From Rugby Road to Vinegar Hill, We’re gonna get drunk tonight.
The faculty’s afraid of us, They know we’re in the right,
So fill your cups, your loving cups, As full as full can be,
And as long as love and liquor last, We’ll drink to the U. of V.
Oh, I think we need another drink! Heh!
I think we need another drink! Heh!
I think we need another drink! Heh!
I think we need another drink! To the glory of the U. Va.
All you girls from Mary Washington and R.M.W.C,
Never let a Virginia man an inch above your knee,
He’ll take you to his fraternity house and fill you full of beer,
And soon you’ll be the mother of a bastard Cavalier!-Rugby Road, Traditional UVA Fight Song
All the girls from Sweet Bush
Like guys from W&L.
All the girls from Hollins
Like Vee Mees, we can tell.
Now Careful girls, don’t let them drink
And coax your from your dress,
‘Cause as sure as there is whiskey
They’ll puke and make a mess.A hundred Delta Gammas,
A thousand AZD’s,
Ten thousand Pi Phi bitches,
Who get down on their knees.
But the ones that we hold true,
The ones that we hold dear,
Are the ones who stay up late at night,
And take it in the rear.
All the first-year women
Are morally uptight.
They’ll never do a single thing
Unless they know it’s right.
But then they come to Rugby Road
And soon they’ve seen the light,
And you never know how many men
They’ll bring home every night.
She’s a helluva twat from Agnes Scott;
She’ll fuck for fifty cents.
She’ll lay her ass upon the grass,
Her panties on the fence.
You supply the liquor.
And she’ll supply the lay.
And if you can’t get it up, you sunuva a bitch,
You’re not from UVa.
The BC girls are Catholic
They’re virgins through and through
But when they see a Cavalier
They know just what to do
They hike their skirts; they drop their drawers;
They back against the wall
Because they know a Wahoo Fuck
Is the greatest of them all.– Rugby Road Alternative Verses
The original article was removed by Rolling Stone, but you can find it HERE.
The response article published by Rolling Stone can be found HERE.
I’m really happy that Take Back the Archive gives individuals space to archive experiences of sexual harm at the University of Virginia. Granted, I’m not sure if I just couldn’t figure out the site, or if the website that was intended to achieve the digital collection wasn’t up yet, but I couldn’t navigate it to see any actual documents. So, I decided to do a little researching on my own.
I started with the University of Virginia, and worked my way backwards. I found the original Rolling Stone article, linked above. It was horrible. It was horrifying on so many different levels, and it only furthered my thoughts on rape culture, and spaces of women’s bodies becoming commodities. The person who had experienced sexual harm, named “Jackie”, had given her account of her experience at a Frat House, and had discussed how the event had closely impacted her time at UVA.
As a preface, I don’t really know the details of any of these events. No one does. I’m not the police, I’m not connected to Jackie, and I’ve never been to UVA. I only know as much as any reader. The Rolling Stone response article says that the original author began to have doubts of the accuracy of Jackie’s story when Jackie couldn’t spell the name of her attacker. The name that was given to the author wasn’t linked to any of the clubs/jobs/places Jackie said that the attacker belonged to. Four months after the article was published VA police said that no leads had come up to support Jackie’s story. Representatives of Rolling Stone have said that they wished the story would have brought about change with Rape and Rape Culture, but now they are afraid that the story would only reinforced the notion that women only create false allegations.
This thought process is wrong. This is victim blaming. I can think of a thousand reasons why Jackie, who chose to use another name for the paper, wouldn’t want to give a reporter the real name of her attacker. Rationally, four months after a gang rape, with who knows how many more parties taking place in the Frat House, how much evidence would be left over? Jackie, who chose not to go to the hospital after her attack for fear of being publicly ostracized, had no “physical documentation” of her attack.
Even if the whole story is fabricated, the epidemic of sexual assault on college campuses is sickening. Being in any party space, the looks that male students give to female students makes me anxious. It’s scary to be in a space with your friends, when you know that you are being closely watched by others. Even at parties at Bryn Mawr, such as East vs. West, if you stop and people watch for a bit, you realize that certain students are literally following other students, to try to get them alone. Sometimes, you realize that it’s all part of the college hook-up culture, and you’re reassured that it’s ok. But other times, you think that someone is getting a little aggressive, and that’s when you and a group of friend gather together to separate the people involved.