The boo birds and the cheering sections have made their voices heard on the statehornet.com forums, and the sentiment that I gather from the gallery is, “Why does this matter?” or “No one was hurt; this is harmless.”

The amount of physical and psychological harm accrued to the members of the women’s soccer team is debatable, the issue of hazing is more complex than any one set of pictures, than any one group that could possibly be scapegoated as a reaction against hazing. It is an issue that has been inadequately defined and inadequately combated.

The women’s soccer team party was newsworthy and worth correlating to hazing, due to three things: One, the party was a “freshman party” where freshmen were instructed on how to behave by “upperclassmen”, distinctions created by the university; Two, the party was held by the women’s soccer team, a coalition not only created, but institutionalized by the university; Three, the photos were put into the public sector as a representation of the Women’s soccer team.

One and two show that the women’s soccer team used distinctions made by the University to create a hegemonic power structure, where freshmen were members of a subsidiary group and the upperclassmen represented the predominant one. The freshmen were asked to take part in activities by members of the upperclassmen portion of the team for unknown reasons.

We can infer that the freshmen would not have drawn male genitalia around their mouths without some influence from the other party, and even if they had been inclined to do so, why would only the freshmen take a part in seditious acts? Why not the whole team, democratically?

Now, personally, I do not believe that the upperclassmen abused their power to the point of causing psychological, sociological or physical scarring. The claim could be made, just from the photos, that socializing drawings of male genitalia has an inherent psychological effect that could seem harmful for the girls, but I believe that symbols don’t have inherent meaning: the context gives them meaning.

So let me just say this: I don’t believe the women’s soccer team harmed their freshmen colleagues. But, as I will explore, harm is not all that defines hazing; even this kind of “harmless” hazing sets precedence for people to be harmed in the future.If harm is all that defines hazing, then we will have to wait until someone dies or is hospitalized before a reaction can be made and the reaction by the school will always be temporary and, more often than not, will only lead to scapegoating the offending club or organization.

But here’s the problem: If hazing is just harm, why not just call it assault? Why do we feel the need to give it a new name?

It is because hazing acts in a particular way, in particular groups associated with the university that use symbols integral to the educational system. These symbols are then used to form hegemonic power structures that, if those up high choose to abuse them, can create situations where the subjugated members of the group can be put in harm’s way, and that same power that wasn’t used in a harmful manner in one situation may be used to fatal effects in the next.

The hegemonic power structure is what is wrong, and is what causes the problems that lead to harm. No one should be caste into a subgroup where their success depends upon obeying an unregulated, unchecked group of superiors.

The university creates the labels freshman, sophomore, junior and senior, and yet, groups formed by the university are able to create class distinctions based on their labels, and then form unequal social groups with their own vocabulary, their own distinctions? The university sees itself as an egalitarian, all-inclusive, none exclusive system, yet it has been careless to see unequal systems within its own jurisdiction.

Why? Because the educational system has been reactionary to hazing and not clearly defining hazing, only seeing the consequence and not the motive. It is my belief that both need to be taken into account inside the definition of hazing, and from there, within the law against hazing, and from there, in the upholding of the law against hazing.

Otherwise? We’ll have to wait until tragedy strikes to act and the reaction will always prove to be insufficient.

One more thing, about the Greeks on the State Hornet forum who seem to be bragging about the women’s soccer team’s peril: there are specific reasons for the Greek system being the favorite child of hazing, and some of them are thrown at them unjustly and some of them are justly.

The Greeks use “pledges” and “rushes” to name those on the bottom of the power structure, distinguish between “lil bro/sis” and “big bro/sis” to solidify this structure, they basically create their own language to institutionalize their norms. And this language allows for a level of secrecy, or at least, for others to be unfamiliar with these practices.

However, the Greek system, like the sports teams, cannot exist without the support of the university system. And, if anything, the Greeks have historically had more freedom to do what they pleased with pledges and rushes precisely because they had that language divide and that enclosed society, which gave the members in power more authority than a sports team, which has numerous coaches for every team, has scheduled games and are always in the public eye.

So when Greek systems abuse their hegemonic power and cause death, the leash tightens more, but that’s because the leash on Greek organizations has more slack. That is, until the last 15 years. Now there are Greek advisers who are serious about making sure groups are in line and when abuses are discovered, groups are locked down.

For right or wrong, I don’t know. Certainly, the focus on their organizations has also taken the attention away from the well-funded, highly publicized sports teams. But like I said: the Greek system has faced scrutiny for both just and unjust reasons.

Hopefully, when more people realize what the women’s soccer team (and according to some Hornet Forum responses, other sports teams that do “much worse”) and the Greeks have in common, we can solve the problems of both.

Frank Loret de Mola can be reached at [email protected]