According to BuzzFeed (I know, not exactly a paragon of journalism), "pledging activities" have been halted, at least for that chapter while the investigation is ongoing.

OK, so I understand that the author is trying to rationalize and come to terms with why she went through with being hazed, but really?

The hazing that enrages me the most, I'd say, is the kind that dehumanizes women and involves fraternity men in the humiliation.

Hazing really brings out the worst in people. I will never understand why so many people rant and rave about how "worth it" it is.

What a time to release this too, national anti-hazing week. Kinda ironic and makes it a point that we do this week every year but groups still haze.

I cannot believe that people still think that hazing = bonding! FWIW, when I was an advisor, I was forever used as an example of someone who was hazed. How was I hazed? I had to wear a pledge ribbon on Bid Day, and Initiation Week. I had a pledge book that sisters had to sign. I had to get coffee for sisters at dinner. I had to participate in a scavenger hunt.

While that hardly sounds like a list of horrifying, insulting hazing rituals, they can easily turn into the disasters such as mentioned in this article. So, dear fellow greeks, please don't think that the "trivial" tasks I had to perform are simply fun. It only takes one bad apple to make a scavenger hunt of collecting signatures of campus heroes to turn into taking very real tragedies. There's a huge reason why hazing has been outlawed!

When most people think of hazing they think of the following categories:
Harassment Hazing

• Verbal Abuse
• Threats or implied threats
• Calling a member education event "hell night"
• Asking new members to wear embarrassing or humiliating attire
• Stunt or skits with degrading, crude or humiliating acts
• Expecting new members/rookies to perform personal service to other members
• Sleep deprivation
• Sexual simulations
• Deprivation of a normal schedule of bodily cleanliness
• Being expected to harass others

Violent Hazing

• Forced or coerced alcohol or other drug consumption
• Beating, paddling, or other forms of assault
• Branding
• Forced or coerced ingestion of vile substances or concoctions
• Burning
• Water intoxication
• Expecting abuse or mistreatment of animals
• Public nudity
• Expecting illegal activity
• Bondage
• Abductions/kidnaps
• Exposure to cold weather or extreme heat without appropriate protection

BUT, what people fail to realize is that some of what they're calling the "good" hazing, that brings them closer together IS hazing. It falls into a third and often overlooked category.

Subtle Hazing

• Deception
• Assigning demerits
• Silence periods with implied threats for violation
• Deprivation of privileges granted to other members
• Requiring new members/rookies to perform duties not assigned to other members
• Socially isolating new members/rookies
• Line-ups and drills/tests on meaningless information
• Name calling
• Requiring new members/rookies to refer to other members with titles (e.g. "Mr.," "Miss") while they are identified with demeaning terms.
• Expecting certain items to always be in one's possession

It is SO important that we educate our members about subtle hazing and not just harassment and violent hazing. Subtle hazing has long term psychological effects that take place internally and are less visible to others, but it can still be JUST as severe. Nothing about hazing is good. This woman failed to grasp the true meaning of sisterhood as her founders intended it. What a shame. I do hope however, that this leads to change for that campus culture, that chapter and members that may have been experiencing hazing.

It is also important that we remember that definitions of hazing vary. These things may be considered hazing by some GLOs, and some of them might be considered hazing by almost all GLOs, but whether they actually constitute hazing is going to depend on (1) state law, (2) campus policies and (3) GLO policies. For example, none of the things listed would be considered hazing under the laws of my state.

As for the bolded, the only GLO I know of that doesn't do that is Sig Ep in its Balanced Man chapters. Otherwise, I don't know of any GLO that allows pledges/new members/whatever-else-they-may-be-called to, for example, wear the badge or be present for ritual. As has been discussed on GreekChat many times, many fraternities and sororities have rules prohibiting pledges/new members from wearing letters or having anything that displays the coat of arms. Most GLOs do not allow pledges/new members to hold office, though I know that some do.

That's why it's best not to make blanket statements about what constitutes hazing beyond the obvious things, and instead to talk about what is considered hazing by one's own GLO or one's own campus.

The hazing song goes on and on. GC hazing threads have been the same for years. If you (in general) are a member of a GLO and you don't know how hazing is defined by your GLO, institution, and state, I posit you have not been paying attention. Do so.

I know. But new people come along periodically who haven't taken time to read all of the (many) hazing threads where this has been said over and over.

Plus, I think it's not necessarily a problem of not knowing how hazing is defined by one's own GLO, institution or state. The problem as I see it is assuming that all GLOs define hazing the same way that one's own does.

I want people to stop needing GC to educate them on some things. What did we do before GC?

