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The
Scoop
MTV, the pioneer of voyeur television
shows who started it all about 10 years
ago with Real World and Road Rules, has
produced another milestone show. In MTV
Sorority Life, 6 undergraduates at the
University of California at Davis are
followed during a quarter. The sorority
is Sigma
Alpha Epsilon Pi, which is Jewish in
tradition but accepts non-Jewish
students as well. MTV paid the
cash-strapped sorority a lot of $ to do
this and the sorority has taken a lot of
heat for it. MTV also paid for the
trip to Las Vegas among other things.
The
sorority has only been around since 1996
but new chapters are starting up at
other campuses. I would assume that
after the show finishes airing, a lot of
women will want to open chapters
elsewhere.
The
6 Pledges
What
I originally thought was
fascinating about this show in
terms of reality TV is that the
pledges weren't hand picked
through careful interviews and
intense scrutiny as they are for
Real World and Road Rules. But I
have since found out that MTV
apparently asked these
particular women who are
attending UC-Davis to start
rushing. While the truth is out
there, you do get a 'real world'
similar to Real World.
The
peculiar thing is that the women being
followed turn out to be two hot chicks
(Jordan and Candace), three average
chicks (Mara, DeDe, and Amanda), and
Jessica who clearly doesn't fit in at
all. Let me offer a disclaimer on the
previous harsh comment. I'm talking
about their looks and since this is a
voyeuristic show, looks are key. It says
nothing to their personality. However,
look at the other side of things. If
they all looked like Jessica, would
anyone watch the show?
Reality
Being
in a fraternity myself, I must
say that the show is realistic.
Well, as realistic as you'd
expect from MTV. Although I have
never heard of pledges living in
a 'pledge house', the
interpersonal relationships that
MTV shows and conflicts that
build up are actually realistic.
I mean after all, we ARE
watching reality!
For
example, the two hot chicks get close
and go party, grabbing the attention of
all the boys wherever they go. The
sorority sisters argue about which girls
they want to become pledges, with some
of them having legitimate concerns.
After getting to know each other more,
the two hotties confront each other on
their attitudes.
MTV
also does a good job of accurately
portraying a lesson in role conflict:
When the pledges party hard to celebrate
Candace's 21st birthday, they apparently
over-do it and some of the sisters are
'offended' by their provocative dancing
and actions.
I
think that 'offended' is the nice way of
saying they were jealous. I mean c'mon,
what college girl doesn't wanna be the
hottie flirting and dancing at a club,
having all the guys all over them and
getting tons of attention?!
Anyhow,
the sisters and pledges discuss
the issue at the next meeting.
When Candace suggests that they
were partying hard in a
showing-off kind of way, she
quickly retracts the statement
since this is a meeting where
she is getting reprimanded for
it! Becca, the pledgemaster is
clearly caught in a major role
conflict of looking cool in her
role as a friend and being seen
in her role as pledgemaster and
coming across as a mean boss
(she's in charge and enforcing
the strict rules). Major role
conflict! This type of role
conflict is soooo true and
common in the life of an
organization such as this one!
Beautifully done - kudos to MTV
and their editors!
Entertainment
value
Well, aside from watching Candace and
Jordan, the show is ok. I mean, it holds
your attention but I get the Howard
Stern phenomenon where you just want to
hear/see what's gonna happen next.
I
wonder what the show would be like
without these two. Other than that, MTV
is sure to show as much skin and
partying as possible which is always
entertaining.
The
Verdict
My
2 cents on the show is that even though
only a few episodes have aired as of
this writing, it's gonna be a winner.
Why? It has what everyone wants to see!
Men watch women. Women watch women. If
those women are in college, making them
roughly 17-22, even more people will be
interested in watching. That's part of
the success of Real World which only
accepts people between the ages of
18-24. Now, add to the mix the fact that
this is about a sorority and there you
have it, success! The fact is, everyone
is interested in what goes on in a
sorority house, whether you're Greek or
not. [For those not in-the-know, the
terms 'Greek' and 'Greek System' refers
to fraternity/sorority tradition of
using Greek letters to identify which
one you belong to and
fraternity/sorority life in general]. Aside
from looks, we see these women get into
real life situations and dilemmas which
prove to be informative and
entertaining.
