Sorority rush, a long-standing college tradition, takes on a fervor in the South that rivals collegiate football. Now, thanks to TikTok, the University of Alabama’s version of rush, known as Bama Rush, has become a global phenomenon, showcasing neo-antebellum white Southern culture. Millions of people worldwide are captivated by Bama Rush, following along as if they’re observing royalty through Mason-jar-tinted glasses.
When a group of white coeds in Tuscaloosa unite under the Bama Rush banner to promote their sorority, they engage in a battle for supremacy. The sorority members meticulously coordinate their outfits, donning crop tops and tennis skorts, and perform synchronized dance routines on TikTok to showcase their chapters. These videos are filled with voluminous, chemically enhanced blond hair, symbolizing good health and traditional femininity. Instead of loose club routines, the dancers perform gymnastically athletic, hip-hop-inspired moves. Their ability to stay on beat, even when not clapping on the traditional counts, adds to their charm and shields them from being labeled as “trashy.” Striking this delicate balance while maintaining their impeccable hair is part of their appeal.
Aspiring sorority members, or “rushees,” who aspire to join the ranks of the Bama Rush dancers provide daily updates on their attire, complete with noticeable Southern accents. These accents serve as a linguistic equivalent to highlighting their shiny hair and tasteful makeup. The sororities claim to create these videos to attract high-quality rushees, but they have gained a much larger audience.
In a mainstream culture grappling with evolving gender norms, the seductive Southern accent presented in Bama Rush videos signifies an idealized version of women adhering to traditional gender norms. People are captivated by this representation.
Personally, I haven’t come across any Bama Rush videos on my social media feeds, but I’ve been exposed to it through my friends. They eagerly anticipated Rachel Fleit’s documentary, “Bama Rush,” and shared Bama Rush memes during a recent faculty dinner, dissecting the kitschiness of sorority microcelebrities. Culture writer Anne Helen Petersen has been exhaustively analyzing Bama Rush 2023, likening it to a sophisticated sociology course.
I find myself at the intersection of various worlds colliding with the Bama Rush phenomenon, yet I remain unseen by Bama Rush.
I assume my social media algorithms don’t deliver Bama Rush videos because I don’t fit the ideal Bama Rush candidate profile. Bama Rush is predominantly white, and my algorithms are tailored to someone who is not. Fleit’s documentary explores the inherited culture and code of conduct that filters for specific types of young women, namely thin, able-bodied, athletic, and predominantly white, as ideal rushes at the University of Alabama.
When confronted with the explicit depiction of this culture, the progressive impulse is to call for diversity. The lack of diversity in Bama Rush videos elicits a sense that something is amiss. It could be the hairstyles, matching outfits, or accents. However, by fixating on diversity without considering the underlying reasons for its absence, we fail to understand what it reveals about the American South.
Despite previous efforts to integrate sorority rush at the University of Alabama, the system remains largely white. In 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice investigated allegations of racial discrimination in Alabama’s rush process. Yet, as of 2022, almost 85% of the sorority members in the Alabama Panhellenic Association, representing the majority of the university’s sororities, were white, which does not align with the racial makeup of the university or the state.
The university’s unsuccessful attempts to integrate rush contrast with its comfort in embracing the social media frenzy surrounding Bama Rush. While there is no definitive proof of a causal relationship between Bama Rush’s popularity and the University of Alabama’s fiscal success, the university experienced record enrollment in 2022, despite the ongoing turmoil in higher education across the United States.
Other states, such as Florida and West Virginia, face political and financial challenges in their higher education systems. The general public’s confidence in higher education is declining, regardless of political affiliation. Higher education’s complexities are often simplified into culture wars surrounding diversity, gender studies, or critical race theory, primarily associated with elite Northeastern schools. In this context, Bama Rush’s annual viral success serves as a counterprogramming to the image of Northeastern elites. The Bama Rush version offers wholesomeness, non-threatening traditional femininity, all wrapped in Lululemon athleisure, completely free. Welcome to Emotional Labor 101, Bama Rush ladies. You’ve already mastered it.
The world of these young women, which exists beyond the confines of TikTok videos, deserves serious consideration. Their emotional labor holds substantial economic power. The sorority system operates as a legitimate status hierarchy, similar to fraternities and sports leagues. The top-ranked sororities enjoy more privileges and honor than their lower-ranked counterparts. To preserve their position, sororities enforce a code of conduct that guides their sisters and aspiring members on how to speak, dress, act, and, most importantly, aspire. The complexity of this code is such that aspiring pledges can hire Rush coaches to learn precisely what it takes to embody the ideal woman. Ultimately, it boils down to performing exaggerated femininity and accepting deference to masculine power to achieve referential or secondhand authority. The cute dances and outfit of the day posts also shed light on the challenges young women face when trying to navigate feminist lives.
During rush, rushees are warned not to talk about boys, but this silence speaks volumes. As Fleit’s documentary reveals, young women’s beauty standards, obsession with weight, career plans, outfits, and friend groups are shaped by what men desire from them. These factors determine a sorority’s rank, the value of its members, and its ability to influence campus culture as future alumnae. The sorority culture in the Deep South derives power from the rewards gained through compliance. By adhering to the code, sorority members gain access to desirable campus housing, social circles, academic support, social events, and even potential social media fame.
These rewards extend beyond campus boundaries. Sorority members bring with them vast networks that can facilitate upward mobility. However, in the Deep South, where Alabama plays a significant cultural and geographical role, sororities hold even more influence. They provide connections to women who are close to the men who dominate the region’s network of power.
At the University of Alabama, this power is most visible through “the Machine,” the not-so-secret society that amplifies the influence of predominantly white fraternities and sororities. The Machine serves as a training ground for political influence, grooming student leaders for careers in politics and industry.
Greek life and the Machine serve the same purpose as supper clubs, social clubs, and secret societies found at elite universities and boarding schools across the country. Fraternities and sororities are the gateway to obtaining a seat at the table where the social reproduction of the region’s cultural, economic, and political elite occurs. Rushing is a serious endeavor.
Young women are keenly aware of this. For the past two decades, they have surpassed their male peers in educational attainment…
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