Jezebel: fraternities

Do Frats Contribute To A Culture Of Sexual Assault?

Anna N. — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:00:00 EDT

Nicholas Syrett's article "Bros Before Hos" argues that fraternities developed their current reputations in response to fears of homosexuality.

In the 1920s, frat guys started worrying that living together and being all friendly with each other would make them seem gay. Solution: public demonstrations of dominance over women, including rape. Syrett quotes several disturbing passages on this topic. In 1967, sociologist Eugene Kanin said that for frat brothers,

A successful 'snow job' on an attractive but reluctant female who may be rendered into a relatively dependable sexual outlet and socially desirable companion is considerably more enhancing than an encounter with a prostitute or a 'one night stand' with a 'loose' reputation.

Translation: getting a "nice girl" to have sex with you, possibly by any means necessary, is better than having sex with a slut. A contemporary frat boy offers an even more upsetting bit of sociology:

When my friends pick up chicks and bring them back to the fraternity house everyone else runs to the window to look at somebody else domineer a girl and I tell you what you almost get the same satisfaction. Some of the guys like to put on a show by doing grosser things each time ... Watching my friends have sex with other girls is almost as satisfying as doing it myself ... By the same token I enjoy conquering girls and having people watch.

Syrett notes that men who are in fraternities are more likely to rape than men who aren't, and that frat boys may perpetrate 70 to 90% of college gang rapes. Chilling as these statistics are, Amy Benfer of Broadsheet warns that we shouldn't think of all fraternities as horrible campus rape factories. She thinks frat culture may get better with the current acceptability of both gay marriage and "bromance" (although whether a movie and a silly term really make close heterosexual male friendship anymore socially accepted is debatable).

Still, Syrett's argument contradicts Greg Laden's view that peacetime society keeps men from raping. Rather, there may be social structures — and fraternities may be one of them — that encourage violent behavior among men as part of a fucked-up status system. As Megan has said time and again (and as too many people still don't get), rape isn't always about sex — it's about power. And society is eminently capable of creating toxic power structures in which rape as a form of advancement. It does us no good to think of men as natural sex maniacs who need civilization to keep them from assaulting. Instead, we need to realize that culture plays just as big a role in violence against women as biology — perhaps bigger — and that culture can be changed.

Bros Before Hos: College Fraternities and Sexual Exploitation [National Sexuality Resource Center]
Gang rapes, gay bashing and snow jobs [Broadsheet]

The Drug War: A Bad Idea, But It Is So Hard To Feel Bad About The San Diego Fraternity Coke Ring

Moe — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:00:00 EDT

It's been a few days since we checked in on the massive San Diego State frathouse coke ring. So what more have we learned? Well, they just keep arresting more students. It helps that the school president has been so super supportive. But it wasn't that sophisticated an operation to penetrate! "All it took was saying, `Hey, I go to State, can you hook me up? And then it was off to the races,'" San Diego County prosecutor Damon Mosler told the AP.

The undercover officers in the sting, who looked young enough to be students, dressed and talked in a way that would make them blend into any crowd around campus, authorities say. They started going to fraternity parties, made some connections and then started appearing at other events near campus. Mosler says the officers were stunned to learn how openly drug dealers were operating. "The undercover officers would call the dealers and say, 'I'm looking to score, can you hook me up?' " the prosecutor says, "and the dealers wouldn't question it; they'd just say yes." Mosler says he believes that the dealers, many of them students, were operating under the false assumption that they would never get caught within the insular world of a college campus.

Uh, yeah, might I just bring back up again the fact that duuuuude, San Diego State is totally where some of the 9/11 hijackers hung out before they launched their assault on our way of life. And where, six summers later, no one could remember what year 9/11 had actually happened. So good to have such an upstanding campus on our side of the Drug War, dudes.

