Bill Maher Calls for Abolishing Frats Amid Cornell 7 Saga: A Gentleman ‘Doesn’t Exploit the Woman, He Saves Her’
Bill Maher said it’s impossible to know what exactly happened in the “Cornell 7” case, but the saga has made one thing crystal clear to him: fraternities need to be abolished ASAP.
The veteran comic weighed in on the alleged gang rape during the Friday episode of Real Time. Maher closed the show by saying the details of the case are sordid and hazy, but whether it was a gang rape or group sex doesn’t change his mind — frats have got to go.
“Any place that’s all male, no girls allowed, just doesn’t function without depravity. Just ask the Catholic Church,” Maher said. “Ask the Taliban.”
He continued, “Everything that’s inherently bad about men gets worse if you put them in a fraternity. The drinking gets worse, the cruelty, the treatment of women, the tribalism, the peer pressure, one-upmanship, conformity, segregation, nepotism, bullying, elitism, and just general a**holery — boat shoes, for example.”
And yet another problem is the “hypocrisy,” he said. Maher said every frat in America loves to talk about how it makes its pledges into gentlemen, but he said the Cornell 7 case shows that’s a bunch of BS.
He continued:
A young woman made a bad decision, as 20-year-olds do, when she went to a frat house drunk and did Ketamine. And for that, she claims to have paid a price no woman should have to pay.
No one was there [or] knows what happened, but I do know what a gentleman is — a gentleman-gentleman is someone who in that situation doesn’t exploit the woman, he saves her.”
Maher’s monologue comes as the case has become a national news story in the past few weeks.
The Jane Doe in the case has claimed she was too inebriated to consent to some of the group sex and drug use she participated in back in 2024.
She made her rape claim weeks after texting one of her alleged perpetrators, “At the end of the day non [sic] of the sexual stuff was illegal and honestly I really liked being with u” — which, among other messages, has led to many saying the rape claims are bogus; the local DA declined to pursue charges against the seven men accused, but New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) appointed Letitia James as special prosecutor last week to probe it further.
The accuser also filed a civil complaint against the seven male students, as well as Cornell and the Chi Phi fraternity, in September.
On Friday, Maher said he was not pulling any punches just because he went to Cornell back in the ’70s.
“Cornell sucks and I f*cking hated it and I’m glad to see them eating a sh*t sandwich,” Maher said.
But he said the bigger issue was how frats operate nationwide. Twisted sexual rituals and over-the-top hazing — which has led to 128 deaths since 2000, he pointed out — are two great reasons to abolish all frats, he argued.
And Maher said if America winds up ditching frats, sororities might as well be chucked in the dumpster too.
“They’re just b*tch factories producing the Karens of tomorrow,” he said.
Watch above.
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