Status
Available
Publication
Hachette Books (2005), Edition: Reprint, 408 pages
Description
An provocative look inside the world of sorority life offers an eye-opening view of the drugs, psychological abuse, promiscuity, racism, violence, and other problems that are rampant among young women in a typical sorority and analyzes why intelligent young women put up with these abuses in order to become part of a sorority sisterhood.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member tls7169
After reading the few reviews of this book I feel compelled to write one of my own. I will start by saying that I was/am in a sorority. Was because I pledged in 1990 and am because it is for life.
I was absolutely apalled when I read this book. Perhaps the author's experience is accurately
Are there girls on college campuses with eating disorders? Absolutely. Are they only in sororities? No. Are there girls that use drugs? That are promiscuous? Sure. Are they only in sororities? I hardly think so.
The amount of anything I was "made" to do that is in fact considered hazing, was all harmless. And there were in fact times I refused and got nothing more than an eye roll. No one verbally abused me personally. No one forced me to drink or ever tried to get me to use drugs. I never heard anyone called fat;let alone were we ever lined up to have our fat circled with markers.
I was a commuter and I joined the sorority to meet people and make friends. That is exactly what I got out of it.
I graduated in 1992 and still am in touch with many of my "sisters". Two of them are godparents to my children. One of them, along with her husband, will be guardians of my children if something should happen to me. A group of the girls I pledged with along with our big or little sisters and their pledge sisters get together a few times a year for dinner. We send each other Christmas cards. I joined a sorority to make friends, and I made friends.
And for the record, when girls couldn't pay their dues, we helped them out. As far as the National was concerned, they were not in good standing. But as far as the local chapter was concerned, they were still our friends and we treated them no differently.
I feel sorry for the girls in the book, but I don't know that joining a sorority caused all their problems. I think they may have had underlying issues to being with.
I was absolutely apalled when I read this book. Perhaps the author's experience is accurately
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portrayed in this book; but is certainly does not reflect an accurate picture of Greek life in all sororities on all college campuses. Yes, my sorority (Delta Zeta) does get some mentions in this book. Are there girls on college campuses with eating disorders? Absolutely. Are they only in sororities? No. Are there girls that use drugs? That are promiscuous? Sure. Are they only in sororities? I hardly think so.
The amount of anything I was "made" to do that is in fact considered hazing, was all harmless. And there were in fact times I refused and got nothing more than an eye roll. No one verbally abused me personally. No one forced me to drink or ever tried to get me to use drugs. I never heard anyone called fat;let alone were we ever lined up to have our fat circled with markers.
I was a commuter and I joined the sorority to meet people and make friends. That is exactly what I got out of it.
I graduated in 1992 and still am in touch with many of my "sisters". Two of them are godparents to my children. One of them, along with her husband, will be guardians of my children if something should happen to me. A group of the girls I pledged with along with our big or little sisters and their pledge sisters get together a few times a year for dinner. We send each other Christmas cards. I joined a sorority to make friends, and I made friends.
And for the record, when girls couldn't pay their dues, we helped them out. As far as the National was concerned, they were not in good standing. But as far as the local chapter was concerned, they were still our friends and we treated them no differently.
I feel sorry for the girls in the book, but I don't know that joining a sorority caused all their problems. I think they may have had underlying issues to being with.
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LibraryThing member riofriotex
A nonfiction expose of sorority life at an unnamed college, primarily through the experiences of four girls over one school year (first edition published in 2005). The author also conducted supplementary research (26 pages of endnotes!), attended sorority-related meetings, and interviewed past and
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present sorority members. All I can say after reading this book is that I am *so* glad that the large university in Texas that I attended did not have sororities and fraternities while I was there. Show Less
LibraryThing member billmcn
Nowhere near as salacious as one might hope, Pledged doesn't tell you anything about the sorority system that you couldn't have picked up second-hand from attending an American university. Sororities are in fact fertile grounds for binge drinking, byzantine cliques, and general bitchiness. The gap
The most interesting parts of the story only arrive second-hand as anecdotes about an older generation of women who remained cliquish about their house affiliation well into adulthood, or believed getting the right bid was a prerequisite for making the right marriage. With her focus on the present, Robbins doesn't have much opportunity to explore how archaic sorority rituals might have reinforced archaic gender roles. To some extent that's still present for the generation of women Robbins writes about (much of the social life depicted is centered around retaining the attention of fraternity brothers). However, these girls don't go to college in order to meet a husband, and since they have more options, the whole sorority business seems to be played for lower stakes. At the end of the book, you're left wondering what sororities are for these days, since friends, alcohol, dates, and roommate drama are all available to college women without the extra organizational overhead.
