I went to see "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising" with relatively low expectations, considering there was going to be a lot less shirtless Zefron. More than that, I had recently watched an satirical video of Chloe Grace Moretz hazing people on a set, supposedly method acting in her sorority girl role. I wanted to laugh, I really did, but instead I was turned off. I love the TSM junk and poking fun as much as the next girl, but something about this video just really didn’t do it for me. As a proud sorority member and with that video tainting my thoughts on the movie’s leading lady, it wasn’t a surprise that it didn’t blow me away. As uncomfortable as it made me, however, "Neighbors 2" did get some things right about sorority girls.
1. Sporting letters makes us feel like we’re on top of the world.
In the scene right before Teddy (Efron) is about to take down the Kappa Nu party from the inside, he changes into a Delta Psi shirt and only then is he ready to go. His letters make him feel prepared to take on anything, even a group of crazy teenage girls he was mentoring just a few days earlier. For me, and I’m sure many others, the same thing can be said for my own letters. Whether I have a particularly hard test that day or I’m just feeling down in the dumps, pulling on a set of letters instantly makes me feel like I’m invincible and reminds me more than ever of that age-old quote, “I wear my letters on my front because I know my sisters have my back.”
2. We’d do anything for our sisterhood.
When Kappa Nu is in danger of losing their house, they come up with the most outrageous ideas to save their sisterhood. They even throw the very type of party they started out protesting against in hopes of raising enough money for rent. Maybe me and my sisters wouldn’t throw a rager if something was threatening our organization, but we definitely do things that we don’t want to for the sake of preserving our sisterhood. Kappa Nu threw a frat party, my sisters and I wake up at 6 A.M. for community service. Same thing, right?
3. If we didn’t stand by our values, we’d be nothing.
Like I just mentioned, Shelby (Moretz) and her sisters throw a pretty banging party towards the end of the movie. At least, according to everyone else. The sisters are miserable at the party. With its misogynistic theme and drugged punch, it is the exact type of party they formed their sorority to avoid. It might be a stretch to call non-frat parties a value for any real sorority, but for this Kappa Nu, it is their very basis. If my sisters and I didn’t live our own values, or worse, didn’t even know them, I’m sure we’d be just as miserable. I mean, we all just want to live lives our founders would be proud of, don’t we?
4. Letters on a house don’t make a sisterhood.
At the end of the party, Teddy (Efron) gives the arguing Kappa Nus a piece of advice. He says, “That house isn’t Kappa Nu, you are.” Coming from a university that doesn’t allow houses for anyone, I could not agree more. My chapter doesn’t have a house, but neither does any other sorority or fraternity on our campus. Does that weaken our bonds or make us any less successful in anything that we do? Hell to the no. My sisters and I don’t need to sleep three feet away from each other and eat all of our meals together to know that we share something special and we will always have each others’ backs. Our sisterhood isn’t defined by a set of letters on a house, it’s each and every one of us in our own separate lives coming together to form one amazing organization.
