The academic and feminist author Camille Paglia once wrote that “Leaving sex to the feminists is like letting your dog vacation at the taxidermist.” So it might be that leaving the story of the now-infamous “Cornell Seven” alleged rape case up to leftists and many legacy media outlets is like letting the accused write the rules of evidence.
In a civil suit filed on Sept. 16, a young woman known to the public only as “Jane Doe” alleges that on Oct. 19, 2024, seven young men at the Chi Phi fraternity house at Cornell University raped and sexually assaulted her. Cornell launched a Title IX investigation, spoke to Doe at length, took a written statement from her, and the district attorney’s office did not pursue charges against the young men. Two of the men were expelled from Cornell following the incident.
But the faces of the Cornell Seven have been exposed on social media, and they’ve been branded as rapists and predators. And now, in light of the civil suit, Cornell announced an outside investigation will occur, and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) appointed Attorney General Letitia James (D-NY) as a special prosecutor in the case. James has already offered deep sympathies to Doe.
As a mother of two sons and two daughters, ages 12 to 19, I’m beyond disheartened by the reports of the debaucherous and substance-filled evening that has ignited a lawsuit and media firestorm that’s all but declared the seven young men to be rapists well before any due process has taken place, and Doe the victim.
The incident encompasses the issues of rape and consent, substance abuse, and the consequences of feminism and misandry, juxtaposed against societal norms and morality. I keep wondering how we, as a society, can reckon with all this, as if the Cornell Seven were our sons and Doe were our daughter.
What happened at the Cornell fraternity house?
While Doe says in her civil complaint that she was raped, her written statement to the district attorney’s office in 2024 was quite different.
In a statement, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten explained why his office did not pursue charges: “Jane Doe’s sworn statement in November of 2024 did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped. On the contrary, Jane Doe’s statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual.”
Demonstrators on Oct. 5 listen to a speaker during a protest against Cornell University’s handling of the 2024 fraternity-house gang rape allegations at the Ithaca, New York, campus. (Adrian Kraus/AP Photo)
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Demonstrators on Oct. 5 listen to a speaker during a protest against Cornell University’s handling of the 2024 fraternity-house gang rape allegations at the Ithaca, New York, campus. (Adrian Kraus/AP Photo)
CBS News reported that Doe exchanged text messages with one of the defendants shortly after the encounter and, though she said she couldn’t remember everything, said that “none of the sexual stuff was illegal.” One of Doe’s roommates told Title IX investigators that when she returned home, her memory was fuzzy, but she didn’t call the events of the evening rape.
“She was kind of recounting it as this sort of crazy thing she had done,” the roommate said. “And then, as the days went on, I think she kind of came to realize that it was something bad and that she didn’t really enjoy her time there.”
Snapchat messages in Doe’s complaint show someone in the fraternity chapter posted on Snapchat that there was a woman upstairs for “free” sex. If true, this suggests the young men were taking advantage of Doe, at least to some degree. In other text messages between Doe and one of the Cornell Seven, he apologizes for “how things went down” and said he was too intoxicated to “shut it down.”
Doe appears to have evolved from excusing the incident to shame to worse. When she learned that the fraternity house had disinvited her from the annual Halloween party, Doe was upset and began accusing the young men, over text, of “covering their asses” and said, “let’s be clear that 90% of what happened that night was not consensual.”
About three weeks after the incident, Doe sat down for an interview with a Cornell University police investigator, a Title IX investigator, and others. CBS News reports that, according to the transcript of her conversation, she said, “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped.”
When asked about this discrepancy, Van Houten said his decision not to bring charges against the young men was based on her statement, and he had not seen the transcript.
It is clear why the story has caught national attention. We may never know exactly what happened that night, and time will tell what’s revealed in upcoming investigations. But the incident and fallout are a robust exhibit of just how twisted young men and women see sex, substance abuse, and responsibility.
As a mother of a 19-year-old young man and a 12-year-old boy, this story makes me feel angry both on behalf of the Cornell Seven and at them, too. It is not clear yet whether rape occurred. If it did, every guilty man should be held to account, though it’s important to note we are currently dealing with a civil lawsuit rather than criminal charges.
