At this point, I’m going back to read what blprof posted last night. And hope she shows up again here.
Wow. I have gotten a little education, and wasted a whole bunch of time. What I have learned (and maybe might have learned sooner if I had read the whole thread) is that this video is completely conventional – it is 95% the same as every other recruitment video for white sororities at the University of Alabama. Most are professionally shot and edited (and over a long period of time, too, given the number of different activities and locales portrayed). These women are spending serious bank on rush videos!
Every single video includes: a line of women in front of the stadium, from behind and from the front; bikinis; sun dresses; lying in the grass head to head; sunglasses (many of which have green lenses); hardly anyone with short hair; poppy EDM; everyone in the doorway of the house; holding up letters spelling out the sorority’s name; shots where everyone is wearing the same thing; one woman shot from behind trailing a scarf with the sorority’s name on it. Every single video includes the blowing glitter shot. Blowing glitter is much more important than I previously appreciated. Except in one video, no one talks. (In the one video where a few women said something, no one had anything approaching a Southern accent. They were either from the Northeast, or they had been voice coached.) No one studies. No one does anything not immediately recognizable as girly fun. Men do not exist.
How this video differs: It’s longer and more boring. The music is less edgy. There are many more shots of women wearing essentially the same clothes at the same time. There is less variety of body type and hair color than in any other video I saw, but these women are not (as far as I could tell) more attractive than the women in other sororities. (And, honestly, the range of body type in any of the videos is not wide.) There are no shots of the women doing something fun besides looking cute and dancing demurely with one another – like playing sports, doing backflips, or actually getting their bikinis wet. All the other videos included some silly, colorful face painting. All the other videos included some big sister-little sister shots (you knew because they were holding up signs, or holding hands without being gay). In a few of the other videos, there were actually some sisters who are sistahs – not all white sororities at UA are 100% white. (However, I didn’t notice a single Asian face in any of the videos, which kind of boggles the imagination given the composition of other sororities I have seen out and about in the past decade.) Some of the videos showed bible study or prayer going on.
I have no idea how anyone decided the Alpha Phi video was especially awful and deserving of condemnation. It was a little more boring and stiff, but essentially the same video as every other sorority. The whole genre is kind of appalling, except you know that it’s essentially impossible that all those women are as vapid as they try to make themselves seem.
This isn’t a video, but this is an example of the “other extreme.” This one happens to be Pi Beta Phi at MIT (I couldn’t find an Alpha Phi one at MIT to be exactly comparable, but it may very well exist and I’m just bad at googling).
Note how there’s a lot more diversity in ethnicity and looks (not surprising - obviously MIT will be more diverse than Alabama), and while there is still girl-fun-cuddle-hugs, there are also shots that establish some modicum of some academic and extracurricular achievement. As well as lots of travel abroad.
http://mitpibetaphi.■■■■■■■■■■/
And JHS, I, too, was not aware that blowing glitter off one’s hand was a Thing, but I gotta admit, it does look pretty cool on film.
@MichiganGeorgia, you don’t have to wonder about the numbers of black women in the sororities. As boolaHI has said a billion times, there were no black women in the panhell sororities before 2013. The national panhell sent in representatives to 2014 Rush and 24 black women pledged in the 17 houses. Were all 24 in one house? We don’t know but I’d imagine they were in a smaller number, maybe 2-6 in 10 different houses. This year 25 black women pledged. We also don’t know if the original 24 all became members or if they returned to school this year, but assuming they did, these 50 are part of the approximately 400 minority member in the last two year to have joined houses. There are some women who joined in the previous years who are now juniors and seniors too.
Alpha Phi returned to Alabama in 2008 after thirty or so years away. It is not one of the ‘old’ houses, but it is very large with over 350 members and a big big house.
Here’s a Yale sorority recruitment video: https://youtu.be/ebUS0yaps7Y
No shots of studying or no philanthropy info, but they got the football, dancing and bikinis in, and I even think I saw the word “Twerking” on someone’s shirt. Lol
"anyone with short hair; poppy EDM; everyone "
What is poppy EDM?
