Rape Culture On College Campuses Is Very Real And These Leaked Fraternity Emails Prove It
The leaked emails from the "secret" fraternity Epsilon Iota at American University — sent anonymously to various students last week and going viral since — have seemingly outraged the school and the nation, and appropriately so.
It seems all too often we get these tiny reveals into what some people are saying (which is presumably exactly what they feel) when they don't fear censorship or punishment.
And the result is pretty grotesque.
Under the back-and-forth of email exchange, frat members denigrate their fellow female students, condone getting women drunk so they'll be more likely to sleep with brothers, encourage and even offer tips for non-consensual sex, and rattle off a bunch of other offensive and criminal comments (hitting women and raping them in the woods are among topics discussed).
The messages are seriously screwed up, with "rape" being used synonymous with "sex," and "bitch" almost always replaceable with "female college student."
The 70 pages of recovered emails and text conversations are filled with woman-hating sentiments, from physical violence to purposeful manipulation with alcohol.
Among the worst of the exchanges include:
"It seems like damage control is very straightforward: someone needs to stuff a dick in that [redacted] girl's mouth with the quickness."
"Then [when] they start getting f*cked up we switch them from apartments so they are f*cked up when they meet brothers they know less and would hook up with easier."
"She's the type of girl that you need to f*ck hard and rape in the woods."
"I just think the more intimate pre-games [where] the girls would feel more relaxed and safe would be such a good idea to get the bitches in the right state of intoxication so that plows would be raining all over the place"
Another email shows how the fraternity went on the defensive when one female student reported that she had been hit by a brother:
"Let's formulate an excuse. For the remainder of the semester, we feign ignorance -- our brotherhood already met for the last time... None of us have heard anything except rumors from outside."
These comments, which date back to 2012, reveal that a "rape culture" in the US, and especially across college campuses, is still very much alive and well.
The emails show that despite all the conversation going on about consent and reducing the instances of sexual assault and just plain physical violence against women, there are still those who consider the objectification and mistreatment of women the norm (and even amusing).
These emails might expose an extreme form of this normalization, but the fact remains that this behavior was learned somewhere, and is often present in more subtle and latent ways.
Since these exchanges have gone public, American University officials have pledged to take action against the authors of the emails, citing that the words and behaviors of this unrecognized fraternity's members clearly pose a threat to the student body population.
"I assure you that the university is taking the information contained in the emails very seriously. We are taking swift and deliberate action to investigate every one of the alleged behaviors and will apply our student conduct code to its fullest extent.
In addition, we are working closely with appropriate law enforcement agencies on any potential criminal activities that are found."
Hopefully, the school administrators and police officials can bring these people to justice; at this point, any action needs to be more focused on making sure current, responsible members are expelled, and the already-graduated have their diplomas revoked.
The school, the community and even everyone else, as a nation, needs to focus on fostering a better environment for women — one in which they feel safe, maintain power and don't have to worry about guys calling them "bitch" or "slut" to their faces or behind their backs.
Emails Courtesy: Tumblr, Photo Courtesy: Fanpop
