Feminist Sorority at Trinity College
 

From Salon.com [Link]

A sorority at Trinity College aims to redefine sisterhood.

By Lynn Harris

Dec. 22, 2005 | It's the sorority holiday party, and sorority holiday things are happening. "Secret sister" gifts are exchanged amid giggles, hugs and -- in the case of the sex toys and the bottle of Bacardi -- delighted whoops. One sister receives a mini-rugby ball and a bottle of beer. "I said I like rugby men and men who drink beer," she confesses, referring to wish lists circulated to help the sisters with their shopping. "I told her to get you stuff you didn't have!" teases another. Ooh, snap! Hoots and hollers all around.

This might sound, in some ways, like a "typical" sorority scene. But what if I told you that the gift that provoked one of the most vocal responses -- mostly pro-, I think -- was a copy of Maureen Dowd's "Are Men Necessary"? Or that a sister's mention that she'd like Teach for America to place her in Hawaii prompted the response "Wow, just think about all the Polynesian cultural issues"?

Yes, there is something different about Zeta Omega Eta at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.: This sorority calls itself "feminist."

A "feminist sorority"? At Trinity, known affectionately (or not) as "Camp Trin Trin"? Yes. And yes, I'm sure I didn't mean Wesleyan (Trinity's far crunchier neighbor to the south).

"Feminist sorority" does indeed sound like an oxymoron, and to a certain extent it is. As far as anyone is aware, it's the only such group on any U.S. campus. (Zeta's only known counterpart, at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock -- also not exactly Wesleyan -- is said to have recently folded.)

But sororities in general seem to be changing -- very, very slowly. "There is a movement to make these groups more progressive and relevant in the 21st century because they understand that if they don't progress they might get wiped out," says Alexandra Robbins, author of "Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities." The primary obstacle: "The sense of tradition in these organizations is so strong that any movement toward change is inevitably going to encounter a backlash." Still, Robbins recently worked as a consultant with the national leadership of one sorority whose highest-ups "were thinking about more revolutionary changes than even I suggested," she says. "It was very encouraging. The day might not be so far away when a 'feminist sorority' no longer has to be just a 'local.'"

TEACH FOR AMERICA!!!

(Sorry, couldn't resist. H&A joke.)

As far as Alexandra Robbins goes..did I miss something? Which national sorority did she get to work with? :rolleyes:

I'm a little confused by this.
So Miss Robins is supporting the buying of bottles of bacardi and sex toys. But in her book she distinctly didn't like the episodes of drinking and sexual expression that might have gone on within the sororities she "worked with."

Also, girls in my sorority applied for teach for america, one is also in china right now teaching while another is in guatemala working with teh underpriveleged.. how is this stuff relevant only to a "feminist sorority."
I am a self-proclaimed feminist and I would never think that giving sex toys as a x-mas gift would define me as a feminist (I'm not saying I havne't done it, my friends and I have a kinda dirty/gag gift secret santa"

But none of what was mentioned above seems to be any different then something you could find in any sorority or with any other group of girls.

I bet they'd be real fun to party with...I'm drunk.

It might help to read the whole article (if you haven't yet). All you have to do is watch a brief ad to get full access to Salon. :)

The only thing that confused me is that Delta Delta Delta is mentioned in the article's title, so when I first saw it I thought maybe it was something about Tri Delta changing its (inter)national policies or something. It's a good, if somewhat inconsistent piece.

The scariest thing is that somewhere along the line the press has made Alexandria Robbins the go-to source for all that is sorority-related. That's wrong; at least they could have interviewed someone actually in a sorority.

KR, I wonder how much of the Robbins question is because of the tendency of individual sororities to not respond to media inquiries?

Can someone explain to me how "feminist" and "sorority" are oxmorons, because I don't get it... although I guess if your thinking in terms of "feminist" vs. "steriotype sorority" I can see a shred of validity. But a jounalist who writes an article based on steriotypes, isn't a very good journalist...unless they're writing the rag coloumn.

What's odd is that I was able to read the article last night without any advertising. It was right there.

sistermadly, you may be on to something with the Robbins issue. If HQ doesn't speak to the media then people are left to their own devices. HQ can issue press releases regarding the topic de jour but it doesn't have the same impact as an interview. Although, interviews can be spun too.

Regarding this "feminist" sorority, I am not sure that I understand what they are trying to accomplish. It's fine that want to develop an organization of like-minded people but aside from having males, how are they different? It would have been nice to learn of their goals and so forth. I did find it funny that a founder said that they wanted an alternative party place to the frat scene yet they wind up doing mixers.

