Sorority: No fat chicks, minorities

It's not that "kids in frats are bad kids" -- I don't think that's it at all. I think it's the culture that encourages that type of behavior. Greek culture makes all that stupid shit acceptable to kids who otherwise wouldn't be out of the ordinary.

That type of behavior isn't acceptable in the real world. And it's not excessively acceptable outside of Greek life, even on a college campus.

Doesn't have much to do with the kids themselves. It's the attitudes, it's the party atmosphere (at some/most of them), it's the peer pressure, it's the instant social validation and yet another "good ol' boy" network ... stuff that brings out the worst in many, many people. And Greek life, often, encourages all that.

 

What you say happens at just about every major college in the country, Greek life or no Greek life. Many of the athlete hazing rituals and the crass attitudes for the opposite sex (both men's and women's sports, btw) was 10x worse than anything we dealt with. I was both an athlete and in Greek life, so I had the chance to see it from both ends of the spectrum. These are the kind of things that happen when you get A-type personalities around alcohol, IMO.

I agree with a lot of what you say, but it's not just fraternities. It happens all over college campuses. Even with the "GDI" kids.

 

I was GDI and I sure as hell never got hazed.

 

Time for my favorite argument: it's all about misogyny!

Except I don't think it's the frat boys hating on women - they love women. Melock excluded.

This is a prime environment for women hating on women. It's not just "the same people hang out with the same people." It's more a case of projection... these women are so insecure, so unsure of who they are that they don't want to be around anyone they perceive as having the "wrong" status or qualities. They think it will rub off on them.

If they hang around fat chicks, or poor chicks, or nerdy chicks, they think other people will see them that way. So they try to purge their environments of these people in an effort to cleanse themselves and "become" what they want to be by association.

Except the society they enter into tells them what they want to be is the exact opposite of what is worth valuing in a woman: extreme looks, money, sexual power over males and passive-aggressive behavior.

It's women hating themselves and projecting that onto each other. It's sick.

 

Here's a piece I read from a college rag on the greeks. Specifics have been left out.


WHY WE COVER STATE U SPORTS
This column is going to go a little off the sports course for today, but if you are an athlete, pay attention. This goes out specifically to you. If you are in a frat or sorority, you may just want to skip down to the final thought. Just thought I'd warn you.

Recently, a certain president of a certain sorority has been arguing with me about the coverage we here at the paper give to the Greek system. She maintained that what goes on is news and should be covered regularly. I feel that the Greek system here is preposterous and doesn't deserve coverage, unless they do something newsworthy, like raise money or get arrested.

Then, she got me with a great point. She asked me how many athletes attended this school. "Probably around 500," I answered.

"Well, the Greek system has 1,500 people in it," she replied. "How come we don't get a separate page like the sports page?"

I was silent. I could not instantly think of a logical answer. Ten minutes after the conversation, I thought about this question over and over again. Why isn't the Greek system covered as much as they would like? Why do we cover sports so much?

Then, it hit me. The reason we don't cover the Greek system is because the Greek system ISN'T IMPORTANT. Does the New York Times cover any fraternity event? Does USA Today run cover stories on sorority houses? The answer is no.

Sports are universal. Sports are played everywhere. Sports keep you mentally sound. In sports you don't physically abuse people to let them into this exclusive environment. Sure, sports teams have their 'hazing' rituals. I've seen these events up close. I've seen and heard that men's teams do some bad stuff but nothing that resembles the frat's 'urinating on male freshman pledges in a dumpster' thing that I have heard about from frat members. The sororities do it too. I've heard stories of the 'big' sisters circling the female pledges fat (note to readers: That would be easy to do to me. Just circle my body). The worst thing I've seen for female sports is a team that made their freshman dress up with their sports bras on the outside and lipstick and writing all over their bodies (for me, the best part was the fact that I had my own freshman to order around...I still want my Godzilla back!). The women's team didn't attack the self-esteem of their freshman, like the Greeks.

There are between 10,000 and 11,000 undergraduate students. That means about 10 percent are in the Greek system. Out of the remaining 90 percent, how many people care about what they do? Probably nobody. Out of the 95 percent of students who aren't athletes, how many care about the athletic teams we have here at State U? I'm going to go out on a limb and say at least 50 percent.

I find it funny that, for the most part, the Greeks despise the athletes (cough, jealousy, cough). One could make the argument that the two are very much the same. Both involve brother/sisterhood, both have exclusive membership and both walk around like they own the world. But, seriously, that is horse crap. The athletes demand respect. Unlike the Greeks, athletes don't get to weasel their way into the system by having a Jetta, clothes from Abercrombie, a universal haircut and a Prada bag. They have to earn their spots where they belong. If they work hard enough, they get paid to come here. If the Greeks work hard enough, Mommy or Daddy will buy them a new pair of Pumas or a bracelet from Tiffany's.

I never, ever, want to hear about how people care more about frats and sororities than they do about sports. The athletes demand respect here because they deserve it. They have earned it. I have more respect for a XXXXX (football team walk-on) or a XXXXX (women's soccer walk-on) than I will ever have for someone who paid to join some system that they think deserves so much respect.

Athletes will get covered because they have people interested in writing about them. Serious journalists want to cover real news, like a professor winning an award, a student becoming a Rhodes Scholar, or a team that turns its season around after a losing one. We here at the paper cover what will help us in the future. No newspaper in the world will look at one of our resumes, and say, "Hey, you did a good job covering frat houses. Want a job?" They want to see that we can cover news, sports and entertainment.

When the Greeks do something newsworthy, we are there. Greek Week will be covered. It is news, at least in my opinion. If you want to make sure it is going to be covered, then come join the staff.

 

Everyone assumes that fraternity life is the same from campus to campus, it isn't.
Anyone who has ever attended a national fraternity convention can attest to that.
So while I had a postive experience at the my smallish state school (approx. enrollment 10,000), someone who attended an elite school or a large land-grant school might have had something competely different.
College life is also remarkably different from campus to campus.
So saying all fraternities suck is a mighty big brush stroke if you don't know anything about the way a certain campus was then or now.
The New Yorker, I think, had an article that examined the curious effects of athletics and greek life on graduates. It found that those groups of alumni outperformed their other classmates by all measurable categories when it took a look at how they were doing 10 and 20 years after graduation.

And wow is that column ever a piece of crap.

 

Fraternities encourage and reinforce class-based entitlement.

I thought they were outdated when I was in university in the late 60's.

I'm amazed they're still around.

And this is from someone who was a member of a high school fraternity back in the day.

 

Then the greeks form their own networking cliques, go into business, and then run the business the same way, masking these behaviors just enough to stay out of the arm of the law.

 

I will say this though...

Two of my best friends from South America were visiting me in the states and went out with me and some of my fraternity brothers. Both knew of the Greek system through movies only, bc universities in South America don't have them. They asked a lot of questions about why people would join them, and why everyone couldn't just act that way as normal friends...

Sadly, I did not have a rebuttal...

 

Never pledged ... didn't want to, didn't have time.
Sigma Nu's were dicks.
Chi Omegas (aka. Chi Ho's) were the bitchy hot chicks
EATs were the fat chicks ... no joke.

 

Similar thing happened at my school, but it was with a fraternity...they had some dudes in there who weren't going to be GQ models, including two albinos. Couldn't help but feel bad for those guys when it came out in the school paper that the national chapter wanted them out...especially because the article made it clear what guys they were talking about. Thought that was pretty immature and shallow.

 

I was a GDI, but I never had anything against greeks or the greek system. I went to many parties and was dirty rushed several times, but it just wasn't for me and everyone was okay with that. However, I did marry a sorrority gal from my school.