Reconsidering the "sorority girl" stereotype

By Andrew Corcostegui
The Collegian

A FUNNY THING happened last week: I found myself inside the meeting room of one our campus’s sororities.

It was surreal insofar as my experience was remarkably enlightening, and I came to the startling conclusion that my perceptions of what it means to be a sorority sister were completely incorrect.

As a member of the MTV generation, my entire consciousness of sororities and fraternities has been unfavorable.

Mostly, I just pictured meat-head jocks crushing beer cans against one another’s skulls, and tragic ex-cheerleaders in Juicy sweats talking about their mutual love of Dawson’s Creek.

Alas, not so much. And as painful as it is for me to ever admit being wrong, it was kind of refreshing to note that stereotypical constructs of what college life is supposed to be like have been ridiculously overblown.

Maybe not so ridiculously.

I think one of the six girls I met was wearing pink velour. Four of us had blonde in our hair, though to be fair, I contributed to this number.

And collectively, we frowned on carbohydrates.

If this experience taught me anything, it’s that lives we generally consider to be unlike are own are actually pretty normal. Perhaps we have to acknowledge the folly of cultural pedestals, meant to distinguish some groups from others.

As I rejected the notion of collegiate popularity contests in favor of actually getting to know these people, I realized I was living in an intellectual bubble popular amongst liberal arts educated poseurs who feel the need to pocket themselves into delusional sub-cliques.

Not being in a sorority does not automatically make a person smarter than those who are in them. Here’s the thing: stupid people are everywhere.

You read that right. There are dumb-dumbs all over, even within my major, though I’d never say it to anyone’s face.

Sorority girls are targeted because they are easy to identify — they all live in one big house and have archaic Greek characters on their stationery.

In reality though, you will find Debbie-Desperates, beezies, loadies, bone-heads, and the criminally unattractive in all walks of life. And they won’t be so easy to point out.

Some sorority sisters will fall into these categories. I know you’ve met some of ‘em, and it ain’t pretty.

But you’ve also met columnists, custodians, athletes, professors and the like who are just as unpleasant, if not unintelligent.

Identifying features used to peg people into this-or-that tend to fall flat once you actually get to know your classmates.

I ask you, reader, to be a little more open-minded the next time you’re about to buy into one of these stereotypes.

Choosing not to means you consider yourself more intelligent and more informed than you probably are.

Get over yourself; you are just as crazy, self-conscious and overwhelmed as the rest of us. Take a number and get in line.

Acting jaded and enlightened makes you look like a complete rat.

Don’t assume that counterfeit Coach purses and acrylic nails automatically make a person completely unintelligible.

Stop pretending you hate the idea of living with 40 other girls. One of them is bound to be able to help you with your homework.

Plus, think of all of the clothes you could borrow. Jackpot.

Shamelessly, I’m going to thank (and plug) the uber-kind Delta Gammas who made my visit so nice.

You make non-Greeks want to become Gamma girls, and are an example for everyone.

The rest of you might benefit from following their lead.

No, don’t run out and get a new weave to fit in.

Simply be a better person by giving other people a chance to be better than your expectations would ordinarily allow.

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