Are you asking whether the rape double standard is wrong, or whether the columnist's dismissal was wrong?
IMO (which I'm sure all of E2 cares deeply about) both are wrong. First: the double standard. See "Women rape too, they just don't get in trouble for it." if you don't believe a woman forcing herself on a man can be a traumatic event for him. Wow. Nevertheless, I've heard (ah yes, now there's a reputable source) that the reason less (for example) statutory rapes of males by females are prosecuted/reported is that the guy doesn't think they've been taken advantage of. Whether this is true or not I don't know. But when I was a teenager, if a 24-year-old woman had wanted to have sex with me, I might have been thinking "Wow, cool!". This does not mean it's not criminal! I can't speak about female-female rape specifically, I don't hear about it that often (I've recently read one account of it happening in jail). However, sex under pressure/coercion is always a bad thing regardless of who does it.
The firing: universities are supposed to be hotbeds of radicalism, but in reality they are chock-full-o'-conformity. At my school, the formerly-very-"alternative" newspaper has had its wings clipped any number of times for saying oh-so-dangerous things. Your beleagured "conservative columnist" merely fell victim to the same thing that has been happening to leftist/feminist/etc. journalists for ages. It's not that there are packs of unshaven, strident lesbians running around demanding the instant expulsion of this fellow. "Political correctness" is a myth, fostered by a few extreme examples that prove nothing but that anyone can be an ass, regardless of politics. U.S. News and World Report was just ensuring that they didn't offend anybody, thus ensuring their bland, crappy existence for another day.
sgs: Good points! It always kind of bugs me when people make jokes about
prison rape, especially when I find
myself doing it. There's a perception that rape in
prison is somehow "
poetic justice" or that it only happens to
sex offenders. In fact, it happens to a lot of new
inmates of all stripes, often on their
first day in jail. it's a serious problem that corrections officials seem reluctant to do anything about.