Forbes Writer Canned After Blaming Fraternity Woes On Drunk Girls
Look, we all know that drunk girls are a force of nature. One of them can be a nuisance, but a gaggle of them could bring down ISIS if you airdropped them in. But Bill Frezza, a (now former) writer for Forbes, made a classic mistake this week when he wrote a controversial post blaming…well, basically all of the current fraternity system’s problems on drunk females.
Come on, Bill. Be smarter than that. First, let’s talk about Bill’s weird use of the word “females.” It’s oddly clinical, and it makes his post sound like he’s talking about some unknown entity. I blame it on his alma mater being MIT, but still, they’re just babes, Bill, not experimental variables. The problem Bill has is that he makes some decent points and sincerely means well, but all of that gets lost in a jumble of jackassery.
Here are a few nuggets:
“As recriminations against fraternities mount and panicked college administrators search for an easy out, one factor doesn’t seem to be getting sufficient analysis: drunk female guests.”
See? Weirdly clinical, right?
“But it is precisely those irresponsible women that the brothers must be trained to identify and protect against, because all it takes is one to bring an entire fraternity system down.”
Ah, the old “drunk chick who launched 1,000 anti-frat ships” argument.
“…the best way to reduce the incentive to furtively chug half a bottle of vodka before going out for a night of fun is by lowering the drinking age to 18 while encouraging the consumption of beer over distilled spirits.”
First off, no amount of beer availability is going to convince me to give up hitting the liquor bottle–not in college, not now. Secondly, how does lowering the drinking age help? I mean, I’m for it, I’m just not sure how it factors into your argument.
“And so, any time a fraternity hosts an open party, wet or dry, brothers must assume that the house will be filled with ticking time bombs.”
Uh oh, Bill just objectimorphized women. Bad move. Do you want to end up on Jezebel, Bill? Because that’s how you end up on Jezebel.
“False accusation of rape months after the fact triggered by regrets over a…”
You know what? Let’s stop there. Is false accusation of sexual assault a real fear that guys have? Absolutely. Is it so prevalent that you should use it as a pillar in your argument? No.
Ultimately, drunk girls are about as much of a liability to your chapter as drunk guys, because drunk people are morons in general. The only way to mitigate risk isn’t to target one group over another, it’s to monitor your parties carefully. That includes everything from not letting in people who are clearly already trashed, all the way up to protecting both your female guests AND male brothers from potential sexual assault.
It really is that easy. If Bill had said, “drunk people are stupid and sex should always be consensual,” he might still have a job..
[via NY Mag]
Isn’t there a line in “Margaritaville” that goes, “there’s a woman to blame?”
11 years ago at 11:50 amyes……question frark?
11 years ago at 12:13 pmFuck off.
11 years ago at 3:34 pmActually, everything he said is absolutely correct and I don’t want to chastise you in public Cooper but come on … a little critical thinking here would be nice.
11 years ago at 12:00 pmWhat Bill is talking about in the article is the fact that everyone knows that fraternities don’t typically let random “already drunk” guys into their parties (well maybe with the exception of Rush). If a fraternity is running its party by FIPG guidelines (like they should) with either a third party bartender, a ticket system, or perhaps the party is dry you aren’t really worried about people getting “hammered” while AT your party. You should however worry about people coming to the party already hammered.
The problem with the drinking age being 21 is that it prevents 18-20 y/olds from drinking responsibility. Responsible of age drinkers have the ability to drink while out at a rate that maintains a good buzz but doesn’t put them in a state where they lose control. Underage people, when at a alcohol controlled event cannot do this so instead they “pregame”. They drink as much as they can as fast as they can to get smashed enough to last them through the night, then they go out. By moving the drinking age to 18, they could do it like the rest of us and drink responsibly and have their drinking monitored by the 3rd party bartender etc. Do you now understand why he brought that up? It would decrease the necessity of these girls to pregame and get so drunk before coming to the event.
Now, seeing as how we don’t generally let in drunk random guys but do girls here is his point… this is a bomb waiting to explode. Just one of those girls has to get alcohol poisoning, get a DWI when leaving, get in a fight due to bad judgement or anything else and you all know the school will hold the organization responsible EVEN IF THEY DIDN’T GIVE HER ALCOHOL. Universities are not courts and simply decide guilt based on whatever they think. They will simply say, she was your guest so you are responsible.
