Politically Correct terms?
 

...I think it'd be interesting to hear what "the masses" feel about the use of supposedly PC terms like recruitment (which as a retired military officer I personally object to!) instead of rush; new member instead of pledge and any others that come to mind. Frankly there are fewer more subservient roles to be in life than a RECRUIT!!! It automatically implies being at the lowest rung as an enlisted person who is ordered around my everyone above her/him in the chain of command! Why is that more PC than rush and pledge??? Personally I cannot for the life of me imagine what whiney person felt slihted by and objected to being call a pledge and why the term rush is so offensive? How exactly did they come about? Do these terms really help anything? I would love to hear from someone who says she feels much better about herself because she is called a new member who was recruited rather than a pledge who was rushed???
So what do y'all think? Should we tell the powers that be we want to go back to the way it was or what?

Personally, I prefer Pledge over New Member. In addition to being a new member, I took a pledge when I joined. I odn't find it non-PC. I also use Rush just because it has fewer syllabel (sp?) than recruitment. It is also a rush for the girls to be herded to each house, make decisions, passed between sisters, etc.

These are just my opinions - and I'm not all that fond of 'PC' because no matter what you are going to offend someone. . . .

Sarah

PCness in general is bad...

Why would a woman feel disempowered if I say "mailman"!? (well I see why but geez... grow a spine) You can get in serious trouble in some academic environments for using such "disempowering" language.

I think that terms like "recruitment" and "new member" are there because of groups like NIC and NPC that think changing the name of something will change what that something is. At the same time they changed policies regarding rush and the new member period they also gave new names. Are the new names critical to the success of the new concepts? Probably not.. I doubt we'll ever get to find out though

:rolleyes:

I prefer "rush" and "pledge" to the newer terms. I'm with Beryana and ktsnake about PC. I'm not offended by "mailman" and the like either. Not even gonna step on the soapbox for that one!

I quite frankly don't give a rat's behind either way. I mean, is one that much harder to say than the other?

Aurora is right. The words were changed as part of the anti-hazing movement. The reasoning here is the associations people may have had - "Pledge, drop and give me 20, and then clean the chapter room with a toothbrush." Perceptions change more slowly than reality, and changing words is a way of trying to speed up perception changes.

Recruitment isn't only a military term. In many companies, there are HR employees called recruiters. Yes, it does bring to mind the military ... but "rush" brings to mind girls in matching costumes with over the top decorations, which is out of vogue in most no-frills member-gathering today. Recruitment is at least straightforward in meaning, whereas rush means what ... to hurry up and join?

I think we have bigger problems to worry about than whether or not the new tems are swell or stupid. Whether it's rush or recruitment, it's more important to make sure people are going through it, and if calling it recruitment makes it any more appealing, I won't complain. And if NPC decides next week to go back to "rush," I won't complain then, either.

Maybe this is generational...
 

I've always heard that "Rush" has a negative connotation--one of women buying expensive clothes for a superficial gabfest, only to get cut mercilessly along the way. "Rush" is seen as a negative experience by so many people, that I think the NPC did good to change the official term. For those of us outside the military circles, "Recruitment" sounds okay. When I think of being "recruited", it's through an athletic team or potential employer--not being a lowly person in the armed forces.

Even though "New Member" is a mouthful, I sure as hell like it better than "pledge". If you've ever attended a school where hazing is not uncommon, you'd hate the word "pledge" too.

And PC-ness in "general" isn't bad. When it goes completely overboard, then it becomes bad. I don't think we've gotten to that point yet.

My impression...
 

"Pledge" is considered a more demeaning term than "new member." With emphasis on anti-hazing, the tenants of which I understand to be that you shall not make any new member feel inferior than initiated members, the term "new members" seems more on equal footing. As for rush versus recruitment, I prefer the term rush, but don't have problems with either. I suppose there is always "membership drive."

I understand the reason that many national organizations have made politically correct changes in the termonology. Unfortunately, I personally feel the new terms, namely "recruitment" and "new member", have actually hurt the rush process for my chapter. My sorority is the only greek organization at my school, and we have a difficult enough time with attracting new sisters as it is. When Phi Sig national changed our termonology the potential new members didn't understand what we were advertising. "Rush" and "Pledge" are well known, and generally well understood, terms. New incoming freshman didn't identify "Recruitment" with joining a sorority. I don't know if other chapters have experienced this misunderstanding, but we certainly have.

