Critical Resource Response #2: Kelsey

Kelsey L.

Word Count: 552

Greek life among college campuses have been making headlines recently, and not in a good way. “Sexualization by fraternities is a major issue”, written by Sam Mason, is an article written about a woman who signed up to go through sorority recruitment at San Diego State, but soon realized that Greek life had an ideology that she could not get behind. Mason details the patriarchy and oversexualization of women she witnessed in her time at San Diego State. In this essay I will argue that from Mason’s experiences, Greek life has a sexist structure that favors conventionally attractive women, oversexualizes women, and perpetuated rape culture.

Sorority life is very centered around physical appearances and reputations. Mason says, “It was hundreds of tall, thin and conventionally attractive girls. I have seen girls get turned away at the door of parties because of their appearance or because they are in a ‘bottom house.’ And rank of each house is fully based on how attractive members are” (Mason). Women who are not conventionally attractive constantly feel inferior to other women because of their looks, which they cannot control. Because of the way sorority life is set up, conventionally attractive women have better chances of getting invitations to parties, meeting more people, and having higher turnout rates to philanthropy events because of those connections made. This automatically gives certain chapters advantages on campus that stems purely from appearance.

Greek life started with male fraternities, so it is not surprising that sorority ranking is centered around how physically attractive the women are. Fraternities are known for only wanting to be associated with the “top ranked” houses in order to try and sleep with the most attractive girls. Mason writes, “A friend of mine recently received a text message from a male friend that read, ‘Can you write ‘Rush {insert fraternity name here}’ on your tits and send it to me?’” (Mason). This fraternity member was using photos of women’s boobs to relay the message to potential new members that if they rush his frat, they’ll have women ready for sex at their disposal. This dehumanizes women down to simply being sexual objects, which is what women have been fighting to change for decades.

The main reason Greek life is so controversial nowadays is because of the way it perpetuates rape culture. Mason says, “The idea is if you are let into the event, given alcohol and the time of day, the least you can do is have sex with whatever frat boy has been assigned to you for the evening” (Mason). Many people, especially men, see alcohol as a currency for sex. A man buys a woman a drink and in return she is to sleep with him. This idea fuels rape culture because the only “currency” for sex is consent, which is a commonly forgotten concept in fraternities.

Greek life was established almost a century ago and society no longer agrees with the sexist and patriarchal infrastructure that it was designed with. Fraternities see the women as sexual beings rather than actual people, women are generalized by their looks, and consent is a blurred line. In order for women to be societally equal to men we need for women to be judged based on their character, values, and abilities rather than their appearance and sexual capabilities.