On Wednesday night, a video surfaced on social media showing a group of men at the Alpha Delta Pi house serenading sorority members with sexually explicit lyrics.
A group of men gathered on the steps of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority house late Wednesday night and sang sexually explicit lyrics to sorority members.
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The men in the song appeared to sing the phrases, "Send nudes, don't let me down. Take my soft dick and make it harder," to the tune of "Hey Jude" by The Beatles.
The sorority house is located on South Court Street, near Ohio University's Baker Center.
A video of the song, shot by Post Copy Chief Olivia Hitchcock, was posted on social media Wednesday night.
As of press time, The Post was not able to confirm if the men in the video were members of a fraternity on campus.
OU Spokesman Dan Pittman said in an email that OU is aware of Wednesday's "serenade" and "is looking further into the matter."
Ryan Miehl, a junior studying geological sciences and a member of Pi Kappa Phi, said even though such serenading songs sometimes contain sexual lyrics, the fraternity members usually stick to the existing lyrics.
"I was kind of surprised by the lyrics (used by the men)," he said.
Ellenore Holbrook, a junior studying political science and a member of F--kRapeCulture, said she saw the video on Facebook.
"It immediately struck me as, 'This is incredibly problematic,' " Holbrook said. "Since serenading is such a sign of respect, when you use language in a way that they (did), it’s incredibly degrading to women, their rights to choose who to send pictures to, if they send pictures and what kind of sexual relationships that they will have."
A Thursday post on Total Sorority Move under the headline "Unidentified Fraternity Caught Singing Dirty Serenade to ADPi" by the writer "2NOTBrokeGirls" deemed the event as commonplace.
"Serenades have been a part of fraternity and sorority life forever," the post stated. "Sometimes the songs are lovely, and sometimes they are downright dirty, but at the end of the day, no one is really getting hurt."
Usually, when fraternity members serenades sorority members, it is a sign of mutual respect, Holbrook said.
"Although this one single incident may seem like a joke, it leads to the entitlement of men feeling this space, this public space, and women’s bodies are part of their property, and that they don’t have any sort of reprimand for their actions in the long run," Holbrook said.
Holbrook said the serenade contributed to rape culture.
“The fact is, fraternities are a breeding ground for sexual violence, and that is a huge problem,” Holbrook said.
On Twitter, Holbrook said she saw people saying the video was not newsworthy and "that boys will be boys."
“(Saying 'boys will be boys') is so problematic and a huge contributor to rape culture," Holbrook said. “It reiterates this idea, again, that boys cannot control their actions and what they do is OK no matter what it is and that just continues into this snowball effect.”
Although the video angered some, not all students found it particularly shocking.
"I was very upset about it, but ultimately it wasn't surprising," Sarah Pinter, a junior studying mathematics, said.
Pinter said members of sorority and fraternity life need to be more aware of sexual assault and how to prevent it.
Holbrook said the video wasn't necessarily characteristic of all fraternity members, though the perception it evoked could lead viewers to paint Greek life with a wide brush.
—Kaitlin Fochesato contributed to this report.
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