Feds Penetrated Drug Culture Easily At San Diego State [AP] Inside the San Diego State University Drug Bust [Newsweek] Related: Eight Great Blunders Of The Greeks [College OTR]

Yale University "Sluts" Strike Back At Sexist Frat Boys

Slut Machine — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:00:00 EST

You see the gentlemen holding up a sign that reads "WE LOVE YALE SLUTS" right in front of the Yale Women's Center? That little stunt was a pledge prank for the school's Zeta Psi fraternity, and the Women's Center is now taking legal action against the frat for sexual harassment. The question of whether or not this was indeed harassment has been raised, since it was "just a joke" and the men never came in contact with any women. But I say: hell yes it's harassment! As someone who openly refers to herself as a "slut" and throws the term around rather lovingly, I have to say that it's not as benign when used by everyone. (It's kinda like how white people can't say "nigger.") And these Yale students should be smart enough to figure out that posing in front of the fucking Women's Center with such a sign would at the very least ruffle feathers. There's no two ways about it: They were intentionally being dicks.

Not only that, it was only after they were threatened with the possibility of a lawsuit that the men in Zeta Psi managed to cough up a lame excuse for an apology. And the photo wasn't an isolated incident. From the Yale Daily News:

Former Women's Center Public Relations Coordinator Jessica Svendsen '09 said she found a group of men chanting "Dick! Dick! Dick!" in front of the Elm Street entrance to the Center, which is located in Durfee Hall, shortly before midnight last Tuesday. Frightened, she decided to take a detour through the Center's Old Campus entrance, she said.

You know, I love a bit of ironic humor, and I know that us women, with all of our demands and menstrual-y mood swings can be tough characters to figure out, but for any men out there wondering, you can be safe in the assumption that you shouldn't ever call us sluts. (Unless we tell you to in bed.) Ultimately, this is just a case of smart kids acting stupidly. But someone needs to school them, whether through a lawsuit, public outcry, or something a little more than a slap on the wrist.

Zeta Psi Pledges "Love Yale Sluts," Women's Center Pledges to Sue [IvyGate]
Misogyny claim leveled at frat [Yale Daily News]
Zeta Psi apologizes for its members' 'lack of judgment' [Yale Daily News]
Women's Center calls Zeta Psi's behavior 'inexcusable' [Yale Daily News]

CSI Gawker Media: Moe And Jalopnik Crack The Case Of The Hot Masturbating Frathouse Intruder

Moe — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:22:11 EDT

The story about the woman who walked into the University of Michigan frathouse, took a seat on a couch and commenced masturbating for a half hour is full of holes: How come it took her a half hour? Did she not have a vibrator? What sort of woman voluntarily sits on a fraternity house couch? Luckily, Jezzy's automotively inclined brother blogger (haha! brother blogger! so if we sucumbed to his advances it would be INCEST!!) Jalopnik attended the very prestigious institution of higher education that played host to this curious event, so when his expertise met our extensive self-hating self-love experience over IM, we were able to crack the case in approximately 13 minutes. Like Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hartigay! Only bloggers! I mean, WITHOUT the sexual tension!! Why she did it, why they called the cops and the mystery of why they need to get rid of two separate couches solved, after the jump.

Why Two Couches?

InspectorMoe: so in your view
InspectorMoe: is this story true?
InspectorMoe: aren't they sort of pussies for throwing out the couches?
InspectorMoe: Did she actually masturbate on two couches?
InspectorMoe: Or did one couch just catch the other couch's cooties?
Jalopnixxx: The story is totally true. Since most New York Times staff writers come from the University of Michigan, it's got to be the truth. It just has to.
InspectorMoe: could "she" have been a rival frat pledge?
InspectorMoe: I thought they all came from Harvard.
InspectorMoe: how much would you estimate those couches will fetch on eBay?
Jalopnixxx: Yes, they're huge twats for throwing out the couches. One would expect that for many a young and privileged PIKE fratboy, that's the most pussy they could have gotten without paying for it.
InspectorMoe: would you bid?
Jalopnixxx: Oh no, I already have a number of pussy-scented couches
InspectorMoe: hahahaha
InspectorMoe: ha!
InspectorMoe: my couch smells like pussy too, but what do you expect? I'm a BLOGGER
Jalopnixxx: I'm wondering myself why it's two couches they're tossing.

What Took So Long?

