Miss America has become a controversial conversation topic lately, and it doesn’t have anything to do with her evening wear.
The newly crowned Miss America Kira Kazantsev has been accused, with pretty significant force, of extreme sorority hazing during her time as a member of the Alpha Phi sorority at Hofstra University. The hazing was so extreme that she was ultimately kicked out of the sorority, according to ABC News.
Although she personally claims the details of the hazing events have been grossly exaggerated, her dismissal from the sorority provides a fairly clear answer for just how significant the hazing was.
For IU students, this surfaces at an interesting time, as last week different sororities around campus hung banners in support of National Hazing Prevention Week, a part of IU’s Culture of Care.
As a new member of a sorority, I luckily wasn’t hazed in any way.
Truly.
But as a member of a greek organization, and having just gone through the awkward and trying first months of greek life, I think the Miss America organization isn’t handling this situation well.
Although bid night, bid week, initiation and new member events in my particular sorority were all positive and didn’t include any sort of new member hazing or punishments, it still was a fairly difficult experience.
You barely know the people you just agreed to call your sisters, and you have this self-inflicted expectation to create lifelong best friends in the first 15 seconds.
Both of these factors combined plus hazing? I can’t even imagine.
Why a group of girls would feel the need to treat so poorly the girls they just worked so hard recruiting and persuading to join their chapter makes no sense to me.
The Miss America organization released a statement claiming to have been fully informed of the situation by Kazantsev before the pageant even commenced.
If Miss America is supposed to be some shining beacon of hope and altruism that perfectly embodies the American woman, why in the world would they ever consider selecting someone who had been kicked out of a women’s organization for poor behavior and treatment to her peers?
This just associates even more negativity and scrapes away more credibility for the Miss America organization, a problem they already spend significant amounts of time combatting.
As a member of a greek organization, as an American female that is apparently represented by Miss America, as a sorority member against hazing, Kira Kazantsev should add another blunder to her resume and be removed from her position as Miss America.
cmcelwa@indiana.edu
