[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by als463

I do not consider myself to be one.

I'm actually pretty surprised by this, because you are ex-military, no? I'm not really sure why, but in my head, it seems like women in the military would be more likely to believe in equality of the sexes. Maybe I'm way off, though, this is just a gut reaction I haven't really thought through.

Originally Posted by justgo_withit

It's important to look at what sororites are on a national level when it comes to things like this, because I feel like this sort of cultural thing varies greatly between chapters and campuses.

Oh, agreed. I just think that most non-Greek perceptions of sororities come from big schools.

Originally Posted by adpimiz

Isn't this always true, though, not just when Greek Life is involved? I mean, I probably wouldn't go tanning for a job interview, but most women would probably wear some makeup and spend some time doing their hair.

This is true, but if you take a look at the sorority rush forum, I'd bet that better than 75% of threads are about what to wear, with about 15% on recs, and 10% on conversation, etc. (yes, I'm making these numbers up based on my perception, if anyone wants to check the math, it would be interesting). I don't think that a comparable forum on interviewing would look like that. In fact, the blog I read most often about interviewing (AAM) hardly ever touches on fashion/appearance.

Originally Posted by BAckbOwlsgIrl

Totally resenting that comment.

Not sure what you school you went to

You don't know what school I went to, but you resent a comment I made about what was SOP at my alma mater in the 1990's?

Originally Posted by HQWest

Ah well, besides the fact that feminism is not equal to promiscuous, just like many women are surprised that we recommend they clean up their Facebook pages before recruitment - that kind of behavior would be frowned on in many circles and may hamper a woman's future choice of careers (in law, medicine, or education or if they need a security clearance, for example). It begs the question about their decision making process. I don't think anyone would be surprised to find it frowned upon on my campus.

In my experience, "slut-shaming" has little to no effect on that type, but the behavior in the extreme can be a sign of other problems, and it is good to have someone to talk to about it or even counseling. (Especially if we are talking about someone just starting college as a freshman?)

I thought by feminism - the discussion was to be about advances and leadership in the workplace or education?

I'd consider feminism to be about lots of things, and I think that your point here maybe gets to the core of what I've been batting around in my head. On one hand, I think sororities do a lot for the things you mention: advances and leadership in the workplace or education.

However, I also think an important part of feminism is the elimination of violence against women and rape culture, and that's a harder assessment. So, let me see if I can sort this out:

I think there is a perception from non-Greeks that sororities contribute to rape culture. I think this is occasionally true in a very direct way, e.g. my serenades example, certain mixer themes, etc. HOWEVER, the obvious counterargument is that these types of things are probably very prevalent among non-greeks as well, on the campuses where they are most a problem. So, if your school has a "hookup culture", it has that whether you are Greek or not.

But that second part doesn't quite sit well with me as a sort of blanket excuse. The Greek system most definitely reinforces certain norms that underlie the objectification of women, and a few times/year some leaks to the media some horrible e-mail sent around a fraternity house in which women are referred to as objects (I am not going to link them all here, but the google will turn up enough in a quick search that I wouldn't chalk these up to isolated incidents). Of course, it's not the job of a sorority to fix the behavior of a fraternity, but it's hard to separate one half of the Greek system from the other.

It's also interesting that most of the stuff out there on sororities and rape culture mentions that sororities encourage promiscuity, which can be true, but in my experience, there's just as much of the opposite, as I mentioned above.

Again, I know none of this is unique to fraternities and sororities, but I am struggling with the ways in which this occurs.