While I was packing to leave LA, I heard about the Cornell case. It had been the better part of a week without any news, no reading the NYTimes, not even playing Wordle. And I thought wait, isn’t this an old rape allegation; because at my age, memory and deja vu can intertwine with reality. And as it turns out two years ago Jane Doe told campus police she was absolutely sure she was raped. What happened after that is the current story.
According to a survey of students by the Association of American Universities in 2019, over a quarter – one in four – undergraduate women reported experiencing some type of nonconsensual sex, or a sexual act coerced by physical force or because they were unable to consent. At Cornell, the university found that ONE THIRD of its young women said they had “…unwanted sexual experiences.”
The most disturbing three words in the English language came to light as evidence has accumulated of the gang rape that took place at Cornell in October of 2024, “SHOP STILL OPEN?” These words, in a text chain of ChiPhi fraternity brothers in the early morning hours, were captured and are now part of the civil case Jane Doe has filed against seven men, Cornell University, the Chi Phi fraternity, and the Delta Delta Delta sorority.
Because after Cornell’s Title IX board investigated the case two years ago, two men were expelled and the rest were told to write an essay.
Let that sink in. Dear boy, please write us a compelling expository essay on why you felt the need to do what you did, or didn’t do, to Jane Doe on the day in question. Maybe you should have stopped what was going on? Or say, called her sorority sisters to come and get her? What exactly was your part in the gang rape, did you only hold her down? Oh how I would love to read these pieces of creative, fantastical writing, that were probably AI driven, and meant absolutely nothing to the predators.
If you are currently in the business of looking at colleges for your high school children, please take a look at their dire statistics here: https://ope.ed.gov/campussafety/#/
Greek culture on campus has got to go IMHO. Sure maybe they collect money for charities, and sometimes hazing can result in a death here and there, but mostly they are a front for alcohol and drug induced parties. I’ve been to a few in the 60s in Boston, in fact I saw the Byrds sing at one such event across the Charles River at MIT. But remember, in the olden days we had curfews and we lived in same sex dorms. If a girl was late getting back from a party, she was locked out of her building. The MTA actually stopped running after midnight! There were no cell phones to get help. Young women were disposable back then, just as they are now, and if she happened to get pregnant she left school.
I guess with the Hobbs decision things haven’t changed much. And depending on what state you’re in – in NY for example – to bring a rape charge the victim must have been unconscious!?!? This is the Catch 22 of a young woman’s life. How does one know what exactly happened if you are drugged beyond belief and cannot remember? Because if you can remember… you must have wanted it. This is patriarchy in a nutshell. Never mind the bruising, the pain, the numbness, the loss of autonomy.
Jane Doe two days later tells her “friend,” the one boy she initially liked out of the seven, that nothing illegal was going on when he professed he was sorry, before the word got out that she was a “slut.” Before she became a pariah. But isn’t that just like us, women trained to comfort the men in our lives: to continue working with Chief Justice Clarence Thomas after being ‘supposedly’ harassed for years; to keep Chief Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s secret for decades after an ‘alleged’ assault at a high school party. And for that matter, what about Carroll v Trump? E Jean was doubly abused by our Commander in Chief by his defaming lawsuit!
A fish, or a country, rots from the head down. We have got to do better, our government, in academia, and as parents. I have three granddaughters, one is in high school. My grandson is in middle school. Tell them, whisper it or shout it to them, talk about consent. And if you live in one of these 19 states where rape isn’t rape unless you were unconscious, make some good trouble: “Nineteen states have rape or sexual assault laws that consider intoxicated victims to be mentally incapacitated only if they became drunk or drugged without their knowledge or consent.” https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/state-laws-on-intoxication-and-consent-get-new-scrutiny-after-cornell-rape-allegations
Found this pic of my starter wedding at 19 in MA, with brother Jim on the right.
