UVA and the alleged frat rape - Rolling Stone backpedals

See, I don't know why it's a given that fraternity brothers are entitled assholes who need to be taken down a notch.

And, for some, there really seems to be a disappointment that story isn't true, and not because rape victims won't be taken seriously. They wished for the story to be true because those asshole Frat Bros would finally get what was coming to them. And, if it means that a poor girl got gang raped, well then that's the necessary price for us to get our retribution against the entire Greek system.

And, look how it played out at UVa. All fraternity activity was shut down. People called for the frats to be banned. Shut down for a period of years, or forever.

And, this was before we had one bit of proof that this story was true.

And, while I would not argue that all frats are perfect -- what organization made up of men aged 18-23 is -- I'm uncomfortable with the default position being that all fraternities are terrible, and all fraternity members are entitled assholes.

 

As someone who used to have to harrass members for dues each month, I can vouch that not all fraternity boys are rolling in it.

 

Probably like most people who believe this, I have four years' worth of personal experience to bank on there.

 

I know I've already made this point, but since no one has really replied to it, I'll make it again:

There is no way Rolling Stone would have published this story as is if all the facts had remained the same, but for one. If the setting of the gang rape of the lily white, prim and proper, student had been an African-American fraternity, Rolling Stone would have demanded far more evidence from Jackie and Erdely.

And, if, in some alternate universe, they had published such a story, they would be accused of racism from all corners. They would have been accused of perpetuating a myth of the scary Negro. They would have been accused of stirring up racial animus.

We would see protests, and Dana, Woods, and Erdely would have been fired by now.

But, because those who were falsely accused were Frat Bros, hey, no big deal. They're entitled assholes anyway.

 

And, btw, other than removing the sentence blaming the story on their misplaced trust in Jackie, Rolling Stone has not updated their stand on this story.

They've still only admitted to discrepancies. They have not admitted the story was false. They have not apologized to the fraternity in question.

 

I have stated this elsewhere, and also possibly here, but the use of "frat bros," "gentlebros," and "former frat-boy lawyer," as I've seen written in the days since the story first started to come unraveled, along with Kat Stoeffel dismissing the repurcussions of still believing Jackie as merely unfairly losing your prior faith in Phi Psi, is an attempt by the rape advocacy movement to dehumanize the falsely accused here. They should be accutely aware, more than anybody, of the danger of that particular tactic.

 

I imagine all that comes after the re-reporting. I think you have to agree caution is the smart play here. (Yes. It should have been before, too. It wasn't. That's the system failure they're addressing.)

Until yesterday I would say most people believed ***something*** happened. So there was the possibility of apologizing to the frat because it was only forced oral, after all. That isn't going to turn out to be true. But it's overall better for RS to get done with that process before they say anything else.

 

YF, has nothing to do with "disappointment the story isn't true" because no one in their right mind thinks of such a scenario playing out in the real world.

It's just one more case of high-profile journalism fucking up the program. It'll happen again, soon.

On a pure creative level, props to Jackie for the lengths she went to in an attempt to win Randall.

 

Eh. Everyone brings their own biases.

I got to be friends with a bunch of football players at BC because a couple of them lived directly across the hall from me, and I met them on the day I moved it.

I became better friends with the guys down the hall, but always remained good friends with the football players.

The guys down the hall thought the football players were dumb jocks. But, they didn't really know them. They were good guys. The one was one of the nicest guys I've ever met. Smart, loyal, dedicated. He's gone on to become a school teacher and remains one of the best guys I know.

(I should probably leave out the fact that while he wasn't one of the guys who lived across the hall, Mark Chmura was one of the guys in the group of football players i was friends with.)

Any insular group can appear to be "elitist" to those not in the group. I'll bet there were some on campus who thought the guys writing for the school newspaper were a bunch of elitist assholes. (Especially at the school where I think you went.)

 

Regardless of the veracity of Jackie's story, that phrasing is in exceedingly poor taste. You're in Glenn Beck territory here.

 

Yeah, but they could at least say that they withdraw the story, and will re-report it.

As of now, they have not disavowed the broader story.

 

I don't think most people by the time of yesterday's new revelations believed that something happened at that particular house, though, and certainly not as she described it.

I mean, you did. You're a Good Person who Believes Women.

Me?

#IStandWithPhiPsi