Alexandra Robbins on The View Today
 

I'm not really able to watch it today, but if anyone saw it, post comments here.

I am watching it now...I will post after it's done.

Ditto

I gotta head to a dentist appt! :( I want details!

Yah, me too!

I'm at work. I wish I was a director so I could have a tv in my office.
Anyway, it's almost over right?

She's on now.

She's talking about black sororities and white sororities. "White sororities are more focused on their relationships with men."

Is anyone else watching this?

Basically she said she went undercover and how over 80% of sorority girls have eating disorders. How does she get that number, did she talk one on on with every girl in the house she went undercover in?
She also says they are racist and hazing still goes on and then she talked about two girls who she has in her book were raped and how one told her sorority and they told her not to press charges or anything cause it looks bad on the sorority. She acts like all of us would say the same about it.
Basically her thing is she generalizes on everything. Just cause she saw it with one girl she thinks it HAS to be everyone and just cause one chapter out of many sororities and many chapters hazes, then they all do. I think she really wasnt out to portray it in a good light at ALL. She didnt look into good things, but bad and she takes everything out of context too.
I bet the 4 girls she has in her book are kicking themselves that they ever associated with her.


Great almost all of the View are against sororities and keep saying that then at the end Meredith was like well it seems like sororities dont have any morals or standards.

What the heck does she know? Oh one thinks they arent right cause of favortism and exclusion Barbara says. Come off it lady. Press like this makes me mad cause they talk so bad about white sororities as they call them and noone on that show was in one to help balance all the bad press out.


Elisabeth was like fortunately there werent any on my campus where I went to school and I am so happy about that.

Star was a AKA but they said thats completely diff and that they arent racist they said

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: OMG this author needs a swift kick in the butt

Cheers and Jeers
 

Cheers to Star Jones - standing up for GLOs. She dropped a hint to which D9 GLO she belongs to, but didn't say the letters. I wont' either, out of respect for the org, but she went toe-to-toe w/ Barbara Walters. Which leads me to......

Jeers to Barbara Walters. "I'm totally against sororities." That says it all right there. Closed mind, locked door, moving on to the next one.

The first interviewer (forget her name) pressed her for specific facts, but that last for about 60 seconds of this 5-6 minute feature. For the most part, her "findings" were accepted as gospel w/out challenge. Also picked on the the NPC orgs for wanting to maintain their privacy and prevent dishonest people from poking around their org. I wouldn't be suprised if the "rape coverup" Robbins mentioned was the V's. Funny how that Houston courtroom apology didn't factor into this discussion.

More negatives: reinforcing divisions between "historically white" and "historically black" GLOs. We have enough race relations problems in this country, we don't need any more wedges driven.

Big negative: Bawbwa Walters was all too happy to make sure each and every person in the audience got a free copy of the book.

I realized why talk features like this are a problem: the information is dropped quickly, then the topic shifts suddenly. This way, there is no time for the viewer to critically analyze or ask questions of what was presented. Education via advertising.

Bottom line, same script, different day. No real suprises.

ETA - this reminds me of a Life Magazine article I found on Ebay that was printed in the 1950s. It was a 4-page feature called "Sororities: A Growing Social Problem." Same criticisms of the NPC, same claims of "investigation., same "inside story" of the recruitment (then: rush) process. Ever since the NPC orgs were founded there has been hostility against them. I guess beating off the Philistines at the gates is going to be business as usual always.

--add

wtf? I thought Baba Wawa was an AEPhi.

Nope she said she is WAY against them and then goes into how they exclude and it promotes favortism and this that and the other.

Then Star was trying to say well you have a choice you can pick a good sorority that you like and has the same morals, but they took it out of context and didnt let her finish her thoughts.

That's really a shame.

But the way I see it, is that we women know what our orgs are like. Yes there are some bad apples, but we really are good organizations with wonderful, upstanding women as memebers and quite frankly do I want to have a women as a sister who is so narrow minded and unable to think for themseleves?

I didn't see it today, but I'm hoping to see a rerun. I could have sworn that Joy is a Delta Zeta. I know she's at least Greek. Did she have anything to say?

As someone who has admired Barbara Walters all her life, I'm disappointed in her closed-mindedness. I'm hoping that she'll see the good side of Greek Life.

Joy did not say ONE thing during it. If she did I think she asked something, but she did not let on that she was in one at all. I would have thought she wasnt the way everyone acted. Star was the only one who said she was a AKA and how diff black sororities are she said.

