Dewey Decimal Project: 378.19856 R
Jul. 30th, 2011 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleI like to browse the shelving area at the library to see what other people have been reading. I was doing just that one day when I picked up Alexandra Robbins' Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities. I stood there reading for long enough that I figured I should just check it out.
Robbins went undercover for a school year following around four girls in historically white sororities: Vicki, Sabrina, Caitlin, and Amy. Robbins doesn't disclose her role in it all, but does say she can (or could at the time - this was in the 2002-2003 academic year) pass for nineteen. Vicki is one sorority (Beta Pi) while the other three are in another (Alpha Rho). Sabrina is Black; the other girls are white. Amy and Caitlin were both raped by fraternity brothers before Robbins started following them around.
Over the course of the book, and the year, the girls learn to navigate living in the sorority house. Robbins alternates between telling their stories and sections of more general information about sororities. It's an incredibly compelling story. I stayed up late several nights in a row because I couldn't put it down. It doesn't paint a particularly flattering picture of the sorority system in general or these two sororities in particular. The sorority life revolves around partying - which means binge drinking and impressing the fraternity boys. Robbins seems to come away from it with some respect for institution; her final section is a bevvy of suggestions for what universities, sororities, and parents can do to make them better.
The biggest flaw in the book is that she only follows sorority girls. At the end of the book, Robbins delves into the changes the girls have experienced over the year. She attributes most of their changes and experiences to the sorority experience, but I think some of it has to do with their age, not their involvement in the sorority. To really suss that out, she would have needed to follow other girls, either not in a sorority or in some other kind of organization.
Robbins went undercover for a school year following around four girls in historically white sororities: Vicki, Sabrina, Caitlin, and Amy. Robbins doesn't disclose her role in it all, but does say she can (or could at the time - this was in the 2002-2003 academic year) pass for nineteen. Vicki is one sorority (Beta Pi) while the other three are in another (Alpha Rho). Sabrina is Black; the other girls are white. Amy and Caitlin were both raped by fraternity brothers before Robbins started following them around.
Over the course of the book, and the year, the girls learn to navigate living in the sorority house. Robbins alternates between telling their stories and sections of more general information about sororities. It's an incredibly compelling story. I stayed up late several nights in a row because I couldn't put it down. It doesn't paint a particularly flattering picture of the sorority system in general or these two sororities in particular. The sorority life revolves around partying - which means binge drinking and impressing the fraternity boys. Robbins seems to come away from it with some respect for institution; her final section is a bevvy of suggestions for what universities, sororities, and parents can do to make them better.
The biggest flaw in the book is that she only follows sorority girls. At the end of the book, Robbins delves into the changes the girls have experienced over the year. She attributes most of their changes and experiences to the sorority experience, but I think some of it has to do with their age, not their involvement in the sorority. To really suss that out, she would have needed to follow other girls, either not in a sorority or in some other kind of organization.