Literature Review #3

Beer and Circus Cheap Beer: The Oxygen of the Greek System

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2. Sperber, Murrey. Beer and Circus: How Big-Time College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education. N.p.: Holt Paperbacks, 2001. Web.
3. Beer and Circus researches the effects of student culture in university life, and argues that universities enable problematic behavior such as binge-drinking and partying in order to sustain money from tuition-paying students. Chapter 14: Cheap Beer focuses particularly on Greek life. Greek life enables binge-drinking through excess partying and shutting down Greek organizations or initiating an alcohol prohibition hurts the university more than it helps.
4. Murray Sperber has experience in universities. He taught in Indiana University in English/American studies, and is a visiting professor of the Cultural Studies of Sport in education program in UC Berkeley. He published seven books so far, with the latest being “Beer and Circus”
5. The Animal House: a famous classic movie that takes place in the 1960’s which glorifies fraternity and party life. This movie is referenced several times due to its influence on university culture and how people view it as the “ideal” life, which contains excessive drinking.

Binge drinking: “average-sized male consuming five or more drinks within a fairly short amount of time, and a female, four drinks” (157)

6. "Yet, radical reform is impossible because fraternities, which have no purpose outside themselves-beyond their own bonding-can survive only by reinforcing their own traditions... particularly their drinking ones" (157)

"Date rape is a nasty part of the school's cost of doing business. It's awful, it's obscene, but it will never end as long as students allow themselves to get drunk out of their heads and end up in locked bedrooms.... Binge drinking is wholly irrational and that's when date rape happens most often" (164)

7. Although this source does not talk about LGBT students, it provides an insight on why fraternities and sororities act the way they do: by explaining drinking culture and the need for acceptance by valuing social life over academics.

Literature Review #2

Literature Review #2

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2. Freeman, Pamela W., and Shane L. Windmeyer. Out on Fraternity Row. Los Angeles, CA: Alyson, 2001. Print.
3. Secret Sisters is a collection of short stories and accounts from various sororities pertaining to homosexual experiences. This book is the female counterpart of “Out on Fraternity Row” under the same authors.
4. See: Literature Review #1
5. Diversity: range of people with different characteristics. Greek life has been criticized for lack of diversity due to historically white chapters being exclusionary based on not only color, but socioeconomic traits too.

Blackball: to secretly vote to reject someone (i.e. a sorority rush or pledge) without stating the real reasons why. For example, a girl rushing a sorority suspected of being lesbian by the sisters may be rejected a bid based on just that trait, but other reasons may be used to cover the reason up).

6. “Perhaps the pressure sorority women feel in regard to appearance stems from their adherence to traditional gender roles. Two studies found that women in sororities hold more stereotypical views of women’s roles than do women who are not members.” (xxx)

“The Greek system also provides a ‘legitimate’ campus subculture for students to associate with others who are affluent, have relatively undefined academic and vocational plans, and place a higher priority on social life than intellectual pursuits” (xxxi)

“The desire to belong, to be loved, to fit in consumed me during my freshman year in college” (xxxii)

7. This book is important to provide an insight on the female gender and how lesbian experiences are similar or different to homosexual male experiences in Greek life. It is important that I do not assume what applies to fraternity men applies to sorority women and vice versa.

Research Blog #5 Bibliography

Nathan, Rebekah. "Understanding Student Culture." Anthropology News 46.7 (2005): 17-18. Web.

Smith, Emily Esfahani. On Fraternities and Manliness. N.p.: The New Criterion, 2017. Web.
Freeman, Pamela W., and Shane L. Windmeyer. Secret sisters: stories of being lesbian in a college sorority. Los Angeles, CA: Alyson, 2001. Print.
Freeman, Pamela W., and Shane L. Windmeyer. Out on Fraternity Row. Los Angeles, CA: Alyson, 2001. Print.
Kimmel, Michael. Guyland: The Dangerous World Where Boys Become Men. New York: Harper, 2000. Print.
Sperber, Murrey. Beer and Circus: How Big-Time College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education. N.p.: Holt Paperbacks, 2001. Web.

