Mini hijack, I did not learn this from sorority life but from working in retail. Im sure people who have any sort of job where they deal with people knows you cannot do anything but smile and be nice when people don't treat you like a human being. So many times I've wanted tell a person how I really feel when they are being rude, but you can't without mega consequences. All you can do is hope that person learns, whether it be from a sorority/job/life how to treat others. Ugh.

It depends on the context and overall environment. Based on my GLO/job/life experiences, there are GLO/job/life situations where you can and should do more than smile when people are rude. You don't have to cuss them out (that works too in some contexts) but you don't have to just smile and/or let it upset you.

I am pretty tolerant in my professional life, but I still let people know where my boundaries are. I have no problem speaking up, but I do it with an understanding that I'm representing my company.

However, when it comes to my sorority work, things are a little different. In the case of a rude interest...which I've never witnessed...while I wouldn't curse at her, she would get a tone and a slicing southernism from me at the very least.

I probably don't have to say anything at all in the first place, because I can't hide my emotions. My cutabish look is pretty apparent.

I'm in full agreement here. As I've gotten older, I've gotten a better handle on the proportion my reaction should be in relation to the offense. I no longer sit and smile, unless I've been expressly asked to do so. Even then...

Dear future siggy,

I'd love you to join me in my signature space. I don't know the magenta will work, but maybe something in a blue will work? Let's talk. Thaaaaaanks!

xoxo, tld221

I think part of what makes people cry or get otherwise thrown off their game when this happens during recruitment is that it's so shocking. I think most of us have worked in jobs where the occasional jerk is par for the course; you learn to deal with it; and it's not really that unnerving. But recruitment is typically really different.

A couple of the posters here are UGA people too, and the general rapport of recruitment there is incredibly friendly and kind of gushingly supportive, even with people who you may not be that crazy about and don't expect to see again.

So when you run into one of the tiny number of people who will actually say something intentionally, directly mean, it's a little bit like having cold water thrown on you or getting slapped. You are just stunned. It's probably the shock more than the rudeness that upsets you.

On a different topic, and I may have mentioned this before: I confess that I asked a girl in my rush group when we were both going through what her dad did for a living, but it was because she had lived in a bunch of different places. (Weirdly maybe, I hadn't yet known families who relocated for the mom's career.) My dad was in the army, so I wondered if she was a military brat too. I didn't really think about the implications of the question until I saw her exchange a knowing look with one of her friends. Sometimes, that question is a looking for a marker of social class, and sometimes, you sincerely want to know about the career, I guess.

UGAalum, I think that would fall into a reasonable question for just the reason you stated. If I met a girl who had lived in 5 states and 6 countries, I'd probably be asking why too.

One of the hardest things to get used to living in Dubai is the first question you ALWAYS get asked is where are you from, and the second is what does your husband do. It seems sooooo anti-feminist, but the fact is 99% of the women I meet are here because of their husbands' jobs. Different context makes it not offensive.

I think it also depends on when the rudeness is as well. During open houses, the rude girls don't really bother as many people because the emotional toll of recruitment hasn't hit and your able to brush it off.

The worst is when they are rude later, due to being cut by a chapter they liked or just still having their heart set on one chapter. The worst I saw was a girl who was a legacy that came to our pref party. She had been very sweet the entire week and then at pref night was so rude and dismissive of the sorority ending with stating she was there to make her mom happy but had no interest in us. The girl who preffed her and really liked her throughout the week and was devastated afterwards. She ended up at another chapter, thankfully.

You do when you work where I do in retail, unfortunately. They only thing I can do is hope that when someone treats them like that (if they are younger and have not had a retail/service job) they learn how wrong they were and you never treat people that way. I know I do my best in all situations to treat others how I would like to be treated if I was working their job, and I learned that from being treated like shit at mine.

*sideeye*

The worst for our chapter I think was the picture incident that happened to my friend, because it was so in-your-face, but I had a girl that would answer with one word or shrug to almost everything I tried to talk to her about (and they were open ended questions) and after her response would look around the room but not at me. After five awkward minutes of one-way conversation, I said nicely "I'm sorry if I'm perceiving this wrong, but it seems like you are a little bored talking about my chapter. We don't have to talk about it but we do have to talk for the rest of the party" and smiled at her. She was a legacy at a different chapter, and apologized but said she was only interested in that chapter. We ended up having a decent conversation after that, although I found her impolite still for being so closed.

For some reason, I have had multiple PNMs say things like "If a chapter you don't like ranks you really high, it will take a spot of one you do like". They seem to be confused at the mutual selection process, and are convinced that if they are unwillingly back at our chapter, we knocked out their first pick that in reality didn't invite them back.

One of the MANY problems with spring recruitment is that we would have some girls show up for recruitment that weren't interested really they were just there because. A classic moment was when at the first party on the first day a girl - presumable for shock value - walks up to my big sis and says "Sororities are just buying your friends" To which sis replied "At 25 cents per friend per month till I graduate and then they are friends for life? Best D**n deal I ever made!"
Needless to say she dropped out...

The Force Feeder
 

This story isn't really rude but it is one of those curve balls that you get during recruitment. We had a girl come through recruitment that thought that the women in the sororities weren't allowed to eat all weekend. So when she came to our house she forced feed one of our sisters a pretzel.

For me this is would be one of the rudeness things a pnm could do during recruitment. Last fall during our preference we had a girl bring coffee with her and drank it thought out our preference. Needless to say all of our sisters found that extremely rude.

LOL, I'm either picturing the Family Guy where Peter stuffs the watermelon in Lois's mouth or this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...e_clark21a.jpg

AMAZING!