Pro-hazing article in Cosmo
 

An article from Cosmo about how sorority hazing is like, totally worth it.

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/advice/h...rth-it-SMT-COS

This makes me really upset.

Need to find an address to write Cosmo about their lack of judgement posting an article encouraging hazing

She's a recent grad of Union College.

Is it just me, or do the "activities" she's describing sound like stories you get if you google hazing?

Lets just say that in less than five minutes, I figured out her affiliation. I sure hope her national headquarters is on the case.

It takes 5 seconds to find out her affiliation. She said it herself. Her sorority is "almost" 100 years old and she attended Union College where there are 3 sororities. Also, in the comments section, a few people outted her chapter of affiliation. I sure hope this sorority does have a talk with their chapter at Union College. It's sickening.

I know, I can't understand if she was just making all this up to impress Cosmo, or if she hates her chapter and wants it shut down?

According to her comments on the articles left through her Facebook that's pretty public (idiot), she claimed that she was just putting out her experiences to explain that though hazing isn't condone, it still happens. Um, okay. If she was going to do all of that, she could have at least coded stuff. (Not condoning; just saying.)

If there really was this huge annual uptick in new members reporting to the campus counseling center, it seems that the Greek Life office and the sorority would have caught on and something would have been done. I'm just not buying that this much hazing could have gone on for so long without people outside the chapter becoming aware.

I know that my sorority would not have tolerated this. I can honestly say that I've never seen or heard of anything like this in "real life." I'm having a really hard time believing that the author seems totally unaware that this goes beyond "mean" and that it is completely against rules...she even seems to insinuate that this is part of their "secret" ritual that goes back almost 100 years. This is sick on many levels.

I am appalled that Cosmo would publish this article and contribute to the negative stereotyping that sometimes surrounds Greek Life. This article is absolutely disgusting. What disgusts me the most is how she admits to turning around after her pledge period and doing the same thing to the sisters in the grades below her. If you were miserable, why would you want others to be miserable? She should be ashamed of herself. I am proud to be part of a chapter and campus that has a zero tolerance policy for hazing.

It's Cosmo, where every issue is the same: personality quiz! Mind blowing sex tips! How to rock a bikini at work! Not exactly the gold standard of journalism.

Anyone else surprised by the fact that she called her mom every night and was telling her about it all? I don't mean to sound dramatic, but if I had told my mom half of that stuff, she would make me drop immediately and refuse to help me pay for my dues.

I'm also surprised by her comments in the comments section. I hope someone notifies her sorority's nationals. What a terrible image that gives what I'm sure is a wonderful organization.

Well. I don't care how many times she says, "I'm just sharing my story," in the comments and states that she's not glorifying hazing. I hope someone at HQ of her org has seen this and is working on getting things straightened out. It also made me curious about the overall atmosphere of Greek Life on her campus and whether this is common in more than her sorority. I'm not assuming that it is, but I'm thinking if so many girls had to take advantage of counseling services at her school and hazing was kept quiet that it may not be unique to her chapter alone on that campus.

I'm co-signing with you on that one. The quotes are just ridiculous.

:rolleyes:

This line in the article...

... makes me think that others might be enduring the same thing. However, it could just be something she said for "dramatic effect", or whatever.

She was dumb to write this for Cosmo but she will learn her lesson.

As with any hazing thread on GC, responses may vary. Some of this is also cultural. There are sororities and fraternities in which people either do not discuss how they pledged (whether it was "hazing" depends) with nonmembers OR if they do discuss, sometimes to get bragging rights, they do so in an environment that understands the culture.

The latter is also why telling parents about your experiences does not alarm some parents. They have direct experience or knowledge of the GLO culture. Everything has limits so as long as you aren't telling parents that you are on your death bed, some parents will tell you to keep doing what you do and tell them when it is over.

If she just graduated three months ago, I bet her littles are loving her right now for bringing HQ attention to their chapter.

It doesn't bother me that the author spoke out about her experience of being hazed. What bothers me is that she chose to continue the cycle, and apparently sees nothing wrong with that.

I think this article is a complete fabrication.

Also, is anyone else bothered by the fact that a picture of a high school movie is used to accompany an article about college? It's the little things that irk me.

^^^ Agreed. There's no way that anything this flagrant would have escaped the notice of chapter advisors, Greek Life staff, traveling GLO consultants, etc. These people talk, and students gossip. ALL the fraternities watched the girls dance? There's no way this was kept secret.

Fear of missing out.

