Boys' Clubs

I have often criticized feminists who are way too quick to embrace the very misguided view that women in the Western world have reached equality with men.  These very same people will tell you that there is nothing wrong with boy clubs as long as there is a female equivalent.

But my question here is how similar are boy clubs to girl clubs?

In my experience girl clubs are specifically designed to help empower women and girls for example a women’s only golf club would enable women who may very well feel threatened in a male dominated environment thus restricting them or even preventing them from reaching their full potential.  Many of these women who are so used to been put down and ridiculed by men would never even attempt to try something that is considered a male dominated sport.

Women’s golf courses and clubs would provide women with a space just for women where they can escape a male dominated world full of sexism, harassment, racism etc, to be able to relax, to get appreciated for who they are and not be ridiculed for just been women.  A place where sexism can be avoided and real friendships can be formed.

When looking at the equivalent i.e. a men’s only golf course or club, these males dominated institutions are not designed to enable men to escape the blatant sexism the men especially white males allegedly have to endure from women, but rather they encourage sexism amongst men.

Many white businessmen often will explain to you that playing golf with their white male clients is an important way of doing business.  Instead of actually working in the office, they will leave the real work to the women and head off to the gulf course where they will make business deals with their male clients.  Thus the women who are left at the office to actual do the work get left out of important decision making and miss out on important business networking opportunities which would definitely help them grow as business people.

At these boys clubs men not only ensure that women cannot grow business wise, but these clubs encourage sexism and even racism and women are discussed as nothing short of sex objects.

If women’s clubs help uplift women, while boys clubs encourage sexism and racism, we need to start asking ourselves, are boy and girl only clubs the same?  The answer is a clear NO.  Girls clubs strive to liberate women while boy’s clubs uplift male supremacy.

If we want to destroy male supremacy, if we want to liberate women, then feminists need to start seriously asking themselves, what should we do about the boy’s only club problem.  How should it be dealt with?

The following is an article written by Eric Holder that poses the questions “Do fraternities cause rape culture”

When reading this article a feminist should also be asking herself about Sororities. 

Fraternities may encourage a rape culture but sororities certainly don’t. 

If Fraternities cause a rape culture and oppress women, while sororities uplift women how can one say that the two are equal and that if sororities exist then it is only fair that fraternities exist?

“Odds are if you’ve spent time on a college campus you’ve heard warnings about “frats.” They’re testosterone-fueled groups of adolescent alpha males, and if you somehow stumble into their parties, watch out what you drink because there’s a good chance you’ll be drugged and assaulted.

The unfortunate thing is that this is one of those stereotypes that has a lot of truth to it. Studies have shown that men who are in fraternities are more likely to commit a rape then those who aren’t, and as many as 70% to 90% of gang rapes are committed by fraternity members.

The statistics are troubling, to say the least, and it’s leading the Wall Street Journal to ponder whether the time has come to shut down fraternities altogether: 

It is against this boorish cartel that 16 Yale students and recent alumni asserted themselves in a Title IX complaint brought against the institution last month—a complaint that could cost the university $500 million in federal funds.

The claim concerns both the ways that sexual assaults are handled by the university and also the effect that various fraternity “pranks” have had on its female students. The last straw for the complainants seems to have been a Delta Kappa Epsilon initiation last fall in which a mob of pledges chanted “No Means Yes! Yes Means Anal!” and other enlightening slogans. (Yale officials have said they do not believe the university is in violation of Title IX; they have also said the university will cooperate with a federal investigation.)

The horrifying part of it all is that, for the most part, fraternity members are allowed to get away with their absurd behavior, with people taking a “boys will be boys” approach to the whole thing while turning a blind eye to the darker assault-driven side of their behavior. People treat the rumors of frat house rape as just that; rumors that shouldn’t really be given much credence.

Rape is very much a part of college life, though, no matter how much we want to ignore it. Studies suggest as many as one in four college-age women are the victims of rape. A full 10% of these rapes are believed to have taken place in fraternity houses. As is typical with rape, however, very little of it gets reported, possibly as low as 10%, and in even fewer cases the perpetrator is ever brought to justice.

An important question following that setup is where do you draw the line? Even if you shutter every fraternity house across every college campus in the country, you still can’t stop groups of men from living together. Are fraternities themselves responsible for these higher rape numbers, or is this the ugly product of what happens when large groups of college age men are allowed to congregate with few rules or accountability for their actions?

Beyond the mere problem of fraternity group-think, there needs to be more of a culture of accountability surrounding sexual assault and the fringe behavior that puts people in those situations on college campuses. The ugly truth is that when there are no clear consequences people have a tendency to push things as far as they can, especially when alcohol is involved. When you have a social culture of friends that encourage this kind of horrific behavior it gets so much worse.

So what do you think? Obviously not every fraternity is full of misogynistic rapists, but do you think we should hold the whole Greek system accountable for the assaults that are ruining the lives of young women across the country? Or is the solution more difficult, in that people have to be held accountable for their horrible actions on an individual level so that college-age men finally see some tangible consequence for their reprehensible behavior? Tell us your thoughts below.”

Source: http://hypervocal.com/culture/2011/do-fraternities-cause-rape-culture/