Sororities
Vera Ahluwalia
Sororities are longstanding social organizations at North American universities composed only of women, supposedly built on a commitment to friendship and contain those who share the same aspirations. Sororities can form lifelong friendships and open doors to various opportunities and connections outside the college. However, it also promotes a culture of toxicity between women and is rooted in racial discrimination, even today.
The process to get into a sorority creates a toxic environment. Usually, the process follows a basic structure of rounds. In round one, the potential candidates get a presentation from all the sororities and afterward, the sorority members vote on who they want to invite to Round 2. The candidates also vote on which sororities they like the best. During round two, candidates have conversations with members, the members vote once again, and this cycle continues until the select candidates are officially invited to a sorority, if at all.
Prior to even the first round, sorority members have already pre-screened all the possible candidates including GPA, recommendation letters, and most importantly, social media. Social media is a deciding factor including the number of followers one has, the type of posts the girl creates, her clothes, the designer items—or lack of—that she wears, her friends, and her overall appearance. Girls who do not fit the mainstream norms—even if her grades and academic career are perfect—will often be eliminated before she even has finished round one. This creates pressure to fit into the sorority’s beauty standards, which are almost always the euro-centric beauty standards of blond hair, blue eyes, and a skinny body. More emphasis is placed on the number of followers you have, instead of your academic career.
Sororities often exclude women of color due to their foundation in segregation. Starting in the 1700s, when minority groups were not allowed to attend universities, the Greek-life organizations simply reflected the demographic at colleges: wealthy white, Angolo-Saxon, and protestant men. As minority groups, like women and people of color, were allowed to attend colleges, organizations were separated by sex and race. In fact, Greek letter organizations did not remove the ban against people of color until well into the 1960s.
Segregation in Greek life has continued well into the 21st century. In 2020, a video was posted of a white Vanderbilt sorority member wearing a durag, laughing while a white fraternity member exclaimed racial slurs. The same year, members of Vanderbilt ADPI mocked a Black member and stated that she didn’t belong in the sorority and it “wasn’t her place.” At Washington University in St. Louis, a white member of Chi Omega was accused of using racial slurs frequently and fetishizing Black men. Despite reports, the sorority did nothing to reprimand her. Alpha Sig, a fraternity at American University, has also been exposed for throwing civil war-themed parties while chanting racial slurs. This environment of racism and the exclusion of girls of color during the recruitment process leads to sororities with a majority of white girls. In fact, at Princeton University in the senior class of 2009 to 2019, 77% of sorority members were white.
Sororities are supposed to cultivate an environment based on hospitality and friendship, yet create a toxic and racist environment, adding to societal pressures on women.
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