This is a surprise. It is emblematic of the multiplier effect of the internet. A Duke student, class of 2010, named Karen Owens created a Power Point presentation detailing graphically the guys she hooked up with in college. She says that she never intended for it to go public. She only forwarded it to three friends. But it has gone viral!
It is all over the internet.
The Clarion Content is headquartered here in Durham, NC. We know from Shooters.
It is our belief that people have collated lists of folks they have had carnal relations with since the beginning of time. Ms. Owens' list is such a salacious scandal because of the prestigious Duke University name attached. (Note: she did not get with any of Coach K's ballplayers.) Duke lacrosse's slimy history and well-deserved reputation also made this story bigger. (Several of her conquests were lacrosse players.)
What should not make the story bigger or more scandalous is the fact that it was conceived of and carried out by a woman. The double standard of women are sluts and men are studs should crumble in the face of this kind of brazen attitude. Women talk about sex, too, her Carrie Bradshaw like manner and voice was the best part of the story.
See the whole Power Point (names redacted) here.
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3 comments:
"Duke lacrosse's slimy history and well-deserved reputation also made this story bigger."
To quibble. The Duke lacrosse team was little known on campus before the 2006 incident. (See Tower Magazine's article, 'After the Ball', from fall 2005.) They were not "big men" on campus.
Their party was a compensation for missing Spring Break. (What were other Duke students doing on Spring Break?)
More than 20 Duke organizations hired strippers that year, including Coach K's basketball team. One sorority previously hired male strippers and put pictures of the dancers up on the NET.
There were other, real rapes at Duke during that time. In Jan. 2007 a black frat from Duke gave an off campus party which was also attended by some black athletes. A white Duke student was dragged into a bathroom and raped. Drugs and a gun were found at the house.
But this elicited no candlelight vigils, no open letters from faculty, no statements by Brodhead; the only comment from Larry Moneta was that college is a time of experimentation, and that, in effect, sometimes people (i.e., the victim) find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. (Blame the victim.)
Another Duke student was raped on campus in April of 2006. But nobody turned out to protest these. Nothing was going to be allowed to detract from the activist narrative that the lacrosse players were unparalleled villains.
The lacrosse team members were not worse than other Duke students; and in some ways they were considerably better (100% graduation rate; more academic awards than any other lacrosse team in the league; the most money collected for Katrina relief)
But mud sticks. Reputations were harmed. Full apologies and explanations from Duke and Durham about their actions taken during the Frame-Up attempt (which is what it was) will be necessary to undo a part of the damage. Unfortunately, those are not likely to be forthcoming; and the harm that was done by the lies told in 2006 is likely to remain.
R. B. Parrish
(author, "The Duke Lacrosse Case: A Documentary History and Analysis of the Modern Scottsboro")
Anon-
Thanks for your thoughtful reply. Appreciate you reading.
Our thoughts--- It is not necessary to be a rapist to be slimy. Granted: the Duke Lacrosse team is not nearly as bad as the real rapes associated with Duke's campus in those years, including the two that you site.
And granted: simply having strippers at a party does not make them bad people.
And we are glad to learn that they had a terrific graduation rate, academics are the foundation of the college experience.
However, we would still defend our characterization of their reputation as slimy. The public record shows repeated arrests of Duke lacrosse players for offenses ranging from public intoxication to indecent exposure before the 2006 incident. While drinking excessively and peeing in public afterward are certainly practices that many students, besides athletes, engage in they are part of the record of conduct of the team.
Further, anyone who lived in Durham and spent time in the bars frequented by the Dookies; Shooters, Devines, Satisfactions, etc. knows something about the reputation of the lacrosse players. It is not the same as the Duke basketball team, the football team, the field hockey team, the soccer team, the cheerleaders, the debate team...pick any other Duke extra-curricular activity and fill-in the blank.
This reputation, as obnoxious jerks (which clearly is not a crime) was part of why the Durham community was so quick to leap to the wrong conclusions when Mike Nifong led us astray. It was also part and parcel of why the Duke community was so slow to defend the lacrosse players. They were known to be disreputable.
That did not make the witch hunt that occurred in the aftermath of that fateful evening right, but it does provide context.
Plenty of folks in Durham and members of the Duke campus could believe that the Duke Lacrosse players were drunk, out of hand, and yelling the n-word at the African-American strippers that they had procured.
As they story turned out, that is all they were doing. But in our view, then and now, that behavior was in-line with their deserved slimy reputation.
They were unjustly tried in the court of public and the media for much worse crimes which they did not commit.
Again, thanks for commenting and please keep reading.
The CC Staff.
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