Bama Rush And The Cultish Antics Of Southern Sororities
In mid-2022, a new hashtag bloomed on TikTok. It simply started as a way to advertise and market, then turned into a satire of an old and outdated institution before it eventually led to a deep analysis and questioning of that very institution. #BamaRush was all over TikTok during the month of August. #BamaRush is a trend of videos of pledge-hopefuls showing their sorority recruitment process at the University of Alabama. What started as a few simple jokes about overly blonde and perky girls named Makayla led to questions about the nature of Southern sororities.
Sororities (and technically fraternities before them, but they aren’t the topic on hand) started over a century ago in 1870. They were a place where rich, white, conventionally attractive women could go find a place to have peace and use nepotism in a world that was so cruelly against them. But truly, it did have good intentions at the start. They intended to be organizations where educated women could speak and mingle with like-minded intellectuals during a time when they were seen as rebelling against their femininity instead of brightening it. Sororities were to be used to promote a nobler womanhoodTheir execution was lacking, however, as they only seemed to be focused on one type of demographic, something that hasn’t changed in Southern universities decades later.
Image Courtesy: Corolla 1969 / University of Alabama
To understand sororities such as the ones at the University of Alabama, one must understand what type of girls they are looking for. The class difference is immediately noticeable — the average annual cost for new members at the University of Alabama is about $8,300. Competition is so fierce that it is common practice for girls to hire rush consultants, whose fees can go up to $3,500. For girls working with scholarships and praying for financial aid, it’s a major deterrent. For girls whose families are big-name businesses and have summer houses in Spain, it’s hardly a concern.
Whiteness is another major must for Bama Rush. When the trend was going, you could count the number of brown and black women on one hand. All are conventionally attractive and very much white. In 2013, it was revealed by a campus newspaper how often women of color, especially black women, were denied pledges due to their race. That’s already a horrifying fact, worsened by historical acts of racism and violence by fraternities and sororities, such as placing a burning cross on the lawn of the only at the time (and still the only) all-black sorority. Women of color are treated with a double standard that their white peers would never face in sororities, eerily similar to how women of color were treated in academia decades ago.
Still, racism and classism are hardly anything special to see when it comes to long-standing American institutions. The Machine, a secret organization that reeks of corruption and sounds like it's something out of an 80s comic book, is the most shocking part of Greek life at the University of Alabama. The Machine refers to its ability to routinely elect its candidate for Student Government Association President. While at first glance, it may not seem like much, but positions lead straight into Alabama politics. They would go as far as tapping an Independent candidate’s phone, burning a cross on the lawn of a black sorority member’s house after she won against the Machine’s candidate, and attacking another Independent candidate with a knife. All actions that sound more like a cult or corrupt government’s work than an organization that is supposed to be about bringing like-minded individuals together, as sororities and fraternities were supposed to be.
Image Courtesy: Brynn Anderson / AP
There have been some changes over the years. More and more inclusive sororities have been popping up, giving that same connection and family to many women of color who would not have been able to have the same opportunities even twenty years ago. There have been protests against the violence against women that happened in fraternities, with sororities heading the charge. The initial intentions were to encourage education with women to be seen as worldly and impressive as their male counterparts and to challenge the idea that femininity means not seeking a higher education, which was revolutionary for its time.
Image Courtesy: Scurlock Studio Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
But there is the question of whether that is enough when it comes to organizations that are built on exclusivity and deem different as unworthy. Over the course of a century, many morals and values haven’t changed in sororities. While the beginning sororities fought against sexist stereotypes, they still promoted racism and classism by making clubs that only upper-class white women would be able to join and thrive in. And despite the decades that have passed, many sororities haven’t changed– which is so very obvious during #BamaRush.
Strike Out,
Rameen Naviwala
Boca Raton
Rameen Naviwala is a content writer for Strike Magazine Boca. A water sign that enjoys rom-coms and reading melodramatic novels, she spends most of her time with headphones on and scribbling down whatever thought comes to mind. You can reach her at rameen.naviwala@outlook.com.
