Cross-post by Sarah M from the SAFER Campus blog
Today finds me crawling out of blog hibernation to point ya’ll to the latest installment of “College Boys Just Want to Have Fun…By Demeaning Women and Making Jokes About Rape.” Today’s episode takes place at the University of Vermont, where a puzzling and revolting survey was recently distributed to the brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon. We were sent a copy of the questionnaire, which mostly consists of benign questions like name, birthday, major, amount of time with SigEp and favorite SigEp memories, hobbies, future goals, etc. It’s actually kind of nerdy and cute, until you get to the final three “personal questions.”
1. Where in public would I want to have sex?
2. Who’s my favorite artist?
3. If I could rape someone, who would it be?
We come across a lot of gross stuff at SAFER, but the contrast here makes this particularly jarring and offensive. It’s not the usual litany of purposefully offensive garbage; it’s a seemingly legit, “normal” survey with this one horrifying nuggets thrown in at the end. The normalization of the question—the nonchalance—is so…disturbing.
As often happens with these kind of “frat shenanigans,” the survey made it into the hands of other folks on campus, who were understandably upset and are taking action. This petition was started last night by “Feminists from UVM” and is already up to 375 signatures. This is what they have to say:
This egregious expression of rape culture is only the most recent example of systemic sexism at UVM. The past year alone has witnessed rape, multiple sexual assaults, and anti-abortion chalking in public spaces. While the university administration has laid off long-time Women’s and Gender Studies faculty and supported sexist institutions like Sigma Phi Epsilon, it has refused to take concerted action to combat sexism and rape culture. We demand that instead of diverting resources into vast salaries for its administrators, UVM should launch an aggressive campaign against sexism and rape culture, and it should expand institutions such as Women’s and Gender Studies and the Women’s Center at UVM. Furthermore, UVM must immediately disband Sigma Phi Epsilon. An institution that discusses who it wants to rape has no place at UVM or in the Burlington community.
Sign the UVM petition and look for updates over at FedUp Vermont, a local grassroots feminist organization. The story hasn’t hit the news yet (campus or otherwise) so there is no word on whether the school will take any action or if the men of Sigma Phi Epsilon have anything to say for themselves, but we’ll let you know if they do. Something tells me this was supposed to “funny.” Ha. Ha. Ha.
It makes me angry that this happens all over we must take a stand and stop this madness once and for all!!
it is important to differentiate organizations on UVM’s campus. there is also a “sigma phi society”, completely unrelated to sigma phi epsilon, and who have absolutely no involvement in these allegations, but i am sure that many outraged individuals have mistaken the two organizations out of anger. the men of sigma phi society are in no way involved but have suffered generalized negative feedback solely because of similarity in name. let us respect the character of sigma phi society, as they seem to be the unfortunate collateral damage in this whole affair. sigma phi epsilon is NOT sigma phi society. and although i cant verify the accusations against sigma phi epsilon, i have attended functions at sigma phi society and as woman can say i have never been treated with less than total decency and chivalry by any brothers. this whole situation is a difficult one for many, and while many of our tempers may be flaring, we owe it to our abilities of logic and reasoning to not point a broad finger at Greek life at UVM in general.
This is unrealistic. No one raped anyone and a scholarly fraternity like Sigma Phi epsilon should not be penalized because they had an innapropriate question on a survey. How about UVM helps out their students and addresses the problem instead of disbanding the frat, which wouldn’t teach anyone anything.
I was in sigma phi epsilon at lambuth university and we believed to treat woman with respect. After parties we would walk them to their apartments so that they would arrive safely. I can’t believe a sigep chapter would do such a thing and i am sorry about the horrible actions that happened.
It’s funny how this alleged rape story has zero credible sources. UVM administration doesn’t even know the full details. The story was exploited though a girl’s Tumblr blog. A BLOG. This girl dropped out of greek life, started a blog, wrote posts about how she dislikes the greek community and now, began this terrible rumor about these fraternity men. I obviously do not agree with using anything involving rape lightly, but this blogger doesn’t even have solid facts. She has hurt so many people with this alleged story as she sits behind a computer screen and cowardly types away. It is terrible that people can consider a personal blog a credible source of newsworthy information. So, nice job! Your story is so true!
Agreed…if you are not a part of UVM Greek Life or do not know the full story, don’t judge. It was ONE person who brought down an entire chapter without proof. SigEps at UVM are known for being gentlemen. The story you are sharing is completely untrue. A girl with a grudge disbanded a group of wonderful men.
It is good to hear that the Lambuth chapter was different but unfortunately the fact is that frat culture and rape culture often rise and fall together. I can’t even begin to fathom a campus society where rape is either so commonplace and/or trivial that it is assumed that all sig eps surveyed would have an answer to that question.