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Florence Pugh has spoken out over an alleged sexual assault case involving a former Cornell University student, urging men to speak up against sexual violence and the silence surrounding it.
Pugh shared a lengthy statement on Instagram on Sunday, days after allegations emerged that a former Cornell student accused seven men of raping and drugging her at a fraternity house party in October 2024. The allegations became public after the woman, identified as Jane Doe, filed a lawsuit against the university and the fraternity members, as per Variety. According to the former student's attorney, a university investigation resulted in two of the accused being expelled, while the remaining students received lesser sanctions, including temporary suspensions, workshops or essay-writing assignments. Nobody was arrested. In her statement, Pugh described the alleged incident as a horrific act and said she felt uneasy and sick and anxious after reading about it. This is really the moment where we need our men to be as horrified and as sickened as us, the actor wrote. She urged men to take an active role in challenging sexual violence, saying they should be leading conversations about how we change the allowance and complicity of this behaviour as much as we are. Pugh also questioned the silence surrounding such incidents and wrote, How can you expect us to trust that its not all men when in moments like this, many of you stay quiet? The actor criticised what she characterised as inadequate consequences for those involved in the alleged assault and for people who may have known about it. We are not hard enough on those that want to damage human lives, she wrote. Pugh also addressed what she described as the wider failure of educational institutions to protect women. Colleges/schools/universities repeatedly fail women around the world, she wrote, adding that she was enraged by schools protecting boys, in fear of their futures being wrecked. She concluded her statement by writing, There is no equality until we can say we feel safe. We are the life force of this earth, start ****ing protecting us. Be angry for us. Please. Pugh's comments come days after she spoke to Vanity Fair about her long-standing support for Palestine, as cited by Variety. She said she did not know why it took so long for people to start talking and for people to actually feel sympathy. (ANI)
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