There has been a lot of talk lately about hazing in the arena of professional sports. It’s the start to a new NFL season, which of course means all kinds of training camp shenanigans, and this is the perfect time of year to address something that the Greek community has already taken a strong stand on. The fact that the hazing discussion is taking place in the realm of mainstream weekend gladiatorial entertainment means that the public might actually listen this time around.
The curious case of Dez Bryant, a rookie wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys who refused to carry veteran Roy Williams’ shoulder pads, kickstarted the conversation. Tim Tebow got a funny haircut, and then Peyton Manning came out and said perhaps the most logical thing that anyone has publicly stated in this whole fracas:
One thing around here, I know you’ve seen all highlights on the rookie hazing and the haircuts and all of that, we just don’t do that around here. We don’t really treat those guys like rookies. We expect those guys to play for us this year and to play well. I think we are probably not very patient. We don’t cut them a whole lot of slack. If they are on the team, we expect them to know the offense and be in there. That’s why we treat them all like veterans
Of course, on the other side (yes, the pro-hazing side), there are sportscasters, anonymous internet commentators, and NFL players who offer various half-baked defenses of the “traditional” mistreatment of rookies. One thing I find very interesting is the explanation that this is harmless hazing, light hazing. Tim Tebow’s haircut was “good-natured hazing” and he was a “good sport.”
This is intriguing because it brings up a very important and nuanced side of hazing, the “fine line” complaint. Forcing someone into running around campus in a stupid costume or getting a silly haircut is hazing, but it would look exactly the same to a spectator if the pledge class or the rookies decided that they wanted to all make fools out of themselves for the fun of it. Or, it’s all fun and games if a women’s soccer team went to McDonald’s and sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” at the top of their lungs if they were doing it together. It’s hazing if they are made to do it.
The crux of the issue is that making people do things that are relatively harmless for the sake of group unity is, in the mind’s eye, quite defensible. But the “making people” part is where the slippery slope lies.
If your leaders, be they team captains, older fraternity/sorority members, or whatever, want to encourage fun, flippant silliness in the name of bonding, that’s awesome. Some of the best times I’ve had involved midnight ocean swims (as the AFLV people know!), dumb haircuts, and costumes. But you can warm up with a shower, your hair grows back, and you can change clothes. We even let our interns pie us in the face last summer.
When the participants aren’t given a choice, however, they cease to be individuals who are bonding, and begin to become chattel. And this, my friends, is where the line is drawn. There is no “harmless hazing.” I might carry pads for a wide receiver who busted his ass harder than I did in practice…in fact, I would be honored to carry the pads of just about anyone in the NFL. But not if they threatened to tie me to a goalpost if I didn’t.
There is a great article on Stophazing.org dealing with this topic by Hank Nuwer, whom you all know as the anti-hazing guru. He’s begun a petition, and we highly encourage you to sign it. Check it out!
I read your blog about a month ago and this post really struck a chord with me. While in High School, I was on a soccer team where hazing was forbidden, but we did it anyway. The new teammates were forced to come to school wearing crazy makeup, ludicrous hairstyles and almost offensive clothing. Contrary to popular belief, I LIKED being forced to wear silly things to school because it meant that I had finally accomplished a goal of mine—to be on the Varsity Soccer team.
I look back now and realize how inappropriate it is to force girls to do things that they do not want to do. I am outgoing which is probably why I liked being “hazed.” Until now, I had not thought about the possibility that the more shy or introverted girls may have been negatively affected by the hazing experience. Perhaps you are right and they would have enjoyed it more had the ENTIRE soccer team partaken in the madness.
I write a blog called “Going Gone Greek” and it focuses on the stereotypes of the Greek system as well as my personal experiences as a sorority member. Before coming to college, I thought hazing was going to be a natural step of joining a sorority (which, let me tell you, was not something I had initially planned on doing). At my University, hazing is absolutely prohibited and if you are accused of hazing you will be kicked off the Row. In my house, Kappa Alpha Theta, and in the greek system at my university we are not allowed to refer to new members as “littles”, “babies” or any other word that could be seen as offensive. If we do, we are punished. I support these harsh rules because when a girl joins a house, she should be treated as, like Peyton Manning says, a “veteran.” She went through rush and selected a house where she felt she could make more friends and memories, NOT to be treated as little girl who is not respected by her peers.
This is college people, come on! Could you IMAGINE a workplace hazing its incoming employees? I would hope that we are more mature than that; however, we are still debating the topic today because hazing is still prevalent on school campuses, on sports teams and in various other cliques.
Thanks for the comment, Carrie! I’m glad to hear that this post made you reflect on your own experience with/without hazing.
You said that you actually liked being hazed, but I think you hit the nail on the head when you say that it is “inappropriate to force girls to do things they don’t want to” because they might be shy or introverted. That, to me, is one of the biggest things with hazing: the fact that, what is harmless to some is traumatic to others, and you have no way of knowing. As TJ Sullivan wrote about recently, hazing is wrong because it has the potential to hurt people. End of story.