I asked my friend whose parents paid for HBO and she said it stands for Home Box Office. It was the first channel where you could watch movies without the commercials.
We’re a strict Disney+/Netflix/Paramount+ family over here, so no HBO, and this isn’t convincing us to sign up, either. We’re good.
Because you don’t want to actually see the documentary about which you have such strong opinions? 
I know nothing about UA. I only know I watched this trailer and thought “how sad”. Young women minimized to the utmost.
They have had a few successful shows such as The Sopranos, The Wire, Game of Thrones , Sex in the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm to name a few. They also have a highly acclaimed and award winning library of documentaries…
Surprised it wouldn’t have been on your radar screen.
To compare HBO-produced documentaries to MTV’s “Real World” series is, well, something else. HBO has long been an acknowledged producer of important documentaries. The above link has 25 of those.
I wasn’t really interested in this topic, but was just following the discussion. Given the excellent nature of HBO’s documentaries and the interest this thread is generating, I might actually try to catch it before I make any substantive comments on Greek life at Alabama.
FYI to anyone that truly wants to watch the BAMA documentary - if you have AT&T Unlimited for wireless, they let you get HBO Max for free. At least that’s how it worked recently. I know I’ll be watching.
I just watched an interview she gave about her doc on Selma Blair’s struggle with MS, and would agree that she appears legit. She isn’t looking to take down Bama’s Greek culture. Having struggled with alopecia herself, she is looking to showcase very personal stories in an honest, but uplifting light.
What is this thing called AT&T you reference😀
Vanderbilt did in 1986 with one girl getting an invite. I remember it made national news and cameras were everywhere that week.
Does the director of a movie (documentary or not) or TV show usually have much to do with the marketing and trailers? For some reason, I thought the directors had little to do with the marketing side.
Anyway, in my experience, trailers quite often give a distorted view of the film. Whoever makes them always seems to select the most high impact clips but then when I see the movie, those clips are few and far between. Sometimes the actual movie is disappointing in comparison, but other times, the actual film is more nuanced and subtle, and I like it better.
Are you being facetious or are you genuinely not familiar with HBO, which has been recognized for decades for having among the highest quality original programming on television?
I am not saying everything they have ever broadcast is highbrow, and I am not assessing the quality of this documentary…because I haven’t actually seen it yet. I am just surprised by your characterization of it.
I believe there is an HBO documentary on it… 
People will lose their minds when they start hearing about “basement girls”, rush counselors, cultivating your social media, summer parties…The entire process is insane. However, having loved all the TicTok videos, I would put SMU over the Bama girls ANY DAY for the sheer insanity of the money spent on clothes and jewelry. Those SMU girls take it to another level.
What I also found insane was “The Machine.” I was stunned to read about how powerful this group was/is. I will be most interested in this documentary hopefully detailing more about this.
I guess I have lived a very sheltered life to not realize this stuff goes on. But to co-opt a university, its student government, state and local politics etc is seriously remarkable to me.
I’m a Verizon customer. I’m sure that’s funny, too. 
We don’t qualify for financial aid, so no unnecessary subscriptions for us.
Fun fact: I did used to purchase dresses on sale of a certain popular brand online from midwest stores that had excess inventory and resell them to the other sorority girls. This was back in the Stone Age. I paid for a beach trip with my boyfriend at the time using this money. And yes, I filed a tax return.
I googled and saw a blog article about this topic from one of the subjects in which the she whined about having to buy a twinset for a sorority event. I wore that twinset to work for three years after graduation until it wore out. I always found the clothing help useful for building up a work wardrobe.
To each her own.
If you want to compare Greek culture at different campuses, here is a very easy (yet admittedly unscientific) way to do it.
Go to greekrank.com
Remember, most of the people responding on that site are either there to make their house or their girlfriend’s house look good. They do this by saying good things about their house and bad things about other houses. It’s pretty interesting what they choose to say and how they say it. Most of the big greek schools are all about “tiers” while the quirkier schools with small, non-competitive greeks systems actually have nice things to say about each other.
And, yes, I totally agree that the whole “ranking” thing is dumb. That’s the point. You are joining into a system where some people live and die by their house’s ranking.
The advice I gave my own kids and others that have asked is to NOT go to the house with a high ranking simply because those houses work hard on their status. Go to the house where the guys/girls are there because they like each other and have a lot in common (even if that is being a nerd). Those are the houses where you’re more likely to find people that you really want to hang out with outside of “the system”.
I think I agree that those who said the Greek culture in the south is completely different than in the north. There is actually something like a recruiting firm I heard in Texas that grooms girls for a “top tier” sorority at Bama. Again could be a rumor. Also saw videos on tik tok of girls not getting their top choice at Bama and dropping out and rushing at ole miss.
I believe the “plan on rushing” posts are part of the pre-college rush prep that has become a whole industry with paid consultants/coaches.
To get into the “right” house, they are told they need to build a curated series of videos on TikTok, insta, etc…They need letters of rec from the “right” people, they need to have their dorm room fully decorated on early move in weekend and of course shared on social media, etc…they are not all at this level, but that is the reality some are choosing.
Analogy to unhooked students competing for elite college admissions: To get into the “right” college, they are told they need to build a curated series of extracurricular activities with high achievement… They need letters of rec from the “right” people who will write what admissions readers want to read… They need to have every part of their application (course selection, grades, SAT/ACT scores, essays) decorated with the perfection that admissions readers want to read, but not look too “packaged”… They are not all at this level, but that is the reality some are choosing.
While the Alabama sorority rush process starting before college can seem over-the-top for many posting here, would the four year audition for elite college admissions that is the high school experience for some students posting or mentioned here seem over-the-top to many other high school students?
A friend from college (and my sorority sister) is a personal stylist for a high-end department store in a northern state. Each summer she posts examples on her social media of rush outfit capsules that she’s put together for clients who are headed to SEC schools (she mentions the schools). Based on the department store and the brands of dresses, which she links, these girls (parents) are spending a couple thousand on rush outfits. I know not everyone spends that much but it’s an example of how serious some are about the process - especially coming from a northern state, which can be an uphill battle at some southern colleges.
Love this! A group of 13 of my sorority sisters and I have been getting together yearly going on 28 years!
We joke all the time about how different (and embarrassing) things would have been if we had social media back in 1985! It’s bad enough that there are physical pictures around somewhere, stuck together in a box in someone’s attic 