If Hazing is Wrong, what's a better alternative?

[SydneyK]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

American society as a whole is woefully bereft of rites of passages, particularly for boys: rites that mark the transition from boyhood to manhood. For many young men, fraternities (I am going to talk mainly about fraternities here; I'll try not to go too Robert Bly) and fraternity initiations provide such a rite. Indeed, the pledge manuals of many fraternities speak of initiation in terms of a rite of passage.

To DrPhil's disappointment, I'm going to follow-up on this boy/girl discrepancy.

MysticCat, are you suggesting (by the bolded (emphasis mine)) that boys have fewer rites of passage than girls, or that boys need the rites moreso than girls? The first time I read your post, I thought you meant the former (that boys have fewer RoP than girls), but now I'm thinking you meant the latter. I don't know that it matters either way, but I find it interesting that you differentiate between the genders.