In a journalistic environment, there is a sense of professionalism that is expected from all writers, editors and contributors. Recently The Diamondback published an opinionated article about Greek life stereotypes, which caused controversy within the Greek community due to the paper’s lack of professionalism.
The article, “Stereotyping made easy” by Laura Frost, consisted of a descriptive story about her experience at an all-Greek event on campus. She included lines such as, “Now, sorority girls are normally too shiny and leggings-clad for me to be too close for too long…” and “I got to observe their alien behavior up close.” To say that the “aliens” were far from amused by these comments may be an understatement.
The day after the article was published, the online comment box was flooded with multiple paragraph long responses. These consisted of retorts such as, “Would the Diamondback have allowed this article to have been published if it focused on any other group as specifically?” said “Greek Terp” and “How did this get published? It’s grossly biased, targets an individual group of girls with accusations sans-evidence, and pokes fun at bulimia which, last I checked, is generally considered a pretty serious issue by most,” said “N.”
A reoccurring issue in many of the responses was how Frost blatantly condoned stereotypes throughout the article. By stating, “The best thing about stereotypes is that, while they can be broken, they exist because they are based on truth,” Frost admitted that she follows the superficial rules made by society.
Just because something may seem to be true, rather than succumbing to society’s norms, we should be doing what we can to rise above them. Generalizations can be made about any type of group, but if we get down to the core values of an organization we tend to see that we have more in common with them than an outsider looking in would be able to realize.
The general Greek life consensus was that the story was inappropriate and should not have been published. In my opinion, I think the response to the article was overdramatic. Groups are targeted regularly, especially ones that have an air of exclusivity. The same way the Greek community did not agree with Frost’s ideas, Frost clearly does not agree with theirs. Attacking Frost for her opinion is hypocritical because that is exactly what she was accused of doing.
However, my main issue with this article stands with The Diamondback. Because it is nationally a highly regarded college paper, I am shocked that they would sink to the level of a trashy gossip column. This article reads like a teenager ranting about how much they hate their parents on their blog, which I believe would have been a more appropriate medium for this article.
I think all parties were in the wrong in this situation. Greeks should have realized the childishness of the author and The Diamondback for publishing the article and rose up to the challenge to prove the stereotypes wrong with a “Show, don’t tell” approach. The Diamondback should have given more care to the quality of the stories that they published and the author should have found a professional angle for the article in order to get her point across and be taken seriously.