April 21, 2004
The Weird, Wild Culture of Sororities
If you, like me, enjoy having your prejudices confirmed, you'll probably like this - Alexandra Robbins went undercover in sororities around the country to bring us stories about vomit-clogged plumbing systems, breast-size contests, unreported rape, ruthless psychological gamesmanship, and other true myths about American sororities. Some of what she reports is mildly amusing, some of it is titillating, and a lot of it is really disturbing. It's discouraging that the girls in the Greek system are ultimately the willing accomplices and equally degenerate counterparts of the boys.
On a lighter note, I'm profoundly grateful to hear that at least some sororities really do have evenings of naked frolicking and "experimentation." Thank you, Alexandra Robbins. Thank you.
I'm reminded of this famous exchange:
"What else did you two do?"
"Oh, you know, girly stuff."
"So, uh, flower shows, shopping for pretty bows, then back to her place, strip down to bra and panties for a tickle fight."
"That's really what you think girls do, isn't it?"
"Yes, I do."
- Jerry and Elaine, in "The Pool Guy"
“. . . binge drinking, drug use, eating disorders and promiscuity.”
I’m not apologist for the Greek system . . . really I’m not. In fact, one of the things I love about my alma mater is that we have continued to (successfully) fight the establishment of fraternities. But the offenses listed above sound pretty much like college to me. The possible exception may be eating disorders due to the overemphasis on appearance in sororities. But go to a resident hall at just about any campus and I think you will probably find binge drinking, drug use and promiscuity or at least attempts at achieving all of the above.
Well, the article talks about gang bangs, date rape, and extreme promiscuity, not just your run-of-the-mill college fun.
Yeah but I guess my point is that those things happen outside of the Greek system and there is nothing in the article that seems to indicate whether or not the rates are higher within the sororities/fraternities. But I grant that accurately measuring such activity in any kind of empirical way is difficult so perhaps it's a moot point.
I think the rape thing is the most damning accusation - the article particularly mentions that one "house leader" or something wanted to prohibit a girl from reporting her own rape because drugs had been involved, and the leader didn't want the central sorority authority to know about certain rules being broken.
The stuff about 'diversity' issues is also valid, and while they're not unique to the Greek system, Greeks are unique in their blithe dismissal of the question. The co-op system in Austin has had a feirce dialogue about diversity over the last few years, and though I'm not on the inside of the administrative debate, whatever policies they've undertaken have resulted in demonstrable change in the community makeup.
The concept of fraternities and sororities is actually downright inspiring to me - as the author puts it, it's an opportunity for people to organize on the basis of something other than particular interests. But somehow the Greek system has become an utter cultural backwater. I think the co-op system, for all its flaws (and there are many) comes much closer to a truly 'fraternal' ideal.
Actually I just can't get the breast-size competition out of my head. I don't know if I'll ever be able to concentrate on anything ever again.