Australian news source The Age has the story of a Pro-Rape Facebook group which was created by students at the all-male St. Paul’s College within the University of Sydney. The page was believed to have been set up by football players to inspire more competitive play, according to New South Wales official Pru Goward.
Established in August, the group, called “Define Statutory” and its membership were initially public, its members described on the page as “anti-consent,” according to The Telegraph. An uproar has been reached in recent weeks, with New South Wales Minister for Women Linda Burney going as far to say she was “sickened” to hear about the social networking group in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“The idea that a group of young men that are going to become leaders within our community, leaders in the law, leaders in medicine, leaders in business, studying at an elite college, at an elite university, think it’s OK to post information like this encouraging rape on a website is absolutely abhorrent.”
Student representative council president Noah White spoke out after the incident, stating that sexual harassment was “a real problem” at the university’s colleges. She puts the responsibility squarely on the colleges’ shoulders to address these issues.
Other findings in The Age’s story detail that a 10-year old anti-discrimination review’s recommendation that the university’s harassment policy be written to cover all the included colleges was never executed. The inside source also reveals that “Young women are afraid to come forward to report breaches as there is no independent process for investigating complaints.”
An investigation into the identity of the Facebook groups’ founders has been proposed.
Our Take:
How legitimately detached from proper society do you have to be to post a PUBLIC PRO-RAPE Facebook group? Even if it’s a complete joke or meant to analogize sports and rape, this is beyond idiotic.
Can you imagine taking part in that all-male discussion?
“Dude you know how we talk about raping opposing teams? We should TOTALLY make a Facebook group, only without the sports part.”
“That’s a f***ing awesome idea! We should let everyone see it too! Then they’ll think we’re pro-rape! How funny would that be?”
The real FAIL here? Most of this outrage could have been avoided if someone had clicked “Private” when creating the freaking group! Then the immature and misogynistic joke could continue without rebuke!
Much like the article I wrote last month about senators voting against an Anti-Rape bill, I can’t honestly believe these students are in favor of rape (without seeing more evidence). I can however blame them for their severe lack of tact or respect.
How do you feel about this? Was it an overblown reaction or inside joke gone too public? Let us know!
