Quote:
Originally Posted by LAblondeGPhi
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.
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Sigh...the whole point is, we will not stop this type of negative publicity until we stop doing this to ourselves. Where did EZ DZ come from? It came from the Greek community. Greek men started that and sorority women perpetuated it in an effort to compete. We are our own worst enemies. A quick mention on Glee is miniscule in comparison to the shaming and horrible things said on websites frequented by PNMs every single day in this country. The general public doesn't come up with this stuff...we do. Until we pull together as a community and say that it is not okay to use these slurs, shame women for their sexuality, abuse our members, etc, the greater world will pick up on it as if it were the norm of the Greek community. How do they know the truth if they can only see what we portray to them? They don't buy the facade of community service/sisterhood/kumbaya and why should they? We all know there is more to it than that. We just have to give them more than the ugly side to see.