In her book, Robbins goes undercover at a college she calls “State U.” during the 2002-2003 school year to find out whether the stereotypes–binge drinking, drug use, eating disorders and promiscuity–are true. Because many of the myths turn out to be more than accurate, Robbins refuses to identify the university and the two sororities to protect the identity of the four girls she shadows (who agreed to particpate in the book). She did manage to spill a few beans to NEWSWEEK’s Vanessa Juarez about what she witnessed. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: Why did you go undercover?
Alexandra Robbins: Originally I was openly going to be a reporter in a house on a specific campus. I had been to some meetings, and I had started to bond with these girls. Then one day, the adviser of the sorority sat me down and she said something like “I can’t let you be here unless the national office allows you, and I really don’t think they’re going to.” And then she said, and I’ll never forget this: “And if they do let you in, I simply cannot allow you to write about the drugs.” I called the national office, and it turned out that the 26 national Panhellenic sororities had instituted a media blackout because they were upset with the MTV show “Sorority Life.” It turned out that the only way to get behind the scenes in a sorority house was to fly under the radar.
Why these sororities and girls? Did you do any other reporting?
Well, I choose Vicki, Sabrina, Caitlin and Amy because they’re sweet, smart, friendly girls who could be the girl next door. I wanted “Pledged” readers to see that most of the girls, as individuals, are good people who we’d think of as normal, instead of a caricature. I also spoke to and I visited hundreds of other sorority sisters across the country. I wanted to get an as broad and as diverse an experience as possible if this was really going to be a book that really investigated sorority life.
What kinds of things did you witness?
I really hadn’t expected to find the level of “Animal House” campiness that I did in some groups. They had a tradition called boob ranking where pledges had just a limited amount of time to strip off their shirt and bras to examine each other topless so that by the time the clock was up, they were basically lined up in order of chest size in order of the sisters to inspect. Some sororities hold what they call “naked parties,” during which after a few drinks sisters and pledges strip off their clothes and basically run around the house naked, some of them hooking up with each other before they let the boys in.
Isn’t there a constant emphasis on boys?
From the mixers to the formals to the homecomings to fraternity parties–there’s frequently a race to get dates from a limited pool of acceptable fraternity guys. And white sororities are so centered on relationships with their ceremonies and rituals and songs to celebrate specific relationship milestones. By comparison, in at least one white sorority, the award for getting the highest GPA was a bag of potato chips. And you have to wonder what’s the point of a girls-only organization if it revolves around men.
Would you say binge drinking, eating disorders, promiscuity happen at most sororities?
I probably wouldn’t be able to make that statement comfortably because I didn’t visit the majority of sororities across the country. All those things are prevalent enough to be of concern. But certainly, there are some wonderful sororities out there. I want to make clear that “Pledged” is not anti-sorority.
But if you had a daughter, would you let her join a sorority?
Not until sororities make some broad changes. I think sororities have the potential to be so much more than they are, but the national offices are so concerned with things like money and image that they’ve lost touch with the girls as individuals. I think if they wiped out the idea of pledging, didn’t force girls to live in a house together and really overhauled the rush process then I’d be much more likely to happily let a girl in. Some parents take sororities so seriously that they hire rush consultants, which are kind of like pageant consultants to guide their girls through rush.
How prevalent are eating disorders?
I had heard urban legends about plumbers having to come clean out the pipes ever month or so in sororities because they get clogged with vomit. A lot of girls told me that was true. Eating disorders are so popular that some houses have puking contests after dinner. At State U., every single one of the 18 sororities had eating-disorder problems.
Do you think rapes go unreported because of the drinking and pressure from the sorority uphold an image?
It depends on the group. Two of the girls I followed were raped during or after Greek functions. One of them reported it, one of them didn’t. But then there’s the girl who was from a Southern school who was drugged and raped supposedly at a fraternity party. She was unconscious and they dropped her on the stoop of another sorority house so nobody would know what she had been doing and where she had been doing it. The chapter president told the girl that she couldn’t tell anybody about the rape basically because they didn’t want the national office to find out that they had been breaking some rules.
Most of the sororities you mention are traditionally white. Does racism exist?
State U. is a pretty liberal, relatively tolerant school and when one sister at State U. was asked if there was diversity in the house, she responded: “Oh sure, we’re diverse, we have blonde, red and a lot of brown-haired girls. I think we also have a Spanish girl.” And this is not at the kind of school where you might be more likely to expect that ignorance.
You mention rooms in sorority houses where members can look up previous papers and tests. Is this universal?
I would be comfortable saying it’s common. They call them class files or scholarship files–they like to hold up scholarship as a pinnacle, you know, of their achievement but a lot of that is sometimes based on these notes and former tests and papers that they have in a file cabinet in a room in the house.
Is it possible that your cover could be blown after this comes out if perhaps you make appearances to promote the book?
I was disguised at State U. I was not disguised at the other schools I visited across the country so they might recognize me, but that’s fine because they don’t know who Vicki, Sabrina, Caitlin and Amy are. But I won’t look on television like I did when I was at State U., there’s no doubt about that.
Why are you so sympathetic to these girls?
I completely understand why most girls join sororities and the majority of girls I spoke with said they join sororities simply because they wanted to make a large campus feel a little smaller, they wanted to belong to a more intimate community. And I think girls totally–now I’m talking like a sorority girl–girls go into them with good intentions. You know, if they don’t want to be in a singing group, if they don’t want to be on the debate team, here’s a group that offers them a sense of belonging without needing a specific talent. But on the flip side of that, acceptance is based on looks, wealth or slimness.
Because you were undercover, did you ever engage in drinking or doing drugs or doing anything else to fit in so that your cover wouldn’t be compromised?
Um, boy, that is a good question that I haven’t figured out how to answer. I guess you could say I did anything I needed to do to blend in as a typical college student. I guess I could say that much. They do throw good parties.
