Andrew Lohse and the Rise of the Frat Bro Feminist
LatestYou’ve probably heard of Andrew Lohse, or at least about what Andrew Lohse has told you about being excessively hazed by the brothers of Sigma Alpha Epsilon
, the fraternity he was part of at Dartmouth College
. Lohse got famous in 2012 for publishing a tell-all about the disgusting antics he and his fraternity brothers took part in and now he’s written a book about it called Confessions of an Ivy League Frat Boy. The title is accurate: there are lots of frat boys in the book but very few women. So why is Andrew Lohse being heralded as a “frat boy turned feminist”?
Lohse has been everywhere lately, promoting his book as authors do. Several of his pieces and interviews, like a heavily touted article in Cosmopolitan and another profile with Mashable, proclaim Confessions as Lohse’s coming out party as a feminist, and according to the quotes available, they’d be right. In Cosmo‘s September issue, Lohse wrote that even when he first started pledging his SAE, he “sensed that there was something fucked up about the misogyny associated with” the fraternity, “from bros calling girls sluts and slampieces, to their tireless efforts to get girls drunk and hook up with them, only to speak degradingly of them later. My frat’s basement was spray-painted with the words FLETCH HATES WOMEN. It was a predatory conspiracy.”
In the Cosmo piece, Lohse goes to explain that “hazing warps guys’ concept of consent,” which, reading his book, is quite clear. He and his fellow pledges didn’t really consent to anything; one could argue quite readily that they’re pushed into every disgusting activity they take part in, from sitting in tubs of liquid consisting of a mix of each other’s bodily fluids and solids to eating the much of the same stuff.
Mashable’s profile of Lohse follows this line of thinking:
Lohse is a frat boy turned feminist, though he shies away from being defined by any particular political movement. He is sensitive when talking about Greek life and the problem of campus sexual assault.
“If being a feminist means speaking up about these issues and equality,” he says, “then you could call me that.”
But in Lohse’s book, women don’t appear much at all, and sexual assault is barely discussed. Lohse’s first mention of rape occurs briefly, at 33 pages in. He’s discussing a test SAE made him take as part of the Rush process:
“What course of action would you take in each of the following situations? Explain your reasoning briefly. You may utilize the reverse of this sheet if necessary.
A. One of your pledge brothers admits to you that he slipped Rohypnol into a young lady’s alcoholic beverage. He proceeds to engage in sexual intercourse with said lady.
B. You notice that one of your pledge brothers is gaining significant weight over the course of the pledge term. He begins to have issues with his body image.
C. A pledge brother becomes involved in the trafficking of an illegal substance across state borders. The substance is cocaine. His dealings become increasingly risky. He is thinking of moving on to ‘harder’ drugs.”
Looking around the clearing, I saw that most of the pledges were obviously unsure what to answer. Were these things that might happen? Were they just fucking with us?
For the rest of the book, date rape drugs and rape barely enter the picture. It’s not until page 285 – out of 303 pages in the book – that Lohse mentions people he knows who experienced sexual assault explicitly, in an explanation of his final come to Jesus moment about turning his back on the frat: