Minnesota Students Think “Frat Boys, Stop Raping People” Sign Will Help Start Dialogue With Greeks
A student co-op (essentially a dorm that provides more affordable housing to students) at the University of Minnesota is using its outdoor landscape to send a positive message to the world and brighten other students’ days. Just kidding. The students there are actually using the space to post signs like “”Frat boys, stop raping people” and “Dear frat boys, I’ll be making signs til y’all stop assaulting people!!!”
Fun, right?
From Citypages:
The display began early in the spring semester. Co-op members attending various sexual violence awareness demonstrations around the Twin Cities would leave them in the yard when they returned. That gave residents an idea.
“It was like, ‘Hey, we can use this as a platform we can choose to utilize,'” says Mallory Mitchell, the co-op’s co-president. “There has to be, we believe, a culture shift in the fraternity system where the boys-will-be-boys behavior is no longer excused.”
The signs have multiplied over time. Most target sexual violence and frat houses. Mitchell says many students have expressed gratitude for the display.
…
“The dialogue that needs to take place is addressing the toxic masculinity that’s pervasive within the fraternity system,” Mitchell tells City Pages. “The fraternities provide a convenient environment for sexual violence.”
Well then.
As I assume everybody knows, all frat boys are rapists and we should shut the whole Greek system down. Shut the whole damn thing down!
Call me crazy, but I don’t think you can say you’re trying to create “dialogue” when you’ve already come in guns blazing and ready to burn the place down. I don’t think that’s how peace talks work.
Look, Mallory. You and us? We’re not so different. We both have the same goal in mind: Reduce sexual violence on college campuses. One incident is one incident too many. But Jesus H. Christ, making signs that generalizes an entire group for the poor decisions of a very, very few is incredibly outrageous and irresponsible. Heaven forbid one of the students living in the co-op messes up and gets a DUI or something. Would a “stop driving drunk, all co-op students!!!” sign be an acceptable response? No, it would not. Should a sign like that be posted, I highly doubt you’d see it and say, “Oh yeah, true. One person messed up so that taints all of us. They got us there” either.
Also, a 10-year study by the state of Massachusetts found 81 percent of reported rapes and assaults occurred in dorms. Four percent occurred in fraternities over the same time period. Maybe we can broaden the focus and help reduce sexual violence campus wide instead of immediately picking up the pitchforks and heading to Greektown.
Not surprisingly, the Interfraternity Council isn’t happy about the signs and has filed a complaint with the Student Union and Activities. However, the SUA has ruled the signs don’t violate any university policy and will be allowed to remain up, which considering the current culture on many college campuses toward free speech is surprising but somewhat respectable. You’re not always going to like what others say, but free speech is free speech, and it’s an American right. If only that was more broadly understood…
Good luck..
[via Citypages]
Image via Twitter
Liberals are CANCER. These people are probably obese, purple haired, socialist hipsters that wouldn’t even get a right swipe on Tinder from the elephant man
9 years ago at 3:43 pmIf by probably you mean definitely, then you’re spot on.
9 years ago at 5:48 pmIt’s free speech to put up “Frats rape” but it’s hate speech when a conservative tries to speak on campus.
-Liberal Logic
9 years ago at 3:46 pmI thought now that Trump won these liberals would have something to focus on and get hysterical about, leaving us alone. Guess I was wrong
9 years ago at 9:57 pmSomeone needs to make a sign across the way saying ‘you’re still not getting into our parties you GDI’ I prefer provoking their psycho response vs being apathetic to these future Chili’s waitresses.
9 years ago at 3:50 pmThis Mitchell gal seems ambitious, she’ll probably make assistant manager one day.
9 years ago at 5:51 pmfat chance
9 years ago at 8:11 pmYou can thank the pikes for this one
9 years ago at 4:13 pmLap me if you want, but I’m perfectly ok with these signs being allowed to continue to be put up. While inaccurate, unfounded, and outright wrong, free speech is free speech, and trying to stifle it would make us no different from the liberals protesting Milo Yiannopoulos coming to college campuses. We may not agree with what is being said, but if we are as invested in free speech as we always claim to be, we can’t create a double standard just because the tables are turned around. That is what makes us different from those over-sensitive, trigger-happy SJWs.
9 years ago at 4:42 pmDead on. Only way to beat this is to show them how idiotic they are. I’d suggest posting a huge sign right in the middle of the others showing the true stats involving campus sexual assaults. At the very least, it could start people’s eyes shifting toward the actual problem instead of going for the easy target.
9 years ago at 7:32 amNo one is saying they should be made to take the signs down. They have the right to put them up, and we have the right to criticize them. Criticizing them and calling them ignorant doesn’t mean we’re hypocrites on the campus free speech issue
9 years ago at 11:04 pmSomehow liberal logic dictates that Radical Islamic Terrorism doesn’t exist and you can’t judge the majority but a few, but yes, if you’re in a Frat you rape.
9 years ago at 4:44 pmWhat liberals say: “We need dialogue!”
What liberals mean: “Agree with me and tell me I’m special!”
9 years ago at 4:54 pm…….I hope the same people arguing against the stereotyping of fraternity men aren’t doing the same thing against muslims…ok later
9 years ago at 4:57 pmStill better writing than anything Dorn’s ever done.
9 years ago at 5:06 pmDear fat libs, stop pretending people in frats want to rape you or want to rape in general
9 years ago at 5:16 pm