Last week’s false rape accusation at Hofstra University has inspired a media storm unparalleled by most actual rape cases. The feeding frenzy has produced some helpful discussion—check out Emily Bazelon’s piece at Slate for a thoughtful dissection of rape, sex, feminism, and the law—and a whole lot of unbridled misogyny.In “Crying wolf really hurts true victims of assault,” The New York Post’s Andrea Peyser rightly points out that false rape accusations can harm the reputations of real sexual assault victims. Peyser also personally demonstrates what else hurts victims: sensationalized media coverage of false rape accusations.

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Why do women stay in abusive relationships? That’s the question Slate’s Linda Hirshman poses in her review of the new abuse memoir Crazy Love. Hirshman thinks the question is a “terribly important one” to ask women, and that it is a “mark of respect” to do so.

And yet, Hirshman’s question remains a rhetorical in her review of Leslie Morgan Steiner’s book—because Hirshman never attempts to answer it. She writes:

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One contributer to the MPD 1st District Listserv got screwed over on Inauguration Day in the “Purple Tunnel” fiasco got screwed again yesterday—this time, by March for Life participants. The victim recalls the double whammy:

Forgetting the purpose of the Right to Life protest what was MPD’s logic in allowing all of their buses to load and unload in the middle of Capitol Hill?

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