Stop the "Baby" Talk

[irishpipes]

I don't like the term recruitment
I don't like the term new member
I don't like hand signs
I don't like the baby trend
I still call my friends "girls" and I graduated from college a long time ago. The term "woman/women" isn't my style - it's uptight and old-fashioned and reminds me of large clothing.
I loved being a pledge.

[dukedg]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

I don't like the term recruitment
I don't like the term new member
I don't like hand signs
I don't like the baby trend
I still call my friends "girls" and I graduated from college a long time ago. The term "woman/women" isn't my style - it's uptight and old-fashioned and reminds me of large clothing.
I loved being a pledge.

YES to all of the above.

I don't know the process of picking new terms when deciding to replace the existing ones, but much more thought needs to go into how "catchy" they are, for lack of a better word. It really doesn't matter what the official term is, if these groups want everyone to actually adopt the terms, they need to be "catchy".

[33girl]

Been there done that. Here is the thread from last year.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ght=thetartots

Originally Posted by irishpipes

I don't like the term recruitment
I don't like the term new member
I don't like hand signs
I don't like the baby trend
I still call my friends "girls" and I graduated from college a long time ago. The term "woman/women" isn't my style - it's uptight and old-fashioned and reminds me of large clothing.
I loved being a pledge.

AMEN.

As nice as some of the terms are that have been created, having different things for every group is impractical. Yeah, ASA can decide that we want to call our pledges pearls, and I do like it as these terms go, and there is a great meaning and good reasoning behind it, but the thing is, why should we obligate anyone else to have to know that? Can you imagine trying to use the "correct" terms for every group at a 16-or 17-sorority campus? It's ridiculous. Sigma Chi (to use the first example that comes to my mind) has some terms for their chapter offices that aren't "normal" but I have never heard any of them get offended that I called them the "president" instead of the "consul." "Babies" more than likely sprang up as a generic term.

Originally Posted by DGTess

Pledge is what she does. I want her to remember she took a pledge to our organization, and that the pledge means something. In my mind, a member has been initiated, so "new member" doesn't convey the precise meaning.

Exactly. You're not a member until you're initiated. If you were a member before that, how could you quit pledging one group and pledge another a year later?

Originally Posted by MaggieXi

Only out of curiosity, why did the NPC change the terms? (Rush to recruitment, Rushee to PNM, etc)?

It was the 1990s and people were effing stupid. They thought it would eradicate hazing and negative Greek image. You see how well that worked. The stupidest thing is that none of the terms are grammatically correct. Women who go through formal rush (particularly at a school where just getting ANY bid is difficult) are not being "recruited" (ask anyone who's dealt with a military recruiter). Every woman on a campus who isn't Greek is a "potential new member" - not just those who are rushing.

The fact that 18 year olds who have never been cognizant when the "old" terms were used, still use them, just shows that this attempt has been a spectacular failure, and everyone just needs to go back to using "rush" and "pledge" and get over themselves.

[IrishLake]

Originally Posted by chi-o_cat

I wonder if the writer of this blog, a Theta, saw the Twitter posts saying "Baby kittens- run to your litter box!" from a Theta collegiate member on bid day.

My girls would get a phone call over this.

Originally Posted by SydneyK

I love it!
(Do chapters really give New Members baby bottles and rattles?!? )

I WOULD BE LIVID as an advisor, and insulted as a new member.

Originally Posted by MaggieXi

I agree that this is a great blog and the term "baby" should not be used to refer to or describe new members of any organization. I know that the term "baby" came about when I was a junior (gah! 13 years ago!). It was the year that Rush became recruitment, Rushees became Potential New Members and Pledges became New Members. Campus panhellenic had decreed that we were to use all the new terms and added that we were not allowed to call the new members, or even the PNMs "Girls" or even "new girls" or "Ladies" because it was derogatory (I'm not sure how Ladies was derogatory, but it was on the list of words that we could no longer use). However, the word Baby was not on the list.

So the sororities who had names for their new members - Phis for Phi Mu, Rosebuds for AOPi, continued on with their tradition. Since the rest of the orgs on campus didn't have names for their new members and could essentially only call them mouthful "new members", and a year before called them pledges, adopted new names for the them. Zeta had "Zeta Babies", AXiD had "Little Xis", Sigma Kappa had "Kappa Kuties", etc. I don't know when all of them changed over to "Babies", but eventually they did. But I think a lot of this Baby calling came out of the fact that they could no longer be called "Pledges" and "New Members" is a mouthful and boring if you compare it to the groups that have names for their new members.

IMO, Pledges is far less derogatory than Babies.

Yep, the change happened when I was an active as well. Annoying to be scolded for saying "pledges."

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Agreed. I've said this previously: every org should come up with a respectful name for its new members and use that uniformly. Officially, I only know of the two you mention above and Alphas for ADPi, and while I'm sure there are others, some don't have anything, and nobody is going to say "new member".

