Why the Cornell gang rape case has raised concerns about fraternity culture

Experts say many fraternities offer a sense of community, but some rely on hazing and coercive tactics to build loyalty.

Cornell University’s chapter of the Chi Phi fraternity has been closed since 2024, following allegations of a gang rape [Angelina Katsanis/Reuters]

For more than 40 percent of US presidents, the fraternity hall was an early stop on the road to the White House.

Fraternal organisations, more commonly known as fraternities or frats, have a long and storied history on college campuses in the United States.

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One industry group, the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC), represents 58 fraternities spread across 600 schools. It claims nearly 200,000 undergraduate students as active members and an alumni population of 4.2 million.

The draw for college-aged men is the promise of brotherhood, a bond that transcends keg parties and late-night revelry. Like sororities and other members-only student organisations, fraternities are often touted as pathways to personal, academic and professional success.

But critics argue that some fraternities have leveraged their exclusivity to encourage and normalise violence, dangling social acceptance as a reward for compliance.

“This isn’t [some sort of] a hobbyist club,” said anthropologist Aldo Cimino, a Kent State University professor who studies fraternity hazing. “It is the seriousness of the affiliation that has generated the intensity of these induction rituals.”

In recent weeks, one case has renewed debate over fraternity culture and whether the campus organisations use their exclusivity to shield bad behaviour.

In September, an anonymous woman known as Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit against the Chi Phi fraternity at Cornell University and seven of its members, accusing them of gang raping her during a party on the night of October 19, 2024.

Doe’s sorority, Delta Delta Delta, and Cornell itself are among the co-defendants.

Her lawsuit raises questions about fraternity and sorority culture at US schools, collectively known as “Greek life” for the groups’ use of Greek lettering and symbols.

Upon her admission to Cornell, Doe argues she encountered a “glorified – yet materially false and misleading – facade” for Greek life.

“She arrived on a campus where the University actively promoted Greek membership as a ‘vital’ part of the campus community and endorsed these organizations as well-managed, worthy pathways to new friendships and improving one’s educational and professional opportunities,” the lawsuit said.

The complaint accuses the fraternities of instead perpetuating a pattern of sexual assault and abuse.

What are fraternities?

Now a multibillion-dollar industry, fraternities in the US trace their origins to men-only clubs established at some of the country’s oldest universities.

The tradition began at the College of William and Mary in 1776, when Phi Beta Kappa was founded as a secret society for debate and scholarly exchange.

Its adoption of the Greek alphabet, oath of secrecy, and arcane membership rites helped establish a blueprint for future fraternities and sororities. Often with houses of their own, fraternities eventually grew into informal extensions of the campus residential system.

Historian Nicholas Syrett wrote about the origins of such groups in his book The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, he explained that fraternities have long embraced so-called masculine ideals. But those ideals have changed from generation to generation.

In the past, fraternities sought to position themselves in “opposition to boyhood” by embracing “independence, strength of character, handsomeness and loyalty”, Syrett explained.

But their modern iteration has shifted to include a greater emphasis on “athleticism, sexual success with women, and recklessness” as well as alpha-male posturing.

Syrett argues that the fraternity system’s cult of toughness reflects a wider matrix of gendered expectations and social hierarchies.

Early fraternity men, Syrett says, prized intellect and academic distinction, provided neither betrayed too much effort. But “this has largely taken a backseat in contemporary fraternities”, he explained.

“When [men] are initiated, they are taught that loyalty to the brotherhood is of the utmost importance,” Syrett said of fraternities today. “This leads to the keeping of all kinds of secrets, including things that are against the rules and/or the law.”

A mark of elite status

In the two and a half centuries since the first fraternities were formed, Greek life has expanded to include different races and identities outside of white men.

Some Greek groups have even eschewed the traditional gender divide altogether to better embrace transgender and non-binary members.

But fraternities and sororities overall tend to act as “microcosms of the larger society”, according to Elizabeth Allan, a professor at the University of Maine and director of its Hazing Prevention Research Lab, “with race, pretty privilege and economic segregation helping shape the system”.

