Music

This idiotic frat house posed with a Beyoncé blow-up sex doll in their holiday photo

by Mark Teo

It might be time for frat houses to start hiring PR firms. (Navigator, anyone?) Even after Rolling Stone retracted their explosive story about gang rape at a UVA frat house, American fraternities have done little to rebuild their reputations, and the recent actions of the University of Pennsylvania’s Phi Delta Theta certainly don’t help.

Check the image above—it’s the fraternity’s holiday photo, presumably meant to be sent to parents, friends and loved ones. Don’t notice anything? Look a little closer. On the left-hand side of the photo, you’ll notice a shrivelled, non-human figure with red lips. That figure, says the Phi Delta Theta, is supposed to be Beyoncé—only in inflatable, sex doll format.

According to the Daily Pennsylvanian, after the image began circulating, womens’ and minority organizations filed complaints. It’s not hard to see why: The sex doll doesn’t resemble Beyoncé in the slightest, and especially when placed in the context of an largely white, all-male photograph, the doll could easily seen as mockery of Queen Bey, women, and minorities.

The 5B, a coalition of campus minority groups, issued this statement.

“The inclusion of a racially and sexually charged object in such a flagrant fashion displays a serious and immediate need for repercussions that reflect the severity of this misogynistic, racist offense,” they said, in a statement to the Daily Pennsylvanian. “We—UMOJA, APSC, UMC, Latin@ Coalition, Lambda Alliance, and PCUW—firmly believe that when an event like this marginalizes one of our communities, it marginalizes us all.”

The reaction toward the image has been varied: Some argue that it isn’t racist or misogynist, but rather, it’s distasteful and insensitive. (The Bro Bible, being a publication named the Bro Bible, claimed everyone was being too sensitive, saying “that’s what college kids do.” This pervasive boys-will-be-boys mentality, perhaps, is the real problem.) But those are all semantics: It’s distasteful and insensitive, sure, and that’s largely because making Beyoncé sex-doll jokes make women and minorities the punchline.

The fraternity, meanwhile has been punished—they’re suspended, pending an investigation. Phi Delta Theta’s national leadership has also posted a formal apology for the action of their UPenn chapter.

“We are deeply concerned by this image,” assistant executive Sean Wagner told the Daily Pennsylvanian. “Phi Delta Theta is a values-based organization and the lack of judgment associated with this image indicates a disconnect from those same values.”

[H/T Philly.com]