By Kiana Henry, Senior at USC
The collegiate Greek system has been around for hundreds of years and is a prized tradition in many elite universities around the country. Every year thousands of men and women go through the rush process to be initiated into this prestigious system in hopes of finding a home away from home, a brotherhood, a sisterhood, and of course, access to its infamous social scene.
But in a system meant to strengthen and uplift men and women why is it that on a typical Thursday night only women are seen walking down USC’s Greek Row, where I go to school? Well, sorority women have to attend social gatherings at fraternities not because they necessarily want to, but because they have to. There are a number of rules imposed upon sorority women that simply do not exist for fraternity men including: no men in the house after curfew, no men allowed upstairs, no alcohol inside the house, and no parties on site. No wonder there’s only women out on the street a Thursday night, the men don’t have to leave their homes to party, but the women do.
Many of the restrictions upon sororities in place are enforced through national sorority policies that have been in place for over 100 years, and many have stayed in place simply because of tradition. Women weren’t even allowed to vote at the time of the Greek system inception, and now other similarly outdated restrictions upon women are enforced through sorority chapters nationwide. Through the preservation of Greek tradition, we have also preserved old ideals and values that simply do not correspond to the progressive institutions they supposedly lay within i.e. every elite University in the country. Preventing women from having control over their social spheres and inevitably creates a male-centric culture through the sheer fact that men have all the control. The report “Sexual Assault On Campus: A Multilevel, Integrative Approach To Party Rape” notes that right now in 2015, men in fraternities control every aspect of the Greek social scene, from the music to transportation to party admission, access to alcohol, movement of guests, and party themes, themes like “Playboy Mansion” and “Victoria’s Secret” that require women wear sexy clothing and as a result place them in subordinate positions to men. The dangers and inadequacies of this aspect to Greek life is not a new issue, and many have simply accepted it for the way that it is, but lets look at how that’s been working out.
In light of the amount of national attention to rape culture across college campuses, a seemingly common denominator has surfaced between the number of sexual assault cases reported and where those assaults took place. According to the journal Sex Roles “individual fraternity men are more likely to display objectifying images of women in their rooms, have supportive attitudes about rape and believe women want to engage in rough sexual acts even if they act disinterested,” but it doesn’t stop there. Multiple other studies have found that women in sororities are 74% more likely to experience rape than their non-Greek counterparts, those who live in the sorority house are over 3 times as likely to experience rape than members who don’t, and fraternity men report greater adherence to hyper-masculinity, a trait linked to gender-role adherence and inadequate moral development. It is no wonder that a group of college men see no harm in boisterously yelling “SHACKER!” at a sorority woman when she leaves their house the morning after a party, like it’s a right of passage to publicly announce that someone in their fraternity got laid and laugh while the female conquest walks home alone.
It’s not to say that administrators and organizations haven’t tried to influence Greek culture for the better. USC President Max Nikias tried by limiting the number of parties allowed on USC’s Greek row each night, student programs tried by forming coalitions to educate students on consent, and national fraternity chapters tried by eliminated hard alcohol from parties, but still sexist attitudes and statistically high probabilities of sexual assault prevail. The failure of these attempts is not due to their intent but rather the type of problems they are trying to address. The imposed polices are merely surface level band-aids in relation to the underlying problem of institutionalized sexism. At such a progressive time in America where we as a nation are fighting for equal rights for women politically and professionally, why are we not fighting for the same equality on college campuses? At a university that prides itself in fostering progressive minds in the classroom, why do we have a regressive social scene?
What USC needs, and what Greek life needs in Universities across the country, is a culture shift. It’s time to take outdated policies and practices and give them a fresh new start. Yes, thousands of women each year are educated on the potentially dangerous situations they may be in and thousands of men are educated on not raping said women, but in order to foster a safer environment it shouldn’t be about how to survive within existing structures, it must be about changing the actual institutions themselves.
