Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities by Alexandra Robbins
I picked this book up the other day, buying a copy for a friend for Christmas and then buying one for myself, just to read it.
It focuses mainly on West Coast sororities, at big schools which I don't doubt are party schools in the first place. The book follows four girls, three in the same sorority and one in another, through a year of school. Throughout the narrative, the author cites different accounts and studies also having to do with sorority life. It seems to be a well-researched and in-depth description of sorority life.
Except... not much of it rang a bell with me. I'm a sorority girl, yes. I party more than some college students, maybe. I have chapter once a week, ritual, recruitment. There's girl drama, of course, but... we don't haze. We have eight girls tops in the house, not a hundred. We dn't turn people down because they're not tall and blue-eyed, or if they're disabled. We have girls of many nationalities, we have girls that don't drink.
Even the one sorority on campus that probably most closely resembles the ones in the book has girls that I adore; that work hard in school and aren't necessarily just party girls. And, really, the service, co-ed, fraternity that I pledged this year had more work for only pledges to do, and more that could be seen as "hazing" than my sorority did.
So while I am sure that the book is a good investigation into many sororities, I did not find that it is a good generalization of all Greek life. So, don't judge us all by Legally Blone, or this book either.
to me this book was more about uncovering the daily exploitaions and scrutiny these women undergo simply because their not perfect.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with you on this book. I am also in a sorority and dont see 75 percent of these things actually happening at my school. while yes we do have rituals and meetings we dont haze and dont even call our new members pledges. there will always be some kind of drama but that is something that happens between any group of friends sorority or not. in most of the stories in her book the girls put them selfs in positions that can compormise there well being and that is something they do by choice not because of the sorority they are in. I do realize that some of the things she brings up are issues that need to be addressed but and many of them are. most people out side of greek life just dont understand the ways somethings are done and that most greeks have the idea that greek issues should stay greek . but in the end it was and interesting book to read.
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