from the author of Pledged

[33girl]

Originally posted by Dionysus
Wow! This rocks! Robbins, can you write a second book about my story? It's not interesting at all, but hey, as long as I get my name out.

You mean your nameS, don't you?

Originally posted by SHEETCAKE
Alexandra Robbins is the type of tacky white trash who would serve sheetcake at her wedding.

I loves me some SHEETCAKE.



This is effing hilarious.

[valkyrie]

[chideltjen]

ROFLMAO!!!!

[kddani]

damn y'all are making me hungry. i want to bake a cake!

[Dionysus]

It is so obvious who it is.

[sugar and spice]

So I read the book (everything so far except the conclusion) and here's what I've got to say: it's not that bad.

Really. Then again, I was also saying that the first season of "Sorority Life" was not that bad and most of y'all disagreed with me, but honestly, I don't think the picture she painted was as horrible as I thought it was going to be. A few topics I thought she handled particularly well, at least from my perspective, were how minorities, especially blacks, are treated in primarily white chapters, the sorority drama and politics (come on, the chapter on deciding who to serenade with should ring true for anybody who comes from a chapter of 40+ and probably many from smaller chapters too!), and the issue in Alpha Rho where strict anti-hazing rules meant confusion and a lack of conhesion in the sorority.

That said, she definitely has an anti-Greek bias whether she cares to admit it or not. I'm not sure if this is because she doesn't realize it or if she just doesn't want to own up to it, but I'm not sure how someone can call herself "unbiased" when she quotes liberally from "Rush: a handbook for sorority rushees," a book which is 20 years old, takes the quotes out of context (most of the things she quoted from that book are meant tongue-in-cheek) and deletes the positive parts so that only those that promote anti-sorority stereotypes remain. I think it's also clear that she simply does not understand Greek life, much like many of those who have never been Greek. She either confuses the NPHC and the NPC in some of her quotes or examples or leads the reader to believe they are one and the same (a particular example I can remember is a quote from an NPHC leader stating that hazing in sororities is on the rise, which I think was intended to apply to NPHC sororities but Robbins uses it to refer to NPC sororities instead). Especially in the ritual chapter, you can tell she's a fish out of water -- she reports several open mottoes as closed ones, a handful of ritual secrets that I know for a fact are wrong, and uses That Bad Website That Shall Not Be Named as a legitimate source. She focuses much more on the negatives than the positives, but that's a given.

Also, journalistically the piece is ridiculously shoddy. A review on one of the book-selling websites said it read more like a Sweet Valley High novel than a work of any seriousness, and I think that's definitely true. The format lends itself to sensationalism -- the "Here's what happened at State U./Now let's connect that to the broader scheme in sorority life" was just too much of a jump for me. Oh, Amy takes diet pills -- that must mean that sorority girls have eating disorders like mad and are all having puking contests and therefore sororities are the root of all evil because they promote bad body image. Also, she's a pretty poor sociologist -- there is way too much inferring causation from correlation. For example, she wonders why the sorority caused Amy's self-esteem to drop so much that she slept with the guy that date-raped her -- I'm not sure I buy that something like that wouldn't have happened without a sorority. By the time you join a sorority your self-esteem is already about 18 years in the making, and Amy's didn't seem like it was that high to begin with. And the whole not-revealing-sources thing seems pretty sketchy -- I wouldn't be surprised if the story was elaborated or a composite of more women.

All that said, I thought the book was pretty good. It was a quick read, the main characters rang true (I definitely related to Caitlin and Vicki at points throughout the book, and Amy to a lesser extent), and I felt like she did an ok job of covering what sorority life is all about -- some issues she tackled better than others, but as a whole I didn't think it was nearly as bad as it could have been. Many of the points she brought up criticizing Greek life were ones I have seen echoed by me, Kath, 33girl and many others here on GC. But as a whole, I don't think that this book was that far off from what many girls experience in their sororities -- I know it's not THAT far away from mine.

[33girl]

Originally posted by sugar and spice
Many of the points she brought up criticizing Greek life were ones I have seen echoed by me, Kath, 33girl and many others here on GC. But as a whole, I don't think that this book was that far off from what many girls experience in their sororities -- I know it's not THAT far away from mine.

H, I saw a couple of the passages you're talking about where women expressed frustration with what they wanted to be vs. nationals' view, and I totally agreed. But then she screwed herself in the next paragraph by confusing HQ staff with national councils.

