MTV and Sororities
 

I'm watching the MTV Movie Awards and they showed a preview/comercial for Sorority Life. All I can say is... oh my god. "The real reason I joined a sorority is to party." Ok, no self respecting greek would say that on TV. Lordy lordy.....

TG

I saw that too...I just hope that they don't say/show their affiliations. :(

I dunno...I would be willing to bet that if you talked to all the greeks on your campus (especially if it is a school where Greeks dominate the social scene; like if you arent' Greek you are sitting at home playing computer games type campus) then you might find the majority of people joined GLO's for the social outlet.

However it is what GLO's give in addition to a killer social calender that makes all of us love our orgs...but that is obviously difficult to explain to someone on the outside.

I recently had a conversation with all my HS friends who didn't join houses and all they could focus on was the social aspect of being in a house. I know I had great difficulty in trying to explain the other parts of it to them and demonstrate how these were far more important than just the parties.

Anyway, hopefully that statement started out as "The real reason I joined a sorority is to party" and ended in "...but I've found out that many other things are far more important." Of course I doubt that MTV will keep the second half of the quote.:(

I suppose it's unfair to judge a program without seeing it, but it sounds like MTV got exactly what it was looking for. Quotes they can use for their pre-determined storyline.

Ugh!

Boy did that intro stereotype sororities.

Whatever gets ratings. :rolleyes:

I didn't get to see this because I was working. Grrr!!

But you know what, all we can do is smile and think of how ignorant people can be and be thankful that we weren't giving the opportunity to be as ignorant as some people may be. ;) :D ;)

The show follows, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi sorority. Here are a few things their web site says about it.
http://www.hillelhouse.org/sigma/html/facts.html

http://www.hillelhouse.org/sigma/html/statement.html

http://onlinehermes.com/main.cfm/inc...id/181286.html

Bascially the commercial went like this: It starts off with a bunch of girls saying why they joined a sorority. They named off philanthropy and sisterhood. Then the commercial states "Now why did you really join a sorority?" This is the point when the girls named off partying and fraternities.

Quite frankly I was slightly stunned. It really did play directly into the stereotype. I really hope this show doesn't just focus on the "social aspect" of joining a sorority!!!

I saw this too while watching the Awards show at the Sigma Nu house, with a few SN's. I was stunned to see those girls and their responses. You would think that they would want to represent the Greek System as something positive ~ that's not the impression they give off. I am curious to see what GLO they belong to. The show is premiering 6/24 in the evening...time, I forget. Even the guys were like "What the...". THEY were surprised! I just wonder what impression this will leave H.S. students and all other Potential New Members. Even parents. Hopefully not a bad one, we'll just have to wait and see. :eek:

MTV makes me angry!
 

Man, when I saw the ad tonight for their new sorority show I can definately say I was less than impressed. The whole "reasons to join a sorority" and then the "REAL reasons to join". That just made me sick almost. Yes, I will admit it, I love the social aspect of my sorority, without a doubt. But I didn't join because of that. Maybe some people did, but when MTV presents the info they have the way they did, it makes sorority girls look like flaky bimbos who only care about "frat boys and parties". Yuck. I don't even want to watch this show in fear that they will only throw out more and more stereotypes and pass them off as truth. Maybe I am overrreacting, but it just makes me so mad. The same way it did when I was considered "dumb and stuck up" in high school b/c I was a cheerleader. Ack, ok, enough ranting for now! Sorry, just need to get this off my chest. :D

The truth is that one of the main reasons why I rushed was to meet people and for the parties and mixers. I later found out that there was so much more to sisterhood. As long as this MTV show isn't like those commercials for 'Girls Gone Wild' videos than I won't be too worried about it.

I also saw the ad, and frankly, I was disgusted. Perhaps the girls didn't have any say in what content was in the commercial, but if they did, and they agreed to be portreyed in that manner, then they should be ashamed. OF COURSE people love the social aspects of sisterhood-- thats why we are considered social organizations--but if I heard ANY sorority member saying that partying was the REAL reason that she joined a sorority I would think she was nuts. I simply cannot believe that MTV would use THAT piece as the promo for the entire show...or....wait a minute...I CAN believe it....

thank you MTV for perpetuating the ugly image of sorority girls as only caring about boys, partying, and getting wasted... we really appreciate it.

DITTO :D It will all be just fine!! Fingers are crossed!! :)

I joined my sorority because I felt so comfortable and had a true connection with my sisters. But I can be honest and say that I went into rush with the idea of mixers, parties, and meeting people. But it is through rush and pledging that you discover the true meanings of sisterhood. These are things that just by watching MTV you aren't going to learn. I haven't seen the commerical yet, since I am currently not in the US, but I am sure it can't be any worse then the negative stereotypes greeks have been fighting for years. Like someone else said as long as it isn't Girls Gone Wild I really don't think anymore damage can be done.

Sisters and Brothers,

It was obvious from the producers' website, and has now been proven by the on-air promotion, that the content and storyline for this series was pre-determined by the producers. It is also obvious that it isn't likely to be positive for the Greek System.