It is problematic to assume that our GLO's definition of hazing applies to everyone but I consider it even more problematic to assume people have to care what we say either way about hazing. Even after you tell people that hazing has subjective components, there are still people who believe their opinion of what constitutes hazing, pledging, sisterhood, and brotherhood is so awesome that it should silence any dissenters.

Considering that many of our new members were 6 years old when GC went online, they didn't do much at all before GC.

What else would you do on a forum?

In that case, I guess we're relegated to the same old Internet discourse on hazing and brothel laws. :)

Tell me about these brothel laws of which you speak...

The ones that new GCers swear they found evidence of or were taught in New GLO Member training. :)

The cycle of "no, this isn't true" continues in certain GC threads.

Well if you didn't know what sorority it was, you know now. It is all over Good Morning America's website.

I feel bad for all the SDT's out there who are like "omg".

Just saw this in my FB feed
http://abcnews.go.com/US/sorority-me...ry?id=20395573


Sorority Member's Story Calls Hazing 'Weirdly Worth It,' College Investigates Claims
Sept. 27, 2013
By CHRISTINA NG via Good Morning America

" A New York college has put a sorority's pledging on hold while it looks into hazing claims made by a recent graduate in a Cosmopolitan magazine article about the "trauma" of sorority hazing and why it was "weirdly worth it."

Tess Koman, a 2013 graduate of Union College in Schenectady, described the experience of sorority pledging as "at once one of the best and worst decisions I've ever made," but ultimately decided that "the benefits outweigh the hazing."

She detailed a number of alleged hazing situations, including being "forced to dance for all the fraternities on campus to absurdly sexual songs" and "lineups" during which pledges were expected to rush to the sorority house wearing all-white and no makeup. "

click link to read the rest.

From the introduction to the article:
Not only are they lacking judgement in publishing an article that encourages hazing, they are also encouraging more people to write to them about this topic, so that (presumably) more of these types of articles can be published! :eek:

Hey Alpha O, welcome to GC! Come over to the AOii forum and introduce yourself.

I just read this article today and some of the articles reacting to it. The writer talks a lot about how going through the hazing process brought her some of the best friends she has ever had. I have to wonder how her friends are going to feel about her if their chapter gets kicked off campus? This is one of the most bizarre articles I've ever read on Greek life.

I used to read Cosmo in college and thought it was soooooooooo sophisticated and worldly. I picked up my daughter's copy the other day and leafed through it and my immediate thought is that it belongs in the bathroom.

Not as reading material for those inclined to do so, but as toilet tissue.

lmao!!

I just read this and I feel awful for her chapter sisters. I am on the eve of my ceremony and I can't ever imagine saying anything to hurt or otherwise keep another from joining and enjoying the sisterhood I have been honored to be asked to join. Why would she do this?? Now they have to suspend pledging and may lose their chapter. Not only that, it casts an unfair light on GLO's everywhere that DON'T haze or do any of the dumb things she lists, some of which we can't even be sure are TRUE vs. dramatic created journalism. Wow, just wow...

However, her chapter sisters are also the ones who are hazing. It's maybe sad that she outed them in such a way, and that she thinks the hazing is ok, but the sisters have no one to blame but themselves.

And for those people who think that one chapter hazing = they all haze, they usually aren't the biggest supporters of Greek life anyway.

If we want people to look at Greek life as a positive thing, then we have to present it in a positive way. These sisters weren't doing that, and it's unfortunate that they have to learn things the hard way... but I don't really feel as bad for them as you seem to feel.

I can totally see your point. I guess I'm approaching it from the thought process that maybe she is lying about what she says took place. If they really DID haze as bad as she says they did, then what makes it bad is that she perpetuated that process she hated. Not very sisterly IMHO. I agree with your viewpoint if what she says is true because that would mean they ALL knew about it and NO ONE said anything to stop it.

My one visit to Union College I was horrified with some of the stories the Archon (president) of our mother chapter was telling me they did to the pledges. So sadly, this article doesn't surprise me.

Someone I worked with in high school is now a member of this chapter...judging from her current profile picture on Facebook I believe that her sisters just hosted a walk against Hazing and Bullying.

Coincidence? I think not.

I just hope that whatever was going on internally that led to this article is resolved or at least working on being fixed. She was really sweet and a super hard worker and I'd like to think she never had to go through all of that....or perpetuated it.

I used to buy a copy of Cosmo every now and then to see if I still hated it.

I still hate it.

Just curious, would anyone like to guess the last time that a Cosmo cover contained neither the word sex (or any derivations like sexy or sexual) or orgasm?

I'm absolutely convinced that there is a strict requirement that they have to do so at the point to the point where I see just how many words on the cover are in a larger font than that word.