Miss America 2015

[PinkSkyAtNight]

I’m not going to give weight to 90% of what is in that Jezebel article, mostly because they seem hell bent on trashing sororities, but I’ll save that for another discussion. HOWEVER, I find the facts of this entire situation to be eyebrow-raising, and not in a good way. After reading this article in the Washington Post, I had more questions than answers: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...ly-for-hazing/

So far, here is what we know:

· Alpha Phi and Kira acknowledge that she is not a member of her sorority, despite what she listed on her profile. She was dishonest right there.


· Alpha Phi has remained entirely silent on the matter. They have not exonerated her, nor are they rushing to claim her as a member. Let’s face it, most national sororities would love to have a Miss America contestant on their roll call. And even now that she won, they aren’t saying much. That says a lot to me.


· Kira acknowledges in the Washington Post article that she failed to show up for her own standards meeting, skipping it altogether. If she claims it was only over a misunderstood e-mail, why would she fail to show up? What kind of person throws away four years of membership like that unless they are afraid of what will happen?


· Kira acknowledges that she was hazed. Yet she claims she never hazed anyone else. Did she stop the hazing, and if so, how? She has provided no explanation or further information.

Where there is smoke, there is fire.

Also want to add that I'm relieved and proud that Alpha Phi took away her membership. Maybe the Miss America Org will grow a pair and look into the matter further.

[chi-o_cat]

Originally Posted by PinkSkyAtNight

Kira acknowledges in the Washington Post article that she failed to show up for her own standards meeting, skipping it altogether. If she claims it was only over a misunderstood e-mail, why would she fail to show up? What kind of person throws away a lifetime of membership like that unless they are afraid of what will happen?

Fixed that for you.

[PinkSkyAtNight]

Originally Posted by chi-o_cat

Fixed that for you.

Thank you Very well put!

[BlueCarnation]

I'm not condoning any of her behavior, but her standards meeting was during her senior year. That could be one of the reasons she skipped it. Those of us who are on here seem to share at least one thing in common: we realize that sorority membership is for a lifetime. When you're 21, 22, and you've got 3 majors, and doing other things, you don't always think about the long term ramifications. I was very active in my chapter, but even I had kind of checked out as a senior.

We had an issue in our chapter where we needed girls to live in the house. Many of the my pledge sisters gave up their lifetime memberships so that they could live in apartments and have boys over, rather than live in a house with a cook and a maid and 55 of their friends. THIS is what we think about at that age...

We don't know the full story, and if it's true, then it's really bad. But the truth is probably somewhere in the middle and we'll never know what really happened.

[Aphigal]

Momma always said the one who is doing the most talking is trying to explain away something they've done wrong

[PinkSkyAtNight]

I guess I'm inclined not to believe Kira. I have friends who also dropped their sororities for a myriad of reasons.... and ridiculous reasons like not wanting to go to chapter on Mondays. However, my friends would never claim to still be members of their organizations or represent themselves to be affiliated in any way, especially if they had their membership revoked for failing to show up for standards. At minimum, she is guilty of painting herself as an Alpha Phi... dumb, dumb, dumb. It just calls into question her general trustworthiness.

[Low D Flat]

Yet she claims she never hazed anyone else.

In the WaPo article, she DOES say she hazed other people:

Kazantsev said when she was pledging, there was some “so-called hazing” in Alpha Phi, the worst of which involved “standing in a line reciting information, a few sleepless nights, and crafting.” ... Kazantsev admitted that when she became the new member educator, she was in charge of similar events, but that was unrelated to her termination.

If you were running the sleepless nights and line-ups, then you were hazing others.

[Jhawkie]

I’m disappointed that Mallory Hagan & sorority women involved in pageants are taking to twitter and are defending her behavior. They are calling people liars and jealous. Ummmm…. Really? So ironic, because Miss America’s platform is domestic violence prevention, yet victims of domestic violence are often times called liars because their abusers want to silence them. Most people who are hazed never speak out publicly because of fear of exactly what Mallory Hagan and her followers are doing. They are actually all contributing to the problem of hazing.

[sugar and spice]

Originally Posted by PinkSkyAtNight

· Alpha Phi and Kira acknowledge that she is not a member of her sorority, despite what she listed on her profile. She was dishonest right there.

I don't think it's dishonest to list past positions you held on your resume. She didn't portray herself as a current member of Alpha Phi, she claimed to have held the positions of new member ed and recruitment committee president while she was in college. If she held those positions, there's no reason they shouldn't be on her resume, even if she isn't a current member. Getting kicked out of/quitting your sorority doesn't invalidate the professional skills those positions taught you.

That said, I think all signs point to her hazing those girls pretty harshly. It would be nice to get some further clarification from pledges/members/former members (there were some in the comment section of the Jezebel article which corroborated the line-ups/sleep deprivation/yelling, but it would be nice to get some more on-the-record sources), but any kind of serious hazing should be grounds for termination of her title, in my opinion.

[KDCat]

Originally Posted by Low D Flat

In the WaPo article, she DOES say she hazed other people:



If you were running the sleepless nights and line-ups, then you were hazing others.

This. I don't believe most of the stuff that Jezebel is putting out there, but her statement that line-ups and sleep deprivation are "so-called" hazing warrants Alpha Phi removing her from membership. I suspect that she didn't show up to the standards meeting because she didn't have a defense.

[MysticCat]

I've got nothing to add except,

Originally Posted by Low D Flat

. . . the WaPo article . . . :

Unless "crafting" is some kind of slang I'm not aware of, that sounds way too much like a Monthy Python take on sorority hazing.

[Jhawkie]

I bet my bank account she's going to turn this around and say that people speaking about her hazing (that she didn't deny) are bullies, she will make herself the victim and say people are jealous.

[DubaiSis]

She already said she was kicked out for not attending a standards meeting which she was called to for having told a JOKE about hazing. I call BS on that one in a big way.

[Cheerio]

Originally Posted by Jen

Why is she still Miss America?!?

Who is the runner-up that would take her place?

A sweet young Southerner from Virginia who attended Liberty University, which does not have NPC sororities.

ETA Correction from previous post: Kira is originally from California and was previously 2007 Miss California Junior Teen and 2004 Miss California Preteen. Some pageant women heavily state-shop during their Miss Yah-Dee-Dah pageant quest, attending multiple universities in different states. Kira has said she will attend The University of Notre Dame for Law School.

[LAblondeGPhi]

Originally Posted by sugar and spice

I don't think it's dishonest to list past positions you held on your resume. She didn't portray herself as a current member of Alpha Phi, she claimed to have held the positions of new member ed and recruitment committee president while she was in college. If she held those positions, there's no reason they shouldn't be on her resume, even if she isn't a current member. Getting kicked out of/quitting your sorority doesn't invalidate the professional skills those positions taught you.

I totally agree with this.

Our definition of "member" is pretty nuanced. Most folks don't automatically assume that because you were once a member of an organization that you are still a member of that group, especially in a list of all the leadership positions you've held since puberty.

In my opinion, the hazing allegations are the much more important part of this story. I'm curious to see what pans out.