Oh, how I love this! My mom would have done the same!
I have a friend who went to Bama for a semester in the 70s through some sort of academic exchange. She attended a flagship in the NW and she was in a sorority there. Decades later, I still ply her with wine to hear her tales of showing up at her sorority at Bama with hopes of insta-sisterhood and her discovery that her home sorority and this one had nothing in common except the greek letters over the door.
Yes, the idea for a reality show was originally loosely on an old PBS documentary. That doesn’t make them equivalent in type or kind.
Yet you were equating an actual documentary (HBO) with a sensationalistic reality show because of a short trailer. That’s the problem problem people had with your statement.
To be clear that’s the Public Broadcasting Service a non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia, right?
what’s an MTV, though?
Yes, we’re on the same page here! Not to be confused with HBO, or MTV, or CNN, or ATT, or BBC, or…
“First broadcast in 1992, the show, which was inspired by the 1973 PBS documentary series An American Family…”
I don’t get this statement. “Unpopular” by who? And #1 by what standard and who voted them that?
It’s just “known” on campus. Even though I was a total nerd, I knew which sororities were considered “the best.” Tri Delt (Farrah Fawcett was in UT’s chapter) was THE top.
I remember being amused at how dressed up the sorority girls got for UT football games. Wow. The last time I went to a game, they weren’t quite so fancy, but I got a kick out of the style of short cowboy boots paired with baby doll dresses. Kind of bizarre.
Is there a USNWR business opportunity to start publishing rankings of sororities and fraternities like it does for colleges?
On campuses with 15-20 sororities and even more fraternities, there tends to be a hierarchy. Students generally regard certain houses as “cool” or not, more desirable to certain kinds of kids or not. Sororities match up with fraternities to socialize and that reinforces the perceptions. Cooler ones are usually wealthier, and often whiter. Some kids will care more than others whether they get into a top tier house, but most kids will recognize the same hierarchy.
My older daughter started college in 2020 and decided to rush because she was OOS and knew no one at her school and had no in person classes, clubs, or even dining. She ended up in a house that is well-regarded, but not upper tier or “cool.” That worked perfectly for her.
She never intended to rush and now that she has been in Greek life would agree that there are serious, fundamental issues with it. She is happy that she was able to make friends through it during a very difficult period, but she can see a time when Greek life will be gone from her campus because of the problematic foundation of fraternities/sororities, and the current safety and liability issues related to them.
Key word “perceptions”. It’s cringy when I hear young college kids say things like “top tier sorority”, and even worse when it’s a grown adult saying it. When someone says "#1 sorority it “should” be based on the overall GPA of the sorority, the amount of charity dollars that sorority has raised for a philanthropy etc… because those are true measures that can be facts. My own girls said that “oh it’s a top sorority”. and I quickly corrected them and said the same thing “top in whose eyes?”. Desirable yes, but sadly thats because of “perception” and nothing more. As I told mine as well…there are nice girls in every sorority, there are downright rude and mean girls in every sorority. There are “cliques” within the sorority. You will not love every girl in your sorority. If you meet a few great girls and end up as lifelong friends then it’s totally worth it.
On another note, I ultimately feel bad for the kids who can’t afford it. I dont know about Bama but it is not cheap to be in one.
While I agree with you regarding values, the fact remains that social hierarchy exists in every school everywhere, usually based on physical attractiveness and wealth/connections, and greek life is no exception.
Agree…but as adults I also feel it’s important for us to call that out. And honestly this is why greek life gets such a bad name. And yup… dang right I hope this documentary calls that stuff out. lol
Sadly, the same hierarchy often exists in adult life, and has its supporters…
haha You got that right… Trust me, watching grown women on college pages for my Childs southern school and they talk like it’s themselves that are rushing and how their daughters are “in the top tier sorority”. Its nauseating lol
Unfortunately the “hierarchy” exists in most things where perceptions are the measuring stick not just sororities…
The angry face was the best emoji I could think of, but what I really wanted to select was either 
or 
.
Personally the whole trophy wives/ celebrities culture I find ghastly but it appears ubiquitous now.
Socialites were not selected for their gpa in any city.
yep - i’ve lived through many years of adult social hierarchy being around dance moms. - the prettiest, wealthiest, thinnest at the top of the moms’ groups and cliques. A few extra bonus points if your daughter/son is front and center or funny.
This will always and forever remind me of SNL: “Delta Delta Delta, Can I help ya help ya help ya?” 
If overall GPA counted for anything, I would have been golden in Tau Beta Pi. 