Sororities have made leaps and bounds in terms of being places where women can feel empowered. However, there are still a few lingering traditions that reek of sexism. The main one is cooler painting.
When a girl is invited to a fraternity formal, protocol is that she makes a “cooler” for her date. She will buy a plain white cooler that is used to hold beer and other drinks and then spend hours upon hours sanding it, painting it and decorating it for him.
When a guy goes to a sorority formal, he is just expected to show up and not get too wasted.
This is such a ridiculous double standard and quite honestly, I’m very surprised that as strong millennial women we are not putting our foot down about this. We are at college first and foremost to get an education and most women are involved with clubs and other various activities. We don’t have time to sit around and paint your cooler. I have heard many times from my sisters about how they couldn’t finish their homework or were stressed out because they had work on their date’s cooler.
The deeper meaning behind the cooler this is that women should cater to men and make sure that men have their needs met. This may have been acceptable thinking when our mothers and grandmothers were in college, but now we know better. We have the power to say no to cooler painting. We have the power to educate fraternity men about why we shouldn’t have this expectation thrust upon us. It’s time ladies. Let’s stand up and end cooler painting once and for all.