Jane Doe, Meet Dinah

Trigger alert: This is mature content involving s3xual assault.

The world is watching the case of Jane Doe, the alleged victim of the Cornell 7, a group of frat boys whom she accuses of g@ng r@ping her.

At the center of the debate lies issue of consent. Namely, the question of whether a drunk and drugged woman, who of her own free will consumed 10 drinks before heading over to the fraternity house, should be considered consenting, or whether her incapacitated state rendered her non-consenting and therefore a victim of assault. Current New York law views a person in such circumstances as consenting if they consensually became incapacitated. New York Attorney General Leticia James, who will oversee the criminal investigation as independent special prosecutor, and Governor Kathy Hochul, hope to change that law. (https://www.wskg.org/category/news/2026-10-02/new-york-state-legislators-will-propose-changes-to-consent-laws-following-revelations-about-cornell-rape-case)

The case turns my stomach. It places the worst of human behavior and specifically college culture on broad display. Every angle of the story disgusts me. Predictably, the media and the masses have polarized over it, with the left leveling judgment against the frat boys and the right seeing Jane Doe as fully consenting and responsible for placing herself in harm’s way. Most of us pool in the middle somewhere.

If Only

I think of Isaiah’s words: “Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea” (48:18). People harm themselves when they violate God’s moral boundaries. The courts will determine if those young men broke the law of the land, but they certainly broke the law of God. I heard a commentator lament that, if the Cornell 7 are found guilty, “We’ll have to tell our sons not to have s#x until they’re married!”

I thought, “What a great idea!”

Dinah

This story make me think of the story of Dinah, a dark chapter in the life of the family of Jacob as he led them through Cannan to the city of Shechem.

The account says simply that Dinah, his only daughter, “Went out to see the daughters of the land” (Genesis 34:1), and that the son of Hamor, Shechem, a man privileged enough to have the city named after him, “violated her” (vs. 2). The son subsequently asking through the father for her hand, led to the sons of Jacob promising to deliver her in exchange for the Shechemites all getting circumcised. Then, they said, the two tribes could intermarry, combining their economic interests as well.

Deal, said the Shechemites, but as they struggled with their circumcision wounds, the sons of Jacob stormed into town and killed them all. Jacob lambasted his sons for this treachery, as it would place them at enmity with the surrounding tribes. What a catastrophic collision of the worst of human behavior!

Let’s return to Dinah, the girl whose foray into Shechem life started this horrific sequalae of effects.

But before thinking about her actions and their consequences, let’s establish that, like the Cornell 7, each man in the story holds his own moral responsibility, specifically Shechem for r@pe. These actions are not Dinah’s or Jane Doe’s “fault,” and any telling of the story laying those crimes at their feet gives the wrong message.

But did Dinah harm herself? And do we see in this story a lesson of self-protection for women? I think so.

“He who seeks pleasure among those that fear not God is placing himself on Satan's ground and inviting his temptations.” Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 205

When we place ourselves on the enemy’s ground, we may not be guilty of the crimes committed against us, but before God we are guilty of devaluing ourselves. And if we give the message that women have no responsibility to value and protect themselves, we increase the likelihood of harm.

We should never victim blame, but we should victim train, helping women avoid danger. Otherwise, we defend women to their own detriment. We tell Dinahs and Jane Does to venture drunk into frat parties, assuring them that if they suffer assault, the males will go to jail, as if that alone will be enough. We need stiffer governance of those frat parties, and college administrators more concerned about women’s safety than alienating their male customers. But victims of s3xual crimes will always exist, will always suffer profound damage, and—don’t miss this—will always multiply at alcohol- and drug- fueled parties.

Sensible, compassionate people cautioning women to stay safe should never be accused of blaming the victim.

Saga of a Wild Teen

At 18 years old, after I’d exhausted my parents throughout my wild teens, I announced to them I’d be attending a summer event in a different state. They seemed okay with it until I added, “I’ll be traveling with a man I met at Theater X.” Theater X was an avant guard company of actors I followed in in my home city, Milwaukee. One of the actors, this 40-year-old man, had encouraged me to attend the event. A little stunned, my parents hesitated. But I was 18, and they were exhausted, so they dropped me off at the bus stop where I’d be traveling through Chicago to Michigan with said 40-year-old man they didn’t know.

Surprise, surprise, he was not a good man. I escaped unscathed, but not without a struggle.

My youthful, headstrong stupidity had placed me in harm’s way. Lesson learned. Don’t travel with dudes you don’t know, baby girl.

Reflecting, I wish my parents had opposed me more vigorously. I wish they’d said more about my responsibility to keep myself safe. This wouldn’t have been blaming me; it would have been training me.

I live in Florida, where pit bulls abound. Due to their ferocity, some campaign to make these dogs illegal. Maybe they should be. But in the meantime, I protect myself, because if I climbed the fence into my neighbor’s yard, his pit bulls would kill me, and no amount of cursing the dogs would bring me back to life.

Men can be pit bulls, and we should have stiff laws to curb that aggression. We should also create a culture that defines manliness, not as exploitive dominance, but as noble heroism.

Can we, even while striving for these good things, acknowledge that it would be a great idea for Dinah and Jane Doe to stay home?

I think so.

What do you think?