Sorority girls.
Depending on whether you are one or are not affiliated with Greek life, many different thoughts and opinions could have come to mind when I mentioned those two words. If you are one of them, you may have had slightly more positive ideas of what sorority girls come to mind. However, if you are not one of them, you may have negative portrayals of what sorority women seem to be from an outside perspective.
Perhaps the most well known sorority media source is Total Sorority Move (TSM). As a sorority woman myself, I could not be more frustrated with the articles and photos put forth by TSM. Sure, it does address some of the many positives that come with being in a sorority, but unfortunately, the negatives always seem to gain more light than the positives, and the negatives acknowledged by TSM are part of the huge problem in Greek life receiving such a contradictory reputation.
My parents have always taught me to only ever have a "strong dislike" for things that aggravate me rather than a full-blown hatred, but I am crossing the line with this. TSM places all of us into a glittery, naive, and irresponsible box and projects us as such for the millions that they have the ability to reach. While I could go on for pages about my reasoning for such a hatred, I have done my best to shorten it and just highlight a few of the vastly incorrect stereotypes that TSM inflicts upon us.
1. Not only do we dislike sports, we don't understand them.
Yes, absolutely, there are sorority girls who do not like sports at all and have no interest in trying to understand them, but there are so many of us for whom sports are a huge part of our lives. Whether it be through intramural sports, watching parties for Peyton Manning's final Super Bowl, or club and collegiate sports, believe me, plenty of us understand.
2. Hooking up with the hottest guys is a priority.
Boys are really the only reason any of us enrolled in a university and joined a sorority, aren't they? Actually, no. Believe it or not, an actual education is more highly prioritized among most of us than finding a hot guy to take home for the night.
3. Drinking is the only extracurricular activity we are involved in.
There is so much more to what we do as sorority women than get drunk on the weekends.
4. We are obsessed with social media.
While this seems to be a generational stereotype, it is further carried out by TSM. All we care about is getting the perfect picture to upload and getting the perfect "like to follower ratio," right? Wrong. Very wrong. Despite what TSM implies, we are completely capable of making it through an activity without uploading it to Snapchat or Instagram.
5. We are all exactly the same.
In case you weren't aware, sorority girls absolutely love pink and drinking and dresses and boys. That, at least, is what TSM wants the rest of the world to think. Contrary to TSM's unbelievably inaccurate portrayals, sorority women are incredibly diverse and have so much more to offer than the completely falsified ideas I have previously mentioned.
