Quote:
Originally Posted by nittanyalum
I had to wait to wear my letters too but that period of waiting (and "earning" them as some people just love to call it, which I call hooey on), really added nothing to the sum total of what I got out of my greek experience.
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I want to pick up on the idea of "earning letters." I note that most if not everyone who has responded to Crowboy is female, while he, of course, is male. I can't speak for the female view of "earning" letters, but I think I can speak to a male perspective. In fact, I have done so before, in the thread
Hazing Works!, so I'm just going to be a little lazy and copy myself from that thread:
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.
Globally, rites of passage in less "civilized" societies typically involve what might be termed testing, trial, or ordeal. That is, prior to actual initiation into manhood, the initiate must prove himself and his worth (to himself and to the men he wishes to join) by undergoing and passing one or more trials or tests. To be quite honest, I think there is something inbred in males wanting and needing to prove themselves in this way. Rituals (and here I am using the term broadly) that succeed for boys understand this and tap into this primal need. An example: initiation into the Order of the Arrow, a sort of camping brotherhood for Boy Scouts, is preceeded by a weekend-long "Ordeal" that involves no talking, manual labor (with others, which can be challenging with no talking), camping alone in the woods, meager meals, and the like. Upon completion, a boy feels like he has really accomplished something, proven himself and earned the right to be initiated.
Quite simply I think, where hazing "succeeds" (if that is the right word), it is when it taps into this primal desire to be tested and proved worthy, which in turn engenders loyalty to the group one has been found worthy to join.
Don't get me wrong or report me -- I am against hazing (although I quickly agree that the term is used to broadly). I do think, however, that alternatives to hazing can only be really successful, at least for most males, if they tap into this idea of earning one's letters, of being tested and proved worthy. I am also conviced that tapping into this idea can be done, can be done (probably more effectively, even) without hazing.
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