Duke and the Dark Side of 21st Century Ferninism

Caitlin Flanagan does not think highly of Duke. Here are a couple of quotes from an article in The Atlantic:

something ugly is going on at the university—a mercenary intensity that has been gathering strength for the past two decades, as the institution made the calculated decision to wrench itself into elite status by dint of its fortune in tobacco money and its sheer ambition. It lured academic luminaries—many of them longer on star power than on intellectual substance—built a fearsome sports program, and turned its admissions department into the collegiate version of a head-hunting firm.

profoundly anti-intellectual, it’s a university whose thoughtful students are overshadowed by its voraciously self-centered ones.

Her ire seems to have been exacerbated by the appearance on the Internet of a "thesis" by one Karen Owen, a graduate of Duke. This "thesis" recounts sexual experiences Owen had with Duke students, mainly athletes. Flanagan seems to be quite upset that the format of the thesis is a PowerPoint presentation which violates all of the rules and conventions of PowerPoint.

Having been a young man in the mid-twentieth century when getting to second base was considered as a major achievement, I must confess that I was a little surprised at how easy it appears to go all the way in the 21st century. However, I'm not sure how pleasurable the experience was as both parties seem to be totally drunk at the time. In several cases the sex was quite rough as Owen writes about the times she was bruised the morning after.

Flanagan does not consider the ease with which Owen was able to have sex a good thing in that she sees Owen as basically servicing men's needs "no matter how mundane or humiliating."

The binge drinking occupies a large section of the article. She cites a study that claims that the rate of alcohol abuse by college-age girls has quadrupled since 1970 while the boys are going at the same rate as they did in 1970.

If Flanagan is correct, I'm glad my kids are beyond college age, but I worry about my grandchildren.