<p>How is Northwestern in terms of acceptance of its gay students? And would you say the students are accepting as well as the school itself?</p>
<p>According to this gay guy I know, Northwestern is very accepting and that anything that discourages overt expression of sexual identity is more due to class bias than homophobia (and class bias is not always bad depending on your personal standards). What he means is that PDA of any kind (straight or gay) is generally frowned upon because it’s a violation of an elite social standard. The elite very much like the fact that they’ve overcome the human instinct to seek attention and somebody who has not is seen as somebody desperate for social approval. Social science majors, however, generally understand that these people simply grew up under a different culture or feel marginalized by society in some way (e.g. if they’re ugly and thus seek attention through other means). For the same reason, you will not see people wearing high heels for no reason, shirts with prints on them that cry out “oh look at me! I’m so witty! look at what my shirt says”, Greek letters (at least not too often or when there’s no reason to do so, e.g. outside pre-rush/rush week), prep school apparel (e.g. shirts with “Phillips Academy” or “Choate Rosemary Hall”), political wear (“Oh look I’m black but I support McCain… isn’t that so uncommon? I’m so unique”), etc. Likewise, you will not encounter many pseudo-intellectuals who like to name-drop or pretentious hipsters (those who artificially soften their demeanor, make their favorite music lists as obscure as possible, act all emo).</p>
<p>When outsiders visit NU and do those things, they are ignored and that’s why they will come away thinking NU students are snobby. In reality, it’s simply because they failed to get the attention they wanted. It’s our tendency to want to be neutral that we get dismissed as vanilla, but in reality, vanilla is a reflection of a socially conscious decision to preserve the private space. And I understand that’s a Western standard, but hey, I like it and I at least know the history behind it before being content about liking it. Western does not always have to be bad.</p>
<p>Anyway, back to the gay issue. I doubt you will not find more than a handful of people here who are truly homophobic, at least on an individual level. When you encounter somebody you think is homophobic, it might just be that he/she’s against showy, insecure behavior.</p>
<p>One more thing, the gays here understand the danger of identity politics and that thinking of one’s self primarily in terms of one’s sexuality (or insert identity group here) threatens the full expression of “identity” (which is inherently fluid) and ultimately weakens one’s humanity. For this reason, the gays here are widely dispersed, and probably only a minority are part of the gay club.</p>
<p>“Greek letters (at least not too often or when there’s no reason to do so, e.g. outside pre-rush/rush week)”</p>
<p>Everything else is spot on, but really Bre-buff, trying walking in the north quads or looking around intro to soc/ intro to psych some time. We wear our letters ALL the time. But otherwise a very interesting, novel, and I think spot on assessment.</p>
<p>I live up north actually… weird that I haven’t noticed anything. I noticed it a lot more in the south with sorority girls.</p>
<p>are gay students welcome in the greek system? and even if they’re “welcome,” do you think it would be somewhat uncomfortable?</p>
<p>generally, yes. according to my gay friend, though, the gays who join that scene are usually ones who are secretly attracted to the guys there and want to be around them for various reasons. one is to bring them into their drama. for example, just as gay guys care what girls think of them (e.g. they will get jealous if a girl finds another guy more attractive than them even if they have no interest in the girl sexually), straight guys also care about whether gay guys find them more attractive than the next guy. the gays who realize this will capitalize on that and play mind games and other dramatic bull***t to make straight guy jealous. as such, the guys end up becoming involved in their drama and the fratgays love it so. this mentality also manifests itself everywhere. for example, if a gay guy wants attention from a guy but the guy doesn’t give it to him, he will go on trying to look at other guys to make the first guy jealous. according to my friend, all this shows about the gay guy is insecure if he’s not getting the attention he wanted. this is particularly true if the gay guy realized the guy he’s trying to get attention from is actually gay but merely comes across as “straight.” then, he’s doubly hurt because a gay guy, not just any guy, doesn’t find him attractive. furthermore, according to my friend, straight guys are very much aware of gay guys’ jealous tendencies when straight guys notice a particular guy over him. if a straight guy likes a gay guy, he will try to make him jealous by looking at another guy. those well-versed in the social sciences, however, are very much aware of the complexities of the human psyche and can see straight through this pretense.</p>
<p>anyway, back to your question, yes they are welcome, but this gay friend of mine personally views such gays interested in rushing with reservation. what he doesn’t like is how this image of frats as jocky aggressive alpha males keeps getting reproduced both by those who are in the frats as well as those who are not. Frarority members try to play by the stereotype, and critics reinforce the stereotype by coming up with arguments that assume the stereotypes are true. Those who are interested in frarorities view them the same way (as your question implies). According to my friend, we should get rid of this mentality and recognize that frarority members are just normal NU students who come in all shapes and sizes. some are hot, some are ugly, much like the rest of the student body. it’s the people who continue to believe in the stereotypical image of frarorities that privileges their existence and confers upon them a heightened social status. the first step to breaking down the unequal dichotomy between frarority members and non-frarority members is to acknowledge that both parties are not really that much different from each other. ANY non-frarority member can rush and be accepted into a frarority if they really want to.</p>
<p>besides, he says, EVEN IF the greek system were superficial (there are definitely houses that have greater status than others), the real world is pretty much the like greek system anyway. society is stratified into classes as well as hotness, and both classifications are not mutually exclusive. according to him, those who refuse to acknowledge these standards are not being true to their human instincts and are thus denying themselves their full humanity. furthermore, he says such critics tend to be the ugly ones who secretly do care about hotness and social status but simply deny it. how can they not? when they pleasure themselves, surely, they think about hot people, and the fact that they act differently around hot people shows they find them appealing in some special way.</p>