The Harvard men’s soccer team recently had its season cancelled after documents showed that team members from the past several years had created so-called “scouting reports” that rated the women’s soccer players based on their appearances and perceived sexual appeal.
Now another Ivy League men’s athletic team appears to be in trouble based on vulgar and misogynistic text messages sent between members.
Messages from GroupMe were leaked to BWOG, the Columbia student newspaper, and they showed that from 2014 until earlier this week, members of the Columbia wrestling team made homophobic, misogynistic, and racists comments to each other.
BWOG published the story Thursday, and already, the university has launched an investigation and canceled the team’s meet scheduled for this weekend. As the newspaper writes:
“In the screenshots we received, the wrestlers sent each other numerous photos of female Columbia students and mocked their appearances. One of the men said a female student looked like “a dude in a wig.” Another woman was referred to as “fish pussy.” The wrestlers in the GroupMe also mocked female students as a whole. In one message, a wrestler refers to female Columbia students as “ugly socially awkward cunts” who feel “entitled.”
…Among the misogynistic messages is a shocking proliferation of racism and racist comments. Their comments about black women come across as especially distasteful and cruel. The wrestlers’ usage of the n-word is flippant, too, and they use it to refer to women with whom they’ve hooked up, workers at businesses around Columbia, and protesters in Ferguson, MO.”
Here are a few examples (you can find all the rest of the screenshots on BWOG’s website).
Warning: The following contains graphic language about sexual assault.
In a statement given to BWOG, the school said, “Columbia University has zero tolerance in its athletics programs for the group messaging and texts sent by several members of the men’s varsity wrestling team. They are appalling, at odds with the core values of the University, violate team guidelines, and have no place in our community.”
H/T Deadspin
