[24315] in APO-L
Re: [APO-L] Toast Song
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Christopher Stromberg)
Tue May 25 15:22:51 2004
Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 12:22:01 -0700
Reply-To: Christopher Stromberg <Christopher.Stromberg@pomona.edu>
From: Christopher Stromberg <Christopher.Stromberg@pomona.edu>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
Brothers,
As someone that has been around for a while and seen (and been a part of)
this debate for many years, I feel I need to clear a few things up. I will
try to keep this E-mail factual (an opinion E-mail will surely follow).
First of all, the Founders did NOT write the Toast Song. It was added years
later (some time in the 30's or 40's?).
Second, the Toast Song is NOT in it's original form, as the second verse was
added later (some time in the late 50's or 60's). My understanding is that
the second verse was added in part as a response to allowing all men to
join, not just those that had been Scouts.
Finally, a note on the word "Brother". Yes, our National documents define
the term "Brother" as a gender-neutral term (I aught to know, I voted on the
change at the 1998 convention in Minneapolis). The reason for this is that,
before 1976, females involved in APO were given the title "Little Sister".
After the Fraternity went co-ed in 1976, the term "Sister" therefore had a
diminutive connotation, as if females that you called "Sister" were not
members the same way that a "Brother" was. This lead to nearly all females
in the organization wanting to be called "Brothers", as a sign of their
equal status in the organization.
Now-days, there is a split in opinion as to what to call females in the
organization. Most (in my experience) prefer still to be called "Brothers".
Some prefer to be called "Sisters".
So what do we do? My personal rule is to use "Brother" by default, but, if
someone asks to be called a "Sister", I try my best to remember that
preference and use their preferred title. I have, at times, run into people
that were offended when I referred to them as a "Brother", but, in ALL
cases, after giving them the above explanation, they understood why and were
no longer offended by it (and in a few cases, decided that they would rather
be called "Brother", given the above history).
Anyway, I've seen these topics come up every time this discussion does, so I
thought a little bit of correction might be in order. As I said, my own
opinions will follow in a separate E-mail.
Chris Stromberg
Alum of Zeta and Zeta Epsilon
