Dr Phil's poll question on twitter is accused of adding to rape culture

The new "asking for a friend" is "asking for my show", it seems, as Dr Phil blurted out this question on twitter: "If a girl is drunk, is it OK to have sex with her: reply with yes or no to @DrPhil #teensaccused"

The setup, with the random question on twitter and hashtag #teenaccused seem to indicate that Dr Phil may be doing a show on the topic. I assumed he would get lots of "no" replies, and any "yes" replies would be made an example of on the show, to educate people. It might be the recent Steubenville case and similar that has sparked Dr Phils interest, and he may have intended to create a show that would help teenagers understand the concept of consent - but twitter screamed "rape culture" so loud, the intern manning the account deleted the tweet right quick.

Not everyone is giving Dr Phil as much slack as I am, in fact the hashtag he added - #teensaccused" is suggested to be because the story is told from the rapist point of view. Hmm. As with everything that causes a wave on twitter, there's a petition to make Dr Phil apologize for the rape tweet. If the goal was to educate kids about consent, Dr Phil can pretty much sit back and let twitter do it for him now.

.@gerrycanavan and the hastag #teensaccused actually suggests that yes, this story is being told from the rapists pov. @studentactivism

— Jenny Thurman (@jennygadget) August 21, 2013

"Should we be acting like the definition of rape is contingent on public opinion? More at 11." #TeensAccused

— Sunny Phorward (@PhilthePill) August 21, 2013

If @DrPhil doesn't understand how consent works, should anyone listen to him? Reply yes or no to @everetthall #teensaccused

— Everett (@everetthall) August 21, 2013

"What if she's drunk/passed out/you think she wants it/you bought dinner?" We don't need to keep asking these ?'s #rapeculture

— Brian Stuart (@red3blog) August 20, 2013