Fraternity Letters on Females

[jessXIca]

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[adpiucf]

Originally Posted by ucfpnm

Seeing that most of you were somewhat anti-letter-wearing pledges, what do you guys think of this practice? Does it depend on nationals?

I think this depends on the school. At UCF, plenty of groups swap letters. Although there are no formal auxilary groups, there's an underground Big Bro/Lil Sis and Big Sis/Lil Bro movement where members of different GLOs call each other family and exchange paddles and jerseys with one another's letters. During football games, many girls wear fraternity jerseys with stitched letters. During sorority recruitment, the guys wear sorority jerseys and sorority event shirts, including Bid Day shirts. In some cases, sorority women will have shirts made for their friends in other sororities with the other GLO's letters stitched and their own sewn through (written in italic Latin characters). I'm sure someone from another school would think this was really bizarre, but it's helped promote Greek Life on our campus and the Greeks have strong relationships within chapters.

There is only one sorority at UCF that does not allow new members to wear Greek letters (they may wear shirts with the letters spelled out), and this is per their national bylaws. I don't see anything wrong with a new member wearing Greek letters or shirts with the letters spelled out in Latin characters-- as long as it is in keeping with your bylaws, it promotes the organization and Greek Life.

[BabyPiNK_FL]

Originally Posted by adpiucf

During sorority recruitment, the guys wear sorority jerseys and sorority event shirts, including Bid Day shirts. In some cases, sorority women will have shirts made for their friends in other sororities with the other GLO's letters stitched and their own sewn through (written in italic Latin characters). I'm sure someone from another school would think this was really bizarre, but it's helped promote Greek Life on our campus and the Greeks have strong relationships within chapters.

We have a lot of people who do the stitched letters with embroidery of another GLO through it too, but my particular chapter frowns on it. A couple of sisters have our letters with fraternity letters written through it and they were basically told it's disrespectful. My big sister told me never to do it (and I personally wouldn't because I don't need someone else's letters/name on top of mine.)But I don't usually care what anyone else wears that much to frown upon it.

[PM_Mama00]

Originally Posted by BabyPiNK_FL

We have a lot of people who do the stitched letters with embroidery of another GLO through it too, but my particular chapter frowns on it. A couple of sisters have our letters with fraternity letters written through it and they were basically told it's disrespectful. My big sister told me never to do it (and I personally wouldn't because I don't need someone else's letters/name on top of mine.)But I don't usually care what anyone else wears that much to frown upon it.

I don't like that. To me it seems kind of disrespectful to cover your lovers with another orgs. I think embroidering it underneath our letters is a cute idea though.

To the girls at UCF... dumb question but do you guys have a Panhel Advisor? If so, how do you get around guys wearing recruitment shirts? Before I got initiated, on Bid Day fraternity men used to dress in tuxedos and escort the new members across the stage when they announced their new home. (no house, use a big room for Bid Day) They had to stop it though per NPC rules and the whole men can't be involved in recruitment thing.--- sorry for the hijack, you can PM me if you want.

[adpiucf]

Originally Posted by PM_Mama00

To the girls at UCF... dumb question but do you guys have a Panhel Advisor? If so, how do you get around guys wearing recruitment shirts? Before I got initiated, on Bid Day fraternity men used to dress in tuxedos and escort the new members across the stage when they announced their new home. (no house, use a big room for Bid Day) They had to stop it though per NPC rules and the whole men can't be involved in recruitment thing.--- sorry for the hijack, you can PM me if you want.

.

Tuxedos? That's awesome! When I ran down Greek Park with my bid, we had Pikes sitting outside their house in lawn chairs in their swim trunks.... holding up placards to rate us on a scale of 1-10! Very different.

The guys are not part of Bid Day; they just stop by outside the house to visit their girlfriends and Lil/Big Sis's and friends to congratulate them and show their love. They stay outside-- most of the guys are actually wandering down the street. I seriously think they do it to collect tshirts and get into the photographs!

Yes, there is a Greek Adviser and a graduate assistant. In 2000, UCF was selected as Greek Campus of the Year by a Florida student leader trade magazine. Our campus culture promotes wearing one another's t-shirts and letters. Obviously we don't have ADPi's going around wearing KD jerseys and date function tee shirts, or ATO's decked out in Pi Kapp jerseys and rush shirts, but you do have girls wearing guy's letters and vice versa. But it wouldn't be unusual for your best friend in another sorority to sneak over and shoe-polish your back window with "ABC loves XYZ"-- we did that on a regular basis for the fraternities, too.

Like I said, this is the campus culture and it works for us. I'm sure it would be radically opposed at another campus. In this case, our campus is very Greek oriented and the Greeks have really good relationships with one another. So much so that they want to promote one another with their letters-- years ago, we had a sorority close and immediately recolonize. Every single UCF Greek was wearing "Ask Me About ABC" buttons and helping support the "new" chapter. It was amazing and every time a new sorority colonizes, you see that kind of support. I was actually a little shocked when I visited other chapters on different campuses-- some of them don't even talk to their house neighbors! Again, that's what works for that school. But that kind of support made me very proud to be a UCF Greek while I was a student.

UCFPNM: All of the fraternities have rush tshirts and all of the sororities have Bid Day tshirts. There's also an all-Panhellenic Tshirt that sorority PNMs will receive at Greek Forum-- if you go to Bid Day, wear this shirt-- you'll be given a Bid Day tshirt at the sorority! Bid Day at the house is casual-- there is a break, you change into a cute dress and then go out to dinner with your new sisters at places like DisneyQuest, Hard Rock Cafe, House of Blues and Pointe Orlando.

