I Never Thought I'd Say This, But These Frat Boys Are My Heroes
This video of a Chicago fraternity "welcoming" the evil Westboro Baptist "god hates fags" protesters to their college earlier this week with a song, dance, and "no tolerance for intolerance" banner is basically the most heartwarming fucking thing I've ever seen in my entire life:
This YouTube commenter basically said it:
Sure, their dance was a little over the top and stereotype-enforcing, but the banner makes their intentions clear. (And they're frat boys. This is huge progress.) You know how Keith Olbermann has Worst Person In The World? This week, the dudes of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity at the University Of Chicago are the Best People In The World. How many folks need to surprise themselves by responding to the Westboro Baptist hate mongers with a new passion for gay rights before Fred Phelps shuts it down? Westboro Baptist is the ultimate lesson in accidental satire. These are amazing times we're living in right now. Unbelievable.
Posted by Lindsay at 1:00 PM in Good Idea Jeans
Tags: Frat Boys | Fred Phelps | Westboro Baptist Church
That house shares a wall with a seminary, btw... also it's telling that more people showed up for this stunt than for the average ADP party. UofC w00t.
Score = -4
As a Chicago res with friends who attend U of C, I think it should be noted that the campus is full of supernerds so I don't think this captures the attitudes of the usual Nattie Light swilling, date raping frat masses. That said, it's still pretty cool.
Are we living in the post-Bromance era?
Score = 3
also. i'm more impressed with the YT commenters than with the Frat Boys. ok. equally impressed. Obama has brought change to America!
Score = 11
This is my second favorite WBC protest, next to the Chasers War On Everything guy hitting on a WBC guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8cN2pB3MCE
Score = 2
Thanks, Caroline! That was great!
Score = 1
how do you say..... kegstand?!?!
Score = 4
MY FRIEND IS IN THAT VIDEO!!!!
Chicago is awesome like that.
Score = 8
Can we all kick in and throw that frat a kegger?
Score = 11
Did anyone else see the WBC assholes walking in time to the song?
Score = 4
If you're not being ironic with this thumbnail pic of yours, it's been had my most favorite.
Score = 2
wait, what? that's actually me, all dressed up with professional lighting and special software that clears up all my acne and everything. that's the photo in my yearbook.
Score = 1
That's great, that's exactly what I wanted it to be. I didn't want it to be some fat ass dude with a beard who thinks he's Seth Rogan using a picture of a guy in a tie because he thinks it's ironicly funny. I guess what I'm saying is, I'm pregnant.
Score = 5
The message was coming from the right place, but come on, should my heart be warmed because they abandoned their machismo for an afternoon and donned construction worker outfits and cut off jeans while listening to bad disco(because get it, they're gay! VISUAL LEARNING).
Should they really be applauded for purveying outdated, reductionist approaches to matters that stem way beyond their literal minded understanding human rights and of oppression in America.
This is just Black Face under different pretenses.
Score = -31
Girl with curious hair......you're a faggot. And I say that as a gay man.
Score = 17
Nice, thanks for clearing that up...I guess I should go put on my cut offs and go watch sex and the city with my girlfriends.
Score = -20
Somehow I think WBC would feel more comfortable around a group of non-stereotyped, actually gay men than these frat boys in village people suits. Also, it probably wouldn't have drawn the crowd/raised money/petition signatures, etc. So, the stereotyping is a hell of a lot more effective.
Actually, you could say it goes both ways, if I'm a gay hating religious fanatic from a tiny town, I probably won't be as effective at trying to shame gays into straightening up if I appear like a normal poor farmer. But if I get a crazy get up and lots offensive signs... well maybe its not effective but it ends up on the news!
Score = 3
Girl W/Curious hair: why are you lesbians so GRUMPY? Put down the antiquated Marxist/Feminist propaganda you are assigned to read in class, form your own ideas, and allow yourself to be happy.
