The results of this study won’t surprise you. One in 5 female college students — 20% — reported experiencing forceful attempted sexual intercourse.The date of the study will surprise you.1957.It was entitled “Male Sex Aggression on a University Campus,” published in the American Sociological Review almost 70 years ago. And I promise you, the problem was going on before that.For decades, male aggression, alcohol, drugs, parties and young women and men on their own for the first time have meshed into nightmarish scenarios on college campuses.Today, the issue is in the news again, thanks to a former Cornell student who alleges she was gang raped at a fraternity house in 2024 and is suing the university and other parties.The woman, referred to as Jane
Doe, reported the details to the authorities — claiming that she arrived at the frat house intoxicated, was coerced by two male students to snort ketamine, then was gang raped for hours by various men, some of whom allegedly arrived after a Snapchat post boasted that a woman was available for sex at the frat.Yet despite that, she said in a recently filed lawsuit, none of the seven alleged perpetrators were initially arrested, and in the end, the school expelled only two of them.Cornell has now banned frat parties for the academic year and has pledged to commit more resources.Won’t make a difference.
How America views sex
The real problem isn’t fraternities (although maybe it’s time to rethink that whole idea) nor is it resources or counseling or classes or seminars.The real problem is the way we view sex in this country.More specifically, how men view it. And how women view it.Today in America, between 70% and 93% of young men have been exposed to pornography by the time they reach 18.The average first exposure is at age 12.And this porn isn’t the black and white photo stuff from the '40s or your Dad’s Playboy magazines from the 1970s.No. Today’s pornography is full tilt, nothing left to imagination. Every type of woman, body type, or situational encounter — all for free! — with a simple search of a porn site.Among these videos are endless “college” encounters, with categories like “College Orgy,” “College Dorm,” “College Party” and many more I can’t bring myself to print here.So the average male college student, by the time he moves into his dorm, has likely witnessed immeasurable images of women being submissive, horny, even seducing men into the wildest campus sex you can imagine.This not only demeans women, it distorts expectations. A percentage of college men will no doubt fantasize this is how it really works if you can just put yourself in the right situation.
Now throw alcohol into the mix — or drugs like ketamine, which, when ingested in high doses, basically separates your brain from your body — and you’ve got a minefield of potential assault and rape.Today, TV shows like “Girls” or “Fleabag” or the aptly titled “The Sex Lives of College Girls” depict young women firmly in control of their own sexuality. Data shows about 70% of American women have had sexual intercourse by age 18 or 19.
Perhaps that gives these young women a false sense of control. But the rubber meets the road, as Jane Doe discovered, when suddenly you are outnumbered, or being held against your will, or being plied with substances, and next thing you know, something is happening that you do not want and you cannot stop.They don’t show that video on porn sites.Sadly, that one is reserved for real life.
Why parents worry
I have 16 graduates from our Haiti orphanage on college campuses here in America. There is not a day that goes by without my wife and I worrying about them being in the wrong place with the wrong people. We have had “the talk.” Many times. We still worry.After all, when you hear the account of the Cornell woman, how this rape went on for over four hours, you wonder was there no one decent in that whole fraternity? No one who saw the Snapchat post and tried to intervene?Yet instead of that being the focus, we get lawyers arguing their clients are being falsely accused, or claiming this is all about money. We get a university that is trying to walk a line between lawsuits — from the alleged victim, and from students it might suspend or expel.We even have a podcaster like Megyn Kelly, who suggested the victim may have “enjoyed” the encounter because “she wasn’t very attractive.”
This is so low it is almost not worth commenting on, except there are others out there who take the same position. What was she doing there? Why was she drinking so much? She must have wanted this.The Cornell story, or one quite like it, repeats itself regularly. We’ve had similar incidents in the last dozen years at Columbia, Stanford, Baylor and the University of Virginia, just to name a few.
It isn’t the school, although schools should vow more severe punishment. It isn’t the police, although police attitudes to such events in many states must change. But in the end, what makes this story predictable is our value system. It’s our national attitude that makes porn one of the biggest industries in our country, makes men dominating women seen as a sign of strength, and makes alcohol and drugs still how “cool” kids separate themselves at college.You combine those things, and put them on any campus where Mom and Dad are no longer in the picture, you are likely to have trouble. In 1957. Or 2024.
Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates on his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow @mitchalbom on x.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mitch Albom: Cornell case is a story that goes way back and cuts deep