RUSH RUSH RUSH, PLEDGE PLEDGE PLEDGE!!

If I was a naive freshman and someone told me I had to go through something called "recruitment" I would have run the other way, having no military inclination whatsoever.

As far as new member, well, as a Beavis & Butt-Head fan, all I can think is, "huh huh huh, you said member." If they must change this make it new sisters. Country clubs and chambers of commerce have members. I personally do not. I have SISTERS. I also think that "new member" does not fully convey the amount of commitment that a sorority requires.

ktsnake is right...they believed changing the names would change what something was. Well guess what, we still have dirty "recruitment" and "new members" who aren't treated well by their chapters. Sound & fury, signifying nothing.

I think the most telling thing is the amount of rushees who come on this site using the terms "rush" and "pledge" and they don't seem to be upset by them at all. I've actually heard of people being bitched at because they called THEMSELVES pledges!! Come on people, what are we trying to prove here?

All very good points...
 

I agree with ktsnake on his view of why the terms were changed, and with everyone who feels "recruitment" sounds more like a military term. I've never had a problem with the terminology, but I found it funny once when I mentioned that I was an "active" of my chapter- a guy at my school said something about how "active" could be taken as the connotation of sexually active, which is, of course, just one more stereotype we Greeks get to deal with. So I guess we can't win either way.

I have a question though- why can the guys and most non-NPC/IFC Greeks orgs still refer to it as "rush" and "pledge" and NPC cannot? I just don't understand why NPC has to be on the high horse about being politically correct when it doesn't really seem to offend anyone else...

The semester I pledged was AGD was the transition semester when rushees turned into potential new members...rush turned into recruitment...rush parties were now recruitment events...etc. I could tell that the collegians were having a weird time adjusting to the new terminology.

Because of this, I consider myself more used to the new terminology. But that doesn't necessarily mean that I like it better than the old stuff. I find myself indifferent to the situation because I really don't give a isht either way. As FuzzieAlum said, there are other, more important things to be concerned about. What's important is the fact that we have quality women going through our houses every year. Simple as that.

We have people bitching about the new terminology now...I have a feeling that in 10 years or so we're going to have a next generation of people bitching about "NEW MEMBER" and "RECRUITMENT".

I prefer the non-PC terms only because it seems to be more appropriate in my opinion. As mentioned before recruitment is a giant rush process, everything is based on a brief time spent with these people, unelss you knew them prior to recruitment.

As far as the pledge/new member thing goes...I try to call them new members, but usually refer to the classes as pledge classes. I considered myself to be a pledge. On my bid day, a psychologist at our school spoke about Greek Life and raised a very strong arguement concerning the use of the word pledge. What do we ask these "new members" to do? They take a pledge. They pledge their loyalty and devotion to the organization. And yet somehow, it's a demeaning word.

When I post about stuff though, I try to be PC...my way of attempting to break out of using the old terms for it. ;)

It is when you're convinced that political correctness = bad. :rolleyes:

I sorta liken NPC's PC switch....
 

...to Miss America's repackaging from a Beauty Pageant to a Scholarship Competition -- thank goodness I did not have to compete in a swimsuit for the scholarships I got in college!
:rolleyes: :p :rolleyes: :p

I rushed and became a pledge and was initiated and became a new sister. I am not psychologically scarred by the experience. They are just words. It's not like I was called pledge scum...at least not officially. ;) lol! Just kidding!

I agree with OTW, in ten years people will complain about the words recruitment and new member.

No need to wait!
 

People are complaining now about the terms. And y'all are right that there are far more substantial issues to be concerned with...and that is just my point -- why did NPC feel so compelled to change terminology? I find it interesting that the frats (NIC) still use the old (preferred terms)....even Greek Chat says RUSH!!!;) :p

Maybe because NPC is a little more progressive than NIC??? I think its GREAT that NPC actively seeks to make changes that help the systems overall image on collegiate campuses.

