It's just a BOOK. Either read it or don't. Just ignore the surrounding publicity, and try not to create any more of it yourself.

Re copyright laws -- using brief quotes in a book review or in a journalistic/commentary piece is practically the definition of fair use. Point me to the page if I missed one, but I didn't notice any quotes from sorority publications that were longer than a paragraph, and most were only a sentence or two. That shouldn't cause the publisher any legal headaches.

It is a fact that this kind of global silence is very unusual for prominent organizations with thousands of members, be they corporations, universities, charitable foundations, churches, etc. Yes, rules that only certain high officers can speak to the press are very common in such organizations...but it is not common for those high officers to categorically refuse to grant interviews, the way sorority officers shut out Ms. Robbins. When officers DO refuse to speak, that decision, rightly or wrongly, often carries an aura of guilt. (Think about episodes of 20/20 where the story concludes: "Officers of Acme Tobacco refused to comment" or "Mr. Smith never returned our phone calls.")

I was trying to come up with a good comparison, and college admissions offices have a lot in common with GLOs when it comes to their relationship with the press, I think. Their selection procedures are confidential; they are acutely sensitive to the fact that negative press hurts recruitment; isolated scandals lead to a lot of bad press that hurts everyone; there's a great deal of public interest and controversy surrounding their operation; only the dean or chair is allowed to give interviews; etc. But unless reporters seek information about individual candidates, they will usually get an interview with someone authorized to speak and receive a lot of information about the requested topic. If Princeton admissions answered press inquiries with a curt "Membership selection is private," or worse, silence, they'd catch a lot of flak.

Needless to say, NPC organizations are private and they can speak or not speak as they wish. But it's inevitable that if you don't speak, people will wonder what you're hiding and pay more attention to detractors who try to speak for you. I think it's worth discussing the possibility that the policy of silence actually makes the problem of negative press worse.

Some qualitative researchers attempt to "blend in" with their subjects while others are upfront and tell their subjects that they are researchers. Depending on the research question, there may be an issue of ethics there.

I personally think this book simply is what it is...a qualitative study of some sorority women (a combination of in depth case studies and a whole lot of interviews). People who understand methodology know that qualitative studies are not necessarily meant to be generalizable to the general population.

So, methodological limitations aside, this author's work has some "truth" to it, but it is not enough to base opinions of Greek organizations about.

@ChaosDST

Would this be considered an ethnography? Wouldn't the author be obligated to reveal her intentions in such a case?

This would be attaching a loose definition to "ethnography" (Greekdom would be the "human culture" to be studied) and a "case study" is probably a better description.

There could possibly be ethical issues here. But, I don't think the author revealed the true identities of the subjects. So, the anonymity remains. I don't conduct qualitative research often, but there are instances where the researcher does not reveal his/her identity.

Again, the "repurcussions" of concealing identity can depend on the research question. I wonder if this author went through an institutional review board or ethics training, of sorts, to get the 'o.k' for conducting this study. Does anyone know?

She didn't go before a board or anything. I am sure it would be mentioned.

Even though the book was in the "education" section of borders it isn't an academic study nor is it acaemically rigorous. However, it doesn't really have to be either.

Her book presents an overview of the greek system, and it follows 4 girls loosely through a year. She supplements/confirms the girls' experience with either interviews or articles.

She also uses the girls experiences, interviews and articles to back up her own conclusions and value judgements.

A number of the articles posted on Greekchat are also used to in her book.

In fact the book is alot like a giant greekchat conversation. Its all there. Hopefully she used GC as a primary resource to "guide" her research. It would have saved her an enormous amount of time.

What is kind of amusing is that she is less hard on most aspects of the greek system, and the people involved, than many of the girls that are flaming the book on this thread.

Using your postings as a comparison . . you are more anti-greek by far than she comes across in her book. . . at least 3/4 pof the way through lol.

I agree with dec that by a COMPLETE media blackout, NPC does cut off its nose to spite its face. That's what happened with Sorority Life. NPC didn't think that MTV would even bother w/ the show if they couldn't get an NPC group....they did, and now NPC has had to do lots of back pedaling.

That being said, it would be great if there was something along the lines of "In Search of Sisterhood" for women pursuing NPC membership. There was a very positive article in "Seventeen" quite a few years ago (we've discussed it on here) that I am sure the sorority chapter had to sign off on before it was published.

But I don't blame the NPC groups for being gun shy at this point, because everything to do with a sorority gets twisted out of proportion. There was an email about what clothes to wear for rush that was circulating on the net to the amusement of various feminist sites. It was just what any large chapter would do for rush and the girls got ripped to shreds. I'm sure that the same women follow a dress code at the companies where they work.

Thanks, James.

So, she's just presenting her findings and letting people take them as they will. Any generalizations beyond her sample that are being made, are being made by the readings and not the authors. Well, at least 3/4 of the way through (:))

LOL...I think my posts are a good comparison. I can be very anti-Greek, at times. I should write a book about it and piss people off/makes lots of $$$$$$.

:)

I agree. Those of us who have read "In Search of Sisterhood" by Soror Paula Giddings know that it not only chronicles Delta Sigma Theta, but American history (which includes black American history...beyond slavery, of course). A book "devoted" to an NPC sorority should conceptualize sorority memberships within a women's movement and general history framework, as well.

I apologize, I actually meant "you" in general as in the girls that are so militantly against the book rather than "you" specifically. :)

Some of the girls that are the most vocal on this thread about the book, have also been the most negative towards greek behaviors/members they don't approve of lol.

I agree. The context is definitely not emphasized enough in this book. Especially college life in general.

Or some obvious things. Greeks drink more. Therefore the Greek system encourages drinking.

In reality college people (and people in general) drink socially, however, Greek Life will often offer more social occassions than your regular independant has.

Darn! Does this mean I can't write an inflammatory book and piss people off/make $$$$$$$?

:(;)

Sure you can lol .. .

Actualy, I am more upset that I didn't . . . this girl is like 25 and authored three books, good for her.

Whereas the rest of us have written the equivalent of a book or two on GC without getting paid.

Makes you wonder.

There is a book, Bound By a Mighty Vow, which I believe is coming out soon that deals with the early history of women's fraternities. Amazon.com description

Not a book, but a website:
History of the Women's movement via Kappa Kappa Gamma timeline
(click on "Launch Women's Timeline")
--------------------------------
From my reading, she attempted to go in as herself, undisguised, but was "shut down" so in order to really "infiltrate" these sororities, she had to disguise herself--so much to where the four women she profiled would not recognize her as she is normally. We don't know how she approached these girls, don't know what story she gave them or how she befriended them. She could have said anything to get them to agree, which to me is a questionable practice, bait and switch if you will. But, I'm not familiar with qualitative research, so maybe this is okay.

I think I've mentioned it before, but my biggest problems with her book lie in her sources--some of which are out-of-date and questionable (including websites) and her attempts to generalize Sororities through her four profiles and (hundreds? thousands? the number is unclear) of interviews. I would be slightly more comfortable if she stated that this is what life is like in those two sororities for these for girls at that one campus instead of making it sound like the findings in her book is what happens at all sororities on all campuses all over the country and Canada.

I'm just P.O.'d I didn't think of it first! :p