On Thu, 31 May 2001 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Daniel Bravo wrote:
>
> > Jenn,
> >
> > Well, if American teenage college movies showed
> > the good side of fraternities and sororities, I don't
> > think that they would be too entertaining. Just keep
> > in mind that there are two sides to every coin.
>
>
> Oh, I don't know. I could set a tearjerker to a background
> of a group of GoodHearted Fraternity Kids who are trying to
> save a Poor School, vs a Heartless Corporation trying to get
> the land for some Soulless Shopping Mall.
You can trivialize the issue all you want, people.
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~psanday/rapea.html
relates the 1991 case where several members of the St. Johns Univ.
Lacrosse team were indicted (but not prosecuted) for the gang rape
of a young black woman -- in their frat house.
The numbers indicate that fraternities fall into two categories, which
the author (a highly regarded cultural anthropologist) calls "rape-prone"
and "rape-free." The rape-prone frats are more likely to be affiliated
with mens' varsity sports (e.g. in my observation, DKE and DU at Cornell--
and no I didn't bother to have any "bad experiences" there, because I
avoided them like the plague). The "rape-free" frats are, as observed
here, the frats which are co-ed, cross-cultural, those that tolerate
homosexuality, and those which have high academic standards (e.g.
Telluride.)
The "rape-prone" fraternities are described in great detail in:
Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus. l990. New
York. New York University Press.
From the Book Jacket
In Fraternity Gang Rape, Peggy Reeves Sanday tells us explicitly about
sexual practices on our university campuses. Her
meticulously documented and dispassionately presented evidence shows
how gang rape occurs with regularity in some fraternities
and athletic dorms. Beginning with an incident at a fraternity when,
after a party, a female student reportedly had sex with five or
six fraternity brothers, the book explores various perspectives as to
what happened through interviews with the victim, the
participants, onlookers, and university administrators. Professor
Sanday reconstructs the daily life in the fraternity, showing the
role played by pornography, male bonding, degrading jokes, and ritual
dances, in shaping the fraternity's attitude toward women
and toward sexuality. Two fraternity brothers were willing to share
details of the humiliating initiation rituals they were
compelled to undergo, and they are presented here. Professor Sanday
also discusses incidents on other campuses, at other
fraternities.
According to the research of Professor Sanday and others--the
documentation is compelling--gang rape occurs widely on our
college campuses. The evidence suggests a common pattern, in which the
brothers seek out a "party girl," a vulnerable young
woman, one who is seeking acceptance, or is high on alcohol--sometimes
her drinks have been deliberately spiked--and then
take her to a room. She may or may not agree to have sex with one man.
She then generally passes out and a "train" of men have
sex with her. Party invitations may even suggest the possibility of a
"train." Incidents of this sort are rarely prosecuted or even
labeled rape, part of an institutional attitude that, according to
Professor Sanday and others, privileges men and sanctions sexual
power.
Peggy Reeves Sanday's sobering view of sexual life among America's
youth is one that some may, despite all evidence, choose to
disbelieve. Yet what cannot be denied or ignored is the struggle by
college-aged men and women to define their sexuality in the
terms society offers them. Taught to deny the feminine and embrace
sexual power, as this view suggests, men can see it as their
natural right to degrade and to assault women. And women--the
unwilling victims--through their own lack of self esteem or
sense of power, may seek social status by attaching themselves to men
in power, in this case, the fraternity brothers. It is a
complex issue and one that Professor Sanday explores with insight,
sensitivity, and clarity.
_______________________________________________
issues mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.linux.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/issues
