Sexual Assault Investigations

 Sexual Assault Investigations - Presented with Kanye West

The university from which I am about to graduate is one of the 55 under investigation from the U.S. Department of Education for violating Title IX. I know this because a dozen of my Facebook friends have shared articles about it, because I was interviewed by a member of the Dept. of Education and for a documentary on sexual assault, and because I have been paying attention to what goes on at my school.

The interview three weeks ago was with a women from the Dept of Education and a panel of twelve sorority women. We were assembled to discuss our experiences with and knowledge of the sexual assault culture on campus. The takeaway was that sorority women are, in many ways, the most protected and informed group. Not only do we receive semesterly workshops on the resources available to us, but we're aware of each others' activities because the basis of a sorority is a supportive community. Tactics to avoid sexual assault such as "the buddy system" are already in place. We're going out with our sisters, so of course we're going to look out for them. We also are more likely to know which guys and frats to avoid based on our sisters' previous experiences. For instance, everyone in my sorority knows to avoid Garrett in PhiSig, Rico in Sammy, and Michael in Delta Chi. Because they're creepy.

 

The way in which being in a sorority negatively effects women is when someone in a fraternity does sexually assault a sorority woman, and the women doesn't want to report it because she doesn't want to hurt the reputation of her sorority. If a man in a top tier house assault a woman in a middle tier house, the middle tier sorority is going to pressure the woman not to report it because they want to maintain good relations with the upper tier house. Yes, this is a real pressure that sorority women here face.

The groups that need the most education are unaffiliated persons and mainly fraternity men. Even though sorority women keep getting these meetings on how to avoid being sexually assaulted, fraternity men never! attend! a workshop! on how to NOT assault someone!

My sorority sisters and I relayed all of this the documentary filmmakers while they filmed us putting on makeup and drinking beer in my little's room. They also asked us why we go out in the first place. We told them that it's fun, and we do like boys most of the time. There's a difference between going out with your friends and knowing there's a cute guy you want to hook up with and using alcohol to facilitate that, and a guy separating you from your friends and pressuring you into doing sexual things you don't want to do. There's nothing wrong with casual sex. There's everything wrong with people and society pressuring others into awful situations.

So much of worth as women is tied into the attention we receive from men. Being in a sorority and adding in the politics of Greek life means there's another layer of social pressure to our interactions, but the basis is still the same: men are supposed to convince women to sleep with them and women are supposed to be flattered that a man is paying her any attention.

I'm old. I've had fun here, but I'm done with this place. The men here do not impress me, and I can barely pretend that I care about them any more. I've physically beaten off three different men in three different frat houses, and I encourage my younger sorority sisters to do the same if they're ever in a bad situation, regardless of the possible social fallout. It's not worth it, and the day when I give a shit what a group of nineteen year old boys thinks is a cold fucking day in hell.