Cornell

Jane Doe’s case against Cornell and seven former students has become a Rorschach test. One reading is that its a case of gang rape and institutional cover-up. Another reading, based on the text messages sent at the time, is murkier, messier and far less convenient for the outrage industry. These messages tell a different story from the narrative surrounding the lawsuit, and the “believe women” brigade would prefer you didn’t read them. On October 19, 2024, Jane Doe, a 20-year-old Cornell student, attended a sorority event at Moonies Bar in Ithaca. By her lawsuit’s account, she had had about ten drinks by 11 p.m. She walked to the Chi Phi frat house to see a male friend, Matthew Ingalls. Ketamine was present. Other men came into the room.

I have always been afraid of watching the 1977 film Looking for Mr. Goodbar.  I grew up hearing about how my mother, upon seeing it in the theater, had walked out and immediately vomited. The movie, which follows New York schoolteacher Theresa Dunn through a series of at times humiliating sexual encounters (and the lasciviousness of the 1970s) until one of her sex partners murders her, is an adaptation of a novel, itself inspired by the real-life death of Roseann Quinn. Just two days after her body was found, Quinn was described as having “no regular boyfriend but the type of girl who would have a guy in if he brought her home” in the New York Times.  Mr. Goodbar is a deeply anxious picture of post-revolution sexual guilt In the panic-stricken moral universe of Mr.