Elle’s “boressing”
Collector’s Name: Pat Moran
Title of Collection: “Boresses as Seen by Steve Malasto”
Collection Location: IU Wells Library; Archives Office
Date of Collection: 1976
The paper focuses on an interview conducted with a brother of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and his personal experiences with ‘boresses’. Boresses are defined as practical jokes, which correlates with games/play and partying. Steve Malasto was the man chosen for the interview because he was believed to be well experienced in the field of boressing. He talks about how boressing was a form of brotherhood that brought the brothers of the house together, in a funny, joking manner. He gives examples of previous boresses he has committed himself and also ones he has heard of at other fraternities years earlier, as well as a traditional one the young men in his house tend to do, known as bagging.
The few examples of the boressing Steve gives always tend to include “the element of surprise,” as he states. After a long night of partying, a drunken victim is often a target of the boress. Steve describes one of these nights:
A brother came home from the bars and Steve had cut a hole in his dresser drawers and sat in the dresser with his head coming out a hole in the top drawer. When his buddy came home to change his clothes before bed, he opened the drawer and there was Steve’s head.
Another joke, actually done to Steve, consisted of his friends daring him to do a sit-up that they claimed to be impossible to complete four of. He took the challenge, and while he laid on the ground in sit-up position, the boys held a towel taught across his forehead so every time he sat up, he had to use much more strength to fight the pressure of the towel pulling him back down. On his third sit-up, with the towel still covering his eyes over his forehead, another brother pulled his pants down and put his behind a few inches from Steve’s face. At this moment the boys let go of the towel and Steve sat up, face first into his brothers behind.
Malestro also mentions examples that he read about with other fraternities back in the forties that he says he would love to try and do some day. The traditional boress he claims for his house is known as “bagging.” Bagging is the process of taking any type of plastic bag or balloon and filling with some sort of liquid substance, which is then thrown or dropped on a victim. While some of these jokes tended to piss off the victim, it was always understood that it was “all in good fun” and that all kinds of boressing are fair play in a frat house.
Context: This paper is housed in the Folklore Archives in the Wells library. The original interview of the fraternity brother took place on November 26, 1976, in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity House, with Moran interviewing Malestro.