I think it's ok this one time...
 

to allow a good old fashioned book burnin' party.

OMG--just the "interview" is crap.

As a proud Fraternity woman from Idaho...the great pacific northwest...I feel cheated that I missed out on boob parties and didn't develop an eating disorder.

Maybe we were too busy going to class, doing philranthropy work and volunteering, playing in intramurals, making friends and going on dates...oh that's right, isn't that COLLEGE life?

I think y'all should actually read the book before sending her hate mail.

I'm about halfway through it, and while it's not representative of all orgs, it's really nothing more than Sorority Life in print.

The book flips back and forth from the "narrative" of the girls' daily life and Robbins opinions on certain aspects of Greek Life. She even writes a bit about Stepping, which for someone who's never seen a step show, is pretty interesting.

Do the girls live lives of your typical 20 year old college student? Yes. Do they do things that their sororities preach against? Yes. Did y'all when you were in their shoes? I'm hoping so, or you had a sad Greek experience.

She cited Greekchat, but not in a fact statement, merely that Greek communities didn't like SL, which is no big statement.

Kitso
KS 361

Therein lies my biggest issue with the book. She attempts to place her opinion as fact and apply her "facts" to every sorority on every campus across the US and Canada. You just can't do that especially when her sources are questionable and out-of-date.

I'm not denying that those things happen in sororities but I really don't believe they are as widespread as she wants to make people believe they are. And they aren't limited to just Greek organizations, she could have shadowed a high school cheer squad and gathered the same evidence.

Just some general passing thoughts
 

I haven't read the book yet, I want to before I go on to pass comment on it, before I guess at intentions; or review it etc. I wouldn't want to be in the position of being a person protesting over something who can be asked 'have you actually read it?' and not be able to reply in the positive. :D
The impression seems to be it isn't a 'Dying to Belong' B-movie novel but somewhat rounded with positives and negatives?
I've bought three books on fraternity/sorority life this year; this one has certainly piqued some interest and debate here so I might buy this one too! :)

Until I read it I shan't know whether the author does fail to accentuate the positive and only perpetuate the negative. What matters somewhat is whether or not the impression given is that negative aspects are *all* that can be found. As has been pointed out, service & philanthropy bears mentioning; but sizzle sells. This is different from sensationalism which I see as putting a false spin on something to make it look different from its otherwise innocous self - if a behaviour is negative... it is.

GreekChat has shown negative practices do persist in greekdom. :( Despite condemnation of them when they occur, anecdotal experiences which don't gel with founder ideals can still be seen. Maybe drawing attention to these can arguably carry with it a sad and unfortunate air of necessity.

I use GreekChat as a resource, personally. I imagine the author had the presence of mind to view information on the site with an appraising very cautious eye. :D Though a 'mere' internet message board, it contains access to combined decades upon decades of experience and does contain authoritative perspectives viz. IotaNet and Russell spring to mind as individuals who do hold (quite high up) positions within their respective national offices. Of course, AggieSigmaNu361's information that there is simply a passing reference is important here also! :)

I think... in writing a book about any organized group of people, one will find traits or behaviour common to them to write about. This doesn't mean those behaviors aren't also common to other groups but perhaps bear mentioning as they describe the group one is writing about. :)

I might still buy the book.

I agree with many of James' comments.
:)

I can admit that I was suckered in and bought the book. I found it to be pretty one-sided and that was what I expected. Her book does not present anything close to an accurate picture of Greek Life and benefits us in no way at all.

What bothered me the most was the she devoted an entire chapter to revealing the rituals of a dozen sororities. What does she stand to gain by this? Clearly, she was in it for the expose and not the objective journalist she claims to be. I, for one, hope that any hype she is getting dies done and the whole thing just goes away.

I have read the book and it IS a bunch of BS... the stuff that she says is DEFINITELY not well researched and is one sided. for example she mentions that sororities discriminate according to initation with out mentioning that ALL of them now include women of all faiths and that there are sororities that were founded to include all religions... she also does attribute some "college" behavior to "greek behavior" like she describes spring break as a time when "greeks get away from the house drama and can truly be themselves with out being subject to the rules of their house" (not a direct quote.. but close enough) UMM... how about "a time for college students to forget about upcoming papers and tests and relax for a while ??!! Geez like only greek members go to spring break...:rolleyes:

Did Katie interview her when she was on the Today Show?

I didn't see the interview.

I think Katie would have "went off" on her since I believe Katie is a Tri-Delta.

unfounded lies!
 

