Blog #17 - Allen, Kivel, Martin, Hummer

Fraternities are organizations that perpetuate masculine stereotypes and contribute to the degradation of women on college campuses. Fraternities recruit news members based on their personality and sexual prowess. Men who are athletic, strong, affluent, competitive and good-looking are chosen to be in fraternities because they are better at attracting women than effeminate and “nerdy” men. The more masculine the candidate the better chance he will have of being accepted into a frat. Effeminate behaviors are highly discouraged by fraternities, and members who display those types of behaviors are ostracized and labeled as homosexuals. Martin and Hummer write, “Fraternities work hard to create a macho image and context and try to avoid any suggestion of wimpiness, effeminacy and homosexuality.” A narrow image of masculinity is created and expected by members of fraternities. An extreme image of masculinity is accepted as the norm and the individuals that stray from this norm are considered inferior. As Martin and Hummer write in their article, femininity is also highly distorted by fraternities. Many members in fraternities view women as sexual commodities who are obedient and vulnerable. Women who stray from the ideal; sexual, beautiful and social are often ignored by fraternity members. Martin and Hummer state, “Brotherhood often plays itself out as an overriding concern with masculinity and, by extension, femininity. As a consequence, fraternities comprise collectives of highly masculinized men with attitudinal qualities and behavioral norms that predispose them to sexual coercion of women.”

Fraternity members emphasize loyalty, use of alcohol, physical force, secrecy, group protection, competition and superiority. These characteristics and actions have been proven to contribute to a “rape-prone” environment in fraternities that is dangerous for women. Martin and Hummer state that alcohol is used as a weapon to incapacitate women and take advantage of them sexually. The highly competitive nature of fraternity members leads to intense rivalries over the number of women they sleep with. Fraternity members often times have a multitude of sexual relationships that are devoid of any emotional attachment. These relationships can be dangerous because the men are only concerned with their sexual pleasure. They have little concern for the wellbeing of the woman and usually abandon them when the intercourse is finished. As it has been shown in the 1988 rape investigation of a Florida university fraternity, the sense of loyalty and secrecy among fraternity brothers has been used to undermine authority and protect members from legal punishment. Group protection is the most important aspect of a fraternity. Martin and Hummer write that, “Brotherhood norms require sticking together regardless of right or wrong; thus episodes are unlikely to be stopped or reported to outsiders, even when witnesses disapprove. The ability to use alcohol without scrutiny by authorities and alcohol’s frequent association with violence, including sexual coercion, facilitates rape in fraternities.”

In the article Men Changing Men, Robert Allen and Paul Kivel state that society has constructed a narrow definition of masculinity in which all men should follow. Men are expected to be aggressive, tough and stoic. These characteristics contribute to acts of violence against women. Allen and Kivel write, “In a patriarchal society boys are taught to accept violence as a manly response to real or imagined threats, but they get little training in negotiating intimate relationships.” Boys are taught to solve all their problems the manly way, by being violent and aggressive. When boys grow up they do not know how to solve problems in a mature way and often resort to violence. I agree that society contributes greatly to the domestic abuse of women. The rigid form of masculinity supported by our society needs to be reformed so that men are not expected to be violent and aggressive.