In response to the article that was published by the Iowa State Daily regarding the recommended garb for those who wish to rush and potentially join a fraternity, I, as a member of the greek community, am disgusted by the stereotypes that we commit ourselves to. At the same time, I am very proud to be part of my house and the brothers I have gained are my brothers for life.

I think I speak for at least some of the greek community when I say that we sometimes live double lives. Of course Sperrys and khakis are acceptable and they have their place within anyone’s wardrobe. I will also openly admit that I have never owned a pair of Sperrys, but I do own a pair of non-slip leather shoes. In certain contexts, clothing styles can look outright pompous and gratuitous.

Take a look at yourself and question everything about yourself for just a minute. What’s your reason to choose the clothes you wear everyday? It has never been my style to hop onto a bandwagon of any fashion trend. Partly because I hate looking like everyone else and partly because dressing like a stereotypical fraternity man in a Ralph Lauren polo, brand-name khaki shorts and Sperrys does not fit my personality. I hail from the San Francisco Bay Area where dressing casual for nearly every occasion, except a wedding, job interview or court case, is acceptable.

If the greek community would like to cultivate a culture of leadership it should look at itself in the mirror and try to determine if it’s creating a standard or a stereotype. Everyone dresses similarly because they think that it looks good and it is cool. The military uses the same uniform for everyone as a psychological tool to bring everyone together. How can fraternities prove that they are different from others if their style of dress shows exactly the opposite? 

If you’re going to dress in the stereotypical frat style, you better act like the most gentlemanly gentleman that have ever walked the earth. The frat uniform is not an excuse to be arrogant and ignorant. Rather it is an excuse to be friendly and formal.

I am inclined to call it the “frat-bag” look, a combination of fraternity and something else I can’t put in the paper. For example, one can derive the “frat-bag” coefficient by taking the height of a fraternity member’s popped collar divided by the angle of their visor and raising that to the power of the number of times their fraternity’s letters appear on their person. 

Using Iowa State’s super computers, this value can be determined with exceeding accuracy. An accuracy deemed worthy for the inflated ego of an average frat-bag. I will receive a lot of flak for this opinion piece, but it’s my opinion. Don’t be afraid to buck trends and go against the grain.