[15561] in APO-L
Re: Seperate but equal
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Deborah Cherry)
Wed Nov 13 15:17:53 1996
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 15:13:18 -0500
Reply-To: Deborah Cherry <dc30+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU>
From: Deborah Cherry <dc30+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <Added.kmWUSFe00UdcB4eU4e@andrew.cmu.edu>
Once again, I'm not trying to advocate a particular stance, but I want
to point out that a lot of people seem to be making a big fallacy in
their argument (on both sides):
Just because something is different between a particular(s) all-male
chapter and a particular(s) co-ed chapter (feeling of brotherhood, what
kind of events would go over well, etc.) does not neccessarily mean that
difference can be attributed to do the differences in the gender of
their members. Chapters are based on a lot more than just that, such as
how long they've been around, size, support from administration, nature
of school, length of school terms, general involvement of student
organizations, the chapter's role in the campus community, chapter
history traditions, pledge programs, mechinism of becoming brothers, and
just the particlu group of people involved at any one time (as the old
dog of any chapter can probably tell you about how different the chapter
is than the "old days").
Excerpts from internet.aphio: 13-Nov-96 Seperate but equal Jason \.
Marmon@DUNX1.OC (3741)
> Case in point, a few of our brothers are Big Brothers to Gamma Sig
> pledges. For their Big/Little night we went to Chucky Cheese. The Gamma
> Sigs had a blast, while the brothers brooded in the corner.
> Now I know the type of response I am going to get. I know there
> are females out there that do typically guy things and guys who enjoy
> typically girl things. My point is by having both an all-male chapter
> and an all-female Gamma Sig it now gives people on the campus more of a
> choice of what they preferr and more service in different areas gets
> done. The way I look at, it is the best of both worlds.
Outside of whether this is a "girl" or "boy" thing (I'd say it's more of
a "kids/want to be like kids" thing) or whether we should even
differentiate between whether something is a male or female thing
(Business used to be the exclusive right of males- my Mom was in the
second class at Wharton that admitted women, and then she had to look in
the "Men" section of Want Ads to find a job, becasue the "Women" section
was only nurses, secretaries, teachers, etc. She was even told "we don't
hire women for that position") is that every group has it's own
personality/pulse, regardless of the gender. Each social frat has a
different feeling (even within the same frat at different schools), and
they're all men. The difference in enjoyment may not be because of their
gender diffs- it could be that the Big Brothers had a different role at
the event, and this gave them a different perspective on things. It
could be those particular individuals just aren't into that kind of
thing (I know plenty of guys who are, and plenty of girls who aren't),
and it could be that outside of the gender differences, the two groups
have a different personality. I know co-ed chapters that would probably
love this kind of idea (when I chaired a Rush project to take kids to
the Discovery Zone, we had to keep reminding many of our "adults" to
take it easy and let the kids play- both men and women), and other co-ed
chapters that would look at you like you were from Mars if you even
suggested the idea of Chucky Cheese/DZ.
Also, personally- I'd prefer a balance of traditionally "guy" and
"girl" things than all of one or the other (preferably in the the same
group, not having to join a different group for each). Most individuals
rarely fit stereotypes 100%, and if a program only does what is
stereotypical for a particular gender, I bet it's turning off worthy
individividuals who are the same gender as the group...
From all descriptions I've ever heard, Delta is a very strong, proud,
traditionally minded chapter. I can't believe that the sole or even main
reason for this is just because it's all-male, but because of it's
history, membership program, strong leadership, etc. None of that is
exclusive to all-male chapters, and there are many other strong chapters
that have these elements (and/or other things that make them strong).
Kappa chapter has remained continously active for just 2 years less than
Delta, but went co-ed in 1972, so being all-male isn't an inherent
requisite for long-life either.
I'm sure every chapter has a slightly different feeling of brotherhood,
so just because it is different/"stronger" at all-male chapter X than at
co-ed chapter Y may not be because of the gender differences. It's
almost impossible to direct comparisons and focus on just 1 factor.
Because there are so many things different (and possibly even an
individual's role/perspective in each i.e. initiated at vs. transfer,
active vs. visitor) between chapters, you can't say that being all-male
is a causal factor (especially the single causal factor) in any given
difference.
Yours in LFS,
Debbie Cherry
Alumni, Kappa Chapter, Carnegie Mellon University
Section 62 Staff
dc30@andrew.cmu.edu
(Can you tell my major did a lot of statistics? ;-)
