INSIDE GREEK U Author Responds to Sorority Recruitment Video

University of Kentucky professor of communications, Alan D. DeSantis, appeared on Inside Edition on Monday to discuss a controversial sorority recruitment video. The backlash against the University of Alabama's chapter of Alpha Phi sorority began with an article on local Alabama news site, AL.com with the headline, "Worse For Women Than Donald "It was a great night for Mexico" Trump." DeSantis, a graduate of the University of Alabama and the author of Inside Greek U., said, "Many of the shots were objectifying to women." He continued, "This organization that's part of higher education is selling a product that is basically saying, 'If you're white, if you have blond hair, if you're exceptionally thin and beautiful, we're the place that you should be.'"

Inside Greek U.: Fraternities, Sororities, and the Pursuit of Pleasure, Power, and Prestige argues that while these organizations claim to expand the life options of their members, the gender classifications they reinforce retard the intellectual and personal growth of the men and women who comprise them. Fraternity brothers are taught to be "real men" who are promiscuous, violent, and competitive, while the campus sorority houses mold their sisters to be their skinny, passive, and domestic "good girl" counterparts. With over 200,000 Greeks graduating each year, the pointed gender indoctrination taking place on fraternity and sorority row poses a significant threat to how gender roles are transformed in the future.

DeSantis argues that reforming fraternities and sororities is both possible and necessary. He calls upon professors, alumni, administrators, parents, and Greeks to dedicate themselves to unearthing these damaging practices and to create a healthy environment where conceptions of gender can be understood and accepted as fluid.

Alan D. DeSantis is professor of communications at the University of Kentucky. He has published numerous journal articles in publications such as Health Communication,The International Journal of Refugee Studies, and the Journal of Communication and Religion.

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