UVA and the alleged frat rape - Rolling Stone backpedals

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

So "fuck her right in the pussy" is not on par with "grab its legs" ???

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

We had a thread about it at the time, but The Atlantic had that great article The Dark Power Of Fraternities last year. One of the best articles of the year anywhere IMO.

The article: http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/02/the-dark-power-of-fraternities/357580/

The thread: http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/posts/3736780/


It told of the outsized influence fraternities have with campus administrators, and just how far they will go to protect themselves with no bounds of human decency. Sometimes that means hanging one of the current students out to dry to protect the frat from liability. Other times it means ...

According to Wesleyan—courageous combatant in the “battle against sexual assault”—Jane Doe was responsible for her own rape because she was “not alert to situations that could be misinterpreted”; “did not remain in a public place [but rather went to a private room] with a person with whom she was unfamiliar”; “failed to make reasonable and proper use of her faculties and senses”; and failed “to exercise reasonable care for her own safety.” I disagree. Jane Doe’s sworn statement describes a series of sound actions taken toward the care of her own safety—including making the decision not to drink or use drugs, attempting to exit a room when she was about to be left alone in it with an unfamiliar man who had used drugs, and attempting to fight him off when he began attacking her. But she was physically restrained by a powerfully built man intent on assaulting her.

I don't know PW2's game, he seems like this is all hitting a little too close to home for him, but for the rest of us, it's very naive to think the set of circumstances described in the article is unusual.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

What do people say in the middle of a brutal gang rape? I honestly don't know.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

I don't know how we went from: Some of these details feel embellished" to "she made it all up" but it's a classic debating slight of hand.

I do believe she was gang raped. I don't believe someone shouted "Grab it's leg."

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

I wouldn't put any dialogue during a gang rape past anyone. I'll use Jameis' quote again because he's been called "smart" here time and again, and he went all 14-year-old with that quote. Why would it be out of the realm of possibility that one of the guys said "grab its leg!" during this kind of sex romp?

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

I'm betting they said George Huguely was a reasonably intelligent young man. Once.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

Is there any redeeming quality to being in a fraternity?

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA



Frightened cat awaits arrival of Greeks

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

Not exactly. In the "she's making it all up" scenario, she's duped a lot of people well beyond their raised red flags.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

Sorority girls are impressed by Greek letters.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

My personal experience was mostly very positive.

First, it gave me an opportunity to plug immediately into a network of upperclassmen who were very helpful in mentoring us through the adjustment to campus life. There was positive pressure, for example, to keep your grades up, because it helped the organization. At my school, a lot of the extracurricular activities were dominated by the Greek organizations. That included, for example, intramural sports. Being in the fraternity, you had to pull your weight as far as house maintenance, clean-up, and so forth. You also were always aware that you were representing something bigger than yourself whenever you were on campus.

There were, for sure, some hijinx, some I'd like to have back, some I will treasure forever. Some that I'd like to have back I still nonetheless will treasure forever. I am still very close with many of the guys I was in the fraternity with. Three of them stood up in my wedding, for example. We see each other several times a year. We text during ballgames.

On the negative side, I know that it probably limited my social network as much as it expanded it. It is, in many ways, an institutionalized set of cliques. It fostered a certain amount of silly contempt toward people I otherwise would have probably been friends with. And, finally, if you actually cared - and there were different levels of involvement and engagement within the house, as is the case with any organization - it could be a time and energy drain.

In my four years, I never saw or heard of anything resembling what allegedly occurred in Charlottesville. I am aware of three examples of group sex situations that happened at our house, twice with multiple men and one woman and once with a friend and two women. (His girlfriend and her friend, I believe.) They were, I'm certain, completely consensual, though alcohol-fueled on both sides. (I was never a participant.)

Anyway, you asked the question, and that was my experience, very briefly explained. I am sure it was different than that of others. I also understand that the positives I talked about are attributes that are exclusive to fraternities and sororities.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

I'd say the odds of fraternities lasting another generation are about 50-50.