An email sent by a student at a private women's college has been slammed after it proposed setting up an "exclusive" straight sorority.
The leaked email, sent at Smith College in Massachusetts, was purportedly written by a straight student who said she felt "marginalised" by the homosexual community at Smith and proposed an "exclusive" chapter of Delta Gamma for straight women.
"'I want to start a sorority at Smith (Delta Gamma/DG), which would basically just be an exclusive group for straight girls, a little friend group," the controversial email begins.
The self-identifying heterosexual writer then proposes activities such as "sorority mixers with Amherst men, weekly dinner dates, weekly photo shoots where we would dress up nice [and] baking nights."
Now, the first mixer – already organised with the Amherst basketball team, according to the post – is set to be cancelled after officials said they not know who wrote the proposals, but that they will not be allowed to go ahead.
The message was roundly condemned at Smith with students gay and straight alike saying no such straight-only group would be accepted.
Opponents quickly took to Twitter to voice their opposition to the topic.
Student body President Augusta Gronquist also blasted the proposals in a campus-wide email, saying: "Incidents of this type go against our understanding of what it means to be a community.
"People in our community are hurting right now; many issues, a lot of which are unspoken or frequently ignored, have been raised and need our attention."
An attorney for the national Delta Gamma sorority, one of the first women's fraternities, said she was unaware of who wrote the original email but said the group does not support creating chapters that discriminate against potential members.
The fraternity, whose stated values are to "promote educational and cultural interests, create a true sense of social responsibility, and develop the finest qualities of character," slammed the email.
Mary Ellen Hardies, the national chapter's director of communication, told USA Today: "Our attorney has been in contact with the university trying to figure out what the heck is going on, who this girl is, to what extent things are happening.
"That sort of approach does not fall in line with our values at all," she said.
The Email In Full:
Hello, this is [a person] and I am sending this message to girls I think might be interested in this idea and I would also love to hear your opinion on this.
So I have this crazy idea but tell me what you honestly think. I want to start a sorority at smith (Delta Gamma/DG), which would basically just be an exclusive group for straight girls, a little friend group..
We would have sorority mixers with Amherst men, weekly dinner dates, weekly photoshoots where we would dress up nice, baking nights..
We would also get Sorority apparel (even Lily Pulitzer has the cutest DG stuff!) and we’d have traditions, like every wednesday we wear pink haha.
I got this idea because personally as a straight girl at Smith, I feel marginalized and I feel like the minority, and I think this could be a really great way to socialize with people we identify more with at smith, and to meet more guys..
The first mixer is already plnned, wih the Amherst bball team this Friday (actually their idea!) What do you think?