Beers, beautiful girls, outlandish parties and a lavish lifestyle. Go Greek and you can make this fantasy world a reality, at least that's what TFM (Total Frat Move) wants you to think.
The image of Greek life has suffered tremendously within the past few years because the general public only sees the rambunctious, immature, and at times racist behavior displayed on major media fronts. It's hard to revitalize our image when the wrong people are getting media attention for the wrong actions. I've been a member of a fraternity for more than four semesters, which is long enough to realize that our principles strongly disagree with the stereotypes surrounding the Greek culture. If image is everything, then TFM is hurting Greek life more than helping.
These days, it is hard to find someone who doesn't know about TFM. Their website and social media accounts have hundreds of thousands of followers. It portrays Greek life as a party obsessed culture, surrounded by money and women. That's not the image I want others to associate with my organization. Greek life is about so much more than the party; it's about the transition from being a collegiate student to becoming an adult. The friendships and bonds you make with your fellow brothers or sisters is something unmatched within the rest of the world's organizations.
I know brothers within my fraternity who struggle to pay dues and rent, and as a brotherhood we help them. We don't have trust fund kids looking for the next way to blow their month's allowance. Pictures of handsome guys with beautiful girls on boats may be enticing, but it's not real life. The students within the fraternities and sororities have to pay for school, monthly rent and their organization’s dues. Most of them hold positions within their own organizations, not to mention the required amount of hours they're taking as students of a university. Of course, there are parties – I mean it is college – but that is a very small part of the Greek experience.
Greek life teaches you how to be gentlemen and proper ladies while TFM is blatantly misogynistic. They operate an Instagram account called "TFM Girls" where their only genre of pictures consist of half naked sorority girls. One of their latest articles on the website was titled "Good Relationships Aren't Romantic." This brilliant bit of journalism states that the best relationships have some unfaithfulness and that no matter the circumstance, we will always have eyes for the opposite sex walking by. Call me old-fashioned, but that's not what a gentleman does. Frankly, I don't want people with that type of mentality within my organization, much less the Greek culture.
No one can blame TFM for the mistakes of Greek life around the U.S., but a good chunk of these people following their accounts are becoming members of Greek organizations. If TFM is their example of what the Greek culture is or should be, then I don't see a bright future for Greek life.
