This Week on Thinking Is Cool

By luck or fate or some other reason, you’ve found yourself reading an email from Thinking Is Cool, *the* podcast to listen to if you want to have better conversations. If this email was forwarded to you, sign up for regular correspondence from me, Kinsey G., right here:

Good morning, everyone! As a daughter of the South, I’ve been glued to the Weather Channel for the last 48 hours watching Hurricane Ida thunder in. My thoughts are with anyone affected by this monster.

I know sending positive thoughts doesn’t stop a devastating hurricane from decimating a part of our country still not fully recovered from a storm that hit 16 years ago, but I can’t imagine positivity ever hurts.

So today, I hope you’ll think about something my dad always reminded me of as a kid (and continues to remind me of today). There are two ways to wake up in the morning, and you get to choose—bad mood or good mood. I hope you choose the latter this week. I mean, Channing Tatum is dating Zoë Kravitz. Anything is possible. Even good vibes on a Monday.

Let’s take it anywhere, shall we?

This Week on Thinking Is Cool

On paper, it seems pretty obvious that an institution based on exclusivity, elitism, and gender-based discrimination during our most formative years probably should not exist in the Year Of Our Lord 2021.

Nevertheless...Greek life persisted.

In fact, she does more than persist. She thrives. Membership to fraternities* and sororities is, by many measures, as popular as it’s ever been. For example, in recent years at least 380,000 male undergraduates belonged to Greek organizations, a 50% increase over the last decade.

But Greek life, for both men and women, is marked by an insidious reverence for outdated and outright cruel traditions that, by design, exclude anyone who doesn’t come across as the perfect and perfectly groomed WASP. They’ll likely tell you different, but the evidence tells a more truthful story than any national fraternity website ever could.

This week, I’m presenting that stark but illustrative evidence—evidence of blatant and wayyyy too recent racism, obvious sexism and misogyny, and the widespread stratification of young men and women based on looks and wealth.

Here’s why: For the last five or so years since I disaffiliated from my college sorority, I’ve had an extended reckoning with what my participation in Greek life really meant. Why did I ache so badly for a bid in the first place? Was it truly about sisterhood and friendship, or was it about perpetuating a school-sanctioned caste system?

It’s hard to tell, especially since there remain compelling reasons to permit Greek life to continue: incredible networking during and after school years, invaluable friendships for nervous 18-year-old college students fresh to their campuses, and good old fashioned fun.

This week on Thinking Is Cool, I’m exploring the raison d'être of Greek life, armed with my own personal experience as a Kappa Delta sister and a borderline concerning obsession with the masterful mid-aughts ABC Family show Greek. And even more importantly? I’m questioning how we craft something better—because college kids are always going to need friends, but they don’t have to answer to someone literally called a “pledge master” to find them.

Listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts: Apple, Spotify, and everywhere else.

* I keep accidentally typing “farternities” instead of “fraternities” and I know it’s not good journalism to make spelling mistakes, but this feels like something I should share.

Here’s a quick word from our sponsor because those sorority dues are still haunting me:

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Here’s an admission: When I make these Thinking Is Cool episodes, I typically find myself staring at a nearly 20-page outline before winnowing it down to a digestible episode. All the information I scrap, though, goes into a document I call “cutting room floor.”

This document rarely sees the light of day once the episode is published, but I was so astounded by some of what I found out about Greek life that I’m sharing some of my cutting room floor notes with you now.

I present to you: Random Tidbits Of Information About Greek Life & Power That Blew My Mind Despite My Previous Membership To A Sorority

• 18 United States presidents have belonged to fraternities. Reminder, we’ve only had 46 presidents total.

• Greek alumni make up less than 4% of the adult population...but they recently made up 39% of Senators and 25% of US Representatives. Also, one-third of all Supreme Court justices were members of Greek organizations.

• There’s a political action committee called FratPAC (Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee) that has given more than $1.3 million in campaign contributions to members of Congress. Almost two-thirds of that money has gone to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Hope you love random factoids as much as I do.

A few parting notes:

Gentle reminder to listen to this episode and share it with a friend, please.

I’ll be back in your inbox on Friday and on Instagram Live this weekend (from Nantucket, ideally lobster roll in hand). I’m thinking I’ll talk about how we could realistically abolish Greek life with some compelling evidence + relay a recent and very interesting conversation I had with my dad about the ways fraternity culture has changed since his time as a member in the 60s.

Can’t wait to see you there.

XO,

Kinsey