Everybody has thought about joining or visiting a sorority at least once during their university career. As a first-year student, it was only normal for me to contemplate the thought of being a “sister” to a house full of complete strangers. That may not sound too pleasant, but we seriously need to give more credit to the sororities on the UofT campus. Sororities have been judged too harshly, whether on their infamously girly dress codes, clingy and exclusive sisterhoods, utter concentration on boys, degrading initiation process or their lifetime sworn secrecy to all sorority related activities.
Fortunately for us UofT students, our sorority houses differ significantly from the ones we see in movies. Our internalization of the sorority themed movies we watch result in misconceptions about a group of young girls who aim to form a smaller and safer community within the big community that is University. While the movies often show us how selective and hesitant sororities are to recruit new sisters, the sisters in real life are actually much more open to the addition of new sisters.
I will briefly compare the difference between real life and movie sisters, based on my extensive years of watching numerous sorority movies and recent trip attendance to an informal recruitment session for one of the sorority houses on campus.
- The Dress Code. Let’s be frank, appearance is everything during recruitment week and it’s definitely a big component to making first impressions. As I rang the door to the big house and stood in front of the door, I was revisiting all the scenes from “The House Bunny”, when suddenly a girl with a plain top and cardigan paired with long pants opened the door and greeted me. She invited me in, still in a shock that I was not greeted by a real-life Barbie. I stepped in the incredibly big, and spacious house and was immediately met by the loud chatting of a room filled with girls. Needless to say, none of the sisters nor those interested in being a new member of the sorority had the “House Bunny” look, instead everyone was dressed quite sophisticated and conservatively. Clearly, the wardrobe seen on the sisters on the big screen are very different from what you’d see on the sisters at the UofT campus because at the end of the day, realistically speaking these girls are just your average university students. They do not walk around campus with 6-inch pumps, and most probably run around campus with chic sneakers in order to get to their next lectures on time.
- General Atmosphere of House and Recruitment Process. After you are taken inside the house, you are seated and asked questions about yourself and your goals as a student. After speaking to five of the sisters, I realized that these young girls, unlike the movies, are not snobby or self-entitled but instead quite hardworking, ambitious and overworked, mature women. They’re simply interested in getting to know the potential sisters. Though I must admit, there was a small part of me that feared the downplayed recreation of the pranking scene from “Sorority Rows” and the horrific end result of that, I found the recruitment process to be quite casual and laid back. The paranoia given to me by these movies blurred any common sense and filled me with a feeling of fear for all the possibilities that awaited me during my time in the house. However, I have a lovely time and it was definitely far from a horrific experience.
- Boys, Boys, Boys & Philanthropy. While the sorority movies make us believe these girls can’t go on a second without talking about fraternity boys, they were actually only talked to us about their sisterhood, socials, and philanthropy. The boys were mentioned twice throughout my 2-hour visit and only because of a question that I had prompted myself. The rest of the time, the president of the house informed me of their philanthropic work for those whom are diagnosed with diabetes and their success stories.
- Sorority Culture and Loyalty of Sisters. From the perspective of an outsider, we perceive these sisters as having “Mean Girls” episodes on a daily basis, wherein they constantly have frenemie moments and fake interactions with one another. You imagine that every day is a Wednesday, and you simply refuse to wear that much pink. Not to mention all the gossip and rumor they engage in on an hourly basis. But in reality, these girls are very loyal and committed to their small family and excited to extend their welcome to anyone who’s interested in joining their community. With that said, loyalty has proven itself to be quite valuable to these young girls, hence, their lifetime commitment to their sorority.
- Lifestyle and Intellectual Values. Quite frankly speaking, a two-hour recruitment session was not sufficient time for me to identify the intellectual capacity of all the sisters. However, one can only assume their being part of the UofT student body would make them highly intelligent. While they didn’t engage the visiting girls in any in-depth and intellectual discussions, one could easily argue that this informal session was only meant for the attendees to get a broad sense of the potential house they may join, so it’s only natural that the sisters did not want to bore anyone with any intellectual talk especially after a long day of classes. This also explains why many of the sisters spoke to us about the socials that they organize and all the fun they have throughout the annual events; they were trying their best to infuse an energetic and optimistic ambiance throughout the whole recruitment process.
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So give these sororities a try! The sisters’ lifetime loyalty and commitment to one another is quite admirable and the strength of their companionship goes beyond me. As a casual observer, I must say, as much as I tried to go into the informal recruitment session as unbiased and objective as possible, I did have my doubts and movie-influenced worries. However, after the recruitment stage I found myself jealous and admiral of their genuine bond. This just goes to prove that everything requires personal experience, which means you shouldn’t simply take my word for this – but go and see for yourself! Think of sororities as a great excuse to form a union with other independent and influential women who embody the idea of self-empowerment and success. Hopefully, you’ll get to meet some amazing people, all young ambitious and success-driven women like yourself, and find a small community that fits you best. Some of the sorority houses are still open for informal recruitment, so give it a try and Go Greek!
Photo Sources:
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