Pledged: The Secret Life of Soroities

by Alexander Robbins

This New York Times bestseller is a fast-paced, behind-the-scenes book that blows the lid off the intriguing world of mainstream sorority life.

Alexandra Robbins wanted to find out if the stereotypes about sorority girls were actually true, so she spent a year with a group of girls in a typical sorority. The sordid behavior of sorority girls exceeded her worst expectations -- drugs, psychological abuse, extreme promiscuity, racism, violence, and rampant eating disorders are just a few of the problems. But even more surprising was the fact that these abuses were inflicted and endured by intelligent, successful, and attractive women.

Why is the desire to belong to a sorority so powerful that women are willing to engage in this type of behavior -- especially when the women involved are supposed to be considered "sisters"? What definition of sisterhood do many women embrace? Pledged combines a sharp-eyed narrative with extensive reporting and the fly-on-the-wall voyeurism of reality shows to provide the answer.

256 pages, Paperback-reprint

First published July 1, 2005

Reviews

[6655321]

Ok, this is the book equivalent of doing a jello shot and sadly when Alexandra Robbins tries to make this more "serious" or academic or tries to suggest fixing sororities the whole damn thing falls apart. Because, let's be real, what you pick up a book like this for is to learn how the "sordid behavior of sorority girls exceeded her worst expectations -- drugs, psychological abuse, extreme promiscuity, racism, violence, and rampant eating disorders are just a few of the problems."* Because trashy garbage is what I *want* when learning about sororities (NB: i grew up in the shadow of a university rife with Greek life, it didn't take a book for me to be aware that the Greek system is a deeply racist institution), so what i wanted were stories about the grotesque excesses that make this entertaining (i needed a break from serious reading) but it took me well over a month to finish because i kept putting it down because it gets so tedious (because Alexandra wants her reader to see her informants as human, and certainly sisters who are willing to talk to a journalist about how gross the institutions they participate in are way less horrible than most of their ilk, there is way too much fluff about how they are uncomfortable with their surroundings or how they aren't like the other girls or etc.). Basically, it does what is on the tin but there is a ton of filler that should have been cut (it feels like Robbins wants the Panhellenic council to not be pissed at her but, like, given how image conscious that institution is she may as well have gone no holds barred and just thrown out all the grotesque details and skipped trying to make this more informative, balanced, or humanizing or taken so many side trips to talk to concerned researchers or investigate aspects of Greek life that didn't come up enough in her discussions with her informants). Which is frustrating because i could have used a book that *doesn't* feel like work because it just gives me the cheap, glorious, horrifying thrills of being around Greek life (excessive drinking, creeps, racism, violence, hazing, rituals, vapidness) rather than an attempt to graft in some rather wooden factual reading (like you couldn't have pandered to your audience a little more?)

*Also these problems are not alike in kind

[Norine · Rating 3 out of 5]

ehhh... I find myself skipping all the technical and reading the drama... lol