In Salon Premium: “The Real World,” with beer bongs: MTV’s “Fraternity Life” brings back all the boneheaded bluster and enforced insularity of campus Greeks and their semi-anarchic pack mentality.
The even-handed piece gives a further glimpse on what may have contributed to the hockey riots.
“Like any group that depends on its members’ ability to shelve their personal needs for the greater good, the members of the fraternity deride those who don’t subordinate themselves completely. Pledges of Sigma Chi Omega have countless responsibilities, one of which is to show up for military-style lineups, during which the overzealous pledge master interrogates them as they stand at attention…. Kids straight out of high school aren’t necessarily prepared to figure out how to rent a place, make friends and date on their own. You make it into a fraternity, and you have an automatic social life — a place to live, a group of men that have your back and hang out with you around the clock, a good way to meet women and, most important, an identity. It’s easy to deride the mannerisms and rituals of these kids, but it’s also easy to understand why they’d participate.”