Quote:
Originally Posted by als463
If you read the book, which it sounds you may have, she talks about how when she transferred from Widener to University of Maryland-Baltimore County, she failed out or she had to leave school because just seeing other Phi Mus wearing Phi Mu letters bothered her so much. I'm not saying I condone hazing. Maybe it is because I spent time in the military but, some of the things in the story did not seem bad enough to warrant her reaction. The fact that we are not allowed to let new members go on scavenger hunts shows that we (Greek Life) has gotten a bit soft. Those are the things many people cherish.
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I scanned the pages that described her experience. That kind of reaction to things that remind someone of the abuse is actually really common. Odds are walking up behind her and tapping her on the shoulder would make her jump a mile. It's called being hyperalert and hypersensitve to triggers and these would both indicated PTSD. She experienced some pretty consistent emotional abuse along with some physical abuse it seems.
I suspect being in the military has skewed your perception a bit, and that's fine. But I wouldn't discount the abuse she experienced, which was over her entire pledge period, as "not bad enough." She even acknowledges that none of it sounds that bad individually, but that it was cumulative.
I don't disagree that the no-scavenger hunts rule is silly on the face of it, but that's not what happened here. (And scavenger hunts have been used to haze but that's another story.) Sororities aren't supposed to toughen you up and put you through hell. At least, that's not in anything I ever learned.