D9 stereotyping..

[IncontRHOllable]

Hey sorors, I just had to tell yall this. I ran into an old friend of mine that I have not seen in like 8 years. Anyway, I was wearing my SGRHO jacket, after catching up on where we've been and what we've been up to, the conversatoin turned to my jacket and went like this:

him: You SGRHO
me: (beaming with all kinds of pride) Yes
him: Why you choose SGRHO? You look more like a Delta
me:
me: and what the heck does that supposed to mean? (mind you that I'm sounding/looking real po'd and my blood pressure starting to rise..)
him: Naw naw naw that's cool don't get me wrong but I thought SGRHO was for fat girls cuz most SGRHO's in XYZ state where I live are big
me: (still boiling) Yeah I know they are BRIGHT INTELLIGENT and OH SO GAWGEOUS
me: Watch yo tongue when it come to my SoRHOrs, watch yo tongue
him: Oh naw naw I didn't mean no disrespect..

Man if I was white my skin would've shown all kinds of red like the smilie.
and what the heck does a Delta look like? Better yet, what does a Zeta or AKA look like? My point is that all of us are beautiful. The School Daze stereotypes was just movie hype. From my experience, stereotypes for D9 sororities don't exist or am I missing something? If this is already a thread, kindly direct me to it because my search did not bring up any such results. Thanks.

[PrettyBoy]

Unfortunately, yes they do still exist.

[Educatingblue]

I see this mostly with non-Greeks. I often hear people at work and other places say, "So you're the ones who..." I think most people like to fit everything in a neat little category for their own convenience. Now most D9 orgs have a very diverse membership so it is difficult to say we are all this religion, denomination, ethnicity, shade, body type, or have XYZ type of hair.

[ladygreek]

Originally Posted by Educatingblue

I see this mostly with non-Greeks. I often hear people at work and other places say, "So you're the ones who..." I think most people like to fit everything in a neat little category for their own convenience. Now most D9 orgs have a very diverse membership so it is difficult to say we are all this religion, denomination, ethnicity, shade, body type, or have XYZ type of hair.

The various sterotypes are interesting. Let me guess. Are you brown-skinned, with short hair, and a studious (geeky) look? That's the sterotype I always heard about us - LOL.

[IncontRHOllable]

Originally Posted by ladygreek

The various sterotypes are interesting. Let me guess. Are you brown-skinned, with short hair, and a studious (geeky) look? That's the sterotype I always heard about us - LOL.

Thank you sistergreek because for the life of me I could not figure out what the heck a Delta supposedly looks like. The funny thing is that he is not the only person who has said that I look like a Delta. You are right I am brown skinned, very studious looking and my hair is long but since I'm a napptural it looks short. Within the D9 the stereotypes do not exist because as someone stated we have all shades and sizes. News flash to me that obviously they do for nongreeks and now I'm wondering if the "stereotypes" affect people's decision on which org they pursue. And where the heck did the SGRHO's are for plus size come from? Don't get me wrong sisters there is Nothing wrong with a Pretty Honorable Admirable Tenacious woman.

[proud2bSigma]

Originally Posted by IncontRHOllable

Thank you sistergreek because for the life of me I could not figure out what the heck a Delta supposedly looks like. The funny thing is that he is not the only person who has said that I look like a Delta. You are right I am brown skinned, very studious looking and my hair is long but since I'm a napptural it looks short. Within the D9 the stereotypes do not exist because as someone stated we have all shades and sizes. News flash to me that obviously they do for nongreeks and now I'm wondering if the "stereotypes" affect people's decision on which org they pursue. And where the heck did the SGRHO's are for plus size come from? Don't get me wrong sisters there is Nothing wrong with a Pretty Honorable Admirable Tenacious woman.

Thanks for that I am a Plus size woman. And quite stunning. the stereotypes I heard was that Zetas are plus size and unattractive.(not true) I have never heard that about SGRHOs When I was a nongreek most of the stereotypes were circulated by nongreeks.

[PearlRuby]

I think a large part of the reason that these stereotypical views persist is because members of the D9 help to perpetuate them. Non-greeks are getting these stereotypes from somewhere, and unfortunately, that somewhere is often from D9 members themselves. Example...just last week a member of a D9 fraternity who was standing behind me in the supermarket line and saw my Sigma keychain when I gave the cashier my price plus card, said to me, "Wow, I would have figured you for an AKA sis." I've heard many similar comments from D9 greeks, both male and female, about me and other greeks who don't fit their skewed idea of what members of certain orgs are supposed to look like.

