Hey PiKA2001,

This is what I mean:



Not the same thing and why collegiate hazing is so much more dangerous.

I was hazed when I pledged a local sorority. I was not physically harmed, or forced to drink, but I still consider it hazing because I was humiliated, talked down to, and the actives carrying it out were being rude and just plain mean about it. The most disturbing thing seemed to be that they enjoyed it. My pledge class was small, and they all seemed to be able to shrug it off and pretend that nothing had happend, but I couldn't. I de-pledged and I don't regret it. I couldn't even look at those girls, let alone call them my sisters.I certainly didn't feel closer to my pledge class, and I definatly didn't want to be friends with the actives after that incident.

If you want to call someone your sister/brother, why do you want to treat them like that?

To add yet another facet to this whole discussion.... think of all the activities that our orgs can no longer do for fear of them being deemed hazing....

Like telling ghost stories?

Like what?

I think that it's a sorry state of affairs when you want to do something as simple as strip a pledge, pour chocolate sauce on her and stake her out on a red ant hill until she can recite the greek alphabet backward, and panhel gets all up in arms and starts yipping about "hazing".

But that's just me.

Agreed. And don't even get me started on the goat ban.

I don't think anyone's suggesting something like that KR -- and that you can even come up with that stuff is a little scary.

Most of the hazing that I've seen (although, my chapter never engaged in a bit of it) was people being yelled at, forced calisthenics, difficult tasks to do in a short amount of time.

Heck, some of the stuff I've heard about has actually sounded pretty cool. On the other hand, I've heard of some pretty dangerous (stupid) things that some chapters have engaged in.

I'm sure most of y'all are pretty familiar with your respective organizations' policies on hazing. Do you think they go too far? I mean, I can see trading swats, bows and toes, etc. as unacceptable, but line ups and some tasks that would pass for hazing under most of our policies get me to question them a little bit. How far do they need to go?

I'd like to note here that the college-aged boys I know are remarkably capable of getting themselves into trouble, sans fraternity or sports team.

And I say "boys" because I don't know of any 19 year old girls who made a potato gun and took turns firing it at an angle at a railway train.

Being 19 and bored is not a very good combination.

But you guys think of things girls would NEVER EVER think of. Like handcuffing your drunk friend to the front porch overnight.

What I was refering to were things that I had read on other threads on this topic which were similar to things I encountered as a pledge. When I got my big sis I went on a scavenger hunt to find clues at a variety of locations before it was revealed. That was fun and I was not harmed in the least! Now, scavenger hunts are deemed hazing b/c there are individuals that will take things way too far. If I had ever had things poured on me, thrown at me, etc. there is no way I would have joined my group!! That has no purpose and serves no value. But going on my big sis hunt is a whole different story. I bonded with the girls in my group b/c we got to share that fun together while we ran all over town looking for clues and trying to put it all together and see if we were actually right :) It's unfortunate that such fun and harmless activities have to be done away with b/c of a minority of people.

yeah good point :)

but not only that

we only got to wear our pledge buttons once the whole time b/c they said making us dress up to wear them was hazing. That's BS we should have got to wear it more.

That's the kinds of things I'm refering to. It's an honor to wear your pledge pin but since a minority take things to the nth degree, that is now a taboo thing to do. That is the true issue with hazing laws.... they are written so broadly that everything falls under hazing even though the intent of the laws was to stop the beatings and things like that.

Over here wearing your pledge pin while wearing a canadian tuxedo was strictly forbidden.