When a 22-year-old former Cornell University student filed a civil lawsuit on September 16 against seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity, accusing them of violating her in 2024, some social media users questioned her claims.
“According to her initial texts, she was totally down,” one person wrote.
Kate Manne, a Cornell professor and feminist philosopher, believes this reflects a wider tendency to question women who speak out about misconduct.
“For the record, I believe Jane Doe,” she said on Sunday’s episode of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast.
A Cornell professor addressed the mounting scrutiny surrounding the Cornell 7 victim
Cooper recapped the Cornell 7 case before introducing Manne on the show.
“She was a 20-year-old student who went to a frat party one night to see a guy she thought was her friend,” she said.
“She eventually went upstairs with him and another fraternity brother, and it was in that room that things took an absolutely disturbing turn.”
“And then, at 1:42 in the morning, a message went out to a fraternity group chat saying, ‘free p*ssy.’ Another fraternity brother responded, ‘I f**king love Chi Phi.’ And later, someone asked, ‘shop still open?’”
Cooper emphasized that the men were talking about “a woman, a human being.”
She then explained that when the victim went to campus police three weeks later, she spent hours with an investigator providing a detailed account of what had happened.
“She was pretty d**n clear about one thing. She told the investigators she was 100% confident she had been r*ped,” Cooper added.
Therefore, when the podcast host saw Jane Doe being ridiculed online, her first thought was to speak to Manne, whom her mother had introduced her to “years ago.”
Manne did not mince words when addressing the social media discourse.
“R*pe is always 100% the fault of the r*pist, 0% of the victim,” she said.
She then questioned why so much attention was being paid to the futures of the accused men rather than to the woman who said she had been wronged.
“So many people worried about him missing out on his bright future. What about her future?” she asked.
Manne also shared some encouraging news, saying that the sentiment on the Cornell campus was largely in support of Jane Doe.
A recent rally supporting the alleged victim drew a massive crowd of thousands
Matt Burkhartt/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
The mood at Cornell University is “pretty grim,” according to Manne.
“I think students are incredibly upset, and it’s really all anyone can talk about,” the professor said, before continuing, “But I will say this, I had this moment where we were all walking down to Ho Plaza where the rally was on Monday [October 5] to support Jane Doe.”
“It really felt like an inspiring moment to have so many students and faculty and staff members coming together,” Manne shared.
“It was so great.”
Matt Burkhartt/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
Cooper quickly pointed out that Manne had previously written that “protesting s**ual a**ault on campus is a lost cause.”
“I think a lot of people do feel that in general sometimes with protesting,” she said, before asking, “Does this moment in particular feel any different?”
“It does feel different to me,” Manne responded.
She explained that the gathering felt like a crystallization of “a kind of simmering rage on behalf of women” and also “people who just care a lot about women.”
“It has a lot of momentum.”
A separate rally in solidarity with Jane Doe took place in Boston on October 8, which, according to several reports, was attended by a crowd of an estimated 800 people.
The accused offered a different account of the Cornell 7 events, stating the encounter was consensual
On October 1, the New York Times published previously undisclosed statements that Jane Doe’s alleged perpetrators had given university officials about their actions.
While four of the men acknowledged having some form of intimate contact with the woman, they maintained that it had been consensual.
The remaining men denied having any involvement with her.
According to their accounts, the troubling encounters began after fraternity member Matthew Ingalls asked Jane Doe if she was interested in a three-way act involving fellow member Jonathan Newell.
Newell claimed during his interview that he agreed to participate, assuming Ingalls had obtained permission on his behalf.
According to Doe’s lawsuit, Newell was also the one who sent the “free p*ssy” text to a group chat containing 57 men.
Another fraternity brother, Winston Lee, said Doe and the people around her did not appear overly intoxicated or slur their speech. He also accused Doe of initiating improper contact with him first.
The fourth fraternity brother, Gillio Lopes, who admitted to having had contact with Doe, said he and Newell were living in the room where the alleged encounters took place.
He, like Lee, also claimed that Doe was the one to initiate inappropriate contact with him and proceeded without his consent.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed a special prosecutor to the case earlier this month
Will Waldron/Times Union via Getty Images
On October 2, Hochul said Jane Doe had been “failed” by those obligated to protect her, including the police and the county prosecutor.
She revealed that the district attorney had closed the case without interviewing the victim or anyone else involved in the alleged attack.
“In what world does the district attorney not even interview her?” she asked.
Hochul announced that New York Attorney General Letitia James would now lead the case as a special prosecutor.
The governor expressed hope that the move would assure Jane Doe that every facet of the case would “be examined” and that justice would be pursued.
“Some of it was consensual but it clearly crossed the line at some point,” a netizen said
