Fraternity gay initiation
Homosexual hazing rituals in a heteromasculine context
Tuesday night, Jane Ward of the University of California, Riverside had over 100 people close their eyes to dream sorority sisters pouring chocolate syrup on one another and demanding the fresh pledges to lick it off everyone else. At her talk, “Haze Him! White Heteromasculinity, Anal Resilience and The Erotic Spectacle of Repulsion”, Ward juxtaposed this image with the same scene only with males to demonstrate how sexual fluidity is much more naturalized among women.
Ward’s novel “Not Gay: Sex between Straight Light Men” was published last July, and Tuesday night’s speak was an prolongation of the topics covered in the work.
At the discuss, Ward discussed the homosexual contact between straight white males as a part of hazing rituals and how it affects their heteromasculinity. Heteromasculinity is the social and cultural pressure that in order to conform and to reaffirm their masculinity, males must fit a certain physical and sexual mold.
“Hazing is not simply a practice, it is also a heteroerotic trope,” Ward said. “I wanted to ask where direct, white men in the dominant cultures fit into these incongruent sex exercise
Examining the Homoerotic Nature of Frat Boys
Brothers of Alpha Delta Lambda Fraternity re-affirmed their hatred of gays on Sunday, repeatedly referring to television exercise guru Richard Simmons as a “butt-pirate.”
The statements shocked university sex researchers, who for years have been observing the homoerotic nature of ADL initiation rituals.
“It’s kind of sad that anybody in this day and age would bash gays,” said Sociology Professor Deborah Clark. “But it seems especially hypocritical coming from frat brothers who strip their pledges naked at every available opportunity.”
Clark is putting the finishing touches on a new book, titled, “UMass Frat Boys: Hating Gays, While Acting Gayer Than Gays Do” which she expects to be the landmark work in her ever-expanding field.
“Somehow, it never occurs to them that forcing a group of younger, submissive men to take off their clothes and play sexual games isn’t exactly typical heterosexual behavior,” she said. “Yet every semester, they bring out pieces of bread for the pledges to masturbate onto, and then eat. And then they talk about how they R
Initiation Rituals
Keywords
Arete, Sport and Population, American Sport History, Hazing, Initiation rituals
Subjects
Sports; Hazing; Initiation rites
Introduction
It is called the "elephant walk," an all male single-file procession in the nude in which all participants are associated in a chain by holding on to the penis of the person just behind. This is not a new sport, but it is a part of the sporting atmosphere in many male athletic settings. Most recently this charming ritual was in the news at the University of Vermont where the hockey season has come to an abrupt end.
Publication Date
3-4-2000
Source Title
Sport and Society for Arete
Publication Version
Author's version
Copyright Status
Author retained
College
College of Arts and Humanities
Recommended Citation
Crepeau, Richard C., "Initiation Rituals" (2000). On Sport and Society. 269.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/onsportandsociety/269
On a cold, stormy September night in 2018, my 14 fraternity pledge brothers and I received this ambiguous sms from one of our pledge masters:
“Tonight’s education meeting is canceled. At 11pm, you will all load into three of your cars and drive to the destination I send you. Fetch a first aid kit, five jugs of water, three shovels, and a triangular-shaped candle. Dress in all black.”
My mind raced with questions. What could this mean?
An hour later, my palms choked the steering wheel of my Ford pickup truck as I drove from our fraternity house at the University of Southern California toward an unnamed address in Manhattan Beach. In the car with me were four of my pledge brothers.
“It’s got to be beach-related,” said a brother from the back seat, his voice barely audible over the rain pounding on my windshield.
“Maybe it’s a home party,” another suggested.
“It’s definitely not a house party,” the one in the passenger seat countered. “We’re getting hazed tonight, boys!”
A knot of anxiety tightened in my stomach. This moment, shrouded in uncertainty, mirrored the complex feelings I’d been wrestling with since joining the fraternity three weeks earlier. As t