Literature Review #1

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2. Freeman, Pamela W., and Shane L. Windmeyer. Out on Fraternity Row. Los Angeles, CA: Alyson, 2001. Print.
3. Out on Fraternity Row is a collection of short stories and accounts from various fraternities pertaining to homosexual experiences. While everyone’s situation is unique, every fraternity member faces similar patterns of fearing their sexuality being “exposed” and struggling with acceptance.
4. Shane L. Windmeyer was part of a fraternity (Phi Delta Theta) in 1992, and created the Lambda 10 Project in 1995 which was the collection of experiences that became this book in order to address homophobia issues in the college Greek system. Pamela W. Freeman is the assistant dean of students and director of the Office of Student Ethics and Antiharassment Programs in Indiana University, she co-chairs the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Antiharassment Team (Out on Fraternity Row, back cover)
5. Visibility: refers to how gay members of fraternities need to speak up and defend other gay members from homophobia to spark “visibility”, i.e. showing that there are more gay members than people think. Gaydar: a “radar” that people assume they have that can determine who they meet is gay or not based on certain stereotypes, gestures, and actions. Fraternity members suspected to be gay under the gaydar were simply ignored or avoided.
6. “One encounters similar complexities when trying to determine how many fraternity men are gay. Many men are still developing their sexual identity while they are in college” (xxix)
1. This statement emphasizes that sexuality is fluid and that men who identify as gay during a certain time period (i.e. college) may not identify as exclusively gay during other periods of their life. Likewise for heterosexuality and bisexuality.

“Maurice: ‘So when asked why I wanted to join a fraternity, I had one answer for him: to meet women and become sexually involved with them so that I would not end up gay” (xxx)

b. One of the fraternity members’ statements on why they joined Greek life. Maurice is not comfortable with his own sexuality so he decided to assimilate into the heteronormative fraternity culture.

“Brothers equate virility with hterosexuality. Some brothers reported that when they were pledges there was pressure on them ‘to get laid’ in order to establish their virility as heterosexual males. Fraternities that don’t apply this pressure are seen as encouraging homosexuality”

c.  One of the signs that people use a “gaydar” for. If a person does not conform to heterosexual acts such as virility, then they will be suspected and possibly outed for not having the same standards of masculinity.

7. This book will help me speak out homosexuality in Greek Life because these are real, actual experiences by fraternity brothers. Usually, fraternity brothers will not speak out because of their fear of being outed and ostracized by their own brothers, so they will usually stay silent.

Blog Post #3

Out on fraternity row, Shane L Windmeyer, Pamela W. freeman

Secret Sisters: Stories of Being Lesbian and Bisexual in a College Sorority, Shane L. Windmeyer, Pamela W. freeman

- These two sources are about non-heterosexual Greek life members who share their personal experiences with fraternities and sororities. A pattern can be found in these stories: the person is finding a place that they feel can belong, and ironically feel they cannot fully trust their own brothers or sisters with their secret of being gay or bisexual. However there is always at least 1 person they come fully trust to come out to, which indicates the importance of being socially affluent as a homosexual/bisexual to survive in a university environment.

Making Men in Gay fraternities: Resisting and Reproducing Multiple Dimensions of Hegemonic Masculinity, King-To Yeung, Mindy Stombler, Renee Wharton

- Looks into Delta Lambda Phi, a gay fraternity and how gay men face the meanings of masculinity and whether they should approach "normal heterosexual masculinity" throug radical cultural change or assimilate slowly

Blog Post #2

1.I decided to combine the two topics, though it may be a bit "too" specific: focusing on how successful minority students (based on race, gender, sexuality, etc) are in college, especially public vs private universities and how they act in college Greek culture.

2. Searching "fraternity privatization college" I actually came across a blogspot talking specifically about fraternities in a privatized college background (without the focus on minorities). Looking at this student's opinions will be useful for dissecting the topic since it has several layers of things needed to research.

3. https://books.google.com/books?id=FE4E9xJHDn4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=greek+life+universities+minorities&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjdwcarwJDSAhXCJJoKHcuOCtcQ6AEIQTAG#v=onepage&q&f=false

 4. I also realize that learning about black history is also something that may be important to focus on. An example is how "The Divine Nine" black Greek organizations may have not existed if univerisities were as privatized back then as they are today.  

Another book I've looked at that may be important is https://books.google.com/books?id=oDuBvb3oT6wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=fraternity+universities+worth+it&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjzp-PzwZDSAhVILZoKHQ7CAs8Q6AEILTAD#v=onepage&q=fraternity%20universities%20worth%20it&f=false " "fraternity gang rape: sex, brotherhood, and privilege on campus", which delves into rape culture.

6. So far I did not find any controversies yet since I've only delved into the surface level of searching each "background" and how they may interconnect with each other (minorities, Greek life, privatization)

Blog Post #1

Topics I'm thinking about:

Effect of pathways a college student may take depending on their affluency -> focusing on Greek life

How privatization affects students based on ethnic/sexuality