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'Grossly Offensive' Frat Email Suggests Assaulting Girls for Fun

"Tonight's the type of night that makes fathers afraid to send their daughters away to school."
Image by Alexey Kuzma via Stocksy

Last week, members of a University of Richmond fraternity sent out an email to more than 95 recipients, suggesting they get wasted and take advantage of young women. Since then, the Eta chapter of Kappa Alpha Order has been suspended by its national headquarters as well as the university, pending an investigation.

The email, first obtained by student newspaper the Collegian, went out Friday afternoon as students prepared to welcome the opening of the school's fraternities. In addition to issuing a reminder of the night's theme ("ameriKA") and what colors to wear, the email writers also note in a parenthetical that clothing is optional: "or be naked for all I care, just make sure your ass makes it out tonight."

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Tonight's the type of night that makes fathers afraid to send their daughters away to school. Let's get it.

"[W]e're looking forward to watching that lodge virginity be gobbled up for all ya'll [sic]. See you boys tonight," the email continues. "If you haven't already started drinking, catch up. Tonight's the type of night that makes fathers afraid to send their daughters away to school. Let's get it."

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On Monday, school officials learned of the email and suspended all chapter operations and activities, with plans to look into the matter more. They issued a statement, which read in part: "The e-mail contained grossly offensive language and suggestions of behavior inconsistent with our policies concerning Greek life and with the caring nature of our campus community."

Aside from being "grossly offensive," the email offers insight into cultural values, says Jacquelyn W. White, Emerita Professor of Psychology at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She's studied gender issues, sexual victimization, and intimate partner violence for almost 40 years. "It's more than just words."

The message conveyed in the fraternity's email reinforces the concept of rape culture, says White. "It basically says, if we can get women drunk, whatever happens is fair game. That's one of the big problems with rape culture—that people don't pay attention to women's sexual agency and the importance of consent. When you have that kind of alcohol and drug-induced environment, it makes consent very difficult."

"These fraternity men are promoting, at minimum, disrespectful attitudes," she continues, which "ties into toxic masculinity, the notion that to be viewed as a real man, you have to engage in a lot of behaviors that are really unhealthy. For what we're talking about, it really involves around the treatment of women."

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But Jesse Lyons, assistant executive director for advancement at the national headquarters of Kappa Alpha Order, told the Washington Post that "[g]entlemanly conduct is at the core of Kappa Alpha Order's values." According to its website, one of Kappa Alpha's founding principles is reverence. Its motto is "Dieu et Les Dames," which means "God and the ladies."

This isn't the first time this year Kappa Alpha Order has been at the center of a controversy. An annual tradition of erecting a wall of sandbags around the off-campus house of Kappa Alpha at Tulane University made some people uncomfortable in April when members added Donald Trump's name and the slogan "Make America Great Again" to the structure. The image called to mind the Republican presidential candidate's divisive rhetoric over immigration, and the wall was subsequently dismantled by Tulane football players.