"Seven sorority sisters, suing anonymously as Jane Does... said Artemis only posed as a transgender woman to get into the sorority...."

"As she read the allegations, Artemis felt angry and betrayed. 'Some parts were completely made up,' she said. 'Others were things I remember but in their version was twisted to look weird, gross, sexual.' Many passages felt deeply personal, as though those filing the lawsuit could sense her deepest anxieties. She was still learning to dress as a woman and had been able to afford only a few long dresses that reflected her modest Mormon upbringing. The lawsuit took note: 'Other than occasionally wearing women’s clothing, Mr. Smith makes little effort to resemble a woman.' 'Mr. Smith is 6’2” tall, and he weighs 260 pounds. No other member of Kappa Kappa Gamma has comparable size or strength.' Other accusations homed in on the social awkwardness that Artemis says was partly a symptom of her autism. 'He has several times chosen to sit for hours on the couch in the second-floor common area. He does not study. He does not speak to the women who live there.... Mr. Smith has, while watching members enter the sorority house, had an erection visible through his leggings. Other times he has had a pillow in his lap.'..."

From "A trans woman joined a sorority. Then her new sisters turned on her. A 21-year-old University of Wyoming student was looking for community. Instead, she faced death threats, a federal lawsuit and an attempt to kick her out" (WaPo).

"The fact that the white reporter sent to cover her didn't know what Skee Wee was is not a good sign...."

Kamala is running for POTUS (probably). She's an AKA.

The fact that the white reporter sent to cover her didn't know what Skee Wee was is not a good sign that the media is going to cover her with the cultural competency required. And it IS a requirement! pic.twitter.com/9MrZuGynIz

— Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) January 10, 2019

AKA, as described in Essence:

Whether it’s your mom, an aunt, a friend or yourself, chances are you know someone in your sister circle who is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. Founded in 1908 at Howard University Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority was the first African-American organization of it’s kind. Notable members include Phylicia Rashad, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Alicia Keys — just to name a few. There are over 290,000 women who make up the organization and the sorority recently celebrated its 109th anniversary.

The "Skee Wee" sound is a registered trademark of the sorority.

ADDED: The reporter, from the Washington Post, is Chelsea Janes, and her embarrassing tweet looked like this:

Janes has apologized and deleted the tweet.

All the sororities at Northwestern reject this transgender man, Adam Davies.

You might expect a transgender woman to seek membership in a sorority. This was a transgender man — a person born with a female body who is living in a male gender identity.

Eighteen-year-old Adam Davies said he was drawn to the tenets of Greek life — philanthropy, bonding and leadership — but that with his changing body he might not feel comfortable living in a fraternity.

So he sought out the sisterhood of a sorority instead.

"I guess I see it on a level that transcends the gender binary," said Davies, of Appleton, Wis....

Just as sororities were established to give women a safe space in a patriarchal system, Davies believes they should now strive to provide that same kind haven to anyone marginalized for not fitting typical gender norms.

"I believe, over time, the gender of these organizations will fade," he said. "I hope."

"As for the pasta, Lader admits to putting a colander in her roommate's bedsheets but insists it contained no noodles."

"Her act of protest, she maintains, was to draw attention to the fact that Brownstein wasn't pulling her fair share of the housework around the apartment."

From "Roommate drama lands Penn State sorority sisters in federal court."

A video promoting a University of Alabama sorority has been taken down because it was perceived as blindingly blonde.

"The university was quick to disavow the video. A statement from the school’s associate vice president for university relations, Deborah Lane, said that the video 'is not reflective of UA’s expectations for student organizations to be responsible digital citizens.'"

"Blindingly blonde" is my expression. I was going to say "insufficiently diverse," but that didn't really convey the problem. Here, see and judge for yourself:



ADDED: For context, here's a Buzzfeed article from last year titled "University Of Alabama’s Sororities Still Resist Integrating/Seven months after allegations of racism were raised, little has changed. 'There is a strong sense of ‘There’s nothing you can do about it.'" Excerpt:

UA sophomore Khortlan Patterson, a black woman from Houston, was offered multiple bids to join Alabama’s traditionally white Panhellenic sororities but turned them down. “I don’t want to pay $6,000 a year to get criticized and ostracized,” Patterson said. “I don’t want to pay money to be a part of that.”

