Obey

I went to an undergraduate institution (Colby) that had banned fraternities and sororities. Now I live just around the corner from a whole street full of frat houses and sorority houses. It’s kind of interesting (and often irritating). One thing that’s really striking is the degree of conformity, especially among the girls. The other day I was walking past a girl standing at the corner. An SUV pulled up, the window rolled down, and a girl in the truck said (in a perky, squeaky voice), “Hi!” to the one on the corner. The one on the corner responded, “Hi!” and hesitated. The girl in the truck was skinny and tanned and wore a white tanktop and had chemically bleached and straightened hair and wore huge bug-eye sunglasses. I thought to myself, “There is no possible way that the girl on the corner can recognize the one in the car. There are 2,000 girls living on this street who are indistinguishable from this one from this angle.” Perhaps sensing this, the girl in the car piped, “It’s Kristy!” and the girl on the corner answered, “I know!” But I think she was lying. Or maybe she recognized the vehicle. (Sorority vehicles don’t display much variation either — mostly SUVs, mostly white — but moreso than the girls themselves.) Or maybe it’s like penguins and they can all just recognize each other through pheremones or something.