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Florence Pugh has posted a lengthy statement on social media in response to a controversy that has erupted at Cornell University over an alleged sexual assault incident that took place two years ago.
Last week, news
broke that a former Cornell student had accused seven men of raping and drugging her at a frat house party in October 2024, allegations that were only made public after she filed a lawsuit against the college. According to her attorney, after an investigation at the university, two of the accused were expelled with the remaining students received lesser sanctions, such as temporary suspensions, workshops or essay-writing assignments. Nobody was arrested.
The former student — identified as Jane Doe and 20 at the time — is now suing the school and the fraternity members, claiming they failed to protect her and prevent the alleged assault.
In a post on Instagram on Sunday, Pugh described described the incident as an “horrific act,” adding that she knew “this has happened before, and I hate the idea of it happening again.” She also urged men to speak out and to be “leading conversations about how we change the allowance and complicity of this behaviour as much as we are.” She concluded: “Be angry for us. Please.”
The statement from Pugh comes just days after she outlined her long-standing support for Palestine, telling Vanity Fair that she didn’t know “why it took so long for people to start talking and for people to actually feel sympathy.”
Read the full Instagram post from Pugh below:
After reading about the young woman who was gang raped at her college by her friend and school peers, I’m feeling uneasy and sick and anxious. I’m processing quietly and watching everything and everyone and every man. I have a few thoughts on this horrific act that happened at Cornell College in 2024. I know this has happened before, and I hate the idea of it happening again.
This is really the moment where we need our men to be as horrified and as sickened as us. You need to be leading conversations about how we change the allowance and complicity of this behaviour as much as we are. How can you expect us to trust that it’s “not all men” when in moments like this, many of you stay quiet?
A drugged gang rape takes action and conversations. It immediately makes me wonder- had it been in the works for a while? Was the damage of this poor woman’s body thought about over and over before? Every single person who knew or heard about this happening, should be looked at with serious concern. They are as evil as those planning it. To know that a torture as violent as rape is about to happen ‘upstairs’ and not do ANYTHING ABOUT IT, is sick, cowardly and cold.
The thing that makes me most heartbroken, is it’s a want to kill a soul. This is a killing of a soul. Destroying of a body and killing of a soul. And they’ve been let off? All it takes is write a quick ‘I’m so sorry I raped a girl while she was drugged with my friends, we thought it would be fine?’ essay and you’re good to go! This is unacceptable.
We are not hard enough on those that want to damage human lives. I salute all those at the college that are fighting for that girl, exposing those boys and making life unbearably impossible to find joy during their terms. They should not be allowed to walk freely like the rest of us who treasure and care for souls.
Colleges/schools/universities repeatedly fail women around the world. You build men that get taught through time and time again that they can do extreme harm and that they won’t be harmed in return.
I’m no longer tired – I’m enraged by schools protecting boys, in fear of their futures being wrecked. What about the life that those girls then have to endure, with the knowledge that his reputation is more precious than her truth? Or to feel that no one with the power to do something cares that you were abused. It’s further soul-destroying.
Those that protect and lightly sentence men that rape and destroy, should be punished and watched closely. Why are you protecting someone that fiercely?
There is no equality until you respect our bodies. There is no equality until you stop damaging our souls. There is no equality until you let us live. There is no equality until we can say we feel safe. We are the life force of this earth, start ****ing protecting us. Be angry for us. Please.
