Caitlin Flanagan: What Was Jane Doe Looking For?

I don’t need to read one more text message or police report about what happened in the Chi Phi house at Cornell University two years ago. I don’t need any of that because I know this: A member sent out a text to all of the brothers advertising “free” sex in one of the rooms, and there wasn’t a single member of that outfit who was man enough to shut it down. There couldn’t really be a simpler test of manhood: If you got that text, would you go to the house to get your bit of free sex, or would you go to get her out of there?

I do, however, wonder how the campus newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, would receive the news of a man busting into that room during the early, consensual part of the event. “Slut-Shaming Chi Phi Tells Sophomore: Enough!” Or, worse, “Chi Phi ‘Rescues’ Sophomore Woman—From Herself.” But the headlines this week have been starkly different, and the eyes of the world are on Ithaca, New York.

The event itself took place two years ago, and it comes to national attention now because “Jane Doe” has filed a civil suit against a range of parties, including Cornell, the fraternity, and the seven men she alleges took part in the rape. The news was broken by the Daily Sun, which has been reporting it with avenging anger, and made the decision to print the names of the accused men. There’s plenty of evidence for the crowd who thinks the whole thing is a money grab, and a solid case that it’s not. It seems to produce new text messages and documents every day.