By Christina Murphy
Columnist
It’s no question that fraternities and sororities have lost their once-alluring reputation on campuses across the country.
This year alone we saw racist chanting from Sigma Alpha Epsilon at the University of Oklahoma, sexist recruitment videos, a gross lack of diversity from Alpha Phi at the University of Alabama and formal charges brought against 10 brothers for the hazing-related death of a Pi Delta Psi pledge at Baruch College in New York City. Among these charges were counts of a criminal conspiracy.
These disturbing real-life events serve as a backdrop for Ryan Murphy’s new horror-comedy “Scream Queens,” which premiered Tuesday, Sept. 22 on FOX.
Reflective of a young adult murder-mystery novel, “Scream Queens” tells the story of a prestigious sorority that is being terrorized by a costumed, knife-wielding psycho killer after they witnessed an accidental murder committed by the organization’s president.
Bound by secrecy and “sisterhood,” the girls must work together to uncover the dark secrets within the sorority house – all while surviving hell week of pledging.
The two-hour series premiere was a campy amalgam of every teen thriller, with a hint of satire to play on the absurdities of the genre, but didn’t quite lose the genuine horror aesthetic.
Chanel, the president of Kappa Kappa Tau, is portrayed as an all-around awful person who verbally assaults people on a regular basis and pulls the “poor little rich girl” card any time she is contested for her behavior.
After policy changes enacted by the school dean force Kappa Kappa Tau to abandon their pledge selection process and let in any girl who wishes to join the sorority, Chanel becomes enraged that “fatties and ethnics” will be let into her precious “pretty girl” sorority.
These pledges include girls who Chanel refers to as Neck Brace, Deaf Taylor Swift and Predatory Lez. Zayday, played by Keke Palmer, is the only black student to enter the sorority house and faces a tremendous amount of discrimination from the current sisters.
Among these pledges is Grace, played by Skyler Samuels, a sweet freshman who wants to join the sorority to feel closer to her deceased mother, who was a sister while she was in college. Grace is different than the girls currently in the sorority. She wishes to make the sorority a group that encourages empowerment and respect, not elitism and judgment.
While all of this is going on, Dean Munch, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, is threatening to revoke Kappa Kappa Tau’s charter and have the sorority removed from campus.
Dean Munch is a former feminist, who struggles with how she has grown to become the authority figures she fought against when she was young.
It’s worth noting that Curtis, the original “Scream Queen,” starred in John Carpenter’s 1978 classic teen thriller “Halloween.” There are several references to the film throughout the series thus far, the most obvious being the close resemblance that the music in “Scream Queens” has to Carpenter’s original score.
Despite some pretty terrible events happening to the women, it’s a surprisingly pro-woman show. Each of the female leads is, in her own way, a complex and strong character.
“Scream Queens” is a surprisingly smart and empowering show that is definitely worth the watch for reasons other than just to watch Nick Jonas flex his muscles.
The show puts the purpose of Greek Life on campuses into question. The sororities on “Scream Queens” are there to judge and shame, while the fraternities are vapid and misogynistic. The point of portraying them in this way is to show that it shouldn’t take a bunch of murders for someone to realize that maybe these groups shouldn’t be around anymore.