New movie-making fun of greeks??

[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.

[SWTXBelle]

I went back to the start of the thread to see if I had missed something- and the OP is not a Zeta getting angry. It is a Zeta asking Greeks - not just sisters - for their take on it. It went a little off the tracks when instead of offering opinions on the movie some started stating that there was no justification in feeling offended by the blatant ripping off of some letters/symbols of at least two national and one local fraternity.

The score seems to be pretty even - some don't see it as an issue at all, some are offended, and some, like me, are sympathetic to those who are offended while also seeing that it is no big deal in the grand scheme of things. Am I missing anything?

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I went back to the start of the thread to see if I had missed something- and the OP is not a Zeta getting angry. It is a Zeta asking Greeks - not just sisters - for their take on it. It went a little off the tracks when instead of offering opinions on the movie some started stating that there was no justification in feeling offended by the blatant ripping off of some letters/symbols of at least two national and one local sorority.

The score seems to be pretty even - some don't see it as an issue at all, some are offended, and some, like me, are sympathetic to those who are offended while also seeing that it is no big deal in the grand scheme of things. Am I missing anything?

Who asked for a score keeper, though?

[heyitszeta]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

... ripping off of some letters/symbols of at least two national and one local sorority.

Just a correction: we're a fraternity. (Some people on my campus still think it's funny to call us a 'fraority' or 'saternity'. Ugh.)

And I'll go ahead and concede on the forced feelings topic, I did word my opinion in an ambiguous way. To make things perfectly clear:
It is my opinion that ZTA should not feel offended by this movie.
Any ZTAs who feel offended certainly may, and most definitely don't have to ask for anyone's permission.

And I also just wanted to comment that all of the screencaps posted by SthrnZeta also apply to our org, haha. And just because we came around 28 years later and are local does not make us any less legitimate. I'm not sure if you meant that, but your post came across that way to me.

Just out of curiosity, do any ZTA houses display the word "ZETA" on the house along with the letters like in the movie? Our house displays both, but I visited LSU and quite a few CSU/UC campuses and I have never come across a house (of any GLO) that has both letters and the nickname.

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

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.

Re: bold--- Last time I checked, ZTA did not own all greek combinations that start with the greek letter 'zeta'. Zeta ALPHA ZETA does not = Zeta TAU ALPHA.

[SWTXBelle]

Originally Posted by texas*princess

Re: bold--- Last time I checked, ZTA did not own all greek combinations that start with the greek letter 'zeta'. Zeta ALPHA ZETA does not = Zeta TAU ALPHA.

Are you arguing that the movie does not reference Zeta Tau Alpha at all? There is more than the simple use of the word "Zeta", although that itself is suspect.

There are plenty of letter and color combinations they could have used that would not reference a national GLO.

[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?

For those crying foul and getting pissed off at those not sharing your opinion of the movie, what can you seriously do about it by bitching on a message board?

Let the IO handle it and don't bother watching the movie. It'll be forgotten in no time.

And yes, this is the same opinion I'd have if it were my letters featured in the movie.

ETA: There was so much Greek outcry when "Pledged" was published. I know a lot of people wanted to know what all this brouhaha was about, so they bought the book. It'd suck if The House Bunny were the same way.

Just sayin'.