I am planning to read Robbins book, but I can tell by the excerpt on MSN that it is ludicrious! A drug room? PLEASE! I have to admit that sororities can be catty, but the other accusations are absolutely ridiculous! Do you really think 120 girls are going to be so open with drug use that they designate a room in the house in which to do it in? If anything the greek systems are the most educated groups on campus when it comes to all the issues college students deal with. IF it wasn't for the NPC we wouldn't be going to mandatory workshops and educational lectures. Sororities are kind of a continuation of finishing school-they are organizations that help you strive for lady like behavior. Also I am a member of a sorority in a large competitive greek system at a southern school. I have met NO young lady that has had a rush coordinator as far as I know, although I can name 4 young ladies in my sorority that DO have Pageant coordinators. Have any of you guys used or know anyone that has used a rush coach? *LMAO* Truly if your mother cared that much wouldn't she just beg her junior league friends to write you recs? Tell me what ya'll think!

This book is featured on msn.com today. :(

After reading the excerpt from the article, I don't find it very realistic that these sorority girls would open up so freely to a stranger, let alone one from the media. Even if a member of the GLO had a drug problem or an eating disorder, she's not going to openly admit it to many of her sisters (if any!), let alone a stranger. And the girls who do know probably aren't going to run out an blab about it to anyone.

The more I hear about this book, and the more excerpts I read, I find it less and less credible or realistic.

But if she can live with herself for profiting from publishing and promoting falsehoods and trying to tear down something she doesn't understand, then that's her perogative. She just must have low ethical and moral standards.

ETA: I don't know if it's because it was "typed" into the web page, or if it's like that in the book, but there are a lot of type-o's in this thing. For example, I thought advisor was spelled with an "or" instead of an "er."

I would not mind reading it if somebody can photo copy it.

actually in this usage of the word, ie in greek life, youth group settings etc, it is spelled adviser. i dont know why, all i know is my yearbook adviser in high school was very adamant about us knowing she was an adviser, not an advisor.

I went into a bookstore and read the first 5 pages of the book. I was quite disgusted. She used a respectful neutral tone, but chose words that typecast sororities into elitist groups and the members into wannabe trophy wives. She describes the plethora of expensive name brand outfits, and coifed hairdos as a hideous drawback of sorority life. Um, have you ever been to LA? Just walking down the street you will find more women with an LV handbag than you would at a college. Generally, I disagreed with her description. The girls at my school spend more time in Express or Forever 21 than they do in Neiman Marcus.

She made fun of colors for godsakes! Like calling red and yellow "cardinal" and "straw" (which btw changes the color), was elitist. Um, the colors were picked by 17 year olds in the late 1800's. Making fun of that is like picking a fight with your 85 year old grandmother.

All in all, I didn't like the book because her account is so different from the experience I had and the experiences everyone I know had in college with their sororities. Not only that, I thought she was NOT open minded when it came to developing her opinion of the sorority, and the claim that she respects our organizations is just lipservice.

ps- can someone write a book where they discuss the dark side of the publishing industry so we can outrage the book company?

unfortunately i think that book would put people to sleep. not much controversy in publishing companies. most controversial thing recently was that in some publishing co in england some guy stole chapters of the fifth harry potter book.

There's an excerpt from the book on MSN today:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4741466/?GT1=3256

In this excerpt she says that "not many of her friends are sorority women" which leads me to conclude that at least one of them is. I wonder what she thuinks of this book.

Also, she apparently had concern for these women who let the auther into the "secret world of sororities". Well frankly these 4 women do deserve to have their membership revoked.

There was a media blackout long before Sorority Life. Sassy did a really ghastly article about rush at UGA around 1993 or so. There had been previous articles in Seventeen that were generally positive, but Sassy just raked the rushees, the sorority sisters and the school in general over the coals. Apparently they had sworn up and down they were going to do a positive article and it was completely one-sided. I think this is when the NPC groups started saying "no comment" about everything.

And again, I think that "Caitlin" and "Vicky" are sisters of "Jimmy" the 8 year old heroin addict...because even if they were real and they or their sisters wouldn't come forward, someone from that school would recognize Robbins and say something. Look at how quickly we find out all sorts of stuff about the people on Survivor, Real World etc - and they're supposed to be "anonymous" which is why they don't use last names.

Paging TheSmokingGun.com......

Read it.

Looked good.

I think we are completely undervaluing the fact that Alexander Robbins looks really cute in her publicity pics.


That should be an important mitigating factor when considering her book. :)

You just called her Alexander - that's a guy's name. Freudian slip? bwah hah hah hah hah hah haha

Okay, I read the blurb on MSNBC. I don't believe a word of it. Sounds like she got confused between a GLO and woman's prison. (and not a real one at that, only the ones you see in B-movies).

Nice try honey. I'll leave the book on the shelf, and spend my $ elsewhere. Can't wait to see your next offering.

I'm not sure who did the interview (I'm not a regular watcher of the Today Show), but the interviewer was a female, so it might have been her?

She acted very fake-surprised... which is kind of hard to explain, but she was like "Oh really?" when Robbins would start spouting all the junk from her "book"

lol, i was looking through very OLD email this morning, and found two from the author trying to get me to give her info. I had seen a posting of hers several years ago when she started the project and had emailed her expressing interest (this was before I really knew better... sense has since been smacked into me). Lol, she said we could talk over phone, email, or even IM.

