Canada: Are men becoming collateral damage in the battle for gender equity?

Article here. Excerpt:

'But in the need to ensure there are safe places for women to be educated – which is crucial – isn’t it worth asking if there can be safe places for men to gather without suspicion of being a cabal of misogynist terrorism? In the heated discussion about rape culture, the feminist voice is loudest at the moment, which makes many young men feel that their every move, every thought, is policed. Some might even suggest they’re victims of misandry, if they weren’t sure their complaints would fall on deaf ears.

A witch hunt, you say? Well, I won’t use that loaded term, because it only serves to ratchet-up the gender wars when what we need is a little calm.

That said, some of the research about fraternity culture is not kind. A 2007 study by professors at the College of William and Mary – the place, ironically, where the first Greek-letter fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa, was founded in 1776 with the motto “Philosophy is the guide to life” – found that men in fraternities were three times more likely to rape than those who weren’t.

A culture of male peer support for violence against women coupled with excessive drinking practices contribute to a higher risk for sexual assault, the study found, leading some scholars to suggest fraternities should be banned. Other research has added to the alarm. Elizabeth Armstrong and other professors at Indiana University studied the social life at a large Midwestern university for five years, producing a book in 2013, Paying for the Party, How College Maintains Inequality, and a paper on sexual assault that described how fraternities contribute to the reproduction of gender inequality.

But the assumption that all fraternities are bad has led to a rush to judgment – sometimes with embarrassing results. The most noteworthy was last year’s Rolling Stone article, “A Rape on Campus,” about a brutal gang rape in a room at Phi Kappa Psi house on the University of Virginia campus in 2012. After significant discrepancies in the story were revealed in subsequent reports, the magazine issued apologies. Earlier this week, after a five-month investigation, police in Charlottesville, Va., announced that they found “no evidence” that the alleged rape at the fraternity happened. In a statement that sounded attuned to the fervent anti-frat mood and the possibility of victim shaming, they said they’re not suggesting that something horrible didn’t happen, only that they couldn’t corroborate the woman’s story.'