So the locals were aghast with an incident at ODU over the weekend. Thanks to the pervasive nature of social media, now the world is aghast.
Some frat guy knuckleheads spray-painted some remarks on bed sheets and dangled them from balconies, remarks that are characterized anywhere from mildly obnoxious to criminally offensive, depending upon your mindset. Here is Deadspin's take on it, with pictures.
I have a question not just for Zman Esq and the handful of other attorneys in our GTB midst, but all of you higher-minded cohorts of mine. Here are the words that were printed on the sheets:
“Rowdy and fun [highlighting the O, D, and U]"
"Hope your baby girl is ready for a good time”
“Freshman daughter drop off [with an arrow pointing to the house's front door]”
“Go ahead and drop off mom too...”
Universally accepted as stupid, immature, and largely inappropriate, without question.
But, either taken literally or even infusing some suggestion in there, are they, as accused by many, words that espouse rape or sexual assault?
It seems to me that as we elevate community awareness and the severity of the punishment that fits rape in America, we must also elevate our caution when labeling or accusing our citizens of this crime. It's a complex issue that affected my alma mater in a case whose public opinion verdict rang louder than the actual facts or result of the case. And whether or not the UVA story was debunked last year (as predicted), the problem still exists and remains a justifiably incendiary topic. It's one not likely to fade away any time soon, simply because men have sexually assaulted women for the 100,000 or more years we have been on the planet, and we have yet to come up with the appropriate tools to fix ourselves.As ODU seeks to mete out the proper punishment for this behavior, it's important to keep the furor within the confines of the act committed. The university has responded publicly, using the likely words "outraged," "sickened," and "will not be tolerated," But they also reference "sexual assault" and "violence against women." Maybe it's a logical leap, but as a former fraternity knucklehead, the divide our guys kept between lascivious/crude and assault/violence against women was a huge one.
Anyway, as usual, at Gheorghe we like our grammar on point and our law and order to be argued and measured appropriately -- even when the idiots committing the acts are offensive enough not to warrant much defense. I get to hear and read about this event plenty for the next week or two around town. Just lucky that way,
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26 comments:
Luckily our Tri-Delt Decathalon banners were always the epitome of decorum and good taste.
That was my first thought, Zman.
And banners that essentially say "we want to bang anything female" is more than a little bit insulting and embarrassing for any organization formally affiliated with a university. Even if it's pretty much exactly how 18-21 y/o dudes think. It conveys a predatory tone of a sexual nature.
it is what it is, clarence
Thanks, Rob. Your dad made me be sort of okay with that expression.
And I think TR's last sentence is pretty astute -- the text of the thing wasn't explicit, but the tone was predatory. And from there you can make an argument for censure or worse, since it's enrollment at a university, not a case before criminal court.
It will be (mildly) interesting to see how ODU plays it.
cris carter thinks that odu fraternity needs to pin it on someone else
Phils/Mets. 4.5 innings of play, 9 home runs. Quite a duel on the hill.
i think tr hits the nail on the head. the signs are stupid, immature, sexist, and most importantly, predatory, degrading and dehumanizing. i don't think i'd go as far as connecting them to sexual assault, but i understand the logical leap. at the same time, i'm painfully aware that i was a willing (and at times gleeful) participant in a scale party, which - as funny as it was to our juvenile minds at the time - in retrospect was a terribly sexist and assholish (maybe not a word?) thing to do. glass houses, and all that.
men, especially young men in the throes of escalating and insularly reinforcing groupthink, are fucking dicks. more of them should be called out by those of us that have learned the error of our ways, even if we weren't any better back then than they are now.
The scale party was bad but probably nothing was worse than the Christmas carols. That time of year showed our best, really worst, dipshitery of the teenage male mind.
The carols are a big wince in retrospect, as were the Sigma Chi songs, especially considering there is at least one openly gay Pi Lam alum from the 80's.
You older guys pretty much sucked.
You young guys show me nothing.
But yeah.
It's been a tough 48 month stretch for Huma Abedin.
Some of the statements suggest predatory tone, but I don't think I can say that there is any identifiable specific "intent" to the words. While certainly a case can be made that more was intended, a likely scenario is that it was a bunch of college aged dudes (I believe the scientific term is "idiots") who thought they were funny and nothing more and didn't appreciate the potential bigger picture implications.
Is there anything left of a "boys being boys" defense - do we dismiss (i.e. "accept") certain things as 18-21 year old guys being stupid or do we attack that mindset, and if so, how?
I read the school's Code of Conduct, albeit briefly and I'm not an expert on the specific subject matter by any means. At 23 pages and with multiple pages of defined terms, it seems possible it is too sophisticated for an 18 year old to read, understand and follow. Regardless, I think it is a challenge to map the circumstances to any specific Code provision or prohibited conduct - there are rules against intimidation, but that is a stretch. There may be some sort of "hostile work environment" harassment angle that may or may not apply in the particular school setting. There is a companion discrimination policy I did not read that might scoop up this type of activity. I'm guessing if they don't have a catchall for conduct unbecoming a student to give them more discretion to act, they soon will.
Wait - the Christmas carols were offensive, and not delivered in the true yuletide spirit?
Come to think of it, the morning after I made the gache call I woke up in the Chi-O house in bed with someone who was not my girlfriend. Not something that happened to me often.
Like any such activity taking place in a college setting, the people in on the act probably thought it was hilarious and everyone else probably thought they were huge tools.
The incident was highlighted on Good Morning America this morning. President Broderick is undoubtedly miffed.
the main problem with the banners is that they're not very funny. perhaps if they made a bill cosby reference? or something about how they would operate much faster than the registrar?
there's a fine line between stupid and clever . . .
and let's remember that it was not a "scale party." we were collecting important information and making sure it was displayed prominently so that no female would be over-served in our house during litigious times. plus, the scale was broken and most people who gamely stood on it weighed between 17 and 24 pounds . . .
Curt Schilling just made a moronic tweet. Shocking, I know.
Has anyone ever exchanged texts with Dave? I suspect that his cell phone is a tin can and some string because the messages take hours to arrive from his phone to mine.
His phone is probably on summer vacation time.
So I not only can't tweet that Muslims are like Nazis, but now I can't buy a Caitlin Jenner Halloween costume?
TR, get some bed sheets and some spray paint and you can be heard the world over.
I wasn't in a fraternity so I don't have any experience with offensive or demeaning acts/comments towards females. My friends and I were model students.
This Adnan Syed news is gonna break the internet. At least the corner of it, where intellectual nerds argue about crimes they don't fully understand.
after all these years, clarence finally found a way to combine beer and work, legitimately. really proud of him.
Petite Randy Moss actually made me smile.
h/t to Dave Franco. Well done, sir.
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