When A Feminist Pledges A Sorority

It was a Thursday evening on the Columbia University campus, and a group from the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority was wedged onto couches eating takeout, some seated cross-legged on the floor. Two discussed an introductory Chinese language class. One thanked a sister for passing along her résumé for an internship. And then there were a few talking about spring break.

They had gone to Cabo, that cliché of a college pilgrimage in which a once-sleepy Mexican village becomes a hormone-fueled frat row, and you never, ever let your drink out of your sight (and if you do, you dump it). Except the women weren’t recounting drunken hookups or how many shots they’d taken on the beach. They were discussing “toxic masculinity,” the “privilege” that allowed them to be there and the “risk team” they put in place to look out for one another if anybody got too drunk or separated from their group.