Sorority Girl Say

Stereotype:  A popular belief about a specific type of people.

This video does a great job of portraying the generalized stereotype of the sorority girl.  Although this video was intended to stereotype sorority girls and Vanderbilt University, it's accurate in almost all assertions for any university across the country, which proves its validity as a stereotype.  Maybe your typical sorority girl is not exactly like they are portrayed in this video, but the video does a fairly good job of giving an exaggerated example of how sorority girls appear to an outsider.

Stereotypes are based on prior assumptions which become simplified or standardized for a group, often times stereotyping can turn into a negative bias. Stereotypes can be attached across all borders. Within an in-group often a positive stereotype will be attached to those within the in-group (such as fellow sisters) and a negative stereotype to those in the out-group (such as rival sororities or non Greek goers). People within the out-group also often attach stereotypes to people within an in group. For example:  People who are not involved in Greek life often assume that all sorority girls are blonde and dumb, or that specific sororities represent promiscuity, high academic achievement, or partying.

Familial Types

Up until the age of 6, I grew up in your stereotypical nuclear family, consisting of my mother, my father, myself, and my younger sister. This type of family is generally what people picture as the perfect family style if they were to be asked to draw their ideal family.

When I was 6 my parents got divorced and I lived in a single parent home with my mother and my younger sister.  Statistics say that most people will live in a single family home before the age of 21. This statistic is in part due to the increased rate of divorce and the ease of which you can obtain one. Also, out of marriage births occur more frequently and it is more societally acceptable for women to raise a child without a spouse.

Up until recently my mother remained unmarried. I now live in a home with my mother, stepfather, younger sister, and three step siblings (as if 7 people isn't enough, we also serve hand and foot a number of pets). This is an example of a blended family where there is a mixture blood-related relatives and non blood-related relatives all contributing to the family structure.

My father remains unmarried today, but lives with his longtime life parter of over 10 years. At various times in my life I would visit them in their example of a cohabitation family. Studies show that most children will spend some time in a cohabitating family before the age of 16.

Each of these examples are representative of different types of families. The structure of family has changed over the years to represent a diverse number of things from the stereotypical nuclear family to homosexual cohabitation, heterosexual cohabitation, adoption, to single parent homes. Each of these structures, however different, are what someone calls home.

"Talking"

The Meeting: 
So you're at a party, or a bar, or whatever and you bump into this cute guy and start having a conversation with him. This is the stimulus stage where you are attracted to superficial characteristics like looks, cool shoes, or nice hair.  One thing leads to another and by the end of the night he has your phone number.  If he asked for your number at all he's probably at least a little bit into you, or he's just super drunk and his beer goggles are extra foggy that night.

Texting:
The general waiting period for a guy to text you is between 3-5 days after the initial meeting.  So don't freak out if you wake up a little groggy the next morning, check your iPhone, and there's not a passion-filled lovetext waiting for your reply. If there is, delete his number and drop him immediately.

Initially conversation will be pretty surface level, the typical "Hey what's up, this is ______ from the other night." "How you doing?" which will eventually lead into playful banter.  You want the guy to think you're "pretty chill" and totally normal in this stage (and let's be real we all have our quirks, no matter how normal we seem on the outside). So please don't tell him about your roommate that leaves her socks on the kitchen table or how your dad left you when you were 6, unless you genuinely want the guy to go running for the hills--bad idea.  Play along.  During this stage people will get to know each other and determine if they have similar enough likes and dislikes to actually hang out. This goes beyond superficial characteristics and people will decide if they remain attracted.

Hanging out:
This could really be anything from meeting up with mutual friends or hanging out on your own, it's usually pretty casual.  During this stage deeper conversations will begin to take place and you will learn what the other person is actually like.  Pretty sad, considering you spent all that time trying to convince him you're just stereotypically normal. Nobody actually wants to be normal. This is where you take the complete opposite route and start telling him everything amazing about yourself so he'll want to stick around. Tell him you have practice later and won't be here this weekend. When he asks say "Oh I'm on the track team...it's the national meet...yeah I hold the school record in the 100 hurdles *insert bashfully humble blush and smile*" Make yourself awesome.

