The business of sisterhood

Writing for The New Republic Online, Alexandra Robbins says the DePauw sorority’s ouster of its less-than-Barbielike members was purely a business decision:

But, in truth, the ouster wasn’t just about Aryan uniformity–it was about business. As Delta Zeta’s national office admitted, it needed to recruit new members because its house was half-empty–and it wanted to make the sorority popular again (it used the pretense of lax recruiting to boot the victims). The way to do that, presumably, was to make it seem pretty and perfect (even if that meant a caricature).

Isn’t it any wonder sororities call this process “re-colonization”? Sure, there may have been business goals motivating this decision, but it was a racist and fat-phobic decision nevertheless. It’s still racism when fashion magazines consistently feature white models on the cover because they “sell better.” It’s still sexism when female casino employees are required to wear makeup to improve their looks. It’s still fat phobia when an airline fires its curvier flight attendants because they aren’t the airline’s “best ambassadors.” Just because it’s good for business doesn’t mean it’s not racism/sexism/fat-phobia. In fact, the opposite is often true. As far as I know, Hooters has never been in the red.
That said, Robbins makes a lot of interesting points about the business of sororities:

Originally, sororities were founded on the pillars of service, scholarship, leadership, and friendship for life, all noble endeavors. In the twenty-first century, however, these pillars appear to have morphed into the corporate lynchpins [SIC] of quota, property, image, and profit. At age 17 or 18, girls join sororities expecting to join a social or service club, but they often find that, financially and emotionally, membership is more than they had bargained for.

Greek culture doesn’t have to operate this way. Robbins points to many of the historically black sororities as an example — they often don’t require members to live in a communal residence, they don’t charge the same exorbitant dues, and they still maintain a very tight-knit sisterhood.