If the women of this local think otherwise, I'm afraid they're dreaming.

In any event, it's probably too late to do anything about the damage which almost certainly will be done. The question is how to react to it and counteract that damage.

With no disrespect intended, it seem obvious to me why the producer picked a local -- no national would allow one of their chapters to be involved. And wisely so.

About 5 minutes after I got done reading this thread the first time, I turned to MTV to see what was on, and there was the commercial for it.

I think my fave part was when after they said, so what's the real reason you joined a sorority, and one of the girls said quote,"It's an excuse to party" :rolleyes: I mean yeah, many do join at first b/c of the social aspect, but for the love of G@d! Talk about seeing your stereotypical sosority girls.

I hope no one takes offense to this but... I give major props to Alpha Epsilon Phi nationals for getting rid of them when they did.

Sorority Life
MTV channel
10:30/9:30pm EST (either 9:30 or 10:30)
Monday, June 24

I'm not gonna lie when I say I'll be checking it out. Not that I'm going to write, but judging from the commercials MTV better be prepared for feedback on this one. I agree with DeltAlum in saying this isnt going to be pretty.

ok i'm gonna break it down for all of you...
sigma alpha epsilon pi is a jewish sorority. there are 2 chapters, 1 in davis where the show takes place, and 1 in san diego. there is no nationals. these girls have no direction....what do you expect? i know 2 of the san diego girls very well, they will be on the show too. they did not like the idea on MTV too well, and said all the cameras wanted was drama, not the sorority. the show is set up like the real world...there are 2 houses, an actives house and a pledges house. so the cameras can capture whatever they want. are you telling me that 24/7 some of you dont do or say anything that may not look appropriate? also, we don't know if MTV is taking any of this stuff out of context...it was just a commercial.

Re: MTV makes me angry!
 

I FEEL YOU! I just hope the whole show isn't one big stereotype, but by the looks of the commercials...

I just got back from my sorority floor after watching the MTV awards and the commercial for this new show. We found it funny that you could tell these girls were most likely saying one thing and they portrayed it as another. No one in a sorority comes out and says "I joined for the PARTIES" I don't know if this happened at your schools but MTV was contacting mine to get sororities to do this type of program and none of us were allowed to even talk to them. A sorority is something special to everyone involved in their chapters, not something that you want to put on tv to expose your secrets. Thats what sororities are, secret societies. A chance for women to engage in rituals that people did 100 years ago. I guess because they don't have nationals they dont really have any guidance on the issue.

I didnt realize that they were already finished filming this show. Our nationals sent our chapter a letter that they received from MTv for permission to follow our sisters and portray sorority life. Our nationals said no they didnt want their sorority houses disrupted. I'm curious to see how the show is going to end up, I have a lot of friends from home who are non-greek and I was the first one in my family to go greek so I hope it's not to bad of an image.

Sorry, I take offense...

Their website says the AEPhi chapter closed in the mid 90's and the current group of girls didn't start up again till 1998 - not necessarily to revive AEPhi but to have an outlet for Jewish women. Their name comes from AEPi fraternity, not AEPhi. And as the AEPhi's on here have stated...it's definitely not a bound brother/sister relationship, even though the names are similar.

We have no idea why the AEPhi chapter closed - it could have been numbers or finances or something relatively benign. They don't deserve to be maligned because a decision that women who have no association with them have made.

33girl makes a very valid point. Most, if not all, of the AEPhi's from the chapter that was closed would have graduated by the time SAEPi was founded.

That said, it's still more than likely that this show will reflect negatively on AEPhi in particular, in addition to the greek system as a whole. People will remember that AEPhi used to have a chapter there, and will link SAEPi to AEPhi in their minds. SAEPi's website explicitly mentions the closing of the AEPhi chapter as part of its history. There is also the similarity in names, and SAEPi's link to AEPi, which a lot of people assume (wrongly) is a brother fraternity to AEPhi.

I haven't seen the ad... but why am I so not shocked that MTV is portraying sorority women as a bunch of party animals?? Whatever boosts their ratings, I guess. :rolleyes:

I was watching the MTV Music Awards with a few sisters and were all in shock when we saw that commercial. One of the girls was like, "Oh my gosh, I hope they're not ZTAs!" But, I'm assuming that all 26 NPC sororities put out a notice to their chapters that MTV would not be allowed to film them. It's just disappointing to see that these women would feed into a stereotype like that.

Of course all the wanted was "drama." And, of course many of the comments (probably) were taken out of context.

A show without "flash and trash" that shows sorority women sitting around talking about philanthrophy ain't gonna have anyone watching. Period.

They're looking for dirt. And they'll produce it whether it's there or not.

We all talked in advance about selective editing, etc. Get ready for it.