Maybe it'll work out, maybe it wont. If it does you'll start hanging out more and eventually be dating, if it gets really serious probably become FBO.

Stages of "talking" all follow general role expectations.  As a girl you are expected to wait until the guy initiates conversation, seem coy and slightly uninterested but bashful and witty.  Texting back too quickly breaks role expectations and will send a red flag up that you're a crazy clinger even if you're not and just being punctual. People who date "too soon" totally break role expectations. This whole crazy circus of "talking" was invented as a prerequisite of actually getting to know each other, which precedes dating. What ever happened to love at first sight?

Thomas Malthus Was Right

As a female, I think it's interesting how since elementary school you start planing what your family will be like. You want a husband (of course because that's what society tells you the perfect family needs) with a good job and probably upwards of 2 kids.  You'll live in a pretty house in a suburban neighborhood and everything will be perfect just like....nothing actually is in real life.

Living the American Dream.

Nevermind that our expectations for real life are equivalent to what Disney movies portrays and society sets us up for total disappointment in life, that's a discussion for another time.  But let's look at the desired Total Fertility Rate (the average number of births expected from any woman to bear in her lifetime).  So I asked some of my friends: "How many kids do you want?"

Zulay: Zero
Amy: Zero
Claire: minimum of 2
Grace: 2
Casey: 2
Allyson: 2
Nora: 4
Becca: 2 or 3, probably 2
Kehri: 4
Chelsea: 2
Angel: 3-4
Hannah: 3-4
Alyssa: 3-5
Lauren: 3
Katy: 2
Kim: 4
Kalie: 4, but her husband wants 2, so they'll compromise at 3
Colleen: 2

It's interesting that the desired TFR is equivalent to or greater than the zero growth population rate, which is two.  In simpler words that means that in order for our world population to remain stable, a woman is allotted 2 children to replace her and her husband or baby daddy, or whatever. Thomas Malthus theorized that one day the world population would exceed the available food supply. I believe his assertion to be correct.

Although most of the people who will read this live in the US or another developed country with access to ample food supplies (as shown by your apparent access to the internet) there are literally hundreds of thousands of people starving because they DON'T have access to even enough food to even survive.  We are suffering from overpopulation, the world population has exceeded 7 BILLION PEOPLE.  Due to advancement in technology we are able to produce more food at higher rates but we can't do this forever especially with the population growth increasing exponentially. There will be a carrying capacity to be reached, if it hasn't been already.

And as shown by the results from my insignificant little poll above, we don't have any intention of stabilizing the population.  Let's step back a second and reevaluate what a "perfect life" would be life in a world without enough food to feed you, your husband, or your two kids.

Contagion

Recently I watched the movie Contagion, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It goes along perfectly with my major and is an interesting hypothetical anecdote of what would happen should the world be infected by a seemingly incurable virus.

See trailer below:

Generally, the gist of the movie is that Gwenyth Paltrow's character came in contact with a pig-bat hybrid virus while on a trip to China.  This virus had never been seem before and mutated very easily, scientists had a very hard time growing samples of the virus or finding an anecdote.  Paltrow's character  spread the epidemic to everyone she came in contact with while in a hotel in China and on her journey home (which was comprised of a diverse group of foreigners over a holiday weekend) spreading the infection worldwide.

Eventually the world goes into a state of hysteria, thinking that they are all going to become infected and die. The CDC and WHO attempt to contain the infected areas and people panic.  The high levels of emotion running through citizen's minds lead to mob raids on the government, turning over vehicles, breaking windows, robbing stores, threatening and attacking people, and setting things on fire.

A perfect case of mob mentality is when an official from the CDC announced that there would be no more anecdotes handed out that day to a very long line of people.  One man ran towards a woman holding the last anecdote, stealing it from her and knocking her down, and the crowd follows creating a domino effect of hysteria.

What to learn: Don't touch your face.

#YOLO

This acronym stands for: You Only Live Once

It is often used by the young people to justify taking risks or do something that they normally wouldn't do. Using "YOLO" is a good technique to try to persuade your friends to do something they don't want to, peer pressure--it works.

