Review: Fraternity: An Inside Look at a Year of College Boys Becoming Men
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
🔎Book Review🔎
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I read Robbins’ Pledged back in 2010 and I gave it a 1 star. Ironically, in June of 2010, I had just graduated High School and wasn’t planning on joining a sorority. Less than 6 months later, I had joined, and now, I’m a national volunteer and my professional job is a Fraternity and Sorority Adviser for a University.
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I don’t remember why I gave Pledged a 1 star back in the day, but I do remember what sticks in my mind now- a woman pretending to be an undergrad so she could go through recruitment, the author seeming to search out scenarios that confirmed biases, and then revealing sorority ritual secrets, simply because she could.
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When I saw that Robbins had a follow-up coming out, I was intrigued. I knew it would be big news in my field and I was curious what perspective 15 years had given Robbins. The answer? A lot. Robbins clearly says that the book is not pro- or anti- fraternity, but is pro-student. Robbins has really balanced the good and bad of the fraternal landscape by focusing on two very different chapters.
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The narrative was both familiar and eye-opening. Jake reflecting on not getting a bid from his dad’s fraternity and wondering how he was judged unworthy through conversations over the course of an hour hit home. So did thoughts about the tier systems and the damaging role they play- perpetuated both by the community and those outside it. Robbins has done a lot of research and her ruminations on masculinity are masterful.
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I wish that Robbins had disguised the identity of the chapters better in order to protect her subjects. This time she didn’t include the names of the fraternities when she told their secrets, but you can easily Google them and find out. And she made a key mistake with providing info about one of her campuses that reveals which it is to anyone who knows the industry.
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Alexandra Robbins has created a well-balanced, insightful, and emotional look into college men and fraternities- I only wish she had given college women and sororities the same treatment 15 years ago.
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