“The [social] stratification that we see in the larger society is going to be reflected, in large part, in many of these organisations, unless they’re actively working to disrupt it,” she added.

Between membership dues and rent at fraternity chapter houses, Greek organisations can price out all but the more affluent students, according to Allan.

“Pretty privilege” – the social bias in favour of those deemed conventionally attractive – can add to the pressure, with sorority applicants in particular shelling out hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for cosmetic treatments and outfits.

Experts say the sense of exclusivity that many fraternities and sororities cultivate is a powerful draw for incoming students, who see membership as a path to upward social mobility.

That perception is reinforced by the groups’ internal dynamics. Many sororities and fraternities encourage networking among members.

A 2021 Gallup survey commissioned by the NIC and the National Panhellenic Conference found that 42 percent of fraternity or sorority alumni said a fellow member had helped them find an internship or job.

Meanwhile, 51 percent of Greek members reported having a job waiting at graduation or found employment within two months. The rate was much lower among those who were not members of such fraternities or sororities, at 36 percent.

How hazing shapes fraternities

Critics often point to hazing rituals in particular as shaping a culture of violence at some fraternities and sororities.

Hazing is a process through which prospective Greek life members undergo humiliating and sometimes perilous tasks to secure admission.

The phenomenon is prohibited by law in most US states, though the definitions, penalties and scope of such laws vary. The consequences, however, can be deadly.

One of the earliest recorded deaths associated with fraternity hazing took place at Cornell in 1873.

At the time, a group of “pledges” – would-be fraternity members – were blindfolded and led far from campus at night, with instructions to make their way back on their own.

In the dark, one of the pledges, Mortimer M Leggett, and two fraternity members stumbled over a cliff and plunged into the gorge of Six Mile Creek. The two fraternity members survived. Leggett, however, did not.

Secret initiation rituals can forge an “informal psychological social contract in which members feel obligated to protect the organisation”, according to Pietro Sasso, who studies college student experience at Old Dominion University.

Some members may feel the need to rally around the fraternity even when “doing so conflicts with their personal values or responsibilities to others”, Sasso added.

“My research on fraternity cultures suggests that organisational socialisation can normalise behaviours that individuals might otherwise question, making the environment itself an important part of prevention,” he explained.

Inside Doe’s lawsuit against Chi Phi

Doe’s case cites some of the social pressures and incentives that lead young men and women to Greek life on campus.

“She was drawn to the sorority and its promises of sisterhood and lifelong friendships, the status it conferred on its members, and the community it provided on campus when she was over 1,000 miles away from home,” the lawsuit said of Doe.

But Doe said she joined Cornell’s Greek community without being fully aware of the pattern of sexual assault associated with the local fraternities.

During Doe’s first semester, in 2022, there were at least five reported cases of victims at Cornell being drugged, and two alleged cases of sexual assault. All of those cases, according to her lawsuit, took place at fraternities.

Two years later, on the night of the alleged gang rape, Doe claims she was pressured by fraternity members to take drugs like ketamine, marijuana and alcohol. After agreeing to a threesome, she said she found herself in a “room full of predatory, fraternity men” who raped her while she was incapacitated.

A photo of a group chat included in her lawsuit shows one Chi Phi member informing his fellow fraternity brothers that there was “free pussy” in an upstairs alumni room. A member of the chat replies, “I f***ing love chi phi.” Another chimes in, “Like you can walk in and whip it out.”

Several of the men have denied any wrongdoing.

But the case has sparked questions about whether the culture of Greek life contributes to a high rate of sexual assault in fraternities and sororities.

One 2021 survey published by the American Psychological Association tracked male students from high school through their second year of college. It found that fraternity members were 62 percent more likely to report sexual aggression during their first two years of college.

Separately, a 2009 study published in the journal Violence Against Women estimated that 29 percent of sorority members reported suffering sexual assault during college, roughly four times the rate of non-members.

Reforming Greek life

After the alleged gang rape in 2024, Cornell’s Chi Phi chapter was closed, and the fraternity remains barred from campus. Two male defendants in Doe’s lawsuit were expelled, while another two were suspended.

