Bill Maher recently called out Cornell University’s fraternity culture — his own alma mater — for failing to produce gentlemen. When a gentleman encounters a vulnerable woman, Maher said, he doesn’t exploit her. He protects her.
That’s the wisdom of generations — rooted in reality about men and women. But decades of burying basic sexual morality have left young people adrift.
Now even Alex Cooper, creator of the raunchy podcast Call Her Daddy, is asking how campus sexual chaos persists. Cooper built her brand selling the lie that women can pursue casual hookups with zero consequences. Her show ranks among the most-watched by young women. Yet she surveys Cornell’s fallout and asks with zero self-awareness how we’re “still here.”
Many a woman caught in the wreckage would answer: “I got here by listening to your degrading show.”
The Cornell fraternity incident pulled back the curtain on what happens when decades of amoral attitudes collide with alcohol, drugs, and gross immaturity. The wreckage is sobering.
This is the generation we’re counting on to build marriages, raise families, and lead. Instead, the spiritual and moral foundations that make stable relationships possible have been knocked out from under them.
The mixed messages are dizzying. Universities insist men and women are interchangeable — yet only women can be sexual assault victims. Both parties drink, do drugs, and have sex. Only the man is held responsible.
Women demand equality and agency. But as The Federalist’s Sean Davis explains, “If you are going to have agency, you have to have accountability.”
Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute calls this the “rape industry” — a heads-I-win, tails-you-lose logic where a woman’s denial of being assaulted merely proves she was assaulted worse. There’s no way to falsify the allegation. Any bout of drunken sex can later be prosecuted as assault.
How are these kids supposed to fall in love in this atmosphere of enmity?
College men face contradictory commands. Classic male behavior — opening a door, leading a conversation — gets labeled toxic patriarchy. A man dare not assert himself.
Yet he’s supposed to arrive on a white horse to protect a vulnerable woman — who, remember, isn’t vulnerable because women are strong and don’t need men. Until they do.
Think how convoluted that sounds to a 20-year-old. We’ve blown up the old road maps. Neither men nor women know what to expect from each other.
Cornell’s administration is caught between two narratives of its own making. An army of Title IX employees exists to prosecute sexual assault and protect students. Down the street, Cornell’s health center provides guides for exploring bondage, sexual fantasies, and “ethical porn.” Sex can be “a terrific study break,” the materials say.
The dissonance is staggering.
The fragile notion of “consent” is supposed to hold this house of cards together. Once allegations surface, though, consent gets reinterpreted by both parties.
Cornell’s president has apologized and promised to “lead the way” in stopping campus assaults. But the sexual ethos won’t change until the messages change.
It’s time to admit the sexual revolution has brought us to an untenable place — debauchery in frat houses and ruined lives. A return to reality would help.
The author recently spoke on sexuality at a major campus and was instructed to avoid “gender essentialism” — don’t mention innate differences between men and women, even though reality stares you in the face.
Forceful voices like Heather Mac Donald’s are speaking louder now. Females and males have different responses around sex, she reminds us. Chastity and modesty are historic values because they’re reality-based. It’s normal to feel shame around promiscuous sex.
If you really want to empower women, tell them the truth: “You do not drink 10 drinks in two different bars and then have a beer at the frat. You don’t get into bed with a guy you may or may not know. You don’t take your clothes off.”
Students are struggling to forge lasting relationships in a turbulent world. They need guardrails and straight talk that bypass their libido and remind them what it means to fall in love with heart and soul — not just physical desire.
Otherwise, Cornell will hardly be the last story of sexual mayhem on college campuses.
