By Michaela Gates, Staff Writer
Being in a sorority has been one of, if not, the most rewarding things that I have done with my time so far at UMass Dartmouth. The memories, the friendships, the general life lessons I have learned from it are things that I would never trade in a million years.
However, Hollywood evidently does not have the same outlook of sorority life as I do. In fact, if one was to watch a movie such as Neighbors 2; you’d see sorority girls depicted as nothing more than sloppy drunks who do nothing but prowl for boys and base membership exclusively off looks.
I find it to be disgusting that Hollywood thinks it is okay to sexualize women sororities and, in a sense, dehumanize them as they strip the sorority girls in their films as well as shows to nothing more than bimbos.
In all the female Greek organizations on this campus, as well as in America, there are amazing young women who are bright and vibrant people with an array of personalities.
To be stereotyped down to a bunch of white girls whose greatest aspirations are pink wine and some jock in a Hawaiian shirt disgusts me.
First and foremost, most sororities will not even let you in without a minimum GPA of about a 2.7, which is a B- average. Anyone who has been to college for more than a semester knows that keeping up with that is no easy task and certainly not one that could be done by a dumb drunk.
And no, we aren’t all flocking to the easiest major just to keep up appearances. We have plenty of girls in some of the toughest majors at this school and they manage to achieve our high standard of academics while also keeping up with their sisterly duties.
Not to mention, we aren’t a social club.Yes, we have social gatherings together; however, this is not the goal of Greek organizations.
We donate our time and money frequently to causes such as fighting homelessness and curing cancer.
While those happen to be the causes my sorority focuses on, every sorority has their own causes they hold dear and work for.
It’s a bit funny that these movies and shows choose to focus of the drinking as well as the hazing that is often associated with sororities, but seem to turn a blind eye to all of the hard work we do for charity.
I am in no way trying to brush the parties or even the hazing in some cases, under the rug.
What I am pointing out is that Hollywood boils us down to simply that, just drunk girls with zero morals. I urge other girls who are in Greek orgs to speak up and make Hollywood aware that we aren’t okay with being stereotyped.
We aren’t drunks, we aren’t immoral, and we aren’t just here to party.
We are in Greek organizations for philanthropy, for sisterhood, and so much more than any of these Hollywood fat cats could ever imagine.
We are strong women who are all working to make the world we live in a better place.
It is also worth noting that as we live in a time where women are struggling to be freed from male sexual aggression. Women like me, who are in Greek organizations and are being extremely oversexualized on screen.
What message are we sending to men and young women involved in Greek organizations?
We need to put an end to it, stereotyping is never okay and no one, especially my sisters in Greek organizations need to make it very clear that we will no longer be the subject of misleading depictions on screen.