I chose not to rush my first year of college.
In hindsight, that was a stupid decision because I based it off the negative stereotypes about sorority life I had heard from movies and television.
Not even one semester into my life at the University of Idaho, I realized my mistake. From my cramped dorm room in Wallace, I could clearly see how strong the university”s Greek system was. Greek students were far more involved in the community, got better grades and had much more fun than I was having.
By the following year, the only reason I had not to rush was my sophomore status, but I registered anyway and I”m so happy I did. Being in a sorority has enriched my overall college experience in ways I wouldn”t have ever imagined before.
Erin Bamer
I”m proud to be Greek, so I find it endlessly frustrating when people outside the system ignore all the positives that Greek life offers and only focus on the negative stereotypes like I did.
People have many different misconceptions about who I am or how I act on a regular basis just because I”m in a sorority. Most of these misconceptions all boil down to the common stereotype that sorority girls are shallow.
I can confidently say this stereotype is untrue for the majority of sorority women I have encountered. I wish I was confident enough to say it is untrue for all sorority women in the world, but stereotypes like these last for a reason.
In the previous issue of The Argonaut, my colleague Alexander Milles mentioned a relatively recent controversy centered on a recruitment video from the chapter of Alpha Phi sorority from the University of Alabama. The video in question featured a plethora of skinny, white, blonde Alpha Phi members fixing their hair, dancing and running around in bikinis.
Milles went on to say that the chapter”s video was an average recruitment video and the same situation could have happened to any other Greek chapter. While I agreed with many of Milles” other points he made in the column, this was one moment where I disagreed with him.
The video was controversial because it blatantly objectified the women in the chapter and didn”t accurately represent the students at Alabama. If there had been just one scene included of an Alpha Phi member talking about what she loved about her chapter, I don”t think the video would have blown up nearly as much as it did.
As a sorority woman myself, I was irritated by the video because it showed other real sorority women perpetuating the same stereotypes that are making life harder for Greek women across the country. However, I don”t think the consequences for the fiasco should be quite as severe as some people are suggesting.
In all honesty, the problems in the video were probably an honest mistake that was overlooked by the members of that Alpha Phi chapter in their desire to come up with the best recruitment video they could to attract a strong new class. That doesn”t make it OK, but people also shouldn”t let it impact how they see other sororities or sorority women.
Just because this chapter came out with a somewhat shallow video doesn”t mean every member of that chapter is shallow, and it certainly doesn”t mean that all members of every Alpha Phi chapter in the U.S. is shallow either. In fact, every member of UI”s Alpha Phi chapter I”ve met was incredibly genuine and super bright.
Sure, there are some shallow sorority women and shallow fraternity men out there, but there are also just shallow people in general. Being Greek doesn”t make someone shallow or egotistical or vain. Sometimes people are just like that.
These stereotypes are so frustrating for the rest of us in the Greek system because we have so much pride in our houses.
The women in my house are some of the greatest people I”ve ever met in my life. They inspire me to strive to be my best self every day. So when I encounter people who look down on me because of misconceptions they have about sorority women, I know they”re thinking the same thing about my incredible sisters. And yes, that makes me angry.
In reality, going Greek doesn”t drastically change who you are. It can influence you or help you grow as a person, but in the end we”re all still people just like everyone else.
Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ErinBamer