Twisted sisters

Why did they agree to do it?

While I interviewed hundreds of sorority sisters across the country, these four girls' stories would be most representative of sorority life. It was kind of an honor for them. They're good girls and they enjoyed sorority life and they wanted to share that.

One thing that surprised me was that sororities have stricter rules against the media than they do against hazing. I was kicked out of the first sorority house I tried to be involved with. I was blacklisted from an entire campus. When I started writing this book, the 26 national historically white sororities had just instituted a media blackout because they're upset about the MTV show "Sorority Life." They forced me to go undercover.

What are they upset about on the MTV show? What do they think the public doesn't know and is going to find out?

That was a question I came away with, because knowing what I know now, I have to wonder whether sororities are afraid that the media will portray sororities untruthfully or that they'll expose too much of the truth.

I would imagine that most of these girls are aware of the stereotypes of sorority girls and frat boys -- maybe not so much in the South, where it's so ingrained -- but most of them must know about the negative images. What do they say about that?

In many cases these are sororities of superlatives -- the prettiest, the coolest. But Sabrina, one of my four main subjects, said to me, "I know the stereotypes have to come from somewhere and I'm starting to see where." She saw that in her own sorority.

What was she talking about?

She was talking about the wealth and the looks and the standards they have. She was an impoverished African-American girl trying to make her way in a predominantly white wealthy sorority. She felt isolated a lot of the time.

Were you surprised by the money -- how much disposable income some of these girls have?

There was a group that at the end of the year as a gift to the seniors give them each something from Tiffany. And that was a group that doesn't do much community service.

Did they wonder about how much time they were wasting on this stuff? Meetings are more important than midterms in some sororities.

It makes no sense. Yes, sororities require a minimum GPA. Fine, that's great. But they're so sorority-centric that the time that could be concentrated on academics is spent doing things like making posters and writing funny songs.

Why did Sabrina, who was so hardworking and concerned about grades, want to join?

As an impoverished black woman she saw a wealthy white sorority as a steppingstone. Whether it's going to provide the kind of network she envisioned, I doubt it, because white sororities don't have the same network that black sororities do. One African-American official said their network is stronger than the black churches.

So let's get into that. What are the differences between black and white sororities?

First of all, I think it's funny that both of them are called sororities because they're entirely different things. In the black sororities they celebrate achievement academically and they really do work toward community service. As much as the white sororities claim that's the case in their groups, it's not really so. White sororities focus on relationships. They have ceremonies and songs and rituals celebrating relationship milestones, whereas the reward for getting the highest GPA in one house was a bag of potato chips.

That's a completely different atmosphere than the black sororities. They wiped out the pledge period in the 1990s, though there is still some hazing. But they don't let you rush when you're a first-semester freshman just getting to school and they don't rush you until after you learn about the history and get to know the girls. And it's not even a rush process. It's an application.

Next Page: "Just last week there was a sorority that was accused of making its members drink and then eat their own vomit"

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