Well, I sure hope that those girls are happy with the outcome because MTV sure made them look like idiots. With one comercial they have already portrayed them as a bunch of bimbo, beer chuging party hounds. I really hope that the comercial was just and advertising stunt and not a true insight to how the show is going to go. It was pretty obvious that the girls were just being interviewed and their words were edited into what would fit the format of the commercial. Did they expect anything less? How embarassing. I would never degrade my letters, my sisters, or myself for a TV show, no matter their reason for making it. What goes on in my sorority is our business. If someone is so curious about what a sorority entails, they should go and rush. Otherwise they will never find the true meaning.

i just think that these girls have no idea what they got themselves into. And, honestly, in their press release, it says that they think this will boost their membership and be a positive refelction, when in all honesty, i think if they look as bad as they did in the commercial, their membership may infact go down.

And i am sorry, and this will sound harsh, but it's a local sorority, not NPC, NPHC, IFC, or MultiCultural. Not even a local with a lot of chapters or national headquarters, as some do. This is a perfect reason why there needs to be a national local governing board of some sort!

MTV is getting just what they want - ratings...so many are offended but will probably watch it too, just to see how horrible it is...
(un)fortunately, I won't be watching....don't get MTV in Canada(well not on regular cable). although Muchmusic will be showing the MTV awards on saturday, they rarely show other mTV programming

I couldn't agree more!! :)

I had a conversation with a girl who was on the Real World when she came and spoke to us at our campus Women's Leadership Conference. She told me almost every member of her cast (Boston) hated the way the show came out. She said that some of the cast members that were portrayed as real B*tches were not that bad. They basicly showed the drama and nothing else. I immagine that will be the case with Sorority Life. I mean, as a viewer, would you rather see a cat fight or girls sitting arround doing homework?

TG

Is there anything we can do to counteract this big bad greek publicity?! I know that its almost pointless to go after big corps when they do something that is hurtful toward greek life... but I have written countless letters in hopes that someday someone will read them and understand. Once in the 80's I want to say- there must have been an offesive hallmark card and one of my sisters wrote in and we have a letter from them in our scrapbook stating that the card design was pulled and thanked them for bringing it to their attention....

There has to be something we can do to make the highschoolers- the future greeks- who will be spending their summer vegging infront of the TV watching MTV - not think that this is what being greek is about.

Damn Animal House- it started this! lol... well not really... but we always need something to blame!

Now hold up a sec...
 

Now just because mtv is doing a show about sororities, don't sell it short as a bad publicity ratings scheme. Yes, I think they will have some bad issues, but maybe it will show a good side to the greek system. If anyone here didn't join a fraternity or sorority thinking it had no connection to a social life or partying, you must be living on Mars. Heck I wouldn't of found out about my fraternity if it wasn't for the parties they threw. Now, if the show starts documented hazing and shit like that, I'm definitely going to be annoyed and freaked out. But until this show airs, I'm going to remain hopeful that it's something worth seeing.


- RUgreek

I sincerely hope you right. I am pretty sure you aren't. Especially after seeing the on air promo.

sorority on mtv
 

i actually met one of the girls that is going to be on that show. she told me that they tried very hard to get thoughts like "i joined to party" out of your mouth and out of context. also the mtv production went in and redesigned their whole house and paid for everything.not to shabby.

positive thoughts
 

I just saw "The Ad" and yes, it is very lame and completely out of context.

But what I really liked is that the women they showed are all shapes, colors and sizes. Too many people think sorority members are all Barbie lookalikes - if this smashes that stereotype, it might be worth some of the grief.

Re: sorority on mtv
 

Knowing this, why would they still do the show? I wouldn't...

Ronnie

BearyCute,

Probably one word: CONTRACT.

Kinda like selling your soul to the Devil. They signed, they got their house all fixed up on MTV's dime.

Time now to pay the Piper -- so to speak.

Someone at work already told me that there is going ot be a show on MTV about sororities I totally cringed and tried to explain the difference between locals and nationals but she is from austrailia and totally doesn't get it.
Arrrgh! Its gonna be a long summer.

We all know what reality shows want.....DRAMA! and I'm sure they are going to get it. I can recall many times when things happened on our sorority floor - an argument between sisters or people coming home drunk and acting out of control - that, if filmed, could be taken out of context. Things like that are better left within the walls of the house, not edited to the producer's liking and thrown on national television for all to see.
Are these women concerned about what their future employers, a graduate school committee, or their families will think? You never know who will be watching. They have entrusted their reputations and the reputation of their organization to the MTV producers. I can only imagine what PNMs might think of this particular sorority if the women are only shown talking behind each others backs or just getting drunk all the time.
I know in my time at ASU, we were approached many times by MTV and other producers to film our sorority for reality shows- one company wanted to put a webcam in our chapter room 24 hours a day!! The answer was always NO! Why do they think we would ever agree to that????:eek:

Not Animal House!!! I love that movie!!!:D But I understand what you are saying...It is SO much easier for the media to pull all of the negative sterotypes so they can say..."See, isn't Greek life what you always thought it would be...". And let's face it-more college students are NOT Greek than those who ARE Greek, so we will always be in the minority. This is why it it SO important that we are united-No matter if we are GLO, BGLO, Locals, or whatever. Whenever you are out-try your best to represent your chapter and your school well, so that no one will be saying, "...it figures he/she would act that way-He/She is a Greek- it's so typical".:)