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between the archaically prim rules of deportment upheld by national Greek organizations and the drunken romps with frat boys indulged by active sisters is laughably vast. In perhaps her greatest reportorial coup, Robbins gets various girls to divulge their houses' secret passwords and mottoes, and these are about as inane as you'd expect them to be. The young women portrayed here often come off as likable but immature, which is completely consistent with their being nineteen or so years old. To their credit and the book's detriment, the four sorority sisters Robbins follows through their time at an unnamed state university somewhere in the south don't do anything particularly interesting. There are friendships and snubs, boyfriends and hook ups, alliances and squabbles, but most of it (with the exception of one sexual assault, whose consequences seem shockingly muted for everyone involved) is just standard late-adolescent drama. I'm sure it was a big deal to the women it happened to at the time, but it's all the usual college stuff that happens regardless of whether you sew a nonsensical string of Greek letters onto your hoodie.The most interesting parts of the story only arrive second-hand as anecdotes about an older generation of women who remained cliquish about their house affiliation well into adulthood, or believed getting the right bid was a prerequisite for making the right marriage. With her focus on the present, Robbins doesn't have much opportunity to explore how archaic sorority rituals might have reinforced archaic gender roles. To some extent that's still present for the generation of women Robbins writes about (much of the social life depicted is centered around retaining the attention of fraternity brothers). However, these girls don't go to college in order to meet a husband, and since they have more options, the whole sorority business seems to be played for lower stakes. At the end of the book, you're left wondering what sororities are for these days, since friends, alcohol, dates, and roommate drama are all available to college women without the extra organizational overhead.
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LibraryThing member csweder
Since Robbins attempts to portray her novel about sorority life as research, I will treat it as such. This review is how I would critique any written piece claiming to be research. Lucky for me I’m taking two classes this semester dealing specifically with proper research procedures.
1. Lack of
2. Data acquisition. I have issues with her methods. I don’t really mind that she went undercover, I think interesting things can come from it. But at what intervals did she interview her subjects? Were they equal intervals? How many times did she contact them? I don’t know, because she doesn’t tell us. (BIG no-no in research studies.) She does tell us that the girls would contact her when they were upset. It is any wonder, then, that the information she got from them was damaging to the sorority? When I’m upset about something, I turn to who I think I will get the most sympathy from…if these girls were upset about something in their sorority, and they happen to be part of a ‘research’ project about sororities, it makes sense that is when they would talk to Robbins. But when something was going great, perhaps they chose to celebrate with their sisters, or simply didn’t think to tell Robbins. We don’t know, because Robbins doesn’t tell us. Once again sacrificing legitimate research techniques to create a sensational best-seller.
3. Experimenter/Researcher Bias. Although Robbins claims she set out to write a ‘truthful’ book about sorority life, I have to challenge that a bit. She seems to be out to show what she deems historically white Greek organizations as the worst thing a girl could be a part of. She glosses over the positives that Greek life might bring (like service and philanthropy) to dictate that every sorority girl drinks, is loose, and likely doing drugs. To not be accused of my own bias, these are her words, “The blondes, the super-thin, the rich, the promiscuous, and the girls who smoke marijuana are separated and recognized as being distinctive, nonoverlapping groups.” (116) Basically, you can find whatever you want. If you want to see thin, party girls in a sorority, they are there. If you want to see the student body president or girl who’s working to pay her way through college, you can find that as well.
Going back to issue number one—inability to be generalized—I didn’t find that I could relate to many of the situations these girls found themselves in. Several chapters were dedicated to hazing (and implying that every organization hazes), but I was not hazed. Does that mean it doesn’t happen? No, because I, unlike Robbins, cannot speak for every person in Greek life. I also was not lied to during the pledge process, nor do I feel I was judged based on my wallet or really my looks (anyone who knows me knows I lack all form of style—this was deep into my toe sock phase). I was never pressured not to study in order to party, and remember the house having several study nights. But that’s just me.
