Reflecting on “Sorority Stereotypes”

Our first challenge as a group, of course, was to choose which ethnography to adapt into a video. This decision was a tough one for us, because we wanted our film to relate to an audience here at Wake Forest. We also needed a paper rich with evidence and personal experience, so that we would come across as experienced writers and filmmakers. Most importantly, though, our decision was truly one that we all found most interesting. Our adaptation of “Behind the Sisterhood: Stereotypes or Reality?” by Jenny Kay posed both challenges and rewards. Overall, our choice to analyze stereotypes was appropriate for a Wake Forest audience being that there is such a high percentage of sorority women here. Not only that, but our choice was also rooted in that two of our group members (Tierney and Jenny) are both sorority women, a clear way to add to our logos and ethos. As with many of the projects in our class, this adaptation from paper to the screen was a challenge that we have not faced before. While we learned to take on another genre and medium of writing, we also learned group collaboration skills. We feel as though we truly faced this video adaptation and its subsequent work as a group to reach a common goal. Through this process we learned to adapt not only to this new genre but also how to collaborate by synthesizing our individual skills and knowledge. This kind of adaptation, in writing skills and personality skills, is vital for the rest of our college education and our future careers.

Upon reading the rubric for Project 4, our group realized the importance of communication in order to synthesize all our voices into a single work. We decided that in person conversation and a group text message for necessary videos and pictures was the best way for our group to keep in contact and stay up to date with our work. Upon our first meeting, we decided to tackle the difficult task of delegating work based on our own individual skills. Since we came together and decided to convert Jenny’s autoethnography, we decided it was best for her to write a script and record a voice over for the video. This decision was important to ensure that her autoethnography was auto in the truest sense of the word. Jonathan volunteered to take pictures of all the sorority lounges and to interview others around campus on their opinion of stereotypes of sorority women. We decided at our meeting that our interviews would be based on a population of random students though greek and non-greek women and men so as to avoid bias. Finally, Tierney volunteered to edit the video together since she had previous experience using imovie. We met frequently as a group to watch and edit the different drafts of our video, knowing the importance of hearing everyone’s opinion on the progress of the video and to add any suggestions. While we planned our schedule well so as not to fall behind schedule, we faced many challenges that threaten to stop us from making the video we set out to make.

Both technical and group challenges arose. Our technical and fundamental issues started with accidentally filming our interviews vertically. We eventually chose to turn these interviews horizontally in the video, being that the vertical shot seemed somewhat amateur and too rough (which might distract the viewer from what the interviewee was saying). Another technical problem was centered around the frequent technical issues Tierney faced with her personal computer, which resulted in the group using a Wake Forest computer within the photography laboratory where access was somewhat limited during the day while classes were in session. While this was an inconvenience, it brought us together as a group to make the final editing decisions and submit our work together. Other final technical problems were related to the specific editing choices we made, for example text size, the use and volume of sorority chants, as well as properly citing our sources in APA style. Our adaptation from individual to group work also posed challenges. We often found we had different opinions on “what’s best” or what might be changed. For example, Jonathan disagreed with Jenny and Tierney and did not like the part with the sequence of flashing photos of sorority signs in thinking that the signs flashed by too quickly for the viewer and would result in an unappealing part of the video. Through further editing, Tierney slowed the sequence of flashing photos but kept it in the video as a compromise with Jonathan’s dislike of the speed of that section. In addition, Jenny found that the Chi Omega chant used in the middle of the video was too loud, which Tierney eventually fixed. Here, through our differences as a group, compromise was the key.

Jenny’s autoethnography sought to discover and analyze the stereotypes and their potential harm to sorority women on Wake Forest’s campus. As a result we wanted to blend together Jenny’s experience with random students to get the full picture of stereotypes ranging from what people think they are and why that is to how Jenny has personally been stereotyped. We then wanted to emphasize the harm the negative stereotypes could have on sorority women since the ideas of “being dumb” and ” a party girl” could follow a sorority woman into the world of employment.

What we learned through the process of adapting Jenny’s autoethnography for a popular audience is crucial for rest of college career and our future careers. Collaboration is key for a working as a team which is the vast majority of work in the world of employment. No job is in a vacuum meaning working with others is a requirement for every job. We learned how to better work with others, synthesize our ideas and work through our individual differences and disagreements by compromising which will be a vital skill in the workplace. Finally, we learned that stereotypes whether about sorority life or anything else can truly be harmful and an unfair negative generalization about human beings who can be their own individual with the capability of making their own decisions.

Jennifer Kay, Jonathan Dixon, and Tierney Cross