Hazing - Methods

Methods

Before the Great Depression, U.S. hazing achieved an art form status amongst benevolent fraternities such as the Mooses and the Freemasons. The DeMoulin Catalog is a catalog of many hazing implements used, most famously the electric carpet. In many cases, the hardest abuse is usually only enacted for a photograph (sometimes even posted on the Internet) or video. Reported hazing activities can involve all types of ridicule and humiliation within the group or in public – many of which could easily be considered abusive if a candidate were not a consenting adult – while others are quite innocent, akin to pranks. Spanking is done mainly in the form of paddling among fraternities, sororities and similar (e.g., athletic) clubs, sometimes over a lap, a knee, furniture or a pillow (pile), but mostly with the victim "assuming the position," i.e., simply bending over forward. A variation of this (also as punishment) is trading licks. This practice is also used in the military (where a new round of hazing can follow a promotion, etc.). Alternative modes (including bare-buttock paddling, strapping and switching, as well as mock forms of antiquated forms of physical punishments such as stocks, walking the plank and running the gauntlet) have been reported in the US and other countries, even though all hazing is officially illegal in many states.

The hazee may be humiliated by being hosed or by sprinkler, buckets or hoses; covered with dirt or with (sometimes rotten) food, even urinated upon. Olive or baby oil may be used to "show off" the bare skin, for wrestling or just slipperiness, e.g., to complicate pole climbing. Cleaning may be limited to a dive into water, hosing down or even paddling the worst off. They may have to do tedious cleaning including swabbing the decks, cleaning the toilets with a toothbrush. In fraternities, pledges often must clean up a mess intentionally made by brothers which can include fecal matter, urine, and dead animals.

Servitude such as waiting on others (as at fraternity parties) or various other forms of housework, often with tests of obedience. In some cases, the hazee may be made to eat raw eggs, peppers, hot sauce, or drink too much alcohol. Some hazing even includes eating or drinking vile things such as bugs or rotting food.

The hazee may have to wear an imposed piece of clothing, outfit, item or something else worn by the victim in a way that would bring negative attention to the wearer. Examples include a uniform (e.g. toga, especially in Greek societies); a leash and/or collar (also associated with SM bondage); infantile and other humiliating dress and attire (e.g., diapers, underwear (sometimes of the opposite sex; sometimes wet to make it see-through) or a condom on the head); cross-dress or fake breasts; wearing just a box or a barrel; bunny costume; a phallus or dildo, even in explicitly homo-erotic poses. In some cases, the hazee may be completely or partially in a state of nudity (with or without cupping of the genitals). A variation in use in Germany is the "clothesline", i.e., contributing garments (usually remaining decent, e.g., in swim suit) to form a long line. In Sweden, gymnasium (high school, 16 to 19 years old) and university also use the clothes line. Girls strip to their thong, boys strip to their underwear.

Markings may also be made on clothing or bare skin. They are painted, written, tattooed or shaved on, sometimes collectively forming a message (one letter, syllable or word on each pledge) or may receive tarring and feathering (or rather a mock version using some glue) or branding. If half-naked, topless or with bare feet, the victim may be subjected to thorough and prolonged tickling until helpless with laughter, sometimes in order to extract a promise or pledge to the group, sometimes merely to elicit a confession of ticklishness.

Submission to the seniors is common. Abject "etiquette" required of pledges or subordinates may include prostration, kneeling, literal groveling, kissing/licking/washing/worshipping/massaging/rubbing/sucking/ body parts usually genitalia.

Other physical feats may be required, such as calisthenics and other physical tests, such as push-ups (sometimes a hazer keeps his/her foot on the pledges' back), jumping jacks (under near impossible conditions), sit-ups, mud wrestling, forming a human pyramid or dog piling, climbing a greased pole, skinny diving, leap-frog, human wheel-barrow etc., often with some twist. Exposure to the elements may be required, such as swimming or diving in cold water or snow. Degrading positions and tasks include being locked up in a cage or barrel, commanded to move on all fours or crawl on their bellies, eat or fetch "doggy style", kiss or urinate in public. The Elephant Walk, a process where pledges grab one another's genitalia and march to the beat of the Pink Panther, is also a common form of hazing.

Orientation tests may be held, such as abandoning pledges far or fettered without transport, in the dark and/or in a public place. Dares include jumping from some height (bungee or in water), stealing from police or rival teams and obedience. Blood pinning among military aviators (and many other elite groups) to celebrate becoming new pilots by piercing their chests with the sharp pins of aviator wings.

On his first crossing the equator in military and commercial navigation, each "pollywog" (sailor; sometimes even passengers) is subjected to a series of endurances usually including running and/or crawling a gauntlet of abuse (soiling, paddling, etc.) and various scenes supposedly situated at King Neptune's court. A pledge auction is a variation on the slave auction, where people bid on the paraded (often exposed) pledges. It is held either as an open fund raiser where the general public (or just an invited sorority) can bid, or internally to decide which brother can impose his fantasies on which pledge. Sometimes, male pledges' prices depend on how little clothing the boy is allowed to wear. The "slaves" must do whatever the master orders, such as bringing drinks or preparing food.

The Happy Corner, known in Taiwan as aluba ("hitting the tree"), Hong Kong (as corning or being corned), and Norway (as "stolping", "poling" or "gjelling", "gelding"), involves rubbing a lifted boy's groin against a tree or pole. Treeing is binding up with ropes, chains, handcuffs or other means, to a tree or pole, or in some variations on a cross (mock crucifixion) wearing only a loincloth, underwear, a diapers, or sometimes even nothing at all, to be helplessly abused and/or bound.

The term tunnel seems to have various meanings in different traditions, such as a spanking tunnel or belt-line. It may be appealing as a symbolic rite of passage: one goes in as a rookie and emerges as something of a brother or teammate.

Hazing also occurs for apprentices in some trades. In printing, it consists of applying bronze blue to the apprentice's penis and testicles, a color made by mixing black printers ink and dark blue printers ink, which takes a long time to wash off. Similarly, mechanics get their groins smeared with old dirty grease.