I knew that I could not have an opinion on this book without reading it, and I encourage you to do the same. Don’t take my word for it, whether you are pro or anti Greek. But you should take into consideration what I feel to be fallacies in her logic.
1. Lack of
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Randomization. Robbins follows around four sorority girls. Four, out of thousands in the country. Although Robbins has reasons that she cannot follow more girls (prohibited by most national sororities and kicked off of a few campuses), this does not mean that her sample of 4 girls (all at one university, three in the same sorority) can be generalized to sorority life across the country. It cannot even be generalized to their university, let alone their sorority specifically. Right here, this point, delegitimizes her entire book as a valid research. But of course, that is not what Robbins is after, she is a journalist, a writer. Her goal is to sell books. If she wanted to do research, she would likely work in the background at a university, not parading around as a nineteen year old (something she proudly admits in the introduction as something not all people in their late twenties can do). Furthermore, perhaps four girls who allow themselves to be selected for such a project agree to participate because there is something they don’t like about the sorority. Unknown. 2. Data acquisition. I have issues with her methods. I don’t really mind that she went undercover, I think interesting things can come from it. But at what intervals did she interview her subjects? Were they equal intervals? How many times did she contact them? I don’t know, because she doesn’t tell us. (BIG no-no in research studies.) She does tell us that the girls would contact her when they were upset. It is any wonder, then, that the information she got from them was damaging to the sorority? When I’m upset about something, I turn to who I think I will get the most sympathy from…if these girls were upset about something in their sorority, and they happen to be part of a ‘research’ project about sororities, it makes sense that is when they would talk to Robbins. But when something was going great, perhaps they chose to celebrate with their sisters, or simply didn’t think to tell Robbins. We don’t know, because Robbins doesn’t tell us. Once again sacrificing legitimate research techniques to create a sensational best-seller.
3. Experimenter/Researcher Bias. Although Robbins claims she set out to write a ‘truthful’ book about sorority life, I have to challenge that a bit. She seems to be out to show what she deems historically white Greek organizations as the worst thing a girl could be a part of. She glosses over the positives that Greek life might bring (like service and philanthropy) to dictate that every sorority girl drinks, is loose, and likely doing drugs. To not be accused of my own bias, these are her words, “The blondes, the super-thin, the rich, the promiscuous, and the girls who smoke marijuana are separated and recognized as being distinctive, nonoverlapping groups.” (116) Basically, you can find whatever you want. If you want to see thin, party girls in a sorority, they are there. If you want to see the student body president or girl who’s working to pay her way through college, you can find that as well.
Going back to issue number one—inability to be generalized—I didn’t find that I could relate to many of the situations these girls found themselves in. Several chapters were dedicated to hazing (and implying that every organization hazes), but I was not hazed. Does that mean it doesn’t happen? No, because I, unlike Robbins, cannot speak for every person in Greek life. I also was not lied to during the pledge process, nor do I feel I was judged based on my wallet or really my looks (anyone who knows me knows I lack all form of style—this was deep into my toe sock phase). I was never pressured not to study in order to party, and remember the house having several study nights. But that’s just me.
I knew that I could not have an opinion on this book without reading it, and I encourage you to do the same. Don’t take my word for it, whether you are pro or anti Greek. But you should take into consideration what I feel to be fallacies in her logic.
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LibraryThing member Airin61
Great for those who think sorority life is the same as seen on MTV. I was a little bored in parts, possibly because I lived through it. Overall an honest portrayel.
LibraryThing member arelenriel
This book I feel depicts a fairly accurate picture of Greek Societies in general. Many people will object to this statement but at least at the college I attended many of the things happening to the sorority girls in the books happended to sorority girls in my school. I think that some of it is
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hype and are things that are occurring in the female college population as a whole. Not just sorority girls or female athletes. College is a stressful time especially for teenagers who have only been away from home long enough to attend summer camp in many cases. Good book Show Less
LibraryThing member SandSing7
Newflash: Sorority women are no different than your average college student. All the issues that these young women deal with are issues that college women in general deal with - peer pressure, drinking, relationships. To make these issues seem exclusive to Greek life is misleading. For every one
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story of a Greek experience gone wrong, you will find a thousand women who cherish their collegiate experience and are still active in their organizations to this day either on the international/national level or as collegiate advisors. Why doesn't someone write something about them? Show Less
LibraryThing member bibliophile26
An in-depth exploration into the life of three sorority girls. Confirmed by belief that sororities are filled with shallow, air-headed twits. Good to know I didn’t miss much by not joining one.
