MEDIA ADVISORY

 6pm TONIGHT | "RAPE CULTURE" & SEXUAL ASSAULT PANEL DISCUSSION

 

Contact: Victoria Coley
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 443.758.6077

STRAIGHT TALK PANEL
"RAPE CULTURE" AND SEXUAL ASSAULT

THURSDAY
June 26, 2014 | 6:00pm Reception | 6:30pm Panel Begins

(WASHINGTON, DC) — On Thursday, June 26, the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) presents the long-awaited Straight Talk: An Honest Conversation About "Rape Culture" and Sexual Violence panel discussion. 

The White House has embraced the statistic that one-in-five women is sexually assaulted while in college as the cornerstone of its newly-launched White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. But many question the validity of the White House's one-in-five statistic, even as those who challenge this figure are silenced as being uncaring about women. 

"IWF intends to have a fact-based discussion about the issue of sexual violence in society today. Everyone participating on the panel is interested in reducing sexual violence and making sure that when it occurs the perpetrators are brought to justice; but we also want to make sure boys and men are given due process," said IWF executive director and event moderator Sabrina Schaeffer. "We all agree that sex must be consensual; but we also have to consider how 'affirmative consent' laws might actually turn into new forms of 'sexual harassment' and bring the state into the bedroom in unprecedented ways."

Schaeffer adds, "We all want to make sure the problem of sexual violence is defined correctly; but also that the statistics and narratives aren’t used to grow government in a way that fashions women as victims and men as abusers. Most importantly we all want to encourage a culture of responsibility among both men and women so that we can have a healthier and safer society with happier more stable relationships for everyone."

The all-star, intrepid panel includes Christina Hoff Sommers, Stuart Taylor, Cathy Young, and Andrea Bottner. Moderator is Independent Women's Forum executive director Sabrina Schaeffer. 

PANELISTS
Christina Hoff Sommers • 
author and American Enterprise Institute Resident Fellow who presides over the Factual Feminist vlog and has been a leader in debunking the Obama administration?s sexual assault statistic
Stuart Taylor • nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution and coauthor of Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case
Cathy Young • columnist for Newsday and contributing editor at Reason magazine and a frequent commentator on feminist issues
Andrea Bottner • lawyer and former director of the Office of International Women’s Issues in the George W. Bush administration

MODERATOR
Sabrina Schaeffer • executive director of the Independent Women's Forum

DATE: Thursday, June 26
TIME: 6 p.m. ET reception, 6:30 p.m. ET panel + Q&A
LOCATION: 1706 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 

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www.iwf.org

Independent Women's Forum is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) research and educational institution dedicated to expanding the conservative coalition, both by increasing the number of women who understand and value the benefits of limited government, personal liberty, and free markets, and by countering those who seek to ever expand government in the name of protecting women.

MEDIA CONTACT
Victoria Coley | Director of Communications
Independent Women's Forum | www.iwf.org
[email protected]