'Princeton Mom' tells CNN: Getting raped while drunk is just a college 'learning experience'

Author Susan Patton, who is better known as the "Princeton Mom," told CNN on Tuesday that the modern definition of rape was meaningless because women could usually just "get up and leave" if they didn't want to be assaulted.

"What makes this so particularly prickly is the definition of rape," Patton opined to CNN host Carol Costello. "It no longer is when a woman is violated at the point of a gun or a knife. We're now talking about or identifying as rape what really is clumsy hook-up melodrama or a fumbled attempt at a kiss or a caress."

"This is with a friend, this is in your own home."

Costello, however, pointed out that most rapes occurred between people who already knew each other.

"It makes one wonder, why do you not just get up and leave?" Patton asked. "Or why do you not as a woman tell a man who's making advances that, 'You know what, stop, leave.'"

The guest said that she had talked to victims of sexual assault, but didn't always find their stories convincing.

"There's rape, and then there's rape," she quipped. "I believe that she experienced something that she regretted. I believe that she got very drunk, and had sex with a man that she regretted the next morning. To me, that's not a crime. That's not rape. That's a learning experience."

Throughout the interview, Patton insisted that she was "not blaming victims."

"The politically correct thinking at this point -- fueled by the antagonistic feminists -- is that even if there's a whiff of assault, a man is guilty," she said. "We could teach burglars not to steal, but better advice [is to] lock your door."

"I'm not blaming victims, but when women accuse men of rape, when in fact, it was sort of a fumbled attempt at -- when they have what I call regrettable sex, mistake sex."

Costello, who is a domestic abuse survivor, concluded by saying that she would never contact Patton if she needed support after experiencing an assault in the future.

"You probably could come to me because I'm a sympathetic ear," Patton argued. "But first, I would tell you, be smarter next time. Exercise more self control next time. Use better judgement next time in how you choose your friends."

"And then you want me to go the police and file charges after you said that to me?" Costello replied. "After you said that to me, I ain't going to the police! Are you kidding? You just said it was partially my fault because I was drunk!"

"I didn't say it was your fault, I said you could have prevented it," Patton said.

"It's not as easy as that," the CNN host sighed.

Watch the video below from CNN, broadcast Dec. 11, 2014.

(h/t: Media Matters)