Stop the "Baby" Talk
 

I really like this blog written by a Theta.

If we all do a good job in recruitment by choosing smart, confident, achieving women, we shouldn't call them "baby" anything.

http://www.kappaalphatheta.org/alumn...aeBlogBricklet

I wonder if the writer of this blog, a Theta, saw the Twitter posts saying "Baby kittens- run to your litter box!" from a Theta collegiate member on bid day.

:eek:

I love it!
(Do chapters really give New Members baby bottles and rattles?!? :eek:)

I agree that this is a great blog and the term "baby" should not be used to refer to or describe new members of any organization. I know that the term "baby" came about when I was a junior (gah! 13 years ago!). It was the year that Rush became recruitment, Rushees became Potential New Members and Pledges became New Members. Campus panhellenic had decreed that we were to use all the new terms and added that we were not allowed to call the new members, or even the PNMs "Girls" or even "new girls" or "Ladies" because it was derogatory (I'm not sure how Ladies was derogatory, but it was on the list of words that we could no longer use). However, the word Baby was not on the list.

So the sororities who had names for their new members - Phis for Phi Mu, Rosebuds for AOPi, continued on with their tradition. Since the rest of the orgs on campus didn't have names for their new members and could essentially only call them mouthful "new members", and a year before called them pledges, adopted new names for the them. Zeta had "Zeta Babies", AXiD had "Little Xis", Sigma Kappa had "Kappa Kuties", etc. I don't know when all of them changed over to "Babies", but eventually they did. But I think a lot of this Baby calling came out of the fact that they could no longer be called "Pledges" and "New Members" is a mouthful and boring if you compare it to the groups that have names for their new members.

IMO, Pledges is far less derogatory than Babies.

YES! I hate the baby thing. There is nothing wrong with "pledge." I loved being a pledge.

I totally agree with you! There is/was nothing wrong with the word pledge. If I ran the world, we'd still use the words pledge and Rush.

Agreed. I've said this previously: every org should come up with a respectful name for its new members and use that uniformly. Officially, I only know of the two you mention above and Alphas for ADPi, and while I'm sure there are others, some don't have anything, and nobody is going to say "new member".

Incidentally, the writers of this and the other article on this topic come from Theta and APhi, two groups that don't have a name for the NM's, AFAIK, so I'll take the giant liberty of suggesting some: "stars" for Theta, and "ivies" for APhi. They get harder from there: AGD..."ferns"?

Doesn't Tri Delta call their new members pearls?

Count me in as another who cringes at the "baby talk". In a related mode, I also cannot abide by the cat connection with Theta. We are kites, we are ΚΑΘ, not KAT. That would be Kappa Alpha Tau. I'm not a kitty cat, I'm a Theta.

They do. I've never heard us call our NMs Rosebuds, but I like it. ;)

I have heard/seen that; I didn't know if it was official. Basically, like half the NPC groups have the pearl as a jewel, and so most of them can use that, if they don't mind inter-group confusion. ASA can use rubies, too, because that sounds cool (and I hope everyone knows I am just having fun here; I wouldn't really deign to tell other groups what to do, nor do I know if they have some secret meaning behind their jewel/symbol/whatever that makes it a totally inappropriate name for NM's).

I completely agree with all of this. The switch in terminology happened when I was in college too and it was immediately a switch to "babies". It was so confusing to us at the time, because we had been pledges and didn't think it was offensive at all! I think "pledge" is such a convenient word, you can pledge something, be a pledge or join a pledge class.

Where do I sign the petition to bring back the word "pledge"?

I'm fine with "New Members."

Our new members are Pearl Members. Rubies are reserved for initiated collegiate members. :)

I'm going to take it a step further. When I was an chapter advisor, I was informed under no uncertain terms that I was dealing with women, not girls. I explained that, when they behaved like women, I would use that term. If they acted like ladies, I would call them ladies.

At the first meeting I attended, members who had done their dishes got a lion to color, ones who had hung up their coats that week got a violet to color, etc. That's when I had to use every bit of tact I had to explain that "women" don't color "awards" that are for something they should know to do anyhow!

Calling new members "babies" encourages baby-like behavior; there are a lot of other names which encourage responsible, sorority women behavior.

Junior League new members are called "provisional members" or "provisionals" for the first year, when they go on to "active" membership. I think sororities could use that term, as the new members of a sorority have provisional membership until initiation.

I think all these cutesy names for new members are dumb.

Total lane swerve, but I think that in Tri Delta, the pearl specifically symbolizes the new member, while the pine tree symbolizes the collegiate member and the pansy the alumna member. More here.

/lane swerve

I think I recall that Phi Mu was the first to drop the word "pledge", and I think the reasoning was that it was heavily associated with hazing. I have heard Phi Mu officers use a soundbite to the effect of "pledge is a verb, not a noun".

