New movie-making fun of greeks??

[heyitszeta]

Originally Posted by twinkle555

Care to give us all a run down of your org? I would like to see the similarities you speak of

Sure!

Name: Zeta Tau Zeta (Zeta Alpha Zeta...yeah, pretty close, haha)

Colors: Royal Blue and Gold (in the movie they are turquoise and yellow)

As a side note, our main shirts are the exact shirt worn in the movie, except obviously with ZTZ instead of ZAZ, and the lettering is royal blue instead of turquoise.

Originally Posted by ZTAMich

This movie depicts a sorority called “Zeta Alpha Zeta” and refers to its members as “Zetas” and its facility as the “Zeta House.” The chapter house shown in the movie has the word “ZETA” above the door in turquoise, one of the official colors of the Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity.

We refer to our members as Zetas and our facility as Zeta House. Our house has both our letters and the word ZETA on it (in the preview the house also has both).

Originally Posted by ZTAMich

The Fraternity is the exclusive owner of the registered trademarks Zeta Tau Alpha and the Greek letters ZTA, and has been consistently using the term Zeta and Zetas to conduct business for nearly 100 years. The Fraternity believes that the use of “ZETA” in the film is improper and confusingly similar to ZTA. Zeta Tau Alpha is working with legal counsel to explore its options.

We have been using the term Zeta and Zetas to conduct business for nearly 100 years as well. It is very similar to ZTZ, however we figure anyone with a brain will figure out that the movie is fictional, and no, we are not the same sorority as in the movie. We also believe that anyone who wants to use the word term "ZETA" certainly may. After all, it is just a letter in the Greek alphabet.

My fraternity is local, and one of the authors of the movie attended my (very small) college. During the time she was at my school, Zeta was having trouble keeping numbers up, and ended up deactivating and reactivating. The plot line in this story is that Zeta Alpha Zeta is not able to keep their numbers up and they are risking losing their charter...sound familiar? Our alumnae came to homecoming this past year and told us about this movie and that the author didn't want to make it blatantly about us, so she altered names and colors slightly. We all had a good laugh about it, because, as texas*princess so eloquently worded it:

Originally Posted by texas*princess

it's TV!!! Who cares.

[AU_ZTA86]

Originally Posted by heyitszeta

Colors: Royal Blue and Gold (in the movie they are turquoise and yellow)

Actually, those are not our official colors. From IO:
Colors – The colors of Zeta Tau Alpha are turquoise blue and steel gray. The significance of these colors is explained in the Initiation Service.

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by AU_ZTA86

Actually, those are not our official colors. From IO:
Colors – The colors of Zeta Tau Alpha are turquoise blue and steel gray. The significance of these colors is explained in the Initiation Service.

Which she did not go through because she is not your sister.

[AU_ZTA86]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Which she did not go through because she is not your sister.

Oops - that's what I get when reading before my first cup of coffee

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by heyitszeta

Sure!

Name: Zeta Tau Zeta (Zeta Alpha Zeta...yeah, pretty close, haha)

Colors: Royal Blue and Gold (in the movie they are turquoise and yellow)

As a side note, our main shirts are the exact shirt worn in the movie, except obviously with ZTZ instead of ZAZ, and the lettering is royal blue instead of turquoise.



We refer to our members as Zetas and our facility as Zeta House. Our house has both our letters and the word ZETA on it (in the preview the house also has both).



We have been using the term Zeta and Zetas to conduct business for nearly 100 years as well. It is very similar to ZTZ, however we figure anyone with a brain will figure out that the movie is fictional, and no, we are not the same sorority as in the movie. We also believe that anyone who wants to use the word term "ZETA" certainly may. After all, it is just a letter in the Greek alphabet.

My fraternity is local, and one of the authors of the movie attended my (very small) college. During the time she was at my school, Zeta was having trouble keeping numbers up, and ended up deactivating and reactivating. The plot line in this story is that Zeta Alpha Zeta is not able to keep their numbers up and they are risking losing their charter...sound familiar? Our alumnae came to homecoming this past year and told us about this movie and that the author didn't want to make it blatantly about us, so she altered names and colors slightly. We all had a good laugh about it, because, as texas*princess so eloquently worded it:

Even if you are right and one of the movie's screenwriters based ZAZ on ZTZ and changed things so that ZTZ wasn't identifiable, don't you see why another group would be mad if those changes pointed to them instead. I think ZTZ is safe to feel okay about it...only people from Occidental college know who you are and will probably not think the girls of ZAZ in the movie represent the co-ed ZTZ. On the other hand, most people will see ZETA in turquoise and think ZTA who has used the name ZETA and the color turquoise in its chapters all over the US for 100 years. There is a higher likelihood that they will be identified as the chapter in the movie not ZTZ. So, cut ZTA some slack for being a little upset.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Even if you are right and one of the movie's screenwriters based ZAZ on ZTZ and changed things so that ZTZ wasn't identifiable, don't you see why another group would be mad if those changes pointed to them instead. I think ZTZ is safe to feel okay about it...only people from Occidental college know who you are and will probably not think the girls of ZAZ in the movie represent the co-ed ZTZ. On the other hand, most people will see ZETA in turquoise and think ZTA who has used the name ZETA and the color turquoise in its chapters all over the US for 100 years. There is a higher likelihood that they will be identified as the chapter in the movie not ZTZ. So, cut ZTA some slack for being a little upset.

Exactly. Oh, and the other writer went to James Madison, so I would wager she is MORE than aware of national sororities and who has what color.

Red would be a coincidence...TURQUOISE is not.

