How easily do chapters change stereotypes?
 

After reading all of the threads on stereotypes and stuff, I was wondering how easily chapters on your campus change stereotypes?

I think that it is extremely hard to change a stereotype without a lot of time passing. At my school, the sororities are pretty distinct. I can usually tell you which house a girl belongs to by looking at her. It doesn't matter if it's fair.....that's how it is.

I think it's hard to break stereotypes because whenever a girl goes through rush she knows which girls she wants to be associated with and which house she will get a bid from and which house she will not get a bid from. When I rushed I knew which 3 houses I wanted and if I didn't get any of them....well then I didn't want to have letters at all.

Also, a lot of times with rush (at least at my school) we know what girls will pref us and for the most part they usually match with what we look for. And as long as that cycle continues.....so do the stereotypes.

Maybe it's because I'm at a bigger school with 17 sororities...

mu_agd went to my school 4 years earlier than I did. We've discussed a lot of the "tiers," and a lot of the sororities' reputations have changed from what she's told me. I'm not sure why.

My chapter is proof that reputations can change. It just takes time and dedication. Now whether or not non Greeks or other Greeks choose to recognize this change is not something a chapter can be concerned about. As long as you as a chapter know the changes you've made, that's all that matters.

My chapter had been having a rough year. We decided to quit complaining, get out, wear letters, do activities and socials with other groups, and rework our philanthropy to something fun. We had several articles published in our campus paper this semester about our Bowling Tournament and Breast Cancer bracelet campaign. We've had more date parties and socials this semester than ever and are actually in demand to hang with.

We've earned the respect of the other NPC's and our Panhellenic advisor. This term we have 2 E-board reps (the most we've had in awhile). We're growing pretty quickly in numbers.

We have our naysayers and those people and groups who are going to probably continue to perpetuate the negativity. Next semester, we'll be doing alot more with the university community and having speakers that EVERYONE can benefit from. We're also going to be doing other stuff.

So if people don't know how to separate the truth from the trash by just looking and seeing what we've done, and choose to still look down on us, then that's their own issue and we CANNOT be concerned with it.

:rolleyes:

YEA for you and your chapter, Jocelyn!:)

i think it depends a lot on the school and how many organizations there are. at penn state there was a definate shift in sorority tiers/status between when i pledged in 2000 and my senior year this past year. some of the "better" chapters went down a notch while others moved up. with 20 npc orgs, i think it's a lot easier to have the constant shifting than with say only 5. the same goes for the fraternities. some of the fraternities we wouldn't be caught dead doing stuff with my freshman year, were the some of the top houses by my senior year. ya never really know.

DGQueen, so true. My friend rushed this year and she ended up preffing my sorority and another one, but I could've told you from the beginning she would wind up at the other one. She fits in so much it's almost scary!

Of course, there are the girls that I see sometimes and I'm like, "she's an ABC?!" While looks being the predominant stereotype, personality can get you past the stereotype every now and then. We took a girl this year who is not like gorgeous but she's still really cute, and she's honestly like the nicest most genuine girl ever.

Greek stereotypes seem pretty hard to break here at WVU. I think sometimes for the frats though, I can be totally caught off guard.

Yea sometimes I'm like how did you go ABC when you could have been XYZ??? Then I talk to her and I'm like yea you're were you belong......

I think the guys tend to be less into looks. They just take people who are cool to hang out with, doesn't really matter what they look like, but most guys don't go by looks of course.

because we have rush/pledging only once a year (thank the good Lord above for that) it's harder to change the face of a chapter, simply for the rush numbers/time between pledge classes. Fortunately the changes we are seeing on campus are all positive. There is one fraternity on campus that historically REFUSES to mix with anyone BUT a particular sorority, but during this year, their members have been showing up en masse at UGGB meetings, IFC, greek-wide meetings, and they made a good showing at Greek Week. There is another fraternity on campus 1) you're never sure if they are or aren't. 2) they never wear letters 2) they've never mix with most of the sororities, as in they have NEVER had a mixer with some of the houses since my school was founded. However, their pledgemaster called our ast. pledge mistress and was really enthusiastic about setting up a mixer with us during pledging. Their members have also been signing up for more leadership stuff on campus and I've seen more of them in letters. It will be interesting to see how many people I know from that house that I never knew were brothers there! Good job boys :)

as for the girls...the stereotypes are a bit more vicious. The guys have a saying and they'll never let us know which chapter is which, but here goes..

123 the girls you date
456 the girls you sleep with
abc the girls you marry
cde the girls you are friends with
xyz the girls you take home to mom
hjk the girls you avoid

Except for a *certain* frat that is like 95% new york and new jersey italians.. I'm sure you know who I'm referring to!

Wouldn't the girls you marry and the girls you take home to mom be the same thing??
Just a thought. :)

Although I've never really heard guys say it, I can think of the sororities on my campus that definitely fit into those categories.

there's a whole poem or song to it or something. All the guys know it but would never tell the girls.

I think of the "girl you take home to mom" a girl that you date for a while but don't marry.

...?
I was posting in response to DGQueen since we're at the same school.