In the matter of a year, Alix Earle has capitalized on her crazy Miami lifestyle to become a major icon of our generation. In my opinion, she is a genius and a girlboss but I often think that some of her audience may be naive to some aspects of her life, and that these aspects may be more normal than they think. For example, as a UCLA student I found it hilarious when she visited LA and went to a club that has a reputation of being a UCLA student hot spot and built it up in her narrative to be this crazy, once in a lifetime experience.
So, as a sorority girl myself, I was extremely interested in listening to her podcast about sororities, because I had a feeling she would un-normalize some things that are extremely normalized in the Greek life community. My roommate, Claire Alonso, and I sat down this past Wednesday evening to react to her podcast on sorority life.
Right off the bat we learn that Miami is on a winter rush schedule. This basically means that Alix made all of her friends in the first semester before rushing in the winter. This is different from UCLA because we rush before school even starts, meaning we make our friends when we already know what sorority we’re in. I think this honestly puts less pressure on us because we aren’t “competing” with our friends we already have and there’s less pressure to get in certain sororities.
Alix also talks about how at Miami there are two “top” sororities. I feel like there’s a narrative of top houses and bottom houses at any school, so that didn’t surprise us. It seems to be more chill at UCLA, though; if you don’t get into a “top” house, you know it’s because you vibe better at a different one. We also are all nerds at UCLA anyways so we’re pretty much all the same. But Alix talked about how girls would literally ball their eyes out if they got dropped and question what was wrong with them, such as if they’re too weird or not cool enough to be in these houses. To that, Claire said, “I also feel like the girls going into those schools are prepped to feel like this.” Because Miami rushes in the winter and rushing is more intense, these girls have expectations. I literally didn’t even know the names of the sororities at UCLA when I rushed. I feel like that creates a whole different atmosphere.
Alix eventually got dropped from her top houses and thought her whole life was ruined. On the last day of rush, the houses she had left made her feel welcomed and heard. I love the way Alix doesn’t really talk down on any of the houses; she simply explains her experience. She validates the feelings of all girls who have gone through rush, but also gives advice to anyone who might rush in the future. I really thought she was going to talk down on Greek life and rush throughout this podcast, but she didn’t do that whatsoever. The only time she kind of did was when she said that if she had joined the top houses she probably would have turned into a shallow sorority girl, when I feel like she lowkey embodies sorority girl anyways.
Alix ended up dropping but didn’t really explain why in full detail. Again, I feel like this was such a power move because she could’ve dragged the sorority but instead made it seem like it was just a personal decision. I feel like people in sororities are often judged a certain way, and Alix didn’t amplify these judgements through her podcast even though her platform allows it.
Overall, I lowkey thought this podcast was going to be more drama-filled, like the Bama rush documentary. While I didn’t really learn anything new, it was probably more shocking for people who haven’t rushed themselves. I love how positive Alix was and how inclusive she made it. She probably made a lot of girls feel more comfortable with rushing, so it was another slay on her part!