Running head: ON WEDNESDAYS, WE WEAR PINK

Alyssa Mazey
On Wednesdays, We Wear Pink
November 21, 2013

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Introduction
When most people hear the word sorority they often cringe and
think of drinking, stuck up girls and paying for your friends. The issues
that sorority women encounter are more than the stereotypes show.
Body image issues and womens leadership positions are just two of
the real issues that are faced everyday. The underlying root to most of
these problems is the physical appearance of a Sorority Woman. At fist,
thinking about this topic made me extremely uncomfortable. People do
not want to believe that an organization that means so much to them
is the one that cares the most about the outward physical appearance
of its members. The uncomfortable thinking that was instilled within
me is when I realized what my gender issue was: the need to be
physically attractive in order to feel like you fit into Greek life. This is
an issue that I had always thought about but never had the audacity to
discuss because it makes others feel uncomfortable as well.
According to Wood (2013), Women typically build connections
in conversations. They were socialized into feminine styles of
expressing themselves (p. 214). This explains why the Formal
Recruitment process is designed and organized the way that it is. The
Formal Recruitment Process allows women to spend 3-4 days in 20-30
minute conversations as a means to build a bond and form a
connection with one another, but what is actually happening is that
some of these bonds are based on the looks of the women involved in

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the conversations. Active members want the Potential New Member

because she is cute or pretty and the Potential New Member wants
a bid to a certain sorority because the Active Sister she spoke with was
pretty and nice. The idea of speaking these words out loud is
incredibly taboo among the Panhellenic Community, a side of Greek life
that includes only sororities, but I believe that this is an issue that
needs to be examined.
Status Quo
The Panhellenic Community participates in the Formal
Recruitment Process. This process is a four-day long event with various
rounds. With the advancement of each round, the Potential New
Member is closer to receiving a Bid, which is a formal invitation into
beginning the journey to join our sisterhood. The problem with our
community starts with this Formal Recruitment Process. Most sorority
women will say that looks do not matter, but when having
conversations with close groups of friends they will say otherwise.
During the Recruitment weekend, active members are instructed to not
talk about the Potential New Members. This is due to groupthink.
Groupthink happens when a group cherishes unity and synchronization
within its members (Psychology Today, 2013). This allows the group to
look cohesive and selective organizations care about looking cohesive.
This shows unity among the organization. Sororities believe being
unified is one of the benefits of being apart of Greek organizations.

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Women who are interested in joining Greek life are often
physically attractive and care about their outward appearance.
Sororities as a whole often preach that they accept everyone when in
reality, selective organizations are just thatselective. Our rituals are
supposed to be the values that we live by. If we practice what we
preach, there would not be body issues and the constant desire to be
outwardly attractive to feel you are accepted into a world that
preaches they will accept you no matter what. Sorority women often
try to live up to this imaginary standard that we say does not exist.
When there is a truth present, but is ignored it makes it difficult to
accommodate that standard of living. This standard is one of the
causes of high-risk behaviors amount the sorority community
(Kovolyan, 2013). Jordyn Kovolyan was the 2013 Vice President of
Judicial Affairs for the Panhellenic Council. She has organized a
leadership workshop called Something of Value, which discussed highrisk behaviors within the Panhellenic Community. One issue that was
frequent in discussion was body image issues. Members of the
community decided that we put pressures on our selves to be thin,
rather than fit.
The media constantly shows us that being thin is one of the
things that make you outwardly attractive. As a New Member before
you are initiated into the sorority, you spend 6-8 weeks learning about
Greek life and your chapter. You get to experience social events with

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other sorority women and fraternity men. The pressure to be outwardly

attractive can come from these groups. Sorority women feel the
pressures to be physically attractive so fraternity men feel excited
when a social event is planned with their chapter.
Sorority women set guidelines for themselves based on the
media and the community they are exposed too. It is very difficult to
strive for a standard of outward beauty that active members of the
Panhellenic Community verbally say does not exist, but internally know
it does.
Energize Others
Members of the Greek community care about this issue because
it affects not only the sorority women, but the fraternity men as well.
According to the President of the Interfraternal Council, there is a
connotation that being Greek means being pretty, but even non
Greeks like pretty girls too. I do not think you have to be attractive to
make a difference, but it helps. Robbie Lierenz works with every
fraternity on Kent State Universitys campus. Fraternity men tend to
use meeting attractive sorority women as a slogan to encourage men
to join their organization. This puts a pressure on sorority women to
constantly work on their outward appearance.
Cultural Practices that are Obstacles to Change
According to Zencollege Life Blog, a popular blogging site for
sorority women, the biggest disadvantage to being apart of a sorority

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is sorority women are more likely to have body image issues and
dysfunctional eating behaviors than their peers (2013). High-risk
behaviors such as eating disorders are becoming more prevalent on
our campus, and will continue to increase if this obstacle is not
addressed. The Greek community does not realize what it is
subconsciously doing its members by the invisible-seen-but-not-heard
standard of having an attractive outward appearance.
Cultural Practices that Facilitate Change
The University of Missouri-Kansas City believes very highly in
Greek life. On their student involvement page, they have over 20
national statistics about the benefits of Greek life. The most beneficial
statistic to know is that 43 out of 50 of the nations largest corporations
are headed by sorority women or fraternity men (UMKC, n.d). Being
Greek encourages members to do great things. CEOs of large
corporations are not always the most physically attractive but they do
the jobs they are given and they do them well. Many women have hit
the glass ceiling, an invisible obstacle making it difficult to progress
their career, but they have overcome those obstacles (Wood, 2013, p.
249). Seeing women in positions of power should help empower
members the Greek community. These women should allow members
to see that being physically attractive will only get you so far in life and
hard work can take you to places and earn you titles that you never
thought possible.