Incidentally, the writers of this and the other article on this topic come from Theta and APhi, two groups that don't have a name for the NM's, AFAIK, so I'll take the giant liberty of suggesting some: "stars" for Theta, and "ivies" for APhi. They get harder from there: AGD..."ferns"?

I think calling our new girls "Stars/Little Stars" is a great idea, I've talked about it before with others.

Originally Posted by TNVol

Count me in as another who cringes at the "baby talk". In a related mode, I also cannot abide by the cat connection with Theta. We are kites, we are ΚΑΘ, not KAT. That would be Kappa Alpha Tau. I'm not a kitty cat, I'm a Theta.

I bugs me, but not to the point that I'm super passionate about it. The skit that hooked me during my own rush was a Theta "Cats" skit with songs. Hearing my future mentor sing "Memories" made me nearly cry! We never had a huge cat connection other than that though.

Originally Posted by Always AlphaGam

Baby Squirrels just creep me out.

I would also be weirded out by baby squirrels.

Originally Posted by TriDeltaSallie

Yes, Tri Delta pledges have always been called Pearls. It is part of our ritual and symbolism.

I agree the baby stuff has to go. And I sincerely hope Theta also gets on top of the finger on the mouth thing because it is just gross looking.

I will take the finger over the mouth over "Theta Baby" any day of the week. It's meant to be funny.

Originally Posted by thetalady

No big deal to me.... I know that it is also the ASL sign for vagina. Doesn't bother me.

Doesn't bother me either. I'm fine with this hand sign, the 2-sister arm sign, and the single person crossed arm sign.

Originally Posted by 33girl

The fact that 18 year olds who have never been cognizant when the "old" terms were used, still use them, just shows that this attempt has been a spectacular failure, and everyone just needs to go back to using "rush" and "pledge" and get over themselves.

Agreed

[MaryPoppins]

Originally Posted by IrishLake

My girls would get a phone call over this.

I'm sure the girl that tweeted about the litter box has already been counseled.

[33girl]

Criticizing someone for their unsophisticated language in something called a "tweet" = irony.

(Not directed at you in particular MP, just that the terms associated with Twittter have not gotten any less silly to me.)

[TriDeltaSallie]

Originally Posted by 33girl

The fact that 18 year olds who have never been cognizant when the "old" terms were used, still use them, just shows that this attempt has been a spectacular failure, and everyone just needs to go back to using "rush" and "pledge" and get over themselves.

I agree.

[IL Anchor Girl]

Originally Posted by 33girl

The fact that 18 year olds who have never been cognizant when the "old" terms were used, still use them, just shows that this attempt has been a spectacular failure, and everyone just needs to go back to using "rush" and "pledge" and get over themselves.

You are so right. My daughter and her whole chapter, as well as pretty much the entire Greek community at her school, say "rush" and "pledge". Just give it up already. It wasn't broke!

[dukedg]

Originally Posted by 33girl

It was the 1990s and people were effing stupid. They thought it would eradicate hazing and negative Greek image. You see how well that worked. The stupidest thing is that none of the terms are grammatically correct. Women who go through formal rush (particularly at a school where just getting ANY bid is difficult) are not being "recruited" (ask anyone who's dealt with a military recruiter). Every woman on a campus who isn't Greek is a "potential new member" - not just those who are rushing.

The fact that 18 year olds who have never been cognizant when the "old" terms were used, still use them, just shows that this attempt has been a spectacular failure, and everyone just needs to go back to using "rush" and "pledge" and get over themselves.

This really made me laugh because it is all so true! 33girl, I wish there were an NPC newspaper or some such venue for you to write an op-ed on this topic.

[KillarneyRose]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Exactly. You're not a member until you're initiated.

That's one of the most vexing terms for me. Back when I was a pledge, I didn't mind being called a pledge because, well, I WAS a pledge. I looked forward to going through initiation and gaining the right to be called "sister". I don't like that things have become so PC that pledges don't have to "earn" their sisterhood.***

It reminds me of how Maryland's governor Martin O'Malley insists on calling illegal immigrants "New Americans".

I mean, you can bake half a dozen baseballs and call them biscuits, but they'll still be baseballs. Unless they're biscuits I baked. In which case they will actually be biscuits but will taste more like baseballs.

***by "earning their sisterhood", I don't mean having to dress identically and walk together through campus, submitting to being forced to drink and being dumped somewhere and having to find a way home or any other demeaning or dangerous acts we know to be hazing. I'm talking about things like I had to do like learning about our Founders and our history, learning a little about other sororities, going to mandatory study hours and weekly meetings.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by KillarneyRose

I mean, you can bake half a dozen baseballs and call them biscuits, but they'll still be baseballs. Unless they're biscuits I baked. In which case they will actually be biscuits but will taste more like baseballs.

LOL!