By now, most of America has heard about the young woman who says she was gang raped by fraternity brothers while she was a student at Cornell University.
asserted
she → hear → University
The case has been dubbed the "Cornell 7" across mainstream and social media, after the seven Chi Phi members named in her recent lawsuit.
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case → dub → lawsuit
The woman who filed the suit, referred to as Jane Doe, first reported her experience to Cornell campus police in November 2024.
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who → file → November
According to her lawyer, after Cornell's Title IX process, two of the seven were expelled, and the other five were suspended, sent to workshops, and assigned essays.
uncertain
five → accord → essays
Cornell says none of them got off with only an essay.
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none → say → essay
At the time, the Tompkins County District Attorney declined to prosecute.
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Attorney → decline → time
After public outcry, the DA issued a statement explaining that Jane Doe’s original statement to police described the drug use and sex as "voluntary, conscious, and consensual.”
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statement → issue → use
“However, recognizing that the process of healing from trauma is personal and different for every human, my office has reopened this investigation," he wrote.
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he → recognize → investigation
Now, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has appointed state Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the case.
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Hochul → appoint → case
How did the case come to light?
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case → come → light
It took The Cornell Daily Sun, the campus student newspaper, breaking the story roughly two years later for this to capture the hearts, minds, and headlines of Americans across the country.
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this → take → country
The story struck a nihilistic nerve.
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story → strike → nerve
This case lands squarely in a moment of massive frustration, disappointment, and anger over how the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell case was handled.
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case → land → frustration
New CDC data shows that nearly half of American women and one in six men have experienced some form of contact sexual violence.
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half → show → violence
Based on how broad this issue is and based on how some of the most visible cases have turned out, apathy about our ability to see our way from a society steeped in rape culture to one where sexual violence is rare should come as no surprise.
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violence → base → surprise
As someone fully immersed in this work, even though I see a pathway forward, I understand these feelings from a very deep place in my spirit.
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I → immerse → spirit
We should be disgusted.
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We → disgust → ?
So what do we do with these feelings?
We provide an outpouring of support to Jane Doe and to other women who have come forward with their accounts of sexual assault, such as Kendall Francis, who took to TikTok to speak out about how her college, LSU, handled her Title IX case.
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college → do → case
According to ESPN, in July, the LSU Office of Civil Rights and Title IX found her alleged attacker, a football player, responsible for “forcible rape” and suspended him for two semesters.
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attacker → accord → semesters
The player appealed and in August, Administrative Law Judge Janet Waguespack reduced his punishment to four semesters’ probation, allowing him to remain on campus.
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him → appeal → campus
The player's lawyers maintain that their client is innocent.
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client → maintain → ?
The outpouring of support matters, both so these young women can get the justice they're seeking and so survivors everywhere know that support is out here.
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support → matter → justice
But what many of us know is that for every Jane Doe and Kendall Francis who reports and seeks justice, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of survivors who won't, for a lot of reasons.
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who → know → reasons
Chief among them is feeling alone in the fight.
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Chief → feel → fight
But I'll admit it's hard to tell when spotlights dim, headlines fade, and accountability seems stifled.
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accountability → admit → ?
As if right on cue, something else happened this week while these cases took over headlines.
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cases → happen → headlines
The Trump Administration’s Department of Education altered Title IX rules, declaring that harassment has to be "severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive" before a school must act, that most off-campus violence falls outside a school's responsibility, and that a college survivor can be cross-examined at a live hearing by the advisor her attacker chose.
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attacker → alter → advisor
This decision landing right as the Cornell 7 case came to light is telling.
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case → land → light
It's one of the clearest illustrations of the direct line between the damage this administration has done to the fight against sexual and gender-based violence—especially among young people.
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administration → do → people
The Trump Administration’s decision to make it more burdensome to file a Title IX complaint only adds to the helplessness so many survivors feel.
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survivors → make → helplessness
Patriarchy protects itself the way any system of power does.
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system → protect → power
It writes the rules, staffs the offices, and then leaves survivors like Jane Doe and Kendall Francis to fight for justice on their own.
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It → write → own
Of course, it is worth remembering the challenge we collectively face isn’t simply a matter of one rule or how it is applied; there are questions we must confront about where our culture has ended up.
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culture → remember → rule
After all, these Cornell students were tweens when recordings of now-President Donald Trump leaked of him using crude language to describe how he treats women.
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he → leak → women
The context may be different, but we have to ask: How far is the line between "grab 'em by the p---y" and "free p---y", the message the lawsuit says one of the Cornell 7 sent his fraternity brothers, inviting them to join in the hours-long assault on Jane Doe?
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one → have → Doe
Yet, in the face of these various challenges, we must also remember: We are not helpless.
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We → remember → challenges
On October 15, it'll be nine years since #MeToo went viral.
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MeToo → go → October
We're far past the hashtag, but we're still in the movement, and it's a very real, very active movement fighting tooth and nail to destroy systems that prevent justice.
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that → fight → justice
The answer to such systems has always been the organized power of the people those systems harm.
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systems → harm → people
The rage people are feeling right now, from Baton Rouge to Ithaca, can be organized and directed exactly where it's needed.
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it → feel → Ithaca
…and 34 more, not listed.
The Aporia