But some student activists say too little is being done to reform Greek life in the wake of Doe’s case. They want stronger measures to enforce accountability within private, members-only groups where secrecy often reigns.

CJ Barles, a junior at the University of California, Davis, is one of the students across the US organising protests in support of Doe. She told Al Jazeera she understands the appeal of the fraternity and sorority systems.

“Affiliated students say it looks good on their resume,” Barles explained. “They see it as a built-in cult, a seat at the table and a crew to call their own.”

But Barles said she has heard troubling reports. Some fraternities, she explained, hold parties “requiring every man” to arrive with several women in tow. That requirement says “a lot about the culture some of these spaces cultivate”, she added.

At a rally last week, Barles and other protesters called on the University of California system to implement new measures to hold fraternities accountable for sexual assault, including enshrining students’ right to withdraw consent during sexual encounters.

But Barles said she left feeling dumbstruck by the accounts of sexual violence shared by women on campus, many of whom spoke from personal experience.

“It’s unbelievably upsetting, the amount of stories I heard,” said Barles. The litany of grievances has fanned her scepticism of the Greek system: “I wouldn’t step within a mile of most of them.”

专家表示，许多兄弟会都能提供社区感，但有些兄弟会依靠欺凌和胁迫手段来建立忠诚度。

康奈尔大学 Chi Phi 兄弟会分会自 2024 年起关闭，此前该分会曾被指控发生轮奸案。[Angelina Katsanis/路透社]

对于超过 40% 的美国总统来说，兄弟会会所是通往白宫之路上的早期一站。

兄弟会组织，更常见的说法是兄弟会或兄弟会，在美国大学校园里有着悠久而辉煌的历史。

康奈尔大学校长在强奸指控后表示，该校“必须做得更好”（共3条，此为第1条）

康奈尔大学三起强奸指控中的第二起再次推动纽约州修改性侵犯法

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北美兄弟会联合会（NIC）是业内一个组织，代表着分布在600所学校的58个兄弟会。该联合会声称拥有近20万名活跃的本科生会员和420万名校友。

对大学男生来说，兄弟会的吸引力在于它所承诺的兄弟情谊，这种情谊超越了狂欢派对和深夜狂欢。与姐妹会和其他仅限会员加入的学生组织一样，兄弟会也常常被誉为通往个人、学业和职业成功的途径。

但批评人士认为，一些兄弟会利用其排他性来鼓励和使暴力正常化，以社会认可作为服从的奖励。

“这可不是什么业余爱好俱乐部，”肯特州立大学研究兄弟会入会仪式的教授、人类学家阿尔多·西米诺说，“正是这种归属感的严肃性才导致了入会仪式的强度。”

最近几周，一起案件再次引发了关于兄弟会文化以及校园组织是否利用其排他性来掩盖不良行为的辩论。

9 月，一位化名 Jane Doe 的匿名女子对康奈尔大学的 Chi Phi 兄弟会及其七名成员提起民事诉讼，指控他们在 2024 年 10 月 19 日晚的一次聚会上对她进行轮奸。

Doe 所在的姐妹会 Delta Delta Delta 以及康奈尔大学本身都是共同被告。

她的诉讼引发了人们对美国学校兄弟会和姐妹会文化的质疑，这些团体因使用希腊字母和符号而被统称为“希腊生活”。

Doe 认为，她进入康奈尔大学后，发现希腊生活“被美化了——但本质上是虚假和误导性的——外表”。

诉讼称：“她来到这所大学时，该大学积极推广加入兄弟会/姐妹会，将其视为校园社区的‘重要’组成部分，并认可这些组织是管理良好、值得加入的，可以结交新朋友，并改善个人的教育和职业机会。”

