Students at UPenn Protest Email as Evidence of Rape Culture

Students at the University of Pennsylvania are using the text of an email sent to freshman women to protest what they say is a rape culture at the institution, BuzzFeed News reports.

The students posted some 600 fliers around the campus that reproduce the text of the email, which invited first-year women to an underground fraternity’s party. The fliers printed the phrases “This is what rape culture looks like” and “We are watching” over the email.

#wearewatching pic.twitter.com/AlIlu9Kt3t

— liz (@elizabethgoran) September 7, 2016

The email has been connected to OZ, an underground fraternity at UPenn.

“We categorically denounce the behavior this email so brazenly perpetuates,” David Moore, president of the university’s Interfraternity Council, said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. “Sexual objectification, nonconsensual contact, and harassment in any form are not tolerated by the IFC.”

Amanda Silberling, a junior at Penn, was one of the students who helped make and distribute the fliers. “We want freshman girls to see the signs we put up and know they don’t have to give in to the culture they’re thrown into,” she told The Daily Pennsylvanian.

So grateful for the 5 friends who helped me flyer at the last minute tonight. We will not be silent. #wearewatching pic.twitter.com/ZIdysniJLI

— amanda silberling (@asilbwrites) September 7, 2016

The university condemned the email in a statement and applauded the fliers:

“The text of the email was offensive and has no place at Penn,” the statement read. “As the university has made clear in its policies and protocols, sexual harassment and sexual assault are unacceptable and will not be tolerated on campus. Challenging offensive speech, as these students did, is important and wholly consistent with the university’s ongoing efforts and the national conversation about preventing and responding to sexual misconduct.”