LibraryThing member Canucklibrarian
Despite Robbins' claims that she has no interest in making generalizations, that is in fact what she does. She takes the experiences of four women on one campus and from there extrapolates what she believes are common threads in all of Greek Life. Throughout the book we follow Robbins as she
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narrates the lives of the four young sorority women. This narration makes it feel that you are reading a novel, which on one hand is nice, but on the other is odd in a work of non-fiction. Between stories of the ladies, she inserts random facts about Greek Life, some true, some not. Robbins said that she wants to make the Greek system better, but I'm not convinced that this work actually makes any steps at all in that effort. Show Less
LibraryThing member selfcallednowhere
I'm seeing a lot of bad reviews of this book here, but I thought it was pretty interesting. Sororities are so far removed from my college experience that I was curious about the inner workings of them and this book provided that, and managed to put a human and reasonably likable face on girls I
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would never have expected to not hate, frankly. I'm sure it doesn't mirror everyone's sorority experience; I don't think it attempts to. I think it did a decent job of describing particular girls' particular sorority experiences, good and bad. Show Less
LibraryThing member lahochstetler
In this expose into sorority life, Robbins went undercover as an undergraduate to rush, and ultimately join, a sorority. What she found was disturbing, to say the least. She experienced an alcohol soaked, catfight-intensive life, in which young women constantly competed with one another for male
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attention. What is more surprising, though, is that so many of the young women in sororities seemed to be miserable. Clearly, Robbins is very, very critical of the sororities she followed in this book. That said, she's much less critical of the individual sisters. Indeed, she stresses the promising future and intelligence these women have apart from their sororities. In completing her study, Robbins surveyed both traditionally white and traditionally African-American sororities. She concludes that historically black sororities have stayed far closer to the sororities' purported missions of sisterhood, philanthropy, and scholarship than have majority-white sororities. Still, she finds problems and racism in both Overall, Pledged was a fascinating read that seemed to accomplish its goal of sympathizing with sorority sisters, while excoriating the larger organizations. Robbins ends her work with some suggestions for improving sorority life, such as delaying rush until after the freshman year so that students can experience more of college life before they decide if they want to join the Greek system. Whether these would change much, I'm not so sure, but I found this book interesting, and was especially taken with the stories of the four young women Robbins followed over the course of a year. Show Less
LibraryThing member sunfi
I tried reading this but I couldn't get into it. The parts about sororities and fraternities in general were interesting along with some of the sociological observations made. However I had a tough time sympathizing with the characters, they just all seemed to be pretty shallow and self-absorbed.
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The book was written pretty well and it was apparent that the author had done her homework. Show Less
LibraryThing member jacketscoversread
My mom, in an attempt to turn me against sororities, picked up Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities at our local public library. At first, I was hesitant about picking up the book because I didn’t like the fact that my mom is trying to make decisions for me. I chalked it up to the fact that she
Robbins introduces us to Vicki, Caitlin, Amy, and Sabrina and immediately I began to identify with a certain trait or aspect of each of these girls. I experienced their highs and lows and I found myself wondering why in the world being in a sorority is such a prestigious thing and why we still allow hazing and Greek life deaths to still occur. I do understand that there are some good things that come from being in a sorority. Many girls found jobs with assistance of their alumni sisters.
This is book is very eye opening and I would recommend it to anyone who is embarking on college shopping. Now I understand why my mom is anti-Greek and why, at every college, she asks about how dominate Greek life is.
I haven’t made up my mind on Greek life yet. But I do plan to look at it on a college by college basis.
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just wants me to be well-informed and picked up the book this morning for after-TAKS reading.Robbins introduces us to Vicki, Caitlin, Amy, and Sabrina and immediately I began to identify with a certain trait or aspect of each of these girls. I experienced their highs and lows and I found myself wondering why in the world being in a sorority is such a prestigious thing and why we still allow hazing and Greek life deaths to still occur. I do understand that there are some good things that come from being in a sorority. Many girls found jobs with assistance of their alumni sisters.