[BabyPiNK_FL]

Originally Posted by PM_Mama00

I don't like that. To me it seems kind of disrespectful to cover your lovers with another orgs. I think embroidering it underneath our letters is a cute idea though.

To the girls at UCF... dumb question but do you guys have a Panhel Advisor? If so, how do you get around guys wearing recruitment shirts? Before I got initiated, on Bid Day fraternity men used to dress in tuxedos and escort the new members across the stage when they announced their new home. (no house, use a big room for Bid Day) They had to stop it though per NPC rules and the whole men can't be involved in recruitment thing.--- sorry for the hijack, you can PM me if you want.

Oh honey, I didn't mean actual embroidered greek letters. I meant that the name is spelled out over the Phi Mu letters. Once again, in our chapter it's considered very taboo. If someone was to actually just wear double letters (theirs and someone elses on one shirt) I think there would be an uproar!

[KDMafia]

This is a little off topic but it has to do with letter wearing and me yelling at a girl

A sister in my sorority and her boyfriend ( A sig tau) had lavaliered each other. For valentine's day she made him a black hoodie sweatshirt with his letters in our colors, green and white, and on the hood she had our letters embroidered on the side. It was really unique and looked really nice. Unfortuantely she went to a place in her hometown( same as mine) that usually doesn't do greek letters, so they accidentally put an episilon instead of a sigma. She got the sweatshirt redone and we all forgot about the first ruined sweatshirt. Well I live at home now and commute to chicago for grad school. One day as I was waiting for the train I saw a girl in a black hooded sweatshirt with MY letters embroidered on teh hood. I then look and it's the ruined sweatshirt for my friend with the epsilon tau gamma stitched on the side. I asked her if she was a kappa delta and she said no that her mom runs a sports shop thing, im not sure what they're called and that she always gives her the stuff she messes up. I was really irritated and told her that those letters on the hood mean something to people and others aren't supposed to wear them and also that I knew the girl who designed the sweatshirt and she would not be happy to know that someone out there was wearing it. I somewhat felt bad because the girl looked confused but I think it's horrible that her mom just gave her something with out okaying it with my sister.

[AlphaFrog]

Also, one main distinction is many groups allow people who are obviously not members (females for fraternities, babies, moms/dads etc) wear letters, because, well, they're obviously not members. Pledges and non-members who are of the same gender and general age group of the org could be mistaken as initiated members.

[blkwebman1919]

The letters should not be worn by non-members, whether screened, stitched, on tikis, or "what have you". When I've seen females showing their admiration for Greeks on T-shirts (and I really don't see many), they usually refer to them by the known nicknames (e.g., "Kappa Man", "Omega Man", etc., not "I love KAPsi"). Even the sweetheart/auxiliary orgs (whether legal or not), usually don't use all the letters of their respective orgs on their own paraphernalia (they usually use their own name).

I realize, of course, that some of this may be a "culture" issue. But my opinion is consistent on the "who should wear letters" question...

[shinerbock]

wait, are we talking about just like any general shirt with your letters on it? Because if formal and party shirts count, I probably saw more girls wearing our letters on an average day than brothers.

[macallan25]

agreed. Girls wear our party shirts all of the time. On the rare occcasion that I actually wear a Tshirt, it is usually of a sorority function....what a coincidence. I ususally don't really feel like parading around in my letters.

[jadis96]

It was always common on our campus to wear party/event shirts with both groups letters on them (ie I have several screen printed shirts with Sigma Nu's letters on them because we partnered at events) but I don't remember ever seeing women wearing stiched letters on shirts unless it was with our letters and it said "lil sis" or some such on it.

[Soul D-Psi-ple]

the letters K K Y on a female...hmmm.....

Let me put it like this. My ex-girlfriend had asked me, "If it was cold or raining, would you let me wear your line jacket?" and I simply replied (with a chuckle) "Ha! Hell naw! BUT, I'd take off as many articles of clothing needed to keep you from getting cold and sick. I'd just keep on the line jacket." Now, it did sound harsh. In fact, it was a bit harsh,.........but I reaaaaalllly don't care. Not my line jacket or shirt, no tikis, no "I love KKPsi" shirts, no sweatshirts, no nothing with my letters on it. No female, not even my girl, can wear my letters. Now...............there are some (many) exceptions to this.............................................. ...................................BUT, In short, if you are not a bruh or brother of KKPsi, don't wear the letters. And know Greeks in other orgs who'd say the same pertaining to their brotherhood as I have just stated.

[WCUgirl]

Originally Posted by Soul D-Psi-ple

No female, not even my girl, can wear my letters. Now...............there are some (many) exceptions to this

I hope you're including the female brothers as "exceptions."

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AXiD670

. . . And, people don't refer to them as a jersey unless it's got something like line number/nickname/pledge class year on the back or a combination thereof on the back and sleeves.

However, terminology on UCF's campus may be different.

I think it may be different in many places. I've always heard shirts made out of heavy, close knit cotton (i.e., made out of jersey) with embroidered letters called "jerseys," and except for NPHC groups, I've rarely seen numbers or nicknames on them -- just the letters and (usually) contrasting collars and cuffs.