A sordid shower story

Last month, The Daily Pennsylvanian ran a story of six Penn sorority girls in a sordid Internet video. Kissing. Wearing bikinis. In a shower together, lathering shampoo. Oh baby. To many men, it was a sexual fantasy realized. Penn sorority girls kissing each other and showering together? And on a free Web site? Who could ask for anything more? Really, There's No Place Like Penn. To the six Penn women, though, it was an abrupt end to their sorority memberships; the stars of the video were asked by the group's national chapter to deactivate their status, or "voluntarily" leave. By choosing to appear in an Internet video, earning $50 each, these women inadvertently endangered their member status, due to behavior considered "unbecoming" of their sorority. The national chapter of the sorority asked the women to deactivate -- not for their appearance in the video, but for singing a made-up sorority song on tape, as singing such songs (although the "shower song" was not even official, much less secret) in public is an explicit breach of the group's rules. After reading about this sordid sorority affair in the DP, I did what any normal Penn student trying to avoid studying for finals would have done. I went to the Web site. I mentally prepared myself for big-time female flesh as I embarked on my "virgin" journey into the World Wide Web of pornography. (Because of severe emotional scarring, I try not to count the few pornographic greeting cards a "clever" friend chose to send me freshman year -- signed with my roommate's e-mail address in the "from" box rather than his own. For those of you looking to create an uncomfortable living situation, there's the way to do it.) Though my vivid imagination had conjured up scenes of inexplicable raunchiness, when the the short film ended, I was unimpressed, and, unbelievably enough, downright bored. The women in the video weren't doing anything lewd or pornographic at all. In fact, I could have probably seen more offensive behavior on TeleTubbies. Fully clothed, they were dared to kiss each other, close-mouthed, for five seconds (the women, not the TeleTubbies; though that might have been more interesting). They showered in bathing suits together. They sang a made-up song involving their sorority's name. They each made 50 bucks. Ta-da. Overall, the women just looked like they were taking up a dare and having fun. But for their personal decisions to participate in the video -- to have a little PG-13 fun -- they were essentially kicked out of their sorority. Despite all the rules and complications surrounding this issue, the real problem with this situation is not the women's behavior. It's not the singing of a song that mentioned their sorority's name. Yes, perhaps their selling out so cheap was somewhat stupid . (Hopefully, these women weren't in Wharton; if they were, Wharton may kick them out too for the "unbecoming" behavior of selling out so cheap. Wharton, please don't; these women need a negotiation class.) The real problem here? These women were kicked out of a national group because they were acting of their own free will. While the womens' action of singing a song that included their sorority's name may have been the "official" reason they were asked to deactivate, anyone can see that the real problem voiced by the national chapter was the women's "unbecoming" behavior, not the song-singing. There are several big questions that come out of this scandal. Why are thees women's choices not OK? Do people have to sacrifice their own free will to a group when they join it? Do people have to mold their own choices to the group they're in? These issues are a lot more disturbing than a couple of women prancing around in their bathing suits. While their participation in the video wasn't the smartest idea in the world, it certainly wasn't the dumbest, either. Perhaps it's my non-Greek status that makes the picture foggy for me. I just don't understand why their personal decisions to participate in a video should alienate them from a national group that prides itself on providing community for women while celebrating individuality. In this case, the national chapter's decision to encourage the women to deactivate doesn't seem to be doing much of either. To me, that's the only sordid part of this whole story. That, I suppose, and the realization that people shower while wearing bathing suits. And to think, all these year's I've been showering naked. Maybe I'm the fool.

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