In my time at college, I never really found myself wanting to be in a sorority with all of the stereotypes that I have heard about. It was really only something that I did because a girl I worked with talked me into it. Going through the rush process and joining Tri Delta at CU Boulder really allowed me to see how these women in the Panhellenic community at my college were really trying to shift these stereotypes.
At first, I was going to write about my personal experience and compare them to what I’ve seen in movies or read about in news articles. But then I really thought, ‘How I can incorporate other Tri Delta women’s stories into this?’ I had the opportunity to interview officers within Tri-Delta. Here are their experiences.
- Caroline Woodhouse
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Caroline is a senior at Tri Delta and she has been involved in Greek life all four years of her college experience. In the past, she has been the Vice President of membership, Social Chair, and Panhellenic delegate. I began our interview by asking Caroline, “How have you seen body positivity movement shift from your freshman year of college to your senior year of college?”
Caroline Woodhouse: “We focus a lot more on our body image 3D. My freshmen year, we didn’t really have a facilitator speak to us about the topic, but by my sophomore year, it was required for all sophomores to complete it. It’s definitely been a big step, and it has had an influence on all the sisters.”
HCCU: “With the number of people with eating disorders in college, how has your sorority tried to make sure that women have had resources to talk about eating disorders and promote awareness?”
CW: “People are more conscious about eating disorders and how there are different forms of it. That you don’t necessarily need to weigh 60 pounds have an eating disorder.”
HCCU: “How have you tried to make women feel included in your sorority as an officer without making them think they need to fit a certain body type?”
CW: “It’s important to not care what you look like. We care about whether you’re a good friend. Let’s go do the same things together. I don’t think people within Tri Delta and the Panhellenic Community are consciously thinking about if someone is taller than you or bigger than you.”
With the interview ending, I really wanted to know if Caroline had experienced anything where she really saw how Tri love week or the body 3D image really played a role in her life at all. Caroline went on to say that during her sophomore year she went to a meeting and she was kind of upset over a situation, so she was constantly comparing herself to other women.
CW: “In a meeting, I began crying because I thought everyone around me was so much prettier than me. It was really my sisters at that time who really comforted me and said, ‘what are you talking about?’ My sisters have really made me confident in myself. They’re my biggest cheerleaders and they’re the reason why I am so confident in myself”.
- Anna Hansil
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Anna is a Junior. She is currently the director of public relations and marketing, and in the past, she has been the body image 3D coordinator. This is the third year she has been involved in Greek life. Anna is from Georgia and has a really good understanding of how important it is to not haze, and that behavior needs to be dealt with appropriately. When Anna became the 3D coordinator, she talked about how people she knew had eating disorders.
“I knew the base level knowledge and how to be supportive, but I had a lot to learn. Through Tri Delta, I had to go through these modules. While being the 3D body coordinator, I had to participate in the body 3D image workshop which was really helpful to have open conversations with my sisters. It is important to learn how to be a good advocate, and there are constantly new issues you can learn about,” she said.
When promoting PR, there have been issues of picture editing. Anna found this issue important to talk about.
“My goal for my officer position is to show off our chapters natural beauty,” she said.
Through the PR in Tri Delta, Anna’s main goal is to really try to emphasize how it is okay to look different than what the typical sorority girl is supposed to look like.
- Kierstyn Leo
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Kierstyn is a Junior who is currently the president of Tri Delta. She has been the VPF and chapter correspondent. Kierstyn joined Tri Delta in order to have a smaller community and she was able to connect to the women in Tri Delta. When questioning, I asked her how schools in the past have been reported for hazing women because of their weight.
Her Campus CU Boulder: “How has Tri Delta prevented it from happening?”
Kierstyn Leo: “In the house, we used to have scales in the bathrooms, and we took them away because we didn’t want girls to feel like they needed to weigh a certain amount.”
When Kierstyn became an officer she said, “It’s important for us to realize that if you’re comfortable wearing something that doesn’t necessarily mean someone feels confident and comfortable wearing the same thing.”
Kierstyn then went on to say, “The body image workshop image really allowed me to sit down with my sisters and open up about certain topics.”
When I asked about how she views the idea of hazing and body positivity in college she responded, “I think there is a strict image of what a sorority is and how you’re supposed to act in the South. Compared to CU, we’re not necessarily the typical Greek life school. We do things really differently. I think the situation could become better if, nationally, there were a lot more programs focused on the body and they had speakers come, because sororities at CU know that there is an issue and we are trying to fix this.”
- Aspen Gupton
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Aspen is a Junior who is currently the Vice President of Operations, and in the past, she has been the sponsor’s chair and the house manager. She has been in Tri Delta for three years. When I asked Aspen if there were certain topics about body positivity she had to learn about as an officer, Aspen went on to tell me that, “Tri Delta tries to make sure they choose shirts that don’t look good on just one body type so everyone feels confident. They take into account how form-fitting it is, or what the color is. Also, nationally, Tri Delta ruled that every officer has to take modules that do include the body image 3D and how to support people who may be going through eating disorders, depression, body dysmorphia, etc.”
Later on in the interview, I asked Aspen, “Do your sororities become better at promoting body positivity?”
She responded, “I think sororities will promote it and find new ways to promote it. This is definitely true, but it will take more than someone saying self-love. Society is changing though and I think we are able to really reflect on how people in greek life can do better than things that may have happened in the past.”
After this, Aspen went on to tell me that, “she can list out so many ways that Tri Delta tries to talk about body positivity. There is the Tri love week, which is a week full of body positivity such as body positivity yoga, where each breath out you think something you love about your body or about yourself. There is also ‘trash your fears’ where you write three things that you love about your body and one thing you want to change, and the thing you didn’t like you would crumple up and throw it away. We’ve also had a guest speaker who essentially said you are not put on this earth to change yourself the entire time.”
Aspen really emphasized how so many people are affected by eating disorders and lower body image, and how it needs to be talked about more.
Through these interviews, I was able to discover the values you are supposed to uphold as someone who is in Tri Delta. All of these women went on to quote a similar quote by Sarah Ida Shaw which says: “Think more of a woman’s inner self and character than of her personal appearance”.
Even though all of these women are from Tri Delta, they all touched on how other sororities at CU Boulder all had similar views on how you should handle body positivity.