Was it good for you? That's the question young college men should ask themselves after drugging a girl, then having sex with her barely responsive body.
Was it good for you? Really?
Was it worth a few years in prison?
I'm asking, and so are a lot of other people, including President Barack Obama.
Two weeks ago, Obama ordered a federal task force to seek answers to the intractable problem of sexual assault on college campuses. This is something pampered athletes, frat boys and social maladroits can't afford to ignore.
Not anymore.
Obama was stirred to action after the White House Council on Women and Girls recently concluded 1 in 5 female college students have been sexually assaulted. In broader terms, nearly 22 million American women have been pawed, plundered or raped - most of them by men they know.
In some cases, the crimes are drug-assisted sexual assaults. That conjures images of nefarious men slipping a mysterious powder into their female companions' drinks, but in most cases the drug is hiding in plain sight.
Alcohol.
Plain ol' beer, wine and liquor.
"Use of substances other than alcohol is actually pretty rare," says Patricia Maarhuis, from the Counseling and Testing Services office at Washington State University. In her professional life, Maarhuis hangs out at the intersection of substance abuse and violence - particularly sexual assault.
She concedes date-rape drugs are in the equation, but adds, "Most perpetrators don't have to work that hard.
"If the goal is to not get caught, then they just engage in behavior that's socially acceptable," Maarhuis says. "They just get her another drink.
"In fact, they might buy her that drink."
At a stroke, the obliging gentleman creates an alibi of plausible doubt.
"Anything that happens later is considered a 'miscommunication,' " Maarhuis says, "because, you know, 'We were both drunk.' "
Ever since the discovery of fermentation, men have been plying women with alcohol, then peeling off their clothes for something that approximates sexual congress. It's been going on for millennia, but civil society is now waking to the fact that it's not OK.
Not anymore.
Any "consensual" sex that ensues after a woman has downed drink after drink is perilously close to the rape of a mentally incapacitated or physically helpless victim.
I gleaned that last phrase from Whitman County Prosecutor Dennis Tracy. He also told me when nice guys with no criminal record are convicted of first-degree rape, the minimum sentence is 10 years.
That's the minimum, but the actual prison term can be longer if a date rape drug - the college crowd calls them "roofies" - is fed to an unsuspecting victim.
"There's no difference in my mind between that and holding a knife to a woman's throat," Tracy says. "So I would also charge them with felony assault for administering a poison, and then tack on another felony for drug possession because I'm guessing they wouldn't have a prescription.
"So it really boils down to this: Who do you want to be in charge of you going to prison, buddy?" Tracy asks. "Me and the judge? Or you?"
What's that, you say? You have to register as a sex offender for the rest of your life? Bummer, dude.
Regardless of whether a date-rape drug is involved, or it's "merely" a case of excessive alcohol, there are some depressingly familiar patterns to sexual assault in a college setting.
"What we see most often are women who are freshmen, new to campus," Maarhuis says. "They're in a brand-new party scene, there's no curfew, and mom and dad aren't around.
"They are targeted by upperclassmen," Maarhuis continues. "These girls enjoy the attention, but they're kind of nervous, so they have a drink."
And another. And another.
The lesson, Maarhuis says, is that sexual predators usually aren't "some creepy guy leaping out of the bushes with a knife."
"In many cases, it's that nice upperclassman."
Pullman resident William Brock has two daughters, ages 7 and 9. He isn't terribly concerned if any pampered athletes or frat boys are offended by his opinion.
