« Wednesday Mea Culpa | Main | Thursday Short Poem: Kenyon's "Let Evening Come" »

May 17, 2006

Comments

Stentor

Since I've been slamming you a lot lately, let me jump in to say that I quite agree with this post.

Hugo

Yay! I needed that, Stentor...

djw

I agree with the substance of your commentary (the connection between true membership and sexual degradation is particularly depressing), but it seems to me the indefinite suspension of the team based solely on the discovery of the photos, which is what the news reports seem to suggest is happening, is a bit heavy-handed.

bmmg39

This engenders team unity.....HOW, exactly?

Angiportus

Building community thru suffering? Eeeughh.
Seems to me it might just as well be done by constructive work of some kind--giving both the body and mind a workout, but with emphasis on some sort of result, rather than suffering, and no one having to go thru it alone. Extra laps or whatever, for a sports team, would qualify, I guess--just so no one gets hurt.
I'm with you entirely about the binge drinking and ritualized degradation/humiliations.

wolfa

I think schools should make -- and enforce -- a zero-tolerance policy on hazing that involves drugs/alcohol/nudity. Suspension makes sense (as a general rule, when there's been real hazing done, not necessarily in these cases), though there should be an announcement initially prior to that, since probably beforhand it was just winked at.

Part of the problem is the feeling of unfairness if there is no hazing -- one of those "we suffered, why do you get out of it?" This was a problem at my high school (not sexual or alcohol-based humiliation hazing), though eventually the administration just said no more: in a small school, it can be done fairly easily.

Hugo

What I mean by building community through suffering is CONSTRUCTIVE suffering -- the sort which comes from a communal fast, or from a very long run in the mountains that depletes the muscles, or two hours in a sweat lodge.

bmmg39

"As a feminist, I'm grieved to see that ritualized sexual humiliation is still such a vital mainstay of initiation practices. It's not new, of course. When I was a freshman at Cal, I flirted with the idea of joining a fraternity (one to which my grandfather, a great-grandfather, and numerous uncles and cousins had belonged). In the end, I decided not to, both for reasons of principle and because I worried that I wouldn't fit in with the fraternity culture."

I'll never understand the concept of having to jump through hoops to prove you're worthy of being their friend, part of their little club with Greek letters affixed to it. I didn't even understand it on the playground in elementary school.

The comments to this entry are closed.

My Photo

Regular reads

Blog powered by Typepad
Member since 01/2004