Although this type of phrase has been used in many different contexts for literally hundreds of years (ex. "enjoy it while you can," "live like you were dying," etc.) by every age of people probably dating back to some Socrates theory or a quote from Abraham Lincoln, it has been recently popularized by Drake and Tyga in their song "The Motto."

YOLO's popularity is a classic case fad, often being blown out of proportion by users hash-tagging it pictures on Facebook or getting it tattooed on to their bodies in a futile attempt to become trendy.

But what do we actually know about fads? They fade. They become unpopular as quickly as they became popular and people shed them for the new latest trend.  Let's take for example the Beanie Babies trend in the 1990s. Everybody had at least 30 Beanie Babies which they thought would become collectors items within the next ten years.  Newsflash: They didn't. Beanie Babies are now popular in thrift stores for 1/4 of their original price.

Or how about skateboarding shoes? Everyone at my middle school jumped of that bandwagon looking like little teenage punks and proliferating the bad image adults give teenagers. Thank God that's over. Nike shorts will come to an end. The feather in your hair that looked so cute this past summer now is outdated and you WILL get dirty looks for wearing one. Crackle nail polish, hippy headbands, high waisted skirts, and plaid will all phase out eventually. The RZR phone has been replaced for the iPhone, the gameboy color for the Kinect, and flip-flops for sandals.

So as a word to the wise: Fads are fun while they last, but don't get them tattooed on your body.

Juvenile Delinquency

I volunteer a couple times per semester at a Juvenile Delinquency Center in Mart, just outside of Waco.  We go in and talk to the kids really about whatever they want to talk about and play a couple games of pick-ip basketball or volleyball with them.  Somehow it always gets brought up, but the kid will tell us why he's in the center. Usually this will be burglary, armed burglary, or sometimes sexual assault (which I won't lie is a little discomforting to hear from the child sitting next to me, no older than my little sister).

I always ask what they want to do when they get out.  Some will have stories of hope saying that they want to come to Baylor or college in general, and others say they just want to go home to their mother's cooking.  But you'd be surprised to learn how many of them are repeat offenders and have been in the same Juvenile Delinquency Center more than once.  This screams to me stigmatized shame and recidivism.  The kid will often go home and fall back into the patterns of hanging out with the same bad influence friends who go them in trouble the first time or family members who taught them that crime is accepted in society (Differential Association Theory) and land themselves back in the center.

I think that many people put a negative stigma on criminals, thinking that they are inherently bad people, but more often than not they were raised in an environment that led them to this life of being in and out of prison. Their parents and siblings may be the same way, usually coming from poverty, and it's sad to see this repetitive cycle that they become trapped within.

Clothing Norms

If you've ever heard of a flashmob, that's basically what Improv Everywhere does.  It is a group based out of New York City in which thousands of regular New Yorkers volunteer to participate in various flashmobs which test the social norms of society.  

This is their annual No Pants Subway Ride:

Look at how people react, it is absolutely against the norm to not be fully clothed in public. Volunteers are instructed to act normal as if they are not breaking any kind of norm, while hidden video people record the reactions of others around the partially clothed participants. If asked why they aren't wearing pants they'll simply reply with something like "Oh, I just forgot my pants."

Great example of a sociological experiment.

Aggie Ethnocentricism

Ethnocentricism: The tendency to assume that one's culture and way of life represent the norm or are superior to all others.


Aggies ethnocentric from the day they arrive at Fish Camp and integrate "WHOOP!" and "Howdy" into their vocabulary until the day they die.  Ask any Aggie about their many school traditions and they will defiantly defend their worth and importance to the university. 

The Century Tree:  According to legend, this tree has been around longer than anyone can remember which is why they dubbed it "The Century Tree." Somewhere, someone decided that if you walk under this tree alone you will be cursed with being alone forever, whereas if you walk under it with your true love you will be together forever. And for some reason walking backwards removes the curse.

It's just a tree...if it's really been around that long I'm sure thousands of people in history have walked under it alone and have lived lives full of friendship and love.