This is book is very eye opening and I would recommend it to anyone who is embarking on college shopping. Now I understand why my mom is anti-Greek and why, at every college, she asks about how dominate Greek life is.
I haven’t made up my mind on Greek life yet. But I do plan to look at it on a college by college basis.
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LibraryThing member wdlaurie
I'm afraid this book confirmed all my worst fears about sororities: cloistered, closeted, fearful, cult like and suffocating. I feel lucky that this was never an option for me at colleges I attended. This book revealed nothing about sororities that I missed (misogyny, racism, classicism, constant
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judgment, no time for study or scholarship or individual achievement...) Show Less
LibraryThing member aliay
I couldn't keep the characters of "Amy," "Caitlin," "Sabrina," and "Vicki" apart. This is not necessarily because all sorority sisters are the same, but because Robbins failed to capture who the girls really are. She was able to capture the girls' agendas, but not their inner selves. As such, their
That said, I found this book fun to read the way I find Gossip Girl fun to watch. Does it say anything new? Not really, unless you didn't know that sometimes people can be mean and exclusive. Did Robbins sensationalize her findings or narrow her scope in a way that her results were bound to be amusing? Perhaps. Does it make for a good rainy day read? Absolutely.
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girls' thoughts, actions, and dialogue all seemed relatively similar, which is to say that the trotted around from event to event and from boy to boy.That said, I found this book fun to read the way I find Gossip Girl fun to watch. Does it say anything new? Not really, unless you didn't know that sometimes people can be mean and exclusive. Did Robbins sensationalize her findings or narrow her scope in a way that her results were bound to be amusing? Perhaps. Does it make for a good rainy day read? Absolutely.
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LibraryThing member Sukisue7
This was a little hit and miss for me. It was a well written book, and very informative, but not as scandal packed as I expected it to be. I admit to glossing over certain parts of the more boring aspects of the book - and there were quite a few of them. I enjoyed reading about the lives of the
This was an interesting insight into the life of Sororities. Sometimes I was amazed at how shallow the girls were - and if you knew me, you would find that statement very funny indeed! Overall, I rate this an average read.
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four girls in the book, and I definitely wanted to know more about each of them, but I guess the undercover nature of the book meant that Robbins could only write so much about them. All in all I actually think this book would have worked better as a novel! The endless writing about the history of sororities and all the meetings she attended just left me feeling a bit bored.This was an interesting insight into the life of Sororities. Sometimes I was amazed at how shallow the girls were - and if you knew me, you would find that statement very funny indeed! Overall, I rate this an average read.
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LibraryThing member Voracious_Reader
My college was without fraternities and sororities so everything I know of them comes from anecdotes related to me by friends, tv shows and movies. Robbins goes undercover and follows four women through rush and their first year of being members of a sorority and Pledged relates the changes good
On the other hand, I am not entirely sure that the experiences described by Robbins are entirely confined to “Greek Life.” Perhaps the degree to which these young women were affected by eating disorders, experimenting with drugs and hypersexual activity might be unusual, but this sort of thing is rampant among college-aged students even without the pretence of these problems being confined to fraternities and sororities. Young people want to fit in and therefore they are terribly exposed to making poor decisions. When fitting in is the single most important thing in their lives, unless the majority or close to the majority of students in college are more concerned with academics than socializing, changing sororities and fraternities will be without much effect. A more interesting book to me would be one concerning why these young women and men feel compelled to injure themselves and what parents can do before they go to college to give them better skills to deal with being away from home for the first time.
Pledgedcontained few surprises. I appreciated some of the recommendations Robbins makes for cleaning house toward its end, but disagreed with some of the recommendations as well. I don't intend to go into what those were because I don't want to spoil the book.
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and bad that occur for them as a result of their participation in “Greek Life.” What she relates is behavior appropriate to the Jerry Springer show, but fueled by even more drugs and alcohol and cast with pretty people. It was sort of entertaining, but I am not sure that I got that much out of it. On the other hand, I am not entirely sure that the experiences described by Robbins are entirely confined to “Greek Life.” Perhaps the degree to which these young women were affected by eating disorders, experimenting with drugs and hypersexual activity might be unusual, but this sort of thing is rampant among college-aged students even without the pretence of these problems being confined to fraternities and sororities. Young people want to fit in and therefore they are terribly exposed to making poor decisions. When fitting in is the single most important thing in their lives, unless the majority or close to the majority of students in college are more concerned with academics than socializing, changing sororities and fraternities will be without much effect. A more interesting book to me would be one concerning why these young women and men feel compelled to injure themselves and what parents can do before they go to college to give them better skills to deal with being away from home for the first time.
