To the Editor:
The story in yesterday's Herald ("Emails underline rape procedures' flaws," April 27) suggests but does not spell out the issue which weighs heaviest with me. Women have always been at a disadvantage when threatened with coercion or worse in a sexual encounter with a man. The judicial system has improved but in my opinion is primarily a male-dominated system and is biased against women. In the story, Azhar Majeed, associate director of legal and public advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, told The Herald universities can have a "tendency to tilt the playing field in favor of the accusing student." This is not a weakness in the system but is absolutely necessary to counteract the historical swagger some men adopt when they want to have sex with a woman who is either opposed or ambivalent. A man needs to beware that a woman will carry the full authority of the University with them if there is any dispute about a sexual encounter. This should be spelled out in University guidebooks as a preventative check on the masculine impulses of some men who have not yet learned the meaning of empathy in sex. Then, perhaps, there would be a level playing field.
Tom Bale '63
