Too fat to recruit: or, DePauw, the Sequel

[33girl]

This is yet another one of the reasons I'm such a proponent of deferred rush. I think a lot of women would approach rush differently if they had a semester (at the least) to get to know the sorority members as people in everyday situations. Maybe they've heard the reputations more, but maybe they've also met women from the sororities who've helped them form their own opinions.

I got into a serious relationship my first semester in college. I thought it would be like high school - date a couple months, move on. Wrong. This guy wanted to get MARRIED. I think a lot of pre-freshmen who rush approach it the same way - it's like high school. It's not.

[modorney]

A lot of the fraternities have developed fitness as part of their overall pledge (and brother) education. When I rushed, there were some houses who were considered "athletic houses", but most houses weren't. Nowadays, a weight room with exercise machines is almost a must, and having every brother jog, or work out somehow, is a goal.

I don't know what sororities are doing, I think women prefer an aerobics class type of environment? Are any national sororities promoting fitness habits?

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by modorney

Are any national sororities promoting fitness habits?

ASA has 4 aims: Intellectual, Physical, Social, and Spiritual

There is programming that goes with all 4 aims. (And, NO, it doesn't include PT for the Physical part)

[dgdramadawg]

Originally Posted by modorney

Are any national sororities promoting fitness habits?

DG has a program called Well Aware which promotes physical health. But there is a difference between promoting health and forcing sisters to work out... I don't know of many sororities that require members to work out or list it as a national goal.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

Adding to this, my campus had a quota of 50(ish) and I wouldn't consider it competitive. So there are definitely larger quotas out there on non-competitive campuses. Just a point of information. Y'all can get back to what you were doing.

I understand. I don't think there's really any way to get from those stats to knowing what most people's experience was like, and as I said, I don't think SEC-type recruitment is anything like the norm.

Originally Posted by carnation

We did not deal with that issue when I was in college because it absolutely never came up. This is a recent development in college life.

Really? Do you think the girls at UGA going through recruitment are fatter today than they were in the past? Is that what you are seeing with girls from your hometown?

I know that as a country we are fatter, but I don't think the segment of society that goes through recruitment at competitive recruitments is experiencing this tread in the same proportion as the rest of society.

Originally Posted by 33girl

This is yet another one of the reasons I'm such a proponent of deferred rush. I think a lot of women would approach rush differently if they had a semester (at the least) to get to know the sorority members as people in everyday situations. Maybe they've heard the reputations more, but maybe they've also met women from the sororities who've helped them form their own opinions.

There'd be a lot of benefits to deferred recruitment if PNMs and group members interacted like normal people in the time before recruitment, but I don't know that it would actually help with this kind of image-based junk at the campuses most likely to have it. Like de-frilling recruitment, most efforts to make recruitment better at these campuses might really just give people more time to focus their energies on the wrong stuff.

Originally Posted by dgdramadawg

DG has a program called Well Aware which promotes physical health. But there is a difference between promoting health and forcing sisters to work out... I don't know of many sororities that require members to work out or list it as a national goal.

At least officially. If there really is one out there telling overweight members to stay away from recruitment as was alleged in the first post, that will be a pretty motivating program. (Either to exercise or drop membership, of that you can't be sure, but the chapter will lose some weight.)

Any to all those who wish death to the thread, I don't get it. Why do you read junk that you aren't interested in?

[kathykd2005]

Originally Posted by dgdramadawg

DG has a program called Well Aware which promotes physical health. But there is a difference between promoting health and forcing sisters to work out... I don't know of many sororities that require members to work out or list it as a national goal.

Kappa Delta joined the Real Beauty Campaign with Dove. Maybe that is why I am taking the angle I am taking with reference to this situation; however, whatever it is, I still think singling your sisters out for being "fat" is cruel and callous. And I hope this thread doesn't die--it is pretty obvious from the amount of replies that this is a real issue in the Greek "world" and in our society at large. It's good that we are having a dialogue about it.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by kathykd2005

Kappa Delta joined the Real Beauty Campaign with Dove. Maybe that is why I am taking the angle I am taking with reference to this situation; however, whatever it is, I still think singling your sisters out for being "fat" is cruel and callous. And I hope this thread doesn't die--it is pretty obvious from the amount of replies that this is a real issue in the Greek "world" and in our society at large. It's good that we are having a dialogue about it.

I've yet to see anyone posting in this thread who doesn't think telling your sisters they are fat is cruel and callous, unless one of the folks commenting about the health problem of obesity suggested you might be saving their lives.

What's under discussion as I see it is how far people are willing to let groups go in considering image during recruitment before they moved into clearly immoral behavior that would be more damaging to the group than the image "problems."

And about the Real Beauty campaign, it's kind of amusing to see them present women who wouldn't even seem overweight (or maybe even imperfect) if they were wearing clothes as representations of how much they value different standards of beauty.

[ΑΓΔSquirrelGirl]

[quote=SkiingSister;1476687]WE LIVE IN AN OVERWEIGHT SOCIETY[quote]

Touché.