Barbara also made me disappointed. I see her as very close minded now. Elisabeth said she didnt like them and was glad none were on her campus, and Meredith made the snide comment at the end that it seems all sororities have no morals or standards. Joy really didnt talk. I would think if she was in one, shed interject or theyd at least know she was in one and ask her, but they didnt.

Makes me dislike the View because they came into this not giving sororities a chance and using this book to further state how bad sororities are.

Edit. I just looked at a DZ site that said famous DZ's and Joys name is on there so I dont know. She didnt try to say anything nice about them at all. She didnt talk. I know if she did she may have gotten hit with comments from the others who are against them, but youd think shed say something to back something good.

Concur.

I knew Ms Jones was going to be in someone's face because when Robbins was introduced, her eyes were down and she looked like she was gritting her teeth. Not a happy lady.

Usually, when someone pushing a book is in the last 5 minute slot of a talk show, it's the result of an ambitious author's agent and a desperate show producer trying to fill a slot to avoid questions about dead air. No one really has an agenda. I thought that would be the case here until Barbara opened her pie hole and took advantage of the "personal commentary" license in the show.

--add

I never liked the view. I found them to be very one sided about everything. They are hardly journalists.

Joy just said that it was about sorority greeks not Greek people. She didn't say if she was or wasn't in a sorority.

Barbara was clearly anti-sorority. Elizabeth was relieved they didn't have sororities at her college.

I thought that Starr said explicitly that she is an AKA. I could have sworn I heard her say that. Robbins then emphasized the difference between Black and White sororities. Joy asked about racism in sororities. Is the racism in the black or white sororities? Starr stated that there were white members in her sorority.

Exactly.
This isn't a "news" show. It's all about the commentary w/ any incidental "news" used as a launching point. Like any magazine show whether it's Larry King or Bill O'Reilly if you're looking for neutrality this isn't the place.

I worry at times whether the average joe/josephine knows the difference....

--add

Thanks to those who've posted so far, and thanks in advance to those who haven't posted yet. So Joy's Greek...it's funny, I never thought to connect her to GLOs at all...she gives off a non-conformist attitude somehow.

Joy is a DZ alumna. I didn't see it, but I'm disappointed in the comments posted so far. I can't believe someone as smart as Meredith would buy the viewpoint based on one obviously unbalanced book to form her opinion of sororities as a whole. I thought she was more open-minded than that. Hmmm.

I too heard her say she was AKA and then they were talking about racism and she said well I am AKA and we have been the nations oldest black sorority since whatever date she said, sorry AKAs I thought she said like 1809 or something, but Im not good at dates so sorry in advance. She def said she was one and that AKA has white girls in their org too. She didnt say it being mean or anything. I think she was just stating in the org she belongs to they arent racist and then stating they have been here a long time. I dont think she got into the "white" orgs because I think she is open minded and didnt want to start something. She didnt look too happy with Robbins.

Good LORD will this ever go away? the book isn't like a thriller or must-read or anything (well, besides for Greeks and people interested in the system...or interested in bashing it, and even then...)...i bought it and read it because i saw Robbins on the Today Show and i thought that it might be interesting but lately it seems like it's been getting more and more press - i saw it at Barnes and Noble this weekend on a huge display when you first walk in...Yeah, the View is not exactly the best show on TV either, i mean all of those women talking at once makes you go "Huh?" since you can't hear any of them! Plus, it's interesting that no one has mentioned Robbins giving a disclaimer about her only investigating one sorority, etc...which is just further proof as to why organizations choose not to talk to the press, everything just gets stereotyped all over again! :rolleyes:

I wish I could have seen this. :(

I'm sure this has been discussed, but how does Ms. Robbins know what goes on in hist. black sororities as opposed to hist. white ones?

Granted, she did go undercover during an NPC rush, and is basing her findings off of that ONE experience, but what is she basing her experience with hist. black sororities from? Heresay?

Sorry to hijack the thread. I may need to go back and reread all "THE PLEDGED" threads because I may have missed that one.

ETA: Boo @ Joy for not sticking up for her sorority (or sororities in general).:o

Are you sure Joy is a DZ? I have been trying to find out for sure, but I can't find her on the DZ website. I ask because Joy didn't mention any affiliation so it makes me wonder if she is really greek.

So is there any point in e-mailing Meredith, Barbara, et al to regale them with the good things about sorority life & begging them not to base their opinions on a book that is hardly based on science? (I still want to know where her "80% sorority women have eating disorders" statistic came from).

I took wonder about the 80% garbarge I was like what the? I mean I was in my sorority for 4 years and Ive seen people have eating disorders but in general in HS and college, I really cant say I know of anyone from my sorority.

