Northwestern professor sued over book on sexual assault

Last month, Northwestern University Communications professor, Laura Kipnis published a book entitled Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus. The book follows the story of Philosophy professor, Peter Ludlow and his relationship with a student under the name of Jane Doe. Ludlow has been fired since last fall due to sexual assault delegations and on Tuesday, Jane Doe filed a lawsuit against Kipnis.

The New York Times published an article on the subject. In their article, they gave an overview mainly on the facts we know surrounding the case. They included information such as "The lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday under the name Jane Doe in federal court in Illinois, alleges that Ms. Kipnis defamed the student and invaded her privacy by publishing her text messages and other details about her private life." This article seems to suggest that Kipnis had published this book in spite of a prior fall out with the plaintiff and wrote in the book "We seem to be breeding a generation of students, mostly female students, deploying Title IX to remedy sexual ambivalences or awkward experiences." It seems as though Kipnis believes the women are using this law in vain and don't deserve to be using it.

The Chicago Tribune also published an article on the lawsuit. Their article covers the same things as the New York Times but adds some prior knowledge about Professor Peter Ludlow. Perhaps they were able to find this information because they are closer to Northwestern than the NYT. The Tribune wrote "The first allegation against Ludlow came from an undergraduate student who said the professor had gotten her drunk and sexually attacked her during an outing in February 2012" and "Also in 2014, Doe filed a complaint against Ludlow, alleging the professor had unwanted sexual intercourse with her while she was intoxicated in late 2011." I think by adding this information, the Tribune was trying to show that they were on Doe's side.

I think it's incredibly rude and anti-feminist of Professor Kipnis to publish a book like this. Not only is she assuming that women are making these accusations out of spite, but she is trying to make it seem like they aren't credible. Instead of trying to improve the reputation of this gross professor, she is going against her fellow women.

photo originally from: @thedailynu