Research for a book over IM. The academic in me just isn't too sure about that.

How does she have ANY idea of the stuff she's been told has any speck of truth? Writing a book about things people told you on the internet........

:: going through my APA/MLA handbook to see how to cite an instant message convo as a reliable source::

I say how can anyone disagree with the book or be negative about the autor without READING the book first. I know the cliff notes may not be in the scholarhsip room, but come on how can any intelligent dialog go on w/o actually experiencing the story.

And to those who refrain from comments because it should go through "headquartes" first--please be an independent woman and have your opinions heard.

That last post was trollerific. Trolltacular even!

Trollabulous? Trollerful?

Who is it that does the GC Quote of the Week? I nominate this for that honor!

Well said 33!

Oh TrollQuan or is it TrollQuisha is at it again? :rolleyes:

Where is that troll photo when we need it?

t*p,

I want you to read it, because i got the sneaking suspicion that she was at UNT.

She mentions that she's at a large state school, where Greek life is big, but not essential. A lot of her interviews are with a woman named "Brooke" who's an alum of a school in Texas. She makes a comment that STate U isn't in the Deep South. During the rush part, she mentions how one sister remarked, "We should take her, she's from Highland Park"

I don't think it's A&M, cuz she mentions homecoming, and we don't do that, and i don't think its t.u. because there's no mention of OU-tu weekend, etc. I think she did it at TTU or North Texas.

Kitso
KS 361

I saw the book at my local Barnes & Noble over the weekend. Debated buying it, but decided against it. I did stand there and read the recommendations she puts forward for "reforms" to sororities at the end of the book. Some of the examples she cites as "better" ways demonstrate to me she hasn't researched the big picture. It also was very clear that she didn't interview many Greek Advisers for their perspectives on the issue. Finally, Alexandra Robbins is best known for her "expose" on Skull and Bones at Yale. She seems to like to write about subjects that are going to be at best difficult, if not impossible to confirm the accuracy of her stories.

kitso,
that def. peaks my interest... although I don't have the time or money to invest in that right now.

hmmm

If you're going to buy it, at least return it to the bookstore when you're finished with it and get your money back.

cant have been here. she talks of a drug room and a "scholarship room", but the only sorority here that has a house yet is adpi, and i can personally vouch that we have neither.

of course now you've got me wondering what other places it could be, were it in texas. TCU? I think SMU is too greek oriented...
you're a bad influence!:p

Umm.. if you actually took the time to read a lot fo the thread... there are quite a few people here who have read the book. That is all you may now go back under your bridge.

Read over part of this again at lunch. This is the reference she's citing from Greek Chat.

Some more dumb things I picked up on though...she bemoans the fact that people at headquarters making policy don't need have degrees or even gone to college. She cites the national Panhel prez as her source. Of course the author has confused headquarters staff with national council which are two completely separate entities. Although it would be funny to make our whole national council move into a house together. :p

With a name like mybmw and posting like this you actually expect anyone here to take you seriously? Come on.:rolleyes: I've read the book and it's a load of crap. If all sororities were really like that all over the country wouldn't they all have died out by now? I don't have to go through HQ to find the book assinine and less than well written.

Well, i don't think it's TCU or SMU, because it sounds like the school is a big public one.

Maybe Tech or Texas State nee SWT.

She does talk about bid day at SMU in the opening and closing chapters, but i don't think she would talk about SMU in a book where she went undercover at SMU, ya know?

You want another tantalizing fact? Her "characters" come from 2 sororities. Three are in "Alpha Rho" and one is in "Beta Pi" One time when they're pregaming she "quotes" one of the girls as saying, "he-he, we're alpha-holics." Ok, so that either confirms that a) the girls in Alpha Rho are in a sorority that really does have an A in their name. or if she made up the name of the org and there is no A in their name, that has to be a made up statement, which i think would kill the credibilty of the rest of it. So, if they ARE Alpha somethings somewhere, is Beta Pi really Pi Beta Phi?

Also, she says her Alpha's won homecoming last year. It wouldn't be too hard to check the homecoming results of the major universities in Texas to see if any Alpha chapters won.

ok, yeah, i understand that i'm getting a little caught up in all this, but leave me alone, i'm in SD ok? :D

Kitso
KS 361 times this book is just filling the void in my life left by the absence of Sorority Life

As much as I hate for other people to get rich and not me, I will probably end up buying this book. It sounds like it's kind of funny, as in entertaining...of course, I might change my mind after I read it, but from the excerpt it sounds like it's nothing but a naive description of Greeks from the perspective of a non-Greek who's fascinated by what she doesn't really understand. That's cool. We all need a laugh every now and then!

Have the best of both worlds -- get it from the library. You get laughs without paying a cent.

Oh total comedy folks, did you know on her website you can schedule a lecture and have her come out and talk with you regarding sorority issues and her new book? :rolleyes: Riiiight.