This week, instead of keeping everyone up to date on the mess (in the best way possible) that is my life in Australia, I am instead choosing to respond to an article by request of the site owner. As those close to me know- when I become angry- you will be hearing about it. So here goes.
http://thrillcitync.com/paddles-and-privilege/
I am not sitting here
saying that Greek life is for everyone or that there are not isolated incidents
associated with it. Because there are.
My problems (and I have
many of them) with this article are the sweeping generalizations that are made
about a group of kids that number in the thousands. From a journalistic
standpoint, the generalizations made are as off limits as saying "Jewish
people are rich," "football players are dumb," "Democrats
are all flaming liberals," and the list goes on. This article contains a stream
of observations that are being applied to 16 percent of UNC's campus, and the
disclaimer about knowing some decent people in Greek life does not condone the
statements that were made following the first paragraph. I would further like
to mention that, as a female in Greek life, these statements are meant to
embody me- as I am a part of the community that has just been grossly
generalized.
The responses I have for
you, Ryan, are based upon my experience as a journalism student mixed with
personal feelings of offense for the characteristics and mentalities that were
just assigned to me as a female in the Greek system.
Highlighted below are the
lines I find most inappropriate and why:
Through the influence
of their alumni and their legacies, Greek societies confer upon already
well-off students the privilege of still greater preferential treatment in the
business world, in the classroom and in campus life in return for their
agreement to bestow that same favoritism upon future members down the line.
Wake up. This is how the
world works. Being a part of any group, whether it be an A cappella
group, a club, or a sports team, gives you access to alumni and former
members that can help you out in the business world. The kids involved in Greek
life are not using dirty tactics to get ahead. Networking through the resources
available to you is what the advisors at our university would regard as "intelligent."
Any member of UNC's business school or journalism school is doing the exact
same thing with their respective alumni groups- is the next opinion based piece
going to be on how those J-school kids are rotten cheaters for calling up a
Carolina alumnus? Sorry for trying to get a job in an impossible market.
Once a part of Greek
life, sorority women are encouraged, implicitly and explicitly, to stay in good
physical shape for the purpose of remaining attractive to fraternity men.
Not once have I ever heard
of a sorority pressuring its members to lose weight. If this were the case-
you'd think Pizza Tuesdays or "fried fridays" would have been
disbanded long ago. I want to know where an utterly ridiculous statement like
this comes from. The foods that sororities serve (while delicious) are made
with more butter and grease than you could even imagine. Don't sit there and
state that our sororities are pressuring us to lose weight for males while
simultaneously feeding us 1500 calorie meals.
It is nearly always
men, not women, who control the supply of alcohol in situations where women are
most vulnerable, and it is a significant number of those same men who aim to
inebriate women for unsavory purposes. There is an expectation that alcohol can
be exchanged for sex.
Statements like these make
the writer of this article sound just as ignorant as the men that are
"inebriating" women for unsavory purposes. I'm a junior in college-
the guys at the fraternity parties I attend do not decide what I drink or how
much I drink. Do not victimize women for being subjected to 50s gender roles
and then turn around and make statements that insinuate that Greek college
women can't and don't decide how much they drink. I can make decisions for
myself, as can the women around me.
Furthermore, the killer
line of this whole article in my opinion, is that alcohol can be exchanged
for sex and sex within the Greek system often seems to operate on a
bartering system, one which creates artificially high demand for the
affection of fraternity brothers.
I find it extremely
inappropriate and highly offensive that this article makes commentaries about
the sex lives of Greek females as a unit. Of all of the things to grossly
stereotype- saying that the girls in our sorority system all A. even have sex
in the first place. B. choose their partners based upon what fraternity they
are in or C. will have sex with a guy in exchange for alcohol is a completely
disgusting thing to insinuate about a group of young women.
The effects of this
oppression, generally speaking, have been the tacit acceptance of rape culture
and the general objectification of women.
Another sweeping statement
that has many social implications. To take an issue as large as rape and
insinuate that it is common practice among the young men in fraternities at UNC
is a serious accusation- opinion piece or not. Rape is not a problem that is
isolated within the Greek community, and I am sorry but at the end of the day,
21 year old males are drunken idiots whether they are in a fraternity, on a
sports team, or a GDI. I hang out with young men in all three groups, and in no
way, shape, or form is there a "tacit acceptance for rape" between my
male friends and I. This statement crosses the line, and it is no more
applicable to Greek men than it is to other men of the same age.
The main comeback to this
article I have heard is that it is an opinion piece, and so the author is
entitled to say whatever he wants. If the aim of this article was to get your
Thrillcity site more hits, then congratulations. The job has been done. However,
this one article has, in my eyes at least, completely discredited your site as
a place to find journalistic material with any literary merit as this piece has
just insinuated that "rape" is condoned by our entire Greek
system among many other absurd things.
I do not appreciate being
told who I am and what I stand for as a member of the Greek system, and I am
pretty sure I am not the exception in this.
Until next time.
-F