Feminist student blasts App State frat for planning sexual assault awareness event

One feminist student at Appalachian State University is publicly slamming a fraternity’s plans for a March Against Sexual Assault on campus.

In a public Facebook post, Julia Grainger, a junior at App State, condemned Alpha Sigma Phi for hosting the event and called the fraternity men “sexist, racist, homophobic, ignorant trash.”

“And I don't know why fraternities on this campus continuously feel the need infiltrate victim/survivor spaces, especially when men who join frats are three times more likely to rape and fraternities as a whole are hyper-masculine, rape culture perpetrating cesspools,” Grainger wrote.

Grainger claimed the organizers of the event—two freshmen and two sophomores—didn’t appropriately address her concerns about why they were hosting the event and why they “have the right to hold this event.”

According to her, the fraternity “hosting this event in the first place is inappropriate (as opposed to supporting and encouraging brothers to go to the many other events hosted by QUALIFIED organizations).”

Grainger, whose Facebook page says she is the director of marketing for the Appalachian Social Justice Educators, included six screenshots with her post to “prove” why the fraternity was racist and sexist. One screenshot showed a fraternity member critical of the bulletin boards placed in App State dorms that shame students who have “privilege.” Another screenshot showed a fraternity member post an article that defended Greek life.

A bigger screenshot showed a photo of six women who appear to be naked underneath a “Rush AΣΦ” blanket.

“Call me a feminist bitch, a fat man hater - WHATEVER - but don't you dare tell me these men and their organization give a flying frisbee [sic] about standing against sexual assault and supporting victim/survivors,” she wrote.

According to Total Frat Move, Alpha Sigma Phi partnered with Red Flag Campaign to host the March Against Sexual Assault to take place on Sunday. App State’s website says the Red Flag Campaign is a social marketing campaign that educates students about being active bystanders to help prevent sexual assault on campus.

“I think that there have become a lot of generalizations about a certain group of people because of the actions of a few,” Brantley McDonald, a freshman computer science major at App State, told Campus Reform. “This issue has become as divisive as other recent issues at our school.”

“I think it is very important to understand that there are people who are willing to change, but there are individuals at this school who are bent on making sure that their ideology is the ideology of the student body,” McDonald said. “In this case, it is not fair to want to keep this fraternity and its members at a status quo on this issue because a few others want to be able to push their agenda on campus (which they are doing a good job of with the full support of the administration).”

As TFM pointed out, fraternity men are less threatening towards women than non-Greeks when comparing hypermasculinity and hostility towards women, according to a study in the Journal of College Student Development.

In a separate public Facebook post, Grainger slammed Greek men—especially Alpha Sigma men—who had recently added her on Facebook ever since the TFM article broke. She said she’s been called a “cunt,” “bitch,” “feminazi,” and “attention whore” by App State students, TFM commenters, and fraternity men.

“When greek [sic] life members refuse to educate themselves or try to comprehend the complexity of the the [sic] problems that permeate within their organizations, they're a part of the problem. They're not a part of the ‘not all frats!!’ message so fervently cried out,” Grainger wrote. “And I won't feel bad for 'generalizing' fraternities. My post did not equal oppression. It did not put these men's lives at risk. It did not do anything besides exemplify the problems within greek life [sic].”

Grainger has also ranted about fraternity men on her public Twitter account.

“‘Filth’ is the only accurate adjective to describe fraternity men,” Grainger tweeted.

“‘(and calling frat boys filth is not oppressive) (lol),” she also tweeted.

Grainger did not respond to a request for comment from Campus Reform.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @K_Schallhorn

Update: After publication, Grainger made her Twitter private. Below is the screenshot of the tweets mentioned in the article.