Pledgedcontained few surprises. I appreciated some of the recommendations Robbins makes for cleaning house toward its end, but disagreed with some of the recommendations as well. I don't intend to go into what those were because I don't want to spoil the book.
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LibraryThing member agnesmack
Pledged is yet another book I found sitting on top of my dumpster. Unlike the others I’ve found, this one actually belonged there.
Alexandra Robbins wanted to write a book about sororities, but was unable to get any access to interview and study them. She was ‘left with no choice’ and, despite
I had so many problems with this book . . . first of all, she did a terrible job giving examples, basically every time she gave examples. In one portion of the book, she was attempting to show that there was a real lack of privacy in sororities. The example she used was that of a girl walking out of a room, hitting her elbow on the door, saying, “Ouch!” and then another sister saying, “Honey, are you OK?” That was her big example of how no one could do anything without everyone knowing about it.
I’m not fan of the Greek system, but I found some of her conclusions pretty dramatic. She went on and on about all the drinking that goes on in sororities — but we’re talking about college! That shit goes on regardless of whether you’re affiliated with a Greek organization or not.
Most of the book was incredibly redundant. The 384 pages could easily have been whittled down to 200, or even 150, and still had the same impact.
The only interesting part of the book was when she went into the segregation of the Greek system and talked about the self-identified “historically white” sororities. I had to ignore her writing though and just focus on the facts, because she was basically tripping over herself to show how very, very liberal and post-racial she was. For example, she attended a ‘stepping’ performance and went on and on about how she was the only white person in a crowd of 10,000 and how stepping was like ‘the black version of Stomp’. She also described in the people in the crowd as ‘bopping their heads and swaying to the music.’ Bopping, eh?
Overall, I did not like this book and would un-read it, if that were possible.
Alexandra Robbins wanted to write a book about sororities, but was unable to get any access to interview and study them. She was ‘left with no choice’ and, despite
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the fact that it conflicted with her journalist ethics, she went undercover at an undisclosed school to find out what sororities were really about.I had so many problems with this book . . . first of all, she did a terrible job giving examples, basically every time she gave examples. In one portion of the book, she was attempting to show that there was a real lack of privacy in sororities. The example she used was that of a girl walking out of a room, hitting her elbow on the door, saying, “Ouch!” and then another sister saying, “Honey, are you OK?” That was her big example of how no one could do anything without everyone knowing about it.
I’m not fan of the Greek system, but I found some of her conclusions pretty dramatic. She went on and on about all the drinking that goes on in sororities — but we’re talking about college! That shit goes on regardless of whether you’re affiliated with a Greek organization or not.
Most of the book was incredibly redundant. The 384 pages could easily have been whittled down to 200, or even 150, and still had the same impact.
The only interesting part of the book was when she went into the segregation of the Greek system and talked about the self-identified “historically white” sororities. I had to ignore her writing though and just focus on the facts, because she was basically tripping over herself to show how very, very liberal and post-racial she was. For example, she attended a ‘stepping’ performance and went on and on about how she was the only white person in a crowd of 10,000 and how stepping was like ‘the black version of Stomp’. She also described in the people in the crowd as ‘bopping their heads and swaying to the music.’ Bopping, eh?
Overall, I did not like this book and would un-read it, if that were possible.
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LibraryThing member tealightful
I have mixed feelings about this book. I'm a sucker for an exposé, even if it is sensationalized a little bit. That being said, I just don't know how much of this was true, to any degree.
As I was reading, I got the distinct feeling that she just wove together entirely fictional stories based on
She did seem very slighted in her view of white v. non-white sororities. She played up everything catty, nasty, illegal and vicious that the 'traditional' Greek houses (white) did but downplayed them enormously when it came to all the multicultural houses. (The paper bag test, excuuuuse me?!) I think all the sororities have their pros/cons and am not really a fan of them myself.
