The Frat Boy, Dissected

Despite four years of partying alongside them, it is now, six months post-graduation, that I finally understand what defines a fraternity brother. Throughout college I threw around generalizations about "frat boys", most of them negative, without really understanding why this was the case. Only to add to my confusion, many of my best friends were in fraternities, yet displayed none of the characteristics assigned to their collective group. How could I love these guys so much individually, yet despise everything they stand for as a group?

Turns out the individual-to-group transition was the answer. Alone, a frat boy is merely a boy. Your lovable male friend. Put two together, and a sense of competition (be it in drinking, sports, sex, etc.) begins to creep in, creating a slow escalation of unhealthy and/or immoral habits, but they retain most of their individuality. At three, they egg each other on, and the competitive streak spikes as three individuals slowly blend into one entity. At four, critical mass is reached, and the group morphs into an unstoppable, self-destructive machine. Testosterone is raging, everything is a competition, and once a suggestion is made ("lets take 3 shots each!"), it will never be turned down for fear of looking weak. This pattern of behavioral change is most commonly seen in riots, and we call it mob mentality.

There we go, stereotypical "frat boys" are nothing more than normally civil, moral people subjected to mob mentality. And I can't blame them. I am no less susceptible to this behavioral change than any one of them. After only a week of cohabitation with fraternity brothers, I noticed obscenities creeping into my language, and felt myself reaching for beers at 2 pm, and that's without ever experiencing hazing. While I can't promise not to use the term "frat boy" disparagingly ever again, I will at least acknowledge that individually, most of them are fun, decent people.