I've been reading this thread since the beginning and watching the show (as long as I don't fall asleep before it's on...that whole having a job thing gets in the way of my TV watching
). I haven't said anything until now, but after spending an entire weekend with some of my favorite sisters ever - which, of course, included discussion about the show - a couple things occurred to me that I didn't think of before.
It seems that most of us watching this and other MTV "reality" shows see MTV as a huge instigator. While I agree that they show what was actually said/done (whether taken out of context or not) AND I don't agree with many of the actions portrayed on the show, most of us would probably agree that a lot of the problems for this chapter were at least partially caused and/or helped along by MTV. That pledge house, for example, seems to have completely divided the sisters and new members as well as the pledge class itself, and since unity is SO important to sisterhood, that's a HUGE problem.
I know every chapter has its problems, but when I was active, our chapter had a gigantic drama-filled issue that I won't go into (I yelled enough about it this weekend), and it divided the entire chapter. And sure, we had our philanthropy/sisterhood events in there while this was going on, but there was enough drama going across two-three semesters to fill two entire seasons (and maybe an hour-long special or seven) without anything like MTV adding to it.
Between talking about this specific incident and the show this weekend with my sisters, I have no doubt in my mind that had the cameras followed us around, we would've had every national representative in the area on our doorstep after one episode. There was so much negative, unsisterly behavior going on, and at the time, we were so caught up in it that we didn't even notice until after everyone calmed down. No one stood up when this happened to say, "Look stupidheads, THIS is why this is happening and we need to fix it instead of fighting each other and going behind peoples' backs." Now, almost two years later, we can finally say, "If we would've done this, this, and this, none of this ever would've happened in the first place." Granted, things are pretty much back to normal now and we're a stronger chapter because of it, but at the time, we were so upset that most of us figured things would only get worse, so why bother trying to get along?
Watching the Sigma sisters and new members brings back a lot of the memories/hurt feelings/resentment/problems that our chapter had. They seem to be caught up in the drama just like we were, but who's going to stand up and say, "MTV is making this 100 times worse than it actually is. Let's get rid of the pledge house, focus on our sisterhood, and fix what's wrong before it's too late." Instead, MTV's there causing more problems, and things keep building and building without anything ever really getting fixed.
Besides, if they did (and could without breaking their contract), would you see THAT on the program?
Just my 2 cents (more like 2 bucks, but oh well).
and by the way, i turned into a better person b/c of my sorority, i wasn't like this during pledging so i agree with the pledges on that one...no one is perfect and remember, there are always 2 sides to every story. 
COME ON...
But anyway.....
Welcome to GC!
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