r/college • u/catievirtuesimp • 14d ago
USA Is College Getting Less Safe for Women?
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/10/cornell-gang-rape-allegations/688849/?gift=8kzBIKUM7CQERoMsIbU_plK8FhnDztNRzY3G3rno6gw279
u/haileyskydiamonds 14d ago
College isn’t the issue. Going to class and getting an education is perfectly safe.
Frat parties are not safe and never have been. Alcohol and drug fueled events result in a lot of lowered inhibitions and impaired judgment. Ideally anyone could attend a party and be safe no matter what, but this is not an ideal world. We have to protect ourselves and each other as much as possible.
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u/dmitch1302 13d ago
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the things that cause women to be in harms way in college are all things they voluntarily go to, not blaming women fully because I agree that there shouldn’t be people who prey on people while in a intoxicated state in general. But going to those events knowing the stigma around them seems like a risk that women take and put them selves in harms way.
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u/haileyskydiamonds 13d ago
It’s not just women. Plenty of young men end up in bad situations, too. Many of them in their drunken and compromised condition end as victims…and many end up as perpetrators. Guys that never would have imagined themselves capable of SA do things they can’t take back. In addition, peer pressure in the Greek system has both young men and young women doing things they never expected themselves to do. Bullying and violence in the form of hazing is super common.
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u/dmitch1302 13d ago
I completely agree with that, I’m a young male and a senior in college, my biggest flex is that throughout college I focused on my health and degree, I wish more young people would prioritize that over getting drunk and participating in unhealthy habits. It does nothing but ruin lives and set people back.
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u/bl1y Grading Papers Is Why I Drink 13d ago
Unfortunately, messaging around how to keep yourself safe has tended to avoid anything that might draw an accusation of victim blaming.
For instance, I've seen countless things about not taking open drinks from people, not leaving drinks unattended etc. But nothing saying that the person most likely to drug you at a party is you.
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u/JimBeam823 13d ago
For the average woman, it’s probably safer than ever.
Greek life is its own thing and, even here, the Cornell incident is tame compared to the 80s and 90s. They just didn’t have social media back then.
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u/MidNightMare5998 14d ago edited 14d ago
No, it’s always been like this, it’s just now getting talked about. If anything it’s slightly more safe because at least some people are speaking up. But it has literally always been like this.
My mom’s stories about college are indication enough that this has been the norm for a very, very long time. She talked about how some fraternities would have an informal “little sister” setup where members of certain fraternities would protect women from other men, walk them home, et cetera. So it was bad enough that even some fraternities set up protections from each other.
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u/MidNightMare5998 13d ago
Yeah she talked about some of the guys asking her out and inviting her to parties. They did do nice things like walk her home but in some cases it was also a way to call dibs, I think
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u/WestHistorians 13d ago
Many fraternities do that. They are just being white knights, hoping to score with the women they "protect".
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u/MidNightMare5998 13d ago
I don’t think you’re entirely wrong, especially based on my mom’s stories (the guys who would walk her home often asked her out on dates, invited her to parties, etc). I do think their hearts were often in the right place but some definitely still took it as an opportunity to “claim” certain women for themselves. Sorry you got downvoted to hell
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u/CyanLight9 14d ago
As if it were ever safe to begin with.
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u/Fractal-Entity 14d ago
Right. It’s always been unsafe. 80s-90s was probably peak of unsafe, though.
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u/diyandmc240 14d ago
I do think in general we see improvements over time for things like sexism.
But the article is actually pointing out that right now, it may be even worse than it was just a few years ago. One of the things I didn’t know is Trump rolled back guidance to universities of how to handle these cases that had been given in 2011. Really flabbergasting, I just feel that only someone who is involved in sexual assault would even think to roll something like that back.
In addition, I’ve noticed that having Trump as president(found guilty of sexual misconduct and famously boasted about how they let you do what you want, you can even grab ‘em by the pussy) has really made these things worse than they were 10 years ago, or shit maybe even 20-30 years ago.
