Column: Frat traditions offend women
The chant began as a toast between three guys, but it didn’t take long for every guy in the house to join in.
It seemed pretty harmless at first. It was just another one of those songs about the fraternal bonds of manhood. Yeah, you know the kind.
Suddenly the song took a dark turn. For the next two or three minutes of my life, I was subjected to lyrics instructing the so-called men in the room on how to force a girl into giving fellatio and get her “too drunk to say ‘No’.”
As you can imagine, this incredible song ended with the gentlemen in the room screaming out the name of their frat and proudly proclaiming its members were “on the hunt for (insert rhyming euphemism for female genitalia here).”
I looked around the room at the other young woman who had been relegated to couches and chairs.
The first sat quietly, the expression on her face growing angrier by the minute.
“This is disgusting,” the second said, rolling her eyes. “I can’t believe they’re saying this stuff in front of us.”
“Oh, I’m used to it,” said the third. “I play rugby so I hear this kind of stuff all the time.”
“So immature,” said the first. “Guys are so stupid sometimes.”
“What?” I asked sarcastically. “You mean you don’t like being told your place in this world is on your knees?”
“It’s just a power trip for them. Guys are so insecure.”
“Boys will be boys,” said the second. “I just try to ignore it.”
“Do you want to go?” my friend asked. “This party is lame.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m afraid if I stay here any longer I’ll get date raped. What do you want to do now? Wanna go out and hunt for some (censored)?” I laughed and added loudly, “Stay classy, guys.”
Just as I was about to stand up and put on my coat, a young man appeared.
“Excuse me,” he said. His tone of voice was very catty, like something out of the movie “Mean Girls”.
“What?”
“You need to leave,” he said. “We don’t want you here.”
“And why is that?” I said.
“You’re being really disrespectful to our traditions. If you want to sit here and trash our fraternity, you’re not welcome at our party.”
“Your traditions?” I said. “So raging misogyny is part of your tradition? Encouraging sexual assault is part of your tradition? Saying women are subservient to men is part of your tradition? Wow, it’s amazing there are even women here.”
“Umm, sorry I’m not sorry about being a member of a Greek organization. You’re not Greek are you? Yeah, I can tell. Sorry you’re mad you’re not one of us. Sorry we’re better than you.”
“Yes, that’s why I’m mad. That is exactly what this is about. You got it.”
I looked at the fool in front of me and smiled. “You’ve just made a very big mistake, my friend.”
“Umm, actually I really don’t think I have.”
“Oh, you’ll see.”
