group returning from a pub night held on campus Thursday as part of frosh week festivities.

Or, you know, they could be students. Given their age and their access to the building, it seems as likely a possibility as any. York students seem to think so too.

York security’s advice is typical: Women should be “vigilant,” make sure that no one follows them home at night, make sure that their doors are locked, don’t walk around unaccompanied. They declined to provide advice for the menfolk, such as “don’t rape women.”

Since both the university and the media seem to be running on the assumption that sexual violence is linked to income, or that well-off university students can’t be rapists, I’m not holding out hope for these guys being caught.