Sororities: Cult or Culture?

It was something I had been dreaming of since I was little, especially since I only had brothers. I imagined having a close knit group of friends who were the underdogs who still came out on top in a climactic show of a well deserved victory like the Mighty Ducks, Space Jam, or any other 90s underdog story so as soon as I got the chance, I did it. I joined a sorority. No, those creepy door videos and rumors of hazing didn't faze me, oddly enough and surprisingly enough, hazing is seriously frowned upon in my organization, which gave me relief that I had one less hoop to jump through. I went through Spring recruitment which is more laid back and conversational and you get to skip the 60 dollar formal recruitment fee, which was a plus, and once the girl I spoke to talked about her dislike of children, I knew I found home.

Fast forward to this Fall. Formal recruitment is on the horizon, girls are scrambling to get their clothes for the three-day-long trial. Cheeks are getting cramped from practicing fake smiles, feet are hurting from practicing in heels for hours. The only thing that kept us from falling over was the promise of new and excited sisters.

For those who don't know, each of these three days has a theme. The first is values, we learn about the prospective sister, the second is philanthropy, we tell them about how we help the community, which we do the most of out of all the sororities on campus, (seriously, we have awards) and the third is preference, we dispel anything bad about our sorority and basically tell them why they should join. The only thing these days have in common was the the fact that we had to get up at 4:30 in the morning to get set up and get ready.

400. That's the number of girls that walked through our doors and each one of them had a misconception to relay to at least one of the 40 of us. With movies like The House Bunny and Legally Blonde giving us "glimpses" into sorority life, it's understandable why a girl would be curious. We were all asked about partying with fraternities and rivalries with other sororities (which, to be honest, some of us do have our prejudices) at least once and some of them actually seemed shocked when we told them that none of what they saw was true. The girls actually seemed relieved when we told them how Hollywood amped everything up to make us seem shallow and disingenuous. It made me wonder why the public is so inclined to believe this rhetoric to the point that a majority of people think it's taboo when you say you're a part of one. We don't party nearly as much as people think we do, we help the community, and a good majority of us make the Dean's list on a regular basis. Hollywood has us wrong. It makes us seem perfect but there is literally someone missing half a foot! This is no joke. She calls it the nub.

The rumors that we're all clique-y and mean is one thing, but there are levels to this shit. if I were to tell you that there was a group of like minded people, dressed in all white, chanting and singing songs by firelight, would you think I was talking about a cult or a sorority ritual? I don't even want to get into what we do with paddles. These new girls are in a for a hilariously creepy awakening but it will be worth it to them just as it was to me and our founders back in 1847 to have a loyal sisterhood. I am Sigma Kappa and proud.