Instagram and Facebook feeds were filled with images of college women in lab coats or with books in hand with the hashtag #ActualSororityMove (ASM) on April 19.
Elon Univeristy’s Kappa Zeta chapter of Sigma Kappa launched the ASM campaign in a Facebook post beginning with “Dear Total Sorority Move (and anyone else), This is a message for you…” The post went on describing the chapter was a group of real, passionate, smart women and are not what a website defines a sorority as.
Sororities as a whole face a variety of stigmas such as having a certain appearance, paying for friendships and being more focused on partying than academia. Sigma Kappa tried to go beyond this, according to junior Amanda Steinman, a member of Sigma Kappa who helped organize the campaign.
“We are a multidimensional group of women, we have passions and dreams and goals, we fight for gender equality, we work together to lift one another up, we cannot fit a mold or be put into boxes,” said a statement from the Kappa Zeta chapter.
Members of various chapters of Sigma Kappa as well as other sororities joined in and posted photos explaining how they were individuals while still being proud sorority sisters. The chapter believes the campaign resonates with all women — not just sorority members.
“We were inspired to produce the #ActualSororityMove (ASM) campaign to demonstrate that sorority members are dynamic and powerful women who are much more than what many people perceive us to be,” Steinman said. “We feel strongly that we are a multidimensional group of women who have passions, dreams and goals.”
Despite their best efforts to combat negative stereotypes and stigmas, not everyone completely agreed with how the movement went about breaking them.
Veronica Ruckh, director of Total Sorority Move (TSM), published an article on the website titled, “Dear #ActualSororityMove (And Anyone Else Who Doesn’t Understand TSM),” defending the brand and writers by explaining how TSM doesn’t set sorority guidelines or promote stereotypes.
“I have no problem with the campaign on its own — in fact I would have supported it, though it isn't exactly an original idea,” Ruckh said in an email. “We've covered nearly identical campaigns with full support and admiration many times in the past and had this one been neutral toward our brand, we would have covered it positively, and supported it just as we have before.”
Ruckh felt that the campaign was damaging to her brand, and by calling it “Actual Sorority Move,” it was saying “Not Total Sorority Move,” especially since TSM was tagged and mentioned by name throughout the entire project.
She believes that the anger of sorority stereotypes was misdirected at TSM, and the brand is actually a supporter of all kinds of sorority women. Ruckh said the writers of TSM are celebrated for their work, not criticized for telling jokes.
“[My column] solely exists to defend the women and brand who are being bashed by their movement,” Ruckh said. “Frankly, we deserve an apology."
Sigma Kappa did not reach out to TSM about their article. Members still stand firm that the original message of the movement has been effective.
“While we did tag TSM in our original post and we did see their article, we want to recognize that this was not intended to be a direct attack on them but rather a larger, more important conversation about our society,” Steinman said. “This is an issue that goes far beyond any one media outlet.”
With more than 2 million online engagements on Facebook,10,000 individuals who have liked the posts and the thousands who have shared them, Steinman believes the support has allowed their message to reach so many people, which was their main goal.
“We never could have anticipated this taking off the way it has over the past few days, but it only proves that this movement promotes an important and relevant message to our society,” she said.