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Analyze Stakeholders
There are two groups of stakeholders that I have focused on.
These groups include members of the Greek community, and nonGreek affiliated students. The women of the Panhellenic Community
are why my issue is so important. Women of the Panhellenic
Community typically recruit new members that resemble themselves
and their groups already established image. In the workplace, women
are often stereotyped as sex objects (Wood, 2013, p.234). Although
Greek life is not a workplace, it can be compared to one with the
amount of work that goes into keeping these organizations in
operation. Other members of the community often note the women
who operate these organizations by their looks. Selective organization
groups want the best image possible. Members of the operating boards
of ever chapter can help facilitate change if they verbally address this
adaptive challenge.
Stereotypical Sorority Girl
The outward appearance of members of groups such as sororities
is typically very similar. Delta Gamma at Florida State University made
a Bid Day 2013 video and posted it on YouTube. In this video, these
women are all tan, long hair, and physically fit (Catalyst Media, 2013).
When videos such as this are circulated through the Greek world, it
shows an unattainable image and makes sorority women believe that

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this is what you must strive to look like (Wood, 2013 p. 269). When
these videos are circulated, it becomes an obstacle to overcome.
Non-Greek Affiliated Students
Videos like the one described above affect non-Greek affiliated
students as well. It shows them that all sorority women look the same
when in reality most sororities do not look like that. It just proves the
stereotypes that Panhellenic women work everyday to battle. Women,
no matter if they are a member of a sorority or non-Greek affiliated,
are allowed to want to look nice and take care of themselves, but
videos such as the Delta Gamma Bid Day 2013 video makes people
believe that sorority women do it in an unsafe way which explains why
articles stating sorority women are subjected to eating disorders are
published.
Smart Experiments
The experiments I would like to conduct are all small experiments that
will combine to a larger final product.
Smart Experiment Number 1: Panhellenic President
The first experiment I would like to conduct is a survey. I would
ask the Panhellenic President to take a survey and answer a dew
questions. The survey would not be anonymous but it would not be
seen by anyone else. The questions on the survey would be open
ended questions requiring an extended response. They questions
would be as follows:

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1. How do you feel about the physical appearance of our

community?
2. Why do you think chapters in the Panhellenic Community are
stereotyped?
3. If we change the appearance of our community, do you
believe our current thrive and demand from Greek life will
suffer?
I would send her this survey during the first week of December. The
recently elected President is inducted in January. The survey would the
be asked to be completed by February 2014.
Smart Experiment Number 2: Non-Greek Affiliated Presidents
The next experiment will also be a survey. I will survey non-Greek
affiliated students at Kent State University that are still active on
campus. I will select three students that are Presidents of
organizations. Their surveys will not be anonymous either, but they will
remain confidential. They will have three open ended questions that
require an extended response as well. Their questions will be as
follows:
1. What do you think of when you hear the words sorority or
Greek?
2. Why do you believe that this is where your mind goes?
3. What would influence a new thought when hearing those
words?
This survey would be presented to them in December of 2013 and
again in February of 2014 after officer transitions are finished.

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Smart Experiment Number Three: Panel

The third experiment would be asked those interviewed to sit on
a panel and discuss these issues. I would like to have members of the
Body Acceptance Movement present in the audience as well as
members of the Panhellenic community, and non-Greek affiliated
students.
Conclusions
After researching the problem of the need to be physically
attractive in order to feel like you fit into Greek life, I have found that
this problem is deeper and is present all year long, not just during the
4-day long Formal Recruitment Process. The strive to be physically
attractive as an organization stems from the pressures that media, as
well as the pressures the Greek community put on each other. These
unwritten rules of attractiveness put a strain on the potential to go
above and beyond to recruit the best Potential New Members possible.
Each sorority has the opportunity to change status quo, but the lack of
discussion about this issue hinders the ability to change it. The
President of the Body Acceptance Movement is a member of Greek life.
After having a brief conversation with her, she and I believe that it is
crucial to start spreading awareness of the body image and outward
appearance issues. Women in our community should not feel that they
have look a certain way to fit in and be successful in the Panhellenic
Community, and members of the Panhellenic Community should not

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feel the unspoken need to be recruiting physically attractive women. I

will use what I have learned from this project to spread awareness of
these issues and encourage everyone to attend the Body Acceptance
Movement meetings. High-risk issues such as outward appearance and
body issues engulf our community. There are enough negative things
going on in the world that wanting to feel accepted based on
appearance should not be one of them.

References
Catalyst Media. (2013, August 31). Delta Gamma Bid Day at FSU 2013
[Video File]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=C8v0YXIRnbU
Kovolyan, J. (November 18 2013). Personal communication.
Lierenz, R. (November 12 2013). Personal communication.
Student Involvement. (2013). National Statistics. Retrieved November
20, 2013 from http://www.umkc.edu/getinvolved/fsa-nationalstatistics.asp
What is Groupthink (2013). Psychology Today. Retrieved November
19, 2013 from
http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/groupthink

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Wood, J.T. (2013). Gendered Lives. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Centage

Learning
Zencollegelife.com. (2013). 15 Frightening Facts about Sororities and
Fraternities [web log comment]. Retrieved from
http://www.zencollegelife.com/15-frightening-facts-aboutsororities-and-fraternities/