Well, it looks like America has found yet another thing to be offended by. There’s been a lot of talk in the news about The University of Alabama and for once, it’s not about their football program. Rather, it’s about a sorority making a recruitment video that has apparently offended every human being. The University of Alabama’s Alpha Phi chapter posted a recruitment video that has sparked major debate and critics of the video are calling it “racially homogenous” and “objectifying”. A.L. Bailey even labeled it as “worse for women than Donald Trump”
Alright, people of the world, I’m here to ruin your day.
Recruitment videos mean nothing.
No really, they don’t.
You know why? Because while you were busy being offended by college women making a video:
- A bombing in Bangkok outside a famous shrine where more than 19 people died, tourists included, in apparent terrorist attack
- ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi repeatedly raped American Hostage Kayla Mueller before they beheaded her
- Millions of Pakistani citizens are forced in bonded labor, which is one of the last remaining forms of modern slavery
- A ‘Potential Security Event’ has occurred outside a South Carolina nuclear plant *A NUCLEAR PLANT PEOPLE*
- Donald Trump says he will “build a wall to keep out immigrants” from Mexico
- A man has been charged for stabbing to death Morgan Freeman’s step granddaughter
- Oscar Pistorious (famous runner from South Africa who killed his girlfriend) is set to be released as early as next week
And that’s just within 24 hours.
Yet, we sit here and talk about a sorority recruitment video offending people on the news and on social media like it is the most pressing issue we have ever seen. Excuse me while I don’t even pretend to care about whether or not you are offended by a video. Sexual assault on campus, gun violence on campus, safety on campus? Those are news-worthy issues to talk about when speaking about college campuses. But a freaking sorority recruitment video? Are you kidding me? That’s what gets America going?
Speaking as a woman and in a sorority, I’m really not offended by this. Because frankly, I don’t give a shit about it. I don’t care about whether or not a group of woman made a stupid and probably regretful recruitment video. People make mistakes for God’s sake, that’s what makes them people. Quit highlighting other people’s mistakes while you try and act like you haven’t made any before. Plus I’m too busy worrying about things that actually pertain to my life.
Whether or not you agree with this video is beside the point, because it means nothing. We need to start being aware of the REAL pressing issues here. Critics of the video claim it’s showing young women false views of what it means to be in a sorority, let alone what it means to be a woman, but if you ask me, saying that this video is “worse for women than Donald Trump” is a bit of a stretch here. How about the idea that the government was ACTUALLY thinking about defunding Planned Parenthood? Or that Female Genital Mutilation was JUST made illegal in Nigeria LITERALLY A WEEK AGO. Sorry but I think those issues were a little “worse for women than Donald Trump”.
Oh, and while you’re busy shaming this sorority-of which you know nothing about other than a 5-minute video, you’re bringing down women as a whole. Because while you preach “that all women are different”, when some women are skinny and blonde, that’s “not what a woman looks like”.
Hmm…so all women are different as long as they fit in the box of what “different” looks like?
What a juicy contradiction.
Spoiler Alert: you are going to be offended once or twice in your life, get over it. Start talking about things that truly really matter in life, like social AND racial injustices, police brutality, home-grown terrorism *because it’s real*, or literally anything else I spoke about in this article, not a stupid video.
Featured image via Alpha Phi recruitment video.
Hey! This is a great article, and you offer a valuable perspective. I wanted to let you know, though, that Donald Trump announced his plans for the Mexico wall when he announced his run for presidency ~1 month ago.
Keep doing good work, girl!
Thank you so much!! Glad to know you liked it! And thanks for the updated info-glad to know other people are also paying attention to the real news as well
So we’re only allowed to be upset by things if there’s nothing worse to be upset about? This is a very narrow-minded article. Believe it or not, people are capable of caring about several issues of varying degrees of importance at once. I know, shocking.
agreed
See below comment
The point of the article wasn’t to say you can’t care about more than one issue. The fact of the matter is that there are MORE important issues than sorority woman making a fun recruitment video.
AYEEEOOOOO WE HAVE A WINNER. thank you for understand the point of this article A. I, along with the rest of these readers, thank you.
I don’t understand you’re point here. So you’re attempt at sarcasm wasn’t effective and/or warranted when your point doesn’t make sense. When did I ever say we can’t care about more than one thing?¿ try again and maybe I’ll applaud your sarcasm then because I’m all for it.
Glad to see college has taught you some important grammar lessons.
