When Syracuse University was ranked the No. 1 party school in the country nearly three years ago, author Vanessa Grigoriadis saw an opportunity to analyze SU’s sexual assault culture.

In her recently published book, “Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power and Consent on Campus,” Grigoriadis said she wanted to tell the truth about sexual assault and consent on college campuses. Over the course of two years, Grigoriadis visited several colleges in the United States to gather perspectives from students, parents and university officials about sexual assault and attempt to dispel the confusion surrounding it, she said.

One chapter in particular is dedicated to telling the stories of some students at SU, particularly those in Greek life, and how they handle sex and sexual assault. Grigoriadis said she chose SU because of its combination of a “strong Greek scene” and Division I sports.

The Daily Orange spoke with Grigoriadis, who’s also a contributing editor at The New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair, about her new book and how the topic of sexual assault has become a larger narrative in today’s news.

The Daily Orange: What was the research and reporting process like for your book? How long did you spend at each university?

Vanessa Grigoriadis: Well first I started at Wesleyan University, where I went to school, in Connecticut. I went back there and met a bunch of students who were either survivors or were involved in the fraternity system. Part of my book talks about the closure of fraternities at Wesleyan, which happened when I was reporting my book. I kept up with all the activism that was going on there.

In Syracuse, I popped out there probably three or four times. I was there when the sit-in happened, the 18-day sit-in. I decided to focus on the sororities at Syracuse. Some of the sorority members that I met, I wanted to try and use them as the platonic ideal of a smart, wily and also curious group of young women who were entering a social scene that I saw to be too focused on men.

The D.O.: In your research and reporting, what surprised you most?

V.G.: At Syracuse it was surprising to me (that) women had such divergent ideas on what constitutes sexual assault. It really is a murky term and it is hard to define. Some people think sexual assault includes groping and other people think that’s making a mountain out of a molehill.

I did hear a lot of stories, girls telling me at Syracuse about being wasted and waking up and not remembering anything and finding themselves in the bed of a guy they didn’t know very well. And that’s one of the trickiest scenarios because you could argue both people were blackout drunk, so who is really to blame? Or was that girl targeted by that guy?

I think Syracuse has a lot of rumors about stuff being slipped into students’ drinks at frat parties. … Most of those seem to be rumors and not reality. … Doctors say the date rape drug is alcohol. Much more often girls will think they’re drugged, but they’re actually just very drunk. There’s not an epidemic of guys slipping stuff into girls’ drinks; not to say it doesn’t happen.

The D.O.: It is often said there needs to be a change in sexual assault culture, but what has to happen for there to be an actual change in this culture?

V.G.: It’s so hard. If I knew the answer to that, I would have a billion dollars because I would sell it to all the universities because all these universities are curious about that. The easiest answer is that we have to have a new definition of consent. In New York state there’s affirmative consent, meaning “no means no” is no longer the rule. It’s “yes means yes” and silence isn’t consent.

Taken to its extreme, asking for permission for every sort of sexual act, from kissing to oral sex, is kind of preposterous when you think about it. But I believe in terms of one-night stands and random hookups that a permission question at the beginning of the hookup — “Are you OK with this? Do you want to do this?” — is probably a very good idea because it could clarify everybody’s intent.

Specifically the girl is usually the one who is more interested in walking away. Experts know and most women know that a lot of times you don’t say no because you just feel uncomfortable or you want to be polite or you’d rather just get it over with. … I don’t think that’s really happening at Syracuse yet, but I think it could and I think it’s happening at progressive schools. I think small, liberal arts schools with radically progressive politics are instituting new norms around consent.

The D.O.: With many sexual assault victims coming forward lately, do you think that will affect how we perceive sexual assault?

V.G.: I do. I think you can see now what Harvey Weinstein did by every common sense account was sexual assault — cornering a woman who was completely reliant on him for whatever her new career may be and then approaching her in a bathrobe naked and chasing her around the room until she let him touch her — that’s really predatory.

But something like Al Franken grabbing a woman’s butt at the Minnesota State Fair, no, not everybody would say that is sexual assault. I mean Donald Trump has 12 plus accusers who say similar things and he’s president, and he’s president because most people do not consider groping to be sexual assault.

… Right now what you’re seeing across the country is actresses and women in the media industry saying, “Yes, we’re not taking these guys to court. No, they’re not going to be in prison. But we are going to get them fired and we are going to ostracize them and embarrass them in front of the country.” And that’s a way of dealing with kind of borderline actions that you can’t really prosecute in the criminal justice system.

The D.O.: What do you imagine college campuses, like Syracuse, will look like in the future? Perhaps the next 20 years?

V.G.: I think the main thing is if there is a push to coeducation frats and (taking) away their Title IX exemptions. I think that would radically change the face of Syracuse. In terms of affirmative consent, nobody really knows if that will actually be around. It doesn’t seem like students at Syracuse are really implementing it in their sexual lives, maybe some basic rules of it but not really. People who study this do not know if this rule will survive or if it will be gone in a matter of a few years. … It’s hard to shift from “no means no” to “yes means yes.”

The D.O.: Now that you’ve finished this book, what’s next for you?

V.G.: I work at The New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair, so I’m starting to put together different story ideas for them. I will probably write about the greatest show on Earth, which is the Trump administration.

Published on December 3, 2017 at 10:29 pm

Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann