Recently, the subject about Hazing and its victims have been the major topic in newspapers, tabloids and magazines for the past months. As of last year, there have been two cases reported about Hazing victims in the Philippines that have been enrolled in prestigious schools. One of them was law student Marc Andrei Marcos of San Beda College and the other one was Marvin Reglos; also a freshman law student of San Beda College.Most of them were young professionals and fresh college students who almost had a bright future ahead of them had it not been killed by the merciless ‘initiations’ of the fraternities and sororities that they have joined. But still, even though students have been warned on the dangerous repercussion in joining any hazing act or initiation, there are still others who are stubborn enough to join - not knowing that it is their life that is hanging on the line.
In an investigation conducted by Dr. Elizabeth Allan and Dr. Mary Madden from the University of Maine in the United States, more than half of the college students in various organizations, clubs and league have experience hazing and nearly half (which estimates of about 47%) of the students have experience hazing prior to coming to college. One of the common practices which were reported by the students are alcohol consumption, humiliation (either psychologically or socially), Isolation, sleep deprivation, and sexual acts among student groups (source wikipedia.com). Some common Hazing methods also include: “Running towards a gauntlet” (an initiation or punishment in which a person is forced to run between two lines of men/women armed with weapons who beat the person as he/she passed) , Drinking of Urine, ‘Watermelon Pleasure’, Hide-and-seek, ‘Happy Corner’, ‘Elephant Walk’, Branding ( another initiation rite in which new members are ‘marked’ in the skin to show belongingness in the group), Pledge Auction, and the most popular, the Paddle. These are just a few to mention the many challenges that are faced by the hazee in an initiation.
What is Hazing and why are there others still interested in joining or performing them? According to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, Hazing [“is the practice of rituals and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group”]. Social groups, such as gangs, sports teams, schools, military units and fraternities are just one of the organizations that practice Hazing. As of the time being, Hazing is usually prohibited by the law due to its effects in the physical, mental, social and psychological state of a person that may be a result of violence and/or public humiliation. In the Philippines, the Anti-Hazing Law or the Republic Act No. 8049 was implemented by former President Fidel V. Ramos on June 7, 1995 to regulate the initiations of fraternities and sororities and to prevent Hazing practices from happening. Nevertheless, other individuals still join it due to reasons of: social identity, protection (in the case of impending danger among rival groups), belongingness and building of solidarity among the members. In a 1959 study observed by Psychologist Robert Cialdini, he cites the framework of consistency and commitment to explain the Hazing phenomena. He also cites that person who undergoes a process of torture and pain to attain something tends to give value to his/her achievement compared to those who experience the same thing but with little effort and did not whatsoever undergo torture or pain. This 1959 study also led to the development of cognitive dissonance theory by Leon Festinger based on the experiments of Aronson and Mills. Both Cialdini and Festinger gave a connection that hazing somewhat gives the feeling of affiliation from the hazee because of its nerve-racking and tense nature of the experience.
The nature of hazing itself has its advantages and disadvantages when it comes to the society. One of it advantages, acccording to some, is that Hazing is a form of a character-building activity to test the person's dignity, loyalty, trust, value of discipline and sense of honor. It also gives you the feeling of belongingness, emotional stability, physical endurance and psychological balance in preparing for the big challenges in life. But of course, there are still disadvantages that might cause you life. If the person is not capable of tolerating any pain, then he/she might as well die in the process. Plus, that person might end up being traumatized by the horrible initiations that he/she might be forced to do. It might also cost them their dignity and rights. The results may be humilitation towards the society.
But still Hazing can be prevented if hazers might come into a different perspective in accepting new members of their clubs. An alternative initation to Hazing is doing community watch or communtiy service that might help the new members to understand the true meaning of unity, belongingness, self-discipline, sense of honor, trust and most of all a true public servant. But still it is up to the hazers and the hazee to decide which way they want to certain things. Either they do it the hard way or they do it in a peaceful and productive way. The choice is yours.
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