(Washington Examiner Illustration/Getty Images)
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(Washington Examiner Illustration/Getty Images)
But the rush to judgment in the internet-dominated public square, smearing all of these young men as rapists and predators without so much as a hearing, is unfortunate, even appalling. The 2006 Duke lacrosse rape hoax comes to mind.
More incidents of rape occur than false accusations are made. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, about one in five women experiences completed or attempted rape in their lifetime. But false allegations of rape can ruin a man’s life as well. Not all men are potential predators, but elements of the #MeToo movement perpetuated the belief that a man is guilty until he is proven innocent.
At Slate, Hanna Stotland, who has advised students in similar situations, told readers to exercise caution.
“It matters that no civil jury has yet found that any defendant harmed Doe. Hateful chats are not proof of violent rape,” Stotland said. “We have plenty of time to condemn the defendants when and if we get confirmed facts about what each one did, but there is still a lot we don’t know.”
On the other hand, even if no rape happened that night, that does not let the Cornell Seven off the hook. It is clear that what happened was morally repugnant, depraved, and an exercise in poor judgment at best. Society must hold young men to a higher standard in how they view and treat women. This responsibility falls particularly on other men. The ubiquitousness of porn, among other societal scourges, has done men and women no favors.
Women do not exist to be objectified by men. Did even one fraternity member who received the alleged text about “free” sex have the moral courage or wherewithal to check on Doe or stop the incident before it spiraled out of hand? We must raise our boys to be men of honor and courage who can be chivalrous and moral, even in the face of temptation or peer pressure.
As a mother of 17 and 15-year-old daughters, I feel empathy for Doe on multiple fronts. If rape occurred that night, I hope she receives the justice she seeks. No woman should have to endure such a harrowing incident.
But the possibility exists she is a woman who experienced something awful but not illegal, morally fraught but not criminal. This does not mean she too should be vilified as a monster, but rather treated with empathy and compassion, for she is likely as torn as she sounds. Perhaps the incident and aftermath raised conflicting questions in her mind: If she gave consent, why doesn’t she feel better? If it wasn’t rape, why don’t the young men want her to attend their Halloween party? If sex is so empowering, why did she worry the encounter had ruined her reputation?
If no rape occurred, it is still possible that Doe consented to sex she later regretted, and the young men involved believed the sex was consensual, but still should not have participated.
“Sadly, after decades of assaults by progressives and feminists on traditional moral frameworks and rules, we don’t really have a coherent language to deal with immoral sexual behavior that doesn’t cross the line into crime,” Dan McLaughlin wrote at National Review. “We’d be in a better place if we had those sorts of standards. It’s hard to teach your sons, or your daughters for that matter, moral rules if you treat the whole idea of moral rules with contempt.”
Beyond the crucial legal issues involved, the incident exposes a fundamental flaw in our approach to sex and relationships, fueled in part by the feminist movement’s push for sexual freedom. For decades, feminists have encouraged women to have as much sex as possible with as many people as possible, and labeled doing so as sexual empowerment. I’m no prude, but this message contradicts the innate desires and needs of most women. When women are hurt in the process, this outcome contradicts the message men, and especially other women, have been sending for decades.
“The aftermath of the Cornell group sex episode is a peerless example of the hypocrisy of the feminist movement, which proclaims the oppressiveness of any remaining traces [of] the chivalric code,” Heather MacDonald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, posted on X. “Females deliberately drink themselves blotto in order to lower their sexual inhibitions, voluntarily participate in sex, and then, after the regrets set in, deny their agency and put exclusive responsibility for their drunken encounter on their male partner, on the grounds that they are helpless to take care of themselves.”
Paglia, of course, has been discussing the intersection of feminism, sex, and consequences for decades.
CORNELL FRATERNITY BROTHER DETAILED MEMORY OF ALLEGED RAPE IN LEAKED PHONE CALL
“In cases of real rape, of course it should be prosecuted. Of course real rape is a crime,” Paglia said in a May 2017 CBC interview. “If you go to a fraternity-house party, with the chaos going on in the living-room area, and a young man says to you, ‘Would you like to go up to my room?’ I’m sorry — you are consenting to sex. He is right to think you have consented to go up there. You can change your mind, and of course it’s not right for anyone to impose themselves sexually on another person. Naturally. But women must realize they are now free. The sexual revolution has been won.”
For our sons and our daughters, maybe it’s time to rethink it?
Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist for USA Today. She lives in Texas with her four children.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
