Duke University students and officials have found themselves under an assault of media attention for the wrong reason once again — kind of. At the moment, it doesn’t appear any of the Blue Devils that were listed in Karen Owen’s phony senior thesis, which outlines sexual encounters she had over her college career with Duke student athletes, actually did anything wrong.
Yes, you read that correctly. A young woman from Duke University actually chronicled — in detail — sexual experiences she had with 13 different student athletes. In the full thesis, which can be read at Deadspin in its entirety with the “subjects” names, Owen gives each partner a raw score out of 10 based on various grading criteria such as the size of their hardware, how attractive they are, how aggressive they were, how creative they were, how entertaining they were, and their athletic ability.
The Duke lacrosse team was acquitted of any charges that were brought against them in the alleged rape case that took place a few years back and the University’s president eventually apologized to the athletes involved. Still, no one has forgotten the incident and this isn’t the type of publicity the team or any other athletic program at Duke needs. Turns out it isn’t what Owen wanted either, as she shared with Jezebel on Thursday.
The people that are named in it are the kinds of people that everyone wants to be or be with. I regret it with all my heart. I would never intentionally hurt the people that are mentioned on that.”
Owen’s biggest mistake was making this thing into a PowerPoint and sending it out to a select few people, no matter how much she thought she could trust them. In this the age of digital media, she was asking for trouble by going digital with such a sensitive piece of literature. As far as we can see everything was consensual and her so called “subjects” shouldn’t be getting into any kind of legal trouble. However, they now have to answer unnecessary questions and get ripped apart by the media over something that should have never gone public in the first place.
Aside from all that, what is wrong with this girl? I know this just came out and we haven’t even heard half the criticism she’s certain to receive, but I guarantee it won’t be as bad as it would have been if a male student had written something like it. Who goes out and does a bunch of dudes and actually creates a “F**k List?” Her words, not mine.
