Society's sorority

If you are not pretty, skinny, white and popular, you are not wanted in the Delta Zeta sorority at DePauw University. At least not anymore. \nIn November, representatives from the sorority’s national office visited the chapter in Greencastle, Ind., interviewed 35 of the members of the house and deemed 23 of them unfit in their commitment to recruiting, according to an article in Sunday’s New York Times.\nThe members of the sorority deemed insufficient included all the overweight women and the only black, Korean and Vietnamese women, the Times reported. Understandably, six of the 12 women not kicked out of the sorority quit anyway after the fiasco. In a Times photo of the evicted women, noticeably absent are any skinny, blond-haired, blue-eyed stereotypical “beautiful” women. Several wear glasses. Many are not thin. \nSo the national office then brought in members of IU’s Delta Zeta to help recruit new members at the DePauw chapter in January. All the while it made 25 of the members from the DePauw chapter stay upstairs, essentially hiding them from the new recruits because the national office didn’t think they fit their description of what a Delta Zeta should be.\nKate Holloway, a DePauw senior who withdrew from the sorority during its reorganizing, told the Times: “They had these unassuming freshman girls downstairs with these plastic women from Indiana University, and 25 of my sisters hiding upstairs,” she said. “It was so fake, so completely dehumanized.”\nThough the national office denies it based its judgment of the women on appearance, the implications of its actions are clear. The DZ nationals have once again created the perception that to be in a sorority, women must be skinny, beautiful and popular – they must fit society’s ideals of what women should be (those ideals that have been perpetuated throughout history in a male-dominated society). They like to claim they embrace diversity, yet here they are kicking out their very own sisters simply because they do not fit the mold of an “acceptable” sorority girl.\nDelta Zeta proclaims its purpose is to “unite its members in the bonds of sincere and lasting friendship” and “stimulate one another in the pursuit of knowledge.” But kicking out more than half of the members of a chapter without substantial reason – because maybe some of them weren’t skinny and white and beautiful – doesn’t sound like it’s unifying anyone in anything resembling the bonds of friendship.\nThe only thing the Delta Zeta national office has managed to do is unite the members in hatred of the system and stimulate a blow to their confidence. Some of the women kicked out of the chapter were so distraught by the decision, they withdrew from classes.\nWomen should unite and stand up to speak out against such injustice. In the sisterhood of women, we should be able to be ourselves and love one another for who we really are – the smart, funny, caring and successful individuals who truly are beautiful.