Electronic Dance Music that sounds more like Pop Music.
Well, if my only company is the NYT, I don’t feel so lonely–http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/nytnow/sorority-video-generates-charges-of-discrimination.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0
"Here’s a Yale sorority recruitment video: https://youtu.be/ebUS0yaps7Y
No shots of studying or no philanthropy info, but they got the football, dancing and bikinis in, and I even think I saw the word “Twerking” on someone’s shirt. Lol"
You’d think the gals at Yale would be smart enough to know to include the glitter blow shot and the heads together on the ground shot. Which appear to be required by some sort of federal soriority video code of regulations. I bet the Yalies get made fun of at their national conference as being amateurs.
NYT is the ultimate arbiter of things. Nobody can argue with NYT.
I have to say, when Yale and twerking are mentioned in the same sentence, it becomes ironic and amusing…not so much for others.
You don’t think they twerk at Toad’s, boolahi?
Trick Q, if I comment, I will have to answer to Mrs. Boola on why I was in Toads. See, my counselor for an official response…wink.
We could all just tell in the Yale video that their eyes were red from studying, not drinking. They just looked smarter in their bikinis. Most weren’t blonde.
How is this any different from “The Bachelor”? A bunch of pretty girls, but no racial diversity to speak of.
This video objectifies women. It just does.
For some reason the Yale video doesn’t seem as offensive to me. It’s also about girls having fun but it comes across much more natural, not this “if you ain’t blond you don’t belong”. Everything about that AL video just seems so fake, from the obviously fake blond hair to the fake smiles, fake tan, possibly quite a few fake boobs and nose jobs. God forbid if one of them has crooked/yellow teeth, don’t even think about rushing! Is this a video about college life or spring break at club med? And if that’s not pathetic enough, there are those bitching about not being able to join the club! This is why no innovation ever comes out of the Southeast. Not only are they hanging on too tight to tradition, but they are hanging on to stupid traditions. AFAIC “tradition” is just euphemism for “outdated customs”. Time to move on.
To whoever said these girls don’t look like brain surgeons. God no. People who spend that much time on their appearances have no time for STEM degrees. The goal of these girls is never to grow up to be brain surgeons, but to look cute enough to marry one. I’ll be sure to remind my son again to stay away from such women when he’s in medical school.
But it’s also clearer now why Ronald Nelson turned down 8 Ivies to attend AL. I can just see him pledging. Let me in! I’m only part black…mostly white, I swear!
All in the name of “Education”.
Some girls just naturally look beautiful. My girls could be out of the house in less than half an hour if necessary, and they probably look better than many of those Bama Alpha Phi women. D1 has a STEM degree, and she makes more money than most doctors. I think people should stop being so judgmental.
I’m kind of surprised that they made a point of showcasing the 1932 chapter founding date in their video, then, but perhaps that’s just an artifact of coming from a Greek system where all four current sorority chapters have been in continuous operation for more than 95 years, with three of them over 100,
As for the video, I actually got the impression that it was shot over 1-2 days, which is why you see their house, the football field, and some sort of water trip. I do think some of shots are a bit objectifying, but I don’t get the huge objection to “Women having fun!!! How dare they!” that seems to undercut some of these posts.
With regards to racial/ethnic diversity. it’s been an issue across the NPC (and perhaps the NPHC), although I think it is getting better, especially outside of the big southern schools. Although my campus was pretty non-diverse itself (state school in a state that’s 90% White), my sorority was considerably more diverse in the campus in terms of race/ethnicity, and I took pride in that.
“Judgmental” does not begin to describe some of the posts in this thread. Have any of the poster’s who have labeled the video as “vapid” seen some of the recruiting videos put out by fraternities? Or is it just easier to “pile on” a group of women?
And @boolaHI my suggestion to you is to practice some of the inclusiveness, tolerance and acceptance you preach about on this forum.
Based on Pizzagirl’s two reviews in #219 and #222, I’m going to have to take a look at it.