Twisted sisters: the depravities of some sororities.

• Author: Sullivan, Margaret
• Position: Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities - Book Review

Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities By Alexandra Robbins Hyperion; $23.95

Mothers, don't let your babies grow up to be pledges. Sorority pledges, that is. Because if you do--according to Alexandra Robbins's often startling study of college sororities--your daughters may soon be piercing their private parts, guzzling grain alcohol until they pass out, and pimping the sexual favors of their sorority sisters. And that's not all. They may be vomiting alter every meal to be as slender as their sisters. They may be taking recreational drugs and suffering date rape more frequently than most college students.

If this sounds less refined than the perky., pearl-draped image of college sororities depicted in the last Reese Witherspoon movie, it surely is. And these examples only scratch the surface of a disturbing subculture ruled by out-of-control peer pressure and the lust for prestige. Consider the rampant eating disorders that Robbins reports from one campus, where a plumber was kept busy clearing the pipes that were continually clogged with the vomit of whole housefuls of bulimic sorority, sisters determined to eat heartily and still fit into their size 2 jeans.

Robbins's book, both fascinating and eye-opening, tells us a great deal about well-to-do young women in America, and about the pressures on them. It describes a world in which some sorority houses choose their new members on the basis of hair color, and where a young college woman's chief worry is securing her date for the next formal dance. And these are the less worrisome parts of the whole. No matter how many news stories you may have read about hazing incidents, binge drinking, and "Greek" rituals, the details that Robbins reports are often worse. She writes, for example, about the "little sister" programs that some fraternities continue to sponsor, despite their being forbidden on many campuses. The supposedly prestigious and sought-after position of little sister, Robbins writes, includes "sex with many of the (fraternity) brothers, with gang rape a distinct possibility."

Robbins is a 1998 Yale graduate who has become something of a media celebrity largely due to her two earlier nonfiction books, both of which dealt with various aspects of collegiate or post-collegiate life. Secrets of the Tomb, published last year, explored her alma mater's exclusive secret society Skull and Bones, whose former members include President George Bush and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee...