Numerous television shows and movies portray Fraternity and Sorority Life as an elite party scene, escape from reality, or horror scene.
How accurate are these depictions?
TRUE or FALSE: Through joining a fraternity or sorority students become part of a social network where drinking, pranks, and partying become important everyday occurrences.
♥ FALSE. Greek-letter organizations became popular in films during the late 1970s with the release of “National Lampoon’s Animal House” (1978). The film takes college traditions like homecoming, fraternity rush, and house parties and mocks them by presenting the most extreme cases or mishaps that could occur. For example, the chapter meetings in this film show alcohol consumption. In reality chapter meetings are alcohol free and run as any professional organization would with procedures and standards.
TRUE or FALSE: Joining a fraternity or sorority is a way to create a new life or an escape from reality.
♥ FALSE. More recent movies like “Old School” (2001) staring Will Ferrell and Luke Wilson take a different approach. In this film, it is implied that life in a fraternity is an escape from an adult life of drama and responsibility. And in the comedy “Sorority Boys” (2002) staring Barry Wilson, this same theme of escaping reality is revisited. Accused of stealing from their fraternity, a few college students go undercover as women in a sorority in order to complete their undergraduate education. These movies fail to 
demonstrate the process of recruitment in which students meet new people and decide whether their values match those of each organization.
TRUE or FALSE: Murder, stalking, and accidents occur in fraternity and sorority organizations.
♥ FALSE. There is an abundance of fraternity and sorority references and backdrops in horror and thriller movies like “Sorority House Massacre” (1987) and “Sorority Row” (2009) in which sorority women are the objects of pranks gone awry while stalking serial killers. In reality accidents do occur in college but not at a higher incidence to students joining fraternities or sororities.
When watching your favorite movies or television shows like ABC Family’s “GRΣΣK,” not everything is as it appears. Membership in a fraternity or sorority can hold different meanings depending upon the chapter you join. However all organizations support some sort of moral values and high personal standards.
Movies do not include any of the community service fraternity and sorority members perform nor the values, philanthropies, or lifelong friendships these organizations support.
For more information about fraternity and sorority themed films visit this link.
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Kristi Jensen is a SureSister.com Ambassador. After serving as the treasurer for her University of Oregon chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma, Kristi served her Panhellenic community as director of continuous open recruitment and vice president of accountability. She also served her fellow students as a senator in student government. Kristi holds a bachelors degree in political science and Spanish and plans to attend graduate school in 2011. She can be reached at @PETALKristi on Twitter or via email at her first name at SureSister.com.
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Copyright 2010 Kristi Jensen, SureSister.com
Copyright 2010 Getting Ready for Sorority Recruitment