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Author Freeman, Margaret L., author.

Title Women of discriminating taste : White sororities and the making of American ladyhood / Margaret L. Freeman
Published Athens : The University of Georgia Press, [2020]

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Description 1 online resource : illustrations
Contents Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- List of Illustrations -- List of Referenced Sororities and Fraternities -- Introduction Where Y'all Does Not Mean All -- CHAPTER ONE ""A Very Wholesome Discipline"" From Girlhood to Ladyhood in the Southern Sorority Chapter -- CHAPTER TWO ""A Laboratory in How to Get Along with People"" Selling Sororities through Social Education -- CHAPTER THREE Southern Belles and Sororit yGirls Sororities and the Lure of the Southern Aesthetic
CHAPTER FOUR Standardizing Sexu ality Heterosocializing and Sexual Danger in Sorority Life -- CHAPTER FIVE ""The Chosen Are Happy, the Rest Are Crushe d"" Using Rush to Define the Membership -- CHAPTER SIX ""To Discriminate Is a Positive Trait"" The NPC, ""Freedom of Association,"" and the Modern Conservative Movement -- CHAPTER SEVEN ""Inequality for All and Mint Juleps, Too"" Reinforcing the Sorority Woman as Southern Lady -- CONCLUSION An Alpha Phi-asco and Other Peculiar Institutions -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O
P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z
Summary "Women of Discriminating Taste examines the role of historically white sororities in the shaping of white womanhood in the twentieth century. As national women's organizations, sororities have long held power on college campuses and in American life. Yet the groups also have always been conservative in nature and inherently discriminatory, selecting new members on the basis of social class, religion, race, or physical attractiveness. In the early twentieth century, sororities filled a niche on campuses as they purported to prepare college women for "ladyhood." Sorority training led members to comport themselves as hyperfeminine, heterosocially inclined, traditionally minded women following a model largely premised on the mythical image of the southern lady. Although many sororities were founded at non-southern schools and also maintained membership strongholds in many non-southern states, the groups adhered to a decidedly southern aesthetic-a modernized version of Lost Cause ideology-in their social training to deploy a conservative agenda. Margaret L. Freeman researched sorority archives, sorority-related materials in student organizations, as well as dean of women's, student affairs, and president's office records collections for historical data that show how white southerners repeatedly called upon the image of the southern lady to support southern racial hierarchies. Her research also demonstrates how this image could be easily exported for similar uses in other areas of the United States that shared white southerners' concerns over changing social demographics and racial discord. By revealing national sororities as significant players in the grassroots conservative movement of the twentieth century, Freeman illuminates the history of contemporary sororities' difficult campus relationships and their continuing legacy of discriminatory behavior and conservative rhetoric"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on December 21, 2020)
Subject Greek letter societies -- United States -- History -- 20th century
College sorority members -- United States -- Conduct of life
Women, White -- Southern States -- Conduct of life
Racism in higher education -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Conservatism -- United States -- History -- 20th century
HISTORY / United States / 20th Century
Conservatism
Greek letter societies
Racism in higher education
United States
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2020028110
ISBN 9780820358147
0820358142