Are these OOTDs over the top?!

Two Ts In A Pod with Teddi Mellencamp and Tamra Judge

In this episode of Dirty Rush, hosts Gia Giudice, Daisy Kent, and Jen Fessler dive into the modern phenomenon of sorority recruitment, known

Key takeaways

• Modern sorority recruitment has become increasingly performative, with heavy emphasis on fashion and social media presence.

Main topics

• Sorority recruitment (Rush) in modern college culture

Notable quotes

"It's upsetting actually a little bit, but I agree with you, Jen. I want to talk about that."

Conclusion

The hosts express concern that sorority rush has evolved into a high-stakes

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who lived through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus, or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinheiro, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. Speaker 1 (0:57) I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. 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This is Our Town, a podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment and fights back. Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to Our Town on the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (2:42) eager back to what she looked like a couple years ago when she was winning dominantly. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Dirty Rush, the truth about sorority life, with your hosts, me, Gia Giudice, Daisy Kent, and Jennifer Fessler. Speaker 1 (3:05) Hi, everybody. I'm so excited to be joined. Well, I feel like I'm the one joining, but Jen Fessler and Joan. Hi, everybody. Hi, Joan. Hi, Jen. We are here for the Dirty Rush podcast. We're waiting for Gia, so we're just going to start. She's going to jump in when she gets here. But I love all things. Rush because sorority life was such a big part of my life in college and actually still is. So whenever I get the chance to do the Dirty Rush podcast, I'm so excited to do it. Not only, you know, because of the sorority life, but because I get to see your beautiful faces. I love every time you come on. It's like, first of all, well, you and Joan both, you sort of, to me, look the part. You just both look like sorority girls. We wore pink today. Pink! I'm wearing my... Speaker 1 (3:54) Purposely rare pink, but. I mean, I know, but like, you're just both so blonde and young and perky. I'm 63. I'm so old. Literally, I was just telling Joan before you came on, these might look like highlights, but this is all gray. And literally when we're done, I'm going to the hair salon. That's my girl. That's my girl. And I was in a sorority in the 80s. Me too. I'm so old. I hardly, like, I felt that some of the questions were like, What did you wear at Rush? I'm like, I have absolutely no idea what I wore at Rush. I mean, whatever I fit into at the time. Yeah, right. Exactly. And there were no pictures. Yes. No pictures, right? Well, have you guys been keeping up with Rush Talk? I guess that's mom talk, tick talk. Now there's Rush Talk. Rush Talk is amazing. I don't know how these girls are doing this. No, I don't either. And I have college age. Speaker 1 (4:48) kids, well, almost, Blakeslee will be there next year, but we wanted to get together to talk about sorority recruitment and all things fashion when it comes to the new recruits and what they have to think about. My gosh, it's crazy how much they have to think about. It's upsetting actually a little bit, but I agree with you, Jen. I want to talk about that. One of my friends online reached out and said, and sent me like, 85 at Texas, their whatever rush videos. Now all the girls are dancing and she's like, we did not look like this. And I'm like, I'm not even sure I was in that sorority anymore. I couldn't be in it. I couldn't spend enough money. I couldn't dance well enough. I would not fit in. I worry a little bit. That's part of it. First of all, have we lost sight of why we're going to college? Number one, in my mind. I feel like we have. Speaker 1 (5:41) you know, the beginning first couple weeks of college, it seems like are all about sororities, you know, about sororities. And so much of it now feels like a class system to me that you have to be so wealthy, or so connected to be in a sorority these days. Look who's joined us. Little Miss Gia Giudice. We needed some young blood. Thank you. Yes. Hello. So nice to meet you. Great tan, Gia. Great tan. Thank you. We're talking about Rush talk. It's probably a lot different from when you were in a sorority, right? How the times have changed. You think? All of us. Yeah. We should have brought our pictures from Rush because. I know. I mean, I just, I look back at it. I mean, I had that, I had a head of just curly hair that I was scrunching, scrunching, scrunching, like a big triangle on top of my head. And then some, I don't know, some ruffly outfit. Speaker 1 (6:38) was just all wrong. I think I had the blonde like feather look all the way down as much as I could get. And I think I had a light blue puffy dress. Right. That's the only one I remember. Some of these insopics are so funny. I mean, I'm looking at all these, we have several pictures here. It feels like these girls are kind of going back to this sort of fifties housewife vibe. Is that true, Gia? I think it's maybe not to the extent, but I think everything does still come back. And Speaker 1 (7:07) I think it's a lot of like the floral pattern that I'm seeing. And even just like the flowy sundresses. I think that's kind of what's been coming back. Like more. Love shock. Yes. Like a love shack fancy vibe. Like that's kind of what it is. The pictures that I'm looking at here, the bows are gigantic. Gigantic. I am like, they take up there, like the size of their entire width of the girls. Yes. I think that top. row with the bow skirts are maybe a bit out of my comfort zone, but I feel like the puppy sleeves are coming back. That's like, those are very cute with some dresses, but I think the bow skirts are a bit much. Speaker 1 (7:50) A lot. And not only are they huge bow skirts, but they're also in this super shiny, like. Tapadogs. Yeah. Like really thick material. Kind of like you would wear at a wedding in the 80s. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the vibe I was getting. And like the pink is so pink. Yes. Like it's a Barbie candy pink. I feel like if you guys, there's this one dress we have, we are all looking at under the puppy sleeve. That looks like, to me, it looks like Daisy Kent in that first picture, the white, that little white dress with the puppy sleeves, right? Yeah. I mean, I know a lot of people, especially from Bama Rush, know Kylan Darnell and she's awesome. Her, she just recently graduated University of Bama, but her sister is still a student there. What? Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What? Who? What? Where? What? Kylan Darnell. Speaker 1 (8:41) So she basically, I want to say like she started like tick, she started brush tick tock. She went really viral at the university of Alabama and she kind of showed the girls like, Hey guys, get dressed with me for my first day of rush. And she was really into it. Like a full blown sorority girl at heart, like loved every second of it and braced it, loved the outfit planning. And she was very, She was very intricate with how she planned her outfits. She had some of them even designed, like very meticulous about everything that she wore when it came to Rush. But it was always simple but cute. Sometimes she went over the top, of course. But it was the detailing in her outfits that really... Kylan Darnell is actually the blonde in the hair and makeup. Like she's the blonde with the curls. With the curly hair? Yes. Speaker 1 (9:39) Wow, that is what in the JonBenet Ramsey is going on there. Really? I need to look her up because I my daughter will be maybe going through Rush next year. Okay, I've got her. You guys, before in prepping for this podcast, I called a friend of mine who I went to Indiana University with. We were both Red Steppers, so we danced for the football team. And she has, I think I've talked about it here on Dirty Rush before. She has an organization called Crush My Rush. And I guess I think you guys have quoted her sometimes or her company or whatever. And I was like, I