I’m totally on board with the concept that attractive women can be smart – that’s completely self-evident – and, in my view, smart women are well-served by presenting themselves as attractive because beauty is power in our society. Why leave potential power on the table?
Also, as a straight woman, I, like many other women, get pleasure from the attractiveness and beauty of other women. Ii like being around attractive women.
That said, I found that sorority video kind of irritating. Not outrageous, not horrible, but just mildly irritating.
I tried to analyze why, and this is what I came up with:
The women using this video as a marketing tool are just so blatantly saying that the single quality that they value above all others is looks. The women in the sorority may be smart or dumb, witty or dull, talented or untalented, but the video seems to be saying that the one trait that is valued above all else in a potential friend is conventional good looks -- that's the single necessary component that you need to possess to qualify for our friendship. Who knows if that is sufficient for membership but it certainly seems to be necessary. That's kind of off putting.
The video further seems to imply that there is a single standard of good looks that is applied, and that conformance to that standard is prized above everything else. It's almost like the Westminster Dog Show, where physical conformance to a breed standard is judged. Such a narrow vision of beauty! And presented so smugly! Even if the standard is skinny white girls, it would be nice to see, for example, a young Charlotte Rampling in the mix.
And speaking of skinny white girls, as a marketing strategy in 2015, it just seems so anachronistic and tin-eared and completely out of touch to produce a marketing video like this! There's just a marketing LOOK that has been the standard for 30 years, since the Benetton ads in the 80s, that the modern eye expects. To flout that present day standard just seems off. Haven't these women ever seen a yogurt ad? Or even a law firm marketing brochure? The deviation from the expected standard in this one way -- while so obviously conforming to conventional aesthetic in so many other ways is disconcerting and off-putting. The modern eye expects to see at least a nod to diversity (no matter how disingenuous it is).
The modern aesthetic eye also expects to see a nod toward celebration of the individual. Quirkiness and individuality are prized in today's aesthetic landscape. To see a video where any sense of individuality is erased is kind of freaky.
Anyway, those are some of the things that bugged me about the video from an aesthetic standpoint. Again, mild annoyance more closely describes my reaction than outrage.
I think these videos are a modern day version of the old photo collages of members being together that you still see on some webpages. Sororities are mostly about friendship and that is a little hard to show in pictures other than having the women together smiling with each other, walking together, hanging out, etc. If this is what the women in the house look like, I don’t see how they can portray themselves looking differently than they do. I think they are darling.
@cmsjmt - I am not taking it personally. My kids do not go to AL. I just find your posts to be distasteful the way you describe women and are totally untrue. You may need a lot of time to make yourself look attractive, but it is not necessarily the case for other women. Some women can actually look attractive and pursue a meaningful major/career, and able to support themselves without depending on someone else to support them.
Many of us on this board are not strangers to each other, and we do care about what others say on this board, or we wouldn’t be here.
"And speaking of skinny white girls, as a marketing strategy in 2015, it just seems so anachronistic and tin-eared and completely out of touch to produce a marketing video like this! There’s just a marketing LOOK that has been the standard for 30 years, since the Benetton ads in the 80s, that the modern eye expects. "
Great observation.
Which is why … Again, it all needs to be taken in the context of the school and in this case the part of the country. That “look” IS their ideal of beauty down there, where it wouldn’t be in a more urban or diverse part of the country.
Has anyone ever read preppy blogs such as Southern Vogue or Kappaprep (no longer active)? There is a certain affluent Southern prep aesthetic and this look fits right in. It’s a different aesthetic from elsewhere - esp parts of the country where you will just see, if nothing else, more darker haired and darker complected women and a less “girly glitter” look. It looks a little twee to my northern eye - but I bet the northern girls look ragged and unpolished to their eyes. If Alumother were here, she could deconstruct it.
And remember, they are speaking to their audience who eats this up like candy - not to hipsters from Brooklyn or suburban mothers from Minneapolis.
Oh good lord. I can go on my Facebook right now and find people who are black, and Indian, and East Asian, and Hispanic, and Jewish, and all kinds of things non-WASP, who were Alpha Phis inducted 25, 30 years ago. And a bunch of WASPs too. And even Catholics!!
For the gazillionth time, this differs by school and by student body caliber.
