Hazing. It’s a controversial topic. Whether it’s Greek life, professional sports, the military, or even a corporate job, there is some rite of passage that new guys must go through to earn the respect of the veterans.
I think one of the largest reasons for the controversy that surrounds the topic is the unclear definition of what exactly “hazing” means. With a quick Google search, I was given two different definitions. One, from Dictionary.com, is vague, but not does not sound particularly threatening. The next one—the top result from a Google search—brings about controversy when it adds the word “dangerous” to the definition.
The example it gives specifically calls out fraternities and sororities, which I find unfair and misleading. First, people often use the terms “pledging” and “hazing” interchangeably when discussing fraternity or sorority initiation. This conjures images of naked kids performing bows and toes on shards of broken glass while they’re forced to drink mind-numbing amounts of alcohol and have things thrown at them.
While it is well-documented that there are some idiots who take hazing to extremes, “pledging” and “hazing” do not always go hand-in-hand. You can have a pledge program where the pledges earn the respect of the actives to the point where they are accepted as brothers of a fraternity without hazing them. And even if there is some light “hazing,” more often than not, it is essentially harmless.
Hazing needs to have a more clear universal definition, and the standards for when light hazing as a rite of passage is acceptable need to be changed (I use “hazing” here with the assumption that something along the lines of wearing an embarrassing outfit is classified as hazing).
At the end of the day, these kids are volunteering to put themselves through some embarrassing, stupid activities because they believe the end result is worth it. If the kids feel genuinely threatened, they can speak up and not perform that particular task.
Clearly fraternities are not for everyone—if you don’t think it’s worth it to perform whatever tasks are being asked of you, you don’t have to pledge. I pledged and I never once felt physically threatened or endangered.
There are many stereotypes from movies that people assume hold true for every fraternity across the country. The problem is that people then despise the whole Greek system when all they know is what they’ve seen in movies and heard through muddled rumors. The media doesn’t help the negative attitude toward Greek life, because the only newsworthy stories are those where a pledge program went wrong because of poor judgment on the end of the active members of a fraternity.
Most of the time, with professional athletes, hazing is a ritual to break down the cocky attitudes of rookies, so that they learn their place in the system. I would say fraternities function in much the same way. Freshmen are the cocky rookies who think they run shit, sophomores have a little more experience, juniors are in their prime (specifically during first semester), and seniors are the seasoned veterans—the Tim Duncan of their house—who have been through the ringer and know the ins and outs of college life. Nobody wants to see the rookies come in headstrong, not take advice from their elders, and be disrespectful.
Cleveland Cavaliers rookie Joe Harris was made to carry a Disney Frozen backpack on road trips. Is this in any way endangering his health or mental well-being? Absolutely not. It is typical for NFL rookies to carry their teammates’ pads, which former IU wide receiver Shane Wynn does with a smile on his face in the photo seen at the top of this article.
Rookies know they have to earn the respect of veterans. It’s typical of guys to give a new member a hard time before accepting them into the group. If they can roll with the punches, you like them. If they take offense and get mad at your jokes and pranks, you typically do not want that person in your group. Shane Wynn is smiling above. Mike Trout was hazed a little and had a good attitude about it (in fact, he was so good that his teammates felt he earned the right to not be messed with after his rookie season). He still said he would do whatever his teammates asked of him. These guys understand that these menial tasks are a joke and would never hold it against their teammates.
Meanwhile, at many schools, if a student carries a pink backpack and the university catches wind that it was a required pledge task, they accuse the fraternity of hazing, saying the student was forced to carry the backpack against their will, and they impose all kinds of sanctions against the fraternity. Why are fraternities held to a different standard by their universities? Wearing a pledge pin is not detrimental to a student’s physical or mental well-being, so why is the backpack considered hazing and a punishable offense?
This mentality extends beyond sports and Greek life. It holds true even in professional settings. I have never had an internship where I wasn’t given a hard time or made to do something slightly embarrassing (i.e. sing my school’s fight song in front of everyone at a meeting), but it has always been done in a good-natured fashion.
If you’re at the bottom of the pecking order, you’re going to get some good, old-fashioned ribbing from your higher-ups. It’s a tradition among guys, because if someone can’t handle you giving them a hard time, you probably don’t want to be working or hanging out with them anyway. I’ve worked with both men and women, and the women have always been just as much into ragging on people as the guys were. There’s nothing wrong with giving people a hard time to see if they can hang before you let them into your group.
I know people who were involved in non-Greek organizations that wanted to have new members perform stupid tasks before considering them equal to the older members. It’s just part of joining a group. The fact that people are now saying it’s not okay to do this and that you should just accept everyone without making them earn your respect is contributing to the “Wussification of America." These are the same people who expect participation trophies and say they don’t care about winning because they’re “just out there to have fun." Those people can have their “can’t we all just get along” attitude, and I’ll stick with the mentality that respect is earned, not given.
