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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
The Zeta Omega Eta pledge class of 2005 at Trinity College.
A sorority at Trinity College aims to redefine sisterhood.
Dec 22, 2005 | It's the sorority holiday party, and sorority holiday things are happening. "Secret sister" gifts are exchanged amid giggles, hugs and -- in the case of the sex toys and the bottle of Bacardi -- delighted whoops. One sister receives a mini-rugby ball and a bottle of beer. "I said I like rugby men and men who drink beer," she confesses, referring to wish lists circulated to help the sisters with their shopping. "I told her to get you stuff you didn't have!" teases another. Ooh, snap! Hoots and hollers all around.
This might sound, in some ways, like a "typical" sorority scene. But what if I told you that the gift that provoked one of the most vocal responses -- mostly pro-, I think -- was a copy of Maureen Dowd's "Are Men Necessary"? Or that a sister's mention that she'd like Teach for America to place her in Hawaii prompted the response "Wow, just think about all the Polynesian cultural issues"?
Yes, there is something different about Zeta Omega Eta at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.: This sorority calls itself "feminist."
A "feminist sorority"? At Trinity, known affectionately (or not) as "Camp Trin Trin"? Yes. And yes, I'm sure I didn't mean Wesleyan (Trinity's far crunchier neighbor to the south).
"Feminist sorority" does indeed sound like an oxymoron, and to a certain extent it is. As far as anyone is aware, it's the only such group on any U.S. campus. (Zeta's only known counterpart, at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock -- also not exactly Wesleyan -- is said to have recently folded.)
But sororities in general seem to be changing -- very, very slowly. "There is a movement to make these groups more progressive and relevant in the 21st century because they understand that if they don't progress they might get wiped out," says Alexandra Robbins, author of "Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities." The primary obstacle: "The sense of tradition in these organizations is so strong that any movement toward change is inevitably going to encounter a backlash." Still, Robbins recently worked as a consultant with the national leadership of one sorority whose highest-ups "were thinking about more revolutionary changes than even I suggested," she says. "It was very encouraging. The day might not be so far away when a 'feminist sorority' no longer has to be just a 'local.'" (Single-chapter fraternities and sororities that do not have national parent organizations, like Zeta, are known as "locals.")
Zeta Omega Eta, which spells a Greek word for "life," was founded in 2003 by current seniors Anne-Louise Marquis and Meghan Boone as a place for like-minded women at Trinity -- who, they say, sometimes feel excluded from a certain preppy/party culture -- to come together socially and, broadly speaking, politically. "Greek life dominates the social scene; basically, if you're not going to a Greek party you're not going to any party," says Boone, who is from Royal Palm Beach, Fla. "The two sororities are pretty sorority-ish in the classic sense," says Boone. "It seemed like there was a whole group of girls who were being left out of the scene. We thought the word 'sorority,' much like the word 'feminist,' should be reclaimed."
Marquis and Boone, roommates at the time, set out about 10 chairs for Zeta's first organizational meeting. Nearly 50 students showed up. One of them was current senior Sarah Carter, 21, of Durham, N.H., who'd come to Trinity for the full financial aid she was offered, and who had strongly considered transferring. Trinity's "reputation for elitism, you know, pop the collar, loafers without socks," had, in her experience, proved true to a large degree. "It was kind of disappointing being a feminist and walking into the Women's Center and" -- she whistles and mimes tumbleweeds rolling across a road -- "finding no one around."
Zeta's first meeting was therefore a welcome surprise. "I fully expected no one to show up. I thought no one else was like me," she says. "But I walked in and the room was wall-to-wall people. Men and women." (It should be noted that Carter now speaks highly of the Women's Center.)
New Zeta sister Gwen Hopkins, 19, a sophomore from Rochester, N.Y., who gladly calls herself a feminist, had been "pretty put off by the homogeneity of what seemed like the only social options -- frat parties -- and of the people who went to them," she says. Hopkins saw Zeta's potential to "change Greek life from the inside instead of reacting from the outside like I normally do." Still, she hesitated: "It was hard for me to handle the idea of being a 'sorority girl.' That stigma is a lot harder for me to handle than that of 'feminist!'" she says. "So pledging was kind of a mental struggle. But I'm so happy to be getting to know the sisters, and it took me a while to be able to throw around words like 'pledging' and 'sisters.'"
Many members are drawn to Zeta because of the word "feminist," some in spite of it. While the campus has several women's organizations, including one called Feminists United, along with gay and other social justice groups, this is a campus where sparse attendance at an April "Take Back the Night" event was described in the campus newspaper as indicative of "the apathy and disengagement of the student body." The matter of the word "feminist" is an ongoing conversation within Zeta, says Marquis, who is from San Jose, Calif. "Some sisters don't want themselves or Zeta to feel defined or limited by such a powerful word. Others join with stigmatized views of it, which we try and discuss as often as possible. Try as we might, there are still stereotypes that go along with the word that some people have trouble identifying with. I think it's Zeta's job on this campus and everywhere to help give this word a positive image."
