Social Issues and Analysis

Top 5 Shocking Sorority Hazing Stories

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Many sororities have a lengthy history. It often happens that a daughter joins the same sorority that was the home of her mother. The benefits of sorority life are portrayed in famous movies such as The House Bunny and Legally Blonde. On the other hand, before joining a sorority, many girls have to prove their devotion by undergoing particular hazing rituals.

Shocking Sorority Stories

Body Insecurities.

In fact, the purpose of joining a sorority is to learn to cooperate, co-exist and help each other. For many years sororities have been an inevitable part of American university life. Living in a sorority often helps girls to become self-confident. On the other hand, hazing rituals are aimed at reinforcing the pledges’ inferiority complexes and negative thoughts about their own bodies or appearances. For instance, at Montclair State University, one sorority had a hazing ritual where a pledge had to sit on a washing machine while the other sisters were pointing out the girl’s body parts that were shaking. Such a negative critique of the girl’s appearance in front of the large audience resulted in long-lasting moral traumas.

Boob Ranking.

Alexandra Robbins mentions a humiliating hazing ritual that is called “boob ranking”. According to it, the pledges were invited into a cold room and asked to take off their tops and bras. Then, they were told to line up according to their breast size. Moreover, the girls were berated and critiqued during the ritual.

Ten Hour Trauma.

Gamma Beta Delta sorority at Medgar Evers College once practiced a hazing ritual that proved that verbal abuse could become a serious trauma. Two pledges, Gabby Jones and Shawntee Caton, were taken to a dark room with their eyes closed and made to answer personal questions related to their sexual life. The verbal attack continued for 10 hours. The girls left the room in tears after being emotionally exhausted.

Human Trash Can.

Britteny Starling, a student at the University of California, who was trying to join Zeta Phi Beta, became a victim of the hazing ritual during which she was asked to sweep the floor with her own clothes. Then, the girl was made to pick up trash with her hands and put it in her pockets. In the end of this humiliating ritual, a sorority sister hit Britteny in the ankle and injured her seriously.

The List of Atrocities.

Gamma Psi sorority at Young Harris College created a hazing ritual according to which the pledges were made to run in their panties. Later, the girls were judged by fraternity brothers while standing in the water full of other pledges’ excrements.

Locking Up

The sorority hazing rituals are so terrible in some cases that it is impossible to gloss them over. Sigma Delta Tau, a sorority at Union College, is now known for its horrible hazing because a former member, Tess Koman, a Cosmopolitan associate editor, discussed that in one of the articles. She, actually, claimed that in spite of all the cruelty, hazing was not something that had to be eliminated. It is difficult to find the right answer to an ambiguous question about the right nature of hazing rituals after horrible sorority pledge stories, but it is important to analyze the essence of this university ritual. Koman tells about the basement where forty pledges, with her among them, were locked. There is an important details that there was only one toilet to use. All of the girls lined up to answer the questions asked by the sorority sisters. Many of the questions were rather provocative as the sisters wanted to know who was the prettiest among them, who was not admired, who was mostly criticized, and so on. Koman recollects that she was terrified throughout the process, but many of the girls became her lifelong devoted friends after that. Nevertheless, it is still doubtful whether friendship should always undergo tortures to be strong.

Sink or Swim

A lot of Montclair State University sororitiesand other educational establishments have such terrifying hazing traditions that they frequently end with traumas or hospitalization. Some of them can even be fatal, which is absolutely shocking. The pledging of Kenitha Saafir and Kristen High at Cal State Los Angeles, Alpha Kappa Alpha, in 2002 has become legendary. The girls were supposed to be involved in painful grueling, which was difficult but not fatal at first. However, the two young girls were soon too tired, and they walked into the ocean to cool down a bit. Saafir was pulled into the waters by a huge wave. She could not swim, and her friend tried to save her life. The girls were too exhausted by the hazing or, probably, the waves turned out to be very strong; as a result, the tragic story was over with two young girls drowned. Suspension of the sorority was done for more than a ten-year period.

Cold or Hot

The public awareness of hazing rituals at Montclair State University sororities as well as other universities increased when in 2012, the University of New York at Binghamton became notorious. The sisters there tested the pledges with reciting the Greek ABC being in freezing cold showers. Then they made the girls take burning hot coals and vomit after certain pills. What was the response from school? They started investigation of the sororities’ system and prepared a list of guidelines for all sorority chapters. The authorities claimed that the rules were enforced and are still followed; however, the number of terrible stories about the hazing tortures at schools is still getting bigger. Moreover, all those experiments are done behind the closed doors and there seems to be no end to what has been happening for years. One of the most crucial issues to be revealed is whether the new stories will be made public and whether new pledges will speak up.

Suspension

Hazing at Rutgers, the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, including using paddles and swatting for the pledges. They say it is a common practice for many sororities; however, it has gone too far at the Sigma Gamma Rho. In 2010, one of the pledges was hospitalized after beating for two hundred times with paddles. The torture took place non-stop for a few days. The hospitalized victim pressed the charges, but the girl who had been performing aggravated hazing had the only punishment of public shaming. Nevertheless, that resulted in suspension of the Sigma Gamma Rho at Rutgers. A shocking fact is that the friends of the sisters from Sigma Gamma Rho were interviewed for the ABC News and they did not blame those who did the beating, but thought that the hospitalized girl was guilty.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of shocking hazing stories, which prove that sometimes, the cost of sororities is unjustifiably high. If you are still hesitating whether to become a part of any sorority or not, make sure it does not practice any outrageous hazing rituals that may result in traumatic experiences.

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