Like I said before its not like she talked and interviewed every org. She is looking to make everyhting bad. I wish we could get her for slander, but we cant. I just think its bad this book is so advertised. I hope it blows over quickly.

When they interoduced her on the View they are like talking about the book and like this book that is causing controversy with sororities everywhere. Im like duh you idiots? Maybe its cause its false. They think though that its cause we are all in some big cover up. They used the word cover up a few times during the interview.

Any DZs out there know for a fact Joy is a DZ? I ask cause I thought if anyone was in a sorority besides Star they would have said something. Everyone else was rude about them and Joy was quiet so maybe she just didnt want to start something.

I wish I could say yes, but it would be wishful thinking.

When someone comes out on a national TV show putting their foot down about how against sororities they are, emails and letters are about as effective at breaking down that barrier as a Chihuahua peeing on the Great Wall of China.

The only way people with these opinions will change them is if they experience the positives of sorority affiliation in their daily lives. They have to SEE w/ their eyes, over and over again, that sorority affiliation is a positive influence on the women involved.

This is why (IMHO) it's important for alumnae to be proud of their GLO affiliation. If people outside of Greek life see the positive impact on you and through you, that will make a better impression than mere words in a letter. (Says the PNAM..... ;) )

--add

you never know. I'd say do it.

The statistic was that 80% of college women with bulimia are in sororities. She just had a hard time reading it.

Anyway in my continuing search of Joy Behar, she is a graduate of Queens College. Was there a DZ chapter at Queens College in the early to mid 1960's? She was born in 1943 so that would be the time frame.

Ok I have a aunt who is a DZ alum so I called her after this and she called Nationals for me, I didnt feel right calling someone elses nationals and what she found out was
there was a Delta Zeta at Queens the Delta Ep chapter it was founded in 1955 and closed in 1980 so its possible she could have been one. I should have had my aunt just ask, but I didnt.

Fuck her.

No matter what, all these anti-greeks will never be able to get rid of us.

It's so ridiculous that randoms get on greeks for exclusiveness and favortism. I don't think it's a matter of race or social status; anyone's really open to rush, it's just hacking through your shit and gaining the respect of your fellow bros/sisters. Going through the pledge process earns us the right to be exclusive, and if anyone wants to join, all they have to do is earn their lumps too (I don't mean hazing, I mean the educational and philanthropic process that comes with pledging). Randoms just don't want to give it that chance.

Some schools would lose lots of money if it weren't for us, maybe not a big substantial amount, but we're needed.

We seem to be the only people who show school spirit/give a flying rat's ass.

Or maybe that's cause I'm at SDSU......

I'm long winded and typin in fragments like Tom....I'll go now...

Joy Behar is listed in our most recent alum directory (no home address, of course). She was a member of the Delta Epsilon chapter at Queens College which has been inactive since 1980.

Aha! Good detective work! So it is possible.

I posted as Andi posted. Thanks for the confirmation, Andi! So now I know for sure. I'm still surprised that Joy didn't say anything.

Isn't the key demo for The View housewifes? Does their opinion really matter when it comes to Greeks? Maybe they have children, but it shouldn;t be that big a factor, right?

Youd think but heres the thing, its summer so all the kids who are in HS going to college or in college are out for summer, mostly and may be watching tv in the mornings. I bet a lot of people saw it, but I hope they wont take those old ladies as the be all, know it alls about greek life, or robbins either.

My big question that worries me is how did this chick get into the sorority? Did she sign up for classes and then rush or what? I mean we really look at girls when they come through here and you have to have background info for us to let you in. I think shed be fishy most places. I just hope we dont get more reporters trying this.

Well, supposedly she didn't actually rush or pledge, but was just close friends with these girls. But the degree of detail is what's made some people say that they think the whole thing is a complete farce and that the 4 girls don't even exist.

I think we should let Meredith Viera and the rest of the View ladies know some further details about some of Robbbins's sources. ;)

I think she just needs to get railed...I'll sick our Social Chair on her...

if i recall correctly, she was exposed by chapters twice, once when she was open about it and the second time when her story was blown...and then i figured that she joined Alpha Rho, since she said that no one knew that she wasn't a student...and it sounds like she couldn't have gotten away with much with the chapter, since from what she said they had a poor relationship with independents

I've been wondering about this too. I mean seriously, if she wasn't a member how could she have just followed girls around from two different orgs?

LMAO!!!!

Thinking about Ms. Robbins and her stupid book seriously makes my blood boil! I just pray she and the hype about this book go away soon!