Update
(September 2002)
I
wrote the above review after just a few
weeks into the series. The first season
of the show just ended and after having
watched most of the episodes, I can now
add my final '2 cents'. Also, don't
forget to check out the Official
BrianX Magazine Review of MTV Sorority Life 2.
So
Jordan and Mara dropped out before
initiation. I'm not surprised by
Jordan's move but Mara's exit was
certainly unexpected. In any case, here
we go...
Jordan
Jordan,
ahhh, Jordan. What to say about her?
Well, you can really clue into to her as
being the manipulative attention seeker
that I suspect she is in reality. She
obviously only joined 'Sigma' so she
could be on TV. That is very clear. She
spends the entire series bitching about
everything she has to do and the rules
of living in the pledge house. Women who
join sororities are there because they
WANT to be there, not because they are
forced to be. I don't think Jordan has
figured this out yet.
Jordan
was Amanda's best friend when the show
began. By the end, Amanda's new best
friend became Candace, as Jordan got
closer to Mara. While it's typical for
women to become close friends with only
one other woman (versus guys who tend to
hang out in groups), it was very clear
that Jordan tried on many occasions to
manipulate who was closer friends with
who, as well as what the pledges would
be doing and where they were going. The
other women caught on and it didn't have
much of an impact overall. You go girls!
I
can't understand why Jordan even had a
boyfriend! She goes out partying and
seems to have a great time but when
she'd talk to her boyfriend, she had
nothing to say. Sadly, I have seen this
scenario play out far too many times.
The hottie has some boyfriend just for
show and not to be alone but has nothing
to say to him and is miserable in the
relationship. I suppose I should write
an article about that for the 'BrianX
Magazine Features - Dating and Mating' pages...
Finally,
Jordan spends a lot of time defending
herself on MTV message boards. While we
know that MTV took weeks of filming and
condensed it into just eleven 30-minute
episodes, her personality clearly shows.
In any case, Jordan alone has brought so
much attention to the series and this
review that I must thank her.
Candace
I
can't say much about Candace because she
reminds me so much of my ex-girlfriend
that I have a bias in favor of her! I
know she looked bad having made out with
a bunch of guys, including one which
Amanda had a thing for, but life
happens. She seems like a really cool
chick overall. I'd hang out with her
anytime.
Dede
Now,
"'where in the world is Dede UC
Davis?". Is Dede even on the show?!
She is hardly filmed and appears here
and there as a chauffeur to pick up the
girls after partying. In fact, she was
there for such a small amount of time
that she failed her pledge exam the
first time around.
Jessica
I
would like to thank Jessica for teaching
viewers the term 'cockblocking'. In one
episode she was slapped by a fellow
pledge for trying to stop her from
making a move on some guy at a club. She
was then accused of 'cockblocking'. By
just trying to stop her friend, she
showed that not only did she stand out
by being completely different from the
other pledges, but she knows little
about college social life in the US.
Amanda
and Mara
As
the series went on, I found Amanda
decreasingly attractive and Mara
increasingly attractive. But, I must say
that Mara does appear to have something
of a bitchy side to her. Still,
I'll give both of these gals the benefit
of the doubt and say that they are 'aw-ite'.
The
Sisters
The
sisters in this sorority clearly worked
very hard to get everything running
smoothly, despite the pledges who
sabotaged a lot of their work with their
own egocentrism. I give them a big 'kol
ha cavod" which is a Hebrew
expression meaning "all the
respect" and signifies a job well
done. Despite what outsiders might
think, running Sorority and Fraternity
events requires a lot of planning and
effort. I wish the sorority success in
future rushes.
Concluding
points
This
review was the first of its kind on the
net, enhanced by the exclusive pics
(which have been temporarily removed),
information and all. Thanks to everyone
for the positive feedback and check out
the other reviews in BrianX Mag. Links
of Interest
Official
Review of MTV Sorority Life 2
(State University of NY at Buffalo)
Official
Review of MTV Sorority Life 3
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