[heyitszeta]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Even if you are right and one of the movie's screenwriters based ZAZ on ZTZ and changed things so that ZTZ wasn't identifiable, don't you see why another group would be mad if those changes pointed to them instead. I think ZTZ is safe to feel okay about it...only people from Occidental college know who you are and will probably not think the girls of ZAZ in the movie represent the co-ed ZTZ. On the other hand, most people will see ZETA in turquoise and think ZTA who has used the name ZETA and the color turquoise in its chapters all over the US for 100 years. There is a higher likelihood that they will be identified as the chapter in the movie not ZTZ. So, cut ZTA some slack for being a little upset.

What about the incoming freshman this year? What if they see this movie and it seriously hurts our chances of meeting our quota? Then is it enough harm? Or should we feel safe enough because there is a higher likelihood that the rest of the nation would think ZTA? If the movie portrays the Zetas badly, it could certainly have an effect on the PNMs. If we did choose to be upset about this, would you think that we are as justified as ZTA, or would you say that because we are a local our concerns are not as important?

Originally Posted by Senusret I

And there you have it.

As I was once told as a teenager, the world doesn't revolve around my ***hole.

Love it.


I'm not here to argue with anyone whether the movie points toward one sorority or another, I'm only here to show that things are not always as they seem. And finally, if ZTA really is the upstanding sorority you all claim it is (that is not meant to sound sarcastic, we don't have a ZTA chapter here so I wouldn't know personally), you shouldn't have any problems. You should know that you have the pick of thousands of girls who want to join your top-notch sorority, and you shouldn't be worried OR offended by a fictional piece of work that would only change the minds of people too dumb to join anyway. Do you really want someone in your sorority who can't tell the difference between fiction and reality, and allows MTV to make their decisions for them?

[SWTXBelle]

I'm really tired of people appointing themselves the "offense police". If members wish to be upset that their letters, colors, and nicknames have been appropriated for a movie which does not represent the organization, who are you to tell them that they have no right to be upset? GLOs go to a great deal of trouble to copyright and protect their good names. There are legal ramifications if they do not. In the case of Zeta Tau Alpha and Phi Mu we are talking about literally hundreds of thousands of members. Just because you don't care doesn't mean they must fall in line with your way of thinking - what is the quote, the world doesn't revolve around your . . . opinion.

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I'm really tired of people appointing themselves the "offense police". If members wish to be upset that their letters, colors, and nicknames have been appropriated for a movie which does not represent the organization, who are you to tell them that they have no right to be upset? GLOs go to a great deal of trouble to copyright and protect their good names. There are legal ramifications if they do not. In the case of Zeta Tau Alpha and Phi Mu we are talking about literally hundreds of thousands of members. Just because you don't care doesn't mean they must fall in line with your way of thinking - what is the quote, the world doesn't revolve around your . . . opinion.

Members of GreekChat, just like you.

If people don't want to hear dissenting opinions, they're more than welcome to not discuss sorority business on the internet.

[SWTXBelle]

Happy to hear dissenting opinions, but telling someone they don't have a right to feel the way they feel? That's a little different.
It's one thing to say "I would not be upset in a similar situation." It is another to say "You shouldn't feel the way you do."

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Members of GreekChat, just like you.

If people don't want to hear dissenting opinions, they're more than welcome to not discuss sorority business on the internet.

Afterall, this is a Greek Life thread about a new movie making fun of "Greeks."

If the ZTAs had started a thread in THEIR forum about THEIR concerns and THEIR national headquarter's statement, perhaps we wouldn't have cared to comment.

[UGAalum94]

While it's not a movie I really see myself seeing, the Zeta sorority in the movie doesn't really seem bad in terms of making sisterhood look bad.

I'm not saying that Zeta groups shouldn't be upset about their own letters and colors being used, just that in terms of movies that make fun of GLOs or make Greeks look bad, this one seems far more geared to making fun of airhead bimbos and maybe even sympathetically presenting the problems of chapters with image problems.

It's Revenge of the Nerds with girls under the leadership of a Playboy Bunny. It's hard to see that it has anything to do with any group in real life.

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by heyitszeta

What about the incoming freshman this year? What if they see this movie and it seriously hurts our chances of meeting our quota? Then is it enough harm? Or should we feel safe enough because there is a higher likelihood that the rest of the nation would think ZTA? If the movie portrays the Zetas badly, it could certainly have an effect on the PNMs. If we did choose to be upset about this, would you think that we are as justified as ZTA, or would you say that because we are a local our concerns are not as important?

You know, I don't know that I would want some idiot who was taking the reputation of a fictional sorority to be the gospel for all chapters in my sorority anyway.

From what I understand, the Phi Mus here have hardly said a word in this thread and the Phi Iota Mus or whatever the fictional sorority is, is the one being portrayed as the "evil" ones in this movie.

[SWTXBelle]

Originally Posted by texas*princess

You know, I don't know that I would want some idiot who was taking the reputation of a fictional sorority to be the gospel for all chapters in my sorority anyway.

From what I understand, the Phi Mus here have hardly said a word in this thread and the Phi Iota Mus or whatever the fictional sorority is, is the one being portrayed as the "evil" ones in this movie.

It may be because all of the promo materials I have seen have featured the "Zetas" more than the "Phi Mus".

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

It may be because all of the promo materials I have seen have featured the "Zetas" more than the "Phi Mus".

Right.. but the Zeta ALPHA Zetas are supposed to be the underdog sorority that prevails in the end and become the super hot sorority that everyone wants to pledge. Tell me again why everyone is pissed off?