It may be difficult for us to get used to at times but since change is a huge part of life in the corporate environments than I think its yet another lesson NPC teaches us before we enter "the real world!"

Re: No need to wait!
 

I remember there was some discussion about this about a year ago and we all came to the understanding that having the forum name changed to "RECRUITMENT" would be unfair to NIC/Local/Multi-Cultural organizations who still call it "RUSH".

The general consensus was that perhaps it'd be better to change it to "RUSH/RECRUITMENT"...but nothing really happened. I guess it just got lost.

Rush vs. recruitment: To me, it will always be rush. Recruitment just sounds too military... and I don't get why "rush" is such a bad term.

Rushee vs. potential new member: "Potential new member" is just too much of a mouthful. In conversation I say "rushee". Here on GC I use PNM because it's easier to type. :p

Pledge vs. new member: When I pledged my local, I was a pledge. When I joined AEPhi, we were just transitioning to "new member" - so I was a new member, but they hadn't reprinted the "pledge" manuals yet. *shrug* Honestly, I prefer "new member" to "pledge", but I didn't mind being called a pledge.

So... any bets on how long it will be before we have to find something else to call "pref parties" because "pref parties" implies that the sororities prefer certain women over others? :rolleyes:

Oh and ariesrising... don't give NPC any ideas ;)

yeah i'm definatelly with tennywahine and everybody thats wondering what comes next, i mean i can't see what's wrong with rush, or pledge, even though my org. uses the term associate members. is there going to eventually be a point where our orgs. are not aloowed to be self-selective and autonomous

The people that mentioned that the change of words was designed to be anti-hazing are probably the most correct.

Although the NPC groups probably made the largest strides in that area by standardizing the new member programs and even farming them out to experts to write.

In that way NPC groups are ahead of NIC, which still usually has a bunch of 19-20 year olds designing the pledge program and allows each chapter to design their own program.

The naming of Rush to recruitment is probably a bad change. Not just because its PC but because its very misleading.

Generally recruitment is taught on a sports team model, not a military one.

So a college sports team has a certain amount of people that will just try out. Very similar to Rush. The teams that have a better reputation and stronger programs get more people at try outs. Or the schools that have reputations for strong programs see a lot of automatic joiners.

Thats still not recruitment.

Recruitment is when the coaches go out and actively try to find and identify talent and then convince them to go to their school and join their team.

NPC Formal Rush (recruitment) has nothing to do with a true recruitment model. In fact your rules prevent you from doing that at all.

COB would come closer to allowing that model. But most chapters are not good at COB, just as most fraternity chapters are not that great at Rush/recruitment.

A true recruitment model would probably have you identifying and "recruiting" already established student leaders.

Another reasonable, sensible post from James. I never fully though about the semantics of the word "recruitment. Everything you said is right. It seems that the NPC is really working hard to protect themselves from the same hazing related issues that plague NIC and NPHC groups. Woo hoo!

If P.C.-ness is allowed to run its current course, in a few years all of us of the female gender will be called "woperdaughters" because...

Can't call us WOMEN, because it contains the word MAN. So change it to WOPERSON. Whoops, that doesn't work because it has the word SON in it! So the new term will have to be WOPERDAUGHTER!

Can't take credit for this witticism, by the way. A friend of mine from waaaaaay back belonged to one of the radical feminist groups at Columbia University (IMO, the ultimate bastion of PC-mess) and that is how they referred to one another.

Actually, the difference between rush and recruitment was explained exactly as James put it. At U of MD, our Greek Life staff stressed that a lot....that they wanted us to move away from the twice yearly formal rush and COBing........they wanted to move towards a more constant efort....truly seeking out the best and the brighest for our organizations........so in essence, "recruitment" fits much better than "rush." Now does the aforementioned thing actually HAPPEN at my school, that's another story entirely.