I would guess that most of our Founders were feminists seeing as they were in college at a time when not many women went to college. Our founder, Emily Butterfield was the first female to become a licensed architect in the state of Michigan. Do you get much more feminist than that?

Dee

I agree. All of our Founders were college educated at a time when so few women and men had the opportunity to attend college. I know DPhiE Founders were students at NYU Law School in 1917 which was pretty unusual, and we're one of the youngest NPCs.

Someone please explain to me when sex toy parties (and talking on and on AND ON about the fact that you have them) became "feminist." If you want to use 'em, fine, but IMO that's between me and my partner (even if my partner happens to be my hand). I'm sure if these same "feminist" women had a man make a joke to them about dildos, they'd clock him. Which is stupid.

And as far as Robbins, it's the same deal as in her book - she was fine with the coed fraternity all banging each other, but when the traditional sororities did the same thing she thought it was horrible.

You've got to remember - this is SALON. They've got a very definite political point of view and it criticizes anything they consider traditional - whether it actually is in practice or not.

Honestly, after reading the article, it just sounds like these are the girls who didn't go to prep school and feel left out of that culture. That has nothing to do w/ Greek life.

Ugh...butch...er.

-Rudey

I would guess that the social definition of a feminist is different now than it was at the times of our foundings though.

But I'd hardly say that these days our groups push feminism, at least not on a national level. What we did 150-80 years ago can't be compared to what's going on today.

Word. Robbins only seems to have a problem with the attractive girls having sex . . .

Just kidding. But she's got some definite double standards when it comes to promiscuity or sexual forwardness.

I've know of a number of chapters that don't consider themselves particularly "feminist" who sound very similar to the sorority described in the article. They might not be the most visible examples (they're smaller groups at smaller schools, generally), but they're definitely out there.

That said, I don't have a real problem with the concept of the group, but I think the way the writer and Robbins presented it as some crazy new idea is sort of obnoxious.

Sex toy parties are neither feminist nor non feminist.

Seriously...

yes, because much like the stereotypes of Greeks, all stereotypes of feminists are true. :rolleyes:

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

i didn't read it as the article trying to say sex-toys are feminist. i read it as sex-toy gifts and such were given just as they might be given in any other sorority that doesn't label themeselves as feminist. and THEN the article went on to say that even tho this sorority is similar to others, in ways like that, it considers itself different because it labels themselves feminist.

This is news to me.

What are the stereotypes of Greeks?

And, yes...butch with short haircuts, weird utility jeans, chunky shoes, and a tattoo or two that says "Testacles, shmestacles!" with a whole lot of Melissa Ethridge (and other Lillith Fair participants) playing in the background.

:rolleyes:

-Rudey

So let me get this straight...all a "regular" sorority would have to do is slap on the FEMINIST label, have a few sex toy parties, and voila! They're something totally new and novel? Like, wow! :rolleyes:

Sounds like a bunch of bull$hit to me.

Edited because I forgot to add: Yes, I sort of took offense at Ms. Robbins' attitude that it was OK for the members of the coed group she wrote about to sleep with each other, but when members of traditional sororities slept with people, she acted like it was disgusting. I would think that bonking your own coed fraternity brothers/sisters is more disgusting--and pathetic--than the other way around, if I had to choose.

By the definition of feminism that I've always been taught (equal rights for women, equal pay for equal work, etc), we definitely are feminist groups. We groom women to have leadership skills. We teach time management. We stress academic success and are focusing more and more on future career success. Perhaps this isn't the focus of some NPCs, but I know that Alpha Gamma Delta has been very focused on leadership and even started a new Leadership Institute to help women develop leadership skills through out life, not just as a collegian.

I'm not sure how sex toys fit in with feminism... I see feminism as empowering women to help them realize that they can accomplish anything they put their minds to, whether that's as a corporate exec or a domestic engineer.

just to be clear, I'M not saying that... that's just what i read the first paragraph as the author trying to get across.

I must have been taught a different form of feminism. I actually was attacked by it on several occassions both in high school and undergraduate school.

The feminists that attacked me were separatists who claimed men were unneeded in society and that human life would be best without them. They also stated that since all hierarchy in society was created by men, then the hierarchy should be destroyed and nothing ever created to resemble it. This included Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, etc. as far as religion, and democracy, monarchy, parliamentarianism, etc. The list goes on.

I guess that's what I get for talking to "womyn" majoring in "womym's studies".

When one of my sisters was president of MGC, she got an email from a girl who wanted to start an "Italian sorority." This may seem off-topic but it's the first thing that popped into my head when I read the title. I see more and more different niches being filled with the titles of Greek letters.

p.s. never heard anything more about an Italian sorority later on.

