When I was in high school, my mom asked me if I was thinking of joining a sorority when I was in college. I scrunched up my nose and said “eww no.” My idea of what being a sorority girl was, was just based on what I had seen in the news, movies and TV. It looked like fun, but not really what I was about. In my mind at the time, joining Greek life was about being pretty, partying, getting guys and just being mean and that wasn’t what I wanted.

My freshman year of college, a friend of mine suggested I join Greek life. I asked her what sororities did because honestly, I really had no idea. She explained to me that they did philanthropy, and studied because they had a GPA to maintain, and had sisterhood events. Not just socializing with fraternities and partying. I was still skeptical at first but I was pretty involved with volunteer work and studying in high school so I decided to give it a chance. I went into recruitment with an open mind, and the following Fall, I came home to my new sisters.

But how did I come up with my original mindset of what Greek life was about? Growing up and seeing movies like Sydney White, House Bunny, Legally Blonde, and now Neighbors, it’s easy for people to think that’s how Greek life is even though we all know Hollywood tends to inaccurately portray everything. However, because of Hollywood’s exaggerated take on Greek life, sororities and fraternities are subjected to discrimination. When I did a Google search on “Greek life in the news” most of the results that came up included scandals sororities and fraternities were involved in. None of the search results included anything positive.

All the time, I see articles about hazing, racism and rape within the Greek system and while there is no denying these situations may happen, the media tends to only focus the negative and not the positive. A journalist actually went undercover at a fraternity party expecting to witness fraternity men commit a multitude sexual assaults among other various crimes. And you know what she found? Absolutely nothing incriminating.

So, with that being said, why is it that fraternities are constantly seen as criminals? Not once have I seen a headline on national news about a sorority or fraternity raising money for a philanthropy, or accomplishing something that benefitted the community, or doing something that didn’t involve crime.

Tie that in with Hollywood’s portrayal and we come to the issue of recruitment videos. Every now and then, a sorority’s recruitment video such as Alabama’s Alpha Phi and more recently, University of Miami’s Delta Gamma, will make the news for depicting sorority girls solely as girls who dance around, look hot and blow glitter everywhere, perpetuating the pre-existing stereotype about sororities. A recruitment video’s purpose is to recruit potential new members by showing off a chapter’s values, sisterhood, philanthropy, and study habits. It seems that only videos that show the stereotypical side make headlines.

But why, out of all recruitment videos made by the thousands of sororities across the country, are the ones that don’t accurately portray sorority life the ones that become news? Why have we as a society decided to pick and choose how we view Greek life as a whole based on a few negative or stereotypical incidences? Maybe because it’s easy for the media to point fingers and discriminate against us with out really looking into the situation because they know the masses will believe anything they say.

And perhaps maybe, we as Greek life need to step up our game and work to improve our image as a whole and show the world what we are really about.