TFM—Total Frat Move or Total Fucking Misogyny? The latter option is indeed the case, which is pretty easily discernible if you visit any of their social media pages or their website.
They hide under thinly veiled attempts at “humorous commentary,” but in reality, they support and encourage not only misogyny but general disrespect toward any group of human beings who are not as shallow, privileged and arrogant as they are. The toxic culture of TFM oozes into the UA atmosphere, as this campus is highly infiltrated by Greek Life.
Let us stick to the hook of this article first and shed light on the misogyny of TFM. TFM’s social media accounts are plastered with pictures of college women’s bodies, with sections of their site devoted to things like “Babe of the Day” and a plethora of videos of blackout drunk girls doing things I am sure they would prefer not be on the internet for eternity. Yes, I know the “rush boobs” girls (supposedly) consented to being put on the internet, but why is that even a thing? Why do frats feel the need to literally “brand” girls with the frat’s letters? If a girl feels comfortable posting pictures of her body, there is nothing wrong with that; I am in no way trying to shame any girls for being proud of and comfortable with their bodies. It just seems strange and disconcerting that frat boys are trying to show their “property” via branding, as if these girls’ breasts are material items.
Even if, for argument’s sake, we say “rush boobs” are not problematic, where is the line drawn? I have personally watched UA frat boys at campus pool parties tug on girls bikini strings or tug on their nipple-covering hands while these “rush boobs” pictures are being taken. The boys will laugh and pretend they are kidding, but they are not. Many of them truly believe females are there for male entertainment and sexual pleasure, and thus show no respect to the female body or the female as a human being. If a girl already has the name of some festering boy cult written on her boobs, isn’t that enough? Do frat boys really need to be even more disrespectful toward her body and try to push her to show more than she is willing?
Related: Total Frat Move reports false controversy between WRC, AEPi
After the “rush boobs” section, keep trudging through TFM’s little site of horrors and you will find articles such as “The Overbearing Fraternity Girlfriend,” which calls frat boy girlfriend’s “bossy.” Have you ever heard a man get called bossy? No. That is because that word does not exist as an option for adjectives to describe a male, as it has been replaced with “good leader” or “commanding,” complimentary words which TFM fails to attribute to any female, ever. The rest of the article continues being condescending as all hell, concluding with a paragraph addressed to “ladies”—as if any self-respecting females would actually take these frat robots (“frobots”, from here on) advice on how to be a better, less “bossy” girlfriend.
I, too, have had the pleasure of being called “bossy” (and a “bitch”) by multiple frat boys on a few different occasions. One prime example was on a night last year that I spent searching for a missing and in-distress friend. Most of the frat members who I asked about my friend’s whereabouts were entirely apathetic, and upon my pursual of the topic, they quickly became defensive, telling me to stop being such a “bossy bitch” and to “get off of their property”.
The hunt is not over yet. There are still gems to find, like “18 Ways to Anger Feminists,”an article written by someone with the temperament of a belligerent 2-year-old who isn’t getting his way. The column is paired with a picture of a girl who would never be deemed “worthy” of the frobots’ “Babe of the Week” honor holding a sign that reads “this is what a feminist looks like, ”as if to not-so-subtly drive TFM’s point home that not only is feminism irrelevant and deserving of mocking, but so are the people who identify as feminists.
This particular misogynistic TFM column is great because as the next generation of leadership of this country, it is vital to our success that half the population shun and mock the other half of the population, simply based on the desire of one part of the population to be treated as equal to the other.
If you can wade through the pictures of faceless boobs and butts with Greek letters on them and the proclamations of blind devotion to America, beer, Trump and blonde college females, you will find a prime example of TFM expanding beyond misogyny and scampering right across the ladder to racism, classism and utter obnoxiousness.
The website recently published an article regarding the United Airlines scandal where an Asian male doctor was physically dragged off of an overbooked plane. The article on TFM brutally shunned United Airlines for issuing an apology for the incident, saying, “apologizing is a sign of weak leadership.” It goes on to rag on the victim (alluding that the Dr. was asking for it—sound like a familiar argument?), asking what a doctor was doing in coach anyway and calling him pathetic and psychotic (interesting that TFM has the qualifications to make a medical diagnosis!).
Related: A look at UA frat party culture
This site and their associated social media pages are revered in the Greek world, especially on UA’s campus, and that is simply egregious. After college comes the real thing, as in, there is no more constant partying and messing up “allowed.” If all you have done for four years is disrespect humanity, namely women, how are you going to just shake that upon entering the “real” world? You aren’t, and therein lies the problem.
The UA has a societal obligation to produce well-rounded, respectful, educated adults, but sadly, those are not the words that come to mind when I think of how I’d describe UA frat boys. No more “boys will be boys;” these are adults we are talking about, and there is no excuse for their culture of misogyny, homophobia and general elitism.
When I’ve brought this up to other people on UA’s campus, they often dismiss TFM and the whole frat culture on the grounds that college is a time to have fun, don’t kill their vibe, etc. I just don’t see it as “vibe-killing” to point out the issues with a website that is vile enough to say things like “Donald [Trump] has a stranglehold on the best segment of women: the hot ones.” Shouldn’t we try to make our university better than this degrading, misogynistic and disrespectful frat culture? I think yes, and that starts with each individual Wildcat on this campus.
End the trend, UA. Boycott TFM, boycott dangerous and disrespectful things that our Greek life does (you’ll have a hard time finding the things not to boycott under those guidelines), and if you have been, stop feeding into this vile frat culture that poisons not just us, but colleges across the nation.
Follow Talya Jaffe on Twitter.
