Tamara Imam – Copy Editor
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Sarah Faulkner – News Editor
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On Feb. 2, UAB’s Tau Kappa Epsilon drew criticism as a result of the name of the theme of one of their initiation party, “CEOs and Corporate Hoes.”
After Austin Stone, a member of TKE, posted on the party’s Facebook page that the party’s name had changed to “CEOs and Corporate Woes,” the members of the UAB chapter responded with comments such as “Corporate woes… Well this won’t be fun anymore” and “As a proud member of Women for Political Progress at UAB THIS IS A WIN FOR WOMEN EVERYWHERE,” both of which were deleted later.
The direct targeting of UAB’s WPP led to further criticism and the probation of several TKE members, who are currently undergoing “sensitivity training,” according to the response TKE issued to WPP in light of the events.
Liz Reid, the vice president of UAB’s WPP, posted the TKE Facebook comment thread on WPP’s Facebook page with the caption: “We still have a lot of work to do just on our campus. For those of you that don’t know, TKE’s Initiation Party’s original theme was ‘Corporate CEOs and Corporate Hoes.’ They were instructed to change it and now all these boys are upset about the change. And we, as an organization, were even mocked.”
“I took [TKE’s mockery of WPP] as a target on women in general,” an anonymous WPP member said. “I think those brothers were making fun of women and feminists everywhere. Although the original theme name for the party and the comments that came after the name was changed did aggravate me, it wasn’t until WPP’s name was dropped and mocked that I felt like I had to speak up—And I did. I’ve been laughed at since because of me trying to stand up to them and speak for all women and feminists, but that doesn’t bother me. Those members laugh because they don’t know how to respond to a woman who doesn’t mind facing them head on.”
TKE has since apologized to WPP and proposed “hosting a gender equality open forum session on campus with TKE and WPP,” in their letter to WPP. The forum would address the party theme and the discourse surrounding it, as well as “highlight things [TKE] learned recently such as the ‘pink tax’, where the same exact product costs more for women than men.”
“I feel that TKE’s apology has been adequate, mainly because of the speed of their reply and the degree to which they went to rectify their mistake,” Dora Lajosbanyai, the president of WPP, said. “They placed the members responsible for the comments on probation, removed any theme from their initiation party, and proposed to work with WPP at UAB on a gender equality forum. We are going to use this forum as an opportunity to educate the public and members of TKE on women’s issues, which is consistent with our mission.”
The general response to the incidences was that the actions of a few are not representative of fraternities and sororities as a whole.
“As an alumna of a UAB sorority I am disappointed more than anything,” Courtney Roberts, a public relations graduate student and Alpha Xi Delta alum, said. “People trying to paint us as horrible, racist, stupid people who do nothing but party in general have continually attacked Greek life. So, it’s sad to see actions on my own campus that feed into those stereotypes that we try to combat. I definitely don’t think these actions are representative of the entire fraternity. Members of TKE reached out to WPP immediately after everything happened and began working to correct what had been done. I have never been to any party with the title of CEOs and Corporate Hoes—and it was really disappointing to see so many young women defending that as a theme.”
However, these incidences brought up questions about the culture of misogyny by UAB fraternities in general.
“[Fraternity parties] most definitely [promote misogyny]. They put a lot of alcohol (usually Everclear vodka) in their hunch punch because they want girls to get drunk,” the anonymous WPP member said. “They encourage women to dress promiscuous by having parties with a theme that typically insinuate women to dress more provocatively. I don’t want to sound like a prude, because I fully believe a woman has the right to get drunk, dress how she wants, and dance with who she wants how she wants… but at the same time, it’s obvious fraternities promote this kind of behavior for their own benefit of getting laid. I want to stress that not all brothers in fraternities are like this: but fraternities in general (I believe) are.”
This sentiment was not shared by everyone, though.
“I have been to numerous fraternity parties as an undergraduate. My overall experience at them has always been positive,” Roberts said. “[…] I think some fraternities do intentionally promote misogyny, but none of the ones at UAB, even considering some of the bad apples who made fun of WPP. The UAB Greek community is so unique from other campuses. There is a lot of diversity within each of the organizations, which you would never see on a big SEC campus, such as UA.”
Roberts went on to explain what she believed was a factor in the theme name and the comments by TKE members.
“I don’t necessarily think stuff like this gets looked over, but it continues to happen because sometimes both fraternity and sorority members get wrapped up in the ‘Greek’ world, which is completely different from the real world,” Roberts said. “In Greek world if you say something stupid someone might tell you you’re an idiot but nothing more. When comments like the ones from [Feb. 2] get made, people sometimes forget that we live in the real world where there are potential consequences for your actions.”
