The interest I felt in certain guys then confused me, because it wasn't romantic,

but I wasn't sure what else it might be. But now I know: I wanted to take up people's
time making jokes, to tease the dean in front of the entire school, to call him by a
nickname. What I wanted was to be a cocky high-school boy, so fucking sure of my place
in the world. Lee Fiora is a student at the elite Ault School in Massachusetts who grew
up in a middle class household in Indiana. Based off the author, Curtis Sittenfelds own
experiences, The novel
Prep
is told from Lees perspective as she goes through high
school surrounded by her entitled, privileged classmates. She is thrown into the culture
of the cocky, rich prep school boy and takes a particular fascination with one boy in
particular, Cross Sugarman. Cross is the golden boy who for the first three years of high
school she has had but one interaction with, until he initiates a hook-up with her in
winter of senior year.
In May of 2014, a freshman girl at the St. Pauls School was raped by a senior
named Owen Labrie. Theres an old tradition at St. Pauls called the senior salute,
where in the last eight weeks before graduation where the senior boys try and have
sexual interactions with as many underclassmen as possible. Labrie was trying to be
number one in sexual scoring out of his group of friends. He took the victim to a
mechanical room on a roof where they started to kiss, and in her testimony the victim
says she protested as Labrie proceeded to continue further.
Both the novel and this case shed light on the atmosphere of prep schools that
isnt always talked about. The culture that the multitude of privileged, unsupervised
teens creates combined with the power dynamic already existing between girls and boys
make
Prep
and the St. Pauls case comparable.
One of the instances that make
Prep
and this case comparable is the environment
they are set in. St. Pauls and Ault are both old prestigious boarding schools founded by
wealthy families and started as a places of higher education for boys. The students
attend these schools are from wealthy families, aside from the small portion of the
students who receive financial aid. I cant say much about the student body for St.
Pauls, but in
Prep
the student body is described as entitled and arrogant. St. Pauls and
Ault could be the same school if you look at it on paper, so I doubt the student body isnt
any less affluent than Aults. The privileged point of view doesnt go away when the
students are put into a place without parental supervision. Added to this is the
demeanor of the boys at these schools. Lee describes a group of boys dubbed bank
boys. The name is given because the fathers of these boys work in banks, or at least they
look like their fathers could. Of course, Cross Sugarman is the alpha of the bank boys.

The boys are arrogant and see themselves as the most important person in the room,
and the most entitled wherever they go.
Cross Sugarman and Owen Labrie fit almost the exact same profile as each other.
Each are popular, smart, handsome, athletic, and good looking. They each receive lots
of attention from their classmates, and are obviously aware of their social status. The
way Cross interacts with his female classmates shows that he is aware how good looking
he is and he knows the girls realize it. He is from a wealthy home where he seems to
have had access to whatever he wanted. His character seems to see this as a right that
carries over from material objects to his interactions with real people. Theres not much
information on Owen Labries upbringing other than he grew up in Vermont and was at
St. Pauls with some financial aid. But we can assume that he was part of this entitled,
rich, prep school culture because he raped a girl while competing in the Senior Salute.
The tradition itself encourages the mindset that the boys are entitled to young women as
sexual objects.
Obviously when the two boys situations are explained, it is apparent that they are
not the same. Owen Labrie is a rapist, Cross Sugarman is not. But that doesnt mean
that they didnt experience the same dialogue about girls. The Senior Salute is a St.
Pauls tradition where upperclassmen boys try and have any type of sexual contact with
underclassmen girls in the eight weeks before graduation. There is a similar concept like
this shown in
Prep
, where Lee has a discussion with Crosss roommate about a list of
how many senior girls that Cross and his friends have had sexual encounters with. This
shows how Cross and his friends saw themselves in the scheme of things compared to
their female classmates. They were entitled to the girls so they could check off a name on
a list, similar to the competition of the senior salute.
These two instances show a mindset of young women that is instilled in teenage
boys, which builds on rape culture. Though these situations are different , both girls
were seen as objects or just a name on a list the boys to check off. But it starts within the
environment that these prep schools create. Wealthy, privileged students are sent to
these schools with other wealthy, privileged teenagers. This can lead the students at
these schools to believe that theyre better or more entitled to things than others, be it a
material object or a persons body.