When was the last time you heard something good about Greek life in the news? Oh that's right, never. It seems as though the media jumps at any chance it gets to attack the reputations of college Greek life. With the slightly recent start of the fall semester, there have already been several scandals involving Greek life in the news.

Why does the media love drawing attention to scandals involving sororities and fraternities? The answer is because it reaffirms the stereotypes that exist about these college organizations. The media wants us to think that all sororities are slutty and all fraternities are misogynist and reckless.

While I am not condoning these scandals, it makes me sad that these few incidents have damaged the reputations of Greek life as a whole, thanks to the media. It is the equivalent of saying that because Aaron Hernandez killed someone, all NFL players are murderers. However because the average Joe has more knowledge about football than about sororities and fraternities, they know better than to make that assumption. There is a significant lack of positive coverage about Greek life causing society's assumptions to be based completely off of what they see in the media.

While you probably think of television or newspapers when you think of the media, a large aspect of modern media today is social media. If you are in high school or college, there is a good chance that you have heard of the websites Total Sorority Move (TSM) and Total Frat Move (TFM) via social media. If you are unfamiliar with these media outlets, they are websites featuring articles, videos, listicles, and photos written by members of Greek life targeted towards members of Greek life as well as college students. TFM and TSM have a large presence not only on their respective websites, but also on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, where their content is regularly shared.

To give you an idea of the content featured on these websites, some of TFM's include "An Open Letter to Chicks Who Don't Swallow," "Worshipping a Girl Will Never Get You Laid," and "Cool Mom Buys Daughters and Friends Lots of Cocaine For Her 18th Birthday," to name a few. TFM also does a daily feature called "Instagram Babes of the Day". Some of the content on TSM includes "This is By Far the Best Position to Take Nudes, Trust," "I Had a Threesome With My Big and These Are the Details," and "33 Signs You're a Total Frat Rat." All of these articles are linked to Facebook and there is a good chance you have seen these or similar floating around your news feed.

The content on these websites are easily shareable meaning there is a 100% chance that people not involved in Greek life will see these articles. When the non-Greek demographic sees these articles on their Facebook news feeds or their respective websites, they simply roll their eyes and say, "Yup, frat boys are women-hating, drug loving, alcoholics" or "Yup, those sorority girls sure are promiscuous." There is no wonder why Greek life has such a bad reputation. The conclusions drawn by these articles reaffirm the idea that the news media portrays: Greek life is damaging to society.

As a member of Greek life, I am personally offended by all of these articles because if you really know anything about Greek life, you know that it is far from damaging to society. As a member of the Mu Alpha Chapter of Chi Omega at the University of New Hampshire, it offends me to think that people think that my sisters and I are nothing more than a bunch of man-obsessed party-girls. We are so much more than what our stereotype portrays us to be. We work alongside each other as well as alumni and members of the local community to raise money for our philanthropy, Make a Wish, each year. We raised over $12,000 last year alone with two fundraisers that took nearly a semester to plan each. We have sisters not only deeply involved within our chapter, but with sports teams, social justice organizations, charity clubs, leadership clubs and women empowerment organizations. I know for a fact that I not only speak for my own chapter when I say this, but for the other panhellenic chapters of UNH and sororities across the country. Yet, we continue to be branded with terrible reputations not only by the media, but media outlets such as TSM.

Likewise, our fraternity brothers are far from what the media portrays. Rather than the misogynist assholes that they are portrayed as, they have big hearts and are also dedicated to their community and greater societal causes. At the University of New Hampshire, the Iota Sigma chapter of Sigma Nu has brothers that volunteer weekly at an organization that works closely with individuals with disabilities. There are thousands of other fraternal chapters across the nation doing similar work, yet fraternities also continue to be stuck with such a negative reputation.

It is important to remember that fraternities and sororities are much more than the stereotypes that are put out. Remember that for every negative episode about Greek life shown in the media, there are hundreds of positive ones and to take anything said on TSM and TFM with a grain of salt. That is just one member talking, not all of us.