“One question that this brings up is, is it normal for most people’s social circles to be highly racially segregated to the level seen in sororities? I.e. is the level of racial segregation seen in sororities merely a reflection of how people (college students or otherwise) typically choose their social circles with respect to race and ethnicity, or does it go significantly beyond even that? If it is reflective of how people typically choose their social circles, then we have a long way to go.”
My closest friends IRL are mostly white, and mostly Catholic or Jewish. Most are upper middle class (though that spans a wide range). Is there something wrong with that?
I think it’s only fair to note that diversity at these Southern Greeks is a hard nut to crack, in part because of the robust alternate system of historically black sororities and fraternities. It puts an individual black student in a difficult position, especially if he or she is not particularly interested in being a trailblazer. This is a problem that the video demonstrates–and reinforces, to some extent. What does a black or Asian girl think when she sees the video?
I think @nottelling nails quite well just what it is about the video that suggests vapidity–that it’s all about looks. Other videos (like the Yale one, for example) don’t focus on this quite so much, although even the Yale one is well designed to repel somebody like my daughter.
Bonus question: would you feel better or worse about the UA sorority if it was revealed that it included a significant number of less attractive girls who were not featured in the video?
I didn’t see anything in the video excerpts even remotely attractive. It’s interesting that the house has a GPA below 3.00, yet they put together a recruiting video that would be sure to work against improving that.
If looking good is mostly what this particular house is about, I don’t see anything wrong with that. Some people are lucky to be born with high IQs, or math aptitudes and if a sorority attracted those types and built its video around those traits, then people here on CC would probably be oohing and aahing over how amazing it is.
Businesses, hobbies and entire industries are built around people trying to look good, and some careers place value on their employees’ ability to look good, so I don’t understand why some people judge this very prominent and obvious aspect of our lives to be “vapid” or make these women “look stupid.” If you are the type of woman who does not care about looking good, then you won’t be attracted to join this house, and that is fine. These women are probably not interested in having many members around who are going to denigrate something that is important to them anyway.
“It’s interesting that the house has a GPA below 3.00, yet they put together a recruiting video that would be sure to work against improving that.”
Perhaps raising the house GPA isn’t a major goal of theirs. Again, these girls are not at MIT (where the tumblr I posted has links to companies /projects their girls worked at).
The whole thing is too twee for my personal tastes, but it’s not “controversial” in the sense of promoting something unethical or bad IMO.
I mean, I don’t get into sports boosterism but a video that features all the fun of tailgating and painting your face team colors isn’t “controversial” or unethical or wrong - it’s just not my style.
Anyway, better that they are honest about what they are. A prospective Alabama student enticed by the $ they throw can look at these videos and say - is this my cup of tea or not.
Right. The fact that they are all thin, beautiful, and glittery and portray themselves as vapid isn’t a problem; it’s just an observation. (Well, maybe it’s a problem if you think overemphasis of looks is a bad thing for girls.)
The fact that they’re all white is a problem, but it’s not necessarily the problem of these specific girls. If they would be happy to pledge a (thin, beautiful) black girl, but haven’t been able to do so yet, I wouldn’t expect them to import a fake black sister for the recruitment video.
Perhaps not necessarily on an individual level. But, on a societal level, if people of different races and ethnicities lead largely segregated lives, it is easy to see how inaccurate stereotyping and racial and ethnic discrimination stick around. (SES segregation can lead to similar issues with respect to SES.)
What’s the deal with Asian and Hispanic women at Alabama? The other sorority recruitment videos I saw had plenty of women with brown hair, and a few with non-flat tummies or large bones, and even a smattering of African-Americans. But I didn’t see anyone who looked Chinese or Indian, or who looked probably Hispanic. (I know: Hispanic isn’t a racial category. For all I know they are all Hispanic, and I know Hispanic women who looked like that at 20. But most Hispanic women in this country, including those in Alabama I guess, are not quite so purely Aryan looking.)
Do they have their own sororities too? Do they join the African-American sororities? Do they not go to Alabama in the same numbers they attend other public universities? It’s one thing to say that it’s hard for the White sororities to recruit Black women, because they have a strong sorority system of their own. I believe that. But the White sororities I have seen around here have lots of non-white women in them who are not African-American. Why is that not the case at Alabama, unless discrimination is still really active there?
Right. So it’s hardly shocking, for example, that the Alpha Phis at Alabama don’t have Asian students but the Alpha Phis at Berkeley and MIT (and Cornell, and Northwestern, and so forth) do.