Given the lack of controversy about the seriousness of rape, one might ask, "What is there to debate about date rape? Isn't rape always rape?" But for many people the issue is not this simple. Some argue that many incidents characterized as date rape are not rape at all. What actually occurs in these situations, they say, is a miscommunication that results in sex, which the woman may not really want or may later regret but which cannot be fairly characterized as rape. Others say drugs and alcohol frequently play a part in what are labeled date rapes. How can a woman cry "rape," they ask, when she has contributed to the situation? Finally, some say that by applying the term rape to situations like these, date-rape activists diminish the seriousness of "real" rape resulting from physical force or threats of violence. In response to these arguments, activists say such excuses continue a long tradition of women's subjugation. The vast majority of men, they argue, bestow their affections only on willing recipients, and the charge that large numbers of them are being falsely accused of rape by fickle or vindictive women not only ignores the facts but trivializes the severity of the crime.