{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/110506"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/110506","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"A closet full of dresses: Intersections of femininity and sexuality among queer women in Panhellenic sororities","abstract":"Despite the fact that the sorority experience has been sensationalized in the media (e.g., movies such as Legally Blonde and The House Bunny; television shows such as GRΣΣK), few academic studies have focused on gender or sexuality within the sorority context (Berbary & Johnson, 2012; Hevel & Bureau, 2014; Kahn, 2012). By exploring the experiences of queer women in Panhellenic sororities and using a grounded theory approach to understand how they negotiate expectations of femininity, the current study suggests preliminary theoretical relations in an otherwise understudied area. The findings indicate that queer women do indeed seek and enjoy their membership in Panhellenic sororities, despite overarching heteronormative expectations and homophobic microaggressions. After obtaining membership in these elitist organizations, queer women engaged in a process of staying in bounds, allowing them to maintain inclusion and good standing with their organizations, but compromising aspects of their identities.","abstract_html":"Despite the fact that the sorority experience has been sensationalized in the media (e.g., movies such as Legally Blonde and The House Bunny; television shows such as GRΣΣK), few academic studies have focused on gender or sexuality within the sorority context (Berbary & Johnson, 2012; Hevel & Bureau, 2014; Kahn, 2012). By exploring the experiences of queer women in Panhellenic sororities and using a grounded theory approach to understand how they negotiate expectations of femininity, the current study suggests preliminary theoretical relations in an otherwise understudied area. The findings indicate that queer women do indeed seek and enjoy their membership in Panhellenic sororities, despite overarching heteronormative expectations and homophobic microaggressions. After obtaining membership in these elitist organizations, queer women engaged in a process of staying in bounds, allowing them to maintain inclusion and good standing with their organizations, but compromising aspects of their identities.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Anderson, Brianna Lynne"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Human Dvlpmt & Family Studies","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Bost, Kelly K","Hardesty, Jennifer L","Oswald, Ramona F","Sharp, Elizabeth A"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-09-17T01:11:04Z","date_published":"2021-09-17T01:11:04Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:50Z","subjects":["femininity","sexuality","sororities"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2021 Brianna Anderson"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/110506","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Bost, Kelly K","Hardesty, Jennifer L","Oswald, Ramona F","Sharp, Elizabeth A"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Anderson, Brianna Lynne"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2021-09-17T01:11:04Z","2021-04-20","2021-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Human Dvlpmt & Family Studies"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["femininity","sexuality","sororities"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2021 Brianna Anderson"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/110506"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Despite the fact that the sorority experience has been sensationalized in the media (e.g., movies such as Legally Blonde and The House Bunny; television shows such as GRΣΣK), few academic studies have focused on gender or sexuality within the sorority context (Berbary & Johnson, 2012; Hevel & Bureau, 2014; Kahn, 2012). By exploring the experiences of queer women in Panhellenic sororities and using a grounded theory approach to understand how they negotiate expectations of femininity, the current study suggests preliminary theoretical relations in an otherwise understudied area. The findings indicate that queer women do indeed seek and enjoy their membership in Panhellenic sororities, despite overarching heteronormative expectations and homophobic microaggressions. After obtaining membership in these elitist organizations, queer women engaged in a process of staying in bounds, allowing them to maintain inclusion and good standing with their organizations, but compromising aspects of their identities.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. 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By exploring the experiences of queer women in Panhellenic sororities and using a grounded theory approach to understand how they negotiate expectations of femininity, the current study suggests preliminary theoretical relations in an otherwise understudied area. The findings indicate that queer women do indeed seek and enjoy their membership in Panhellenic sororities, despite overarching heteronormative expectations and homophobic microaggressions. After obtaining membership in these elitist organizations, queer women engaged in a process of staying in bounds, allowing them to maintain inclusion and good standing with their organizations, but compromising aspects of their identities.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. 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