Allison Montroy
amontroy@mustangdaily.net
In the first sentence of W.R. Bolen’s website-turned book “Total Frat Move” (TFM), the narrator is kidnapped from his dorm, stripped down, hazed by fraternity brothers, given copious amounts of drugs and alcohol, finds himself with a girl in another person’s bedroom and almost gets arrested — all within the first 24 hours of his freshman year of college. The book highlights many quoted greek life stereotypes posted on the popular website totalfratmove.com. On the site, anyone can post and share moments they find that humorously fit a fraternity stereotype.
Author W.R. Bolen, who was also the TFM website’s first employee, wrote in an email that he used the website content and personal experiences as inspiration for the book.
“The book is fictional humor, but obviously much of the content was inspired by situations and events in my own life, as well as others around me, and stories from around the country,” Bolen said. “I was in a unique position working for totalfratmove.com, and having access to so much relatable content, that making my goal to write a book that encompasses greek life on a national scale was a no-brainer.”
In its first day of sales, the book ranked No. 1 for humor on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iBooks.
For agriculture business junior and Interfraternity Council (IFC) President Jason Colombini, the website and book’s portrayal of greek culture is not an accurate representation and “definitely not something to be taken seriously by people who want to really know what greek life is all about.”
Colombini compared TFM to shows such as “Family Guy,” “South Park” and the broadway show “The Book of Mormon,” a religious satire that plays on the beliefs surrounding the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Some people find it offensive, and others think it’s funny,” Colombini said. “TFM is also something that plays off stereotypes. It’s just kind of something you can laugh about. I hope most people don’t take it seriously.”
Colombini said IFC’s “Break the Stereotype” campaign fall quarter helped show Cal Poly students that “the content on TFM is not how most fraternity men conduct themselves.”
The main focus of the campaign was to define greek stereotypes and change the fraternity image created by pop culture, Colombini said, citing the 1978 film “Animal House” as an example.
“Everyone has a different idea of what a fraternity stereotype is,” Colombini said. “Some people’s stereotypes are that you barely skate by, cheat your way through. Other people think that people in fraternities are heavy drinkers and you have to be a heavy drinker. There’s lots of people in greek life that refrain from drinking or don’t go out and binge drink all the time. It’s a person-to-person basis. You can find any of those stereotypes on TFM.”
While not prevalent in Cal Poly greek culture, those preconceived behaviors quoted on TFM “do exist,” Colombini said, depending on the culture of the region.
“That website … most of it is based in the south,” Colombini said. “That has an entirely different greek culture than the west. Someone could almost make a psychology class and do a study on it. So those quotes could be true, but not necessarily true for fraternity culture here. Cal Poly has a very different greek culture than most schools.”
Food science freshman Domenica Berman agreed.
“I think it’s more prevalent in southern schools where greek life is bigger,” Berman said.
Bolen said, however, that while the geographic differences might have been true in the past, they “are not so much any more.”
“Back when we started the site, participation was heavily southern,” Bolen said. “Now that the website has exploded, we try to appeal to everyone as much as possible.”
Even so, Berman said the experiences discussed on the website and in the book “have been blown into entertainment” and might occur “at some schools, but not here.”
Bolen disagreed.
“The website’s content can be a bit more exaggerated for the sake of humor, but I’d still say it’s an accurate portrayal of both greek life and college life in general,” Bolen said. “The same goes for the book. I’ve seen people say (in regard to the book), ‘This is all exaggerated bullshit. None of this happens.’ All of it happens. Every semester. Across the country. Anyone who disagrees with that has no … idea what they’re talking about.”
Bolen said the book’s “realness” is what makes it so appealing to college students.
“It’s not bullshit, fluffed up, Hollywood nonsense,” Bolen said. “It’s realistic, and that’s captivating because so many people can relate to the hilarious (things) that happen throughout the stories.”
For Cal Poly, Colombini said that in the past two years there has been a steady increase in desire to improve the greek image on campus.
“Stereotypes — they exist,” Colombini said. “And this website shows the epitome of all those stereotypes. But it’s not the case for most people at Cal Poly. I’m hoping in the long term something that people keep in their minds is that perception should be on the people they know and meet, not what they see in pop culture.”