Quote:
Originally Posted by APhiAnna
With all due respect I completely disagree. The very first sentence in my original post states that I believe these stereotypes exist on a college level. If you have graduated from college then I think you pretty much prove the point of my message that these stereotypes only exist at the collegiate level and that upon graduation they do become indistinguishable from each other. Indistinguishable might be the wrong word for this forum because we all know they have intricate histories, morals, philanthropies, etc but I mean indistinguishable to the average American...saying that you are a Theta vs. a Pi Phi vs. a AST vs. a Gamma Phi really has no difference.
However, I do feel like there are a select group of organizations that on the college level do have national stereotypes. Nowhere near as developed as the NPHC stereotypes, and lacking all the positive elements as well, but they do exist. For most organizations you'll hear the gamut of negative stereotypes depending on the campus..."they are prude", "they party too hard", "they are fake-tan/fake-blonde types"...it will change. However, I feel with the sororities and fraternities I have mentioned the things said are 95% of the time the same from campus to campus (and when they are not said, it is usually because they are a struggling chapter on campus in which the stereotype would become "XYZs are low on numbers here...but everywhere else they are like this".)
Once again, if you are not in college, or are in a college with a smaller Greek community, you probably are not hearing these or they simply don't matter enough to register. This proves my point that after college these stereotypes have no bearing in the Greek community. However, I do believe that most students from schools with big Greek communities in California, Texas, Florida, deep south and parts of the Mid-West know more or less what I'm talking about.
Lastly, I don't believe these stereotypes are true. I do however believe that they are frequently put upon chapters even if those chapters have no relation to the stereotype. I also feel that these are probably new and are so widespread thanks to the types of networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, JuicyCampus, Old Row, etc.
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I can see networking sites influencing the general stereotypes of what "sorority girls" are like but I don't think it's reinforcing types within individual groups. And honestly, are you making a claim that JuicyCampus* evaluations should be regarded are reality? Really?
Even when I was in school, the reputations of groups varied considerable from campus to campus for the NPC groups. I think looking through any group's magazine usually puts the fake tan/fake blond thing to rest for any particular org.
Where are you geographically? How big are the greek systems with which you are most familiar?
I think it's possible that within regions, stereotypes may be more likely, but even then, more than one group will occupy very similar niches, so you can't really say how one group is supposedly different from another.
* as far as Old Row, someone even geekier than I am could probably look at all their sorority rankings and see, but I think there's some variety even there.
ETA: maybe I'm totally misreading you. Are you saying that based on networking sites, stereotypes which have no connection to reality are emerging rather than claiming that actual somewhat-reality-based-reputations or expectations exist for groups on a national level? Like, "people on JuicyCampus say that XYZ are barbie doll party girls so now everyone believes it"?
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