So in this case, I think it may be fair to say it is worse, of course that’s not to say it was ever safe.
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u/blackgenz2002kid 13d ago
100% people feel more open in discussing their hatred, sexism, racism, and other biases for people seeing that the president basically does the same thing
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u/bl1y Grading Papers Is Why I Drink 13d ago
The 2011 Dear Colleague Letter was an over-correction and needed to be rolled back.
The most egregious part was requiring that universities use a preponderance of the evidence standard for sexual assault cases (most were using a clear and convincing standard).
And then after going with the lowest possible burden of proof, universities were eroding basic due process protections. Depending on the university, you might not be able to have counsel represent you in your hearing, might not be able to cross examine witnesses, and in some cases might not even know the details of the evidence against you.
Many universities also adopted the sole investigator model where the person investigating the allegation also serves as the judge and jury.
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u/Hopeful_Usual7904 13d ago
It wasn’t “safe” when I was college kid 20+ Years ago, BUT, good men were more defensive of women back then. I think college guys are afraid of being called a “simp” or a “white knight” now. Back when I was young, they still wanted to be known as a protector of women. Now, they want to avoid ridicule from other men.
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u/Mobile-Package-8869 14d ago
I’m a woman and have never felt unsafe at my college. That’s just me personally though.
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u/lavapig_love 14d ago
I'm glad, you have the right to be safe. And I've had friends that told me the same. But other friends told me a very different experience.
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u/Mobile-Package-8869 14d ago
Honestly, sometimes I wonder if college is really getting more unsafe for women or if women’s perception of it is changing. Like, many people express fear of assault, but when you look at crime statistics published by the university, the rape rate is extremely low for a campus of this size. The number of reported incidents is lower than that of my hometown, which has a smaller population and is considered a safe suburban area. And yes, I know that many rapes are not reported for a variety of reasons, but surely that’s always been the case, and likely worse in the past.
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u/RonIsIZe_13 14d ago edited 14d ago
You've hit the nail on the head..our perception of safety and our reality after often disconnected. You can walk down a dark alley at night and statistically be safer than staying with a trusted family friend..but where do you feel safer? It's the same as fear of violence in general- society is far less violent now than it has been for centuries but the fear of violence can be heightened by media- because you believe it is everywhere and you're at can constant risk. Perception is a funny thing.
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u/IsopodKey2040 14d ago
I guess the cyber aspect is new, but haven't these issues always been prevalent?
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u/Hopeful_Usual7904 13d ago
I went to school 20 years ago and it seems that things are getting worse. I have a high school daughter and the boys are cruel in a way that was unthinkable when I was in school. Boys and girls seem so far apart from each other now. When I was in high school and college, everyone hung out together in a big group. The boys and girls were truly friends. That being said, there were incidents of SA on campus in college, but as I recall, they were dealt with swiftly if the woman reported the incident.
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u/bunnypaste 13d ago
Did everybody miss when they pre-emptively relaxed sexual assault and anti-discriminatory protections for women in workplaces and schools?
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u/ghallway 14d ago
From what I've been told no, it's always been dangerous as hell. Folks are only doing a better job of getting the word out how shitty men are, especially in crowds.
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u/emmaisbadatvideogame 14d ago
Everything has always been unsafe for women and yeah it is getting slightly worse as young men are being further pushed into incel and rape culture through the internet.
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u/WestHistorians 13d ago
Statistically, the world is far more unsafe for men than women. The vast majority of crime victims are men.
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u/franklikethehotdog 13d ago
The perpetrators of most crime are men. The crimes against men are mostly committed by men.
Men are, in fact, the problem.
