George Will wrote a column this weekend about college sexual assaults, and the reception from progressives went about as well as expected when an older, white, male conservative columnist writes about college sexual assaults.

In the column, published in The Washington Post and New York Post, Will said the attention on “supposed campus epidemic of rape, a.k.a. “sexual assault,”” (scare quotes Will’s,) is making “victimhood a coveted status that confers privileges.”

Will was stepping into incredibly thorny territory with his column, something he was surely aware of. But critics say the possibility of a real debate about how colleges and the administration are responding to sexual assaults was dashed in the way Will wrote his piece.  At the same time, Will's own identity — older, white, male and conservative — made him especially prone to liberal criticism on the subject of sexual assault.

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“His editorial is basically, 'I Am Mad That We Are Now Talking About Sexual Assault and Sexual Entitlement. These Conversations Make Me Uncomfortable and Threaten Me. Please Make Them Stop,'” wrote Katie McDonough in Salon.

Will wrote that “crucial and contradictory statistics” about campus sexual assault used by the White House are misleading and can be disproved by “simple arithmetic,” using Ohio State as an example to disprove the commonly accepted statistics that one in five women are sexually assaulted but that only 12 percent of sexual assaults are reported. He charged the administration for disregarding “pesky arithmetic and elementary due process” in sexual assault cases by mandating the adoption of a minimal “preponderance of the evidence” and a prejudgment by calling males and females “survivors.”

The Wire’s Connor Simpson blasted Will’s use of one example to justify his point, writing that “these situations rarely fit squarely into a fixed box definition.”

“Will should stick to causing outrage with his words — data journalism is trendy, sure, but he's terrible at it,” Simpson said. “But really this is an opportunity for Will to attack both the Obama administration and progressivism in one go, a two-birds-with-one-stone opportunity too ripe for a conservative troll to pass up.”

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And in typical acerbic fashion, Jezebel’s Erin Gloria Ryan went with the headline “Ladies Love Being Rape Victims, Says Asshole.”

The column also spawned a related Twitter hashtag #SurvivorPrivilege, created by writer Wagatwe Wanjuki, where people sarcastically tweeted what “privilege” they’ve had, like PTSD, depression or unsympathetic authorities, since experiencing and/or reporting sexual assault.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who’s been an advocate for stronger programs to help eliminate campus sexual assault, got in on the hashtag, tweeting on Monday that Will “owes an apology to survivors, victims, and all college students for his column today. -RB #survivorprivilege.”

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Will did have at least one defender, conservative pundit Michelle Malkin, who tweeted, “The Left can't handle truth-tellers exposing hype & agenda of WH & femme-a-gogues. That's why they attack George Will.”

Will, the White House and the Education Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

UPDATE (4:50p.m): The Post's editorial page editor Fred Hiatt defended publishing the column in an email to the International Business Times:

“I think George’s column was well within bounds of legitimate debate on an important topic,” Hiatt said. “I welcomed his perspective and I think the ensuing debate, including responses we will publish, is very healthy and exactly what a good opinion section should be offering its readers.”

A previous version of this post incorrectly identified a university Will cited in his column; it is Ohio State, not Ohio University.