The “Cornell 7” case has caused a wave of outrage across the country, and rightfully so. People are asking themselves why we keep letting gender-based violence happen, wondering how we should address a system that keeps failing women. This recent case has reopened a longstanding conversation about whether greek life should be banned. Some argue that fraternities foster an environment where sexual assault is normalized, encouraging a damaging lifestyle of abuse, substance misuse, and transgressions. However, banning greek life falls short as an approach to address gender-based violence.
Granted, the elimination of greek life might provide some temporary relief and a feeling that universities have finally done something concrete to protect the student body. Yet, what this solution fails to address is that the brotherhood that protects rapists and sexual offenders is just one facet of a violent culture that goes far beyond a fraternity house. With or without greek life, women will still face sexual violence and cases like Cornell’s Jane Doe won’t simply disappear. The Cornell case is not a one-off; we are dealing with a systemic issue. In all areas of life, men have been taught to protect each other and uphold each other’s bad behavior.
This “brotherhood” has a name: patriarchal solidarity. The term refers to alliances and unspoken rules that protect perpetrators of violence from accountability. We can see this in our day to day life: every year 74% of rape cases remain unresolved, and in the 26% of cases that move forward, there is no guarantee a perpetrator will be held accountable. These statistics speak to a system that is built to make the process of obtaining help more challenging for victims and protect their abusers instead. The very process of filing a claim is exhausting, revictimizing, and complex — what is known as institutional revictimization. At Penn, sexual assault survivors find that spaces such as Penn Women’s Center and LGBT centers are often understaffed due to lack of funding (but clearly not lack of cash flow), which makes the process harder to navigate and more grueling.
Let’s make it even simpler. This brotherhood locks into place every time a man makes a sexist joke and his friends laugh. It’s when men objectify women on social media, and no one calls them out — like the 50 boys that remained silent in the group chat that announced Jane Doe’s assault. Psychology research has looked into how and why patriarchal solidarity operates, finding that men are more drawn to defend the status quo the more they believe gender roles are fixed. In the experiment, exposing men to essays that defended the idea that gender roles were “meant to be” made the subjects more likely to excuse and defend each other. It’s not about fraternities, it’s about a broader structure that reinforces sexism and affects how men act way before they even step foot on a college campus.
Banning greek life doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of this problem. What happens when college is over and our days of wearing Greek letters are long gone? 38% of women experience sexual harassment in the workplace, but 70% of these experiences are never even reported. So, even if greek life is banned, who’s to say the problem will go away? Will that stop perpetrators from hosting parties and spiking women’s drinks? Will it stop male bystanders from looking the other way when their friends do something awful? Having an environment without greek life does not mean that we have successfully created an environment where women are protected and feel safe enough to share when they have experienced sexual assault.
Look beyond America: globally, 1 in 3 women experience sexual violence at least once in their life. Greek life might be a staple of the American college experience, but it’s still not enough to claim that it will serve as a long-lasting solution to gender-based violence. If the problem was as easy as getting rid of fraternities, women in other countries — where greek life is not a thing — would be facing lower odds of sexual violence.
Our focus should not be on getting rid of the brotherhoods on campus, but rather on tackling the deeper patriarchal connections between men that prevent them from holding each other accountable for their crimes. Universities need to shift the focus away from shallow solutions and punishments — like writing an essay — and develop concrete policies and penalties where sexual assaulters are punished harshly instead of merely excused. Only when there are streamlined, actionable reforms to protect victims instead of perpetrators will the patriarchal brotherhood will finally weaken.
MARIANA MARTINEZ is a College senior studying political science and economics from Bogotá, Colombia. Her email is marmari@sas.upenn.edu.
Mariana Martinez is a College senior studying political science from Bogotá, Colombia. Her column focuses on politics and student culture. She can be reached at marmari@sas.upenn.edu.
