You Know You're in a Sorority If...

Kelsey McCormack
Gamma Phi Beta

Within the past couple years, there has been an added sorority girl phenomena one could say. I have played along by following the Sorority Girl Problems Twitter account and such. It’s a non-threatening way to make fun of ourselves. A lot of it is over exaggerated and sometimes untrue, and I will admit Total Sorority Move is a failed attempt to be more entertaining and humorous than Total Frat Move; however, there is somewhat of a valid truth behind it all. 

Right now, some of the most watched videos on YouTube are the spinoffs of “Sh*t Girls Say.” As I watched “Sh*t Sorority Girls Say,” some of it was a little too familiar. One phrase that not just sorority girls or even just girls are caught saying is, “wait... what?” Wait. What. That doesn’t even make sense. Every time I have said it since I watched the video, I have thought about how completely idiotic it sounds and unfortunately how much I use it in a day. I look back and try to find when we started saying this. “What?” or “Really?” are not the most intelligent of words, but in the situation, they sound so much better. What are we “waiting” for? And why do I continue to still say it after knowing how dumb it sounds? I also noticed that we say “obsessed,” “oh my god,” and abbreviate several words that are very unnecessary. The list goes on.

Another item the video and other stereotypes have touched on is food/drink obsessions of sorority girls. First off is frozen yogurt. Better known as Fro-yo: the only dessert that is low enough in calories to indulge in this close to spring break. It’s too bad that after all the chocolate covered raisins, cookie dough bites, yogurt chips, and graham cracker crumbs we put in it, it isn’t so low-cal anymore. #sororitygirlproblems?

Thankfully, Iowa City caught on to this addiction last semester by adding Utopia Frozen Yogurt right in the Ped Mall. What is really convenient is that Utopia is a block away from Formosa which is a block away from Starbucks. It’s the sorority girl meal plan. Do we really need anything else besides frozen yogurt, sushi, green tea and lattes? I wish I could deny that we aren’t obsessed (sorority word) with these items, but I personally went to all three places today. I guarantee that at least two women from all chapters on campus will be at Formosa grabbing $3 sushi rolls on a Tuesday or Thursday night. The amount of Starbucks cups I see in the trash cans around the house are also proof that I’m not the only one who dedicatedly went to Starbucks every day for a month just to become a Gold Card Member. 

So maybe we should stop saying or doing the same things all the time so we don’t fall into a stereotype, but this is really just a label we give ourselves to laugh at ourselves and all the similar things we do. You can deny it, or you can find yourself agreeing that yeah, we do this. 

Kelsey is a junior studying elementary education. You may contact her at kelsey-mccormack@uiowa.edu.