Tyler Graf’s column (“The downside of Eugene,” ODE Oct. 17, 2006) will undoubtedly get a plethora of threatening response e-mails and letters from provoked “frat guys”. I mean, he directly called them gay; we all know this doesn’t sit well with their type. In fact, it surprises me that he had the backbone to put a target on his face like that. Props for having that much confidence in what you’re saying. But what did we ever do to you?
Tyler mentions us “frat guys” (I cringe at the negative connotation) as people who make his life difficult. He is clear and straight forward with a statement of “I get it, you’re gay,” following the introduction to the column. While other subjects are followed with explanations, he has no explanation in the column for this comment. I’m going to assume this statement is an insult. Although I do recognize he could be suggesting that we are all sexually attracted to men. However, I don’t see how this would make his life difficult in any way; therefore the assumption stands.
I guess the thing that upsets me more than anything about this comment is that his general attitude is wide-spread throughout the community; most non-Greeks hate us. I find it ironic that the campus that hosted the movie that made the frat stereotype famous also hosts a relatively mild Greek system. Even more interesting is that we’re still the bad guys. Even though we have a dry Greek system, we’re drunken bums; have a higher GPA than non-Greek undergrads, we’re meatheads; do charity and community service work, we’re assholes. It’s an attitude that has been difficult to combat as Recruitment Chairman of my fraternity where my job is to bring people in to the Greek system. There’s really only one strategy that I’ve found to be successful: Education.
Most people don’t want to hear it; they’ve got a preconceived notion of what fraternities are and they don’t want it changed. But most people that actually learn more about fraternities, despite their initial impression, find that it’s not what they expected. I can’t speak for other houses, but I know that the majority of my fraternity brothers were not interested in joining a fraternity before they came to college. For curiosity’s sake, they checked it out and here they are.
And here I am. I don’t pop my collar, I drink rarely, I sometimes wear glasses, I don’t have any money, I’ve been dating my girlfriend for a year and I hate it when people use the word “gay” as an insult – not much of a stereotypical frat guy, I know. I’m not shoved in the basement when rush begins, either; as I mentioned before, it’s my job to bring people in. Doesn’t say much for those stereotypes, does it? So again, here I am: Not at all the stereotypical frat guy, but proud as hell to be a fraternity man.
That’s right, still proud despite people who have “drinking a lot” under Interests on Facebook insulting me for being associated with fraternities. It’s a shame people have animosity toward something most know so little about. It’s too bad Tyler forgot to include ignorant ranters as a topic in his article.
Ian Thackaberry is a University student