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u/catievirtuesimp 14d ago
“Wired ran an astonishing storyabout an online community called the “burnerverse,” where groups of young men affiliated with different colleges use anonymous accounts on social media to victimize women. The subject of the story, Maddie Kowalski, a sophomore at the University of Florida, went one afternoon to visit a friend at a fraternity house, much like the woman who attended Cornell. Hours later, Kowalski learned that nude photos and videos apparently taken earlier in the year—of her engaged in sexual activity she couldn’t fully remember—were circulating on X. Within 24 hours, her name was trending nationally, and content about her had been viewed more than 8 million times. People started placing bets on whether or not she’d kill herself, and sent her messages urging her to do so.
The burnerverse, as Wired’s E. J. Dickson explains, is an amorphous online community associated with “large schools with prominent sports teams” as well as fraternities, whose pledges are encouraged to set up burner accounts with the goal of going viral. “
-quote from the article
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u/camohorse 14d ago
Honestly, it’s never been safer than it is right now. The problem is that the bar is still in hell. Personally, I have never and will never attend a college party, and I’d have to have extremely good reasons to be on campus after dark.
Going to a party is just not worth the risk of being roofied and potentially raped.
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u/Adventurous_Main3688 14d ago
Fear mongering. People are chilling, doing just fine.
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u/MrPhysicsMan 13d ago
There may be, but misogyny allows them to not care. Stick close to those who do.
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u/Shitty_Pickle 14d ago
It's always been dangerous. The "Red Zone" wouldn't be a thing if it was safe.
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u/lavapig_love 14d ago
Some public universities have decertified fraternities committing crime like this.
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u/TeddieSnow 14d ago
Great. I want a broader brush stroke. Lose them entirely. Frats can buy out dying colleges and start RAPE COLLEGES if need be.
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u/lavapig_love 14d ago
The problem is... that they are. Cornell is just the latest.
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u/TeddieSnow 14d ago
Not a dying college.
Cornell holds an endowment of approximately $10+ billion, placing it among the wealthiest educational institutions in the world.
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u/Alarming_Ask_244 14d ago
Can't they just draw the line at stop going to frat parties?
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u/redskins98ac 14d ago
agreed. studies a lot of issues on campus happen outside of normal school hours. and most of these happen at parties they go to. in general, a woman going to school and not going to parties has an extremely low rate of issues happening.
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u/redskins98ac 14d ago
this isn’t blaming the victim. the post was about if college is safe for women. college parties are largely unsafe for everyone. this is where violence happens especially. no one is blaming the victim. maybe just suggesting people avoid parties that they don’t really feel comfortable at…
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u/TeddieSnow 14d ago edited 14d ago
I don't tag team. I'll reply to the person I replied to thanks.
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u/Alarming_Ask_244 14d ago
Who's blaming anyone here? I'm talking about a collective action problem. If women as a group can't refuse to attend frat parties, they're aren't going to be able to refuse to attend college
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u/n0m4d1234 14d ago
EXACTLY. It's been pissing me off that there is so much victim blaming.
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u/FootFemgus 13d ago
you think the people telling you that "frat parties are dangerous, you shouldn't go there" and the rapists are on the same team?
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u/Spiritual-Road2784 13d ago
“Getting”?
Honey, very few places in this world have ever been truly safe for women. We’ve just been programmed by previous generations to go along with things to stay safER, because men don’t like it when we refuse or fight, so we accepted it as normal until we stopped accepting it.
It’s just now becoming more visible.
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u/Positive-Entrance792 14d ago
No- I had a bad experience drinking too much at a frat at Cornell in the 90s
We just didn’t have cell phones to track texts etc… so it was harder to prove.
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u/apollo4567 13d ago
I think the upcoming TikTok generation will unfortunately lead to a surge in assault cases. Do you realize how much near-porn content is on that app, influencing young men’s minds? I’m not saying porn in general is bad, but seeing it when you’re not actively seeking it out, and when it might shape your views on women, could be problematic. This definitely deserves further study.
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u/happyfamily714 14d ago
Nope. We are getting louder calling it out.