Sul Ross Statue:  This guy gave Texas A&M their name of the "Fightin' Texas Aggies" because he punched someone in the face when they suggested to dissolve the all boys military school that was Texas A&M back in the day. I believe he was a president of the university and had a policy for students about "pennies for their thoughts." Now, students believe that he will bring them good luck on their exams if they offer him a penny.

Or you could just study like a good Baylor Bear?

BTHO and t.u.: BTHO is an overused acronym meaning "Beat the Hell Outta" used by Aggies to describe what they intend to do (but hardly execute) to the opposing team, namely their rival The University of Texas. Aggies for some reason think that A&M is THE University of Texas and so refuse to call the actual University of Texas by its proper name and refer to it as t.u.

Every school has a right to school pride and their own traditions, but in my opinion these people take it too far.  At least they can finally say "goodbye to Texas university" as they get BTHO in the SEC :)

Sorority Uniform

I went to a school that required that we wear uniforms.  This is probably because I lived in a poor area mixed with a rich area, and they didn't want students to display gang related symbols or students to feel bad that they couldn't afford expensive clothes that would be worn if there were no uniform.

To my knowledge Baylor does not enforce a dress code or a uniform policy, so why are all these sorority girls dressed the exactly same?

At the SLC:

If a sorority girl is working out she's wearing below the knee length tights, a t-shirt much to large for her petite size, and the essential newest Nike kicks (heaven forbid they actually be actually made for EXERCISE. These shoes in the world of a real athlete are made for wearing around.  If you wore something like these to do a workout, you'd find yourself with a nasty case of shin splints).  Occasionally a headband will be thrown into the ensemble for an extra attempt at looking like they're doing a real workout. 

Sidenote: Lulumon Athletica is a popular brand of workout clothes that has recently emerged onto the market, it seemingly makes clothes to appease the needs of sorority girls.

I've actually heard someone say: "Omg, I like your tights." Really? You're working out, you should be concerned with the betterment of your physicality, not what the girl on the elliptical machine next to you is wearing. This isn't a fashion show.  You are sweating.

To class (lazy version):

This is a slight variation of "At the SLC."  Usually this involves full-length tights, UGG boots, and a NorthFace fleece (colors can range anywhere from black to pastels). 

If it's a warmer day, you can bet that they'll be wearing one of the same pastel-colored shirts with Greek letters slapped across the front or back, still a little too big, with their Nike tempo shorts (which might I add are also for running). And don't forget your Nike running shoes!  

Backpacks are usually a pattern of paisley, a solid color with the girls initials in leather clearly visible on the front, or simply an oversized purse.

My roommate once told me she was so upset that someone had stolen her NorthFace fleece, a jacket that costs upwards of $90. 

To class:

Maybe class started at 11am this morning instead of 9am and they were feeling a little bit motivated to look presentable. On these kinds of days a sorority girl will wear usually dark skinny jeans or khakis with a societally acceptable shirt or the same-old, same-old pastel shirt depicting the logo of SING! or some "Into the Jungle" themed formal from 2 years ago.  Shoes will either be cute sandals or Sperrys (a shoe made for boating, virtually waterproof that was for some reason adopted by both male and female Greek life as a staple clothing item).

If it's raining:

Rainboots, all different kinds but they have to be cute.  Often times these will be paired with the full-length tights and the sorority issued rain jacket with the oh-so-classy Charlie Brown stripe dissecting the torso lengthways.

Does anybody actually wear rain boots outside of a college campus?

At the game:
Since we are in Texas it's only appropriate to wear cowboy boots (which are completely impractical for riding, as my equestrian team roommate has informed me) even if you have never been on a ranch or touched a horse in your life.  And what's more practical with cowboy boots than a dress?! Nothing I can think of.

Might I remind you that we are a sporting event, not a dance or date.

This is a classic case of conformity.  How many of these girls do you think dressed like this in high school?  Or would dress like this if a precedent wan't set by their sisters before them?  Not only are these outfits ridiculous for the functions they perform, but they also defy the norms of society (we're talking outside the Baylor Bubble).  We go through all these awkward middle school and high school years to "find ourselves" and we finally get to a college that we chose based off of our own likes, dislikes, and interests and lose all that personality in the conformity of Greek life.  Not to mention that as women, we were given great bodies...so why hide underneath oversized clothes that have no place in fashion or society?

