Finding something tedious, is hardly sexist…I’m with Hunt on this one.
The video is one part of all the information the PNM receive or have access to before Rush. They get all kinds of info on gpa requirements (they have to have a certain gpa, some houses higher than others), philanthropy (although I don’t imagine anyone picks one house over another because the beneficiary is cancer and not children’s reading programs), colors, flowers, famous alums, activities the house sponsors, how many members are cheerleaders or athletes or officers in other clubs. None of it really matters. Cost, however, is a big issue as some houses charge thousands more than others.
I agree with BoolaHi that there is a problem with segregation at Alabama (and a lot of other schools too, not just in the south) and the discrimination needs to stop. It’s not going to happen overnight and it is good to see the numbers get better over the last 2 years. Is the solution to get rid of all the houses? Merge the black sororities into the white ones? Never going to happen. I think one way change will happen is if a new house comes on campus and the initial group (chosen by alums and national officers) is more diverse from the beginning. The girls come in as equals, they continue to recruit from all groups. However, if the university continues to be 80% white and 20% minority, I don’t think you’ll see student groups be any different. At Alabama to be strong, the group has to have a house, and those houses cost $5-10 million. Only an established Greek organization can afford that.
I don’t know. They may not be vapid but there weren’t clues to suggest any more depth (our GPA is x, we have students involved in xyz campus organizations, we raised $x for charity Y last year). I gotta say, I AM used to those being “talking points”.
From where I sat, one of the biggest things you could brag about was - we have girls involved in (list litany of activities - sports, theater, student govt, academic interest clubs). Maybe that’s not a point of pride in southern houses the way it is up north.
The Europeans are wondering why those prudes still insisted on wearing their swimsuit tops.
D1 and her best friend did a power point presentation to a group of college students about the Greek system when she studied abroad. They were fascinated, a lot of good questions and discussion. D1 said she utilized her presentation and marketing skills.
It’s page 3 girl. Sorry, haven’t been to England in a few years. CMSJMT’s Euros are making fun of me for that now, too. Oh well.
The only diversity in that video was that one girl had a one-piece bathing suit. I didn’t even see a single one with short hair.
My scientific analysis was that they looked like a bunch of bubbleheaded ninnies. (I guess that’s sexist, in that I would probably refer to a similar group of men as boneheaded dolts.) They may all be brilliant, but that video portrays them as pretty darn vapid. But as I said before, I’m interested in whether the issue is that it misrepresents them (and their college) or whether it represents the reality.
159 and #160
Really? Based on a several minute (or seconds) on-camera appearance, you can conclude that these women are vapid? If that does not make you sexist, then it at least makes you extremely judgmental. Which is ironic.
I did a Youtube search on a few other houses at Alabama and most were dancing videos, not talking points. All seemed to include a shot in front of the stadium, girls on the grass with their heads in a circle, swimming, jumping and singing. The clips from Arizona and Miami and Penn State are the same. I also searched for Harvard and it was a woman sitting in a chair talking about how much she liked being in her group. Boring! (but maybe that target audience liked it?)
I think the philanthropies and money raising and gpa’s and who is president of the student body ARE talking points at the Rush parties, just like the salary is discussed when you get the job offer, not in the info given to you before the job interview.
I’m going to look closely at my sorority newsletter. I don’t recall seeing much diversity, other than hair color and weight. Perhaps cuz it was a Jewish sorority? It was also closer to campus, less costly, and had better food than my freshman dorm.
It’s an ad, which, to my eyes is actually selling vapidity. If there are willing buyers, I don’t see a problem with that.
It’s kind of like an ad for Disney Cruise Lines. It wouldn’t be an insult, necessarily, to describe such an ad as selling a homogenized, sanitized vacation experience for middle-class people. That’s the market niche.
Find me a European university that prides itself on its greek life, drinking/partying, cheerleaders, football teams, climbing walls, lazy rivers, 50 person jacuzzis. America’s universities are increasingly becoming a circus side show. And then we whine and complain about how expensive it is to get an “education”.
