My Big Fat Greek Eviction

Via Feministe, I found out about an incident at DePauw college where the national officers of the Delta Zeta sorrority were concerned about a decline in membership at the school and responded by kicking out 23 women and driving another 6 to quit. Which would seem a much sharper decline than the one they were to fix. The interesting thing, though, is that the 23 women who were evicted included all of the fat women in the sorrority, not to mention all of the black, Korean, and Vietnamese members.

Now, I'm generally not a fan of sorrorities or fratnerities. I was happy my university banned Greek socieites as they generally seem ripe for promoting discrimination or elitist mindsets which frankly don't belong in higher education. But I'll admit some chapters can prove to be exceptions and the article suggests that this Delta Zeta chapter was doing just that, catering to students normally shut out from sorrorities by including a lot of women from math and science majors as well as disabled women. Unfortunetly, the national chapter was more interested in proving my apprehensions right. Its a feature, not a bug, I'm sure they'd say.

The community there has been fast to respond to the lookism that was openly evident from the sorrority's actions. While the article mentions some women withdrawing from classes as a result of the personal attacks directed at them, it seems that many are not standing for it and I applaud all of them. If the national officers of Delta Zeta are going to be so blunt about their priorities, the school should respond inkind. DePauw is an educational institution and it has no room for a club for pretty people. They should revoke Delta Zeta's authority to act as an official sorrority. Their purpose is clearly not the “enrichment of student life at DePauw,” but rather the promotion of a sexist, sizest mind-set for the purpose of affording extra privlages to the already privlaged. They've shown they have no purpose on campus. The school should respond accordingly.