When I was a sophomore in
college, I had a friend in one of the school's more popular
sororities who was always encouraging me to join. "What would
I have to do?" I'd ask. "Well, just, like, wear and
say whatever we want during pledge week...mostly just getting
really drunk, doing stupid stuff with frat guys and wearing pins on
your underwear that you'd show us if we asked. After that,
it's pretty easy."This was never acceptable to me—even for a week. Though I think many of those young women were nice and they had fun, the rules of their sorority just seemed too humiliating and oppressive. (Pins on my underwear? No, thanks.) They were not, however, anywhere near as petty, cruel, and God-awful rude as the strict six-page style guide recently put out by Cornell University's Pi Phi sorority.
The document, which is meant to be followed by all Pi Phi pledges and was recently leaked to several online outlets, reveals the kind of oppressive, elitist fashion advice that's your basic "Mean Girls" nightmare.