Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Are Women Truly "sluts" in College?

The scene I have chosen to analysis from Beta House is the tie-breaker scene toward the end of the movie. This scene shows that the two leaders of the Greek houses get a lap dance from women. In this movie, the women are portrayed as girls who party, drink, and have sex all the time. With the scene that I chose, both the Geeks and the Betas provide women to give lap dances. Each of the women that is brought out has very little clothing on. The first set of women had on short shorts and shirts cut up to their breasts. The second set of women are in lingerie who remove their bras, and the final set of women were chosen by the leaders of the fraternities. Edgar, leader of the Geeks, brought in a woman from Las Vegas who is a professional dancer, while Dwight, leader of the Betas, brought in Bobby's girlfriend dressed as a lamb.

One of the Beta girls giving Edgar the first lap dance
At UNCC, the women of the sororities do more than constantly partying. The sisters perform community service projects, support a variety  of different charities, and etc. I think that the women in Beta House and the women of UNCC are different because the women in  Beta House are constantly drinking, showing off their breasts, and having sex. The girls/sisters of UNCC provide a stable idea that sisterhood is a bond that can never be broken while providing service to the community. The girls portrayed in Beta House are considered "sluts" while the girls at UNCC can be considered more social rather than party girls. Even though the sororities at UNCC do throw parties, those parties are more like social gatherings. The girls in Beta House provide the fraternities the pleasure of sex, boobs, and partying. Seeing how the women are portrayed in Beta House, Hollywood has stretched the truth about the women in college.

Bobby's girlfriend, Margie, dressed as a lamb
Knowing how Hollywood portrays women in Beta House shows that the college education of women in this movie is very lacking because the education aspect is nearly absence in this movie.
The tie-breaker scene in Beta House shows that the college education of women in this movie is lacking. This proves that the Beta House movie provides no explanation on how women use the college education as a form of stereotype towards women. This explanation also provides evidence that women in the movie are considered “sluts”.

Also, throughout Beta House, you can notice how different groups come together in similarity to Beverly Tatum's article, "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" As she states at the beginning of her article, "Walk into any racially mixed high school cafeteria at lunch time and you will instantly notice that in the sea of adolescent faces, there is an identifiable group of Black students sitting together." (pg.359). In relation to my movie and this quote, the beginning scene of Beta House, you see all the little "cliques" together. So Tatum's quote relates to my movie greatly as we see in the Greek Olympiad, is that Bobby is considered the "farmer", Erik and Ashley are the couple, and the Betas are considered the "drinkers". Also all the women shown in the movie are dressed in "slutty", "skanky" clothes, such a school girl's uniform.

So in a whole, are women truly "sluts" in college?

The Lav Vegas professional/exotic dancer
The exotic dancer with her legs apart in Dwight's face

7 comments:

  1. I completely agree with what you're talking about. In a lot of Hollywood movies they portray female students, like you said, as sluts who are only into drinking, partying and sex. Not only so but by the way that they're dressed. Your visual aid is a major help in seeing what you're talking about. Another thing that I like about your post was that you related it to both Tannen and Tatum. You were able to clearly show that both race and gender play a role in Beta House. Lastly relating Hollywood's view of Greek life to Greek Life at UNCC was a really good way of showing your point on how female students are always being seen as "sluts."

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  2. Your analysis shows that the portrayal of women in the film focuses on their sexual expression, particularly a "slutty" style of expression. I feel like Tannen's claims about women having less of a voice in the classroom is in play here. These women only have a voice in the film if it is one that meets the "slut" standard. They express this voice through clothes, actions, body language, and language. Even though you rightly point out that many sorority sisters don't act like the women in the film, I wonder if women indeed feel like their sexual expression is more welcomed than their academic voice in the university.

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  3. Elizabeth I agree with statement that hollywood portrays sororities as sluts in this movie. This is a sad site to see as that 95% of sorority girls across America are not like this. Hollywood exaggerates the real impression of what happens in sororities and fraternitys.

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  4. Elizabeth you are completely right. Hollywood makes it seem like all sorority girls are sluts and that is all there is to them. Hollywood exaggerates sororities to an extreme.

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  5. I very much agree with your analysis of the movie Beta House. This movie gives off a negative vibe about college females. Of course everyone make think that in college, its all about sex, party, and alcohol, but in reality its about finding yourself while getting a quality education. I myself know a little about sororities and this movie seems to down them. Like you said, sororities are about sisterhood, not being a slut. I enjoyed reading your article.

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  6. I think that you are completely right about the way hollywood tries to give the impression that sorority girls are sluts. They are portrayed that way with no evidence what so ever and i think that it is a major stereotype about college sororities.

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