I'm pretty glad I missed out on what she described. I would have told the actives where they could stick their "line-ups."

Oh my goodness, thank you! When I first read the article, I tried to figure out what that might mean for about 5 minutes and gave up. I thought it was some stupid variation of YOLO or something.

You KNOW it's a great piece of journalism when the writer uses acronyms that most people don't know, and never explains them.......

Google is great for figuring out acronyms like FOMO. I wouldn't discount her story as false. Alumnae advisors may be from her chapter and familiar with the hazing as graduates of the abuse. They don't tell because it's chapter "tradition." These types of behaviors DO exist and have been difficult to completely stamp out. I know a school off the top of my head that had similar, if not quite as severe, type activities for new members. It seemed to be the campus culture.

I don't doubt that it's true. I just think it was a stupid (and poorly executed) article to put in one's magazine. But it's Cosmo, so I'm not surprised.

At first, I actually thought this was an indirect "call for help"; that she was letting her sorority know what was going on without actually contacting HQ and saying, "My chapter hazes!" But with her replies to some of the people commenting on the article, I'm not so sure. She is completely defending her actions and dismissing the humiliation, fear, and sadness she felt when pledging. I believe she truly thinks this is a good thing.

And now people outside of her small school are going to know about it.

It's not hard to believe it's true at some places, but it saddens me to think a woman would think so little of herself that she would not only put up with this but continue it.

I was responding to someone else who said they thought it was fake because advisers and visitors would catch them. I agree about the stupidity of writing about it in Cosmo, but that's the problem with our Internet age. Eventually someone posts a picture, writes an email that gets forwarded to the wrong person, writes an ill advised article to Cosmo or The Crimson White and a chapter or Greek systems ugly dirty secret starts unraveling.

I also agree that she isn't looking for change. Some women after being hazed don't come around much and don't participate in hazing the next group. They can't stomach the activity. Others relish in it...like this woman who admitted to actively participating in hazing activities at her chapter. We get a sort of one up manship. This happened to me so I'm going to put the next pledges through worse. It doesn't breed sisterhood and in some case leads to the horrible cases, albeit mostly in fraternities, we've heard of like when idiots decide to poor boiling crab boil on pledges because the hot sauce last year wasn't good enough. Well, I hope the third degree burns produced outstandingly tight fraternal bonds. :rolleyes:

I feel like every time I look at the cover of a Cosmo, my IQ drops a few points.

Looks like the GLO is already aware of the situation, per their Facebook page.

.

After reading the article I am reminded of a movie, specifically where the pledges where Ina line blindfolded and a blonde woman dropped an light bulb and then put egg shells in the girls mouth so that the pledges learned to trust the sisters. This is all I really remember about the movie, but what she describes really reminds me of hazing from that and other shows movies portraying greek life.
Of course those could be based on reality, but as others have posted I am shocked about the purpose of righting the article and the use of abbreviations , which I looked up. I almost want to show this to my journalism teacher and she what she has to say about the standards of journalism.

I was never aware of sorority hazing in the 70s, unless you call having pledges go to study hall or answer the house phone one hour a week is hazing.
Fraternities? Entirely different story

From a friend and Sister who wanted Cosmo to know exactly what she thinks.

That's awesome! Very well-written. I hope Cosmopolitan sees that letter and I hope that other women send similar letters in objection to the article.

On her behalf, thank you! She is searching for a job in Public Relations, so please hire her!

The Huffington Post:

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/39753...ef=mostpopular

Can you imagine high school and college-age women reading this article and believing this is what sororities are about? Thank goodness wiser internet and media sites provide a more truthful version of sorority living.

In the early 1980's Cosmo ran an article pertaining to all things sorority, written by an NPC sorority member who wisely stated in her piece that her sorority group would more than likely 'pull her pin' for allowing the article to be printed.

IDK whether that woman had her pin pulled, but in the early 80's young college-age women looking for sorority information had limited print media options (hers was one of two I found when looking for info to navigate sorority waters). And I still remember the lyrics of one 'fire-up' song the 80's writer mentioned her group sang in-house between rush rounds.

Thank goodness there are young adults who actually talk to people and attend events rather than relying on the Internet, television, and mobile devices.

Pretty coincidental that this comes out during Anti-Hazing Week, don't you think?

Then she really needs to copy edit the rest of her web site. It's going to sink her chances at a lot of employers. (I'm saying this with a genuine hope that she fixes it, not to be snarky.)

Exactly!