Eat a snickers, KM, you’re not you when you’re hungry.
I feel that you missed the point, Kristina. You had an opportunity and a platform to discuss why people should be offended by the video (less because it’s “Stepford wives, college edition” and more because of the powerful racial undertones), but instead you dismissed it as “stupid” and gave the girls who created the video a free pass, saying they’re allowed to make mistakes; why should we care?
I don’t dispute that all of the issues you raise here are incredibly news-worthy, but racial tensions and injustices in our education system and our country should be viewed as equally news-worthy and necessary of discussion and our attention. This is very blatantly obvious in the video and frankly, I’m a little disappointed you didn’t take the 10 seconds necessary to analyze it. Lack of discussion is what perpetuates this issue, and a small amount of background research shows that this is indicative of a much bigger issue. Using this space as a way to talk about this perspective would have been a much more valuable use of your time and effort, as opposed to dashing off an article chastising people for caring about the video at all.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/annasoldner/university-of-alabamas-sororities-remain-mostly-segregated#.wuNEWo6WZ
http://www.al.com/news/tuscaloosa/index.ssf/2015/03/university_of_alabama_student_5.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/26/university-of-alabama-race-greeks-_n_5029195.html
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/2015/02/25/sorority-segregation-is-a-serious-issue
Just because on the surface you believe it to be “stupid” and not worth our time, if you had spent even 10 seconds analyzing the video you could have taken the opportunity to discuss the important issue of race at play here. Though all the stories you have mentioned are news-worthy, racial issues within our education system as well as in the country as a whole are equally important and deserve discussion, even if it requires a little thought and makes people uncomfortable. In short, you had a fantastic opportunity and platform here, and you have wasted it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/26/university-of-alabama-race-greeks-_n_5029195.html
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/2015/02/25/sorority-segregation-is-a-serious-issue
http://www.buzzfeed.com/annasoldner/university-of-alabamas-sororities-remain-mostly-segregated#.wuNEWo6WZ
Apparently I need some education on how to post comments, but the general point remains. Apologies for the double (triple?) post on your article.
Sup L. Contrary to your belief, I did analyze the video, pinky promise. While you would like to point out how “lazy” (lol I wish) writing is, I’m afraid you’re the one who has missed the point of this article. You sound like a pretty intelligent girl (guy?) so I would love to talk about this with you. The point of this article was to not rip it apart for what it was. It was a poorly made video, everyone and their mother knows that. However, the article was to talk about how there are pressing issues that truly affect all Americans that are not being put out for the average joe like me and you to see. I’m not only speaking as a woman, member of a sorority but as a minority as well. I’m 100% Lebanese, seriously I swear. And watching this video I was still not offended. Because I am aware of the more pressing issues minorities and my gender face. Would you be saying this is a race issue if it were all Arab, black, Hispanic, etc. women? Everyone knows it wouldn’t be in the news and don’t try to entertain that it would be, because that’s not good tv according to the media. Concerning race, I would much rather see stories on the absurd amount of police brutality on minorities than whether or not a minority was in a sorority recruitment video, does that make sense? I would hope that you could see my point of view that a vast majority of minorities (like myself) see. The article was about how the media likes to stray from hard facts of discrimination and more on “this’ll make good tv” notion. Hope you get my thought process when writing this article! And glad to know you just accidentally hit send three times and you just weren’t super aggressive in getting your point heard. Hahah no worries!
Www. Myopinion.com
Hey Kristina! Thanks for the reply. Definitely a ridiculous video in many ways, I agree with you there! I also agree with you totally on the race aspect of police brutality issues, and really most of the issues you bring up.
It’s less about you being personally offended by the video itself (I’m a woman as well, though I wasn’t in a sorority in college), because it’s not really inherently offensive, and more about being informed by the underlying messages that the video is showing. As I mentioned below, based on this 6 minute video showing its members, this sorority is either: 1) intentionally leaving the minorities that could very well be a part of the sorority out of the video, or 2) only accepting white pledges. Both of those are pretty problematic and based on Alabama’s history of segregating sororities, unfortunately valid possibilities. You’re right that I would not be offended if it was an entirely minority sorority, because the problem here is still living in a society that is based entirely around white privilege and “otherizing” these minorities, so it is when they intentionally exclude the minorities that it becomes an issue. And you’re right, of course a minority sorority recruitment video would be ignored by the media, cause it’s not full of stereotypically pretty white girls and therefore implicitly deemed less important by our society. Does that make sense?
