The University of Alabama sorority Alpha Phi released a recruitment video for the upcoming school year and it quickly went viral. Not because it highlighted college life, but because it featured nearly all blondes in short-shorts or bikinis, bouncing around and even hitting each other with inflatable candy. Of course, that started an Internet controversy and the sorority quickly pulled their video.
The video became a controversy last week when AL.com published an op-ed by A.L. Bailey, who wrote that it was “worse for women than Donald Trump.”
“It's all so racially and aesthetically homogeneous and forced, so hyper-feminine, so reductive and objectifying, so Stepford Wives: College Edition. It's all so ... unempowering,” Bailey wrote. “Are they recruiting a diverse and talented group of young women embarking on a college education? Upon first or even fifth glance, probably not. Hormonal college-aged guys? Most assuredly yes. Older, male YouTube creepers? A resounding yes.”
Quite a few people agreed with the op-ed and Alpha Phi wound up deleting the video. Others thought it was just a harmless video with the sorority showing how fun it can be to join.
UA itself also issued a comment to WBRC, insisting that it doesn’t reflect student life on campus.
“This video is not reflective of UA’s expectations for student organizations to be responsible digital citizens,” UA associate vice president for university relations Deborah Lane told the local station. “It is important for student organizations to remember what is posted on social media makes a difference, today and tomorrow, on how they are viewed and perceived.”
The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Griffin Meyer, the student filmmaker who made the video. Meyer said that he was inspired by an Arizona Theta video, which showed much of the same thing, so he was dumbfounded by the reaction his video received. He also said that the girls in the video are only a small portion of the sorority, which isn’t as heterogeneous as the video appears to show.
“I don’t think people understand that there are more than 72 girls in Alpha Phi. The girls shown in the video are a small portion of the entire sorority, which absolutely does not exclude minority members,” Meyer told THR.
The video has been posted by others and you can check it out below.
screenshot from YouTube video
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