'The Dark Power of Fraternities'

Alexandra Robbins wrote a book called Pledged a few years back that I tried twice to read and had to put down both times because it just pissed me off.

 

They had them at my schools, but I never joined. Never really regretted it. Plenty of other groups to hang out with.

 

NTTAWWT

 

The Greek experience varies from campus to campus and from year to year.

Being a fraternity member in 1995 and being a fraternity member, even at the same chapter, a year later can be widely different.

The writer just as easily could have chosen college marching bands, or club sports teams like rugby but chose the Greek system because it presents a broader target and one that some will automatically shake their heads in agreement so everyone can share in the outrage.

 

We were hazed, but it was never anything physical. I sort of got a kick out of it. There was a lot of, "Here is a list of 10 bad things to do, pick one to do."

We had an active my junior year hit a pledge and we kicked him out of the house.

We had one guy pledge our house second semester my freshman year and he had been a pledge at another house and quit. We asked him why, and that was the first time I had ever heard about "Ookie Cookie"

They explained the rules to him and he told them to fuck off... I always respected him for that.

 

Tom Wolfe has covered this territory, in novel form.
There was also this guy's continuing odyssey.
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/confessions-of-an-ivy-league-frat-boy-inside-dartmouths-hazing-abuses-20120328
Turned out he was as much a scumbag (and criminally responsible) as the people he was blowing whistles on.
Shocking.

 

Count me with those who never considered joining a frat to be a good idea. I know of too many stories of too many bad things happening to think that was anything but a good decision on my part.

Has anybody else been lectured about not calling them frats? A guy I went to college with would lose his temper every time he heard the term, asking "Would you call a country a c-nt?" Because, of course, I should show the same respect to a college club that I do to a sovereign nation. I use the word frat as often as possible in his honor.

 

Having not been in a frat, far be it for me to defend them. I just have a real problem overlooking the idea of personal responsibility. As in, you are responsible for your own actions. Some actions have permanent consequences. It's a shame, and I'm not dismissing the severity of the consequences. I also deeply empathize with those who have been effected by these issues. But personal responsibility really is at the heart of the vast majority (if not all) of these issues. You can make an issue out of statistics, but that doesn't change the need for individuals to take responsibility for their own actions.

Some people always look for someone else to blame.

 

Exactly. Always seemed amusing that for a bunch which always constantly broadcast at foghorn volume their own prowess with the females, in 99.7% of all accounts of hazing and other abusive behavior, they go straight for the ass. The male ass.

NTTAWT of course ... but amusing.

 

I was in fact once lectured on that very thing. Took all I had not to burst out laughing.

To be fair, though, I was never in one, not sure I knew anyone who was, yet the phrase "things got really out of hand with alcohol, at times" applied to the people I knew as well. Although to the best of my recollection, I never saw anyone shove a bottle rocket up their ass.

 

I wasn't in a frat. Didn't need to be.
My closest friends in the world are the guys I went to college with. We had a group of eight of us and my senior year we lived in two houses across the street from one another. We were a frat without the letters.
I never understood the purpose of joining but perhaps that's because most of the frat guys when I was in college were sterotypical NY/NJ douchebags.

 

I wasn't in a frat at State but have watched as nieces and nephews have joined various clubs at their schools. If I had it to do over I might join. There are positives to clubs ... they can serve to keep you on track gradewise and you can meet a wide network of people that might prove to be friends later in life. IFC life has both ups and downs but with regard to grades and academics, far more ups.