<p>lets talk secret society...anyone know much about the current skull and bones @ Yale?</p>
<p>If we answered that, it wouldn’t be a secret, now would it?</p>
<p>Go rent “Skulls” watch it and report back to us, eh?</p>
<p>Well, it looks like the two replies to this thread pretty well confirmed Yale’s reputation as elitist, patronizing, and snobbish.</p>
<p>awwwww, come on abavenewworld. I was shooting for “funny”.</p>
<p>kind of an odd post. Also the responses are from CC’ers not yale. If you want to find out about yale, go talk to some current students. I think you’ll find many of them intelligent, engaging and fun.</p>
<p>Secret societies are: a) a SECRET. And b) for seniors only.</p>
<p>They therefore don’t affect campus life much at all. As for what they actually do, basically they are a place to party, discuss your upbringing, and your ambitions.</p>
<p>They are NOT bastions of world power/domination.</p>
<p>P.S. the earlier posts are clearly trying to be funny.</p>
<p>
And it looks like your two posts in this thread suggest a severe disability to identify humor.</p>
<p>yeah because the joke “if I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret!” is extremely funny…</p>
<p>abnw: my reply wasn’t meant to be snotty. Sorry about that. It’s just that the outside world’s fascination w/Yale’s societies is much larger than what we Yalies ourselves place on them. I cited the “Skulls” movie because it’s such an extreme Hollywood fantasy of what the societies are.</p>
<p>Whoa, way to jump to obnoxious conclusions about Yale based on two random strangers’ posts, abnw. I dare you to actually come here and confront those silly stereotypes face on. </p>
<p>Anyway, as to the point of the original post, honestly nobody here even thinks about secret societies except around Tap Night…they’re pretty insignificant when it comes to campus life, and Bones lost all of its money anyway when they started letting women in.</p>
<p>why did they start admitting women? and why would that cause them to lose their money?</p>
<p>I read a book called inside the tomb. Very interesting read and some revealing stuff about GW Bush. But it really goes over everything the society is about. Interesting that it was originally funded by like the Chinese drug trade. But now it seems like all Skull And Bones really is is an alumni network that gives special preference to members of Bones. I believe that the Bones’ connections have weakened ever since women began being tapped. No offense to the ladies out there, but the “old boys” were really upset about that, and when they got news of the new memberships, the locks were changed at the tomb. So yeah, read the book and you’ll learn a lot</p>
<p>MechiganBoy is right, the old boys were very unhappy about letting women in. </p>
<p>WHY did they start letting in women? Um, do I really have to answer that?</p>
<p>Here’s what I heard. The progressive members of the eighties (maybe 70’s i forgot) wanted to start allowing women in. The older members met with the current society and came to a compromise to have a “women’s bones” where you would have 15 women cut off from the men. At that point something like 10 members just left the society and it remained all men till the nineties. Then the other societies began having women, and I believe there was much pressure on campus for Bones to begin tapping women to the society. Women were tapped, the locks were taken, and eventually put back, but I think the society has lost it’s power since, no offense ladies</p>
<p>The book that has been mentioned is sensationalist hysteria by Alexandra Robbins (Yale '98) who has also written a book about sororities (equally sensationalist) and one about “driven kids” (which I have not read). It’s not the first book of its kind, nor will it be the last: it seems that there’s still money to be made and attention to be gained by conjuring up the old Illuminati/NWO/Secret Society/Masonic conspiracy specters. The book is filled with plenty of conjecture and speculation, much of which is derived from other sensationalist outsiders and the comments of anonymous (of course) sources claiming to be members. </p>
<p>There is nothing terribly earth-shattering, but there are a few fun tidbits about Yale history if you’re interested. </p>
<p>Among the author’s other assertions is that the senior society that is the subject of her book has bankrupted Yale. She has also insisted that there is a conspiracy to “destroy (her) career as a journalist.” </p>
<p>Okayyyyyy…</p>
<p>Perhaps she should have written about Scroll and Key, a society with which she is, apparently, much more familiar. </p>
<p>Of course, no one would have bought the book then.</p>
<p>A better subject might be: “why so much interest in other people’s private affairs?”</p>
<p>My 2 cents.</p>
<p>To those of you who are curious about why alums wouldn’t like admitting women… the yale of 50 years ago was very different from yale now. Strikingly different. Yale is a rather progressive place now, but 50 years ago it wasn’t at all. When i talk with older alums, sometimes i have to hold my tongue in response to things i find blatantly offensive. Not to say that this is true of all older yale alums, of course. And not to say that there aren’t plenty current undergraduates who say things that i find blatantly offensive.</p>
<p>Well, people in exclusive clubs are resistant to any kind of change.</p>
<p>You’ll never find out much about Skull and Bones because the only people at Yale who really care about it can’t talk about it.</p>
<p>Bones and maybe Wolf’s Head are the most secretive. You can get in many of the others and some have open parties. </p>
<p>I don’t like the tombs. I think they should be eliminated.</p>
<p>BoolaBoola:</p>
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<p>For the benefit of the folks in the stands, this is posing. Normal people don’t mind saying “Skull and Bones” or “Bones”. (Normal people also don’t follow the “senior society” convention, but lots of Yalies do.) I don’t think actual Bonesmen (-people?) stoop to commenting publicly on Robbins’ book, no matter how elaborate their euphemisms for their club.</p>
<p>Ah, but now they have women! Does that mean the standards have slipped, and the members play Sissyfight with Key?</p>