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Originally posted by MysticCat81
Bless his heart. (If he's as Southern as he claims, he knows what I mean.)
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Oh no you didn't!
Perhaps I'm "old school" (Southern?/SEC?) but for me, and the majority of my contemporaries, fraternity would/should never be shortened as it relates to NIC/IFC GLOs.
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...especially to further an argument that shortening the name of an institution demonstrates disrespect for the institution. (Don't tell anyone at Penn State or Cal Tech, though.)
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I agree that shortening does not always show disrespect. The key here is
respect. These institutions accept/use their shorten names by choice. And often, the institution is the one to initiate the use. Similarly, respect should be shown with the use of frat. If ABC Fraternity requests to be called a fraternity, then their wishes should be respected and they should be referred to as a fraternity and their members as fraternity men or members. If XYZ approves of
*and* gives approval of the use of frat, then the use of frat -
*as it relates to XYZ* - is appropriate. When in doubt, it is best to use the formal.
Now a question for the NPC (and others) members. It may be said that Mr. Brown is in a fraternity or frat. And that Miss Jenkins is in a fraternity or sorority. Yet, few NPC members would think to refer to Miss Jenkins as in a "frat" even though her GLO, Pi Beta Phi, is technically a fraternity. Nor would she likely be called a soror by her sisters and or fellow NPC members. Even though it is a common and acceptable term - like frat - that is used by NPHC members. Now why is this?
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The shortening of the other [fraternity] produces a slang term that for decades was considered perfectly acceptable and even affectionate, and only relatively recently has been viewed by some as having offensive connotations.
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Not so sure what time line you mean by recent. When I was an undergrad last century (late 1970's) frat was rarely used. And almost exclusively as an adjective. One use being somewhat acceptable while the other was more derogatory in nature. "Frat house" was the acceptable term. Usually some one would say "I left Kent Dorfman's car at the house." But on a few occasions "I left Kent Dorfman's car at the frat house" might be used. The derogatory use of frat (again, back in the late 1970's) was "frat rat" which could be considered the equivalent to "GDI" but used for/at fraternity men. As in "Greg Marmalard is such a frat rat."
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