[IncontRHOllable]

Originally Posted by PearlRuby

I think a large part of the reason that these stereotypical views persist is because members of the D9 help to perpetuate them. Non-greeks are getting these stereotypes from somewhere, and unfortunately, that somewhere is often from D9 members themselves. Example...just last week a member of a D9 fraternity who was standing behind me in the supermarket line and saw my Sigma keychain when I gave the cashier my price plus card, said to me, "Wow, I would have figured you for an AKA sis." I've heard many similar comments from D9 greeks, both male and female, about me and other greeks who don't fit their skewed idea of what members of certain orgs are supposed to look like.

It's sad, but I agree. Do you think some of the stereotypes are perpetuated by some of the chants that D9 orgs do that kind of put down the other D9 orgs? Or maybe the step shows where some frats clown others?

[ziasha07]

Sadly these stereotypes are out and running rampant. I got into a discussion with one of my friends in which she told me, "You can't be ABC because you don't look like ABC's even though you act like them. You have the brains of a XYZ but you look like EFG."

I just looked at her like what in the world? She said she was gonna be an ABC cause that's what everyone told her she looked like.

Originally Posted by IncontRHOllable

It's sad, but I agree. Do you think some of the stereotypes are perpetuated by some of the chants that D9 orgs do that kind of put down the other D9 orgs? Or maybe the step shows where some frats clown others?

Somewhat, but step shows from a non-greek person's perspective step shows are entertainment. They have to know not to take it all to heart.

Chants probably aid the stereotypes but they play up positive attributes of the organizations: Pretty, suave, intelligent, beautiful, illustrious, etc.

[OneBadZeta02]

This post is EXTREMELY interesting to me...because I actually have heard those same comments from my own fratand regular people in the streets! Everyone always says I look like an AKA because I'm light skinned with long hair and light eyes. The main stereotype for Z-Phi-B is that we are big, black, and burrly looking...whatever that means. I have friends in all of the D9 organizations and not one of them has the exact same make up as their frat/soror. I think that the stereotyping came in when the organizations first began ~ if you look at the pictures of each organization, most of the members displayed similar resemblance...

[GRACED2BSGRHO]

Your right the stereotypes are out there. I went to buy a jacket from one of the stores that sells greek nalia here. All they had were XL and XXL jackets. So i asked the guy why he didn't have any mediums or smalls. He said i stopped ordering them because they told me all the Sgrho's were fat. I was so hot! But when people ask me if I am in a sorority and I say Sgrho, they say you don't look like one. That burns me up! Every sorority and Fratenity comes in all shapes, colors and sizes. I'm not sure if they are gettingthe stereotyes from chants or what, all I know is it really ticks me off sometimes. Other times I just laugh and say well I guess I blew that stereotype. Either way people can be are ignorant.

[Little32]

When I told a friend of mine that I was interested in AKA, he told me that he thought that I wouldn't fit with my sorority because of all of the usual stereotypes about us. He really has internalized all of the stereotypes about the different organizations. Funny thing is that he wanted to pledge at one time, so you would think that he would know better. However, I guess the fact that he has since lost interest demonstrates the depth of his desire and perhaps his understanding of our organizations.

[PrettyBoy]

I've always been told I look like a Nupe, from greeks and non-greeks, but at the same time I have always been told my personality doesn't fit Kappa.

[MsRaidiance522]

Stereotyping does still exist. I have been a member of Sigma Gamma Rho for 2 weeks and three days. A friend of my sent me an email to congratulate me. About half way through the she begin to ask me why did choose sgrho. She began to tell Sgrhos on her campus are hoes, ugly, and confrontational. and That sgrho was a very small org. and that i would meet all my sorhors at one regional. She preceded to tell me that I wasn't like that and that Aka would have been better for me. Because I was pretty, smart, and friendly.. and that i should have followed the path my sister and she had went down. I told her that i chose the best sorority for me the last created the best designed, the sorority that has best gpa nationwide... and that quality is better than quantity... I asked her did she know the sgrhos on her campus personally she said no.. I told to keep my sorhors out her mouth.

[IncontRHOllable]

Originally Posted by GRACED2BSGRHO

Your right the stereotypes are out there. He said i stopped ordering them because they told me all the Sgrho's were fat. I was so hot!

This is exactly what I was talking about. Who the heck is the "they" in the "they told me SgRho's are all fat" statement? Why in the world would a D9 member be making statements like "you don't look like a SGRho, Delta, AKA, Zeta etc.," unless we believe the stereotypes ourselves