该投诉指控这些兄弟会非但没有制止性侵犯和虐待行为，反而助长了这种行为模式。

什么是兄弟会？

如今，兄弟会已成为美国价值数十亿美元的产业，其起源可以追溯到美国一些最古老的大学里成立的仅限男性参加的俱乐部。

这一传统始于 1776 年的威廉与玛丽学院，当时 Phi Beta Kappa 成立，作为一个秘密社团，旨在进行辩论和学术交流。

它采用希腊字母、保密誓言和神秘的入会仪式，为后来的兄弟会和姐妹会奠定了基础。兄弟会通常拥有自己的会所，最终发展成为校园住宿制度的非正式延伸。

历史学家尼古拉斯·西雷特在他的著作《他所结交的朋友：白人大学兄弟会的历史》中，对这类团体的起源进行了描述。

他在接受半岛电视台采访时解释说，兄弟会长期以来都秉持着所谓的男性气质理想。但这些理想随着时代变迁而发生了变化。

Syrett解释说，过去，兄弟会试图通过拥抱“独立、坚强的性格、英俊的外表和忠诚”来将自己定位为“与男孩气概相反”。

但他们的现代版本已经转变，更加强调“运动能力、与女性的性成功、鲁莽行事”以及阿尔法男性的姿态。

Syrett 认为，兄弟会制度中对强悍的崇拜反映了更广泛的性别期望和社会等级制度。

西雷特说，早期的兄弟会成员重视智力和学术成就，前提是这两者都不能显得过于费力。但他解释说，“在当代兄弟会中，这种观念已经很大程度上退居次要地位了”。

“（男性）入会时会被教导，对兄弟会的忠诚至关重要，”西雷特谈到如今的兄弟会时说道。“这导致各种各样的秘密被保守，包括违反规则和/或法律的事情。”

精英地位的标志

自第一个兄弟会成立以来的两个半世纪里，希腊生活已经扩展到包括白人男性以外的不同种族和身份。

一些希腊团体甚至完全摒弃了传统的性别划分，以便更好地接纳跨性别者和非二元性别成员。

但据缅因大学教授兼欺凌预防研究实验室主任伊丽莎白·艾伦称，兄弟会和姐妹会总体上往往是“更大社会的缩影”，“种族、美貌特权和经济隔离有助于塑造这一体系”。

她补充说：“除非这些组织积极努力打破这种社会分层，否则我们在更广泛的社会中看到的这种社会分层现象将在很大程度上反映在这些组织中。”

