Last October, Yale University came under fire for failing to take disciplinary action when 15 pledges of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, at the order of their senior brothers, marched through campus chanting "No means yes, and yes means anal!" and "My name is Jack, I'm a necrophiliac, I f*!@ dead women and fill them with my semen!" Last month, that incident, among others, led 16 Yale students to file a complaint alleging that the university had violated Title IX by exposing its female students to a "hostile sexual environment." The lesson here, says Caitlin Flanagan in The Wall Street Journal is that "if you want to improve women's lives on campus, if you want to give them a fair shot at living and learning as freely as men, the first thing you could do is close down the fraternities." An excerpt:
Can the mere presence of slur-chanting fraternity men really create an environment that robs young women of equal opportunity to education? Yes, it can... The Greek system is dedicated to quelling young men's anxiety about submitting themselves to four years of sissy-pants book learning by providing them with a variety of he-man activities: drinking, drugging, ESPN watching and the sexual mistreatment of women. A 2007 National Institute of Justice study found that about one in five women are victims of sexual assault in college; almost all of those incidents go unreported. It also noted that fraternity men — who tend to drink more heavily and frequently than nonmembers — are more likely to perpetrate sexual assault than non-fraternity men, according to previous studies. Over a quarter of sexual-assault victims who were incapacitated reported that the assailant was a fraternity member.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Political cartoons for February 19Cartoons Thursday’s political cartoons include a suspicious package, a piece of the cake, and more
-
The Gallivant: style and charm steps from Camber SandsThe Week Recommends Nestled behind the dunes, this luxury hotel is a great place to hunker down and get cosy
-
The President’s Cake: ‘sweet tragedy’ about a little girl on a baking mission in IraqThe Week Recommends Charming debut from Hasan Hadi is filled with ‘vivid characters’
