Kavanaugh's Yale fraternity brothers posing with a flag of womens' underwear (PHOTO)

I didn’t realize Animal House was a documentary.

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I’m not saying you or anyone should do the following. I’m just thinking out loud.

I wonder if a person’s kid is at a certain maturity level. If you could ask if they want to watch a movie from your childhood. Talk in advance about what you liked about it back then and about what you see now is so wrong with it. Watching it becomes part laughing at the funny parts and part calling out the bat shit crazy parts that adults thought was a good idea for a movie.

Done right it is a chance to practice calling BS on media we in general might find entertaining.

I’m not sure if I every did anything quite so structured when my kids were kids but definitely had conversations on the fly about stupid things people used to think was Ok and you could see them feel empowered to see through BS that blinded adults.

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I think it is fair to say that many fraternities have an amplification affect on that rape culture though.

You hardly ever see a college chess club getting busted for engaging in a years-long pattern of sexual assault.

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And I’d argue that rape culture has existed long before any kind of formal education or social organizations.

That’s what I do and have done.

Particularly with old favs like 16 Candles and the Breakfast Club, which are undeniable John Hughes classics, but which both still have some very problematic themes in them (rape culture, sexual objectification, misogyny, “mild” racism, and homophobia, respectively.)

There I agree, along with much of the collegiate environment in general:

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Cool. I think we are on the same page of can’t shield them forever but can prepare them for what the will inevitably encounter on their own.

But of course not every parent feels this way and not every kid will respond positively. My own kids, 18 months a part in age were very different and needed very different parenting. No silver bullets when it comes to parenting.

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Word. I’m not a ‘helicopter parent’ who’s attempting the impossible, by trying to raise my kid in a bubble.

I give her context for everything and take care to explain what’s problematic about certain ass-backwards ideas that are prevalent in old (and current) pop culture/media.

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You forgot Sixteen Candles - “Ted! You’re a legend!”

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As bad as the 80’s were in some aspects. Man-oh-man does 2018 have a lot of teachable moments. I’m glad my kids are gown-ups now. Just not enough booze to cope with this timeline as a parent. Preaching to the choir I know. You have my empathy.

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Fraternities are a rarity at Yale. And DKE is the football/jocks fraternity. If someone is an being an idiot or an asshole, it’s never a surprise when they belong to DKE. Kavanaugh was in DKE. What a surprise.

His “secret society,” Truth and Courage, was formed by some disgruntled alumni of Skull and Bones and [maybe] Wolf’s Head when those two societies went co-ed. And what a name! What courage, what truth it takes to continue to discriminate!

So much winning!

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Conservatives so trashy!

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No argument here. Just saying frats are a structure which is conducive. There are many such structures. Mostly boys’ clubs.

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I am admittedly an old fart long removed from college, but back in my day frats were famous for heavy drinking, poor judgement and lack of respect for women or the concept of consent. From what my kids tell me this has not really changed much.

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We used to call them the Drunken Dekes.

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Ah, right. That’s what I was thinking of when I wrote “Pretty in Pink”.

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Animal house is not a documentary. It’s a sanitized male fantasy. The reality is much darker.

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16 Candles, Weird Science…I’m guessing there are even more, but I can’t think of them atm either. It’s not as bad as it used to be, but it’s damn sure not good enough yet either.

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It strikes me that part of the misogyny in the nerds films is that women aren’t possibly imagined as being nerds or outcasts themselves, which of course we were.

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Young Brett Kavanaugh belonged to a wild fraternity at Yale that was reviled for misogyny and drunken woman-degrading antics.

Come on, isn’t it a bit much to tar someone just for belonging to a frat with members who got drunk and acted inappropriately?

Allegations of sexual assault follow more than half a dozen DKE members,

DKE? OK, I take it back. Those guys are assholes.

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It grows more easily there. One might even say it flourishes on such a scaffolding. But its roots pervade our whole society.

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does anyone have pics of his law clerks? are they named melania?