Fraternities - WTF?!

[Bronzeage]

The frat had been disbanded and kicked out by the school for rotten behavior.

double secret probation?

 

[bilby]

Apparently, the word "shag" has a similar story. Not that big a deal here, but there was quite a ruckus in the UK when the Austin Powers movie, "The Spy Who Shagged Me" came out there.

The word "shag" has never had anywhere close to the impact of "cunt" in the UK. And any ruckus in the UK over "The Spy Who Shagged Me" would have come from the tiny but very vocal NVLA/Mediawatch-UK types*; It would certainly not have been a big deal for the vast majority of Britons.






* I recall seeing Mary Whitehouse being interviewed, and the reporter asked her what she thought of lesbianism. She said "Well, it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth", and couldn't understand why he almost died trying not to laugh...

I guess it was more offensive to the British upper crust, but not so much for the commoners:

"The Spy Who (slang here) Me'

When Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me hit big screens in London on Friday, the word "shag" _ British slang for "to copulate" _ got the full-Monty-on-the-marquee treatment.

Film distributor New Line Cinema refused to change the title, though some Brits may blush when they see it. (The S-word raised a miniruckus among some Brits in America after the movie's U.S. premiere.) New Line is keeping mum on its decision in Britain. But when Austin Powers plays elsewhere, the title will have to behaaave, baby.

Despite its affront to stiff-upper-lipped Brits, the "shagged" title fits the hip, if slightly cockeyed story line of the film _ a 1960s-era superspy in pursuit of his purloined libido; it also fits the movie's essence of "cool Britannia." The Spy Who Engaged in Furtive Assignations With Me just doesn't cut it.

And "shag" _ taboo in polite British society _ has seeped into everyday conversations in pubs, and even crept into sitcoms and respected newspapers.

I am highly dubious that the Tampa Times hack who wrote that understands British slang; "Shag" is considered very mild language in pubs, and (apart from the abovementioned Mrs Whitehouse) is not going to raise many eyebrows in a sitcom or newspaper (do people even still read newspapers?).

This strikes me as a lazy journo trope of "make shit up, nobody will know as long as you attribute it to a distant land".

Before leaving the UK for Australia, I read any number of weird tales about people and events 'down under'. When I got here, I saw the same stories in the local press - but attributed to "a man in England", rather than "a man in Australia".

My assumption is that journos make up shit that they think will attract attention, ascribe it to foreigners, and fuck off down the pub. It's got to be easier than research or reportage.

 

[thebeave]

Apparently, the word "shag" has a similar story. Not that big a deal here, but there was quite a ruckus in the UK when the Austin Powers movie, "The Spy Who Shagged Me" came out there.

The word "shag" has never had anywhere close to the impact of "cunt" in the UK. And any ruckus in the UK over "The Spy Who Shagged Me" would have come from the tiny but very vocal NVLA/Mediawatch-UK types*; It would certainly not have been a big deal for the vast majority of Britons.






* I recall seeing Mary Whitehouse being interviewed, and the reporter asked her what she thought of lesbianism. She said "Well, it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth", and couldn't understand why he almost died trying not to laugh...

I guess it was more offensive to the British upper crust, but not so much for the commoners:

"The Spy Who (slang here) Me'

When Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me hit big screens in London on Friday, the word "shag" _ British slang for "to copulate" _ got the full-Monty-on-the-marquee treatment.

Film distributor New Line Cinema refused to change the title, though some Brits may blush when they see it. (The S-word raised a miniruckus among some Brits in America after the movie's U.S. premiere.) New Line is keeping mum on its decision in Britain. But when Austin Powers plays elsewhere, the title will have to behaaave, baby.

Despite its affront to stiff-upper-lipped Brits, the "shagged" title fits the hip, if slightly cockeyed story line of the film _ a 1960s-era superspy in pursuit of his purloined libido; it also fits the movie's essence of "cool Britannia." The Spy Who Engaged in Furtive Assignations With Me just doesn't cut it.