Instead, Patterson pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first historically African-American sorority. She considered joining a Panhellenic chapter in order to push change from the inside, but ultimately, Patterson decided it would have been more of a trial than an opportunity.

“No one’s going to say flat out, ‘You can’t hang out with us because we don’t consider you to be our sister.’ But I think that in their actions it would probably be communicated in that way.”

"Embattled Miss America Kira Kazantsev admitted Tuesday she was kicked out of her Hofstra University sorority..."

"... but insisted it was over a bad joke — and not cruel hazing."

“Under the broad definition of hazing, yes I was involved with some of those activities while I was at Hofstra... At the time, unfortunately, that was just the culture of the university.... And I was kind of brought up through the organization thinking that was appropriate behavior when clearly … today I understand that’s just not true... In the e-mail I basically made a joke... And that [joke] was taken out of context and forwarded to the national office.”

And here's the Jezebel article that brought this incident to light. Excerpt:

A recent graduate who attended Hofstra at the same time as Kazantsev told Jezebel that the final two steps of pledging in one (unnamed) sorority involved making all of the pledges remove their underwear and sit on newspapers while the older members forced them to watch lesbian porn. Anyone whose newspaper stuck to them at the end of the video, the former student said, was branded a dyke, ridiculed, and tossed out. The remaining girls were then forced to perform oral sex on their sorority "big sisters." Other Greeks required pledges to sit in circles around bowls of cat food and other various inedibles. They'd take turns eating and as soon as someone threw up, they had to eat the puke. Another sorority would wrap completely naked pledges in tinfoil, take them to bars, and instruct them to dance until last call. Patrons would pull pieces of foil off, and pledges were considered sexually up for grabs.

These, of course, are extreme examples, and not necessarily attributed to Kazantsev's sorority....

"Party hardy" or "party hearty"?

The NYT has a "Sunday Styles" article about sororities at Harvard. Somehow, at the NYT, the fact that something happens at Harvard is the essence of newsworthiness.

[S]ororities of the traditional state-college variety have taken root at Harvard, a place where for years the biggest social event for women was the annual Take Back the Night rally. Kappa Alpha Theta, the sorority of Laura Bush and Lynne Cheney, was the first to arrive on campus, in 1992. Delta Gamma followed in 1994, and Kappa Kappa Gamma opened its chapter in 2003. But while Harvard sororities share the same Greek letters as their party-hardy sister chapters at Michigan, Texas and Ole Miss, their social agendas are startlingly wholesome, perhaps giving new meaning to the phrase Harvard Square. They hold kickball tournaments and pajama parties and take apple-picking trips. Their recruitment meetings take place not at bars but at the local Finagle a Bagel and Au Bon Pain. And far from being catty and exclusive, they strive to welcome any woman who might hope to join.

"Party hardy"? Shouldn't it be "party hearty"? Google shows a slight edge for "party hearty" (31,800 hits) over "party hardy" (27,700), but let's check out the commentary:

Hardy/Hearty. These two words overlap somewhat, but usually the word you want is "hearty.” The standard expressions are “a hearty appetite,” “a hearty meal,” a “hearty handshake,” “a hearty welcome,” and “hearty applause." "Hardy” turns up in “hale and hardy,” but should not be substituted for "hearty” in the other expressions. “Party hearty” and “party hardy” are both common renderings of a common youth saying, but the first makes more sense.

I'll bet a lot of people haven't really noticed that these are two different words:

These two sound much alike and can easily be mistaken for each other in the spoken language. Hardy means “strong, daring, able to withstand stress” and, of plants, “able to live through the winter.” She’s a hardy person, at eighty-two still caring for her own house and garden. Hearty means “cordial, enthusiastic, unrestrained, vigorous,” as in She gave us a hearty welcome followed by an equally hearty dinner.

Well, what are you really trying to say to someone when you say "party hardy/hearty"? If you're trying to wish the person well in holding up to all that drinking, it's "hardy." If you want them to have a lot of rollicking fun, it's "hearty." If you're trying to say both, stick to the spoken word. If you're the NYT, and you mean to insult the catty, exclusionary state school girls, "hardy" actually is the better choice.