Straight guys and gay guys, UNITE and PARTY!!! (No invites for grumpy lesbians)
Score = 6
Your comment doesn't really attend to the video. For all you know, they are gay students, making their display sincere and not mocking in the manor of blackface. You're just saying things to make people think you know things. And if you feel contempt for people when people do good things, then you are broken. Sometimes, the message goes beyond the medium.
Score = 15
I'm not denying the value of the message, nor am I saying that the fraternity went out of their way to make a mockery of queer culture, but that is part of the problem--that we have this specific depiction of what "gayness" is perceived to be so engraved into our skulls; the cut off shorts, the campy music etc etc.
Clearly there has been a paradigm shift regarding tolerance and acceptance, I'm not denying that either, but really, is this supposed to be impressive due to the sheer cognitive dissonance of frat boys supporting homosexual rights? Basic human rights? Perhaps, and even if that really is all there is to this video, it's still patronizing. If this were any other minority in America, and these students went out and supported them with the same good intentions, but refracted through whatever distorted cultural perception we have of that minority (think of all of those terrible cliches associated with Chicanos, or African Americans) there would be outrage. There is no difference between them, oppression is oppression, human rights are being denied. But I guess homosexuals should just take what they can get, frat boy support may spill over into other markets such as Hollister employees.
I know, "relax"
Score = -4
Wrong again, its not that its funny because its frat boys dressing as gay dudes. frat boys do that all the time and it isn't funny. And its not that we necessarily have an image of homosexuals burned into our brains. Its that WBC almost certainly DOES have that image burned into their brain, thus making this whole thing not merely a base play on the image of gay men, but in fact a slightly more sophisticated attack on WBC's sensibilities.
Score = 6
No no no, Girl with Curious Hair is right. They should have nixed the cut-offs and disco and simply done what we can all agree, without controversy, that real gay men actually do: blow each other. THAT would he a real show of solidarity. Also I would have watched the video more than once.
Score = -1
I stand corrected. MarkyBob is right. Had only the counter protest happened on in the wee hours of a Thursday morning after the Apha Delt bar night, this might have actually happened.
Another thought, this sounds exactly like an untaped episode of "When Keepin' it Real Goes Wrong' with Dave Chappelle.
Score = -1
Can't we just leave it at your opening thought -- "The message was coming from the right place"? Isn't that really what matters?
I mean, come on -- I'm a gay man, and I think what these frat guys are doing here is 100-percent cool. Surely the queer community has come far enough now that we can afford to laugh at ourselves among friends -- and it's clear that these guys are our friends.
Thanks again, Alpha Delta Phi!
Score = 9
Chicago is KILLING it!
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I'm actually in this frat (though not in the video, I was in class and got there late, I'm in some pictures some newspapers took, though), but I'm thrilled to see it on the site. Thanks for mentioning us, we were happy to make those hate-mongers look like retards.
Score = 23
Retards eh? Keep it classy.
Score = -1
maybe I'm confusing Uof C with some other university, but I'm pretty sure even fratboys know what a stereotype is and that the reason they're probably doing it is more a joke on WBC than against gay people. Did you complain when the group of gay men in Michael Moore's film did the same exact thing? c'mon now.
Score = 9
Though I'd be far more surprised if the fratboys in this video were students at a less enlightened university (a football theme park, if you will), this is indeed heartwarming.
Still, Fred Phelps and his ilk get off on knowing that people are upset by their message. When you protest them, you're playing right into their hands and delivering them the result they want. WBC exists to piss people off. If they were solely concerned with homosexuality, they wouldn't pull the shit they do at soldiers' funerals. They want to sow hatred and negativity into every American who isn't one of them. By getting pissed off and letting them know it, you validate them. It's kind of like being shocked by Marilyn Manson, or getting upset at Ann Coulter for calling John Edwards a fag. Why give them the satisfaction?
