Get your popcorn ready, because Camille Paglia is NOT playing along with the Cornell Rape Victim narrative.
[Stick around for the closing thoughts, since a new wrinkle has developed in this story over the weekend.]
You’ve probably heard the story by now. But for anyone who may stumble on this story while the news is no longer fresh, here’s the quick recap.
A then-20yo woman partied in a freshman dorm. There was a lot of alcohol and drug use. She was highly intoxicated, but participated in the drinking and drug use voluntarily. The hours-long sexual antics between ‘Jane Doe’ and the various freshmen at that party are bacchanalian to the point of shocking even your usual ‘sex-positive’ journalists.
The assertion is that she did not originally claim these acts to be involuntary. But afterwards, she has moved forward with assault charges. As if the case were not enough of a circus just with this as a starting point, Gov Hochul has appointed none other than Letitia James to investigate this case.
Hoo boy. Here we go.
The usual people have more or less lined up in the way you might expect, some excusing the fraternity boys’ behavior. Others framing it as another ‘MeToo’ and ‘Believe All Women’ issue.
It should go without saying that NOBODY in this scenario comes out looking good. The freshmen, the inebriated girl. That part is obvious.
The same can and should be said for the libertine society that has solemnly sworn that anyone who even suggests that having a drug-fuelled gang-bang degrades everyone involved is some kind of Buckle-shoed killjoy, and celebrates the OnlyFans work of personalities that have marathon sessions with 1000 men, attracting enough clicks and subscribers that they’re making more money than Midas.
They smugly affirm that ‘sex work is real work’ while looking shocked that immersing a culture in a casual attitude toward sex and pornography might (*gasp!*) actually influence the decisions and behavior of people raised under those norms.
Enter Camille Paglia. She’s never been one to flinch from saying the hard things, including that if women want to live in a world the sexual revolution gave to them, they will need to exercise their agency with some intelligence and responsibility.
The eternally validated Camille Paglia
Women cannot have it both ways, they can’t insist on coddling and being infantilized and not being held responsible for reckless choices,
and then also demand equal rights and total sexual liberation/freedom https://t.co/BJQoC82vDz
— temu temüjin 🐴 (@rawdogmillionar) September 30, 2026
That’s a LONG way from the ‘victimhood mentality’ that so many others present. The interviewer kept trying to offer excuses behind which women could hide, instead of being responsible for their own agency. But Paglia knocked them down as fast as they went up.
Her flourish at the end was fantastic.
About That Story’s New Wrinkle:
Jane Doe has called out fraternity boys, making allegations under the cloak of anonymity. But Michael Tracey published a name over the weekend (which has since been retracted) and her lawyer now says that she has been attacked and harassed.
Tracey’s reasons for publishing the name add an interesting level of texture and complexity to an already complicated story:
Michael Tracey, an independent journalist and commentator, posted on Friday what he said was the accuser’s name, which Reuters was unable to verify, before quickly deleting it, saying his point had been made.
He has expressed sympathy for the accused men over what he says is the harassment they have faced and described his effort to name the Cornell accuser as journalistic diligence protected under the U.S. Constitution as free speech.
He told Reuters on Sunday that he did not wish to encourage threats or harassment against the woman.
“The point, from my perspective, was more about the public-policy implications of this increasingly commonly used tactic in civil litigation, for plaintiffs’ attorneys to introduce sensational, reputation-harming allegations using the cloak of anonymity for their clients,” Tracey said in an interview. — CBC
Even Sonny Hostin from the view had to admit that New York law is pretty clear about the responsibility for decisions made while intoxicated remains with the person who chose to become intoxicated.
The question about whether a gentleman would take advantage of a girl whose both drunk and stoned seems strangely out of place when the event in question involves eight naked people all of whom were also apparently snorting ketamine off of various parts of her naked body.
If we want a society in which such gentleman are raised, we will require a serious rethink about what social norms we find acceptable.
If the world that produces them incudes ubiquitous porn and a society that celebrating ‘body counts’, and where being branded for ‘slut-shaming’ is more anathema than actual promiscuity, we should not be surprised when we find people in their sexual prime acting in ways that even the so-called ‘sex-positive’ crowd might find shocking.
The truly sad part is no responsible adult is warning them they might actually regret living down to such a low standard, and that there are some decisions are not easily ‘undone’ if you regret them. (And many do.)