据艾伦称，兄弟会/姐妹会的会员费和会所租金，使得除了较为富裕的学生之外，其他学生都难以负担加入兄弟会/姐妹会。

“美貌特权”——即社会对那些被认为符合传统审美标准的人的偏爱——会加剧这种压力，尤其是一些姐妹会的申请者，她们会花费数百甚至数千美元用于整容手术和服装。

专家表示，许多兄弟会和姐妹会营造的排他性氛围对新生有着强大的吸引力，他们将加入这些组织视为向上社会流动的途径。

这种看法也因这些团体的内部运作而得到强化。许多姐妹会和兄弟会都鼓励成员之间建立联系。

2021 年盖洛普公司受 NIC 和全国泛希腊会议委托进行的一项调查发现，42% 的兄弟会或姐妹会校友表示，他们的成员曾帮助他们找到实习或工作。

与此同时，51%的兄弟会或姐妹会成员表示，他们在毕业时已经找到了工作，或者在两个月内找到了工作。而未加入此类社团的人群中，这一比例要低得多，仅为36%。

欺凌如何塑造兄弟会

批评人士经常指出，某些兄弟会和姐妹会的入会仪式尤其助长了暴力文化。

入会仪式是指准兄弟会/姐妹会成员为了获得入会资格而接受的羞辱性甚至危险的任务。

这种行为在美国大多数州都属违法，但各州对此类行为的定义、处罚和适用范围有所不同。然而，其后果可能是致命的。

有记录的最早与兄弟会入会仪式有关的死亡事件之一发生在 1873 年的康奈尔大学。

当时，一群“入会新生”（即将加入兄弟会的成员）被蒙上眼睛，在夜里被带到远离校园的地方，并被告知要自己想办法返回。

夜色中，一名新成员莫蒂默·M·莱格特和两名兄弟会成员不慎跌落悬崖，坠入六英里溪谷。两名兄弟会成员幸存，但莱格特不幸遇难。

据老道明大学研究大学生经历的皮耶特罗·萨索 (Pietro Sasso) 称，秘密入会仪式可以形成一种“非正式的心理社会契约，成员们感到有义务保护组织”。

萨索补充说，有些成员可能会觉得有必要团结在兄弟会周围，即使“这样做与他们的个人价值观或对他人的责任相冲突”。

“我对兄弟会文化的研究表明，组织社会化可以使个人原本可能会质疑的行为正常化，从而使环境本身成为预防的重要组成部分，”他解释说。

Doe 起诉 Chi Phi 的内幕

Doe 的案例列举了一些导致年轻男女加入校园兄弟会/姐妹会的社会压力和激励因素。

诉讼中对约翰·多伊的描述是：“她被这个姐妹会及其所承诺的姐妹情谊和终身友谊、赋予成员的地位以及在她离家 1000 多英里时在校园里提供的社区所吸引。”

但 Doe 表示，她加入康奈尔大学的兄弟会时，并没有完全意识到当地兄弟会存在性侵犯的模式。

在Doe就读康奈尔大学的第一个学期（2022年），至少有五起受害者被下药的报道，以及两起性侵指控。根据她的诉讼，所有这些案件都发生在兄弟会或姐妹会。

两年后，在据称发生轮奸案的当晚，Doe声称她受到兄弟会成员的胁迫，服用了氯胺酮、大麻和酒精等毒品。她说，在同意三人性行为后，她发现自己身处一个“满是色狼般的兄弟会成员的房间”，在她失去意识时遭到强奸。

她诉讼中附上的一张群聊截图显示，一名 Chi Phi 兄弟会成员告诉其他兄弟，楼上的校友休息室里有“免费的鲍鱼”。群里有人回复说：“我他妈太爱 Chi Phi 了。” 另一个人插话说：“就像你可以走进去就掏出来一样。”

其中几名男子否认有任何不当行为。

但此案引发了人们的疑问：兄弟会和姐妹会的文化是否助长了性侵犯在兄弟会和姐妹会中的高发率？

美国心理学会2021年发布的一项调查追踪了男生从高中到大学二年级的情况。调查发现，兄弟会成员在大学前两年遭受性侵犯的可能性比其他学生高出62%。

另外，2009 年发表在《针对妇女的暴力》杂志上的一项研究估计，29% 的女大学生联谊会成员报告称在大学期间遭受过性侵犯，这一比例约为非成员的四倍。

改革希腊生活

2024年发生涉嫌轮奸案后，康奈尔大学的Chi Phi兄弟会分会被关闭，该兄弟会至今仍被禁止在校园内活动。在原告Doe提起的诉讼中，两名男性被告被开除，另有两名被告被停学。

但一些学生维权人士表示，在约翰·多伊案之后，学校在改革兄弟会/姐妹会方面做得远远不够。他们希望采取更有力的措施，加强对那些往往保密性极强的私人会员制团体的问责制。

加州大学戴维斯分校大三学生CJ Barles是全美各地组织抗议活动声援Doe的学生之一。她告诉半岛电视台，她理解兄弟会和姐妹会制度的吸引力。

巴尔斯解释说：“加入该组织的学生表示，这会给他们的简历增色不少。他们把这看作是一个内部组织，一个可以参与决策的机会，以及一个属于自己的圈子。”

但巴尔斯表示，她听到了一些令人不安的消息。她解释说，有些兄弟会举办派对时“要求每个男人”都必须带几个女人一起来。她补充说，这种要求“充分反映了某些团体所营造的文化”。

在上周的一次集会上，巴尔斯和其他抗议者呼吁加州大学系统实施新的措施，追究兄弟会性侵犯的责任，包括确立学生在性行为中撤回同意的权利。

但巴尔斯表示，她离开时对校园里女性讲述的性暴力经历感到震惊，其中许多女性都是亲身经历过性暴力。

“我听到的故事之多，简直令人难以置信地难过，”巴尔斯说道。这些抱怨让她对兄弟会和姐妹会制度更加怀疑：“我连跟他们中的大多数人都不想靠近。”