Florence Pugh Condemns Cornell Fraternity Case: 'Be Angry for Us'

Florence Pugh has posted a lengthy statement on Instagram demanding that men speak out over an alleged gang rape at Cornell University, telling them: "Be angry for us. Please."

The actress published the post on Sunday in response to a case that became public last week, when a former Cornell student filed a lawsuit accusing seven men of drugging and raping her at a fraternity house party in October 2024. The allegations surfaced only through the court filing.

According to the plaintiff's attorney, a university investigation led to two of the accused being expelled. The remaining students received lesser sanctions, including temporary suspensions, workshops or essay-writing assignments. Nobody was arrested.

The former student, identified in court papers as Jane Doe and 20 years old at the time, is now suing both the university and the fraternity members. She claims they failed to protect her and prevent the alleged assault.

Pugh described the incident as a "horrific act" and wrote that she knew "this has happened before, and I hate the idea of it happening again." Her statement repeatedly turned the focus toward male silence.

"This is really the moment where we need our men to be as horrified and as sickened as us," Pugh wrote. "You need to be leading conversations about how we change the allowance and complicity of this behaviour as much as we are. How can you expect us to trust that it's 'not all men' when in moments like this, many of you stay quiet?"

She was blunt about the university's sanctions. "All it takes is write a quick 'I'm so sorry I raped a girl while she was drugged with my friends, we thought it would be fine?' essay and you're good to go!" she wrote. "This is unacceptable."

Pugh also questioned the bystanders. "Every single person who knew or heard about this happening, should be looked at with serious concern," she wrote. "They are as evil as those planning it. To know that a torture as violent as rape is about to happen 'upstairs' and not do ANYTHING ABOUT IT, is sick, cowardly and cold."

Her post widened into a broader indictment of institutional failure. "Colleges/schools/universities repeatedly fail women around the world," she wrote. "You build men that get taught through time and time again that they can do extreme harm and that they won't be harmed in return."

She added: "I'm no longer tired – I'm enraged by schools protecting boys, in fear of their futures being wrecked. What about the life that those girls then have to endure, with the knowledge that his reputation is more precious than her truth?"

Pugh closed with a demand for institutional accountability and a direct appeal. "Those that protect and lightly sentence men that rape and destroy, should be punished and watched closely," she wrote. "There is no equality until you respect our bodies. There is no equality until you stop damaging our souls. There is no equality until you let us live. There is no equality until we can say we feel safe. We are the life force of this earth, start ****ing protecting us."

The statement credits campus activists who, in her words, are "fighting for that girl, exposing those boys and making life unbearably impossible to find joy during their terms."

Pugh's Instagram post arrived days after she spoke to Vanity Fair about her long-standing support for Palestine, saying she didn't know "why it took so long for people to start talking and for people to actually feel sympathy."

Her intervention now places a high-profile Hollywood voice behind Jane Doe's lawsuit, which will test Cornell's handling of fraternity culture and its duty of care as the case proceeds through the courts.