One thing that all sorority women and fraternity men have in common other than sisterhood/ brotherhood is stereotypes. There is no stopping what other people will think, say, and post on social media about us simply because they see the Greek letters on our shirts. Stereotypes are inevitable, no matter what we do in life, there will be someone out their judging you based on what they think they know about you or your organization.

Recently I was assigned to do a portrait project for my photography class and I knew I wanted to do more than just taking a bunch of random images of myself doing different poses. Whenever I thought about this project this idea that I am not my stereotype kept invading my thoughts. I knew I wanted to do this. But I needed a little help from the outside world.

I made a tweet and a Facebook post asking for what others thought of me because of my Greek Letters. I didn’t know what I was going to get back from these post. But I was shocked. I got a mix of different answers. I got the support from my sisters and fellow Greek community with comments like “A leader”, “supportive sister”, “friendly”, “wants to help others”. These comments were all great in my eyes, something that I was hoping others outside of my Greek community would say. I had a few close friends make nice comments, but the majority of people who were not involved in Greek life had many negative things to say.

I got many different comments like “I’m not pretty enough to be in a sorority,” “Easy DZ,” “Slacker,” “only care about parties,” “Dumb blonde," “never going to accomplish anything in life,” and so much more. All these comments hurt me. How could these people say all these rude comments about me just because I choose to be in a Greek organization? They were getting these stereotypes from what they see on TV, movies, and sadly the media. We sorority women and fraternity men are more that our stereotypes. We know that we are, and it is definitely not these comments, but it’s time for us to step up to the plate.

We cannot let our peers and outside community say those comments about us or our Greek families. We need to stick up for not only our personal organizations, our schools Greek community, but Greek Life on a national level. We must be the ones to correct the mistakes that some Greek communities have been doing by living up to their stereotypes. If we want a change in the way that the outside world see’s us, we must change as a whole Greek unit. The way that the media is set up, it only focuses on the bad, when we know that we have so much more good that our organizations do for so many people.

So I challenge you, my fellow Greek community. Stop letting the bad be shown off, and start selling the Good! Stop calling outsiders “GDI’s” and thinking little of them because they didn’t want to join a Greek community. Stop letting those stereotypes slip in, correct those people who say those rude comments. Let all the thousands of dollars collected for your philanthropies be known, share all those hours of community service, show the hard work that your sisters or brothers do to keep themselves on the Dean’s list. It’s time for a change!

WE are NOT OUR Stereotypes.