My distaste for the college fraternity system stems from deep suspicion of hierarchical exclusivity. These good-old-boy networks in training seem to thrive on demeaning new members and non-members.
But I'm lucky. I went to SDSU, where the Greek presence was minimal... or, looked at another way, where drunken revelry was more egalitarian. My only direct undergraduate contact with fraternities was witnessing the strange Greek-lettered clone mobs at a football game in the Dakota Dome. Distasteful, but mostly harmless.
College fraternities, alas, are not harmless, especially not to young women:
The Greek system is dedicated to quelling young men's anxiety about submitting themselves to four years of sissy-pants book learning by providing them with a variety of he-man activities: drinking, drugging, ESPN watching and the sexual mistreatment of women. A 2007 National Institute of Justice study found that about one in five women are victims of sexual assault in college; almost all of those incidents go unreported. It also noted that fraternity men—who tend to drink more heavily and frequently than nonmembers—are more likely to perpetrate sexual assault than nonfraternity men, according to previous studies. Over a quarter of sexual-assault victims who were incapacitated reported that the assailant was a fraternity member [Caitlin Flanagan, "Shutter Fraternities for Young Women's Good," Wall Street Journal, 2011.04.23].
With facts like that, do you really want Greek letters on your résumé?
Wow, I just lost all respect for you. As a former fraternity member I am extremely offended by your shallow and baseless portrayal of fraternities. Did I drink in college with my fellow fraternity members? Absolutely. Did I drink with my rugby teammates who by and large not members of the greek system? Absolutely. In fact, more. I also enjoyed cocktails with members of the botany club, professors, and co-workers. However, I never raised money for the Children's Miracle Network, picked up trash along the interstate, or supported school activities such as homecoming with any of my non-Greek friends and our GPA was consistently higher than the all-men's average.
Also, according to the article you linked, ca. 75% of the sexual assualt victims who where incapacitated were assaulted by those who are not members of the Greek System so I'm unsure how this is a problem completely caused by "frat boys".
While I'm sure that every dorm floor and off campus apartment complex had a comprehensive education program on sexual harassment and behavior as well as a 24/7 designated driver program like my fraternity house (tic) I find it to be very weak "journalism" for you to repost this garbage.
{CAH: I didn't say "completely caused." The text says frat members are more likely to engage in such antisocial behavior. On the 75%: what perceent of undergrads are members of the Greek system?}
If your respect for me hinged on one blog post, I guess I didn't have much respect worth worrying about in your bank to start with.
But the post isn't about me; it's about the apparent tendency of fraternity members to hurt women and drink more than non-fraternity members. Your mileage will vary with specific individuals, but the science behind the studies remains unrefuted.
In my college years, the fraternity experience was great. We did some off-the-wall things, but nothing approaching the misdeeds done by these latter-day jerks. In fact, when one of our pledges called a certain girl by the b-word to her face, we took him aside and told him in no uncertain terms that members in our fraternity never talked like that to a woman.
Oh, we got drunk now and then, and stoned pretty often (back in Minnesota in the mid-1970s, pot had been decriminalized). But I was never mistreated as a pledge and never witnessed any mistreatment of prospective members.
Democrats are more likely than Republicans or Independents or Libertarians to be left-wing radicals that advocate the destruction of the U.S. economy so as to facilitate its replacement by a brave new Euro-style "social democracy." That fact (and I'd wager that it really is a fact) does not mean that we should outlaw the Democratic Party.
We have to let boys be boys -- not bad boys mind you, but good boys who will grow into good men. Well-managed fraternities can go a long way to make that happen. In my opinion.
I'm tired of people condemning boys and men solely on the basis of their gender, almost insinuating that the Y chromosome embodies some sort of cosmic evil. That attitude will, I'll bet, make the rape problem worse in the long run, not better. The Boy Scouts, the fraternities, the men's clubs -- more power to them. God knows this country needs good men.
Difference between Dems and frats: Dems aren't advocating criminal behavior. The social revolutionary urge you ascribe to my party is motivated by a desire for social welfare, not selfish indulgence.
I condemn no one based on gender. I condemn institutions on the basis of empirically demonstrated harms. We're not talking about boys; we're talking about adult citizens who should know better than to commit crimes.
"The social revolutionary urge you ascribe to my party is motivated by a desire for socal welfare, not selfish indulgence."
Only a few in your party, Cory. However, I think that advocating the destruction of an entire economy -- along with the attendant cost in human grief, starvation, and even death -- constititutes gross immorality if not crime.
I suspect that writers are more prone than the general population to abuse alcohol and drugs. (That's what the head of the Alcohol and Drug Dependency Unit and the Mayo Clinic told me in 1987, anyhow, when I was in "rehab"!) Does that mean that the writing profession ought to be banned?
I don't know of any fraternities that advocate criminal behavior. When I was in college, however, I thought that some fraternities were less gentlemanly than others.
If any fraternity actually advocates rape, then by golly, shut that one down.
It's possible that some fraternities attract men of a type more likely than the average man to commit rape. Close all the fraternities? The bad men would still be there.
I don't think that it makes a whole lot of sense to "throw out the baby with the bathwater" in cases such as this. It does make sense to get help for potential rapists before they commit the crimes. That sort of psychological screening presents a whole 'nother social problem, of course.
Who are these non-frat-rats anyway?
My primary gripe about Greek system is that their block voting loaded up other campus groups with their frat or sorority "brothers and sisters" who often did not really give a rat's rear about those orgnaizations or student government, but it made the frat or sorority look like it was at least doing something good.
Frats and sororities often have copies of all tests and that produces some odd effects on grades and grading and changes in tests and textbooks that would otherwise be unnecessary.
I doubt South Dakota would be one tiny bit worse if the Greek systems were dumped from the campuses.
But, don't think I can still find my GDI sweatshirt.
Another difference here, Stan: the harms you ascribe to my party is a matter of interpretation of motives and outcomes. The harm ascribed to the Greek system is a matter of empirically proven statistical tendency toward specific, physial harm. To accept the analogy you try to forge, I would need to see evidence of legislation passed by Democrats for the specific purpose (not the Glenn-Beck-interpreted accusation) of trying to destroy the economy.
You do raise an interesting question about whether frats might attract bad apples. Close the frats, and indeed, those bad apples would still be out there. But I suggest that frats create a setting that encourages and validates bad behavior by making those bad guys feel like part of a group, providing regular settings for excessive drinking and abuse of women, and using resources and a support network to cover up wrongdoing. If frats attract a bad element, there must be a reason. It's like strip clubs: we give communities authority to govern their location or prohibit their operation completely, because we recognize they degrade morals and foster bad behavior. Maybe the guys attracted to such places are crumb-bums to start with, and banning strip clubs still leaves the bad guys out there, but we take steps to prevent giving those bad guys places to congregate and encourage each other.