Response to "Luring Rapebait"

[Content note: rape culture]

This is a guest post by Mackenzie Busch, who blogs regularly at Fetus Frolic. 

I’m not the first person who has written or commented on this particular incident and I won’t be the last, but I think that’s a good thing.  The more people that speak out against these types of stories the more we expose the otherwise latent sexism in our society.   I mean, are you kidding me with this garbage?  I was in a sorority during college and attended my fair share of fraternity parties, and sadly this isn’t an isolated incident.  At the time I really was unaffected by the awfulness that is the pack mentality of a fraternity.  Eventually though we grow up and we have to be woman in the real world and the very “jokes” we used to laugh at are the same ones holding us back from reaching our potential now, so we have to make it not OK from the start.

Perhaps I am going against some sacred code by saying this, but it has been my experience that if the Greek organization were Europe in the 17^th century, sexism would be the Black Death.  Of course people will counter this argument with an exception here or there, but as I make clear as often as possible, exceptions are merely conjunctions in a story, exceptions don’t show me the big picture, they are only there to help piece it together.  I would hate to offend those individuals that are doing good within the PanHellenic community, but hindsight is 20/20 and I can safely say from experience doing good is not the overall focus.  The Greek system is a breeding ground for slut shaming, fat shaming, sexism, misogyny, and countless other anti-feminist issues.

It is important we don’t ignore these types of incidents because had they not been brought to the public’s attention they would very likely have been swept under the rug or worse laughed off.  Seriously, the title of this bro’s email is “luring rapebait” yet he specifies “no raping” within the body of the email. This is the epitome of rape culture, it objectifies women and renders this “no raping” clause completely invalid.  The fact that the author even had to include the “no raping” disclaimer at all should have been an indicator that what he wrote just might be the worst thing ever. 

I’m glad he wrote it though because if these types of people don’t continually and arrogantly air their shitty ideals to the world then they may never know how terrible they are. This is absolutely a big deal, these people are burgeoning adults and soon a few of them could one day be leaders, and reading things like this makes that a scary thought.  That is why it is so important that we don't allow those with privilege to say and do as they please without consequence. By ignoring it we are saying it is normal, it is acceptable, and perhaps even expected.

It is extremely dangerous to continue to brush things like this off.  Objectification leads to dehumanization which is the very reason harassment and rape are so much more prevalent among women.  It is not OK and we aren’t about to let them forget it.

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