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I just read the book last week actually.
In many respects it strikes me as honest, but I have some strong issues with it and the movitation of the author.
What bothered me most was the chapter in which ritual secrets were revealed. I did not read it all- out of respect I skipped ahead once I realized what that chapter was about- but I fail to see how revealing the meanings of sorority names and rituals did anything to contribute to what the author was trying to do.
For anyone on this forum who is an initiated Greek member, you know as well as I that there are no deep and dark secrets in ritual or in the meanings of our letters. But still those meanings are sacred for a reason.
And when the author of this book revealed many of those secrets, I lost respect for the entire book. The author is clearly a very intelligent person- so I have to assume that she only revealed ritual information out of spite since it added no value to the message of her book.
I also did not care for the chapter toward the end where she purported to tell sororities how to run their affairs. That came off preachy and, again, added nothing to the value of the stories she told.
Overall the stories were fairly reflective of what I know to be true for certain sorority girls- but hardly reflective of them at large, and certainly not of the women I dated in college.
All I will say is that at Georgia and Texas, the top sororities do NOT have men spending the night in the house or members smoking pot on a daily basis etc. etc. I practically needed an Act of Congress just to check out the room of girlfriends I had in college, and I sure as hell never spent the night up there- nor did my fraternity brothers.
So I would hardly call those 4 girls a representative group of sorority life. In terms of the eating disorders and internal pressures to conform- yes it was accurate.
But in many ways that was not an accurate book, and the author took her chances- as so many Greek expose writers have- to imply there are far more sinister goings-on than is really the case.
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