CEO's and Office Hoes: A breakdown of Greek socials

It’s no secret that Greek organizations socialize with each other many times throughout each semester. Each “social” has a designated theme, where each fraternity and sorority is expected to dress in the decided theme. As a member of a Greek organization, I am often exposed to various social themes that not only degrade the members of the sorority attending, but also almost put the members of the fraternity on a pedestal. Some examples of these social themes that are pretty common are “CEOs and Office Hoes”, “Golf Pros and Tennis Hoes”, and “GI Joes and Barbie Hoes”.  A list of more degrading social themes, such as “Dinosaurs and sluts” can be found here. Each member of the sorority is expected to wear minimal clothing, and is often scrutinized if they do not participate in the social’s particular theme.

Many have asked why sorority members are expected to dress scantily and act promiscuous, and there has been no definite answer given. The truth is, this has been the expectation and the standard for sorority women for decades. Even though the men at these socials are expected to dress the part as well, their apparel can cover all their skin and they won’t be criticized for it. For this reason, I would consider most social themes to be oppressive, and I would consider almost all of them to be sexist. Some might argue that the dress code isn’t oppressive, because no one is forcing these girls to dress scantily. I would argue that they are oppressive, because for these girls to be able to enjoy themselves at these events without receiving criticism, they need to fully commit to the theme, and do it with as much sex appeal as possible.

I would invite anyone to argue that these social themes are not sexist, or that they don’t objectify women. As a result of these women having to dress like “sluts” or “hoes” as many of the social themes refer to them, they often times give the impression that they are interested in hooking up with someone at these socials. As a member of a fraternity, I don’t want to say that this leads to sexual assault, or that Greek men are sexual aggressors, but I think that this dress code definitely plays a role in the attacks that do happen at Greek houses.  In a similar fashion that a woman walking down the street alone in a short skirt is “looking for sex”, one could argue that a girl dressed as an “office hoe” is also looking for sex.

I don’t want to exclude any of my audience by only talking about Greek social themes, because these themes do exist outside of the Greek community as well. From my personal experience, however, the themes that tend to be the most degrading and objectifying towards women seem to come from the Greek community. Another thing I wanted to note was that although many would assume that men have pushed this dress code for socials onto women, articles like this show that sometimes, it is the sorority that makes the questionable calls regarding dress.