InspectorMoe: I love how they're all "Obviously, she was very disturbed."
Jalopnixxx: I'm thinking maybe some of the members may have been spending some time working on their own personal "love-making" techniques on the other couch.
Jalopnixxx: Obviously not. Maybe she was overcome by the PIKE house and their man-musk.
InspectorMoe: I'd be disturbed if it took me a half an hour to come?
Jalopnixxx: I mean, have you ever slept with a frat-boy before?
InspectorMoe: a few
Jalopnixxx: You'd be lucky to come after four or five hours
InspectorMoe: i don't really remember
Jalopnixxx: They on the other hand
InspectorMoe: it was after i'd passed out usually
Jalopnixxx: I'll assume it's a 30-second timeframe for them
InspectorMoe: yeah i don't usually achieve orgasm when i'm blacked out
Jalopnixxx: I can imagine.
InspectorMoe: so yeah um ... if she was there for 30 minutes
InspectorMoe: why did it take them so long to call the police?
InspectorMoe: if they are such pussies
InspectorMoe: and they actually call the police over that sort of thing.
Jalopnixxx: That's an excellent question. I'll cross-apply my answer on the two v. one couch question
Jalopnixxx: It could very well be that she wasn't interested in helping along some of the lovely man-meat, and that was why they wanted nothing to do with it.

Moe Correctly Guesses Ray's Frat, On The First Try

InspectorMoe: were you in a fraternity?
Jalopnixxx: I actually was/
InspectorMoe: I'd like to know how other frathouses might have responded differently to the same set of circumstances
Jalopnixxx: Well, at our house we would have had to ask whether she was appropriately kosher
Jalopnixxx: If she wasn't, we'd have had to move her to another couch, and off of the dairy one.
InspectorMoe: were you in ZBT or something?
Jalopnixxx: Ding!
InspectorMoe: AE 3.14
Jalopnixxx: First guess
InspectorMoe: wow, i'm so so good
InspectorMoe: so yeah
Jalopnixxx: That easy to tell, eh?
InspectorMoe: here's what happened:
InspectorMoe: no it was just the first jewy frat that came to mind
InspectorMoe: my impression of ZBT is generally more barney's and hair product than you
Jalopnixxx: And how jewy we were
Jalopnixxx: Well, I'm a Ca-shew
Jalopnixxx: Ca-Jew
InspectorMoe: right, SO.
Jalopnixxx: So I didn't always fit in
InspectorMoe: oooh a jewopy
InspectorMoe: jewopnik

Moe Cracks Case, More Like Vinny D. than Mariska Now That We Think About It

InspectorMoe: HERE is what happened, as I see it.
Jalopnixxx: Ok, throw down
InspectorMoe: She comes in, starts getting off on the sofa
InspectorMoe: She's, like, in Theta, and this is just a hazing ritual
InspectorMoe: the first part of the ritual was to replicate the contents of anna nicole's fridge
InspectorMoe: and consume them.
InspectorMoe: the second part was to go into the frat house
InspectorMoe: and start poking herself or whatever
InspectorMoe: Pike was stoked.
InspectorMoe: But she got a little performance anxiety
InspectorMoe: so she was like, "talk dirty to me"
Jalopnixxx: That like, totally makes sense. That little bitch wasn't supposed to just, you know, get the police involved.
InspectorMoe: and they got all "her breasts..felt like bags of sand".....
InspectorMoe: and she was like, fuck you, I'm calling someone in ZBT
InspectorMoe: THAT is a frat that knows how to concoct a good scenario
InspectorMoe: hence the cell phone "conversation"
InspectorMoe: pussies (of the Pike sort) were humiliated.
InspectorMoe: liquor was consumed
Jalopnixxx: Doesn't she know that when a frat-boy tells her to do something, she's supposed to, you know, do it. Except anal. Cause that shit's totally gross. Unless she's conservative christian.
Jalopnixxx: Thats called birth control
InspectorMoe: and HERE's another thing
InspectorMoe: their couches were totally nasty already obvs.
Jalopnixxx: Oh yeah, what's that?
Jalopnixxx: Obvs
InspectorMoe: so they're just using this as an excuse!
InspectorMoe: to collect emergency funds from the national organization
InspectorMoe: and hit POTTERY BARN
Jalopnixxx: For new couches!
Jalopnixxx: Awesome!
InspectorMoe: CASE CLOSED!

Masturbating Trespasser Booted From Frat [Michigan Daily]