Cornell University’s Zeta Beta Tau butchered its public image with its latest Greek life hazing stunt that makes a mockery of women’s bodies in a misogynistic exchange for cheap bro points.

The Cornell Daily Sun reported pledge members of Cornell’s ZBT chapter were encouraged to have sex with the heaviest women possible and earned points based on the women’s weights. The fraternity has been placed on probation for two years, and the university’s fraternity and sorority board says that the fraternity violated its hazing policies.

Policy violations aside, the incident is disgusting. College-aged men turning women’s weights into a game is telling of the values the fraternity encouraged its pledge members to hold true. The “pig roast” nickname subjugates women to a system of self-worth based on a number on the scale and reinforces the idea that heavier women don’t deserve sex. Weight is not a one-size-fits-all indicator of a woman’s health, and it isn’t anyone else’s business but her own.

While not all Greek organizations are cut from the same problematic cloth, this “pig roast” isn’t an anomaly in terms of Greek groups engaging in controversial activities.

A former fraternity president at Cornell was sentenced to six years of probation in April after being charged as a junior for first-degree attempted rape, first-degree criminal sex act with a helpless victim and sexual misconduct at a Psi Upsilon house, per The Washington Post. And the Guardian reported in 2014 that women in sororities are 74 percent more likely to be raped than other women on college campuses.

While many question the accuracy and motivation of sexual assault victims’ testimonies, these victims, and those numbers, don’t lie. They tell a story — one that needs an ending.

The persistence of rape culture and institutionalized misogyny is woven into the United States’ higher education system. We’ve seen it time and time again. Brock Turner, who was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman after a 2015 fraternity party at Stanford University, was released after spending just three months in jail in September 2016, and appealed his conviction in December 2017 on the grounds of a “fundamentally unfair” trial.

We have to start holding these organizations accountable for their actions and setting them to higher standards, academically and morally. Cornell University handled this case well since it is moving to expel members who have broken the rules of conduct. But Cornell, and other universities, must take firmer stances against hazing and sexual assault within Greek life because the only way to eradicate institutionalized problems is by addressing them head-on.

There will only be a paradigm shift toward these communities of “brotherhood” when the numbers of incidents dissipate and the narrative around them shifts.

Lianza Reyes is a sophomore broadcast and digital journalism major. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at lireyes@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @ReyesLianza.

Published on February 13, 2018 at 9:11 pm