FWIW, I agree with the others who feel that "new member" and "recruitment" will be the non-acceptable words in the future. What cracks me up is the need to say "women" and not "girls". When I was visiting the local chapter, someone corrected me, and I responded, "I'll call you women when you act like women, not girls!" (It was obviously a hot moment - lol)

Now, I use the same term our alumnae used while I was in school: ladies. There's something about being called ladies that makes women want to behave like ladies!

honeychile

See, I don't call any female over 20 a "girl". Maybe it's because I've taken so many Women's Studies and Female Sexuality classes, or maybe it's because my University is proudly :::gasp::: PC. Maybe it's because I've been referred to as "girl" when I'm clearly not. I just offer that respect to females who are older than I am, and some a little younger. I am not a girl, and I will call out anyone who calls me a girl.

On the ladies/girls/women comments...

At my college, we were all called girls. It didn't really matter to us because the term went back so far. To me, it seemed like the only people who didn't care for the term were the members of the female sex striving so diligently to grow up too fast. Even the ladies who would return to campus for their fifty year reunion wanted to be called Judson Girls. We even have a song entitled "You Know She's A Judson Girl."

Yes, we are ladies, but the term "Judson Girl" is something that is identified with our college.

I think that, to a lot of people, if you live in the south, you're a "girl" until you die.
I'm in the Junior League in Alabama and we all refer to each other as girls, as in "One of the girls who worked on my volunteer placement said that she couldn't wait to go sustainer." The girl in question may be 12 years older than me.
My mother, who is 50 years old, refers to the women she works with as girls, as in "I can't believe that girl got a promotion!" and there are many there who are older than she who also refer to one another as girls.
To call someone a "woman" sometimes connotates an infamiliarity or even a dislike. "Can you believe the nerve of that woman?"
"Lady" or "Ladies" are sometimes used... generally, we refer to ladies in large groups. Like I might say, "Settle down, ladies," during a rowdy chapter meeting. Children are usually taught to say "lady," as in "That lady has pretty hair."
"Girl," to me is a friendly term. I certainly don't use it in a disrespectful manner, nor do I use it with any relation to the person's age.

Girl/Lady/Woman
 

One of the chapter advisors for Alpha Phi had the best outlook on this subject. She shared it with us at the Pacific Northwest Regional Conference a couple of weekends ago, and while I don't remember it exactly, I'll try to paraphrase it.

As you enter college/university, you are entering an unquestionably adult part of your life. For many women it is their first time away from home, away from the shelter of mom and dad and everything that is familar to them. While they might still feel like girls, because they're young and may have limited life experiences, they're adults and should be treated as such.

She also said that for many women, making a committment to a sorority is the most important one she's had to make in her young life so far. By calling the new members "women", she's showing them that their decisions are worthy of respect, that they are binding, and that they are very serious. If women hear it often enough, it makes them realize the gravity of their oath, and starts to drive home that as women, they are ultimately responsible for their own actions. She almost always calls collegians "women" -- and she said that one of the greatest things that she's ever witnessed as a chapter advisor was to see that the women in the chapter she advises learned to adapt "woman" instead of "girl" when speaking of other members and about/to new members.


Now my own opinion: A woman is a fully actualized person who is worthy of respect. I'm as southern as they come, but the terms 'lady' and 'girl' have a bit of a negative connotation for me, mostly because they're terms that can be used to show a hierarchy - you either are a 'lady' (person of breeding) or you aren't. A lady is snooty - a woman is alive, vibrant, approachable, has a sense of humour, and is someone you can get close to. Not that having taste, tact, and displaying good sense is a bad thing, but historically, that term has been used to exclude people. I don't want to exclude any of my sisters from the communal spirit of Alpha Phi.

When I was growing up, my mom would often tell me to stop acting "womanish", which meant that I was acting above my age, taking on the characteristics of a woman. At what time should young females start acting "womanish"?

As for girl, I really take issue to that word, because I ceased being a girl when I hit puberty. Not to be graphic or anything, but if she can bear children of her own, then she deserves to be called "young woman" to show that she has entered a phase of her life where it might be time to think of the person she is becoming, not focusing on the girlhood she is leaving behind. There are other reasons I hate to hear the word used when referring to me, but I don't want to take this thread down a frequently traveled road. ;)

Okay, I've said enough. I'm hushing up now. :)

Very well said, Sistermadly!

Of course, I would expect nothing else from my sister! :)