By Michael Haag | Sports Writer
Have you tried attending a fraternity party only to find out that you are not allowed in because of gender ratios? The point of gender ratios is to maintain a higher number of women than men, often to the “benefit” of fraternity members. Doing this lessens their competition and gives them the “pick of the litter.” From what I have seen, fraternities often implement ratios as high as 5:1. The way I look at it, this is a disrespectful approach and is completely unethical.
Sometimes all you want to do on a weekend is let loose and enjoy the party that everyone is talking about, but that simply isn’t a possibility. Quite honestly, it’s not your fault, and there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s pretty common to see gender ratios at fraternity parties on campus, as it’s essentially the “norm.”
Having a group of friends helps, but if you are a guy with a bunch of other guy friends, then the likelihood of getting into one of these restricted parties is slim-to-none. In some instances, this causes guys to bring girls into their friend groups, which is good in theory; however, a more natural integration would be better — not just becoming friends with girls to be able to get into parties that have gender ratios.
Fraternities have every right to limit who they let into their parties. I am not disputing that. The ethics of gender ratios are what bother me the most, as gender ratios propose an objectifiable belief imposed on women. Looking at it from the outside, I feel as if gender ratios are a way for fraternity members to “get more girls” without the concern of competition. Nonetheless, this may not be the case, and I may be ignorant to some other reasoning behind it, such as safety
Amid gender ratios and even some allegations against certain fraternities, tons of people are still out and about attending parties. The old rule of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” can be applied to the logic of gender ratios. Fraternity parties aren’t losing attendees, and they’re getting more women than men, making it a win-win for the hosts.
Personally, I do not party willingly. Gender ratios do not affect me, but I know many people who would be directly impacted by them. While gender ratios are unethical and disrespectful, fraternities do what they want to ensure the environment of their choosing, whether that’s female- or male-dominated. They have every right to do what they want, but it is up to us to make choices on how we react in order to change what they do or create something better.