Quite a few reviewers on here have been slamming the author pretty intensely (how funny that they usually say they were sorority members themselves), saying that it isn't just those on Greek Row who participate in shenanigans. Robbins reiterates that exhaustively throughout the book, so I have a feeling that the negative reviews were largely written by people who didn't actually finish the book.
Overall, the writing was dull and relatively lifeless. The last page of the book says you can go to her website for updates on the 4 girls she "followed". You cannot. Her website functions similarly to a former Geocities debacle and has no updates on anyone/thing.
As I was reading, I got the distinct feeling that she just wove together entirely fictional stories based on
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the hundreds of sorority sisters she interviewed. (Which, I'm curious how she swindled so many of them to agree to interviews when there is an entire chapter in the book about the Nationals war on media and how they're forbidden to speak to journalists..)She did seem very slighted in her view of white v. non-white sororities. She played up everything catty, nasty, illegal and vicious that the 'traditional' Greek houses (white) did but downplayed them enormously when it came to all the multicultural houses. (The paper bag test, excuuuuse me?!) I think all the sororities have their pros/cons and am not really a fan of them myself.
Quite a few reviewers on here have been slamming the author pretty intensely (how funny that they usually say they were sorority members themselves), saying that it isn't just those on Greek Row who participate in shenanigans. Robbins reiterates that exhaustively throughout the book, so I have a feeling that the negative reviews were largely written by people who didn't actually finish the book.
Overall, the writing was dull and relatively lifeless. The last page of the book says you can go to her website for updates on the 4 girls she "followed". You cannot. Her website functions similarly to a former Geocities debacle and has no updates on anyone/thing.
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LibraryThing member csweder
Since Robbins attempts to portray her novel about sorority life as research, I will treat it as such. This review is how I would critique any written piece claiming to be research. Lucky for me I’m taking two classes this semester dealing specifically with proper research procedures.
1. Lack of
2. Data acquisition. I have issues with her methods. I don’t really mind that she went undercover, I think interesting things can come from it. But at what intervals did she interview her subjects? Were they equal intervals? How many times did she contact them? I don’t know, because she doesn’t tell us. (BIG no-no in research studies.) She does tell us that the girls would contact her when they were upset. It is any wonder, then, that the information she got from them was damaging to the sorority? When I’m upset about something, I turn to who I think I will get the most sympathy from…if these girls were upset about something in their sorority, and they happen to be part of a ‘research’ project about sororities, it makes sense that is when they would talk to Robbins. But when something was going great, perhaps they chose to celebrate with their sisters, or simply didn’t think to tell Robbins. We don’t know, because Robbins doesn’t tell us. Once again sacrificing legitimate research techniques to create a sensational best-seller.
3. Experimenter/Researcher Bias. Although Robbins claims she set out to write a ‘truthful’ book about sorority life, I have to challenge that a bit. She seems to be out to show what she deems historically white Greek organizations as the worst thing a girl could be a part of. She glosses over the positives that Greek life might bring (like service and philanthropy) to dictate that every sorority girl drinks, is loose, and likely doing drugs. To not be accused of my own bias, these are her words, “The blondes, the super-thin, the rich, the promiscuous, and the girls who smoke marijuana are separated and recognized as being distinctive, nonoverlapping groups.” (116) Basically, you can find whatever you want. If you want to see thin, party girls in a sorority, they are there. If you want to see the student body president or girl who’s working to pay her way through college, you can find that as well.
Going back to issue number one—inability to be generalized—I didn’t find that I could relate to many of the situations these girls found themselves in. Several chapters were dedicated to hazing (and implying that every organization hazes), but I was not hazed. Does that mean it doesn’t happen? No, because I, unlike Robbins, cannot speak for every person in Greek life. I also was not lied to during the pledge process, nor do I feel I was judged based on my wallet or really my looks (anyone who knows me knows I lack all form of style—this was deep into my toe sock phase). I was never pressured not to study in order to party, and remember the house having several study nights. But that’s just me.
I knew that I could not have an opinion on this book without reading it, and I encourage you to do the same. Don’t take my word for it, whether you are pro or anti Greek. But you should take into consideration what I feel to be fallacies in her logic.
