Sorority Rituals: Breaking Down Stereotypes

Sororities sometimes have bad reputations, not only based on their members' behavior but also about their rituals and initiation processes. Yet, these rumors and fears are very untrue. Although I am not an expert on all sororities and will not disclose anything about my house, there are a few things that I can express to help lessen your fear about the situation of sororities' rituals.

First, sororities are well-organized respectful groups of women. Most sororities have numerous supervisory bodies including; Panhellenic, Greek affairs, regional and national headquarters that guarantee and work for the support and safety of all members of the Greek community. Also if an organization on campus has been accused of hazing or other harm to its member it will not be a secret, administration on campus takes these issue extremely seriously.

Second, women's fraternities have long been iconic organizations on college campuses. The women of these organizations join solely by choice and in most cases not all people will join or continue through an organization that does things and acts in ways that are harmful to themselves. Also, if their rituals contained scary or weird things then members who have quit would most likely tell about the horrors that they experienced.

Thirdly, it worried about the content of a ritual speaking to an older member of the sorority is a great option. By going to them in confidence they are very likely to give a straightforward and accurate answer to a younger sister who is worried about the situation. Do not expect them to tell you the actual content of a ritual because these are generally kept secret to emphasize the effect of the ritual, but they can be reassuring and tell you things that are not going to happen.

Finally, rituals that contained items that could have been considered hazing or inappropriate at the given time are sometimes edited out of ritual by the national governing body. Most organization would never want to take a chance on going through disciplinary processes, getting bad reputations or making the national news for something in their actual official rituals. Member's of sororities are members for life and truly love and cherish their house and it's member's.

As mentioned earlier these general ideas about sorority rituals are not necessarily true for all sororities but are good points to consider if worried about what a ritual might be like. Finally, if you feel that you belong in a house and have a strong connection with many girls in the house they most likely are people you can trust.