“She pays for her friends. She’s so dumb. She parties too much. She only cares about her looks. All she says is ‘Oh my god, I have the best Big. Or, ‘Little, you’re my favorite person in the entire world.'”
Sorority girls have been discriminated against since any of us can remember. We’re constantly put down for being part of something bigger than ourselves, for wanting to be part of an organization that gives back to the school and the community. But why? What did any of us ever do to be hit with the “sorority girl” stereotype? I can tell you from personal experience, sorority girls are not “sorority girls.”
It’s time to set the record straight, we don’t pay for our friends. Yes, we are a group of women of 55 or more, who pay national and local dues. We pay to be a national member of an organization, to donate to the philanthropies we hold close to our hearts, to network within a group of thousands of other women. Believe me, we do not pay for our friends.
We aren’t dumb, either. Seven percent of individuals in the Greek community graduate from college, compared to the 51 percent of college graduates who were not affiliated with an organization. According to Pace University, in the United States, Greek’s make up about 350,000 of college undergraduates. And on Monmouth’s campus, the average grade point average (GPA) of Greek women is 3.2. That’s .7 higher than the required GPA on campus.
Maybe it’s truthful that sorority girls party. However, I wouldn’t say we party too much. Just like any other college kids, we enjoy going out with our friends and having a good time on the weekends. Who doesn’t?
Saying we only care about our looks is an unfair assumption. Every sorority has ideals and values that each member believes in and upholds. We care about being active in the community, being an individual, being ourselves; being trustworthy, and most importantly, we care about each other. As women, we are self-conscious, insecure, and we do care about our looks. That doesn’t mean they are our only concern. If we didn’t have this “sorority girl” stereotype to worry about, maybe it wouldn’t be part of our focus at all.
Okay, so we’re all guilty of overly obsessing over our Big and Little. Our Big’s are the people who made us who we are, the one’s we call when we need someone to lean on and someone to celebrate with. They’re people who would give anything for us, and we appreciate them more than they could ever understand. Our Little’s are the ones that give us the motivation to be a good role model, so the people we love grow up to do good for the sorority, this school, and the community.
We care about our grades, our philanthropies, and the people around us. All girls in sororities at Monmouth have participated in study hours, solely because we care about our GPA. We each host one or two major events a year, which typically raise about $2,000 each for a particular cause. Then factor in all the bake sales, ribbon sales, awareness information sessions, and walks we participate in. We don’t do it because we have to; we do it because we want to.
Then there are the 54 other girls in our chapter we would drop anything for. They’re the people who made this campus what it means to us. They share the same values as us. They comfort us when we’re missing home. So the next time you judge a sorority girl, think of all the good she does, rather than the mistakes we have all made, whether you are affiliated or not.
PHOTO TAKEN by Alyssa Tritschler
