By: Danielle Binks
Something sounded eerily familiar when reading
recent media reports of the misogynistic, animalistic goings-on at the Catholic Church-owned St John's College. In an
ABC news report, a history of misogyny has been unearthed which highlights an ingrained ‘old boys’ mentality that has raged for years even before these most recent headlines. A former female student of neighbouring school Sancta Sophia College remembers one particular incident; "And during orientation week they invited us [over] and sang a song which went 'yes means yes and no means yes' [and] chanted over and over again."
It sounded similar to a chant that Harvard Law School lecturer, Diane L. Rosenfeld, recounted in her Big Porn Inc chapter, ‘Who Are You Calling a ‘Ho’?: Challenging the Porn Culture on Campus’. The chant she refers to in her opening paragraph went; “NO MEANS YES! YES MEANS ANAL!”. It was being yelled by 45 men, members and pledges of the Yale chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) fraternity as they surrounded a female dorm. The event was captured on film and widely circulated on YouTube.
Actually, a lot of Rosenfeld’s chapter sounds familiar, and striking similarities can be made between the goings on at St. John’s College and practically every university campus across America.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s reporting of the College’s ‘culture or anarchy’ included a photo of St. John’s students wearing tuxedos and hollering at an image projected on a big screen – an image of a woman in see-through knickers and high boots. This image says a lot about the misogynistic underpinnings of the behaviour of these boys, and touches on the most horrifying aspects of their culture – and that is their treatment of women.
Many articles concerned with the St. John’s students’ (called “Johnsmen”) unpunished behaviour have outlined their crimes; from smashed windows and faeces left everywhere to beds barricading the corridors and fires being lit. But some of the most disturbing accounts of the “Johnsmen’s” loutish behaviour include their treatment of female students; “… a crude message and a third-year female student's phone number that was graffitied onto the circular driveway in front of the college tower.” Every second Friday, the student committee has decreed that all Johnsmen not speak to any female students - who are known as ''Jets'': the term is an acronym for ''just excuse the slag''. And of course, the trigger which brought all of this behaviour to light and nearly took a young girl’s life. Eight months ago a female student collapsed and was taken to hospital after an initiation ritual, which had her on her knees and drinking an alcoholic cocktail laced with shampoo. She was being punished, you see, for walking forwards instead of backwards along the fourth-floor Polding Wing corridor known as the ''Men's Gallery''. The girl’s father stressed at the time that she was not being ‘forced’ to drink the lethal beverage, that there was a degree of conformity and trust involved. Also, he said: “She's kneeling down there and, as I'm sure you can imagine, it's an intimidating environment at that particular point.”
The behaviour of the St. John’s students is appalling in its own right – even more so when you think that that young girl nearly died eight months ago, but it was only last week that Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, decided it’s time to step in. But what’s really, truly frightening is the ingrained misogyny of this institution, and what this ‘Lord of the Flies’ type behaviour is teaching these young men.
Diane L. Rosenfeld tries to find the root cause of this misogynistic, ritualistic behaviour that seems to breed amongst men in close-knit, collegiate communities. To some extent, Rosenfeld says, this behavior is a by-product of all-male spaces. ‘Fraternities and locker rooms, as key spaces for male bonding, are important places to examine, as attitudes towards women and gay men are often the basis of jokes and male bonding activities. The privacy men have in these spaces allows them to talk uninterrupted and without consequence, ensuring unimpeded transmission of misogynist attitudes.’ She says this exclusivity (such as that of the prestigious St. John’s College) “confers on them an elite status that is easily translated into entitlement, and because the cement of their brotherhood is intense, and intensely sexualized, bonding”
So how do we stop this behavior? More importantly, how do we stop it from escalating? The answer is clear to anyone who has been following the St. John’s headlines, and Rosenfeld concurs: “a strong incentive for schools to take a proactive role in preventing sexual violence before it happens by focusing on preventative education” Sadly, as anyone who has been following the St. John’s story will also know the school has not had a firm hand in derailing the awful behaviour of its students. Alecia Simmonds for DailyLife even asked: “why are the old boys’ networks so intent on protecting criminality?”
Rosenfeld continues, saying; “Schools play an enormous role in creating campus community, and have a great deal of power to shape norms based on sexual respect.” The only question that remains is; will the current St. John’s culture be cut off before it can do any more damage? Or will these boys be left to fall into a new routine that will dictate the rest of their privileged, male lives – one in which they never suffer the consequences of their loutish, misogynistic behaviour?
