Playful Alabama sorority video slammed by feminist writer, backlash ensues

The University of Alabama is in the news, and it’s not for their remarkable football team.

The Alpha Phi sorority released a fun and flirty video aimed at enticing new recruits with an abundance of beautiful women enjoying  college sorority life.

There aren’t any surprises. The video shows typical college campus scenery: a football stadium, a sorority house, short shorts, the school mascot, and football jerseys.

There are no shots of the school library or a chemistry lab, and the participants are gorgeous and white. Apparently, that is a problem.

A.L. Bailey, who wrote a featured opinion piece titled “‘Bama sorority video worse for women than Donald Trump” for AL.com,  condemned  the video:

“No, it’s not a slick Playboy Playmate or Girls Gone Wild video. It’s a sorority recruiting tool gaining on 500,000 views in its first week on YouTube. It’s a parade of white girls and blonde hair dye, coordinated clothing, bikinis and daisy dukes, glitter and kisses, bouncing bodies, euphoric hand-holding and hugging, gratuitous booty shots, and matching aviator sunglasses. It’s all so racially and aesthetically homogeneous and forced, so hyper-feminine, so reductive and objectifying, so Stepford Wives: College Edition. It’s all so … unempowering.”

She complained:

“Are they recruiting a diverse and talented group of young women embarking on a college education? Upon first or even fifth glance, probably not. Hormonal college-aged guys? Most assuredly yes. Older, male YouTube creepers? A resounding yes.”

She incorporated politics:

“Just last week during the GOP debate, Megyn Kelly of Fox News called out Donald Trump for dismissing women with misogynous insults. Mere hours later, he proved her point by taking to Twitter to call her a “bimbo.” He also proved the point that women, in 2015, must still work diligently to be taken seriously. The continued fight for equal pay, the prevalence of women not being in charge of their own healthcare issues, and the ever-increasing number of women who are still coming out against Bill Cosby after decades of fearful silence show that we are not yet taken seriously.”

This glitter-bombed, sun-kissed, good-timing video of sorority sisters was trashed as well as defended in the media, and it sparked a conversation about choice, race, and politics.

During an interview, the author, who moved from Ohio to Alabama years ago, was asked why “this became such a hot topic and touch such a nerve with people?

She made several statements, but one stood out:

“Here in Alabama, we’re in a very conservative area and a lot of people think the same things and have similar experiences of things, like sororities or colleges or football teams or what have you, and they don’t get a lot of varied viewpoints, and they don’t get a lot of exposure to well-thought-out arguments that they maybe hadn’t heard before. But I don’t know that that answers the question. I have no idea.”

Why did this columnist choose to write about the video, when so many other stories deserve our attention? (Planned Parenthood, anyone?)

The sorority sisters’ choice to display bikinis over study guides irked the writer, but she also couldn’t pass up the opportunity to publicly shame a  university in red state Alabama for not including minorities. 

I am not a sorority fan.

As an outsider who has never pledged, sororities do seem to select a certain type of woman, and there are plenty of women, regardless of race, who aren’t accepted. I didn’t have the beauty, money, or desire to join one. I found the campus Greeks at my school to be pretentious. It wasn’t my crowd.

I am defending their right to be themselves and to produce a video without backlash from a  sensitive feminist who possibly views conservative Alabama as beneath her.

To Ms. Bailey,

I respect your opinion, and I agree with you on one point.

There will always be women who enjoy using their sexuality to get attention, and this video should prompt a private discussion with our young girls about what message their wardrobe choices and behavior send to others.

Your  focus on inclusiveness may apply to race, but not women, and it demonstrates why many think feminism needs a make over. 

 National Review wrote this about your piece:

“. . .what’s ‘unempowering’ is the notion that these women aren’t autonomous enough to decide for themselves the life they enjoy or the image they choose to present.”

This statement builds on Carly Fiorina’s attempt to broaden the definition of a feminist from a woman who embraces left-leaning politics to a “woman who lives the life she chooses.”

Speaking of women in America,  you mentioned Donald Trump and Bill Cosby. Why didn’t you mention two other men accused of sexual harassment:  Bill Clinton and former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner?

I am a conservative, Christian Southerner, and I am aware we are often portrayed as racist. I want people, regardless of race, gender, and religion to come together and respect one another. I am not perfect. I have been angry, and I have made assumptions based on my worldview. Each day I am a work in progress, but progress is being made.

These stereotypes must be addressed.

I grow tired of being accused of racism because of my political views, home state, or skin color. I’m sure these sorority sisters feel the same.

To provide context,  the video’s producer told The Hollywood Reporter the video does not reflect the sorority’s racial composition:

“I don’t think people understand that there are more than 72 girls in Alpha Phi. The girls shown in the video are a small portion of the entire sorority, which absolutely does not exclude minority members.”

Should every future video produced consider racial balance and if so, does this apply to videos produced without Caucasian representation? Would you have been equally outraged if the black members of Alabama’s football team had made a workout video without their shirts? What if this same scenario had happened in liberal California?

You may view Alabama citizens as sheltered and underexposed to different viewpoints. It is possible they have been exposed to other views, as I have, only to discover they are comfortable being themselves.

In a free country, people of all races will form groups or make videos without considering the racial makeup or other people’s feelings.

Even in our politically charged culture where racial and gender politics dominate news, a sorority participating  in a white-washed video in crimson Alabama is not against the law or even newsworthy.

Image courtesy: www.youtube.com