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Originally Posted by DrPhil
And we are members of GLOs typing about this.
Does the average Glee viewer know that there is a DZ sorority?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by knight_shadow
Maybe somebody will answer if you ask it  |
Quote:
Originally Posted by knight_shadow
^^ But, again, the only people who would've caught that are the people who realize it's BS. I doubt many non-Greeks even picked up on the reference. It only stood out to us because we're Greek.
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I'm not so much concerned about the damage to DZ as an organization in particular, I'm concerned about general references that implant the notion that "Sororities = Sl*ts" in the minds of those not familiar with Greek life. Just like the average person needs to hear the name of a product 5-6 times before they remember it, it might take several independent references to Greek life to fully form someone's opinion of it. But that doesn't mean that each reference is itself so minor as to be worthless. It's a cumulative process. A lot of the stereotypes about drinking and hazing are addressed nicely by the Panhellenic community, but I just don't see much in the way of dispelling the promiscuity labels.
Now, I'm not saying that we should get all up in arms about this particular instance, but I am saying that a general intolerance about accepting these kinds of references might do the Greek system as a whole some good. Maybe that means being more active about actually preventing situations that lead to negative press and stereotypes. Maybe that means that we all make a commitment to gently push back whenever we hear something negative about Greek Life (think about the Frown Power campaign).
I realize that Greek life on a lot of campuses seems to be growing over the last several years with lots of expansion and larger quotas, but that doesn't mean that we can be complacent about negative images out there. Don't underestimate the number of men and women who aren't giving recruitment a chance because of misconceptions they or their parents have made due to media portrayals. Also, we can't be complacent about the fact that the popularity of Greek life seems to have cycles - we should use the momentum of an upswing to our advantage when we can.