Inside the “Sorority Girl”
Cultural Analysis
Ashley Evans
Abstract
• In this paper, the “sorority girl” is deconstructed through
three different concepts including, attitudes and ideals,
body image, and consumption. The “sorority girl” is
molded by the influences of the social “norms” and
standards set for them to adapt to from theses concepts.
This is demonstrated through scholarly articles with
theory and research about these particular concepts and
how they mold the lifestyles of women. The findings
reveal that lifestyle and control vary heavily in the
decisions made by women according to their status and
class while primarily focusing on the influences of society
and meeting a certain standard.
Three Concepts
• The “sorority girl” is constructed from the
following concepts:
– Attitudes and Ideals
– Body Image
– Consumption
• The “SG” is molded by the influences of the social
“norms” and standards set for them to adapt to
from theses concepts.
Methodology
• Organized scholarly articles and books with
research and theories referring to the 3 concepts
of the “sorority girl” in society.
• Through the research and theories of the
scholars referred to in this paper, the idea of the
“sorority girl” is justified in the three different
concepts used to deconstruct the term by the
findings of these scholars.
Attitudes and Ideals
• Article published in 1975, Ann P. Parelius
– Focuses on the attitudes toward sex roles through
research
• Questionnaire data was used to assess the attitudes of female
college students toward various dimensions of their adult sex
roles, their perceptions of men's attitudes toward women's
roles, the degree to which these attitudes and perceptions
have changed, and the possibility that strains are arising with
these changes.
– A marked shift toward feminism was found in the
women's attitudes, but little change occurred in their
perception of men as relatively conservative. Strains
may be developing as more women adopt attitudes
which they believe men reject (Parelius, 146-53).
Attitudes and Ideals
• An article written by John Finley Scott demonstrates attitude of the
college sorority with the focus on marital ideals after college.
• Scott says, “The college sorority, though academically disesteemed, is
sociologically relevant as an agent of ascriptive groups, maintaining
normative controls over courtship which in simpler societies require less
specialized expression. Norms of endogamy persist in industrial societies,
applying more strongly to women than to men, and being harder to maintain
in higher strata.”
– Since young and sexually desirable appeal is high at collegiate ages,
control by postponing marriage would disadvantage women. Ascriptive
control therefore calls for an organization which simultaneously will
discourage improper marriage and encourage proper marriage; further
it must operate where opportunities and temptations for exogamy and
hypo gamy are strong and at a physical remove from those most
committed to control.”
• Scott’s article demonstrates that women in sororities have a different
thinking about marriage and the “control” aspect of the improper and proper
marriage ideals. This correlates with attitude difference of women in
sororities and their lifestyle choices.
Attitudes and Ideals
• In Inventing the Cosmo Girl, Laurie Ouellette
demonstrates that freeing women from the guilt of
premarital sex by advising them to disregard the
patriarchal double standard… also concerned with
shaping and transforming the class position of the
Cosmo Girl through a combination of self-management
strategies, per formative tactics, sexuality, and upwardly
mobile romance (Ouellette, 359-83).
– “The aspirations of the Cosmo Girl were white, heterosexual, and
upper-middle class…similarity to femininity, class was presented
as a malleable identity that could easily be changed through per
formative tactics, convert strategies, and cultural consumption,”
says Schor.
Body Image
•
An article written by three psychologists, Lisa M. Groesz, Michael P. Levine,
and Sarah K. Murnen, demonstrates the effect of experimental
manipulations of the thin beauty ideal, as portrayed in the mass media, on
female body image was evaluated using meta-analysis (Groesz, Levine,
Murnen "The Effect of Experimental Presentation of Thin Media Images on
Body Satisfaction: a Meta-analytic Review”).
– The methodology behind the study came from data from 25 studies, where 43
effect sizes were used to examine the main effect of mass media images of the
slender ideal, meaning the super skinny model, as well as the moderating effects
of pre-existing body image problems, such as eating disorders, the age of the
participants, the number of stimulus presentations, and the type of research
design.
– The results of the study showed that body image was significantly more negative
after viewing thin media images than after viewing images of average size
models, plus size models, or inanimate objects. This effect was stronger for
between-subjects designs, participants less than 19 years of age, and for
participants who are vulnerable to activation of a thinness schema.
– The conclusion results in the support the socio-cultural perspective that mass
media promulgate a slender ideal that elicits body dissatisfaction.
Body Image
• In the chapter, “Still Killing Us Softly,” by Jean
Kilbourne in the book, Feminist Perspectives on Eating
Disorders, the effects of the media on women’s body
image is driven from the excessive thinness for women in
advertising’s power to influence our cultural standards.
– Kilbourne says, “The tyranny to the ideal image makes almost all
of us feel inferior.” An internal voice tells us to hate ourselves.
There is convincing evidence that negative body image leads to
negative self-image. In result, nearly half of adult women in the
United States are currently dieting and over three-fourths of
normal weight women think that they are “too fat” (Kilbourne,
395-97).
Consumption
• In an article about the empirical tests of status consumption, with a
focus on cosmetics, the authors, Angela Chao and Juliet B. Schor
demonstrate that consumption ordinarily occurs only with
publically visible products. They investigate brand buying patterns
among four cosmetics products, and find that visible status goods
have a lower price-quality correlation, a higher status premium, and
that the pattern of brand buying favors higher-priced, status,
brands. Also, as expected, income and occupational status are
positively associated with the propensity to engage in statuspurchasing, as are urban and suburban residence, and being a
Caucasian (Chao, Schor, 107-31).
– This study looked at the buying habits of women with their facial
cleanser as well as lipstick. Women use facial cleanser in privacy at
home, while they use their lipstick in public. This study showed that
women typically bought drug-store brand facial cleanser, though the
benefit of using the higher-priced kind shows more benefit. Women buy
the higher-priced lipstick over the drug-store brand, in regards to the
fact that they use it in public.
Consumption
• A question to Schor in the interview asked,
“What are people trying to achieve through these
status-oriented purchases?”
– Schor answered that, “… It is a class society, and the
class system creates and perpetuates the social role of
consumption, the status role of consumption. We
display our class membership and solidify our class
positioning in large parts through money, through
what we have. Consumption is a way of verifying what
you have and earn” (Schor, 21-24).
• Schor’s answer to that question correlates the entire
argument about consumption, especially in the lifestyle of
women. The purchasing power is taken out of the lives of the
women because of the vast influence that is evoked on them
through social and status roles.
Conclusion
• In conclusion, the “sorority girl” is important to women
and society because of the many women that live this
particular way and feel the need to adapt to the ideals of
soci0-economic status, lifestyle, class, perceived body
image, and consumption habits. The “sorority girl” is
molded by the influences of the social “norms” and
standards set for them to adapt to from theses concepts.
Through the research and theories of the scholars
referred to in this paper, the idea of the “sorority girl” is
justified in the three different concepts used to
deconstruct the term by the findings of these scholars.