Is There a 'Rape Culture' on College Campuses? A Debate.

"There is a rape culture on college campuses that creates an unsafe environment for female students." Watch journalist Cathy Young vs. sociologist Michael Kimmel—with an opening standup routine from comedian Dave Smith.

(Debate starts at 11:50)

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Arguing in the affirmative was Michael Kimmel, the SUNY distinguished professor of sociology and gender studies at Stony Brook University and author of multiple books, including the best-selling Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men (2009).

Taking the negative position was Cathy Young, a contributing editor at Reason magazine, a weekly columnist at Newsday, and a regular contributor to the Jewish Daily Forward and The Weekly Standard. She's also the author of two books: Growing Up in Moscow: Memories of a Soviet Girlhood (1989), and Ceasefire: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality (1999).

It was an Oxford-style debate, which means that the audience votes before and after the proceedings. The participant who moves the most people to his or her side is declared the winner. In this debate, the negative side argued by Cathy Young picked up 13.4 percent to win the contest.

The Soho Forum is a monthly debate series that's sponsored by the Reason Foundation, featuring topics of special interest to libertarians. The series aims to enhance social and professional ties within the NYC libertarian community. The next debate, held on April 16, will be "Fractional reserve banking poses a threat to market economies," featuring Robert Murphy arguing the affirmative and George Selgin for the negative.

Oxygen Garden by Chris Zabriskie is used under a Creative Commons Attribution license: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/ChrisZabriskie/Divider/05-OxygenGarden