EDITOR,

As a first-year I was baffled by how many Whitman students wore Whitman sweatshirts! Everyone here is the same! They all attend Whitman parties, they all wear Whitman sweatshirts, and they all live together! Paying for a hierarchical organization that determines how you will socialize, contribute to your community and dress undermines the formidable, but character-building project of grappling with those challenges independently. Whitman students are stunting their growth through such conformity and at the end of the day are really just paying for friends.

This argument can be made for every kind of social group. Social groups are made to bring people together, whether it be a Church, a community service organization, a college or a sorority. And yep, they usually make a shirt out of it.

Sorry Gabriela, but your argument has been made before and I dare say it conforms to the indie culture of stereotyping Greek groups. Perhaps if you stepped outside of your own social bubble and talked to a few members of the Greek system yourself, you would see that we aren’t all mindless conformists who feel pressured to take jello shots in our jammies.

p.s. And wait? I don’t NEED to be in a sorority to drink or sing degrading songs about myself? OMG I had noooooo idea. Although those are my two favorite things, maybe I shouldn’t be in a sorority? I don’t know, I don’t have a brain, you tell me.

– Ellie Klein ’10