Originally Posted by adpiucf (Post 1476709)

Secondly, the target demographic for the majority of undergraduate sororities are 17-22 year old women from middle class-upper middle class households. Go out and talk to a teenage girl for a few hours. It will be a conversation punctuated with "likes," "ums," rampant text messaging, a discussion about the mall, cute boys in her class, the popular girls, "Do I look fat in this?", her friends, her fears, and more "likes," "ums" and rampant text messaging.

Her peers influence her music tastes, clothing preferences, how she styles her hair and her overall body image. Teenaged girls are obsessed with body image. They tune out their parents, teachers and other adults who tell them to be themselves and to judge people for being "beautiful on the inside."

Have you ever tried to reason with an 18-year old? Have you been successful un-brainwashing her from the stereotypes she sees in people like Paris Hilton, Britney, Lindsay? Teens emulate what's popular and shun what's not.

I agree recruitment should be about picking the people who are "beautiful" inside, and the women's parents, sorority national leaders, etc., should guide them to making good decisions. And they do the best they can. But at the end of the day, we're still dealing with teen aged girls.

SEC recruitment is superficial. It's competitive. The SEC is ok with that. I'm ok with that. Got it? Can we please move on from this topic? I feel like we're all talking in circles.

Originally Posted by kathykd2005 (Post 1476790)

Kappa Delta joined the Real Beauty Campaign with Dove. Maybe that is why I am taking the angle I am taking with reference to this situation; however, whatever it is, I still think singling your sisters out for being "fat" is cruel and callous. And I hope this thread doesn't die--it is pretty obvious from the amount of replies that this is a real issue in the Greek "world" and in our society at large. It's good that we are having a dialogue about it.

Originally Posted by AlphaGamUGAAlum (Post 1476793)

And about the Real Beauty campaign, it's kind of amusing to see them present women who wouldn't even seem overweight (or maybe even imperfect) if they were wearing clothes as representations of how much they value different standards of beauty.

Originally Posted by ΑΓΔSquirrelGirl (Post 1476831)

At least there is someone out there attempting to make a change. I don't see the need to downplay someone trying to help society PROGRESS socially.

Originally Posted by AlphaGamUGAAlum (Post 1476839)

We see it differently because what seems to you to be an effort to help society progress to me seems a rather cynical advertising campaign that falls wildly short of the goal.

If I wanted to promote the idea of differing standards of beauty, I'd use women who perhaps weren't so obviously so close to what society is presently looking for. Even in the video where they transform the model, the model at the beginning is still someone we would regard as attractive in real life, particularly after make-up is applied.

It seems to me to be a move by a cosmetics company that generally offer products that prey on women's insecurities to capitalize on a popular idea without actually having to implement the standard much.

"You're fine just the way you are; here, buy our cellulite lotion" isn't that progressive, it seems to me.

Originally Posted by kathykd2005 (Post 1476842)

http://homepage.mac.com/dtrull/chick...realbeauty.jpg

Do these women seem overweight to you? Sure, some of them might. Does that make them less appealing? Imagine for a moment: you are one of these women, and your "friends" tell you to stay away from your sorority house during recruitment. I don't see anything amusing about the Dove Real Beauty Campaign, at all.

Originally Posted by modorney (Post 1476733)

A lot of the fraternities have developed fitness as part of their overall pledge (and brother) education. When I rushed, there were some houses who were considered "athletic houses", but most houses weren't. Nowadays, a weight room with exercise machines is almost a must, and having every brother jog, or work out somehow, is a goal.

Originally Posted by fantASTic (Post 1476851)

Unfortunately, today that is considered hazing and is strictly prohibited.

Originally Posted by AlphaGamUGAAlum (Post 1476848)

It's because so few of us do think any of those women are anything other than completely attractive that makes the campaign amusing to me.

They are obviously beautiful. So Real Beauty is obvious beauty.

I didn't want to belabor this point this much really. It was just an off the cuff remark about advertising.

Originally Posted by fantASTic (Post 1476845)

NONE of those women are overweight, according to that picture.

Originally Posted by fantASTic (Post 1476851)

Unfortunately, today that is considered hazing and is strictly prohibited.

Originally Posted by kathykd2005 (Post 1476858)

Obviously beautiful? Do these women look like the ones you usually see in advertisements? They don't look like the ones I normally see in magazines or on television every night. The point is that they ARE still beautiful, regardless of what popular culture says.

Originally Posted by kathykd2005 (Post 1476858)

Obviously beautiful? Do these women look like the ones you usually see in advertisements? They don't look like the ones I normally see in magazines or on television every night. The point is that they ARE still beautiful, regardless of what popular culture says.

Originally Posted by 33girl (Post 1476864)

The ones I usually see in advertisements look like 13 year old Latvian orphans who haven't eaten in a month. They're pretty gross looking, if you ask me.

Originally Posted by fantASTic (Post 1476851)

Unfortunately, today that is considered hazing and is strictly prohibited.

Originally Posted by ForeverRoses (Post 1476869)

My University had a campus wide wellness program where individuals and organizations (usually all of the greek ones) would compete for awards. You would earn points for doing things like donating blood, going to certain speakers, going to church/synagoge/temple, and for working out at the student health center. We had chapter-wide points goals that we had to meet every quarter-so in a way we did require members to work out in some way- even if it was just going bowling or ice skating.