Here we go, again. Following the death of Tim Piazza it seems to be all everyone can do is make speculations as to what they would of done—or how they would of handled a situation they were not in. Upon finding out what truly happened at Beta Theta Pi that night, I cried. I read the Onward State article in the car driving home from Happy Valley out loud to my father who could not fathom this incident. The actions that happened in that house should not have been condoned anywhere, nonetheless an on campus fraternity at a highly regarded university. But I’m not writing to once again speculate on a situation I was not involved or apart of—I’m here to respond to this article

Beyond being outraged at once again a rash and overbearing statement made by an individual who has no stake or insight into the situation other than what he has read from media outlets, I’m offended at the words he claims true. I’m not going to state that everything he said is false, or that it holds no validity, but the basic thought process and reasoning behind it could not be more wrong. Mr. Jonathan Zimmerman claims, “it’s time for Penn State and other universities to close down fraternities, which embody some of the worst behaviors of American men."

Closing down houses that men frequent is not stopping the behavior men already participate in—far before they come to college. Curbing this epidemic of misogynistic men and “rich kid” complex cannot be done to young men who already have this mindset engraved from childhood. When you begin to speculate how we teach men to have a superiority complex, you have to go back to how they were raised and their parents, a direct correlation to the men they grow up to be. It’s absurd to say that men only realize and act on these actions when residing in a fraternity house once in college—those mindsets had a long time to ferment in their brains.

By stating the statements you do, you’re insinuating that “real men” drink copiously, have sex with who and what ever, and don’t give a damn about authority. You’re continuing this stereotype by assuming all fraternity men believe this, and then act on it. Furthermore, as a male writing this piece, you cannot even begin to tell me—a female—how and when I should feel degraded or oppressed. While I am a self-proclaimed feminist who believes in needing male allies to continue the feminist agenda, this article is anti-feminist taking every right away from the women and giving it to fraternity men by default.

In your paragraph about college aged women having more sex you say, “As more college women had sex, there were fewer excuses for men who didn’t," as if my choice to has sex has ANY bearing on what the majority of men are doing. You continue to quote a writing form of the 19^th century that explains the history of fraternities and you deem those actions similar to ones today—but we have come far from the 19^th century and the mindsets held then. Did we forget that from 1801-1900 women could not even vote? Of course the mindset about how to treat them differed as well.

My basic problem lies here. You cannot say that because you are taking the Greek letters off a group of men they are going to become better men—honorable and respectable men. Many respectable men have come from the Greek system (Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, George W Bush) and the choice to be a good man stems from choice—not obligation. If we want to curb this behavior is starts way before they even know what college is, it starts in their homes with their mother and fathers. Closing down a house in which men frequent to do these activities they learned WAY before college does not do a thing. What’s more dangerous than “frat boys” is the complex men think they have in large groups, regardless if Greek Letters are associated.