"Goat" was filmed at and around the University of Cincinnati and is set to come out September 23, 2016.
Many of my friends and other members of the Greek community have reacted negatively about the upcoming movie, "Goat", starring Nick Jonas and Ben Schnetzer. They say they want to boycott it because it paints Greek life in a bad light. I'm here to tell you why you should see it.
"Goat" is about a freshman, Brad Land (Ben Schnetzer's character), who is trying to join his brother's (Brett Land, Nick Jonas's character) fraternity. It starts out all fun and games with big parties but things quickly turns sinister. The pledges get a call late at night: "Get your ugly goat ass to the house in eleven minutes or you're dead." Then starts the brutal hazing. Humiliation, physical & mental abuse, forced binge drinking. It tests the relationship of the brothers and the mental health of Schnetzer.
A pledge is forced to drink hot sauce.
This is the stereotypical image you get when you think "fraternity" if you haven't been a part of Greek life yourself. If you are one of the people that are planning on boycotting this movie because you don't want it to further that stereotype in people's heads, I see where you're coming from. I really do. I'm in a sorority and I can't tell you how many times I've heard terrible, untrue generalizations of fraternities and sororities from a non-Greek person who believes in these stereotypes. It's downright infuriating! But, this movie was not made to arm those haters with more anti-Greek ammo. It was made to tell a TRUE story that happened at Clemson University.
Pledges are humiliated in their underwear.
Goat's screenplay was adapted from a memoir written by Brad Land, and he deserves to have his story told. All victims of hazing deserve to have their stories told. No matter how much you want to believe that brutal hazing is something that only exists in the movies, you have to acknowledge that it DOES happen. Maybe not where you're from, but it is actually a huge problem across the country. Ignoring that and stubbornly believing that hazing doesn't happen is not going to help anything. There needs to be more awareness, more of an outcry for hazing victims. This movie is doing that.
To anyone that does see this movie, whether you're involved in Greek life or not, there are a few things you need to remember after watching "Goat". This film is not representative of Greek life as a whole in any way. The practice of hazing new members of fraternities and sororities has largely disappeared from a lot of schools across the US. Some schools, including my own (the University of Cincinnati), have very strictly enforced no-hazing policies. When I was a new member in my sorority, I wasn't even supposed to throw away my own paper plate. Actives did that for me. They opened doors for me too. During Tuesday night chapter dinners, we got to cut to the front of the long lines. (Sometimes I wish I was a new member again)
