Legal Failures to Protect Women Stem from a Culture of Male 'Overentitlement' That Also Explains Alito's Dismissal of Roe Reliance Interests
Source: Dahlia Lithwick. "Sam Alito’s recent comments about Roe v. Wade connect with Cornell Seven.." October 16, 2026. slate.com
The Gist
Suk and Lithwick argue that the law keeps failing women because society assumes men are entitled to women's bodies, sacrifices, and labor, and the law treats that as normal. They see the same pattern in the Cornell fraternity scandal and in Alito's claim that women's reliance on Roe was 'abstract.' Their answer is to rethink and rebuild institutions like universities, not just tweak criminal law.
Conclusion
The legal system persistently fails women because it is built on and fails to recognize a baseline of male 'overentitlement' to women's bodies, forbearance, and reproductive labor (misogyny); this is the common link between the Cornell assault scandal and Justice Alito's characterization of women's reliance on Roe as 'abstract,' so remedies must restructure institutions rather than merely reform criminal law.
Premises
- In the Cornell case, neither criminal law nor university administrative structures gave Jane Doe justice or conditions to continue her education, and there was no institutional response to her trauma.
- The fraternity's messages (e.g., 'free pussy') reflect a culture of male entitlement to women, and the legal system does not recognize this overentitlement as a problem but treats it as a baseline.
- Society similarly treats women's sacrifices as owed, as in abortion bans, where childbearing and child-rearing become entitlements of the public and the law does not see this as a problem.
- Universities disclaim responsibility for male-dominated spaces like fraternities (via choices on recognition, dorm drinking, and jurisdiction), allowing entitlement to operate unchecked.
- Alito called women's reliance on Roe 'abstract' while calling reliance on Obergefell 'concrete,' despite the many Dobbs amicus briefs documenting women's economic, health, and life choices made in reliance on Roe.
- Alito's view reflects a belief that childbearing is women's destiny and will, so abortion access wouldn't really shape women's life decisions, which treats the entitlement baseline as consented to and natural.
Assumptions
- Male 'overentitlement' (misogyny) is a real, pervasive structural feature of society and law, not just of individual bad actors.
- The same underlying cause explains both gender violence failures and abortion jurisprudence.
- Alito's remarks are best interpreted as reflecting gendered assumptions rather than a neutral legal distinction between concrete contractual reliance and diffuse social reliance.
- The Cornell allegations are accurate as characterized, and the fraternity messages are representative of broader culture.
- Institutional restructuring is a more appropriate remedy than criminal law change.
- Reliance interests of women on Roe are comparable in kind to the reliance interests of married same-sex couples on Obergefell.