|
Branding was very common on my campus as an undergraduate (and I just graduated 2 years ago!). We had Sigma Chi, but I don't remember if any of them had brands...but I know of 4 fraternities that absolutely would brand their members. One of them branded their little sisters too. There were one or two more fraternities where I had seen individual members create a homemade brand and brand themselves kind of...but it didn't really catch on w/ the rest of the members.
For most of the brothers (well, I can only say this for 2 of the orgs...only 'cause I witnessed this w/ my own eyes), branding took place "late night" - at 4 am when everyone was drunk and the party was dwindling down to only the hard core people. Then the brand would come out and the smell of burnt flesh would fill the house. Ick!
2 of the other GLOs on my campus I never witnessed the branding, but I did see the boys walking around campus w/ the big puffy brands on their arms or legs. It was so disgusting right after it had been done...it was all red and scabby and they'd pick at it....double ick!
I don't see much of a difference b/w branding and getting your letters tattooed on you somewhere...but I know that w/ branding, sometimes it fades and will eventually just disappear (unless you keep branding yourself in the same spot...which is what a lot of the boys would do).
The thing about the branding of the little sisters..well, you can imagine (and it did happen) if a girl dates a brother, gets a brand, then they break up and she starts dating someone else...and here she has this brand of XYZ in an unmentionable spot...and boyfriend in ABC doesn't particularly like that....
|