This reminds me of the TV reviewer who said that his biggest beef with Barney the dinosaur was not that the show was inane, but that the production values were so horribly bad. I know Greek life and terminology is complicated but I expect someone who went to farking YALE to be able to research it and get her facts straight.

Contrast this with a poster at another board I visit who wrote a book on the Romanoffs. Believe me, she knows everything about the structure and history of the Russian royal family (and the English royal family for that matter) that any human can possibly know.

Edited to add, that even if she is on the side of the chapters and sororities that DON'T fit the stereotypes, this book won't help them. It will only make it more difficult for them to convince people that there is anything positive to be gotten from the experience.

[Lady Pi Phi]

Thankyou Sugar and Spice for your insightful post.

It is far better to read a post like this than one that says everything in her book is true and that all sorority girls are trying to deny bad behaviour/wrong doing, etc.

Everyone will have a different experience with greek life. Some are bad some are good. It's very unfortunate that people have bad experiences.

The beef with the writer is, if she's going to right and expose, at least do some proper research and get the facts straight.

From reading Sugar and Spice's post it seems that her book is full of incorrect/outdated information, and whether or not this things actually occured, it's important to back it up with correct evidence/information.

[Angels&Arrows]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4751618/

This is a link to an interview with the author... There is a picture (I will try to paste) on the interview page from Bid Day at the University of Southern Mississippi. I wonder if USM was one of her undercover schools?

[sugar and spice]

Because I'm nosy, I was trying to figure out which school was her undercover school throughout the entire book.

Clues she drops, though she admits some, maybe most, are fake:

- The school is in the South, probably Texas
- 18 sororities
- The sororities have about 120-160 sisters, or in that general range
- They have houses
- The houses are large and hold a lot of sisters -- Beta Pi is described as sleeping almost 90 girls
- They have deferred rush -- to me this is the most important clue as it's out of the ordinary, especially for Southern schools, and most likely one that was NOT changed
- They have Homecoming, which they also refer to as "Greek Week," and they do serenading/courting to decide who Homecoming picks are
- The school and the Greek system in particular seem very status/wealth-oriented


Granted I don't know much about Southern Methodist University, but given what's above, I think SMU is the most likely pick. It's the only major Texas school with deferred rush; it's the only major Southern school that I can think of with deferred rush. The other factors don't match exactly (SMU doesn't have 18 NPC sororities, for example) but they are things that could be easily changed. Plus she seems to know quite a bit about SMU from other quotes in the book.

The only thing that doesn't make sense about that to me is why Sabrina, whose parents theoretically pull in $25,000 a year, would end up at a school that's been referred to as "Southern Millionaires University," but I suppose that's what scholarships are for.

Anybody else have any other suggestions or know more about SMU that could prove or disprove this guess?

ETA: After doing some more research, Vanderbilt and UVA are also possibilities.


If it IS indeed SMU, I've even got some guesses as to which sororities were infiltrated, but I'm going to keep those to myself.

[WCUgirl]

Okay, let me ask you this (those who have read the book). Did she go undercover as a member of the GLOs? What I'm wondering is was she allowed in the ceremonies, such as initiation? I'm just a little confused....

[Lady Pi Phi]

Originally posted by AXiD670
Okay, let me ask you this (those who have read the book). Did she go undercover as a member of the GLOs? What I'm wondering is was she allowed in the ceremonies, such as initiation? I'm just a little confused....

While I haven't read the book. I don't see how she could through severak initations at one school. Someone would have caught on.

Did she go undercover at other schools?

Perhaps the people she shadowed told her about the ceremonies?

[AXORissa]

Originally posted by AXiD670
Okay, let me ask you this (those who have read the book). Did she go undercover as a member of the GLOs? What I'm wondering is was she allowed in the ceremonies, such as initiation? I'm just a little confused....

I was thinking about that as I read the thread and read the MSN article-- maybe she was a "new member"? I havent read the book so I dont know, but if she was at Bid Day and at ritual, it would be logical to think that she was "pledging."

or maybe she said she was from a chapter at another school, transferred universities, and these chapters didnt check up on her?

were all the chapters she investigated from one school?

[WCUgirl]

My thing is, if she said she was from another chapter...they could have just let her into initiation or any ceremony without knowing any better!

I guess I need to break down and get the stupid book. I tried to check it out at the library ('cause I don't want this chick to have a penny of my $$$), but the library doesn't have it yet.