Hello, and welcome back to Mother of Democracy, a podcast about women and democracy. IÕm your host Amber Vayo, professor of law and policy, mom, and person who is increasingly tired of enablers. Often we check in with issues that directly affect women and shape womenÕs ability to access their full rights as citizens in a democratic society, and occasionally that might make you so made you want to crash your car. So, stay safe and listen to this on your daily walk or with your daily comfort food. 00:00:53 Talking about Cornell 7 Rapists (alleged) As you can imagine, this week, weÕre talking about everything going on at Cornell. While others have weighed, Florence Pugh aka Yelena from the New Avengers, made a great point that Òthere is no equality until you respect our bodies.Ó And that made me decide I finally wanted to talk about this. 00:01: 18 Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault Trigger warning if youÕre not familiar with the case, but a Jane Doe has alleged that seven students at a Cornell frat drugged her and raped her over seven hours. Snap chat messages came out that included at least 57 men being aware this this was happening and offering this women as ÒfreeÓ and Òstill open?Ó Over the course of seven hours, Jane Doe experienced severe physical torture, emotional torture, and psychological torment. What does this have to do with democracy, you might ask? As it turns out: everything. (Now is a good time to take bets on whether I can get through this episode without swearingÉ.IÕm betting no.) 00:02:16 Institutional Betrayal and Institutional Cowardice The one thing I want to bring to this conversation is the concept of institutional betrayal. A psychologist Jennifer Freyd, created this term to describe "wrongdoings perpetrated by an institution upon individuals dependent on that institution, including failure to prevent or respond supportively to wrongdoings by individuals committed within the context of the institution.Ó I have talked about it before, but I think itÕs important to bring up now because a huge chunk of the original research was actually looking at military sexual abuse and college sexual abuse coverups. This mixture of institutional betrayal by the institutions and individual and institutional cowardice by Cornell, its Administration, its Title IX office, and its student body are vital to understanding not just Jane DoeÕs story but the fundamental barrier that women face to full democratic participation. 00:03:30 No Equality Until Men Are Punished for Hurting Us (or We Can Hurt Them Back Without Being Punished) As long as men can rape us and know they can get away with it, we are not equal citizens. The fact that at least fifty students at Cornell knew what was happening but refused to intervene or alert the authorities because they were too afraid to face social consequences should tell you something. It should tell you that these men decided that their social standing was more important than Jane DoeÕs life. Every man who saw that message is just as complicit as the men who raped Jane Doe. And every one of them is a coward. The entire Cornell alumni body should be calling for the resignation of the Administration, the firing of the Title IX officer (a woman whose job it should have been to help Jane Doe get justice but instead thought essays were enough punishment for a few of these boys). 00:04:30 We Can Ban Frats or We Can Ban Men And every American should call for the banning of fraternities at colleges and universities. I know this sounds harsh, but look, we can have secret clubs or we can have men. IÕm not really committed to what you choose, but we have to admit that we have to choose one of them. At this point, fraternities and sororities at rich people universities are not educational or social. These are Epstein-producing workshops where people with power and privilege socialize with other people who have power and privilege and solidify their economic networking abilities in the future. Fraternities are called fraternities because they are primarily wealthy, white, and at colleges and universities. Yet, their propensity for violence, whether that is hazing rituals or attacks on women as part of bonding, makes them the same as any other gang. This type of organization is incompatible with true meritocracy. Further, it is a direct harm to women on campuses and off of them. The reality is that not only did one Jane Doe face this issue, but women on campuses around the country do. Police and prosecutors ignore or perpetuate harm on victims of sexual assault. Women are so desperate to believe that their husbands and sons would never do this that they set up entire mental gymnastics studios to explain why Òshe had it coming.