The New York Times has just destroyed the narrative surrounding the alleged 2024 gang rape at Cornell. Fill out your Michael Tracey apology forms here. We now know that the woman involved at first did not see herself as a victim. Jane Doe, as the NYT calls her, was then slut shamed, which caused her increasing distress. At one point, she found a forum post in which the incident was characterized as a “gang r*ape.” She couldn’t believe it was described that way, and confided in Matthew Ingalls, one of the men who she would later accuse of assault.
One week after she was supposedly raped at a frat house, the woman was upset because she was disinvited from a party at the same location “for her own good.” Days later, she started describing her experience as non-consensual.
We’ve been doing this campus rape controversy thing for decades now, and these conversations never get anywhere because they only reveal that we are in denial about human nature.
Women have been told that consent is what matters in sexual relationships. Of course, “consent” sometimes exists on a spectrum, particularly when it comes to sex, an area of life where humans communicate more subtly than they do elsewhere. Little explicit guidance is given beyond that. Men, we all know, want to have a lot of sex with a wide variety of sexual partners. Movies, TV shows, and feminism tell us that women can legitimately decide to behave the same way, and that this is either morally neutral or empowering.
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I generally really agree with this take. But I will say that the impact of ivory tower ideology around sexual liberation is a minor factor in these kinds of situations. The reason women engage in casual sex or porn style sex is a lot less because of abstract ideology, and a lot more because some man is extremely motivated to try to persuade her to engage in these acts. There are a lot of men that when they see the possibility of some kind of sex they seek, they will act unethically to obtain it. They will lie, manipulate, string a girl along, pry with drugs etc etc. What they do is not necessarily a crime, but they do know better.
If you want to say that society ought to teach women such that they know better than to fall for these tricks, fine. But then don't be surprised if a lot of women express very negative sentiments towards men because as long as there aren't consequences to men for behaving this way, they will keep doing it.
Also, let’s not forget about the money. Someone told this woman she could get big bucks here and that is what she looking for.