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WTF Is Wrong With the World: Frat Mentality

Rape culture: a term that is flung around to explain everything from teen suicides to summer hit songs. But what does rape culture really entail? I've been doing a good amount of research on this topic for one of my ethics courses, but I have much more to say than the assignment's word limit allows. Why am I sharing my thoughts about this topic with the web universe? Because I want to purge myself of my strong minded opinions, and hopefully inspire some of my blog readers to have counter-arguments, agreements, and opinions of their own.

What is so fundamentally wrong with the portrayal of men and women in society is that we have categorized 7 billion people into two categories, based on nothing else but biological sex. One half of the population, the women, have a "profile" and the men have a different profile. This is troubling because each person is a unique individual, and there are very few people who match their profile in the least. Here are some of the most commonly known gender stereotypes:

woman
A little bit about me: Hi, I'm a woman. I'm weak, submissive, and cry a lot.
Favourite colours: pink, purple
I'm good at: cooking, making and nurturing babies, being sexually provocative
I'm bad at: driving, making decisions, being a leader in the workplace, emotional stability 
Favourite movies: The Notebook, The Little Mermaid
Childhood toys: Barbie, Easy Bake oven
My best attribute: my looks

MAN
A little bit about me: Hi, I'm a man. I'm strong, successful, and was born to lead.
Favourite colour: blue
I'm good at: business and finance, lifting weights, sex
I'm bad at: showing emotions, sewing, cooking, cleaning
Favourite movies: James Bond, any sort of pornography
Childhood toys: Power Rangers, Hot Wheels
My best attribute: my power

My contemporary anthropological issues class recently had a debate about gender equality. The professor suggested that women are conduits of exchange. They are passed on from one man to the next in the symbolic ceremony of marriage. Therefore, the woman is reduced to a prize- the highest form of prize- but nevertheless, she is a mere product of a patriarchal society. As a married woman, she may have a career, but even so she provides free labour in the form of child care and housekeeping. This strong opinion sent a sweeping tension across the lecture hall. One guy raised his hand and commented: what about men? Are men not also discriminated? Men have been forced to go to war, provide for the family, and uphold a macho image. Aren't men, too, just as victimized as women in this lopsided mess of a society?



Yes and no. Men and women simply face different problems. But it can't be denied that evil hearted men ruin the image of the male population. What is an evil hearted man? He is one who lacks empathy, supports misogyny, is mischievous and manipulative, rude, and is not capable of living life as an individual. An evil hearted man must belong to a group, or a set of stereotypes, like the ones I listed in the male profile above. A group of evil hearted men share a common bond for they have the same attitude towards life- they possess a frat mentality.

I recently came across an article featuring a recent case where a frat leader at Georgia Tech college sent his frat brothers an email on "how to lure rapebait." (Read the article here) The email had step by step instructions on how to lure, or otherwise force, a girl to bed. This is all part of a brotherly initiation process. Bottom line: if you want to belong, you have to commit violence against a woman. What a clear cut example of women being treated as conduits of exchange! The woman serves a purpose for the frat brother by giving up her body and dignity with nothing in exchange. The frat boy moves up the social ladder and the woman is told to be ashamed. Was it not similar in the Steubenville case, where the perpetrators of a violent sexual crime were supported just because they belonged to a football team?


There is a lot to be said on this topic, but I would just like to point out the vicious basics of frat mentality as I perceive them. These misogynistic attitudes are not limited to just drunken college boys or sports players, but they can be found lodged in any evil hearted man in the world.

Frat Mentality
As a man, I am entitled to harm, harass, and degrade others.
As a man, I am destined to be a leader and I disregard anyone who doesn't agree with my role.
My superiority lies solely in the fact that I am a man.
As a man, I know what is best for everyone.
I will not regard a woman as my equal, for she is naturally weaker than man.

The colossal paradox of frat mentality is that it relies so much on leadership and arrogance, but at the same time lacks any individuality. The evil hearted man is so consumed in his need for belonging and obsessed with his failure to reach social standards, that he is completely brainwashed by stereotypes which serve no other purpose but to sell products. It's all a bit foolish, don't you agree? After all, we base our self-image on a load of airbrushed and retouched photographs. We try to mould ourselves to look like people who don't actually exist, and then we feel bad when we don't achieve this unreachable goal. So while frat mentality thrives in our culture like a pest, it is really society's fault- our fault- for our mass belief in hogwash.

Proposed to solution: realize that you don't belong to a narrow minded set of stereotypes. Educate others. Diminish frat mentality and gender stereotypes.


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