And "shag" _ taboo in polite British society _ has seeped into everyday conversations in pubs, and even crept into sitcoms and respected newspapers.

I am highly dubious that the Tampa Times hack who wrote that understands British slang; "Shag" is considered very mild language in pubs, and (apart from the abovementioned Mrs Whitehouse) is not going to raise many eyebrows in a sitcom or newspaper (do people even still read newspapers?).

This strikes me as a lazy journo trope of "make shit up, nobody will know as long as you attribute it to a distant land".

Before leaving the UK for Australia, I read any number of weird tales about people and events 'down under'. When I got here, I saw the same stories in the local press - but attributed to "a man in England", rather than "a man in Australia".

My assumption is that journos make up shit that they think will attract attention, ascribe it to foreigners, and fuck off down the pub. It's got to be easier than research or reportage.

Well, keep in mind that Tampa Times article is 27 years old, and my statement about the word "shag" was in reference to its usage back in 1999 at the film's release, not today. The impact of the word has softened since then:

Definition of shag in British English

3.
an act of sexual intercourse

▶ USAGE Though still likely to cause offence to more conservative people, this word has lost a lot of its shock value. It seems to have a jocular, relaxed connotation, which most of the other words in this field do not. No doubt its acceptability has been accelerated by its use in the title of an Austin Powers film of 1999. Interestingly, though advertisements for the film caused a large number of complaints to the British Advertising Standards Authority, they were not upheld

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Apparently, the word "shag" has a similar story. Not that big a deal here, but there was quite a ruckus in the UK when the Austin Powers movie, "The Spy Who Shagged Me" came out there.

The word "shag" has never had anywhere close to the impact of "cunt" in the UK. And any ruckus in the UK over "The Spy Who Shagged Me" would have come from the tiny but very vocal NVLA/Mediawatch-UK types*; It would certainly not have been a big deal for the vast majority of Britons.






* I recall seeing Mary Whitehouse being interviewed, and the reporter asked her what she thought of lesbianism. She said "Well, it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth", and couldn't understand why he almost died trying not to laugh...

I guess it was more offensive to the British upper crust, but not so much for the commoners:

"The Spy Who (slang here) Me'

When Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me hit big screens in London on Friday, the word "shag" _ British slang for "to copulate" _ got the full-Monty-on-the-marquee treatment.

Film distributor New Line Cinema refused to change the title, though some Brits may blush when they see it. (The S-word raised a miniruckus among some Brits in America after the movie's U.S. premiere.) New Line is keeping mum on its decision in Britain. But when Austin Powers plays elsewhere, the title will have to behaaave, baby.

Despite its affront to stiff-upper-lipped Brits, the "shagged" title fits the hip, if slightly cockeyed story line of the film _ a 1960s-era superspy in pursuit of his purloined libido; it also fits the movie's essence of "cool Britannia." The Spy Who Engaged in Furtive Assignations With Me just doesn't cut it.

And "shag" _ taboo in polite British society _ has seeped into everyday conversations in pubs, and even crept into sitcoms and respected newspapers.

I am highly dubious that the Tampa Times hack who wrote that understands British slang; "Shag" is considered very mild language in pubs, and (apart from the abovementioned Mrs Whitehouse) is not going to raise many eyebrows in a sitcom or newspaper (do people even still read newspapers?).

Oh feck off! Americans are the dog's bollocks when it comes to understanding things in cultures they have no understanding of.

 

[bilby]

Well, keep in mind that Tampa Times article is 27 years old, and my statement about the word "shag" was in reference to its usage back in 1999 at the film's release, not today. The impact of the word has softened since then:

Well, keep in mind that I left the UK 32 years ago at he age of 24, so my assessment pre-dates the film (and that the impact of the word may well have softened since then).

Now, if the title had been "The Spy Who Fucked Me", the Tampa Times would have been about right, and even today there would be much pearl clutching and likely ban on the uncensored title. But "shagged"? Nah.

