Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanfear
Am I the only one that though about what hazing was done to Jon Hamm when he pledged the frat? Usually these rituals are not suddenly starting but are a "hey everybody goes through it" kinda deal, aren't they?
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I did think about it, but it's really no excuse. I didn't pledge freshman year, but my roommate did. He used to come back every night drunk and/or in pain. I'd ask him the next day and he'd tell me what they made him drink and/or do. He wanted to join the frat so he put up with it because he thought only about 2 things: 1) being part of the group was worth the pain; and 2) he'd get to do it to someone else next year.
So, I taught my roommate about "hangers." That's where you pretend you're sitting on an invisible chair and hold your arms straight out parallel to your thighs. Someone puts a wire clothes hanger between your butt and the ground and you have to hold it there for as long as possible. If the hanger falls, you drink, get paddled, do push-ups, etc. If the hanger bends, you drink, get paddled, do push-ups, etc. This can be done against the clock or against a group where the first person to fail gets punished by the last person to fail. That last half-sentence was my addition to the "hangers" hazing, where a freshman could get a taste of dishing out the pain. Where did I learn "hangers" from? It happened to a friend of mine who was kicked out of The Corps at Texas A&M. Every time he screwed up he had to do 98 push-ups because he was the Class of '98. Every time the hanger fell, 98 push-ups. Every day, whenever an upperclassman felt like it.
I'm positive Jon Hamm had heinous shit done to him, but he accepted it, returned it, and no doubt added his own personal touch to it. Whether it's racism, sexism, homophobia, hazing, pedophilia, or sexual abuse, just because it happened to you is not an excuse to do it or anything like it to someone else.
For the record, I personally refused to put up with hazing. I never let anyone do it to me in high school as a freshman or first-year baseball player. When I got my business degree and pledged to join a co-ed business fraternity, I quit the day after they tried to make us all stand blind-folded in a supposedly empty auditorium and recite the history of frat. I've got better shit to do than play games to prove I'm worth someone else's while. And I write that completely understanding the irony that this is going on an internet forum. I'm here for fun.