D2 is head of rush (or some major role) at her sorority this coming year. She has a plan/strategy. It is a very serious business. She views it as important as the major volunteer conference she organized last year for her school.
Really, what an age old stereotype of blonde women. My own D is blonde haired, blue eyed and looks like she just fell off a beach in Malibu. And yes, she likes the beach, wears a bikini and hangs out with her friends, some of whom look remarkably similar. She is also highly intelligent, a deep thinker and will enter her first year of college as an engineering major.
These girls are only going to be young once, let them enjoy themselves and be who they are. Why is it that certain segments of society are supposed to do all the âacceptingâ but then are expected to either apologize for or deny who they themselves are?
And for what itâs worth, whatâs with the assumption that these human Barbie dolls are found to be attractive by everyoneâI frankly do not. Not my cup of tea, thoroughly pedestrian and rather some bad conscription of consumer cultureâ
And here is the thing, people who chair academic departments and their faculty want to be taken seriously- Iâm not sure, they appreciate that they are subordinate to any institutionâsort of provincial for you to suggest as much.
I personally know Alpha Phis (not from Alabama) who attended top tier law schools, b-schools, med schools, and have all kinds of impressive professional credentials in various fields. Off the top of my head - an award-winning author, a top banana in the PR field, an entrepreneur associated with Tesla/Elon Musk, several TV producers, a federal judge, a pathologist, a senior exec at HBO, a journalist at the NYTimes, and several women who are leaders in my particular field. Not to worry. Smart and attractive is a great combo.
boolaHI - Letâs hope they are not your cup of tea at your age.
Well, that goes without saying-wink.
If they had highlighted such things Iâm rather sure the ad would not have been pulled. It begs a more serious question on how they want to present themselves and their organizationâŠ
I suspect they presented themselves pretty much exactly as they intended to. They wished to convey darling, cute, fun, sisterhood, love, warmth, girly stuff to appeal to a certain type of girl - who is not in short supply at the U of Alabama. If they had wished to convey âserious academicsâ or âwe bond through philanthropyâ they could have easily done so.
I am not saying that you cannot be blonde, sexy and smart! Or that no pretty girls are successful or no Alpha Phis are (my sister was an Alpha Phi from another school and is very successful!) Yes, smart and attractive is a âgreat combo.â I myself am a lawyer and college professor, and while I never looked quite like these girls, Iâd like to think I was pretty attractive. What I find objectionable is that the girls would portray themselves in this specific manner in this video. The only assets they are portraying are the physical ones.
I also get that they were targeting a specific audience that may not care about the academics or philanthropy - but is no one else seriously bothered by that?? These are, after all, college students, not contestants for Miss USA (although I guess some of them are probably both.) There is nothing wrong with enjoying your appearance and having fun, but that canât and shouldnât be everything . . . Are we to suggest that there should be no standards for anything, just as long as everyone is having a good time and enjoying themselves?
You need to open your mind. They portrayed their marketing brilliance. 
I am ok with physical assetâŠif I could only go back in time.
Well, the point is that they obvious made a mistake and a large one at thatâŠ
@blprof Well said.
@bay - yes, sadly. I thought the Swedish Bikini Team was a relic of the past though. Canât remember what beer that was for.
What was their mistake? They got national coverage. That is brilliant.
Almost every house at every school in the south has some kind of video online now like this. This was based on a similar video from a different sorority at UMiami. It is an advertisement. Does Victoria Secretâs not use the prettiest models they can find? Do colleges not pick the beautiful cheerleaders or chisel-chinned Gatsby twin to grace the cover of the brochures?
At my daughterâs school, it was a pretty awful one produced by panhell where they let the presidents of the houses speak and list the philanthropic activities, the colors and symbols. It was a terrible sales job and totally boring. The sororities at 'Bama want to show they are fun, young, active. They arenât trying to sell themselves to parents but to 17 and 18 year old girls, and it worked.
An advertisement.
Is no one bothered that sexist advertising is so pervasive that we just shrug and say, âhey, good job - sex sellsâ? And that these girls obviously drank the kool-aid? Shouldnât an institution of higher education be instilling critical thinking skills in their students (between beer pong games, I guess.) One point of college is to be expanding your thinking, questioning the world, the status quo, and figuring out how to make the world better. I guess thatâs too much to expect though . . .
I can only speak for myself, but I would be disappointed if any of my 3 daughters were involved in such a production, it almost borders on being brilliantly sardonic. And the two previous daughters had no such brouchere or ridiculous advertisement, I guess CAL and Yale are really behind the times. Iâll be sure to write the chancellorâs office to say, a dignified history, upper margin academics and a sense of purpose to society is passe, and that we need to kick it up with titilation and the frivolous.
My girls have very good critical thinking skills (thank-you very much), but they also play beer pong games, while expanding their thinking. My very pretty D2 interned at a district attorney office this summer and managed to find the smoking gun (literally) after viewing 5+ surveillance tapes.
@blprof - you are expecting too little. Women can be attractive, fun, playful, smart, powerful, well spoken. Just because those women were frolicking, didnât mean they were stupid.
I donât have a daughter, but I was in a sorority many years ago, and Alpha Phi was on my shortlist (joined a different house at a different school). I have mixed feelings on this video. Yes, the women are young and doing what many young college women do (trying to look their best, have a great time, etc.). On the other hand, Iâm not sure Iâd want my hypothetical daughterâs bikini-clad self strolling around with the Phi flag billowed behind her for the rest of time (though we donât see her face which I guess is good).
Believe it or not you really do change over the course of 25 years. At some point you will probably be somebodyâs mom. Maybe your house wonât even be that big a factor in your life anymore. Maybe youâll want to be known for something other than being âhotâ and in the ârightâ sorority.
Itâs hard because this stuff stays âout thereâ forever. Maybe thatâs not a big deal. Personally I am very glad we didnât have social media when I was in college.