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Okay, so this thread is really old...and basically all points that can be made, probably have been...but...I'm no better than anyone else, so I'll throw my thoughts out there.
As far as it being racist, I can see both sides of that one, despite the fact that "pimping and hoeing" aren't exactly new ideas, the terms do have some sort of racial connotation because a lot of pop culture, and I think especially the rap/hip-hop scene, ties the two together. So, while they aren't inherently linked, the connection is there based on popular culture. At the same time, this is in fact just a theme, an excuse to put on clothes you may not normally wear (though, I do agree, lots of girls wear basically the same skanky outfit to anything slightly like a party) and go out and have fun. And, the theme comes from pop culture, so really if people want to throw a fit about it, they should probably throw a fit at the media and the rappers and what not who throw the concept of them being pimps and "their" women being hoes at all of us.
On that note, I think that sexism in this party is probably more of an issue than racism, and it's not about how people dress to go to the party. The truth is, despite the fact that it is just a party, and that prostitution has been around for the vast majority of history, having a party based on that particular institution glorifies it is something that is not needed in todays world where "pimping and hoeing" are already pretty well glorified by popular culture. Most women don't choose to be prostitutes. It's often a result of unfortunate and aweful circumstances and can even perpetuate these same circumstances such as drug abuse, poverty, alcoholism, and a lack of education. Women who choose to become prostitutes, probably have no idea what they're getting into, or they get there by way of stripping and then realizing that they could make a little bit more money by giving it up. In any event any thing that glorifies stripping, prositution, etc. is pretty much degrading to women because it allows for the idea to get into some mens heads that women exist to please them that women want nothing but to be taken by some guy, it makes us seem like...chairs...chairs have a purpose, that is to be a thing to sit on, things like this can make men, and women too, see women as objects that are made to have sex with. And noone needs that.
The difference between that and any other party where dressing slutty is the norm is that they aren't glorifing prostitution, sure, they glorify sex, but you can choose not to dress in an absurdly slutty way for such things, and then it can be chalked up to individual girls being slutty, or feeling like dressing slutty, not women as objects for sex.
On top of that, throwing your letters behind something like that does enforce steriotypes about greek life that a lot of us are fighting very hard to break.
My biggest issue with this is actually the total lack of creativity that goes into this theme. I know one fraternity on my campus throws something to the effect of this under a different name (it's something super stupid with "bling-bling" in it or something like that) I've never gone, nor do I ever want to, all I know is that the reputation of that fraternity is already that they're the guys who just party all the time (and, I'll be totally honest, my freshmen year at least, our orientation leaders both male and female, greek and not, told us that it was a good idea to stay away from that house because bad things could happen). Another group recently had a "Dance Epidemic" party, where doctors and nurses was basically the theme, I also didn't go to this, but some of my friends and sisters did and it seems like it was pretty okay, because it was more focused on being silly and a chance to wear something a little out of the ordinary and dance. Other groups have some more creative, in my oppinion, parties...our chapter of Sigma Nu has their Maze party every year where they set up a whole maze of cardboard boxes in part of their house and as people come in they get a number written on their hand, there's an area for dancing and then when it's your groups turn, you crawl through this maze with a bunch of people, in the dark and try to find your way out (there are brothers standing by incase someone gets lost or freaks out) and then you go back to dancing, I've gone and I liked it a lot. Delt has had highlighter parties, and another group (can't remember who) had a stoplight party (which I think is actually a pretty neat idea), someone had a twister party at one point, I didn't go, so I don't know how that worked. Traditionally, my sorority holds "Heaven and Hell" with one of the fraternities on campus, and yeah, it can be an excuse to dress slutty, but we have it around halloween and it's always a good time because so much can be done with the theme. As far as mixers, we do things like "My Tie" and "Tacky Formal" or have cookouts with the guys, or go ice skating or something like that.
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