“Delta Sigma Mu, We’re hotter than you.”
It is startling but true: sororities today have gotten a reputation as exclusive in the most discriminatory of ways. Only the best dressed, skinniest, and pale-skinned girls are invited to join these pledging Greek life sisters who resemble the likes of Reese Witherspoon in “Legally Blonde.”
While advocates fight to promote equality for minorities and authors like Meg Cabot reach out to those who might be a little heavier than most with books like “Size 12 is Not Fat,” many sorority sisters are taking five or six steps backwards. They are personifying the close-minded, feeble, ignorant girls sorority members are made out to be.
I know Fairfield students don’t have to worry about pledging or horrendous hazing because, alas, the Jesuits decided that this is not the place for Greeks to have life or brothers or sisters to have houses with little alpha and beta symbols decorating the siding.
But this kind of discrimination still exists at Fairfield.
At colleges like DePauw University in Indiana, sorority sisters are not living in a cloud of Greek bliss. Once sisters in their sorority, Delta Zeta, found out they were viewed by others as being socially awkward the group decided to re-evaluate its members. They decided it was best to kick out 23 girls who they felt were not devoted.
Was it just a great coincidence that these 23 included every single girl who was overweight, as well as the sorority’s only black, Korean and Vietnamese members?
Something tells me no.
Apparently these sorority girls are more concerned with emitting an image of perfection than befriending those who happen to be non-white and 10 pounds heavier than everyone else.
As if girls were not insecure enough about body image, sororities like these are making every girl’s worst nightmares come true when they essentially deny girls admission and companionship based on what they look like.
The truth behind those kind words of advice that your best friend used to give you, such as “real beauty is inside” go to waste in such cases. The truth is that these no-nonsense sorority girls take one look at you and judge.
If you have the wrong skin color and weigh too much, you’re out. If you’re rail thin and light-skinned you’re invited to the party. You could be brain dead and have the intelligence of a stalk of corn for all they know, but if you fit the image they’re looking for, you’re prime meat.
Sometimes I wish there was Greek life here as much as the next person for the social benefits, for something to do on the weekend; but not if it would be like this. Not if people would be cruel. Not if sorority sisters would shatter every effort the school has made to bring everyone together regardless of hair color or skin pigment or how much you weigh on a scale.
Sorority sisters, here is a wake up call. This is real life, not some peachy Survivor Alpha where racist sorority sisters from the realms of Greek hell decide who stays and who gets kicked off.
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