As student Alex Schwartz, a victim of sexual assault on USC’s Greek row, told the university newspaper, “ it’s about recognizing that if you’re not creating a safe environment for people it is not fun for anyone.” Other university officials have taken notice of this and are also calling for action as noted in USC’s “New Initiative Against Sexual Misconduct” where their final point for improving campus safety is cultural change. But how does one change culture? Well, institutions create culture; therefore if you change the institution, you change the culture. As progressive and educated Americans, we should not allow institutions to be in place that fundamentally limit women and give the upper hand and control to men. We should even the playing field.
It’s time we let women call the shots, literally. It’s time sorority women are able to host parties and have a say in who they invite. Allowing women to host parties creates a “more free market approach,” as suggested by the NY times, and gives women a “home turf advantage” allowing possibly more responsible groups to host parties. You can’t tell an obnoxious, rude and belligerent frat guy to get out of his own house if he is harassing you and your friends, but if he was at a sorority party, women could. Kicking someone out who is infringing on the safety of the atmosphere could possibly discourage such behaviors and reshape party culture.
Allowing sororities to host social functions with the same level of freedom that men currently have may seem radical for lots of reasons. Would people even go? Would there be fewer cases of sexual assault? Would these parties end up promoting more alcohol consumption and abuse? There is no concrete answer as it has never been done on such a large scale before, but the non-nationally affiliated sorority Sigma Delta at Dartmouth hosts parties with alcohol in their well-kept house and sees none of these problems. Their parties are fully stocked with female bartenders, female members at the doors, and women dedicated to remaining sober to keep an eye on everyone. Female students have routinely said that they feel much safer and prefer Sigma Delta’s parties than fraternity ones in part because the party attendees feel comfortable asking female sorority members for help if they need it. Similar examples of safer party environments can also be found in party cultures from social spheres outside the Panhellenic norm. From my own experience, when large parties off campus were a common occurrence in black Greek life and athletic life, the playing field was much more even than the one that exists on the Row. I never once saw an issue with alcohol abuse partly due to the limited amount provided and typical BYOB policies, party people returned home safely, and women were in a position of as much, if not more, power than men–and scholars agree.
Existing research suggests that African-American college social scenes are more gender egalitarian, and that traditionally African American frats, gender-inclusive frats, and multi-cultural frats, pose weaker threats of sexual danger than frats populated by mostly white economically-privileged students, according to a piece in the Guardian by Jessica Valenti. The main differences between these groups is institutional culture and access to party space. Many African American, co-ed, and multi-cultural frats do not have houses, depriving men of easily accessible party locations that not only welcome but perpetuate rape culture. This lack of access to fraternity houses levels-out the playing field between men and women, increases accountability for certain behaviors, and makes for safer party environments.
As a sorority woman myself, I find my pristine sorority house to be a place of refuge from the chaos on the row, but I also see it as limiting. I want to keep my house and living space clean, but I also believe those who choose to live in the house should have the same amount of freedom to decide how they want to interact socially instead of being hindered by national sorority rules that have been in place since the 1800s. To preserve the comfort of sorority homes, sororities shouldn’t eliminate all rules, but rather revise a few. Have parties outside, erase the downstairs curfew, and allow men upstairs during the day. In regards to general comfort, it is understandable that men shouldn’t be allowed upstairs after hours (say 12am), but the curfew for men to be allowed downstairs should be eliminated. Some may think allowing sorority women to host social events in the same capacity as men would only be a catalyst for more chaos, but the sheer openness of most downstairs living spaces and presence of 24/7 security guards are already safety nets preventing assault from happening in sorority homes at night and can give men in the Greek system a chance to experience social atmospheres created by women, instead of it always being the other way around. Allowing all kinds of friends and people into sorority homes at night could be a very powerful opportunity to incorporate Greek culture with others and foster deeper roots of understanding, achieving USC’s goal of cultural change.
Because Greek life has such a strong influence on campuses nation-wide, it is imperative we pay attention to the social rules and values it promotes. The very system creates a social atmosphere filled with archaic gender norms and rules that contradict the institutions they lay within and it’s time for an upgrade. It’s time for sororities to call the shots, and it’s time for the Greek system to meet the 21st century.