The latest article you published belittling the issue of sexual assault was especially vile and in poor taste. Nowhere in the article was there any sympathy for the tremendous amount of sexual assault survivors, victims of rape, and victims of other sex crimes that effects men, women, and children of every age and their families and friends.

When will the number of victims be significant enough for you to take this issue seriously? If not 1 in every 4, do 2 of every 4 women need to be sexually assaulted for this to be a problem you take seriously and stop discrediting? What about 3 in every 4 women? What about all women? What about all men? What about the children who are assaulted and rape and have no idea the trauma and criticism they will face from people like you? When will the issue of rape and sexual assault stop being marginalized as just a women’s issue? When will The Spectrum stop harassing and demeaning the victims of sexual assault and rape with these rants which imply that their experiences and struggles are subjective to only feminism or i.e., a “pseudoscience”?”

Rape and sexual assault are not items of a pseudoscience. It’s happening everyday to men, children, students, and all sorts of different individuals in the Fargo/Moorhead community. People are scared to be truthful about their experiences with rape and sexual assault because of people like you, who think that they as victims are somehow doing something wrong for seeking justice against the criminals who have violated their bodies and traumatized them. This article unnecessarily attempts to bring white supremacy into the issue of sexual assault. Sexual assault and rape affect everyone, no matter what race, age, sex, or socioeconomic status.

Rather than belittle the victims of sexual assault with irrelevant statistics and criticizing feminists for trying to decrease the number of sexual assault victims and seek justice against their perpetrators, why don’t you write about something that actually matters? Why are you criticizing the victims? Why don’t you criticize the rapists? Why don’t you criticize the society that blame the victims rather than the criminals?

While I applaud you for yet another attempt to degrade the historical works of strong women, men, and children that have given their lives pushing for a feminist movement, I urge you to develop a sound argument as to why the feminists do not deserve the same recognition as those of the white male. It is not that we are trying to strip you of your privilege or social status, we just want what you already have.

By: Austin-Alexius Klein, North Dakota State University student

Kelsey Slattery, Minnesota State University Moorhead student