When I read the two columns last week concerning the University's sorority rush, I was initially flabbergasted at the audacity of the authors to make such claims of a process they have never experienced.
However, I soon shrugged and even chuckled at their provocative--albeit, ignorant--opinions on the seemingly Machiavellian monster that 40 percent of Duke women choose to encounter each January. Yet, I want to be clear that I am not writing this column in order to justify my enthusiastic devotion to Tridelta (although indeed I am enthusiastically devoted). Bosland, you are correct: When you have 200 girls in a commons room where the nearest single-stall, unisex bathroom is two dorms away (remember, non-residents cannot access dorm bathrooms), peeing is a big deal! And Malakalou: I unabashedly admit that alongside Pi Phis, I too enjoy shaking it like a Polaroid picture with my sorority sisters during the Panhellenic-mandated "song and skit round."
I have no problem tolerating constructive criticism--or even outright malicious defamation--about sororities at Duke. My confidence and my belief in my lifestyle choices are above petty speculations. Oh, but Lord help me if I allow anybody to belittle feminism in order to perpetuate propaganda, diminishing it to a statement about women's right to sexual promiscuity or their obligation to condemn organized female friendship.
As queen of the Ya Ya Triangle Sisters (a.k.a. president of Tridelta sorority) and more importantly as a self-proclaimed raging feminist, I will not tolerate such slander.
Like our freshman columnist, I too am restless and overwhelmed with the gender inequalities on this campus and the world beyond. I too yearn for women to become conscious of the discrimination against them because they were born female and to demand systemic and cultural change. Yet, it must break our mothers and grandmothers' hearts to hear a 21st Century woman equate female equality with her liberated libido. My dear sister in the struggle, feminism is infinitely greater than black bras and thongs.
Feminism is about giving voice and power to all women, especially to those who are not permitted to whisper or stand. More concretely, feminism battles for the one in five women in this country who will be raped during her lifetime.
Feminism cries for the 25 percent of U.S. women who are domestically abused, and it bleeds for the 100 million African girls who are the victims of female genital mutilation. It demands that we fight against the killing of Chinese girls and the kidnapping of young women in India.
Feminism also requires personal investment in our intimate female communities. It holds the hands of Duke women fighting eating disorders and surviving rape. Feminism admonishes the Duke community that when President Keohane steps down, almost all of Duke's top administrators will be white men. Feminism protests the lack of mentoring and of female tenured professors, especially in the sciences and engineering, and it allows Duke women to dream of being CEOs, mothers who work at home, or both. Holistically, feminism is about women supporting, advocating, and edifying other women.
To me, feminism is beautiful because it allows for you to wear your black bra and Manolos while I burn my white one wearing Reeboks. Neither action deems us superior to other women, but both provide us with an outlet to physically protest patriarchal hegemony. I may be a prude in pearls while you stand sexy in stilettos, but I dare argue that we desire the same outcome: the equality of men and women in all spheres and both hemispheres.
Gloria Steinem stated in one of her recent works, "I have met brave women who are exploring the outer edge of human possibility, with no history to guide them, and with a courage to make themselves vulnerable that I find moving beyond words."
I applaud this columnist for the courage to make herself vulnerable through the written word, but I also challenge her to step back and to explore a new layer, one that can be profoundly more provocative and controversial.
Oh, and lay off my Ya Ya sisters. They too, are on our side.
Katie Mitchell is a Trinity senior. She is president of Delta Delta Delta sorority.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.