A specific “blue house” located at 59½ N Court Street was identified as ground zero for the fraternity’s systematic sexual assaults, and Google still returns multiple pictures of the stigmatized house. The petition cited and screencapped posts on Yik Yak, the anonymous geo-located social media app, as evidence against the fraternity. Footnote 1 In 2015, a petition at called on Ohio University to ban the ACACIA fraternity for engaging in systematic sexual assault and rape. A similar list, with four names, was written on the walls of multiple women’s bathrooms in and around Columbia University in 2014. The New York Times quoted one of those named as saying, “I’ve been labeled guilty with no chance to defend myself” (Celis 1990). The names of as many as thirty male students eventually made it onto the list, which, despite being scrubbed clean by janitorial staff multiple times, was often updated. The walls of the women’s bathroom in the university library became a canvas for rape accusations. In 1990, furor over sexual misconduct at Brown University boiled over. It can be a fun way to pass the time or a cathartic way to blow off steam, but gossip and related speech acts can also be deeply serious.
Talking about others behind their back is a time-worn tradition.
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