If you are a female college student right now, opening social media or turning on the TV threatens to throw your mind into a spin. Is the case at Cornell shocking? Well yes, but according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, 1 in 3 undergraduate women will experience rape or sexual assault. This is not shocking to women. Because we have heard the story before, from our best friend, our older cousins, our little sisters, our mothers–or even out of our own mouths. The case of Jane Doe, a former Cornell student, gang raped by seven members in Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity, has consumed national news and sparked an ongoing debate about how universities handle sexual assault cases. The resounding question is this: why does this keep happening?
The question is not whether women are safe on college campuses, because statistics show us they are not. The question is not whether fraternity culture perpetuates rape culture, because the answer is yes. The question is: why do men seem to take no accountability whatsoever for these horrific statistics, for the fact that when they look around their universities, 1 in every 3 women that they see has a story of sexual assault and rape?
From looking around our society, observing the individuals in power, and hearing countless conversations from groups of men, my hypothesis is simple: we live in a world where men feel entitled to sexual assault and rape.
Cleveland Browns player, Deshaun Watson holds almost 30 civil lawsuits spanning from 2021-2024 with allegations of sexual misconduct and assault during massage appointments while playing for the Houston Texans. Professional tennis player Alexander Zverev, winner of the 2026 U.S. Open has allegations from not one, but two former partners. Both partners, one of them being the mother of his child, state that he had physically abused them and had committed countless acts of domestic violence. Donald Trump’s appeal to overturn a civil verdict in his well known sexual abuse and defamation case, was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court–but Trump’s legal team claimed that presidential immunity protects all his statements.
And what are the consequences? No discipline. Athletes keep playing, keep winning, keep gaining recognition. Presidents stay in power–taking away as many reproductive rights as possible and making it harder for women to access information about their own health.
Then that evasion sinks into the collective subconsciousness of men, a soft assurance that it really wouldn’t be that bad, that maybe women like being put in these situations. After all, Donald Trump, leader of the United States of America, stated: “Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” Suddenly there is not solely assurance, but entitlement.
That entitlement comes from knowing that men are continuously protected and receive no penalties nor sentences. Men accused of sexual assault, violence, and rape continue to roam the world, a security blanket gifted to them by the thousands of men who came before them who did not receive punishment for their actions. Now men feel entitled to this safety.
We need to strip this entitlement from men. The world can start to change only when men are held accountable for their behavior.