In Nov. 2014, Sabrina Rubin Erderly, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, published “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA.” The article told the story of Jackie, a current junior at UVA, who said she was gang-raped at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house as a freshman on Sept. 28, 2012.
Jackie said she was asked to go on a date with whom the article referred to as “Drew” and then on to a “date function” at Phi Kappa Psi, his fraternity. At Phi Kappa Psi, Jackie said Drew led her upstairs where she was attacked by seven men.
Taking Jackie to the hospital was brought up by the three friends who allegedly found her outside Phi Kappa Psi, but a conclusive decision was reached by Jackie’s friends to just take her home fearful of injuring their own, as well as Jackie’s, reputation.
The article states that at the end of the year, Jackie told Dean Nicole Eramo about her attack. Jackie says she was told she could file a case with the school or the police or confront her assailants with Eramo by her side.
Following the article’s publication, UVA president Teresa Sullivan halted all Greek life on campus and launched an investigation with the Charlottesville Police Department; Phi Kappa Psi shelved its UVA chapter.
On Nov. 24, Richard Bradley, former editor of George magazine, wrote an essay pointing out that the article depended solely on a single anonymous source, the people noted as Jackie’s friends in the story were not talked to, and no attempts were made to interview the alleged aggressors.
The Washington Post subsequently published a report in which Phi Kappa Psi denied having a date function on Sept. 28, and Jackie’s friends started to doubt her story.
Previously admitting that the assailants had not been contacted due to respecting Jackie’s wishes on Dec. 5, Rolling Stone editor Will Dana published a statement stating, “In the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie’s account, and we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced.”
Dealing with, and speaking about, sexual abuse is a maze of fine lines that cannot possibly be accomplished without encountering obstacles.
When is it okay to trust someone’s story to protect his or her identity?
In numerous cases, conflicting stories have come up as to whether there was consent. People argue that some of these alleged cases have become distorted and innocent people have been punished for crimes they did not commit.
I do not doubt that certain stories have not revealed themselves to be accurate and truthful. However, aside from the issue of verifiability of various reports of sexual assault, Jackie’s story is just one of many emerging from the university community in America.
Colleges have begun to categorize any sexual activity after the consumption of alcohol as rape; this interpretation encompasses both genders and goes both ways. Yet, females more often than not are the victims in such situations.
According to the Washington Post, one in five girls will be sexually assaulted in college.
In December of 2014, 86 colleges were investigated by the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights for mishandling of sexual assault cases.
There are girls who have been raped who refuse to accept it, there are girls who have been raped who can’t remember it, and there are girls who have been raped who will not talk about it.
There are some girls who have been sexually abused who are apprehensive or refuse to speak up about it because they don’t want that kind of attention.
We are living in a culture where sexualizing women is the norm. It is more common than not for women to be objectified in a song, a joke or a commercial
As a girl, if I stand up for myself and the rest of the female population by saying something about a song lyric or an offensive joke, I become categorized as “one of those crazy feminists who can’t take a joke.”
Yet, if I don’t I’m contributing to the problem.
It is society’s fault for allowing the idea that it is okay for women to be viewed as sexual objects and to become embedded as such in the world around us—not just the male population.
Each of us contributes to it even with such a small action such as laughing along with someone’s crude joke.
It is time for a change.