Recently, one of my fellow Odyssey Creators released an article against dating men who are members of fraternities. (Her words were much less respectful, I believe.)
As a proud fraternity girlfriend and friend, I feel it to be important that someone point out all the positives of dating men who have made the choice to join the Greek Community, because believe it or not they are not all walking stereotypes.
1. They are held to a higher standard.
Each fraternity has its own values that their members are expected to have. Loyalty, Honesty, Academics, Honor.... whatever their values may be, they will respect them because as a fraternity member, it has become a part of who they are.
2. Your boyfriend comes with bonus big brothers.
This may not be true for everyone, but my boyfriends brothers fall into two categories: teasing us about dating, or being protective of our relationship. His brothers treat me like the little sister of the group a lot of the time, joking and teasing and even helping me out when I need it. They even were all in on our anniversary and helped my boyfriend to pull off all of his surprises for me.
3. Your boyfriend will push himself to his academic best.
Fraternities are held to an academic standard, and to participate in their fraternity they must meet certain GOA requirements. The best part of this is if I am struggling with homework, somewhere in the fraternity is a guy who has already taken and passed the class who can help me with homework.
4. Formals.
If you're dating a frat guy, you get to go to date parties, formals, dinners, and all sorts of other events that call for an excuse to dress up fairly regularly.
5. If you're into the party life, they've got you covered.
Dating a fraternity guy is like an automatic in on all of the parties. You always know the party details, and you get to party with men you know and trust. Plus, all of your girlfriends are welcome to come with you!
6. Your Fraternity Man is called to serve, in one form or another.
Every fraternity serves some philanthropy, possibly multiple times of year. For my boyfriends fraternity, they have a main philanthropy as well as spreading awareness to other, smaller causes.
7. You get to know people from many different backgrounds.
Fraternities open the door to meeting people from different backgrounds, lifestyles, experiences, and cultures that may be different from your own.
8. You get a new group of girls to be friends with, too!
Fraternities have a group of girls who they hang out with- their sorority they mix with, their sweetheart, the other girlfriends, and close friends outside of the Greek Community. You get to meet and even become friends with these girls, as well, and it will definitely help ease your anxiety when he says he's going to a mixer with a partner sorority!
9. The connections and opportunities.
Fraternities are webs of connections- letters connect men across generations and nations. Whatever you may need, odds are a fraternity man would have the connections. My boyfriends fraternity even helped get me an in for service hours for I needed for a club I am in!
10. All of the activities!
Fraternities do more than party. They get food together, go to games together, have movie night, play video games... basically everything you would do with your friends outside of Greek Life. And the girls they're dating are usually welcome to tag along to those, too!
11. Letters.
You don't have to be in Greek life yourself to get letters. Date a fraternity man, you get rush shirts and if you're really lucky (and he's really serious about you!) you may even get lavaliered and then you get your own set of his letters!
