As a psychotherapist, one's thoughts return to the occasional client for whom therapy was not helpful more so than the successful outcomes. Several years ago, an 18-year-old girl came to me, her story all too common in America.
Her parents split up when she was ten. She had no siblings. Left with her father, her mother moved two states away. When she turned 18, she left father's home and moved in with her mother. She was intelligent, but her mind nurtured no plans or dreams for the future. Initially, she talked about her resentment of her father, but it soon became clear there was something else she found difficult to talk about.
With a tone of defiance, she told me she was on a hook-up site and meeting men for sex. Living with mother, in one of the most notorious human trafficking areas in America, she revealed her hotel liaisons with strangers. I listened carefully to her motivation for freedom and excitement. When I tried to convey in respectful and understanding terms the risks she was taking, her attitude hardened. When I cautiously tried to connect the circumstances of her childhood with this current behavior, her defiance hardened further. She "proved" she was cared about because one of the men emailed her afterwards and said she could come visit. Soon after that she called me judgmental, and dropped our work together.
A daughter of chaos, Godlessly raised, without mother's cherishing or father's protection, her numbed mind told her that recognition and value were to be found with strangers in dark rooms. The men she met were not motivated by a need to feel cared about or the loneliness of adolescence. They were looking for a day at the beach and free sex.
Listening to heated public conversations about the infamous sex and drugs get-together at Cornell University's Chi Phi Chapter fraternity on October 19–20, 2024 brought back memories of that girl. The superficial facts are different, but there is a parallel substrate in the dangerous, deluded, and self-destructive ways young women look for power and connection in this world gone mad.
The unverified reports of the incident (which should now be called the Cornell 6, as one of the previous seven has been exonerated) form the basis of this analysis. We will call the male students YMs (young males) and the female student involved YF (young female). At about 8:30 that night, YF attended a sorority event at a nearby bar. She alleged that she was sold alcohol, though the bar denies it, and she subsequently worked there. YF then walked with sorority sisters to another bar and reportedly drank more. Her lawsuit claims she was intoxicated, yet she walked a mile to the Chi Phi chapter to connect with a YM she knew. If she had just wanted sex, she could have picked somebody up at the bars. But as a higher status female than my young client, YF did not have to settle for a stranger. She wanted attention and connection at the Chi Phi house, as is clear from her behavior before, during, and after the incident.
The YM met her outside and invited her in. She consented and immediately made it clear she was there for sex. He proposed a "threesome" and she consented. He gave her one beer, which she drank. She was offered ketamine and she consented. Nothing was poured down her throat or stuck into her arm. She consented to take more drugs and have multiple sex partners.
Perhaps the most notorious aspect of this incident is the fraternity group chat that night. One message vulgarly described her availability, although reportedly he did not have physical contact with her. His own attorney described his chat as "ugly and reprehensible and he regrets it." Would it have been less reprehensible had he messaged, "Be advised, consensual polymorphous opposite-sex available on the 2nd floor"? Due to anti-male bias, his words are reprehensible, her behavior is liberation. Another YM asked, "Is the shop still open?" Another sent pictures of the YF smiling. The underlying purpose of this group conversation was ascertaining and communicating her consent.
The YF said in her initial police report, "I was instantly horrified, and I remember squealing out loud and running across the room and hiding under the covers on another bed… because I was really embarrassed that these individuals had seen me completely naked." She was sober enough to be embarrassed and run across the room. She did not grab her clothes or a blanket and leave, she did not attempt to lock or bar the door. Had she screamed, "No! Stop!" these young men would have scattered like cockroaches in sudden light. These YMs are not an Islamic rape gang. Their ethics are more informed by feminism than masculinism, as was YF's pride when she afterwards texted, "Our bodies our choice asf." She subsequently swore that each time she asked to stop the sexual contact, it stopped.
After 10/20, YF sent messages reiterating her consent and even enjoyment of the incident. The tide seemed to turn when the fraternity president barred her from a Halloween party to which the initial sex partner had invited her.
In September 2026, the Tompkins County DA concluded, "Jane Doe's statement of November 2024 described her participation in drug and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious and consensual." Bowing to public pressure, the DA reopened the criminal case in 2026, writing, "I recognize the reality that it can take years of therapy and healing for victims of sexual assaults to fully process and understand what happened to them." Wrong. An ocean of evidence indicates that years of therapy do not improve accurate memory. In trauma perceived after the fact, the mind often fabricates events to suit psychological needs.
Modern psychiatry adopted the ancient Greek term hysteria to diagnose emotionally and behaviorally unstable females. In 1980 hysteria and nymphomania were dropped from the official psychiatric nomenclature. Today, such patients (~75% female) are diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Symptoms include sexual impulsivity, alternating idealization and devaluation in relationships, and self-mutilation. It is unethical and insupportable to diagnose YF without first-hand knowledge, so this is not a diagnosis. However, it is reported YF told her attorney she is a cutter. November 2024 she told the Cornell police she had deliberately injured herself in August 2024, leaving visible marks on her legs. She later described that during the alleged assault, one of the YMs noticed the scars and mentioned them, but did not care.
It is poignant this deluded YF believed she would find caring concern in the scenario she voluntarily entered. But if by her own report, YF had injured herself so severely two months before the Cornell event, she may be a very troubled person.
The voracious enmities of the left-wing are hoping the YMs' lives will be ruined, and the YF vindicated. The opposite is likely. No one will be vindicated, but in time, the YMs have a better chance to find safety in the sanctuary of remorse based on radical honesty. The young woman will be primed and prized for victimhood, which is its own harsh prison. I hope the girl I could not help, who is now an adult, has found deeper value in her precious lifespan. I hope the same for the daughter of Cornell.
Image generated by ChatGPT.
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