How to Get Ready for a Date

Once again, my favorite sociologist: JennaMarbles or Jenna Mourey

She always says the most controversial, but truthful things in her videos.  I think she does a really good job of pointing out what people see in society everyday but tend to ignore because that is exactly what we were taught to do by society itself.  For example, lets take a look at some gender roles for women that Jenna points out:

The first step is to get dressed:
"You can't go like [yourself], you're a sexual object."
When getting dressed for a date you need to make sure to wear something that is "short, tight, and shows off your sweater puppies." Also "wear as much perfume as possible," "...lots of jewelry," and
"Don't forget to wear heels!"
Jenna says that in this step you are trying to make the man feel like he is watching a juvenile video.

Your next important thing to do is pick a bag:
"Pick one that says: 'I paid way too much money for this.'"

Then pack your bag with the essentials:
"Pack a sandwich...this lets him know you can cook, plus he's going to ask you to make one for him anyway." Then go ahead and "throw some rubber gloves and cleaning supplies in there so he knows you can clean too."

Now that you are ready for your date, "you should sext him before he leaves so he can justify buying you an entire meal."

Once you are on the date, "remember...you're a girl.  You're not funny, smart, or interesting." So "get all your fake laughs ready and be super impressed with everything he says." "If he asks you a question, don't panic...When in doubt, just giggle and do something adorable."

"When the date is over make sure you have sex with him, because that's all you're good for."

At the end of her instruction, Jenna implies that showing up like yourself is WAY too risky, you might get hurt! She takes a serious societal view of women's gender roles and turns it into something satirical to point out how wrong it is.  In the modern world it's sad to think that some people view women this way, and sadder still to think that some women allow men to think of them this way.

Outsourcing

In Baby Mama, the movie written by and starring Tina Fey, there is a scene where Tina Fey's character Kate goes to the surrogacy agency and talks to Chaffee Bicknell about how the whole surrogacy process works.

Kate asks why these women do it, why would they carry someone else's child. 
Chaffee Bicknell, a woman obsessed with her own class, asks Kate if she plans to hire a nanny. 
Kate replies "Of course I do, I have to go back to work."
Bicknell then explains that as successful women in the workforce they outsource, they hire others to do their dirty work for them.  She says that hiring a surrogate mother is the same thing as hiring a nanny, it's someone to take care of your child before they're born versus the nanny to take care of them after they are born.  She tells Kate that Kate's job is probably hard but she likes it and is good at what she does.  A surrogate mother is just the same with her job.
Kate then takes this analogy to the literal sociology definition of outsourcing and asks: "You don't mean my child will be carried by some underprivileged, white trash woman do you?"

Yes. Yes, she does.

In economic terms, wealthy countries used to have separate colonies which they used for outsourcing.  Now countries use corporations to outsource by having poorer nations do the manual labor parts of the job for less money.  Essentially they are exploiting workers from other nations by taking advantage of the fact that they will work for less pay and in worse conditions.  Unfortunately, a great example of economic outsourcing is Nike.

Athlete In-Group

Recently someone came up to me and said: "I wish I could wear sweats to school everyday and get away with it like athletes."

I guess by definition Baylor Athletics would be considered an In-Group.  Most athletes feel an affinity or closeness to other athletes purely for the reason that they understand the dynamics of each others lives, and it's easy to make friends with people who function with a similar mentality.  And as with many In-Groups, there is often an In-Group Bias.  Not to say that all athletes hold an In-Group Bias, but I definitely would say that it is present at Baylor.

For example:  Often times when being introduced to a friend of a friend (who is also happens to be an athlete), the first thing that will be said is "This is Jenn, she runs track."  Or if I am not introduced by my affiliation with athletics the friend will ask "Oh what sport do you play?" What if I wasn't in athletics?  Does that mean I'm somehow not worthy to be part of your tight-knit group of friends?

