Becoming the ‘Sorority Girl’: Following Southern Fashion and Sorority Culture on #Rushtok

Abstract

This inquiry explores the development of the (uniform) sorority girl on RushTok, a digital sociality focused on sorority culture. I conduct two rounds of intraviews with 13 RushTok users to explore their intra-action with these formations in 2022 RushTok content. I follow the “sorority girl” within the intraview data to explore her (re)production in this content, and how she comes to matter in the process of becoming-sorority-girl. I use feminist posthuman theory to explore how (non)human agents such as screens and clothing come to matter in the becoming-sorority-girl assemblage. I argue that the style-fashion-dress practices seen on RushTok–particularly the brands, styles of clothing, and types of bodily maintenance used by RushTok content creators–(re)produces the Southern sorority girl uniform, which (re)produces PNMs as becoming-sorority-girl along uniformly gendered, racialized, and classed lines. I also consider how RushTok users’ intra-action with TikTok’s algorithmic logics make hegemonic ideals of gender, race, and class in WGLOs more visible and widespread.

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