The 2010 Duke University faux sex thesis controversy arose from a private 42-page

PowerPoint Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, created by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin at a software company named Forethought, Inc. It was released on April 20, 1987, initially for Macintosh computers only. Microsoft acquired PowerPoi ...

document written by a

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

senior, Karen Owen, in the format of a thesis about her sexual experiences during her time attending the university.

The controversy

Shortly before graduating from

in May 2010, Karen Owen wrote a thesis styled document about her sexual experiences during her time attending the university. She privately distributed the document to three friends. In mid-September 2010, during Homecoming weekend, one of these friends decided to forward it onward, and the document went viral. In the faux thesis, titled "An education beyond the classroom: excelling in the realm of horizontal academics", Owen ranked her partners based on her criteria for performance. The bulk of the controversy surrounded whether she invaded her partners' rights to privacy, and whether the subjects of Owen's faux thesis have a right to sue, as was done in the case of

Jessica Cutler Jessica Louise Cutler (born May 18, 1978 in Monterey, California) is a blogger, an author, and former congressional staff assistant who was fired for detailing her active sexual life, including receiving money for having sex (prostitution), in ...

when Cutler published details of her sex life on a

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

. It also raised questions as to whether

double standard A double standard is the application of different sets of principles for situations that are, in principle, the same. It is often used to describe treatment whereby one group is given more latitude than another. A double standard arises when two ...

s exist if the reaction would have been the same had the faux thesis been written by a male. The faux dissertation attracted additional attention because some of the men whom Owen ranked were from the lacrosse team, and there was an unrelated sex controversy surrounding the team a few years prior.

Reaction

About a month after the faux thesis made headlines, the Duke University History Department held a forum about the long term implications of the faux thesis. A few months after that, ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' published an article discussing this incident in the context of Duke's culture as well as binge drinking by women.

The author

Background

Karen Owen, the author of the faux thesis, grew up in

Branford, Connecticut Branford is a shoreline New England town, town located on Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut, New Haven County, Connecticut, about east of downtown New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven. The population was 28,273 at the 2020 United Sta ...

and graduated from Branford High School in 2006. She won a scholarship to attend Duke and was a very avid sports fan during her time there.

Following the controversy

After her faux dissertation went viral, Owen deleted, closed down, or blocked access to her

social networking A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...

sites. She stated "that fraternities 'make lists like this all the time.'" She also expressed deep regret over the incident, saying that she would have "never intentionally hurt the people that erementioned n the faux thesis"

In popular culture

*On December 1, 2010, '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' aired an episode called "Rescue", based on the story of Karen Owen's faux sex thesis. *The feature film '' The Escort'' features a

prostitute Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

with a similar back story, making it impossible for her to get a non-sex work job.

References

External links

A redacted version of Karen Owen's document
at Jezebel.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Duke University Faux Sex Thesis Controversy, 2010 2010 controversies in the United States 2010 in North Carolina Academic scandals Casual sex Faux sex thesis controversy Internet privacy Privacy controversies and disputes 21st century in Durham, North Carolina