Personal Experiences and Observations in College- an Analysis on Masculinity by Zack Ruiz

(Above) Dave Portnoy- Founder of Barstool Sports

(Below) June 19th, 2017- Polson Middle School 8th Grade Graduation, Madison, CT (Dave Portnoy reposted on Twitter, now X) Thankfully I am not in this photo because I did not associate with these kids for good reason!

Part 1: Pre-College

It is nearly impossible to avoid exposure to toxic masculinity as a college-aged male. Besides the fact that universities were institutions of higher learning, all I ever knew about college was that it involves excessive drinking, drug use, and sexual tendencies. This was about all I was able to get out of anything “college-related” that I saw on the internet growing up in the 2010s. Instagram accounts such as TFM, or Total Frat Move, as well as Barstool Sports among many others provided my young and developing mind with what I thought should be the ideal college experience. Everything I saw involved drinking, drugs, and girls; making college seem like more of a party playground than a place for me to get a degree in my desired academic field.

My hometown of Madison, Connecticut being predominately white and wealthy, loved Barstool Sports for its "Saturdays are for the Boys" slogan. It got to the point where Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, tweeted a picture of my eighth grade graduation, where a large group of boys are draping a "Saturdays are for the Boys" flag over a set of bleachers, with matching t-shirts under their button-down Vineyard Vines to complete it. These were the same kids who I would constantly compare myself to, because I wasn't as athletic, rich, tall, etc. These kids would also make fun of me for being a different ethnicity, which made me think I had to "look white" to be more masculine.

Almost every single one of the kids pictured below is in a fraternity now as well.

Images I generated using ChatGPT showing an exaggerated yet accurate example of how the night of a young man pressured by toxic masculinity can go in college.

Part 2: College Experience (My Take)

Stepping onto the bricks for the first time as an Ohio University Bobcat is an experience I’ll never forget-so many opportunities and new experiences right at my fingertips! Almost instantly however, others and I got wrapped up in the college culture that we looked forward to for so long.

The first semester is a very telling time for what path many young men will go down. Being a freshman boy in college can be a difficult time. College was advertised as such a raunchy and rowdy time with seemingly unlimited fun, but there is a much darker side to all of that. College can be a very hard time mentally for young men, especially those who desire the greater things in life but can’t seem to achieve them.

I have noticed many young men get too wrapped up in trying to get with as many women as they can, or drink as much as they can, or spend as much as they can in one night. While this may seem appealing at first, what happens afterwards? You feel empty and alone because you only use women for their bodies? You have no money in your bank account and need to get a job now? You were hungover for days and missed classes because you drank so much?

It’s things like these that made me question the whole college experience that is advertised to young Americans. Although very valuable and necessary lessons can be learned from these things, many college-aged men will still struggle in this matter. I notice this the most with members of Greek Life and Fraternities, but anyone can experience this in college.

Part 3- Fraternity Culture as a Case Study

Greek life and “Frat” culture is rampant across American college campuses. At certain schools, mainly SEC or Big 10 Universities, Greek life and fraternities can often run the entire party/nightlife scene. Members of these fraternities normally come from money, and have a need for a sense of power, which is rewarded to them when becoming a member of a fraternity. “Frat bros” often used to intimidate me, and that all had to with masculine ideals that I was exposed to as a college-aged male. I had a problem comparing myself to fraternity brothers that I didn’t even know- they were taller, better looking, more fit, had way more money than me (and it wasn’t an issue for them) and seemed to get all the pretty girls.

Something I read in one of my favorite books, Among the Bros- A Fraternity Crime Story by Maxwell Marshall is that in a college town, nine times out of ten, it’s going to be a fraternity brother that is selling whatever drugs the students are consuming. The book follows a group of young men, many of them in the Sigma Chi fraternity at the College of Charleston, who find themselves in the midst of a drug empire spanning across the southeastern United States. The book provides a unique perspective on the ordeal, with Marshall interviewing members of the Sigma Chi fraternity, their drug ring associates, and witnesses/friends of the people directly involved. Marshall even interviews the mastermind behind it all, Mikey Schmidt, from a jail phone as he serves his ten-year sentence.

Although becoming a "frat bro" version of Tony Montana from Scarface or Tony Soprano from The Sopranos, the consequences outweigh the benefits for the high-risk high-reward lifestyle idolized by many young men. Below is an image of everyone arrested that was tied to the CoC Sigma Chi drug operation. In the bottom right-hand corner is Mikey Schmidt.

Above- (Bottom to top) 45 Mill Street, The Collin Wiant Story on YouTube, A Tribute to Timothy Piazza, AI generated hazing image using ChatGPT

Part 4: The Dark Side of it All

There’s a reason I didn’t join a fraternity- I probably wouldn’t even be here anymore. That is, at Ohio University, but it is very possible that I could have died from hazing. Hazing is what scared me away from fraternities the most, as some of the stories I had heard sounded just horrific. I couldn’t see what the point was of drinking yourself half to death and doing degrading and disgusting things just for a sense of belonging and power over your peers. Not to mention how many people have died from hazing- Tim Piazza, the face of hazing deaths, and Ohio University’s own Collin Wiant, who died from a hazing related incident in 2018.

Tim Piazza was a 19-year old engineering student who pledged Beta Theta Pi at Penn State University in the spring semester of 2017. Piazza died as a result of forced excessive alcohol consumption which caused him to fall down the stairs of the fraternity house onto his head. He was left alone by his would-be fraternity brothers in the basement of the house for 12 hours after the fall, which would play a significant factor in his death. This led to the permanent ban of the Beta Theta Pi chapter at Penn State, and the passage of the Timothy Piazza anti-hazing law in Pennsylvania.

Collin Wiant was an 18-year-old freshman pledge for the Sigma Pi chapter at our very own Ohio University in the fall semester of 2018. Wiant died from asphyxiation as a result of inhaling nitrous oxide during a hazing ritual at the fraternity's off-campus house on 45 Mill Street. After Wiant had collapsed and appeared to be having a medical emergency, the brothers of Sigma Pi waited at least nine minutes before calling 9-1-1, which was a major factor in Wiant's death. The fraternity has since been banned Ohio University. 45 Mill Street- The Collin Wiant Story is an Emmy award winning documentary put together by the Collin Wiant Foundation. It provides a great insight to hazing-related deaths and how they affect the victim's families, with little sympathy or remorse from the perpetrators.

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