Ó What was she wearing? Why would she go to a frat? How dare she trust men and let her guard down? How could she ruin that boyÕs life by making these claims? 00:06:18 Universities Should Step Up Women are not only meant to take the blame for menÕs actions, but theyÕre supposed to do it quietly because if we donÕt, we could ruin someoneÕs football career (looking at you LSU that allowed a rapist to remain on your football team because a sport that is designed to give men head injuries is more important than protecting women). Also looking at future doctors as one of the Cornell 7 is still, as far as I know, a pre-med student. Hey medical schools, maybe instead of caving to authoritarianism and getting rid of programs to increase diversity in admissions, you might want to try decreasing the number of abusers and rapists that youÕre allowing in medical schools? Just a thought. It would help my research on medical mistrust a ton if you didnÕt, though. ThatÕs what my friend Paul calls, Ògood for the research, bad for the worldÓ issues. 00:07:46 Hate Rapists as much as You Hate Lindsay Clancy There have been family annihilations pretty regularlyÑmeaning that a man has killed his partner or former partner and their children before killing himself. A guy murdered his wife and kids to please his affair partner recently (seriously, the pick-me-girl enablers are literally killing us). All of this and the person the media is focused on us hating is Lindsay Clancy (and I mean, hate her all you want, but spare some hate for the much more frequent violence against women). 00:08:30 4B Says to Divest from Men, Maybe We Should In my previous episode on the 4B movement, we talked about how women are divesting from men. If you donÕt know why this is appealing, then youÕre lying to yourself. Or as my girl Kadija from Living Single said, imagine a world without men: no crime and a bunch of fat happy women. 00:09:30 Protect Us From YÕall Men, if you want us to believe we need you to protect us, thenÉlikeÉyou knowÉprotect us. Protect us from you. Call out the men around you. Or donÕt be surprised when women tap out. One thing IÕm loving about watching Gen Z women come into their own is that they have zero tolerance for this crap. And while the manosphere folks want you to believe that women are punishing men by not wanting to get married and have kids, I have to say that I have college students regularly talk to me about how much they would like to get married and have kids, but theyÕre afraid. 00:10:15 Women are afraid of Men, Because it is all Men Until itÕs No Men TheyÕre afraid their husband will turn out to be like Pelicot in France who drugged his wife for decades and allowed dozens of men to rape her, or the guy in Austria who did the same thing just last month whose wife died from rape-related injuries, or the tens of thousands of men found online in chatrooms explaining to other men how to drug their wives and rape them. Women are worried that they canÕt trust men because they canÕt. We choose the bear because it we pass out in a forest with a bear, no one is going to rape us and then blame us for it. WeÕve seen cases like this before, and weÕll see them again until someone in power exercises personal and institutional courage to change. These educational institutions donÕt want to target wealthy young men because those men are seen as assetsÑparticularly because their parents pay lots of money to make sure thatÕs the case. The elitism this breeds leads directly to the exploitation of women and keeps full democracy out of the reach of women and girls. 00:11:30 Stop Supporting the Epstein Class and their Enablers And shame on Cornell for selling all of its women students and alumni down the river. They protected the reputation of the university over the safety of all of their students. They have shown us who they are: the Epstein Class and the Epstein Class-in waiting. 00:12:30 Cornell Showed What it Believes In and Who it Protects Cornell has shown us what it is and what it values. It arrests pro-Palestinian protestors and enables and covers up for rapists. Why? Because thatÕs what the Ivy Leagues do. Do you really think the Epstein Files arenÕt coming out just because of the sex crimes? Please. Those files remain hidden because they implicate wealthy people around the world. The mass accumulation of wealth and privilege means that some people can rape, torture, and murder women and children and get away with it. The financial crimes in the Epstein Files are going to keep them hidden as long as we allow these so-called elite institutions to funnel parentsÕ money into kidsÕ privilege. Until next time, stay furious. And take care out there, and if you get time, ban all the frats. 00:13:30 Thank you and Stay Furious Mother of Democracy is a Mother of Democracy podcast with writer Amber Vayo and sound manager Matt Munyon. Thanks for listening.