The chapter of the historic sorority, which was founded in 1872, recently posted a recruitment video that has already raised a lot of eyebrows. It’s all so racially and aesthetically homogeneous and forced, so hyper-feminine, so reductive and objectifying, so Stepford Wives: College Edition.
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The Alpha Phi video was loaded on YouTube and reportedly viewed more than 500,000 times before it was taken down, but copies are still circulating. “It’s all so… unempowering”, she writes. The Alpha Phi YouTube video has now been completely erased from the internet.
The Alpha Phi recruitment video features 72 members of the Greek organization attending campus events, dancing while at a party, wearing bikinis at a lake, and basically, doing traditional “girly” things. “The sorority did not think that they are not only representing themselves, but the University as a whole!”
Alpha Phi now stands as the fourth-oldest sorority in the country, with some distinguished alumni, like first female treasurer of the United States. Sadly, commodities don’t tend to command much respect’.
An excerpt from the Alpha Phi Alabama sorority website follows.
Bailey has been deemed a hypocrite by some because she runs a fashion and lifestyle blog. “The continued fight for equal pay, the prevalence of women not being in charge of their own healthcare issues, and the ever-increasing number of women who are still coming out against Bill Cosby after decades of fearful silence show that we are not yet taken seriously”.
Several other sororities from the University of Alabama also made similar recruitment videos that were not the subject of such criticism.
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The four-minute video, which has the sheen of a professionally shot clip, shows dozens of members from the apparently all-white sorority strutting in bikinis, partying in their opulent house, compulsively laughing, blowing bubbles and lounging around in matching white dresses.