I agree on the media wanting to stray from the hard facts…notably because the media didn’t choose to focus on this angle of the story and instead chose to comment on how the girls in the video were dressed/not appearing to do anything other than dance around and tried to make it a feminist issue. I like the idea of your article for sure–keeping everybody informed is important–but I think this issue is important too, just requires us to get a little uncomfortable because it’s a crappy thing to still have to talk about it! And that’s kind of where I’m coming from with the comment. I just think that it’s not something that we can dismiss or write off quite so easily as it’s another jumping-off point for discussion of race relations in America, even if it’s not quite as sensational as police brutality stats.
Wuzzgewd L! Absolutely 150% agree with you on every single thing you said, seriously I do. I was just hoping you got where my point was with the article itself. We don’t know what the thought process behind these girls minds was when making this video, hence why I chose to go with my belief of “everyone makes mistakes don’t act higher than thou” mentality. Obviously if they excluded other women purposefully, I would not put the same mentality behind it. My life is centered around “if you don’t know, don’t judge.” So that’s why I didn’t go into the video. Totally agree with everything you’re saying though, don’t get me wrong! I just would reserve that for an entirely different article on sororities.
Stay golden girl!
L, how is this in any way a racial issue? There are white girls in a sorority. If it was an all black or all latino sorority would you be offended? Doubtful.
It is 100% a racial issue because there are only white girls in the video and because the U of Alabama has a history of segregating sororities, as shown briefly in the articles I linked to. So, by showing only white girls in the video, this sorority is either: 1) intentionally leaving the minorities that could very well be a part of the sorority out of the video, or 2) only accepting white pledges. Do you see how that is a racial issue?
Great article, Kristina!
What nobody has decided to acknowledge is that this is ONE video, with ONE group of girls who probably volunteered to do this outside of their normal committments and busy schedules. If the chapter would have said “We need to showcase our diversity!” and gone around handpicking women to be in this video based on appearance rather than willingness, it would probably feel to the other girls (granted- the white, maybe blonde ones) that they weren’t good or exotic enough to show off; the reversal of only picking the tan, blonde girls, yet still hurtful to the other members. Also, regardless of Alabama’s racist history regarding sororities, there is NO GUARANTEE that race still plays that much of a part in their recruiting process. I’m not so naive to think that it doesn’t, but making that assumption is very insulting to the organization and the college in general; and we can make ASSumptions all day long, but does that tell us how they recruit in real life? No. Plus, another factor to consider is that there are culturally based and historically black sororities (Divine 9?) that women do choose to join (not because they don’t want to be with women of different backgrounds) because of all of the effort it took their forebearers to gain the ability to found organizations of their own, rather than being historically segregated from the other sororities. This allowed black and other women the chance to bond with those who not only had similar values and goals, but also looked like them- because let’s face it, many people feel more comfortable when they are able to blend in, and having a shared race and cultural history and celebrating that in sorority practices and ritual can be just one more example of “the ties that bind”.
While the video is superficial, and silly, and yes- full of women who look the same, if that’s how they chose to depict themselves without considering how it would look to potential sisters who do NOT look that way or to the outside world, let that be their problem! For most sorority women, the love felt in sisterhood transcends race, and Kristina is right- there are more important things to worry about than one chapter of girls that you don’t know. If they are enough to skew the view of all women in this country for you, then you are pretty impressionable and I feel sorry for you.
Too many people are getting instantly butthurt on here. Nowhere did she say that people who care about multiple issues don’t exist. This is a stab at the ignorant and blind people that aim all their focus into trivial matters. Yes, I thought the video was pretty stupid, but hey – they’re just young girls in their 20’s that have been plenty embarrassed already, and will learn/mature in time. Kristina is trying to tell people to have general world awareness; as you’re watching some sorority tampon video and getting angry, there are atrocities/crimes against humanity being committed by ISIS (destruction of museums, temples, human history, etc.), future presidents arguing within the sea of GOP news, and terrible explosions or murders occurring across the world. Maybe you’re some peace-minded ignorant whose feeble mind can’t take all the horrors occurring in the world and I guess that’s sort of okay, but the fact that you make some failed sorority video the central focus of your life — well.. that’s sad.
AND – my comment is also not a stab at everyone. I appreciate those that are willing to be well informed and knowledgeable about worldly subjects.