Post by @HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social

2026-09-28 18:52 UTC

So, in the case of the sexual assault that took place at Cornell University, which is now getting a lot of public attention, we can see how legitimacy (re)produces authority. Seven men took part in the gang rape of a woman at a party. They communicated about that rape, as it was ongoing, to another 50-odd members of their fraternity, and presumably there were other people present at the party who also knew what was happening. But, rather than condemning and opposing the rape, they either endorsed it or took no action against it.

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@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social 2026-09-28 18:52

The police subsequently declined to arrest the rapists and the university only expelled two of the rapists, requiring the other five to write essays in order to lift their suspension from the university. They were never prosecuted, but the victim did (probably under duress) drop out of the school. Here we see many actors, including actors with immense institutional authority of their own—the police, the university—acting as if the rapists had the legitimate authority over this woman to rape her with impunity. *That* is how authority is legitimized and reproduced: through the calculations made by everyone involved that it was better, safer, more profitable, or simply correct to allow this gang rape to occur unimpeded and unpunished.

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