Opinion: It’s Humiliating, It’s Hazing
Photo Credit: Eric Evans
M-A water polo ball
Whacking people with pool noodles is nothing extreme; in fact, on the M-A water polo team mistreatment of freshmen has become tradition. Yet the upperclassmen’s nonviolent actions also represent an institution that encourages inequality.
Although it is considered a rite of passage for the incoming freshmen, the team’s initiation is a physical demonstration of upper-class superiority – proof to the younger teammates that they are considered worthless. Being beaten with pool noodles is demeaning. Eventually someone is going to feel hurt. No matter how many freshmen you talk to, nobody is going to admit that they felt harassed, and indeed all said they felt fine with what happened, but how can you not feel humiliated by being forced to run in water wings?
A parent noticed the hazing and contacted the administration, hoping that other adults would take charge of the situation and end the unfair treatment. A divisive scandal resulted, causing conflict among team members, but surprisingly afterwards the issue was never addressed again. The upperclassmen’s shameful actions should not be ignored.
The issue is that institutions like these are cyclical. Hazing encourages more hazing. Now that these freshmen have been “initiated” onto the water polo team, they view the seniors as powerful, as people to fear, as presidents of the club. When they finally become seniors themselves, they will naturally feel themselves to be the most powerful. The seniors continue to feel powerful and the freshmen remain inferior, a poor team dynamic.
Ironically, the only ones who can stop the unfair treatment of freshmen are the upperclassmen. Unless the seniors, juniors and sophomores take action, the mistreatment of freshmen will always be part of water polo. No matter your opinion, realize that the freshmen will remember the thwack of wet pool noodles long after everyone else has forgotten about this incident. There are better ways of welcoming newcomers onto a team, and the current tradition is certainly anything but welcoming.
To hear the other side, read “Senior’s Perspective: Tradition and Rite of Passage”
Hazing is defined as “Hazing activities are generally considered to be: physically abusive, hazardous, and/or sexually violating. The specific behaviors or activities within these categories vary widely among participants, groups and settings. While alcohol use is common in many types of hazing, other examples of typical hazing practices include: personal servitude; sleep deprivation and restrictions on personal hygiene; yelling, swearing and insulting new members/rookies; being forced to wear embarrassing or humiliating attire in public; consumption of vile substances or smearing of such on one’s skin; brandings; physical beatings; binge drinking and drinking games; sexual simulation and sexual assault.
Just because the mom of the complainer who wasn’t even there called it hazing doesn’t make it so. “Unfair treatment?” The only freshmen consulted said it was fun.
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Sam Sexton Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
You did read her valid point about how Freshmen wouldn’t admit they were hurt, right? Nobody’s gonna say “You guys hazed me, how mean! I’m telling my parents!” Of course they’re gonna say “no big deal”, if they didn’t they’d be picked on more. She also points out that this hazing is relatively mild, but that the principal itself-that Freshmen should be picked on-is what bothers her.
By the way, don’t use wikipedia as a source, I just changed the definition of hazing to include pool noodles, so your argument is now meaningless http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazing . The actual definition of hazing is, according to Merriam-Webster, “an initiation process involving harassment”.
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Sam Sexton Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Wiki guys removed my definition, now viewable in history at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hazing&oldid=321138251
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“Hazing is a ritualistic test and a task involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a gang, club, military organization or other group.”
its definitely harassment….even if its not serious, its not nice and thats the point.
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Can we even go as far to say that this behavior (seniors playfully hitting freshmen with foam noodles) was considered harassment, let alone hazing?
The mother’s complaint should have never been made public, let alone been paid much attention to. What ramifications have been given to the seniors by the school, since M-A strictly prohibits hazing? I think we need to move past this incident.
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Sam Sexton Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Would you volunteer to be hit with foam noodles and run in water wings? If you said no, that’s because it’s something you don’t want to do. Being forced to do something you don’t want to do could be considered harassment. Your points about making the mother’s complaints public are more debatable, but don’t act like this isn’t hazing. It’s mild hazing, but still hazing.
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Hey, I’m a little late on the response… haha. But what you forgot to include was in order to be accepted onto the boys waterpolo team, i think i would want to be hit with pool noodles and run in water wings. After this experience, the freshman were able to share stories with, not only each other, but also with other members of the team. This, I believe, is what made the experience more tolerable, and more fun. Waterpolo is also considered a very agressive game, and being on the waterpolo team and having gone through this experience as a freshman as well, I can assure you that this may have been one of the least painful things that has happened to me.
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I’m really glad that you felt that way. The last thing I want to hear is that freshmen are being abused (okay, maybe not abused, but made to do things they don’t want to do, and being upset etc). Thats a good way of thinking about it- sharing experiences, I mean. Although I still think that there is probably a better way to share an experience without the seniors’ need to dominate.
One of the things I find so upsetting about some sports is that you need to be aggressive, even violent sometimes. I just don’t see how that can be fun. Maybe its about getting pumped up? But I’ve seen people with black eyes, scratches- all kinds of injuries from sports- and I just don’t see how the ends justify the means. How is that fun? Similarly, I could see how this sort of initiation is made more “tolerable” by talking and sharing the experience. But wouldn’t you rather do something that is actually fun, and not just tolerable, that you could share?
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just a typical example of how our society is growing weaker, we need to toughen up
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