'No Frumpy': Cornell Sorority Forbids American Apparel Leggings, etc.

[ThetaDancer]

Hahaha I posted about this in the "what do you feel like saying right now" thread the other day. The wording on this list absolutely cracks me up..."you best have a mani/pedi when you get to ithaca" and the "no fake plastic shizzz" parts were my favorites.

And I believe the blacked out parts just had the names of women in their past pledge classes, so nothing too scandalous.

[COBaby]

I kind of want to send this to our chapter and ask them to take it seriously. Except for the boots with dresses thing for pref. She's got to be kidding about that.
Otherwise, she's basically asking girls to look their best; it seems like there's some good advice in here.

[alum]

This doesn't look out of the ordinary. My daughter is an active at a school with a deferred recruitment. Each year, the Recruitment VP issued clothing/accesseries lists before summer break. The members had to show their recruitment outfits before Thanksgiving (I suppose so they could shop when they were home). My D said there was a second approval period between T'day and Christmas Breaks for the girls who had needed to replace certain items.

[DSTRen13]

This is also on Jezebel, fyi - http://jezebel.com/5454613/sorority-...yline=true&s=i

[SWTXBelle]

Reminds me of Jen Lancaster's recounting of her days as a "recruitment Nazi" in her undergrad Pi Phi days! (She wrote "Bitter is the New Black", "Such a Pretty Fat")

[Benzgirl]

They can wear watches? That was a big No No for us.

[RU OX Alum]

Whoever wrote that sounds like a such a stereo-type.

[33girl]

Anyone who tells other people not to wear American Apparel gets a big kiss from me. And if the day has come (and it unfortunately has) when you actually have to tell people not to wear open toed shoes IN THE WINTER, then Cornell needs to raise its admission standards.

No: tacky/cheapo/pleather. Don't mess with me.

I think the girl who wrote this may be one of my favorite people on the planet right now. Not to mention the satin dress comment.

ETA: what are "huggies" earrings? All huggies makes me think of is disposable diapers.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

They can wear watches? That was a big No No for us.

On the next page she says not to wear them and put on a bangle instead.

I'm thinking of the list like this that a crabby mom put on here and the difference is enormous. This girl is funny as hell and none of this is over the top...just basically "don't dress tacky." It also seems like they have a lot of latitude in the items they can choose. The other one was ordering tans and other dangerous items, and really condescending.

[agzg]

Originally Posted by 33girl

On the next page she says not to wear them and put on a bangle instead.

I'm thinking of the list like this that a crabby mom put on here and the difference is enormous. This girl is funny as hell and none of this is over the top...just basically "don't dress tacky." It also seems like they have a lot of latitude in the items they can choose. The other one was ordering tans and other dangerous items, and really condescending.

Whaaaaaaaaa?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by agzg

Whaaaaaaaaa?

I think the thread was removed. It was at a large southern school and the mom was just aghast that her daughter was involved in such a group (never mind she'd been a sorority member herself). It was apparently really easy to tell what group it was for if you went to the school - plus the mom probably posted it without daughter's permission - so it was removed.

This has made national media though, so oh well.

[GTAlphaPhi]

The god-awful spelling and grammar throughout the memo was was not what I expected from a Cornell student.

[APhiAnna]

I don't see anything wrong with this list at all...in fact, I thought she was hilarious. I agree with 33girl that it is far better than the UF list that was posted on here awhile ago...I think they were aiming for the same thing but this girl is actually sarcastically funny.

I think that anybody outside of the Greek system is going to incorrectly assume this dress code is required at all times and that is why the blogs are blowing up. This is obviously just for recruitment. I think everybody in a moderately to very competitive recruitment has received instructions similar to this, either written or verbal (or both).

The one thing I will say is that using sarcasm in writing is always dangerous because people can misinterpret it. Hell, there were some girls in my chapter who couldn't understand sarcasm even if it was spoken in a sarcastic tone! So I think some people will read this as bitchy when obviously she was going for "sassy" and humorous.

Anyways, I thought it was funny and I agree with her fashion choices, unlike the UF girl who I believe infamously wrote that anybody with big boobs should wear a tube top...

[RU OX Alum]

^^^yeah, I didn't read it as sarcasm at all, I just thought she was really judgemental. Like, yeah, don't wear that for rush or whatever, but it just seemed kindof snippy, but maybe now that you said that, yeah I see it, if she had a sarcastic kind of personality

[UGAalum94]

A non-greek woman I work with was showing around/ sharing her Greek daughter's recruitment instructions at work a couple of years ago, and she was blowing comments way out of proportions. The mom fancies herself a big feminist and has no understanding of the realities of UGA recruitment. She apparently didn't care that she as damaging the reputation of her daughter's group for basically doing what's expected in competitive recruitments: giving guidelines about what to wear and how to wear it to maximize the positive impression your group makes.

I think there maybe something to clearly communicating expectations face to face and not giving people lists like this is reproducible format. Especially if you are going a presentation at chapter first and have dress check later, why run the risk of it getting outside the chapter?

I thought this particular linked list was pretty funny, and I thought it was refreshing to see the author acknowledge that some of the rules represented her own areas of obsession rather than universal judgments.