I'll admit it, sometimes I carry an In-Group bias.  I'll ask people what sport they play and if I receive an answer that "I don't," yeah I'm less interested in their life.  This doesn't mean that I like the person any less because they aren't in athletics, but I often times find it difficult to spend time with people who aren't currently in a sport.

Personally I think the reason that athletes hang out with other athletes is because

• Our schedules mesh. Class in the morning, practice in the afternoon, tutoring at night. Repeat.
• We have similar eating and habits. Carbloading.
• We spend a WHOLE LOT of time together working hard at practice and it creates bonds other people wouldn't understand unless they physically endured the pain along with us.
• Game days mean no party nights and when everyone else is out, you have your hang out with and head to bed early along with you.

So maybe there's an Out-Group bias that certain people find it okay for athletes to wear sweats everyday because we work out everyday?

Why Girls Hate Each Other

JennaMarbles, aka Jenna Mourey, is my all-time favorite sociologist. 

"First of all, girls, it's not your fault that you hate girls. You were taught how to do this."

Jenna explains that "everyone was taught to do this," when we grow up we are taught to be competitive in school and on soccer teams, etc.  You are taught to try to be better than the person next to you.  This is a great example of primary socialization teaching children the norms of society. "And when we grow up this doesn't go away."  In college we are judged by our looks, in the professional world you want to move up in rank and get a better job than your peer, celebrities are constantly criticized for their appearance, there is always a winner and a loser.  This is secondary socialization proliferating our idea that competition is natural in society and apparently needed.

When girls hate each other they simply say, "I'm going to take that [thought of judging people and competing with them], and I'm done thinking about it."  Kohlberg's conventional level of moral development is based on using the lens or norms and rules to determine right and wrong, and Jenna basically says that this is what we're doing.  It's not our fault that we're judging people, we're just using what we know as right and doing it without thinking.

Girls that hate each other do so purely out of competition.
She's prettier than me, she has a hot boyfriend, she's more popular than I am, yoga pants look way better on her than me.
And what do we do?  We want that girl to crash and fail.
Why? Competition.  Society taught girls to hate each other, to compete with each other and desire for each other to fail.

Jenna says to combat this natural competition we simply have to accept that we are ourselves and there is just one of us, instead of letting society tell us what to do.  Let everyone else compare you to others, fight the cat apocalypse 2012.

Backstreet's Back?!

Before the time of WhichWich or Moe's, the BSB was a quiet place for science majors to study at one of the many OPEN tables in the the atrium.  Now the place is overrun with loud sandwich-eating invaders from distant parts of campus, but that's a story for another time.

WhichWich opens at 10:30, so us science majors are given a few quiet study hours before the lunch rush. But, this morning there was a blatant disturbance.

Some guy walking through the BSB, minding his own business, earphones in, backpack on, ready to go for the day was BELTING out Backstreet Boys music.  The people sitting around me and myself tried to quietly chuckle and not look up from our work, but he just kept on belting 90s Pop music.  At this point I noticed that almost everyone looked up at each other with puzzled looks on their faces and blatantly burst out into laughter together.

Come to find out, this guy was doing a project for his own Sociology class in which he had to break social norms (good job!) to see how others reacted.  Our negative informal sanction to him for breaking the silence, the norm of morning hours in the BSB, was laughter at his expense.

Suave on a Skateboard? Not So Much.

Today when I was on my way to class I happened to overhear an interesting conversation:

This girl was telling her friend the story of how she and another of her female friends were walking to class and a guy on a skateboard rode up in between the two and said "well hello ladies," with a smug grin on his face.  After making this awkward declaration, the guy attempted to push off the ground and smoothly ride away.  But, apparently he caught his foot on the other which led him to flip over on his back onto the hard sidewalk, with his skateboard flying 30 ft in the other direction.

This a perfect example of front stage performance.  This random guy attempted to look cool in front of total strangers by putting on a suave act, which unfortunately for him miserably failed.


From what I heard, after falling flat onto the ground he quickly got up and exclaimed "I...I have to go find my skateboard" and ran off in that direction.  This is face-saving work at its finest.