Frat Boys and Expensive Exotic Fish

So, MTV's Frat Life has been filming at my school for a little while now, though I don't know why as the Frat culture is almost non-existent at UCSC and nobody wanted them here anyway. This sucked enough in and of itself, but a couple of weeks ago, a couple of the boys from the frat came up to campus, fished a beautiful fifteen year old Koi named Midas out of one of the college's Koi ponds with a rake, killed it and ate it, much to no one's amusement. Fuckers. It seems to me to be an appropriate metaphor for fraternities in general. Thesis to follow.
Anyway, my question is, are there any SG members whose positive frat stories outweigh the negative? Full disclosure: I would like to not generalize, but I fucking hate frats with a passion. However, I've known people who I have otherwise considered decent human beings that have joined them, so please don't be afraid to defend them if you wish. I could be wrong.

dont forget that they beat it with a 40

Well, as much as I despise the whole "frat" culture (and it's out there, trust me), I really think MTV is more at fault here. "Hey, why don't you guys go kill and eat a really expensive fish? That'll make for good TV!"

I really want to re-enact the boardroom scene from "Dogma", only at MTV instead of whatever the company was that made Mooby the Golden Calf.

wow. mornons. wish i could change your perspective on frats... but no. nothing but violent rage for them here on my side.

I was in a fraternity back in college. I'm not going to attempt to defend fraternities in general, mostly because most of the people on this site have already made up their minds about them.

I will say this though. Fraternities don't make people change. If you were an asshole before you pledged, you'll be an asshole as a fraternity member.

Before I pledged, I made myself a promise. If they try to make me do ANYTHING that goes against my own personal code, I'll drop right there and then.

"all frat guys do is drink and fuck. They buy their friends, too" That's the main criticism that I hear when discussing fraternity life.

Well, on the first part........what do the majority of ANY college age males want to do? My money goes on drinking and fucking. As far as the buying of friendship......Fraternity dues are almost entirely for the purposes of maintaining a mandatory insurance policy. As far as I know, every college requires a chartered fraternity to carry insurance. That's pretty much what dues are for.

Another part of fraternity life that is misunderstood is the hazing rituals. Now, hazing DOES happen, but not to the extent that "Revenge of the Nerds" would have you believe. Playing gooky-cookie, Elephant Trains, putting the olive in the glass without using your hands.....It's urban legend. Maybe a few extremely depraved individuals will swear to having witnessed it, but it just doesn't happen.

Like I said, I don't expect any of you to care, or change any of your opinions.......that's just fraternity life as I know it.

Oh, and a P.S.

The Mtv show is in no way an accurate portrayal of Fraternity life.

First of all........put cameras around ANYONE and they're going to ham it it to some degree.

Second of all, they're only showing you the "interesting" stuff. They're not showing you the boring, hours long committee meetings, they're not showing you the time spent doing community service as many fraternities do. They're not showing anything that amounts to any less than shock value TV.

I heard that they gave Midas some roofies first too. I agree that MTV shares the blame, and I've heard from some unreliable sources that MTV had been telling the frat boys to liven up things a bit, because, as anybody who lives here could tell you, there's nothing less exciting in an MTV kind of way than living here in Santa Cruz, and that's exactly what makes this place cool, but it's the kind of thing that always seems to go on in these frats. Thank God they merely killed a fish instead of gang raping a co-ed which is what usually seems to happen in frats, at least in my opinion.

Cash-
Thanks for the reply. I know there are a lot of people in frats that don't condone this sort of behavior, but I guess it's the very nature of a fraternity that I find suspect and offensive. Like I said though, I know people who are certainly very decent that have joined up, so maybe I'm missing something.

P.S. I feel a similar way about sororities, but due to the nature of our patriarchal culture, fraternities creep me out far more.

Is 'gooky cookie' the same as 'soggy biscuit'??

If so, ewwwww...

Oh and I agree that if you were an asshole before you joined a frat, you're still going to be an asshole after. However, I also believe that frats can drastically increase the asshole quotient in someone by providing them a supportive peer group for their asshole behavior.

sorority life is awesome. yelling at television is a popular weekend activity here at the treehouse and those girls make it fun and easy. thanks mtv. see the girl who got the 'jewish lesbian' tattoo? ha ha ha.

After that statement I will no longer give creedence to anything you post.

Well, one thing's for sure about frats and sororities - they're not exactly putting academics and education as their top priorities. If there was a frat around that reinforced that everyone must help each other in their classes to avoid anyone falling off of the dean's list, I'd be heading out there in no time.

And I've heard that koi doesn't taste very good at all. What's the point of going through all that trouble to eat something rather unfulfilling?

Cash-
I'm sorry to have engaged in hyperbole in order to defend my argument, but I was not merely trying to make a tasteless joke. I do know of people who have been assaulted at various frats by some of the members and I still have yet to talk to anyone who has an overwhelmingly positive opinion of frats. I'm sorry to have cast aspersions on every current or former member of a frat in such an accusatory manner. I don't think we often agree politically or philosophically on many things, but I didn't mean to undermine my credibility as a result of my comment. It's just something I feel particularly passionate about as I have seen many of my friends victimized at frat parties. I know that this sort of behavior is not isolated to the frat community, but it seems like the nature of a frat is such that it often allows bad behavior to go unpunished. Much like some members of the Fraternal Order of Police tend to aggressively defend their own to almost any extent. So, sorry for my comment, I'll try to stay more calm next time.

And please at least give creedence to my apology, if nothing else I post.

Dude, you don't like fraternities? I have no problem with that, no skin off my ass. Fact is, I left the fraternity because I lost interest. But making gross generalizations and alluding to systematic gang-rape is asinine.

it sucks that you know people who were assaulted by people in a fraternity. My friend and I were robbed at knifepoint by a black guy. Do you have to ask what would happen if I took that same route as you in my intolerance? People don't get raped by fraternities, they get raped by rapists. I didn't get mugged by black people, I got mugged by a criminal.

But this message board is more conducive to slagging mainstream stuff....so slag away.

Looks like they got the boot for the fish incident...

yeah, I have a friend at UCSC that told me about the fish incident. I was so fucking pissed. I'm glad they got the boot.

from the article that iread they should have gotten the 'boot' for the sexual harrasment