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Mercnbeth -> RE: Hazing vs Sadism (3/14/2009 8:01:55 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: catize
I don’t ‘get’ why hazing is thought of as necessary to build team spirit. Women don’t (usually) need such contrived and excessive methods to learn to work together.
cat,
It's not "necessary" but it's a possible route. I'll give you a couple of examples from the Fraternity days. A pledge class (10-25 pledges) was 'dropped off' in a remote area of NJ, if you went out of State, it could be considered 'kidnapping'. On the two hour drive, they were blindfolded in separate cars, 1 or 2 per car, and 'quizzed' on the fraternity history, personal information about their 'brothers', and other stuff; 'Gitmo - without a water-board'. They were each given a raw egg with a brother's name on it and told that if anyone brought back a broken egg - that person would be 'blackballed'. Of course during the final few minutes of instructions, while in the process of removing a blindfold, an 'evil' brother would knock an egg out of one of the pledges' hands. The 'team building' part? What would they do? Try and figure out the name on the missing egg and try and duplicate it? A time waster and a trap, since it would required lying and being deceitful to their 'brothers'. No, the correct answer was to figure out all of them should toss their eggs.Couldn't have an entire pledge class blackballed - "We need the dues!"
But it all wasn't 'fun & games'. There was the all important 'Whale Watch' from the roof of one of the residence halls overlooking the, at the time, segregated 'woman's dorm'. Where, if they were silly, or drunk, enough to actually call point out any woman and say; "there she blows!", as instructed to do if they saw a 'whale', it would of course be a sister to one of the brothers; and be chastised and threated with blackballing. A GREAT way to not only build team spirit as they sang 'Frat Songs' and all the verses for "There once was a man from Nantucket...", but to point out that ALL people should be treated with 'respect'. Except for pledges of course. We send them on 'scavenger hunts' where together they had to figure out how to find and bring back some stuff, and know which stuff not to. Like my pledge class who was stupid enough to parade a lifeguard stand from Bellmawr around campus in the back of a pick-up truck while singing fraternity songs.
There is more than one definition of sadism. Can one definition be considered positive, productive, and 'necessary'? In this case, the 'sadism' was creating 'no win' situations. Not to see the the situations resolved, but to see how the group interacted to try an resolve them. As an individual coming out the other side, you learned the value of trusting others, you learn about yourself, you learn about dealing with failure.
Again, great training for a life on either side of the flogger. Am I the only Dominant who takes sadistic pleasure from putting people into no win situations? "Go pick out a cane for me to use on you." Clover clamps attached to a string attached to toes. Sadism all in the spirit of 'good fun'!
Women contrive their own 'rites of passage'. Not so much contrived, but similarly sadistic. Remember, as a gender they have some catching up to do. A fundamental cause is that, until recently, they were excluded from team sports and the military where these hazing rituals disguised as 'training' most commonly occur. Men have been forming teams and killing each other since...well since there were men. It took political correctness and 'equality' for woman to be able to have access to those same opportunities. Since they have, they sure do put their 'pledges' through similar experiences; team building, rite of passage, or just expressing their 'inner sadist'. There is gender equality, and equal opportunity for sadistic hazing being employed.
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