I went to a "BBQ" yesterday afternoon, which wasn't so much a BBQ, as just a gathering of people getting wasted in a barn... Having a substantial hangover (cheers @vintage_pockets), I was force-fed (yeah, right) a bloody Mary to get back to normal. It worked, and started the chat flow once more.
I met this girl at the BBQ who is going to start university in America next year- Boston University to be exact, but she's been having a few concerns after the negative press that has surfaced recently...
Back in March, after a spate of sexual assaults on campus — including two high-profile cases involving members of the men's ice hockey team — Boston University President Robert A. Brown assigned a task force to review the culture and climate of the men's hockey program. The task force consisted of group meetings and discussions and interviewed current and former hockey players, coaching staff, administrators and alumni before coming to the unsurprising conclusion that "a culture of sexual entitlement exists among some players on the men's ice hockey team, stemming in part from their elevated social status on campus,".
Of the two sexual assault cases, one player had his rape charges dropped, while the other pleaded guilty to reduced charges of assault and battery. But they weren't the only concerning issues that arose from the task force...
The subcommittee documents make clear that at least some BU hockey players had “the perception that they need not seek consent for sexual contact.” One player even came close to admitting that. “You don’t ask permission for sex when you are drunk,” he told the task force, and he said that he did not see how the actions of the two players charged last year constituted sexual assault.
Also, a female student told the task force that a player had shoved his hands down her pants at a party and refused to stop even as she was punching him. She did not report the incident to authorities because, she said, “that’s just what BU hockey players do.”
GOOD.
But, this isn’t the first I’ve heard of this attitude of “sexual entitlement“ amongst American college boys - specifically within sports fraternities. I’ve heard a lot of pretty dark stuff about how indecently exposing girls, as well as rape are seen as a form of initiation within some college societies.
I remember the exploits of George Bush’s old college fraternity being significantly down-played in the media... Back in October 2010, members of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Yale University marched across campus chanting, "No means yes! Yes means anal! No means yes! Yes means anal!" and "My name is Jack, I'm a necrophiliac, I fuck dead women and fill them with my semen." Targetting specifically areas where the female students resided.
Want the full impact? Watch the video...
Unbelievable.
But it's ok 'cause the university issued a letter two days after the incident expressing outrage that such words were shouted on campus. Never mind that a complaint was filed by 16 current and former Yale students who allege the school did not adequately punish the students involved in this incident (and a long list of past incidents). The fraternity was suspended for five years.
This is all horrific, obviously, but what's worse it that there are often no repercussions or punishments for this type of behaviour. Except for the United States service academies and staff colleges, the federal government does not directly regulate American universities. The majority of public universities are operated by the states and territories. Therefore, all illegal activity is dealt with on campus, where they hold their own “trials” to determine any punishment. As the state wouldn't want a bad reputation for it's state's university, many sexual assault issues are more often than not swept under the carpet.
It gets more corrupt though... Specifically within sports societies, a blind eye is often turned. It came out in the BU task force that, according to both the public and the private report, the Hockey coach Parker and his coaching staff were essentially given carte blanche for overseeing the team’s behavior. One team member said Parker “cares too much about hurting the important players’ feelings. . . . He’ll criticize, then apologize.”
Recent BU graduate Allison Francis. Francis, says she received near-constant harassment, often from her fellow students, while she attended the college. "It's just as you would expect at a huge school where sports are such an important part of the culture. There's an emphasis on praising the aggressive, violent aspects of sports culture — which manifests itself off the field — at the expense of people who don't feel safe."
Also, a little well-known tip... if your daddy financially donates to the college, you can pretty much rape whoever you want. Free rule.
In Texas in 2008 a 16-year old school cheerleader alleged three fellow students raped her at a party. One of her attackers was the school’s star basketball player- who’s father, incidentally, was a great benefactor of the school. All three were charged with sexual assault but a grand jury later withdrew the charges. When the victim returned to school the head teacher told her it was up to her to avoid them.
The cheerleader refused to cheer the name of her attacker at games. She was told that unless she chanted for him she was off the team. Her family sued the school, saying she has a right to free expression—and that included not being forced to cheer for her rapist. They lost the case. The judge ruled that her refusing to cheer was “interfering with the work of the school”.
Many studies have also been conducted on rape culture within fraternities, and the results are astounding. Like the study carried out by Sanday in 1990 on the "Party Girl" initiation practices that are common place in many American colleges: "The evidence reveals a common pattern; the "brothers" target a vulnerable "party girl" who wants acceptance or is high on alcohol (sometimes her drinks have been deliberately spiked); she is taken to a room in the fraternity house where 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. Such incidents of gang rape are rarely prosecuted or even labeled rape, reflecting an institutional attitude that grants men sexual privileges and accepts sexually aggressive behavior."
Statistics show that one in five college women will be the victim of a sexual assault (and 6% of men). Less than 5% of those assaults will be reported to campus authorities or the police. Those figures from the Department of Justice have been virtually unchanged for at least a decade.
All-in-all I don’t think this post will have done anything to ease the mind of the girl I met at the BBQ, so here’s hoping she doesn’t read this... :/ But if you are reading doll, just remember that Parker has been stripped of his executive athletic director title, (but will continue as coach with the same salary), so the whole BU hockey team rape thing shouldn’t continue to happen. Also, this is terrible press for BU, who I am sure will have to be more vigilant in future to prevent incidents such as this, lest they tarnish their precious Ivy League reputation...
I guess the best thing that can happen is that people speak out more about these incidents to force the universities and colleges to step-up and actually deal with the problem.
Anyway, happy Sunday folks! Hope you all had a good weekend.
I know I owe you a post on the DNC, so am compiling that at the moment :]. Then hopefully will be able to focus less on America for a bit...
L.
