Finally, someone who knows what they’re talking about. I wasn’t even in a frat (although I did go to an exclusive private high school that was basically a frat training academy), and this is probably the most accurate thing I’ve read so far.
It’s a self-selecting bunch. They’re picking guys just like themselves - not out of any evil mustache-twirling desire to be superior really, but out of a sort of dumb-assed, lazy methodology of who fits in.
I mean (and this gets a bit stereotypical), if you’re some white, upper-middle-class frat brother named Brice, are you going to pick another white, upper-middle-class guy named Hunter from a school you know about, and who dresses like you and talks like you, or are you going to pick that hispanic dude named Hector who doesn’t dress or talk like you, and who (in your mind) probably only knows hispanic girls with sharpied-on eyebrows? Or, for that matter, is Hector going to try and join that frat in the first place? Probably not. It’ll probably be guys named Chet, Brice, and Hunter who went to upper-middle-class high schools, and who already dress and act like frat guys.
In other words, I think that it’s the members who make the frat, not the other way around. And those members are already knuckleheads when they show up- that’s a big part of WHY they pledge a frat in the first place.
That’s certainly true, but it’s not fair to say that Chet and Brice will pick each other just because. My chapter actively recruited minority students, and that was actively encouraged by our national organization.
I read you loud and clear. I shall comply; I should have paid more attention to the option to report a post–having seen it often enough–to get the message myself.
You have properly chastised me.
Animal House is definitely gross if you are a woman.
In my experience, there are fraternities and there are fraternities. The ‘traditional’ fraternities are exactly what their reputation makes them out to be: rich entitled and mostly white. I was part of an Asian student association and I clearly remember things literally being taken from us and given to the frat boys. They had a huge budget, whereas ours was $250. One time we had the college van reserved for our uses, but the main fraternity needed it, so when we went to go get it we found they had been permitted to take it because clearly “they needed it more”.
In college the only experience I had with frats was drunken assholes.
Then I grew up and went to work for a not for profit organization. And I discovered a different type of fraternity. These were fraternities that were serious about the future, and they worked damn hard to ensure the future of their members. Mostly minority-based, they came to our events and worked extremely hard, doing anything we asked them without complaint, showing up at 7 am on a Sunday morning. They were gentlemen and they were very nice.
I have not had any experiences with sororities except for the exclusionism. I never joined one and honestly would never - I am not a joiner.
The talent of the actors is irrelevant. The *specific content *of the movie is my grievance. If it pains me to see a college man act like a drunken boor I don’t want to watch a movie even if the guy graduated from an acting school with honors and has ten Oscars to his credit. I concentrate on the verb, not the adverb. The studio may pride itself on is high production values–as the company that produced Dallas for TV apparently did–but the only thing I appraise is what I see on the screen. I don’t give a damn how much money the star, the director, or the executive producer has in the bank, nor how many people all told, bought tickets to see the movie. To me all that is irrelevant. The only relevant matter is the content, and if that turns out to be repulsive, I am not going to watch the movie. It’s as simple as that.
I was in a fraternity. I’d say we were all solidly middle class. Maybe there were a couple of well-off guys as well as a couple of not-so-well off guys. I was never hazed; hazing was a few years in the past. I participated in a number of philanthropic events, got tutoring and did some tutoring myself, learned various skills related to maintaining a house and–gasp–went to parties here and there. Even made a number of friends there though I had several friends outside the fraternity as well. Occasionally we ate babies. It was fun.