1. Lack of
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Randomization. Robbins follows around four sorority girls. Four, out of thousands in the country. Although Robbins has reasons that she cannot follow more girls (prohibited by most national sororities and kicked off of a few campuses), this does not mean that her sample of 4 girls (all at one university, three in the same sorority) can be generalized to sorority life across the country. It cannot even be generalized to their university, let alone their sorority specifically. Right here, this point, delegitimizes her entire book as a valid research. But of course, that is not what Robbins is after, she is a journalist, a writer. Her goal is to sell books. If she wanted to do research, she would likely work in the background at a university, not parading around as a nineteen year old (something she proudly admits in the introduction as something not all people in their late twenties can do). Furthermore, perhaps four girls who allow themselves to be selected for such a project agree to participate because there is something they don’t like about the sorority. Unknown. 2. Data acquisition. I have issues with her methods. I don’t really mind that she went undercover, I think interesting things can come from it. But at what intervals did she interview her subjects? Were they equal intervals? How many times did she contact them? I don’t know, because she doesn’t tell us. (BIG no-no in research studies.) She does tell us that the girls would contact her when they were upset. It is any wonder, then, that the information she got from them was damaging to the sorority? When I’m upset about something, I turn to who I think I will get the most sympathy from…if these girls were upset about something in their sorority, and they happen to be part of a ‘research’ project about sororities, it makes sense that is when they would talk to Robbins. But when something was going great, perhaps they chose to celebrate with their sisters, or simply didn’t think to tell Robbins. We don’t know, because Robbins doesn’t tell us. Once again sacrificing legitimate research techniques to create a sensational best-seller.
3. Experimenter/Researcher Bias. Although Robbins claims she set out to write a ‘truthful’ book about sorority life, I have to challenge that a bit. She seems to be out to show what she deems historically white Greek organizations as the worst thing a girl could be a part of. She glosses over the positives that Greek life might bring (like service and philanthropy) to dictate that every sorority girl drinks, is loose, and likely doing drugs. To not be accused of my own bias, these are her words, “The blondes, the super-thin, the rich, the promiscuous, and the girls who smoke marijuana are separated and recognized as being distinctive, nonoverlapping groups.” (116) Basically, you can find whatever you want. If you want to see thin, party girls in a sorority, they are there. If you want to see the student body president or girl who’s working to pay her way through college, you can find that as well.
Going back to issue number one—inability to be generalized—I didn’t find that I could relate to many of the situations these girls found themselves in. Several chapters were dedicated to hazing (and implying that every organization hazes), but I was not hazed. Does that mean it doesn’t happen? No, because I, unlike Robbins, cannot speak for every person in Greek life. I also was not lied to during the pledge process, nor do I feel I was judged based on my wallet or really my looks (anyone who knows me knows I lack all form of style—this was deep into my toe sock phase). I was never pressured not to study in order to party, and remember the house having several study nights. But that’s just me.
I knew that I could not have an opinion on this book without reading it, and I encourage you to do the same. Don’t take my word for it, whether you are pro or anti Greek. But you should take into consideration what I feel to be fallacies in her logic.
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LibraryThing member wealhtheowwylfing
The author can't write very well, and she has nothing insightful to say. Nevertheless, the topic (a slightly sociopolitical look at sororities) is interesting enough to make the book readable.
LibraryThing member mgaulding
I thought this was a very interesting, well researched book about a subject that always was rather curious about.
LibraryThing member rampaginglibrarian
I was never a sorority girl--never wanted to be--but this gives you an idea of what it's like--pretty much what i thought it was.
LibraryThing member ms_rowse
Confession: the only reason I read this book is because I really like Robbins' writing. But finishing this was more of an endurance contest than anything else. That's not Robbins' fault at all--I just have such little tolerance for the shenanigans of the mean girl culture.
SPOILERS: I was actually
But if you were never in a sorority and want to see into their world, this would be a decent place to go...and might even make you grateful you avoided that mess.
SPOILERS: I was actually
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a little disappointed in the lack of development of the girls she followed, as well. I kept hoping one of them would realize that the sororities were completely altering their world views, but that never seemed to happen. But if you were never in a sorority and want to see into their world, this would be a decent place to go...and might even make you grateful you avoided that mess.
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Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2004-04-07
Physical description
408 p.; 5.25 inches
ISBN
1615533850 / 9781615533855