Stop the "Baby" Talk

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by honeychile

I think the crest is universal - NOBODY can or should wear the crest unless they are full sisters.

I think you're right, but there's something about that that always baffles me -- why do some people consider it bad, or even hazing, to say that members who haven't been initiated yet can't wear letters, yet they don't raise the same argument about not letting pledges/new members wear coats of arms? No, the pledge/NM doesn't know what the arms mean, but they don't know what the letters mean either. I don't see any difference.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

No, the pledge/NM doesn't know what the arms mean, but they don't know what the letters mean either. I don't see any difference.

Not always true.

Alpha Sigma Alpha and Alpha Sigma Tau both have open mottoes that correspond to their Greek letters, so you can't say that pledges "don't know what they mean." Anyone looking at the banner below the crests would know what the letters mean. (Whether they mean MORE than that may or may not be another story.) There may be other groups that have open mottos too, but those are the two I thought of off the top of my head.

This is why I consider it silly when I hear my sisters saying pledges should not wear letters - but I would never presume to tell anyone else the same thing. I have no idea what their letters mean or don't mean. If Theta has ritual saying they shouldn't be worn until after initiation, it's offensive if a school or anyone else tells them they should do things differently.

To look at it in a purely practical sense, there is usually too much imagery on a crest to explain what it all means on bid day/whenever you pin in your pledges.