It's that time of the year again. The leaves are changing. The air is getting colder. A thousand freshmen girls are about to dive into the terrifying, yet exciting, process of sorority recruitment. As the women of the Panhellenic community lose their voices from chanting the same three to six songs over and over and over and over again, they are also forced to participate in an unfair and obsolete practice: purity.
For those who aren't aware, purity is a set of rules for which every girl in a sorority must follow for what seems like the entire month of September. The rules are simple. "No bars, no booze, no boys." For everyone. For (seemingly) the entire month.
According to my friends in sororities, the purpose of these restrictions is "to get closer with your sisters." Really? Restricting going out to the bars or fraternity parties is the way to ensure the women of your sorority spend time together? I'm pretty sure if two girls never hung out without restrictions, implementing restrictions will all of a sudden cause them to become 'besties' and hang out every day.
There's a theory among my Panhellenic friends of the true reason for purity. It ensures that sorority women can't run across potential new members and convince them to rush their sorority. I don't buy this. Sorority women have two or three weeks (seriously, when does purity actually start?) to meet freshmen women, form friendships with them, and convince them to rush. Having a span of time in which they're forbidden from talking to them, isn't going to make those freshmen women forget that.
So what's the true reason? Well, I'm going out on a limb here, but the evidence points to this conclusion. Purity is an effort to maintain an obsolete, misogynist view of women. Yup. I said it.
Think about it. The restrictions only apply to Greek women and not Greek men. The rules prevent Greek women from enjoying the same freedoms as Greek men. And it's called purity.
In imposing these restrictions on women we're perpetuating the obsolete school of thought that women are fragile creatures who need to be protected from the evil vices of man. They perpetuate the idea that a woman has no desire to go out and drink. They perpetuate the idea that women are inferior. And that's bull.
It's 2015. Women are equal now. They've always been equal. Incorporating these sorts of restrictions hinders that idea. Get with the times. Get rid of purity.
