Lady Ashley Machined Extracted and Looked Up Again
#BamaRush, Explained
Freshmen at the University of Alabama offered a real time look at rush season. Their TikToks became must-see TV.
Her shoes? Steve Madden. Earrings? Kendra Scott. Her bracelets are from Shein; her purse, Target. Oh, and her necklace is "normal." It's Pref Night.
If this combination of words means anything to y'all, you have probably been watching sorority rush videos on TikTok. If non, that'due south OK — there's still fourth dimension to figure out the rhythms and codes of RushTok, one of the platform's latest viral hits.
The trend burst through last week during sorority rush at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, but information technology continues today in the class of parody videos, deep dives on the status of various recruits and rush videos from women at other colleges across the country who are just starting the process themselves.
For those just catching up, here's what you lot need — or better nonetheless, may want — to know.
OK, you got me. What is sorority rush, and why are there so many outfits for it?
"Rush" is the informal name for the recruitment process of Greek organizations on higher campuses. In the example of RushTok, almost users are talking about the specific experience of rushing the traditionally white sororities that are role of the National Panhellenic Conference.
At the Academy of Alabama, this tightly choreographed serial of events commences about a calendar week before school begins: Freshmen women motility into their dorms early in the hopes of securing a "bid" from i of the university's 17 participating sorority chapters.
The blitz process at Alabama consists of four principal rounds of events: an Open House, where potential new members (PNMs) go to know all the different sororities; Philanthropy 24-hour interval, where PNMs acquire about — simply practise non actually participate in — each chapter's volunteer piece of work; a Sisterhood circular, where PNMs spend carefully monitored i-on-in one case with different sorority members; and Pref Night, where PNMs visit their favorite 2 houses.
It all culminated for Alabama PNMs and sorority members terminal Sunday in Bid Day — when PNMs officially accept bids to join a sorority. According to AL.com, ii,501 women attended Open House events this year, and two,307 of them ended up with a bid at the end (that's a 92 percent success rate).
Each round of recruitment has a specific clothes code, and and so PNMs show upwardly to campus with suitcases full of potential outfits. (Alabama's Panhellenic website offers suggestions: For Pref Nighttime, for example, PNMs are advised to vesture a dress fit for "a graduation anniversary or a daytime wedding.")
Many freshmen documented the whole experience on TikTok in the form of "OOTD" videos, which have garnered millions of views on the platform.
Got it. What'south an OOTD?
That'southward "outfit of the day." Panhellenic organizations discourage freshmen from sharing specifics on social media about their recruitment experience (including what houses they like best, or which girls they dislike) but showing off outfits for blitz is merely fine.
Thus, the Bama Rush OOTD trend was born. The videos are uniform and mesmerizing: The women, most of whom have southern accents, merely explain what day information technology is and what brands they are wearing from earrings to shoes.
Frequently cited brands include a mix of fast-fashion and designer labels: Michael Kors, Shein, Steve Madden, Kendra Scott, LoveShackFancy and Hello Molly. In that location's also the Pants Store, a store with several Alabama locations that does, in fact, sell more than pants.
And then at that place are the elements of an outfit that are not so easily tagged by brands: shoes borrowed from a roommate, T-shirts gifted during the rush procedure and "normal," or everyday, jewelry. (Perhaps you got it from your mom, mayhap you got it from Nordstrom.)
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Why are these videos so popular? People seem really invested in the outfits and lives of these college students they don't even know.
Many users report that they first saw Bama Rush videos on their "For You" page, which is curated past TikTok's mysterious algorithm. There's no way to tell for sure why this kind of video took off on the platform, simply the stars of Bama Rush do resemble other big TikTok personalities: They're mostly white, thin women showing off their outfits.
As for why people are and then invested, well, fifty-fifty the stars of RushTok aren't sure. In a video posted on Pref Night, a freshman at Auburn University named Blake Wright who has been using the #BamaRush hashtag addressed her growing TikTok following this manner: "Thank y'all for being and so invested and so sweet this entire calendar week. Honestly, if this was on my 'For You' page I would have to like, keep scrolling, 'crusade this is just too much for me. But hey, if y'all like watching it I'm non lament."
According to a video she posted on Bid Solar day, Ms. Wright accustomed a bid from Pi Beta Phi.
So, what does it have to get into one of these sororities?
Information technology depends whom you ask. On its website, the university's Panhellenic organization describes itself every bit "the nation's largest and most various Greek community." Just information technology did not formally desegregate until 2013, afterwards the student newspaper reported that Black freshmen were still being denied bids during that year'southward recruitment procedure. Since so, diversity among the chapters has increased, though not by much.
Another barrier to sorority membership at Bama (and many, many other schools) is toll: Merely signing upward for rush requires a $350 fee, and member dues can sew to $four,978 a semester. That doesn't include expenses like living in a sorority house (on boilerplate $7,465.17 a semester, according to the Alabama Panhellenic Association), new dresses for appointment parties, flights to the Caribbean for leap break and an endless stream of $25 T-shirts to commemorate social events.
And so joining a sorority is expensive. Are the stars of RushTok making any money from their videos?
Some accept certainly earned enough followers to start booking sponsorship deals if they wanted to. Simply the brands have been quicker to cash in. The jewelry brand Kendra Scott, which has been proper name-checked in as well many RushTok videos to count, has capitalized on attention past posting its ain semi-viral TikToks. The brand has since reported an increase in web traffic from new users in the coveted 18-to-24 demographic.
Expert for Kendra Scott. At present that Bama Rush is over, volition I e'er have to remember about this again?
Bama Rush may exist over, simply Ole Miss Rush is just getting started.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/style/bama-rush-explained.html
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