Get excited!

****This was written during the second week of school****


How many sorority girls does it take to change a light bulb?

1 to screw it in and 40 to wear t-shirts about the event.

As I’m sure the student body on SJSU’s campus has noticed, thanks to the hordes of matching neon pink t-shirts, the splendid time of year known as fall recruitment is upon us once again.
Women quickly start avoiding Seventh Street due to the Pan-Hellenic Council table which calls it home, and consequently the area where the PHC sorority women in mass congregate to talk to other women about the SJSU Greek community. The women who do not have the luck of being able to avoid this area pass by speedily; they will pull out their cell phones and have an imaginary conversation, they give that glowering annoyed look most reserve for the stalls that sit out in the middle of the walk way at the mall with the somewhat questionable sales guy who wants you to try some amazing new Dead Sea hand scrub. Women preemptively explain that they are late to class and shrug off attempts at being handed flyers. They explain that they already know what sorority life is about and want no part of it.

As adults, we know that stereotypes exist. Blondes are stupid. Fraternity men are alcoholics. Asians are bad drivers.

At the beginning of this semester the Pan-Hellenic Council presented to our houses the stereotypes the other councils on campus (UFC, IFC, and NPHC) came up with for PHC women. Among the list, were white girls, daddy’s girls, rich, snobby, easy, cheaters, stupid, partiers, and two-faced, friendly, yet fake and backstabbers. Sad to say, the list goes on.

I can’t tell you how disheartening it is when a co-worker or friend scoffs at me saying “I can’t believe you are a sorority girl! You’re too nice. You don’t seem ANYTHING like that trash” and yes it has been said. It’s moments like those where one should stop and consider the evidence presented to them which is contradictory to past assumptions.

We often feed our own ideas and stereotypes of other groups because we fail to even allow the possibility to cross our minds that we may be wrong. People will also see an opportunity to make one group the center of an issue instead of addressing how those same characteristics are present in everyone.

Being one of those women and knowing those women who are out there at the table, I can assure you it is not an easy thing to do. We make ourselves look bad by standing clustered together in the middle of Seventh Street talking and fanning ourselves. I can personally attest to the fact that no matter what it may look like we are not talking bad about you. We do say “oh, let’s go talk to her” and then we see you pull out the cell phone and speed up, so we stop walking. Or we’ll see another girl who is with her boyfriend or just some guy, but as we approach she’ll move closer to him or grab his arm at which point we turn around and look for someone else who we feel won’t shut us down if we say hi to them and extend our hand.

You do not want us to talk to you because of our stereotypes, but we cement some of our stereotypes when we fail to connect with you.