^^lol
I’ve been thinking about the young resident who examined me yesterday… she would fit right into this video, if she hadn’t pulled her hair back. Women who look like this do all sorts of things. And that could have been part of the video. I don’t object it wasn’t. In some fields, that look can slow you down. Not that many. imho. Sometimes one just needs to pull one’s hair back. And a little less makeup. It’s a pretty difficult line for women. again- jmho.
“I can attest to entire neighborhoods (e.g. Manhattan Beach and UES) in which formerly attractive and “girls about town”, being divorced in their 40s, and having nothing to show for it except alimony. There is a profound sadness to someone who thinks they are still the much desired object of affection they were in their 20s, but still have that mentality in their late 30s and into their 40s.”
I note that I think this is quite a big stretch, because what struck me from the video was actually the ABSENCE of men. They weren’t promoting “come join us and you’ll get the hottest guys, hook up with the best fraternities, get the richest / most successful husbands, etc.” It was really about sisterhood. Now, it wasn’t exactly Wellesley-or-Smith-or-Bryn-Mawr-style sisterhood, but it was strength in sisterhood nonetheless.
There is no a priori reason to believe these women are any more or less likely to have unhappy marital lives than anyone else.
I thought it looked like “Girls Gone Somewhat Wild.”
My D has some friends in med school who are as pretty as these women, so don’t be too sure.
It’s not that there were pretty girls in the video. It was that they were ALL pretty in exactly the same way. Also those little waves–that’s what I noticed. Yech.
What I wondered most was:
If you meet them walking six abreast, taking up the entire sidewalk and then some… does it become a Red Rover game?
haha
eta: The uniformity has always bothered me. I cut off my waist length blond hair months before rush. I was still pretty much just like the other girls.
I think this has more to do with the university culture, than the specific sorority house. On campus visits, many colleges had a definite predominant “look” to the student body, whether preppy (Vineyard Vines everywhere), or sloppy casual (grey hooded sweatshirt and jeans), or artsy, goth type, etc. I like clothing so I do tend to pay attention to those things.
In our rush events we usually planned to look uniform, because every day had sort of a “theme” to it. So we’d all wear sundresses, or Dolphin shorts, or black dresses. It was planned.
We actually had matching “costumes” for each party. And styled our hair the same. Which made a pixie haircut sort of subversive as these things go.
And the outfits were pretty sexy. Spaghetti straps, short skirts, heels - 40 years ago.
Are we the mama’s of these video girls?
I find the lack of diversity in the Greek system, particularly at a taxpayer financed college of concern. And I do think that there are adjustments that could be made to the system, particularly rush, which might improve things.
But obviously, this sorority is not the only non-diverse one at U Alabama. So what is it about this video that bugs me? I know I’m well over the age of its target audience but this video doesn’t really seemed aimed at young women. Do women watching bouncing breasts and cute bottoms sashaying decide “This group has strong friendship bonds?” Before the article criticizing it on Al.com, the video had been linked or tweeted to a number of sites with young male audiences…the sort of sites that link to the photos of new NFL cheerleaders. One of the frat-oriented internet sites defending the sorority right now actually states that the young women sent it a link to the video before the ruccus. I think there’s a problem when a video which is ostensibly intended to recruit young women to join a sorority has become a sort of “Sports Illustrated swim suit issue.” Contrast it to the video linked in #116. Yes, the young women in that video do most of the same things…yet that video seems to be directed to young women. It doesn’t talk about GPA either, but the young women in it don’t come across as if this is a model shoot. The young women seem to be trying to recruit other young women at UAlabama…not aiming to “score” the most attention from young men.
The Alpha Phi sorority, BTW, has a brand new sorority house which is ranked by one internet site as one of the 10 best houses (in the physical sense) in the nation. You’d think THAT fact would be highlighted in the video, but it isn’t. Doing some google searching, I’ve learned that this sorority isn’t considered one of the “hottest” at Alabama —maybe the video was intended to “rectify” that. Why else would a sorority send the kind of sites which rank “the hottest sororities in the SEC” links to its recruitment video?
“In fact, what struck me was how the 4 women hosting the Today Show segment looked exactly like they could be members.”
Are members, not could be. Jane Pauley, Deborah Norville, Katie Couric, Savannah Guthrie – all soriority girls.
TV news is chock full of former beauty paegant contestants and perky pretty soriority girls.
I’m probably not going to say this right and some people aren’t going to like it but.
I have to wonder how many black girls try to get into that particular sorority at UA and also if there are any current black members. Back in 1980 when I was a freshman at a different college my roommate wanted me to join her sorority. I didn’t join because I wasn’t into that sort of thing and also because it was a black sorority and I would have been the only white girl. So if I were black and I went to UA, I probably won’t join a sorority but if I did I wouldn’t pick the one where I would be the only non white/skinny/blond girl. Because being the minority I think would be hard at times and isn’t the point of being in a sorority to have fun?
"We actually had matching “costumes” for each party. And styled our hair the same. Which made a pixie haircut sort of subversive as these things go.
And the outfits were pretty sexy. Spaghetti straps, short skirts, heels - 40 years ago.
Are we the mama’s of these video girls?"
We didn’t have “costumes”. I suppose many of us hewed to the fashionable look of the time - which was mid 80s monogram and Shetland sweater and pearls preppy - waa that a uniform or just what the fashion was at the time? We certainly were not all blonde, we didn’t wear short skirts and stilettos, and we had racial diversity.
Jonri: It did seem to me like a video shot for the straight male gaze not the straight female gaze. I am familiar with women competing with each other for some kind of best body status. This didn’t seem like that sort of video. I don’t really know why.
"I think this has more to do with the university culture, than the specific sorority house. "
Absolutely. Their look was a southern cute girl look. Northern cute girls might have had on sweatshirts and denim and not been quite so “girly.”
When we moved, I put my kids in a public high school here in CA. After having had them in school uniforms, I was shocked by the attire I saw on teenage girls around here. The more skin exposed the better, it seemed like. Now I’m used to it, and the clothing and swimsuits in the video look fairly conservative to me. It did not strike me as dressing for men rather than women, either. It looked like normal clothing.
It isn’t the clothes. It’s the camera shots that bother me. Now I’m just repeating myself.
I think you make a fair point, alh, that the camera shots are more “male gaze” than one might have expected. Very very fair point.
I think it was pointed out early in this thread that the video was shot by men. That probably explains it.
Yeah, maybe a bit more lingering on bikini-clad tummies and bottoms than might have happened if girls were shooting other girls for their “playful day at the beach.”