Meanwhile, from the Alpha Phi home page,
two African American women featured (among others).
Ugwechi Amadi of MIT, named a Rhodes Scholar.
Janice Bonsu, of JHU, named pres of Hopkins student government.
Perhaps at some schools members achieving notable awards/ positions is a point of pride to put forth in membership materials and maybe at others it’s of little relevance / bragging rights.
Like I said, I’m not surprised Alabama portrays itself like this. It ain’t MIT or JHU.
Maybe we need to acknowledge that college students tend to self-segregate – possibly because they’re away from home and on their own and at least a little uncomfortable. Associating primarily with people whose backgrounds are similar to their own may be comforting.
I did it. I was one of the relatively few kids on an Ivy League campus who was a first-generation college student. And I came from a family that hadn’t had much money over the years (although we were doing well during my years in college). I was uncomfortable in the presence of more sophisticated and affluent classmates. So I found myself developing friendships with people like me – those who were either first generation, on tight budgets, or both. And those people became my college “family.” We were an ethnically mixed group, but that wasn’t uncomfortable for us since we had all gone to high schools that were like that and were accustomed to having friends of different nationalities and religions. But in other ways, we weren’t diverse at all.
Is this really all that different from a sorority where all the girls look alike?
Tedious is a subject scale. I get the same feeling, when my girls were younger, and I walked, more life dragged, into an Abercrombie and Fitch, just ad nauseam tedium…
"‘The more relevant question is whether any white or any other ethnicity, for that matter, wanted to join these groups, and if so, were they systemically eliminated because of race?’
You can’t simultaneously think that these girls are trivial, trifling, shallow bimbos and in the same breath be bummed that you can’t join them. wanting to join them must mean that they are appealing, no?"
@Pizzagirl, one can simultaneously be dismayed by the superficiality and shallowness of this group (“I’d hope my D would never want to join such a group”) and also want equal opportunity and non-discrimination even in groups of “trivial, trifling, shallow bimbos.”
Once we solved the problem of racial and other equality for the group you describe as “trivial, trifling, shallow bimbos,” of course, we will then have to deal with lookism.
I think it’s notable that, based on the video, at least, this is a pretty large group of women who really do look a lot alike. They are all thin and attractive, with long hair (in addition to being all white, as best as I can tell). This sends a pretty powerful message about who this sorority is for. That’s probably what is affecting many of us, if only subconsciously.
So let me see, at this point what has been said about these young ladies? (Any of which BTW could be said to look a lot like my own daughter).
We have called them “triveling”, “Barbie dolls”, “empty-headed”, “dumb blonds”, “thoroughly pedestrian”, a “bad conscription of consumer culture”, “impossible to take seriously”, “mindless” and “vapid”. They are not really even attractive, not really “my cup of tea” anyway. When I see them all together, with nary a person of color around, even if they are baking cookies, I need to know how come.
Let me ask you something, boolaHI. What if I started a new thread and linked a video of a Divine 9 fraternity or sorority, and followed up on all the twerking and grinding with equivalently disparaging remarks about their subculture, someone that could look an awful lot like your own son or daughter? What if I said girls like that don’t really look like my cup of tea? What if I said that when I see young men who look like that doing some activity together, I need to know what they are up to?
Why do folks in this thread feel free to make such remarks about these young ladies, but wouldn’t dare to do so in the other context? I would never do so BTW, for the simple reason is that it isn’t how I want to be treated myself or to have my own children treated. I have reached the end of my runway with this kind of blatant hypocrisy and frankly just lack of civility. I don’t tolerate it anymore, and I call it out when I see it.
I think they are particularly WASPy looking too in terms of personal presentation. NTTAWWT of course. They’re entitled to look how they choose.
When you net out the issue, it becomes another “rich, good-looking white people are not allowed to congregate” thread.