The College Fix

There’s no shortage of vacuous slogans among the propagandists behind campus “rape culture.”

Believe the survivor – i.e., turn off your critical faculties because some people backed by loud interest groups make unsubstantiated claims. Fight your sense of reason telling you that in order for people to be “survivors,” by the plain meaning of the word, their physical lives must have been endangered. (Apologies to Gloria Gaynor.)

Don’t blame the victim – i.e., forget that only a court of law can judge someone a “victim” and that common sexual encounters between college students involve two (or more) alcohol-affected people with impaired communication skills, making all parties victims of their own poor judgment.

In this milieu, the fraternities of Northwestern University have offered their own vacuous slogan.

Apologizing for what, exactly?

The context is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and the members of the Interfraternity Council (IFC) hung banners outside each fraternity house last month declaring their support for “survivors.” They also read: “This is everyone’s problem.”

Not everyone agreed, and some loudly insisted that rape is a problem because of fraternities.

Daily Northwestern columnist Jessica Schwalb cited a study that purports to show that fraternity members commit rapes at much higher rates – based on a single “large midwestern university” in 2002, with freshmen composing more than half the participants.

Opinion: Eliminating campus sexual assault requires more than just banners. https://t.co/13bgWD4WPz pic.twitter.com/neHxnXaQu3

— The Daily Northwestern (@thedailynu) May 3, 2016

She faulted Northwestern fraternities for … what exactly?

Fraternity men must hold friends accountable or else their banners are just cruel reminders that attempts to change sexual culture in fraternities are purely symbolic. …

[S]ome fraternity chapters host [Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault] presentations with new members in order to discuss bystander intervention. But more often than not these conversations are singular, with little emphasis on carrying dialogue onward.

Having not remotely established that Northwestern fraternities are hotbeds of rape, Schwalb sets up a straw man by declaring that “nationally, fraternity men disproportionately commit sexual misconduct,” so “hanging banners is not enough” for her own school’s fraternities.

Just a day after Schwalb’s lackluster column, Northwestern’s IFC abjectly apologized for joining the vacuous-statement bandwagon:

“We recognize now how this campaign may have been emotionally triggering for survivors, and we want to make a deep, genuine apology for anyone that may have been affected,” the board said in the statement. “This was not our intent, but it is our fault for not being cognizant enough and not considering how it might affect others in our community.”

Here’s the thing: It’s far from clear anyone fell victim to “triggering,” much less that large groups of self-described survivors were offended by this (again) vacuous statement.

The Daily says the IFC had “faced criticism” for the banners, but its only evidence is a link to Schwalb’s column and an interview with a former student senator for “four sexual health and assault-related groups.”

Even the incoming president of College Feminists said the banners weren’t the problem, just the perception that fraternities weren’t educating their members often enough.

A fake backlash causes a rule change

In response to this pittance of “criticism,” the IFC said Monday that it’s creating a “four-year sexual assault education program” that expands on the “one-time visit” that each pledge class receives from Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault.

IFC to introduce four-year sexual violence education program after banner controversy. https://t.co/wK4XyRv1as pic.twitter.com/JROItb4NP1

— The Daily Northwestern (@thedailynu) May 3, 2016

There’s nothing wrong with recurring reminders of best practices in response to situations where a person may feel pressured to engage in sexual activity. Bystander intervention, sober brothers, rules against closing doors at a fraternity party and the like.

But the IFC shouldn’t be under any illusion that its panicky response to a fictitious backlash against its me-too banners will satisfy the rape-culture propagandists, who are determined to get rid of male-only social institutions because of their religious zealotry against male fellowship.

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