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Book Reviews -
Women's Health and Psychology
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Written by Jennifer Thompson
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 Pledged:
The Secret Life of Sororities , by Alexandra Robbins
Page 75: "The herd of girls jostled their way toward
the door of a club near campus. They spotted the two policemen
checking IDs and swiftly rearranged their purses and their
hair - shoving the thermoses down underneath their cosmetics
and pulling their hair back to best resemble the photos of
the other people on their ID's."
Pledged:
The Secret Life of Sororities is like reality TV for
people who like to read. The author, Alexandra Robbins, went undercover
and followed four young sorority girls around for their pledge
year. (This was done with their consent, and they were sworn to
secrecy about Ms. Robbins' true identity and reason for being in
the sorority houses.) She introduces us to Vicki, Sabrina, Caitlyn
and Amy (all pseudonyms) as they are moving in to their respective
houses. What follows over the course of the school year would be
shocking, if only the myths about sorority life weren't all out
there already - and weren't true.
We accompany the girls to house meetings, bars, fraternity houses,
hotel formals; we witness their drunkenness, their sex, their
date rapes and their snubs. We hear about their insecurities,
their conflicting emotions regarding fitting in with the house
versus holding on to their non-Greek friendships. With Sabrina,
we find out what it's like for one African-American student with
little money - in an "historically white" sorority -
to try and fit in.
Pledged raises
hard questions about why young women would knowingly submit themselves
to the experiences many sororities hold in store. The mind games,
the coercion, the conformity - what compels otherwise intelligent,
attractive and ambitious young women to join these organizations?
Is it all about the 'sisterhood', the built-in friendship base,
a smaller world in an otherwise overwhelmingly large campus? The
sex, alcohol and eating disorders are not unique to Greek girls
- but the pressures to fit in and adhere to the image of one's
sorority, and the effects it has on one's persona - are uniquely
Greek.
From the cover:
Better than anyone else, Robbins understands
what drives these young women and their friends - their passions
and their fears. The result is an extraordinarily compelling
narrative that reads like a bestselling novel.
With fly-on-the-wall voyeurism and remarkable
insight, Pledged manages to both expose the dark side of sorority
life and endear its participants to us.
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