Sororities on College Campuses
It was a typical Monday night for most of the ladies gathered in the boring lecture hall of what is my human biology class three times a week, but what tonight was a meeting of a sorority on my college campus. Typical for everyone excluding myself. I’ve never been stared at by so many people in one sitting. I was starting to think that I had something stuck in my teeth from the salad I had eaten for dinner previously. I am pretty sure the girl with the bright red lipstick and four-inch high heels wanted to kill me by the way she was glaring at me and seemed to not want to look at anything else. Even sitting in the back and not making a single noise was not good enough for her. It was obvious that all the girls knew I was not a member.
Before the meeting started, it felt like a church service. Everyone was dressed to a “T” in something your mother would approve of you wearing to church on Sunday morning. The room was filled with a vibrant array of different colored dresses, which some decided to match with the same colored high heels. Women of all different ages and grades filled up the middle rows of the enormous lecture hall; I assumed the president was the one standing up in the front. Sitting way in the back corner did not prevent people from occasionally staring back to look at the random stranger eavesdropping on their meeting.
The girl that stood in the front took a few steps forward from where she was originally standing and waved her hand through her hair, so it was all touching her back. While she cleared her throat, she straightened out her shoulders and started to call out names starting from the front of the alphabet. Roll call was very important, because the meetings are mandatory attendance. After getting through all the names, the president decided to call me out and welcome me into my first sorority meeting. Not only that, but she also had me stand up and introduce myself and tell everyone why I was there observing. Being an outsider did not even begin to describe the emotion and embarrassment, I felt having the girls know I was not even part of their sorority and, yet I showed up to one of their sacred meetings.
The president handed the meeting over to the next level of hierarchy, which happened to be the girls in the grand council. The girls that are in the grand council work directly with the president on a weekly basis to plan everything that is needed. They work with each other to plan the meetings, the fundraiser events, the events they do as a sorority, and to reflect how they are doing together as a sorority. Their “sisterhood” is very important to them, and it is crucial to them that they have that bond and trust between each other.
The vice president started to make her way down the stairs up to the stand where she set her sheets of notes. She did so by pursing her lips, over dramatically clearing her throat, and waiting an awkward ten seconds before speaking out loud. The meeting continued in the same fashion with each of the different roles girls have in the sorority. Next came the sisterhood development chair, the social media chair, the member educator, and the philanthropy chair, just to name a few. Each role gave their own speech on what they need to address at that meeting for upcoming events, etc.
After the last person had spoken, the meetings ended with them singing a song. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. Someone started it and the rest of them joined in a second later. Each of them hit every note perfectly, while matching the lyrics in sync as well. I had come into the meeting with the idea that all sororities are “a joke” and that the girls that are involved in this organization are somewhat snobby.
According to USA Today College’s article on “The Dark Side of Greek Life,” “Not only are sororities a huge waste of time and money, but they also promote artificial boundaries between students (both between girls of different sororities and Greek vs. non-Greek) as well as discourage individualism.” Many people can argue that being a member of a sorority is a waste of most college female’s savings they made over the summer with their low paying summer job. Everyone has heard the stereotypes about sororities, but who knows if they are actually true.
Naomi Martin, an ex-sorority member from Tulane University, describes her thoughts from when she was in a sorority, “I say mutually-reinforcing hyper-materialism because that is all sororities are: a tacit competition to see who can spend a the most money; besides mandatory dues (at least $600/semester), there are clothes (Greek T-shirts — omg, so cute and unique), and all the other expensive crap super rich girls pressure each other to get (the newest $300 designer jeans, purse, shoes, sunglasses, cellphone, etc.) and participate in (tanning, manicures, pedicures, waxes, etc.) College is supposed to be a place that enriches learning, thought, and individuality. Instead, through sororities, female conformity, stupidity, alcoholism, cattiness and materialism are celebrated and promoted.” All the stereotypes people hear about sororities are exactly what Naomi wrote about.
Sometimes people stereotype and only focus on the irrelevant concepts of a sorority. For example, the partying, and the preppy outfits. After I listened in on one of their meetings, my knowledge about sororities had changed significantly and I realized that they are more than just the typical stereotypes that are spread around about them.
One very common stereotype that sorority girls are known for is their reputation of being dumb and ditzy. This stereotype is a big misconception because sororities do have certain requirements that the girls must meet in order to continue being a member. According to BuzzFeed, “Let’s get this straight: Sorority girls aren’t dumb and ditzy. In fact, we have to meet strict GPA requirements, or we’ll get kicked out.” Disregarding what most people think/say, the members of sororities are all smart ladies. Even without knowing more than half of the members of the sorority meeting I attended, I could tell that stereotype was false right away.
Another common stereotype that is prevalent in the sorority world today, is the amount of partying the members participate in. Conceptions of sororities and fraternities end up being the same even though the values and morals of each are very different. Fraternities are known for throwing huge parties on a weekly basis, and that idea gets projected on sororities causing the stereotypes. “Sure, we like to have a good time, but we do WAY more than party”. The BuzzFeed article also explains that, “In fact, a lot of sororities actually do huge amounts of volunteer work and community involvement.” During the meeting, there was a position that one of the members had to take on and the tasks that that member had to plan was specific to volunteer work and community involvement. During her speech, she mentioned that all members had to have a minimum of fifty volunteer hours before the end of the second semester.
References
Kopsy, A. (2015, September 20). 17 Misconceptions Sorority Girls Want To Set Straight. In BuzzFeed. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
Martin, N. (2010, June 17). Viewpoint: The dark side of Greek life. In USA Today College. Retrieved November 29, 2017.