Penn State frat member defends photos of nude, unconscious women as “satire”

[cali]

Members of the Kappa Delta Rho fraternity at Pennsylvania State University could face criminal charges over a Facebook page that included photos of naked, unconscious women. The page came to light when the police investigation was announced Tuesday.

The Facebook page had 144 members, including current students and alumni. That's a relatively large number of college students and recent graduates who knew the fraternity was posting nude photos of nonconsenting women for at least eight months and went along with it.

If you're wondering how something like that happens — and how 143 people, members and alumni, seemed to think it was a totally OK thing to do — an interview on Philadelphia magazine's website with someone who says he's a member of Kappa Delta Rho gives a pretty disturbing view into the fraternity's thought process.

In the interview, reporter Holly Otterbein presses the anonymous member on whether the group was inappropriate. (In an email to Vox, she said she "verified through a multi-step process that he is a student at Penn State, a member of KDR, and ... the person he said he was.&quot

His answer is revealing:

Philly Mag: Do you regret being part of the group at all?

KDR member: Obviously, retrospectively with this having happened, sure, but the thing is, that it was a satirical group. It's like, there's literally sites like that that millions of people access, whether it's totalfratmove.com or any of the other thousands of sites that post, you know, pictures of girls and post funny text conversations and Snapchat stories and things like that. It was a satirical group. It wasn't malicious whatsoever. It wasn't intended to hurt anyone. It wasn't intended to demean anyone. It was an entirely satirical group and it was funny to some extent. Some of the stuff, yeah, it's raunchy stuff, as you would expect from a bunch of college-aged guys. But, I mean, you could go on any one of hundreds and thousands of different sites to access the same kind of stuff and obviously a lot worse and a lot more explicit.

<snip>

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/18/8253749/penn-state-kappa-delta-rho

[MANative]

1. I think he needs to go back to high school to learn what "satire" means. n/t

[geek tragedy]

2. the fraternity system: men raping women today, the working class tomorrow nt

[uppityperson]

3. So he "obviously" regrets it but they did nothing wrong or unusual and "there is worse out there"?

[Laffy Kat]

4. Reading this makes me feel so powerless..

I want to cut myself. Never have, but I think about it sometimes.

[prayin4rain]

5. Pathetic little waste of life trolls. n/t

[Gothmog]

6. These idiots do not understand the meaning of satire

[Blue_Tires]

10. They do...It's just the 1A shield they're clumsily trying to hide behind

Which seems to be the thing to do these days....

[Sherman A1]

7. Sad

Simply sad, one wonders what his parents think about his comments and the actions of his Frat Bothers?

[PowerToThePeople]

8. Why are they not all in jail? n/t

[Are_grits_groceries]

12. Some of them may end up there.

The police are looking for evidence and such to see if charges can be pressed.

[Brigid]

9. Scum like this . . .

Is one reason I never married. And I'm better off.

[realFedUp]

11. Reverse roles

Let's see those pics.

[cali]

15. huh? why? and what do you mean by "reverse roles"?

[cwydro]

16. What?

I must have missed something here.

[graegoyle]

13. Can I beat him to a bloody pulp, post pictures on "NotWearingAWig.net" and call it performance art?

[Hekate]

14. "Dude, it's okay 'cause girls are just things to be used, not people at all!"

When asked about his mother and sister in that context he looked confused and asked, "What's your point? I don't get it."

Ewwwwwwww. Some of what they did is no doubt prosecutable, and I hope like hell they are.

[gollygee]

17. He totally doesn't understand

that it isn't an issue of "raunchy" but lack of consent. Women are not objects. They're human beings.

[B Calm]

18. Are frat members spoiled rich kids?

Went to Vietnam instead of college.

[onenote]

20. Some are. Some aren't.

I attended a state college and knew guys who joined fraternities who were on student aid (even though tuition in those days was a fraction of what it is today) and whose parents were far from what I would describe as "rich." And I knew guys who joined fraternities who had attended exclusive private schools and whose parents were wealthy by anyone's definition.

Some frats had "animal house" like reputations. Others were known for their community service works. One size generalizations about fraternities, at least back when I was in college, don't work particularly well.

[Calista241]

19. I was in a frat

And the worst things we did was invent stupid drinking games. None off this sexist, misogynistic bullshit.

[City Lights]

21. Fail.

No one is buying the bullshit you are selling, KDR member.

[b.durruti]

22. Time to destroy the entire "greek" system. ~nt~

[cali]

23. Not so long ago, I would have said that that's a bit drastic.

[WinkyDink]

24. As a graduate, I'm glad this is an OFF-campus fraternity.

[krawhitham]

25. He keeps using that word. I do not think it means what he thinks it means

[Paladin]

26. Yet another entitled little shit, with a VP position at Daddy's business all ready for him.

I'd bet money that's the sort of person we're dealing with.

[Adam051188]

27. future president.

...not intended to hurt anyone...

[Fumesucker]

28. Your Leaders of Tomorrow

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/02/18-us-presidents-were-in-college-fraternities/283997/

Fraternities breed leaders. That, at least, is what most any chapter website will tell you, in not so many words—and the message certainly makes for a compelling rationale for joining the Greek system. It seems, too, to be borne out by the hard numbers. While only eight and a half percent of American male college students is a member of a fraternity, University of Kentucky professor of communication Alan DeSantis points out in his 2007 book, Inside Greek U: Fraternities, Sororities, and the Pursuit of Pleasure, those who are tend to cluster in one particular sweet spot of society: the top.
Fraternity Debate
An Atlantic Special Report
Read More

Citing data from the Center for the Study of College Fraternity, DeSantis charts some impressive figures. Fraternity men make up 85 percent of U.S. Supreme Court justices since 1910, 63 percent of all U.S. presidential cabinet members since 1900, and, historically, 76 percent of U.S. Senators, 85 percent of Fortune 500 executives,and 71 percent of the men in “Who’s Who in America.” And that’s not counting the 18 ex-frat U.S. presidents since 1877 (that’s 69 percent) and the 120 Forbes 500 CEOs (24 percent) from the 2003 list, including 10—or one-third—of the top 30. In the 113th Congress alone, 38 of the hundred Senate members come from fraternity (and, now, sorority) backgrounds, as does a full quarter of the House. Is there something inherent in the fraternity culture that sends its members to the country’s top echelons?

[seabeyond]

29. not one mention about any kind of wrong in simply getting an unconscious girl naked.... taking a

picture and distributing it on line.

not out to hurt anyone?
not too vulgar?
just fun little caption but really, not about debasing these girls.

at the point of stripping her down, their whole intent and purpose was debasing these girls.

and not one mention in his comment about stripping down unconscious girls. or getting off on an unconscious girl stripped down.