Home > Work > Fraternity: An Inside Look at a Year of College Boys Becoming Men
1 " In high school, Jake and Arjun had been straight A students who were heavily involved in school activities and did not party. "
― Alexandra Robbins , Fraternity: An Inside Look at a Year of College Boys Becoming Men
2 " Arjun came from a staid Pakistani family that prioritized academics and shunned alcohol. When he had moved into his dorm last week, his parents asked Jake, whom they knew was not a drinker, to watch over their son. "
3 " But how do you police friends who do not want to be policed? Already, Jake could sense the dynamics changing among his high school friends. Last week, his classmates had partied out of control. "
4 " The next night, Jake again tried to party with his high school friends. Arjun again drank until he barfed. One of the girls drank herself out of her mind; she continually told anyone within earshot that she was ugly, and then tried to make out with the first guy other than Jake to disagree with her. "My friends have already changed since coming to college. These aren't the same people I knew," Jake told me later. "I'm not having a good time at these parties because I have to watch over these guys, and they're making no sense. I'm trying to meet new people, but I feel lonely because I am the most sober person in the group. "
5 " In 1984, when the legal drinking age was raised to 21, underage students moved their partying from bars to private houses, which changed the Greek experience profoundly. Now fraternities had disproportionate control over the college party scene, they played an even more dominate role on campus. By the early, 1990s, 86 percent of fraternity brothers were binge drinking. "
6 " straight white males need supportive communities, too. "
7 " In Ray's work, most black fraternity men, compared to white fraternity men and black men who were not in fraternities, were observed treating women respectfully. Researchers also observed them speaking out against other men who talked disrespectfully to women. A Georgia BGLO member said that while campus visibility plays a major role in brothers' treatment of women, so do their backgrounds. "Because a lot of my brothers were raised by single moms, they take respecting women to a very high standard. They don't want anyone disrespecting their mothers or sisters, so they do the same to other women," he said. "
8 " Another potential reason for BGLO's better treatment of women is that at predominately whites colleges, black fraternity members feel more accountable. "Black fraternity men, and many black students, cannot overcome the reputational constraints of the small black student population..... White fraternity men can be anonymous, while black fraternity men perceive themselves as being constantly visible and therefore continuously held accountable by their treatment of women," Ray wrote in the Journal of African American Studies. "
9 " No matter who initiated these activities, the good boys in each chapter didn't stop them from happening. Objectification of women and tolerance of racism are massive problems in fraternity culture at large. "