Recent Yale Male Behavior So Sexist the Federal Government Has to Intervene

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Sarah Seltzer

Recent Yale Male Behavior So Sexist the Federal Government Has to Intervene
The investigation of Yale shows the government may actually be taking sexual assault on campus seriously.

April 15, 2011 |


Bad behavior by men on campus, date rape not taken seriously, backlash against victims who speak out: none of the elements of the Title IX case against Yale are new. What is refreshing, however, is that the issue may actually be taken seriously by none less than the federal government.

Several of the incidents leading to the investigation against Yale University have become notorious: frat members chanting “no means yes! yes means anal!” and worse outside the Yale Women’s Center. Members of yet another frat standing outside the same center with signs that read “we love Yale sluts.” Emails that ranked incoming freshman women with identifying information (including their residences on campus), based on "how many beers it would take to have sex with them.” And then there was the repeated theft of students’ “Take Back the Night” art projects, decorated t-shirts detailing personal stories of sexual assault.

It’s a horrifying pastiche--no less so because these students are allegedly the cream of the crop, perhaps future presidents among them. But the most worrisome stories leading to Title IX investigations and similar controversies on other campuses (and the reason these incidents are more serious in context) are the tales we haven’t heard, the stories of the unnamed victims of campus sexual assaults who felt that the very university structures ostensibly designed to help them in their moment of need did the exact opposite--instead valuing the school’s reputation and the desire to avoid conflict. And beyond these stories are dozens of others, students who were assaulted and didn’t even bother reporting the crime because of the (often correct) perception that it wouldn’t do them any good.

It’s the combination of incidents, public and private alike, that led the 16 complainants who filed suit to label Yale a “hostile environment,” one in violation of Title IX’s provisions ensuring a level educational playing field for women. As with all such accusers, these students faced backlash on campus, claims that they were going too far and polarizing their community. But while their peers may doubt them, the government is paying attention. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/150626/recent_yale_male_behavior_so_sexist_the_federal_government_has_to_intervene/

[mwb970]

1. More signs of the apocalypse.... /nt

[txlibdem]

2. Sociopath school administrators covering for sociopaths in training.

No banksters, hedge fund fraudsters, stock market thieves, etc., have been arrested or indicted for destroying our economy. Why should the sociopaths in training at Yale and Harvard think that any rules apply to them???

[marmar]

3. Agreed. .............

Sociopathy has become de rigueur in America.

[Prof Lester]

8. Actually, it always was..

But we did not have the terminology corrected to see it objectively. Until recently it was typical of the psychology establishment to confine the term psychopathy to those at the bottom of the criminal ranks.. ie., those dumb enough to get caught. If you weren't caught (ie., and you weren't some clearly identifiable group like the Mob or Nazis or such) you escaped diagnosis. Now that the entire country is hanging in ragged tatters and 0.1% of the population has stolen all of the wealth, it becomes permissible for non-professionals (only!) to point out the psychopathy at the top of the social pyramid. Yet nothing will be done. Don't forget, the American Psychological Association OK'd the torture of innocent people in order to force them to make false confessions. What does that tell you, then, about the psychological establishment?

[txlibdem]

13. You are correct, sir!

(in homage to Ed McMahon, sidekick to Johnny Carson)

I cannot see the light at the end of this tunnel yet. Voting for a leader who promised to undo all of the evil that the Republican sociopaths did but ended up continuing their policies and furthering their agenda certainly did nothing to help the masses. We gave the Democrats an overwhelming majority in both the House and Senate but they did nothing to push back any of the psychotic back room deals and laws that favor only the rich and well connected. "Our friends on the other side of the aisle won't let us."

So if voting is not the answer then what is???

[chervilant]

10. And,

Ayn Rand is the de facto Queen of these sociopaths, and their fledgling sociopaths-in-training.

[yurbud]

26. if there was some middle class kid there on scholarship, they would throw the book at him

[get the red out]

4. Cream of the crop?

Or cream of the well-connected. George W. Bush went to Yale didn't he?