Even BASA didn't uphold the complaints they got, ruling that the trailer was "unlikely to cause widespread offence" (and back in the '90s they tended to err on the side of prudish). I am curious about how many complaints constitute "a large number"; And as to whether those complaints focused on the word "shagged", or on other things in the trailer - Collins doesn't say, but Google says:

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 310 complaints regarding the advertising campaign (including posters and promos) for the comedy movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. [1, 2]

Complaint Details

• • The Issue: Most of the complaints centered on the use of the word "shag" in the film's title and promotional materials, which some members of the public considered offensive or inappropriate slang for sexual intercourse.
  • The Outcome: The Advertising Standards Authority ultimately took no formal adverse action and did not uphold the complaints, ruling that the advertising would not cause widespread offense. At the time, it drew the second-highest number of complaints for a poster/ad campaign in the UK for that annual reporting period. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Three hundred and ten complaints. From a viewing public in the tens of millions. It wasn't even the highest number of complaints that year.

 

[unapologetic]

I suspect college kids are a tad dumber than the average bear.

Frat bros are dumber than the average college kid.

 

[DBT]

Yet there they are, Lord help us, in college training to be the new generation of leaders in industry, finance and management.

 

[steve_bank]

Lord Of The Flies

Abu Graib
In 2004, it became the center of a massive international scandal when an internal U.S. military investigation and leaked photographs revealed widespread, severe abuse and torture of Iraqi detainees by American military police guards and private contractors.

As I remember it low, level guards got carried away with it ending in brutality. There were psychological experiments tryng to dupicate it.

Abu Ghraib prison - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Politesse]

his strikes me as a lazy journo trope of "make shit up, nobody will know as long as you attribute it to a distant land".

For goddamned sure.

Signed, a Californian.

 

[steve_bank]

Frats in part are about power, as all social organizations are. Self identity.

Young kids with no real world excrescence get into a group of males.

Hazing was common in frats, there were modern deaths. Hazing is supposedly banned.

List of hazing deaths in the United States - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

AI Overview
The psychology behind the Abu Ghraib abuses is most commonly explained through two landmark social psychology experiments rather than a recipe or blueprint to recreate such actions:

Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiments (1960s): Showed that ordinary people will obey an authority figure instructing them to inflict perceived pain or harm.

Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment (1971): Demonstrated how institutional roles, anonymity, and a powerful "bad barrel" (coercive environment) can cause normal individuals to quickly adopt abusive or sadistic behaviors

AI Overview
Yale and Harvard take very different approaches to exclusive campus organizations. Yale is famous for its senior secret societies that own windowless campus buildings called "tombs," while Harvard's closest equivalents are final clubs.

Yale Secret Societies
• Skull and Bones: Founded in 1832 by William Huntington Russell and Alphonso Taft, this is Yale's oldest and most famous senior society. It taps 15 juniors each spring, meets in a windowless building called "The Tomb" on High Street, and counts U.S. presidents (like George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush) among its alumni.

Harvard Final Clubs
• Final Clubs: Harvard does not have a traditional network of secret senior societies like Yale. Instead, exclusive social life centers around final clubs such as the Porcellian Club (founded 1791)

University Stance: Harvard administration has historically discouraged or penalized final club membership, making students in these clubs ineligible for campus leadership roles or varsity captaincies, leading several clubs to shift toward co-ed policies or alternative structures

 

[steve_bank]

Out of curiosity I looked at the money. It is a business.

AI Overview
Yes, Greek fraternities and sororities are often structured as nonprofit corporations or tax-exempt social clubs

AI Overview
Because college fraternities operate as decentralized networks of local student chapters, national umbrella organizations, and independent alumni housing corporations, there is no single consolidated "net worth" figure for the entire Greek system. However, their collective value is immense, primarily driven by a massive real estate footprint worth billions of dollars and substantial annual revenue generated from member dues and endowments

AI Overview
Yes, students who live in a fraternity house do pay rent (or a combined room-and-board charge), though the payment structure depends on the specific chapter and university