I, for one, am grateful for the video. Without the attention and thread, I never would have known that recruiting videos are a thing. Since they are a thing, I’m checking out any that I can find for the schools that the PBK will be applying to.
It would be an interesting exercise to keep everything the same but substitute all short chubby dark haired non-white girls in the Alphi Phi video and see if anyone criticizes them for looking “sexualized,” or “brainless” or like “Cabbage Patch bimbos,” or “bubble-headed ninnies.”
Why would that be interesting, Bay?
Because I think there is a stereotype bias against blond white women who wear make up and skimpy clothes.
Editing to add: …that people feel no reservations about vocalizing.
@Bay, do you think blonde white women who wear make up and skimpy clothes self-segregate on the basis of these attributes?
I am always surprised to be reminded, yet again, that it is white people who are the real victims of racial stereotyping.
Don’t deflect; no one said that.
Not any more than other women with similar physical characteristics do, no.
Oh, come on. It’s just a variation of what we read here all the time on topics like this. Indeed, it’s pretty funny for you to suggestion that my comment was some kind of deflection.
For what it’s worth, I have no trouble criticizing what non-white people do. I haven’t seen similar videos for non-white sororities, but if they exist, they can be critiqued as well. I certainly have seen–and criticized as shamefully trashy–many music videos featuring non-white people, and especially women. So I’m not impressed–and never am impressed–by the old “nobody would dare criticize black or Muslim people this way!,” of which your post is simply another version." People dare all the time.
Ok, so I guess that means you would say the same things about them as you did for these women, good to know.
I get tired of the double-standard that white people cannot point out a double-standard without being criticized for it.
Since time immemorial, the pathetic comeback, “Oh, you’re just jealous” has been the standard response from a certain sort of person any time a woman criticizes behavior that objectifies women.
Really, it’s yet another occasion for an eyeroll.
I get tired of people pointing the finger at somebody else when a criticism hits too close to home.
Jealousy is a human emotion. I don’t roll my eyes at it, I understand it.
Bay, one thing I have difficulty understanding in your posts is whether you see a difference in criticism of a culture as opposed to criticism of individuals who belong to, or participate in that culture, perhaps through no agency of their own.
@Bay I have seen relatively few responses criticizing the “blond white women,” or even what they are wearing. Rather, it is what they are doing (or not doing as the case may be), who they are interacting with, etc.
Would anyone object going to a university of all thin, white, blond university professors? Probably not, if they were outstanding teachers, were highly respected in their various disciplines, and if they represented a wide variety of social, political and religious views.
There is absolutely no indication that the girls in this video want to do anything other than bounce around and throw glitter, or that they are willing to do even that with anyone else who doesn’t look exactly like them. It is the narrowness of the experience people are objecting to, IMO.
The disagreement I have with your analysis alh, is that after viewing the Alpha Phi video 6 times, I do not see these women as “sexualized” in it, nor am I put off by them having no books or philanthropy included in the video (like the Yale women didn’t). I don’t perceive a culture in the video that offends me. Since the women in the video apparently liked their product, I don’t see any argument that they have somehow been “objectified,” but I tend not to look at the actions of women as coming from a place of victimhood.
If the video was full of short, chubby, dark haired, non-white girls primping, blowing glitter, hugging prop puppies and showing off their “assets”, then yeah, I’d be making the same criticisms.
BTW, I find the suggestion that as an attractive, fit, middle-aged woman I see these women as competition highly insulting.
midwestdad3,
Neither do I feel compelled to criticize women who choose to bounce and throw glitter. If these women truly do nothing but go to college and hang out with their friends, I am not offended by that in the least, nor do I judge them to be “lesser” because of it.
They do not look exactly alike.
“Hanna, alh and Cardinal Fang are going to have fits over that one.”
Where is this coming from? Can you name the post where I had a “fit” over some previous video, and point out what language I used that constitutes a “fit”?
Every single post I’ve made addressed the fact that the university publicly chided its own organization. We DO NOT KNOW whether there were any other private consequences. If FSU is happy with this sort of public image, fine. Alabama isn’t.
I’m not “offended” by this video, either. All I’ve done is describe what this particular advertisement seems to be selling, and it appears that a lot of people see the same thing. I can’t help it if some people don’t recognize that the giant shoes, face paint, and red wig are intended to signal to us that Ronald McDonald is a clown.
Two things to add: If anybody should be offended by this video, it should be the people who are always singing the praises of Greek organizations by pointing to their philanthropy, the strong relationships and networks they build, the support for academics, and so on.
Second, I often see commercials on TV in which the actors say or do something stupid. My comment in such situations is, “Are they telling us that this product is aimed at stupid people?” This is kind of like that.
738 - Bay - we frequently have differences of perception. It was clear on sweatsuit thread.
Please remember I haven’t criticized any video for lacking books or philanthropy mentions. After watching I-don’t-know -how-many-videos without those elements, I was surprised at the ones this morning, which included them. And they made me wonder what the norm for this genre really is.
The culture depicted in the Alabama video doesn’t offend me. The video itself offends me. I was using “culture” in a much broader sense thinking of many threads where I’ve followed your posts.