[izquierdista]

6. Only the best from Yale

One of them will be running for President in 2044.

[Kurmudgeon]

7. Yes, Dubya is proud psychopathic Yale alumni.

[rfranklin]

20. He complained about having to list so many relatives as alumni...

when he was filling out the application. (Which I think is a fabrication because their is no reason why they would have made him fill out an application. Just like Harvard Business School accepting him and giving him an MBA for showing up.)

[bertman]

5. Disgusting but not surprising. REC. nt

[raccoon]

9. I imagine many of those students, from wealthy families, have an huge sense of entitlement. nt

[chervilant]

11. And,

a sense of their penises as weapons.

[ladywnch]

14. exactly what I was thinking. their gods are in charge now.....they know

nothing will stop them now. they'll never have more power than they do now and they're gonna use it!

[chervilant]

12. hmph

A place like the Yale Women’s Center is already there to provide the kind of education and safe environment that critics of the OCR investigation posit as an alternative--but when women seeking that “safe space” are repeatedly accosted by groups of men chanting pro-rape obscenities, clearly, the message is not getting through. Clearly, education is not enough.

Clearly, we are STILL training a preponderance of our male children to be misogynists and too many of our female children to be apologists for those wee 'boys will be boys.'

[Darth_Kitten]

16. +1

:D

[Jefferson23]

15. Good on Biden for those words, rape is rape. This fact shocked me:

One widespread issue, addressed in the new OCR Advisory, is schools’ demanding undue evidence to adjudicate sexual assault cases, asking that victims adhere to a “clear and convincing evidence” standard (which Murphy estimates as 90 percent proof) rather than the “preponderance of evidence” standard (51 percent). Yale’s language, says Murphy, used a confusing hybrid of the two, “clear preponderance.” Crucially, OCR’s new advisory specifically demands the preponderance language, telling schools that have used the more exclusionary standards that they’ve been in violation of students’ rights.


As to why it's important to have that standard, Murphy says universities never put that kind of massive burden of proof on victims of racial harassment, or harassment aimed at GBLT or disabled students--and that sexual harassment and rape should not have a “special set of rules” but be treated as targeted violence. It’s also simply a fact that in situations like date rape, it’s almost impossible to reach that higher standard of proof. While schools should be invested in finding out the truth of all incidents, they should also encourage victims to come forward, even if there's no "corroborating" evidence ( end)


I would never of thought this would even be possible for a university to employ.

[ZombieHorde]

17. This is extremely disturbing. The males who chant the pro-rape slogans should be video taped, and

the footage should go viral. Their families should be publicly shamed.

[jaybeat]

18. Then their daddies' lawyers would sue until the cows came home

With enough money and power, they can get away with almost anything. Just look at W.

[ZombieHorde]

19. If the vidoes are all over the internet, there is not much a lawsuit can do.

The damage will be done.

[TheMadMonk]

22. Nah, just knock on the door of one, and when he asks "Yes, may I help you?"...

:evilgrin:

[sulphurdunn]

21. Honestly,

what can you say about a university with standards low enough to admit a Bush?

[certainot]

23. how is the local right wing radio station (yale athletics) blowhard spinning this? i sus

spect nobody knows or gives a shit, because it hurts their little ears to listen to it.

while one would think the local talk radio would have an intelligent discussion of this, since they are licensed to operate in the public interest, it is much more likely that the yale basketball and football events are being broadcast on the limbaugh megastation who's local blowhards will make excuses to perpetuate the same shit, over and over and over, likely in contradiction to the yale mission statement and charter.

[defendandprotect]

24. Anyone have a view on how much internet porn industry is effecting this violence towards women?

See PORNLAND by Gail Dines --

a new book -- possibly at your library!

[trud]

25. every Yalie I know

is somewhat weird. There's just something about Yale that attracts the out of kilter, imho.