BU suspends frat for advertising 'blackout' party like a bunch of sexist pigs

77 universities are currently under federal investigation for failing to properly comply with standards governing reporting of sexual abuse rates, consistency in the policies they use to adjudicate reported assaults, handling offenders and dealing with victims. Universities that have been determined to have violated federal standards can lose funding, though that rarely (if ever) happens. Far more likely is that students and people with standing can sue the university and win significant damages in court. This is a huge liability for universities, particularly at a time when they're losing state appropriations and are having to raise tuition so much for students.

There have been a lot of high profile cases recently which have spurred action on campus rape, and in particular, Obama's attention is now on the subject. One of the least graphic cases I recently read about took place at a college in Texas. There was a frat party. As girls walked in, a member of the frat marked an "X" in red on their hands. This happened to some of the girls attending. It was a clue to the person serving drinks to lace their alcohol with roofies, so the girls could be raped or assaulted later in the night. Apparently some of the drinks were mixed too heavily with the drug. A young man also drank from one of the cups given to a friend of his, obviously not realizing it was laced. Because of that, he and a couple other students got so sick they had to be taken to the hospital. Obviously, the emergency medical staff identified what happened, and now that fraternity and the university are in a ton of trouble.

It doesn't matter that a rape didn't take place at this blackout party, or that the party was eventually cancelled. It was only cancelled BECAUSE of action taken by the university. Rape is the most common violent crime on college campuses today. The statistics are overwhelming. Most men aren't rapists -- in fact, very few are. But the ones who are rapists do it OVER AND OVER. They get away with it. And part of the reason why they're able to is because of rape culture.

Rape culture says if a girl went to a party and got drunk, she is culpable in her own rape. It says women need to police every aspect of their behavior, from what they wear to the time they walk home from work, and if they're ever in a risk environment where something happens to them, it's their fault. Rape culture says rape is just a miscommunication and not intentional. Rape culture says rape is an accident and not a crime. Rape culture protects rapists by assuming that women who report rape are doing it for ulterior motives or to just mess with guys because reasons. Rape culture supports the myth that "legitimate" rapes are when a stranger jumps out of the bushes and assaults a woman with a weapon while she's walking home, when most rapes are committed by someone the victim knows, either inside his or her home or in a place the victim expects to feel safe.

In the case of this video and these flyers with the university's name on them, it is gross and pathetic that any handful of people would think this is an appropriate way to market a party. But this isn't an isolated event. It's one of many. You need to step out of your box and look at what's going on around the country, and the prevalence of sexual assaults of college students.

I realize this post is overlong for people with poor reading comprehension, but if you want to educate yourself, go here: http://endrapeoncampus.org/