The chapter got in trouble for apparently playing drinking games, leaving blindfolded women in a cemetery, and forcing a woman to get an application from a strip club, as the News-Leader reports.
It just so happens that I have my own Springfield Tri-Sigma story.
My best friend from kindergarten to high school pledged Sigma Sigma Sigma at Southwest Missouri State. She loved the sorority so much--it was like, the ultimate. I mean she bled purple, y'all! And P.S., I hope she never reads this.
Anyway, she told me so many stories about what she did as a new member of that house. She said that one time the older girls invited the new pledge class over to the house. When they arrived, the older girls came down the stairs in really skimpy lingerie (sounds like a movie, right?!) Then the older girls got in each of the pledge's faces and started yelling things like "whore!" "slut!" for a few minutes to get a reaction from them. WTF? I never got that since the girls who were yelling were the ones dressed like skanks, but oh well.
Other stories included lots of drinking. "Drink bi*&^!!!" and stuff like that...
And when I asked her, "Don't you think that's degrading?" She said "NO! I can't wait to do it to the little bi%^&es next year!" Seriously?
Whatever. To each their own, right? At least that's what I thought at 19, afterall, this was my BFF. So one weekend I drove from Lawrence to Springfield to visit. We went out, did things that stupid college kids do, and then went back to her dorm. The next morning, all of her sorority sisters met in the bathroom to talk about their previous night (they went to a cool Sig Ep party...while we were losers and hung out with some of our other high school friends.) Anyway, I remember one of her stupid friends saying, "God, I'm so hungover right now...I mean look at me! I have Chinese eyes!" (and she made that awesome squinty-face while saying it.) I was just walking out of the stall, and kept walking. I may not have even washed my hands, which, if you know me, means ALOT.
My best friend of, um, oh, 14 years, laughed it off and joked about it...said nothing in my defense...or ever mentioned it again.
I packed my bags and left. I'm usually pretty cool about stupid stuff like that, but I had just had it with all of her uber sorority-ness.
So, my personal feelings are that Tri-Sigma, in a sense, changed my dear friend. So much, that we stopped being friends. Believe it or not, for a few years I had dreams about us making up and being friends again. It sounds cheesy, but it's true.
Another thing that bothers me...is that this is still the perception that many people have of fraternities and sororities. There are good, no great, sororities out there with very intelligent women who would not subject their new members to this kind of treatment.
I don't publicize it, but I was in a sorority at KU, and it was a great experience. As new members, we would get gifts from the older girls who wanted to welcome us into the home. We were expected to get good grades, and we were expected to be involved on campus. We were told the rules and were expected to follow them. Did we break some of them? Sure, but nothing that bad. And man, no one would have ever called me stupid or slutty...I think most of my friends would've walked out of a house like that and turned them in to Panhellenic. Who calls other women names like that...just for fun? And better yet, who would allow themselves to be called that?
I could go on and on about women dumbing themselves down...it's a real shame. So even though I do feel bad for the women in that house who were abiding by the rules, I don't feel an ounce for the women who were mistreating their "sisters". I hope they have learned a lesson--and not just the one about getting caught.
