[sidecar]

I've never had much respect for the Greek system, but I did find it heartening that six of the twelve remaining "acceptable" sorority sisters quit in disgust over the decision.

How stupid can you get? All the overweight girls and all the women of color? Like no one would notice. Idiots.

[nickclick]

I agree, culture. I have never thought much of sororities. To me they seem very anti-feminist.

which is too bad, since they could be great feminist environments.

freshman year i had a friend that joined a sorority and was actually not allowed to talk to anyone except her soon-to-be "sisters." needless to say, that stopped our friendship pretty quickly.

[ginger_kitty]

I agree, culture. I have never thought much of sororities. To me they seem very anti-feminist.

[culturehandy]

Sororities scare me. I noticed in my last fwe years of university that the sororites where recruiting hugely, and sororities are not big in Canada. All the women that were recruiting, were so cookie cutter, and it was like a creepy Stepford Wives kind of thing.

[aviatrix]

To the World I promise temperance, insight, and courage, To crusade for justice , To seek the truth and defend it always;
and the truth is, my organization is a self-serving piece of S*ht.
To those whom my life may touch in slight measure, May I give graciously of what is mine;
and take it away when it's not in my interest.
To my friends, understanding and appreciation;
for as long as they are my friends
To those closer ones, Love that is ever steadfast;
so long as they are popular with frat boys
To my mind, Growth;
(growth of the sorority)
To myself, Faith; That I may walk truly In the light of the flame.
and still be blind to our hypocrisies.

[doodlebug]

From good old Wikipedia, here is the Creed of the Delta Zeta sorority:

To the World I promise temperance, insight, and courage, To crusade for justice , To seek the truth and defend it always;

To those whom my life may touch in slight measure, May I give graciously of what is mine;

To my friends, understanding and appreciation;

To those closer ones, Love that is ever steadfast;

To my mind, Growth;

To myself, Faith; That I may walk truly In the light of the flame.

As the blog Bitch PhD points out:

"If you read in between the lines of the news story, it's fabulous: they kicked out a computer science major with the research skills to go track down evidence of past discrimination in the library; a junior with the organizational skills and chutzpah to put together an open meeting at the student union to tell the DePauw student body what had really happened; and the editor of the DePauw student paper (what were they thinking?!?).

"If Delta Zeta wanted to do a scientific experiment to raise the consciousness of smart, ambitious, accomplished young women, they couldn't have done a better job."

[kelkello]

One of the sororities at my college had a hazing ritual (yes, they do them when they say they don't) where their "brother" fraternity would circle all the "flawed" parts of the pledges' bodies with sharpie markers. They would strip them down to their underwear and mark anything that needed "work." The same fraternity got booted off campus for hazing a guy so bad he lost his mind and was hospitalized. The thing that made him snap was they made all their pledges kill a small animal and bring proof. If any busties have good experiences with greek life, so be it. But I've always seen it as a friend rental situation. Nothing about that Delta Zeta story is surprising to me. Sickening, yes. But not particularly surprising.

[doodlebug]

Ooh, I was just popping in to post that sorority story.

I don't know much about the "sorority lifestyle," but I hope they aren't allowed to get away with this elitist crap.

[aviatrix]

so much for sisterhood....

[nohope]

Sorority evictions: not a pretty picture

GREENCASTLE, Ind. — When a psychology professor at DePauw University surveyed students, they described one sorority as a group of "daddy's little princesses" and another as "offbeat hippies." The sisters of Delta Zeta were seen as "socially awkward." Worried that a negative stereotype of the sorority was contributing to a decline in membership that had left its Greek-columned house here half empty, Delta Zeta's national officers interviewed 35 DePauw members in November, quizzing them about their dedication to increasing recruitment. They judged 23 of the women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house.

The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men — conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits. Six of the 12 were so infuriated they quit.

read more
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...368/1002/NEWS01

[anarch]

This is encouraging though, if it's accurate: "crime reports, victimization surveys and public health measures consistently reveal something else: large declines in the percentages of young women [in California] reporting violence against them, especially sexual attacks, and of young men committing rape and other violent offenses."

[aviatrix]

i agree. it's amazing to me that people get all caught up talking about get tough on crime but when it comes to crimes like rape, there is scant little said.

[ginger_kitty]

anarch, I hadn't read about that case anywhere. I agree though, at least someone is trying to do something to bring about stricter sentences. One year is appauling! I wonder with probation how long the creep will really even serve?

[anarch]

I hadn't heard about the original court case re a guy getting only a 1-year sentence for doing nothing to stop the rape of a 9-year-old girl, but at least now someone's trying to make sure future penalties mean something!

[ginger_kitty]

I read about that a few days ago, and was of course outraged!! It's like saying you agreed to have sex, so sit there and take it. Very wrong.

If anyone's intrested I posted a link to that Planned Parenthood write your local rep site, that maddy was referring to, in the This Just In thread a few days ago.

[maddy29]

yeah, totally awful. twisty wrote about it just now on her blog. really insane.

yeah, there's a BIG difference between not being able to stop and not wanting to stop!

[erinjane]

Oh my cod, that's infuriating!

[sybarite]

From the Time article:
'Mel Feit, executive director of the National Center for Men, a male-advocacy group based in Old Bethpage, N.Y., says biology is a factor. "At a certain point during arousal, we don't have complete control over our ability to stop,"

This statement is bullshit. End of story. Men can stop if they need to.

[justlisten]

Has anyone read the article A Time Limit on Rape in the newest Time magazine -- link to the article on Time's website?
My favorite part was the "consensual sex contract" that was mentioned. Found a copy of that here.
Its an interesting idea, but I'm not sure why it is a big deal. Stop immediately. Sure, I'll give you a second or two, but if you are obviously still going at it, its at least shifty and questionable. What does everyone else think?

[maddy29]

if y'all get emails from planned parenthood, or even if you don't-they had a "write your reps" thingy about this, i think it was sent out today. so awful. about the EC but also-you don't throw a rape victim in jail, unless the warrant was for like, murder....gak. it's SO depressing to me. makes me want to go bury my head in the sand.

she "didn't believe in EC" well, i don't "believe" in jail. fer god's sakes, it's not like EC is santa claus-where you either believe or you don't!!!!