Sorority Strongholds?

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally Posted by HQWest

Speaking of BAMA fans - pretty sure their new interim president will mention which sorority she's in.....
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/03/...dy_bonner.html

I hope she will!

[Shellfish]

I recently read the novel Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter because the author is a KD from Alabama--in fact, she mentions in info in the back of the paperback edition that the main character's friends are modeled after her own sorority sisters--but as in The Help, the main character is a Chi Omega from Ole Miss. I wonder why these writers wouldn't take the opportunity to give a little PR to their own sororities, but maybe the Chi O at Ole Miss represents to them the epitome of southernness.

[NutBrnHair]

Originally Posted by Shellfish

--but as in The Help, the main character is a Chi Omega from Ole Miss. I wonder why these writers wouldn't take the opportunity to give a little PR to their own sororities, but maybe the Chi O at Ole Miss represents to them the epitome of southernness.

I wondered that too. The author is a Phi Mu, right? Phi Mu is very Southern, in my mind.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by NutBrnHair

I wondered that too. The author is a Phi Mu, right? Phi Mu is very Southern, in my mind.

Yes. If the book is anywhere as racist as the movie is, I'm glad she didn't mention Phi Mu, but I think she should have just made up letters or something.

[Shellfish]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Yes. If the book is anywhere as racist as the movie is, I'm glad she didn't mention Phi Mu, but I think she should have just made up letters or something.

Even though I was surprised about Whistlin' Dixie, I was glad, too. Didn't really like the book, and the main character wasn't that sympathetic.

[sigmadiva]

I've made connections with other women who are in a sorority, but it was not dependent on which GLO and/or chapter.

Example: When I was in grad school I had to turn in some paper work to the auditor for grants in my department. I walked in her office wearing one of my lettered sweaters and she asked if I was in a sorority. I said yes, and then she told me she was in one too, AGD. After that we became much better friends. We bonded over the fact that both of us are in sororities. And, I can't tell you the number of women who frequent my favorite needlepoint shop who are in sororities - there a lot of them!

[PGD-GRAD]

My daughter was married last Saturday, March 3. The groom's sister was in a sorority in a prominent Big 10 school. I knew the reputation of her group (like it or not) because of positive comments from members of my fraternity at their chapter at that school at a recent national convention. I complimented her on the strength and prominence of her sorority, and placed a guess at which other houses she returned to for her final three. She nearly dropped her plate--"How could you have known that?!" I told her it was a lucky guess based on strength and reputation of her own chapter and which other houses they competed against.

So strongholds on certain campuses (and towns and states) do not change quickly, and she had been out of school 10 years. We had a terrific conversation about Greek life on her campus and--now that she lives on the East Coast--how much she values conversations with her sorority sisters and how much those bonds mean to her. She was thrilled that my daughter was also a sorority woman, and commented in a positive way about my daughter's sorority chapter at her school. When I saw this thread, it just presented the opportunity to mention my recent experience and help prove the point of this thread

[Low C Sharp]

Anne Rivers Siddons, an Auburn Tri-Delt, also does not make her characters Tri-Delts, even when they are based on her own life (as in "Heartbreak Hotel"). In one novel, the protagonist is a Kappa and her best friend is a Pi Phi; in another, she calls the characters' sorority "Tri-O."

[NutBrnHair]

“This is the South and we’re proud of our crazy people. We don’t hide them up in the attic, we bring them right down to the living room to show them off. No one in the South ever asks if you have crazy people in your family, they just ask what side they’re on.” --Julia Sugarbaker

[MaryPoppins]

Originally Posted by NutBrnHair

“This is the South and we’re proud of our crazy people. We don’t hide them up in the attic, we bring them right down to the living room to show them off. No one in the South ever asks if you have crazy people in your family, they just ask what side they’re on.” --Julia Sugarbaker

Exactly. LOVE that quote. And I can say it is especially when you are from "The Most Southern Place On Earth," like my family.

http://www.amazon.com/Most-Southern-...1075907&sr=1-1

And Florence King had it down pat. Unfortunately, she decided she preferred computing to writing and has changed professions. Ellen Gilchrist is another good Southern author who has the genre perfected .

[NutBrnHair]

Originally Posted by MaryPoppins

Ellen Gilchrist is another good Southern author who has the genre perfected .

Ah yes, and Ellen is a proud Chi Omega!

[amIblue?]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Right, but nobody cares before rush or after graduation, so it's not so much a stronghold, even if they have a lot of chapters there.

Illinois, one of the biggest Greek systems in the country, has very little tent talk, because nobody shows up in Champaign knowing a damn thing about any of the sororities. Sure, the internet has made things worse, but it's not like it meant anything when I went home over break and told my high school friends where I'd pledged.

Here's the issue that I have with the logic of "no one cares."

1. For decades, women in all parts of the country have been involved alumnae, not just in the south.

2. There's a boatload of non-southern GC'ers who are no longer collegiate members.

Some non-Southerners appear to care.

Regarding the no-tent talk at Illinois, that may be the case at Illinois, but freshman girls will be freshman girls. I know for a fact that tent talk was alive and well when my childhood best friend went through rush at Northwestern (not in the South), and her roommate from Seattle (also not in the south) was heartbroken to find out that she got a bid to XYZ. This stuff isn't limited to the south. I'm not saying that it happens everywhere, but it happens.

Originally Posted by NutBrnHair

Ah yes, and Ellen is a proud Chi Omega!

Love me some Ellen Gilchrist. She is awesome!

[amIblue?]

How did this thread become a thread about the south vs the rest of the country?

[Mevara]

Originally Posted by amIblue?

How did this thread become a thread about the south vs the rest of the country?

I think it is because the only "strongholds" of any org are in the south.

[amIblue?]

Originally Posted by Mevara

I think it is because the only "strongholds" of any org are in the south.

OK. What about the groups that have little to no reresentation in the south? They have to have pockets where membership is more dense than in other areas.