Davids-Coco said:
But we greeks need to stick together and play down the animal house mentality!
It really doesn't help your cause (trying to fight the stereotypes) much when, from what I've seen, at least at my school, MOST of the people involved in the greek system behave exactly as the stereotype says.
At Syracuse, it wasn't an uncommon occurance to read our campus newspaper and hear a report of a fight between brothers of 2 fraternities. No real reason for these fights, as near as I could tell, just that people didn't like the other frat because it wasn't theirs. I lived across the street from a "temporary" frat house last year ... at least 3 nights a week, they'd have loud parties that usually ran until 2 or 3 am. And yes, there was at least one toga party.
I walked through our student center once when the sororities were about to have their big pre-rush meeting with everyone who wants to rush. Everyone was waiting outside the auditorium, milling around in the atrium of the student center. Just in the time (about 15 seconds) that it took me to walk through this area, I had a headache from the odor of all the hair chemicals and perfume that had been applied. And in this group of about 1,000 people, I only saw 3 pairs of pants that were anything other than black stretch/sweatpants type pants. The people in the sororities at SU say "oh no, it's not about everyone being the same" ... well, if it's not, why do they try so hard to look the same, and act the same?
I'm not anti-greek, I just don't really understand the whole "culture" ... I was never in a frat, I hung out with friends that were, I hung out with friends that weren't. It didn't matter much at all. So, I'm just curious as to why people who are involved in the greek system seem to think it's so great, and people on the outside are just kinda thinking "huh?" about the whole thing.