Will Farrell's Statement About Today's Fraternities

[Sciencewoman]

His comments were made at a promotional tour press conference in response to a question asked by another member of his fraternity. It sounded like he was speaking off the cuff, not making a targeted protest statement.

I find it ironic that the very movie he's promoting seems culturally insensitive. The trailers have raised my eyebrows.

[andthen]

I feel like he is talking out of both sides of his mouth. One one hand he is saying that greek orgs are exclusionary. Yet on the other had he then says that he enjoyed being in a fraternity? Even if it was an off the cuff remark I would have hoped he would put a bit more thought into what he was saying.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Kevin

As opposed to the Chicken Little displays we see every time an 18-21 year old kid does something stupid, I prefer my way.

The problem is that you seem to dismiss every reaction stronger than your own as a Chicken Little response, whether that's a fair characterization or not.

Originally Posted by andthen

I feel like he is talking out of both sides of his mouth. One one hand he is saying that greek orgs are exclusionary. Yet on the other had he then says that he enjoyed being in a fraternity?

He said something that caught my eye and that I'm still trying pondering:

"I was lucky in that the one I was in, we were really kind of the anti-fraternity fraternity."

.
I see or hear statements like this fairly often—some variation on "my fraternity wasn't like other fraternities" or "I never thought I'd be in a fraternity, but this chapter was the stereotypical frat." It's almost apologetic: "Don't judge me just because I am/was in a fraternity."

This is the kind of thing where I think public perception is important. How many quality potential members did we fail to recruit because the view they had of a Greek life made them unwilling to really consider it? How do we counter the stereotype of the "standard frat"?

[33girl]

If they "still had exchanges with good sororities" I doubt he was truly in an anti-fraternity fraternity at USC. His anti-fraternity fraternity dues probably cost 10x what the average person at my alma mater or a lot of schools would have paid.

So many people in the public eye make statements like this just to increase their street cred - and end up looking like idiots. It's like Eddie Vedder talking about how he was miserable in high school and not treated well - then it came out about how he was in all the school plays and one of the cutest and most popular guys in his class. But that doesn't play well for an angsty rock musician. Debra Messing did the same thing. It's some kind of ridiculous bit of human nature that we feel like degrading outselves or our achievements will make us more well liked.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

The problem is that you seem to dismiss every reaction stronger than your own as a Chicken Little response, whether that's a fair characterization or not.

When the standard response is that fraternities are facing an existential crisis and now that is somehow much worse because some kid was a dumbass or because some celebrity says something, that is a definite overreaction. We are doing fine.