Starting with the recent accusations of gang rape against 7 denizens of a fraternity at Cornell University, Bill Maher’s latest real-time episode takes out after the Greek houses, including sororities. (Maher went to Cornell, with a double major in literature and history). I agree with Maher: when I went to William & Mary, I participated in fraternity rush, but gave up after visiting two houses and seeing the “brothers” making cryptic notes on the freshmen. I’d prefer to find brothers using my own criteria rather than theirs, and many of the friends I made, most not in fraternities, are still friends today.
While he doesn’t conclude anything about whether there was a rape or not, but he does think that fraternities, with their hazing, drinking, and rowdiness, don’t conform to their mission to produce “gentlemen.” I’ve never heard of the “elephant walk” he describes as a bonding event. but Grok (below) affirms that it has been a real thing.
The guests you see on the panel are U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Sara Eisen (financial reporter for CNBC).
The “elephant walk” described by Grok (my quesiton in bold). I’ve left out the links.
Do fraternities really practice the “elephant walk”?
Yes, some fraternities have practiced the “elephant walk” as a hazing ritual, though it is not universal, is often illegal, and has become less common (or more underground) due to bans, lawsuits, and scrutiny.
The ritual typically involves pledges (new members) forming a single-file line or circle, frequently while nude or partially clothed. Each person holds the genitals of the person in front of or behind them and walks together. Variations include inserting a thumb into the anus of the person ahead (sometimes with a rule that if it slips out, the thumb goes in the mouth). The posture is said to resemble elephants linked trunk-to-tail. It is framed by participants as a bonding or loyalty test through shared humiliation.
Documentation and evidence
- It is treated as a known practice in academic work. Folklorists Alan Dundes and Lauren Dundes analyzed it in their 2002 essay “The Elephant Walk and Other Amazing Hazing: Male Fraternity Initiation through Infantilization and Feminization,” placing it in the broader context of humiliating initiation rites.
- Dictionaries and references record the slang meaning explicitly (e.g., Wiktionary).
- News coverage has referenced it as an established form of hazing. A prominent 2019 case involved Sacramento State’s Delta Chi chapter: an anonymous tip with a photo of a “simulation” (clothed men holding objects) triggered an investigation. Participants described it as an educational skit about hazing rather than the real thing; the university treated the allegation seriously amid other Greek life issues. Other reports and student accounts mention similar incidents or rumors at various schools.
I still have trouble believing this!
When I was in college, I helped a friend move into a Sorority at an Indiana college. Since UC then had only two fraternities, neither big, Greek life was foreign to me. On the drive she explained all about it. It seemed like the most elitist, chicken-sh*t, make believe nonsense I’d ever heard. And she was trying to paint its good side. But hey, horses for courses. My wife loved her time in a sorority. Still, the goings on at frat parties are highly questionable, but also an open secret. I think Caitlin Flanagan at The Free Press is right to ask, “What Was Jane Doe Looking For?“
I graduated from Sacramento State/California State University Sacramento and was a member of a fraternity in the late 60’s and early 70’s. In those days we did do some silly and stupid things during the hazing part of being a pledge but nothing even remotely similar to the claimed elephant walk. I too find it hard to believe any such thing ever occurred except in someone’s imagination.
Proud to be an alum of an institution that ditched its Greek system: https://www.newsweek.com/inside-colleges-killed-frats-good-231346. Of course, it was already falling apart and out-of-step with student ethos long before the ban. The replacement was interesting: a system of “commons”: small residential groups guided by a faculty member that stayed together for the first 2 years. But, those also eventually went away: https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/2024/12/five-years-adrift-why-hasnt-middlebury-replaced-the-commons-system. The challenge is how to build community in higher ed, and exclusive social “clubs” do the opposite. But the frat boys at high levels of our government show how something like the Greek system within its “us-v-them” ethos was not unifying, but divisive.
I went to Cornell in 1959- after being at Public School in England – ie 59 years ago. I never ever heard of the elephant walk. I joined a fraternity and all my oldest friends are from my fraternity at Cornell
Those sort of reported disgusting behaviours regrettably happen elsewhere – not just fraternities. Cornell is at fault – attempted cover up? Suspend Chi Phi but don’t abolish fraternities
SUNY-Binghamton did not have fraternities or sororities when I was there. I don’t think I missed anything. We still had social groups, political groups, and all the rest. And we didn’t have the scandals that seem to buzz around these institutions. I don’t know why universities put up with put up with them. They are liability magnets.