My Sorority Pledge? I Swore Off Sisterhood

[Wolfman]

There is a "dark side" to sorority (and fraternity!) life; no amount of protestations and denials will moot it. It may not be the predominant experience of most but we all know of these things, just as I hear women speak of the negative female relational dynamics all the time which the author describes from her own experience. I hope this article and this phenomenom will get a real hearing rather than it (and the author) being attacked or marginalized.

[AlphaFrog]

I wonder if there's more to the story that she hasn't told us (I'm sure there is). Getting drunk at a fraternity party and passing out would certainly earn you a visit in front of the Standards board, back then as well as today. She said that the final straw was her picking the wrong music/routine for Greek Week....I'm guessing it wasn't just that. It doesn't say what sorority she was in (as well it shouldn't), but in most groups, it takes a lot to terminate someone.

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

Getting drunk at a fraternity party and passing out would certainly earn you a visit in front of the Standards board, back then as well as today.

Nope. I was standards chairman and I would not have been able to do this 25 years ago.

[PM_Mama00]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

I wonder if there's more to the story that she hasn't told us (I'm sure there is). Getting drunk at a fraternity party and passing out would certainly earn you a visit in front of the Standards board, back then as well as today. She said that the final straw was her picking the wrong music/routine for Greek Week....I'm guessing it wasn't just that. It doesn't say what sorority she was in (as well it shouldn't), but in most groups, it takes a lot to terminate someone.

There could be another side of the story, but remember that girls are catty as hell.

Bottom line... if people want you out, they'll find a way.

[AOII Angel]

I feel really sorry for this woman. She was apparently raped but instead of feeling rage against the man who did it to her, she has placed all of her anger on the women who failed her. I can't argue that her sorority sisters were callous and unfeeling, though for all we know they thought she'd had public sex willingly. She never stated in the story that she told her sisters that she was a victim of rape. She even says now that she has no problem interacting with men...even after being raped publicly by one. I hope she does get some therapy soon so she doesn't poison her daughters with her attitude about their shared sex. I am more outraged by the paper for publishing this story which seems to me like some kind of exploitation of a hurting woman. We all know women can be catty, and that sisterhood can fail, but that part of the story is not the disturbing part.

[SWTXBelle]

For what it is worth, 20 years ago when I was an advisor -having sex in a public place with a fraternity boy would be a reason to see standards. I've posted elsewhere about the member who chose to have sex on a fraternity pool table and in a phone booth - she chose to resign rather than deal with standards. I don't buy into the whole "Oh,in the 80s and 90s everyone was doing drugs and having sex" arguement. I think the response of the chapter might well depend on the campus and the particulars.
I feel for the writer of this piece for the same reasons everyone has noted - she has issues to this day, and is obviously in pain. I'm sorry her sisters failed her so.