Obviously changing the word does not change a hazing culture, but I'm okay with using "phi" instead.

Actually, I believe that AJLI has gone to "New Members" as well. That's what my city was told to do. I believe it's for some of the same reasoning of pledges. We were told not to call them Provisionals any longer.

AGD IHQ also addressed this via social media. We are encouraged to call them New Members, not Baby anything.

Baby Squirrels just creep me out.

Yes, Tri Delta pledges have always been called Pearls. It is part of our ritual and symbolism.

I agree the baby stuff has to go. And I sincerely hope Theta also gets on top of the finger on the mouth thing because it is just gross looking.

I agree completely with you. I was just appalled the first time I saw my sister (bio) doing it. Not ladylike at all. Just do the kite symbol, girls!

But isn't there an issue with the kite handsign and its sign language meaning?

I don't like the term recruitment
I don't like the term new member
I don't like hand signs
I don't like the baby trend
I still call my friends "girls" and I graduated from college a long time ago. The term "woman/women" isn't my style - it's uptight and old-fashioned and reminds me of large clothing.
I loved being a pledge.

No big deal to me.... I know that it is also the ASL sign for vagina. Doesn't bother me.

Pledge is what she does. I want her to remember she took a pledge to our organization, and that the pledge means something. In my mind, a member has been initiated, so "new member" doesn't convey the precise meaning.

Only out of curiosity, why did the NPC change the terms? (Rush to recruitment, Rushee to PNM, etc)?

YES to all of the above.

I don't know the process of picking new terms when deciding to replace the existing ones, but much more thought needs to go into how "catchy" they are, for lack of a better word. It really doesn't matter what the official term is, if these groups want everyone to actually adopt the terms, they need to be "catchy".

Been there done that. Here is the thread from last year.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ght=thetartots

AMEN.

As nice as some of the terms are that have been created, having different things for every group is impractical. Yeah, ASA can decide that we want to call our pledges pearls, and I do like it as these terms go, and there is a great meaning and good reasoning behind it, but the thing is, why should we obligate anyone else to have to know that? Can you imagine trying to use the "correct" terms for every group at a 16-or 17-sorority campus? It's ridiculous. Sigma Chi (to use the first example that comes to my mind) has some terms for their chapter offices that aren't "normal" but I have never heard any of them get offended that I called them the "president" instead of the "consul." "Babies" more than likely sprang up as a generic term.

Exactly. You're not a member until you're initiated. If you were a member before that, how could you quit pledging one group and pledge another a year later?

It was the 1990s and people were effing stupid. They thought it would eradicate hazing and negative Greek image. You see how well that worked. The stupidest thing is that none of the terms are grammatically correct. Women who go through formal rush (particularly at a school where just getting ANY bid is difficult) are not being "recruited" (ask anyone who's dealt with a military recruiter). Every woman on a campus who isn't Greek is a "potential new member" - not just those who are rushing.

The fact that 18 year olds who have never been cognizant when the "old" terms were used, still use them, just shows that this attempt has been a spectacular failure, and everyone just needs to go back to using "rush" and "pledge" and get over themselves.

My girls would get a phone call over this.

I WOULD BE LIVID as an advisor, and insulted as a new member.

Yep, the change happened when I was an active as well. Annoying to be scolded for saying "pledges."


I think calling our new girls "Stars/Little Stars" is a great idea, I've talked about it before with others.

I bugs me, but not to the point that I'm super passionate about it. The skit that hooked me during my own rush was a Theta "Cats" skit with songs. Hearing my future mentor sing "Memories" made me nearly cry! We never had a huge cat connection other than that though.

I would also be weirded out by baby squirrels.

I will take the finger over the mouth over "Theta Baby" any day of the week. It's meant to be funny.

Doesn't bother me either. I'm fine with this hand sign, the 2-sister arm sign, and the single person crossed arm sign.

Agreed

I agree.

You are so right. My daughter and her whole chapter, as well as pretty much the entire Greek community at her school, say "rush" and "pledge". Just give it up already. It wasn't broke!

I'm sure the girl that tweeted about the litter box has already been counseled.

Criticizing someone for their unsophisticated language in something called a "tweet" = irony.

(Not directed at you in particular MP, just that the terms associated with Twittter have not gotten any less silly to me.)

This really made me laugh because it is all so true! 33girl, I wish there were an NPC newspaper or some such venue for you to write an op-ed on this topic.

I will have to look and see what Gamma Phi chapters are calling their pledges - "new moons"? Hmmmmm . . . count me in for Team Pledge.

I thought of this thread just now...Chi Omega posted some Bid Day pictures from various chapters on FB, and one of them had a big banner that had a picture of the Olympic ring logo, and said "You're Gold to Us, Baby Hooties."

Trust me, that does not mean that HQ likes the term.