In Yale Fraternity Pledging, Rape Is Laughing Matter
Frat antics aren’t particularly known for their sensitivity.
This week, a YouTube clip of a Yale University Delta Kappa Epsilon pledging ritual went viral on campus. Posted Wednesday night, immediately after the events took place, the video documents the DKE pledges marching blindfolded on Old Campus-home to the majority of Yale’s freshman women-shouting chants such as “No means yes, yes means anal” and “Fucking sluts.”
The Yale Women’s Center responded in a statement to the Yale Daily News:
This action by DKE has made public that they see rape as a joke or, worse, something they support. That these calls may have been made in jest should not distract from the fact that they incite violence.
On Thursday, DKE president Jordan Forney made a public apology, calling the chants “inappropriate, disrespectful, and very hurtful to others.” He said the stunt was “a lapse in judgment” and “in poor taste.”
Is this statement enough? Broad Recognition, a Yale feminist publication, urged students Thursday to demand administrative action against the fraternity, whose actions it called “fear-mongering” and “a call to violence.”
“Yale women are not new to fraternity misogyny, nor are we a stranger to our administration sitting on their hands and doing absolutely nothing about it,” the writer of the article, Hannah Zeavin, told the Good Men Project.
Other students think the reaction is overblown. “These chants are not dangerous,” said a comment on theDaily News story.
Do the frat’s actions merit university discipline? More importantly, will a slap on the wrist-which is more likely to occur-do anything to prevent future demonstrations of frat-sanctioned misogyny?
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