Score = 0
Sarah, I'll have you know the U of Chicago has won the Big Ten football championship lots of times! (Granted, the last one was 1924, but still. :-) )
Score = 0
yah, because it takes so much courage to stand up to 5 WBC protesters running past the crowd while being completely silent and wearing ski masks. This church feeds off of publicity and public outrage and would have gone away a long time ago if the media stopped feeding them. It's like having ann colter on your show to argue about her latest offensive book, you are only making the problem worse while trying to look all rightous. All these frat boys did was put on a funny skit for the entire campus. I dont doubt that they are scincere about gay rights, but I think this was more about getting attention and making people laugh than anything else.
Score = -6
Westboro stood in front of the frat's neighbors for half an hour. They were taking attention away from Westboro, while also mocking them - not trying to give attention to them (considering that hundreds of students had already gathered to give Westboro attention).
Score = 8
You can complain about people giving WBC attention by protesting but you know what? If nobody did then everybody would be freaking out thinking they just accepted them being there. Maybe the frat boys were being a little showy but at least they cared enough to do it. That can't be said for a lot of people in this country.
Score = 10
You guys, this is a church made up almost entirely of Fred Phelps's family members. I say this because no amount of attention (great or small) will deter these people from their beliefs and their entire family. Nothing anybody does at any time, no matter how eloquent or thought-out, will make these people stop hating "fags" or "dykes" or anything associated with homosexuality. Nothing! They will continue to hate them even if a gay person cures cancer and saves one of their lives. You can count on it. So protest them and let the world know you think they're fucked.
Score = 6
So your argument is that if they'd come out of the frat house to, say, some mellow jazz, and had engaged in non-stereotyped behavior like, for example, playing chess, then that would've been a more effective way of getting their point across?
Score = 6
The really beautiful thing about this was that the Wesboro people stopped being the point. It was just really nice to see so many people on this campus coming together and feeling good about eachother. If Westboro was trying to piss people off, the whole counter protest destroyed them, because I think everyone had fun and left with fond memories.
Score = 8
In about ten years from now, Girl with Curious Hair will wake up with a 'doh' and realize the irony of her complaint. She just reinforced the stereotype of Lesbians as intellectually limited to viewing all the unpredictable wonders of humanity and human behaviour through the myopic lens of humorless 'Womyn Studies 101" ideology. Stereotypical, predicted statements by a real gay/lesbian serves to reinforce stereotypes far more than depictions by a group that are assumed to be clueless and patronizing. Excuse me, I meant are stereotyped as clueless and patronizing.
Bob in D.C.
Score = 9
Yo, GWCH, I live in San Francisco. That's what gay is, homes. Get used to it. It's not JUST that, but it's a lot of that.
Score = 2
What were they supposed to do in their few seconds, redecorate or work on an AIDS quilt? They made their support known in words (the banner) and their actions (cheesy disco dancing) in a way that made WBC an afterthought. AWESOME! Regarding an earlier post about blackface, google 'zulu parade'. Zulu just celebrated 100 years and is mixed race (but mostly black) in blackface. Mockery comes in many forms and no need be insulted when it is done WELL and done with the right heart.
Bravo guys. Sending a keg over now.
Score = 5
GWCH, the problem with your attitude is that it shows you'd rather fight a culture war against frat boys and their laddish culture than find a way to let them embrace values of tolerance and inclusion while still remaining more or less who they are: lads.
The world will not embrace your cultural norms en toto. Nor will it embrace theirs, nor mine. People will act in ways that are obnoxious and abrasive to other people as long as they live: one person's funny will always be someone else's rude and insulting.
The challenge is to accept this, embrace this, and still create a world that we can all share. That is the challenge of peaceful coexistence, of real diversity. You are not rising to that challenge. These frat boys are.
Score = 8
As U of C alumnus, and a proud Alpha Delta Phi brother from the unenlightened 80s, I am glad our core values are still in place: irony, humor, and taking the piss out of the sanctimonious and self-important. Remember, we are a literary society after all, not a fraternity. Xaipe! You guys rock!
John C.
Score = 1
lol...Calabrese, you numbnuts You guys, Malone, Whitey, Birch...nothing but trouble.
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