Originally Posted by adpiucf

Secondly, the target demographic for the majority of undergraduate sororities are 17-22 year old women from middle class-upper middle class households. Go out and talk to a teenage girl for a few hours. It will be a conversation punctuated with "likes," "ums," rampant text messaging, a discussion about the mall, cute boys in her class, the popular girls, "Do I look fat in this?", her friends, her fears, and more "likes," "ums" and rampant text messaging.

Her peers influence her music tastes, clothing preferences, how she styles her hair and her overall body image. Teenaged girls are obsessed with body image. They tune out their parents, teachers and other adults who tell them to be themselves and to judge people for being "beautiful on the inside."

Have you ever tried to reason with an 18-year old? Have you been successful un-brainwashing her from the stereotypes she sees in people like Paris Hilton, Britney, Lindsay? Teens emulate what's popular and shun what's not.

I agree recruitment should be about picking the people who are "beautiful" inside, and the women's parents, sorority national leaders, etc., should guide them to making good decisions. And they do the best they can. But at the end of the day, we're still dealing with teen aged girls.

SEC recruitment is superficial. It's competitive. The SEC is ok with that. I'm ok with that. Got it? Can we please move on from this topic? I feel like we're all talking in circles.

I guess I was never really a teenaged girl because I sure as hell didn't fit what you described. Self centered, yeah. Obnoxious sometimes, yeah. Pretending my life is Mean Girls? Hell no.

I don't understand why anyone is ok with the way things are. I will never understand why no one will raise a finger and change it. As much as I've whined about Pledged...this is making me start to see the light.

Originally Posted by kathykd2005

Kappa Delta joined the Real Beauty Campaign with Dove. Maybe that is why I am taking the angle I am taking with reference to this situation; however, whatever it is, I still think singling your sisters out for being "fat" is cruel and callous. And I hope this thread doesn't die--it is pretty obvious from the amount of replies that this is a real issue in the Greek "world" and in our society at large. It's good that we are having a dialogue about it.

Thank goodness for you.

Originally Posted by AlphaGamUGAAlum

And about the Real Beauty campaign, it's kind of amusing to see them present women who wouldn't even seem overweight (or maybe even imperfect) if they were wearing clothes as representations of how much they value different standards of beauty.

At least there is someone out there attempting to make a change. I don't see the need to downplay someone trying to help society PROGRESS socially.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by ΑΓΔSquirrelGirl

At least there is someone out there attempting to make a change. I don't see the need to downplay someone trying to help society PROGRESS socially.

We see it differently because what seems to you to be an effort to help society progress to me seems a rather cynical advertising campaign that falls wildly short of the goal.

If I wanted to promote the idea of differing standards of beauty, I'd use women who perhaps weren't so obviously so close to what society is presently looking for. Even in the video where they transform the model, the model at the beginning is still someone we would regard as attractive in real life, particularly after make-up is applied.

It seems to me to be a move by a cosmetics company that generally offer products that prey on women's insecurities to capitalize on a popular idea without actually having to implement the standard much.

"You're fine just the way you are; here, buy our cellulite lotion" isn't that progressive, it seems to me.

[kathykd2005]

Do these women seem overweight to you? Sure, some of them might. Does that make them less appealing? Imagine for a moment: you are one of these women, and your "friends" tell you to stay away from your sorority house during recruitment. I don't see anything amusing about the Dove Real Beauty Campaign, at all.

[James]

You don't have to work out. Just get your body fat tested, then look up optimum body fat percentage, compare, and then move more and eat less until you get to that range.

Easy

Originally Posted by dgdramadawg

DG has a program called Well Aware which promotes physical health. But there is a difference between promoting health and forcing sisters to work out... I don't know of many sororities that require members to work out or list it as a national goal.

[fantASTic]

Originally Posted by modorney

A lot of the fraternities have developed fitness as part of their overall pledge (and brother) education. When I rushed, there were some houses who were considered "athletic houses", but most houses weren't. Nowadays, a weight room with exercise machines is almost a must, and having every brother jog, or work out somehow, is a goal.

Unfortunately, today that is considered hazing and is strictly prohibited.

[kathykd2005]

Originally Posted by fantASTic

Unfortunately, today that is considered hazing and is strictly prohibited.

That is not hazing if sisters decide TOGETHER to work out, and do it for their well-being. It's when a woman tells another woman in her sorority that she is too fat to recruit and to stay away from the house during recruitment, or to stay away from a mixer, or to not go to formal, that would be a serious issue. My sisters and I went on numerous occasions to the gym. What we didn't do, however, was tell other sisters not to come to recruitment because they had packed on a few pounds. That is what we were talking about here.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by fantASTic

NONE of those women are overweight, according to that picture.

Medically, I think one or two of them might qualify...but medically, you can only be 110 and 5'2'' and +10 lbs for ever inch to not be "overweight".

Originally Posted by fantASTic

Unfortunately, today that is considered hazing and is strictly prohibited.

Unfortunately? Seriously???

[fantASTic]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

Unfortunately? Seriously???

Yes, unfortunately. But not unfortunately in the sense that I advocate forced calisthenics for new members or actives, or something like that. I don't necessarily see anything wrong with making "work-out hours" just like many groups have study hours.

It'll never happen, of course, but it's not neccesarily a sin.