Is Toxic Masculinity a “Tradition” in All Fraternities?

Toxic masculinity is when traditional male gender roles such as aggression, misogyny, and homophobia produces a harmful effect socially. A part of this toxic behavior is hypermasculinity which is the exaggeration of these male stereotypes. These types of masculinity are seen in fraternities. On multiple accounts fraternities have been in the media for being responsible for racism, homophobia, and sexism. These discriminatory views are introduced in the fraternity culture that socializes masculinity in a toxic manner.

Men who are in fraternities are more likely to have a sexually aggressive attitude towards women than men who are not members of a fraternity. Men who are in a fraternity are three times more likely to commit sexual assault compared to men who are not in a fraternity. Members of fraternities are more likely to receive a lot of pressure from their fraternity brothers to participate in masculine norms. One way to participate in these norms is to have heterosexual sex. Fraternity members revealed that they can earn points by having sex with women, and the brothers compete who can get the most points. These points are assigned based on the women attractiveness. Objectifying women is seen as a game. The definition of masculinity in fraternities is rejecting anything that is feminine, having sex with only women, drinking a lot of alcohol, being tough, and having money. Compared to sorority members, fraternity members support gender stereotypes and gender roles a lot more. This relationship between fraternities and masculinity is directly associated with fraternities rather than Greek life in general. (Seabrook, R. C., Ward, L. M., & Giaccardi, S, 2018)

70% of fraternity members have reported witnessing homophobic attitudes and other forms of negative comments about homosexuals. This all-male environment reinforces homophobic attitudes, the belief that gay men will hurt recruitment, and ruin relationships with sororities. Also, the goals of the fraternity are set up opposing the homosexual members. Participants perceived that the presence of gay fraternities members would reduce trust and togetherness. Members were concerned with maintaining their heterosexual identity especially when expressing affection which was driven by their attitudes of gay men in the fraternity. The more they believed that gay members were bad the more they focused on their sexual orientation and others believing they were gay, then led to even more negative comments about gay people. (Hall, Jeffrey A. and Betty H. La France) A fraternity at Morgan State University was suspended for discrimination after not allowing an openly gay student join Kappa Alpha Phi. There were a series of messages between members of the fraternity exchanging gay slurs and that was the reason for not allowing him to join. (Barker, Cyril Josh) Obviously, there is a trend throughout fraternities. Is racism also connected to this form of toxic masculinity?

Hate crimes in fraternities are not by accident and are not a new thing. Since the 1870’s fraternities have been involved with racist, homophobic, and misogynistic acts. Being apart of fraternities causes a toxic masculinity environment., and fraternity members tend to be hyper-conservative. Fraternities tend to be dominantly white, the first black fraternity was in the 20th century, and the first Latino fraternity until wasn’t the 1970’s (McMurtrie, Beth). In Arizona State University, Tau Kappa was accused of mocking black people in the fraternity by “donning loose basketball jerseys, flashing gang signs and drinking from hollowed-out watermelons.” during their Martin Luther King Jr. party. This fraternity has recently on probation for beating a black student on campus (Santos, Fernanda). In Auburn University, there were two fraternity members that wore Ku Klux Klan robes and black face. One white student was wearing black fraternity shirts, Omega Psi Phi with black face. Another student dressed up as victims of lynching wearing a rope around his neck (White Auburn U Fraternity). At the University of Oklahoma, there was a fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon that was videotaped chanting a racist chant which was taught four years before at a leadership event organized by the fraternity (Brad Knickerbocker Staff).

Recently, Theta Tau at Syracuse University had a video released during their pledging. During the video, there was slurs about people with disabilities, people of color, Jewish people, and women. There have been four fraternities that have been suspended from Syracuse University already this year. A Theta Tau member recorded the video of the pledging event. I did not want to link this video because of the disgusting language they use. Also sharing this video would spread the ideas of discrimination and gives the members attention for these horrible acts. Theta Tau members acted out sexual acts that consisted of simulating a sexual assault and homophobia. There was a part of the skit that the members were sexually assaulting someone with a disability (McMahon, Julie). Later on, they made a joke referring to gas chambers used in the Holocaust concentration camps. Throughout the video, the fraternity members made fun of women and gay people (Libonati, Chris). After the video was leaked, eighteen members of the fraternity were filed with disciplinary charges. Five of the Theta Tau brothers are suing Syracuse University because they believe that the university did not respected their privacy and safety. The fraternity explains that the video that was published is a tradition of roasting their brothers and was not meant to be seen by the public. (McMahon, Julie) Three of the brothers that are being sued are “ethnically diverse” and 28 of the 48 members are diverse. (“Does v. Syracuse University” 7) The lawsuit asks for the university to stop the dispensary proceedings, allow them to attend classes, and grant $1 million per student in monetary damages (McMahon, Julie). Is roasting their brothers their only tradition, or is toxic masculinity a tradition in all fraternities? Syracuse University expelled the fraternity after the video emerged (McMahon, Julie). Theta Tau was reinforcing these discriminatory traditions that fraternities have been producing for literally centuries.

One of the members in the video is from my hometown so this literally hit home for me. I have always known I have come from a conservative area but not to this extreme. My twitter feed was filled with people who supported this fraternity and made excuses for them. I was so appalled by these tweets of support.

The fact that people are supporting the hatred instead of the people who have been hated against, is pathetic. These words are not just words. There is a history of these words and years of oppression linked to them.

When will we stop saying “boys will boys”, “it was a joke”, and “it’s a tradition” and take actions against these hate crimes? This was not an accident, it is one of the essential traits of a fraternity. These gender stereotypes and hypermasculinity always have a negative outcome. These crimes should not be repetitive anymore, and this horrific tradition must stop. What should we do from here? Ijeoma Oluo’s book, So You Want to Talk About Race opens up the conversation that some people don’t dare to have. She addresses that our generation is upset with our society and progress is needed. “What we do now is important and helpful so long as what we do now is what is needed now” (Oluo 187) What we need now is to speak about discriminatory acts and not be bystanders. We need to be able to have conversations about race, sexual orientation, religion, and gender because how are we going to move forward from ignorant thoughts caused by silence? How do we have these conversations? We need to address the problems and solve them. Start by stating your intentions of this conversation, do research, don’t let emotion override the conversation, and know it’s okay to be wrong and learn from that experience. (Oluo 45–47) These could be possible solutions. Campuses can create a new inclusive greek life. We need more fraternities that reject these traditional norms of masculinity and embrace gay men, women, and racial minorities. We need realistic representation of fraternities in the media that doesn’t romanticize this toxic culture. Since fraternity members have to do community service they could interact with a diverse community. Situations need to be prevented and just expelling them will not affect them enough. The members will not learn from this and will bring their toxic attitude to another campus and create a ripple effect. Their punishment also needs to involve a form of education, so their toxic masculinity decreases. When is enough actually enough?