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Pledged the secret life of sororities pdf Continue An interesting investigative account of life in historically white societies in the South of the 2000s. It does not reveal the place or name of the university (although it is in a warm climate) or in cities. She says she deliberately chose the usual interesting investigative report on life in historically white sororities in the 2000s in the South. Having been denied access to the women's bureaus of their national offices as a result of the MTV revelations, the young (thin, handsome) Robbins accompanied four young undercover women during one school year, risking their discontent. It does not reveal the place or name of the university (although it is in a warm climate) or in cities. She says she deliberately chose ordinary cities with good reputations and rank-and-file members to represent them. The result is revealing. This confirms my own decision not to engage in such a thing back in the 80s, if only because students seem to spend most of their time drinking, buying clothes, finding dates, having sex, arguing and drinking. I wasn't surprised that the choice, ranking, and overall score of the members is partly based on appearance, but was surprised that family income is so clearly important. The book moves forward on a pretty good clip, sometimes dragging a little through accounts of endless drunken parties and dances. More interesting are the times sisters spend together not to drink, or not to mostly drink, but to talk while they are doing each other's hair, comforting each other for breaking or failing, celebrating success, complaining or planning. The most interesting parts of the book are supporting interviews with graduates from chapters at other colleges, a chapter on historically black societies (which contains a few brief paragraphs about Hispanic societies), and bits about independent groups such as coed frats. Robbins does an excellent job of exposing racism in the Greek women's system in the south, although she could write more about the North and the West. The most valuable part of the book is the final chapter, in which Robbins recommends ways to improve historically white society. For example, she strongly recommends that sororities eliminate the rush (a whirlwind ritual in which applicants visit all the chapters for a few mintues at a time, as well as speed dating) in favor of a more reasonable visit and application process. She notes that white organizations are mostly social groups, not service groups, and questions why they deserve special support from colleges: colleges are within their rights to make demands on them and cancel their support if not implemented. Robbins also notes that white women's societies aren't really women's groups as long as much of their activities are centered around dating, fraternity faucets, and balloons - that is, around men. It responds to all its criticisms with ideas of change. Describing a number of frightening cases of physical, sexual and mental hazing dating back to the 1970s (including two at the university where my father taught), Robbins reveals how the national governing body is sorority, inhibiting hazing but failing to define it, managed to drive it underground in some chapters, rather than simply weakening the process of group communication in others. It challenges the national body to define hazing outright and then ban it, while creating positive group building techniques. The book can be improved. For example, the treatment of historically black societies is too brief, although the book's main purpose is a secret report on white societies (Robbins is white). One of her four main interviewees is black, and she shows little understanding of the challenges faced by a young black woman in a group of wealthy, disadvantaged white women. Throughout the book, Robbins treats her subjects like girls, while she calls their fellow fraternity men about half the time. It's grated on my nerves. When I moved to Texas, I was struck by the fact that university sports were divided into male teams and girls. The item is a small moment, but it is not trivial. It reflects the general situation of individuals. College men have historically been called men, while women have been called girls - unless they have been married. Age did not enter it. I doubt that women who love their feminine work will be satisfied with this book at all, except, perhaps, some of the recommendations in the last chapter. Of course, the fact that Robbins was forced to go undercover made this a very different report than it would have been if she had open access, with sisters, counselors, counselors and university administrators knowing who she was, providing interviews, offering information, and engaging her at various levels. Instead of treating investigators like Robbins as partners in reform - reforming a system in which young women abuse alcohol, vomit so often they damage plumbing, get raped, and die - they surround the wagons. Outsiders remain wondering which soororia are hiding. Robbins, after all, calls for reform of the system, not getting rid of it. She finds something valuable in her: groups in which young women find a niche, friends, a place where you can fit in. She hopes to make it a better, safer place for more women, with less racism, hostility and danger. individuals can learn from NASA, whose media policy, after the Apollo 1 hideout disaster, has changed from secrecy to when things are going well, to tell the media everything they want to know. To know. things are going bad, tell them more. ... More Top Reviews Of The Latest Best Reviews Want More? Advanced embedding details, examples and help! Sororities, by their very design as secret institutions, drive speculation and gossip about what is going on behind their closed doors. Presumably, the devotion to volunteerism and respectability that our grandmothers associate with society has been replaced by debauchery and abuse. But is it? Bestselling journalist Alexandra Robbins went to find out; as a result of her book Pledged: The Secret Life of The Sorority. Robbins first hit Pay dirt with her book about secret Ivy League societies like Skull and Bone Secrets of the Tomb. So it makes sense that she would follow that up with a book about another kind of pick collegiate club. However, Robbins set out to write the book shortly after mtv's hit show Sorority Life painted fraternal organizations as dangerous dens of lawlessness. Because of this, fraternities across the country have established a strict policy not to speak to any of the members of the media. Robbins was forced to do her research in her own way. She talks about the lives of the four sisters of the sisterhood (names, of course, changed), from the promise to choose who will be their new sisters on the promise of next year. Between Robbins covers everything that could be associated with society: hazing, volunteering, homecoming, secret songs, various parties and, of course, the debauchery of spring break. The result works well because after the trials and tribulations the girls face a bit like reading a resume of a soap opera. I kept turning the pages to find out who would be asked to party, what roommates would be sick of each other, how they would retaliate, etc. One good, perhaps unintentional, effect of falling behind four girls is that their personality and intelligence keeps the reader from painting their stereotypes they might fit in. but we see how these issues fit into the girl's life. While there is certainly a lot of drugs and drink among girls it follows, most of the shocking behavior in my opinion is the level of conformity expected of them. Girls are only forced to date in certain fraternities and even dress up and style their hair like their sisters. These stories are then contextualized with sections of statistics that back up the time Robbins' anecdotal experience observed, and the relevant parts of the interview she did with hundreds of smoron girls. For example, after a section of the book where one of the girls deals with pressure to meet expectations about how to look, Robbins shares snippets of interviews that refer to the widespread incidence of bulimia. She reports on the various women she interviewed who that their women's business regularly had to call plumbers to clean clean up pipes for precisely this reason. Conversely, the most heinous scandals she reports about are tempered by a more tame narrative about the daily lives of girls. For example, Robbins writes about a sister who allegedly raped their sister to save her virginity. Of course, this terrible story is not typical of most of the sister experience of the sister. However, one of the girls Robbins chronicles the attacked during her reporting, and the cover-up and denial from all involved is shocking precisely because it is so typical. This gives Pledged a good balance. You read the most flexible cases and statistics, seeing the full extent of what the four real girls from the sphere of vision actually experienced, which is usually not as scandalous as the most egregious cases. Alexandra Robbins has written five New York Times bestsellers and reports for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, Forbes and The Atlantic. She regularly appears on national television on shows such as 60 Minutes, The Tonight Show, The View, and CNN News, and she has appeared as an expert on air on hundreds of other shows on dozens of networks. The thing is, she knows her stuff. If you want an impartial report on what is really going on in this house, Pledged will give you a skinny one.

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