The women that attacked you are Gender Feminists. They don't care if a woman is qualified for a position - she should automatically get it because she is a woman and women have been oppressed - and they never question a woman's story of rape because it must be true because a woman said so.

These are the bad kind of feminists, or feminazis, who make the majority of women ashamed to call themselves feminists and be associated with that kind of behavior.

The good kind of feminists are Equity Feminists. They believe in equal opportunities and equal pay. They also believe in the right of a woman to choose ANY lifestyle SHE wants - yes, including deciding to be a stay at home mom because that's what SHE wants to do. If you asked the majority of women and men they would agree with these things. Unfortunately, as happens in many social movements, the nutcases have drowned out the sane people.

ETA: just so no one thinks I came up w/ this on my own. I'm not that smart. :)

Alpha Phi Delta actually started out as a fraternity for Italian men - but I am guessing it was because they were barred from membership in other fraternities.

Absofreakinglutely. "Womyn" who think men are not needed by society and that everything they've created should be destroyed are to feminism what far-right militant freaks who think bombing abortion clinics is a good idea are to Christianity.

Kudos to 33girl, who articulated the division between the equity (good) feminists and the gender (evil) feminists. She is absolutely right.
As for "Italian" sororities and "feminisits" sororities...who cares? It just shows the value of our Greek system: we provide this wonderful structure that everyone else wants. Let them establish themselves and flourish as they will. If they have no traction they will die out naturally.

Whoever's saying it, that's a sorority stereotype I was unaware of.

33girl rocks.

I didn't gather that they thought the sex toy parties were feminists and that's not what I took offense at. I took a offense at the following comments about how the reason these girls are different is because one of them made a comment about "polynesian culture influences."

To me that insinuated that what seperated them from us "non-feminist" sorority members was that they could also be intelligent. I dont need to recite how we as greek organizations look to set high academic standards, you guys are in them you know.

Now maybe if the sorority focused on areas specifically to help women I could understand the lable feminist but to claim they deserve the label feminist because they make intellectual comments is ridiculous.

I am a self-proclaimed feminist, not the fem-nazis, but i believe that it is a women's choice to do what she wants with her life as long as it doens't hurt others. So i'm not one of the ones that gives feminism a bad name. I hope:)

33girl, thanks for taking the time to look those distinctions up! I learned something new today. When I think of feminists, I first think of Equity Feminists and this may be partly my age and family experience. My mother's family has a long history of involvement in the League of Women's Voters and as Suffragettes. My mother taught me about the ERA and what it said/meant.

NebraskaDelt: It's too bad you had an experience with women like that. I suppose it was much like when we have to deal with men who think we should all be barefoot and pregnant, so most of us do understand how upsetting it is. Those kinds of nutcases make us all look bad!

Dee

Trinity--a new beginning
 

I salute the ladies at Trinity for their intrusion into the bastion of
the once-PC place. Perhaps there is a need to be filled indeed. Why, right here in rustic Colorado a store for weight gain has opened and doing well. I think the fat girl sorority may open a chapter at U of Colo-Colorado Springs, a new school which the
Pi Phis have pioneered. The fatsos'll afford them some great competition. Some of the bulemics in here can shop at the weight gain clinic here, have a Colorado vacation, take on some tonnage whilst being a pioneer in another greek movement.
Yep, 2006 is really looking up.
SO, our speedometer is soon at zero, and I hope we can stir up
some ugly correspondence, fueling the nasties, and getting a good start. Cheers!
But with Tommy still a greek adonis with narrow hips and small
waist, there must be a place for him. Maybe some of those who
have bashed him will begin to look in directions unexplored.
At any rate, a new thread for the fatsos and the hatefuls....Har
Har Har de Har Har as our old pal Ralph Kramden'd say...R.I.P.

Re: Trinity--a new beginning
 

I'll probably be sorry I asked, but I'm sick and easily amused. What is the "store for weight gain?"

A brotherhood movement to counter orgs such as that is currently in progress
 

Myself and several other gentlemen are in the process of starting a Greek movement to counter such sororities and what they stand for.

Can't give too many details right now; we're in the preliminary stages but we feel our counter movement will gain momentum very quickly once it takes hold.

More details later.

Stay tuned.

that sounds like a train wreck. the article seems focused on parties and alcohol (even mentioning that boxed wine is the drink of choice for this group) and that the jock fraternity was worried that their reputation would have changed after hanging out with the nerdy girls. i don't know if it is the group that is terrible or if the author is terrible.