Why frat bros can throw parties but sorority sisters aren’t allowed to

The Washington Post

MJ Insurance Executive Vice President, Sorority, Cindy H. Stellhorn, featured in The Washington Post.

In the new trailer for Neighbors 2, a sorority leader played by Selena Gomez informs a group of potential sisters, “In the United States, sororities are not allowed to throw parties in their own houses. Only frats can.”

Chloë Grace Moretz, the hard-partying protagonist, rejects the idea. “This is a sexist and restrictive system,” she says to her two pals (before chest-bumping one). “We’re going to start a sorority where we can party the way that we want to.”

So, the young dreamers set off to open their own house off-campus, where the rules can’t touch them and the liquor flows. This is how Hollywood highlights a decades-old norm that critics say is outdated and possibly dangerous. The film, also starring Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, hits theaters in May.

Gomez’s character is almost right. No law actually prohibits sororities from throwing parties in the United States. However, the National Panhellenic Conference, which governs the country’s 26 major sororities, maintains that sisters can’t swig booze in sorority houses — even as the fraternity down the street throws a keg party. (A 1998 decision by the NPC stressed that member-sororities could only co-host social events with fraternities if they lack substances.)

Click here to read the full article.