Greatest Hits III: On Teaching Rape

The third in our series of Greatest Hits was posted nearly five years ago, but remains one of the most widely read of our blog entries.  Titled “A Response to Jeannie Suk: Missing the Point on Teaching Rape,” it is Professor Margaret Drew’s  response to a New Yorker column written by Harvard law prof Jeannie Suk Gerson, which reviewed pressure on law faculty to avoid “triggering” topics like rape.  Professor Drew’s response argues that there are responsible and effective ways to teach the topic.  As she writes, “[t]he problem is not whether the topic should be discussed in the classroom.  The issue is whether the instructors are creating an appropriate atmosphere for discussion of what for many men and women is a real and devastating event.”