Now for the item that got him fired. In most states, if a girl is legally intoxicated (yep that’s more than 1 beer, 1 shot, or 1 glass of wine per hour) then SHE CANNOT CONSENT. If she has had more than that and you have sex with her, you raped her…. even if she was screaming yes the whole time. You need to understand that… the girl doesn’t have to be incoherent. It’s no different than a DWI… if she’s drunk legally she could not consent (even if she did), so it is a terrible idea to have her at the party because some drunk guy is going to take her to bed and legally he raped her and if it gets reported you may not lose in court but you will lose your charter. Drunk women are indeed the greatest threat to a fraternity that is trying to follow all the rules. Now, for any of you manginas out there that deny this, I want you to read this true story of a frat guy… this is what happens and it happens ALL THE TIME. (http://www.thefire.org/falsely-accused-of-rape/)
I applaud Bill for pointing this out and I think it is terrible that Forbes decided to censor his article and fire him for stating such an obvious fact and trying to stimulate debate. They basically allowed a bunch of a-hole geeds and their sympathizers to read a title and not understand it, send some pc ranting tweets and cost him his job. NVM the fact Forbes (and the libtards complaingin) could obviously care less about freedom of speech and freedom of the press (‘MERICA!) However, for this site, TFM to come out against him for defending a very real problem for us with this ill-conceived half truth of a response you are embarrassing Greeks. You should be glad you are not held to the same standards he was with your editorial.
Long, but worth the read.
11 years ago at 3:05 pmHave to disagree with you bud. At least in my experience, drunk girls are a much, much bigger liability than their counterparts. There’s almost no comparison. With drunk guys, you need to worry about violence. A good deterrent to that is having 100+ guys on the same side, and when that violence is between brothers (it happens), its really a fight that happens between friends that works itself out. And generally, guys can handle more alcohol as they have more mass.
However, girls are dangerous as fuck. How many times have you realized that a drunk freshmen passed out on the fraternity couch? Too many. She could wake up, not have her phone, question what she did and flip the fuck out. Shit could hit the fan if she blacked out and ended up playing a game of telephone to hear what happened. Girls also tend to play the buddy system, yet always leave their friends. They also wear heals they can’t walk in. They might also act flirtatiously with someone to piss off another. The possibilities are endless. Can’t party with them, can’t party without them.
The best solution is to limit your association with unaffiliateds. It really is. As much as I love a good 18 year old girl that is naive to the greek system, they are straight dynamite. At least sorority girls have their own risk managers, familiar faces, experience, and general tolerance and expectations to debauchery.
Carry on.
11 years ago at 12:37 pmIt boggles my mind every time a feminist spouts off about the “rape culture” and how “men need to be taught that rape is bad.” …Who the hell is being taught that rape is good??? Please find me 1 person who operates under the mindset that rape is just boys being boys. It makes no logical sense to me at all. Rape isn’t a male problem, it’s a terrible-person problem.
11 years ago at 12:42 pmI mean, he’s not wrong…
11 years ago at 12:47 pmIt’s really only a matter of time till the feminists swoop in on this article
11 years ago at 12:48 pmThey already got Bill fired… bring them on.
11 years ago at 1:49 pmBottom line: binge drinking hard liquor is out of control on college campuses. Guys get girls wasted to take advantage of them. Girls get blacked out with no regard for their safety. Kids need to calm the fuck down. And the cohort is always inexperienced 18-20 y.o. guys and girls.
11 years ago at 1:19 pmIt is out of control and legitimate date rape is bad. Black out drunk women getting abused is wrong… but the stats are ridiculous. When doing those stats the survey by the CDC asked women “Have you ever been coerced into having sex while intoxicated?” Yes, I understand an intoxicated person cannot consent so its rape but hell, if that’s rape then I’m pretty sure most of the people in the world have raped because most of us have talked a girl who has been drinking into having a little fun. We’re just all lucky she didn’t later decide she regretted it and get us kicked out of school!
11 years ago at 1:52 pmhttp://www.thefire.org/falsely-accused-of-rape/
The Greek system needs to figure out a way to get the college out of the business of the Courts. There should be a push to ban colleges from issuing any punishment unless there is an actual conviction in a court of law. If a young man is accused by the school, he and his lawyer should make a fuss and get the police involved. Don’t participate in the school hearing. File a counter charge, with the police, against the false accuser. Pull them into the light of the law.
11 years ago at 1:22 pmSolid Archer reference Sterling.
11 years ago at 3:07 pmIt’s good to see so many rational views being voiced on this topic.
My house faced a similar situation a couple years back. A girl was visibly highly intoxicated and after we couldn’t find any of her friends she was sent home with a sober driver. The next day she shows up angry with a school admin accusing the brothers involved in sending her home with sexual assut.
Luckily when the police got involved she vanished off the face of the earth. Still got fucked by the University for an unregistered alcohol event for an impromptu Wednesday night..
11 years ago at 3:32 pm