Last year, I wrote an article about how being feminine did not make me less of a feminist, in the year since that has been written I stand by that belief even more.
I am currently in a sorority, I am proud to be in my sorority and I am proud to call myself a feminist while in my sorority. Sororities as a whole started because women were discriminated against on campus, they continue to exist today because of the incredible benefits they provide both academically and socially.
There are of course people who will disagree with me, and to that I know there is not much I can say to sway you. I could tell you that women in Greek Life on average have high GPAs, that my sorority donates thousands of dollars to Court Appointed Special Advocates, or that countless successful women have come from sororities. I know that will not likely change your opinion and that’s something I accept. People are free to not want to join Greek life. I don’t have a problem with people who choose not to join Greek life since it isn’t for everyone. I do have a problem when they use sexism and girl bashing to justify their reasons not to rush.
Let’s take for example an Odyssey article that got very popular recently about a woman who chose not to go through sorority recruitment. Not going through recruitment is fine, but implying all sorority girls have “waist-long blonde hair” are “rail-skinny,” and “spend (their) time in Zumba classes with (their) girlfriends” is not. For a pretty direct opposition to her claim, below is a picture of me, a sorority woman who fulfills literally zero of her stereotypes.
This woman’s article is pretty tame however, compared to what happens whenever a chapter’s recruitment video or bid day video goes viral. Suddenly there is an outpour of criticism about these women. Take for example this comment on a door stack video.
Um, excuse me? When did being in a sorority guarantee you a life of being a suburban mom? Are we forgetting that women like Katie Couric, Alicia Keys, Tori Burch and Kate Spade were all in sororities? Also, why are we bashing women who choose to become stay at home moms in the first place?
Another example of blatant sexism is an article that got published about a year ago after the University of Alabama, Alpha Phi ‘scandal’, titled “Bama sorority video worse for women than Donald Trump.”
Yeah, I’m going to have to disagree here and say that women enjoying themselves is not worse for women than a violent sexist who calls women pigs. Yet the author here chooses to almost excuse Donald Trump’s sexism because “Meanwhile, these young women, with all their flouncing and hair-flipping, are making it so terribly difficult for anyone to take them seriously, now or in the future.” Yep, according to this person, being feminine and fun means you cannot possibly be taken seriously now or in the future. I swear it’s like they never saw Legally Blonde.
I am not trying to excuse every aspect of Greek Life, it isn’t for everyone and that is completely okay. There are fair criticisms of Greek Life, but women enjoying themselves while being feminine and glittery is not one of them.