Hi GCers,
(Sorry this is such a long post!)
Usually it’s not advisable for an author to post on message boards, but I wanted to do so in this case because the opinions of members of this board matter to me. (Last year, after a member of this board told me about Greekchat, I requested permission from a moderator to post a query asking if I could observe any of your sororities’ community service events, but I was turned down.)
First, I want to let you know that Pledged is not an attack on sororities, and I am not anti-GLO. The book description that was posted is outdated and should be replaced in the near future (book descriptions aren’t written by authors). Essentially, Pledged involves the following: The narrative threads of the book are the stories of four sisters throughout an academic year – four terrific women whom I hope and intend readers, both Greek and non-Greek, to relate to and root for. I don’t think it spoils anything to reveal to you that by the end of the year, none of the girls deactivated, unlike in the first MTV show. One reason I wrote this book was because my friends in sororities told me that the MTV show was neither accurate nor fair. They told me that the media tends to bash sororities without giving them a fair chance or a truthful, thorough portrayal. So I went into this hoping to come out with a truthful and balanced book, which I (and my sorority friends who have read it) think it is, as much as it could be; the sorority to which three of the main girls belong has successfully cracked down on hazing, for example. Hazing, by the way, is mostly limited to one section of one chapter – it’s not dwelled on – and I specifically state in Pledged things like, for instance, I didn’t want to get into an extended discussion of alcohol abuse because I think that’s a college phenomenon, not a GLO-specific activity, though the media often treats it as such.
The other thread in this book is a journalistic one. I know, from the sentiments expressed on this board, especially, that one cannot base an image of sororities on a few renegade sisters, which I state explicitly in the Introduction. So in addition to following these four sisters, I interviewed hundreds – close to a thousand – sorority sisters. I visited sisters and attended sorority events at schools across the country to get as complete a sense as possible of what sorority life is like. The list of negative aspects in that description didn’t all happen in one of the sororities I followed. In fact, I chose the four girls I most focus on because their sororities were, as the description suggests, “typical.” By typical I don’t mean stereotypical: these were goodhearted, smart, kind girls in a sorority that was fairly middle-of-the-road – a nice, well-liked group not known on campus for any extreme stereotype, that didn’t haze much, cared about spirit activities, had a mix of personalities, etc. This choice was meant to show non-GLO readers that most sorority girls aren’t so different from GDIs.
I do understand why, given the odd subject of my last book, GLO members would view Pledged skeptically before having read it. But I should point out both that Secrets of the Tomb is more of a tame, researched history than a sensationalized expose – and that, unlike the sources in that book, the sources in Pledged are very dear to me.
I can’t control what the print media chooses to extrapolate from the book (and yes I do see the irony in a member of the media who has written on this subject talking about how the media is sensationalizing the work!), but I do tell every interviewer that there are positives to sorority life and that the four main characters in this book are amazing sorority women.
You are totally welcome to email me about the book. I welcome a dialogue, especially from GCers who can tell me what they think of the portrayal of sorority life and the suggestions and ideas in the Conclusion. You can reach me anytime at
pledged@hotmail.com. I’m currently working on my next book (“Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis,” a sequel to my first book that’s intended to help 20 and 30somethings work through various issues), so it might take me until May to get back to you, but I read every email I receive, and I welcome your opinions and comments especially.
Thanks for reading this post, if you’ve gotten this far, and I look forward to a dialogue in May…
Take care,
Alexandra Robbins
Threaded Mode