The Bama Rush is taking the internet like wildfire and recently a documentary was released on HBO Max by the name Bama Rush Documentary that has come back with our online guilty pleasure.
What is the Bama Rush?
It would be a little over two years when the internet came up with a ubiquitous bama rush process that was happening at the University of Alabama. Although we know of the sorority rush the amusing mix of Southern tradition with the social media created a great swirl among the young women of Tuscaloosa. They made their mini-series with characters, subplots and most importantly antagonists.
The hashtags that trended are enough to show how much the public invested in the journey of choosing three Greek letters. The Bama Rush Tok became an overnight sensation on TikTok.
From the public to viewers to even past alumni started calling up the University and the Panhellenic Council for its missteps. This event revealed the sensational things. Racism allegations, sexism, gatekeeping and of course the secret society, all became a topic of discussion overnight with national news coverage.
What are we Getting in the Documentary?
The Bama Rush Documentary has come up to demystify what is the bama rush, the heartbreaking and simultaneous bubbly involvement that we lived through TikTok. The documentary aims to bring back some of the Bama Rush features that discuss the massive mental, physical and emotional stress caused by the rush week.
The story centres around four young women who steer themselves through the massive Greek Life process of Alabama besides searching for themselves. Inside the campus, we meet these excited young women who are all set to balance their pre-rush activities with the amusement of beginning a new chapter of their lives.
The process of documenting was also tinted with controversies and secrecy. Both the current students and alumni were on the move as the document was on the run. Girls were warned to slow down their social media activity as the paranoia became intense when a girl was alleged to have worn a microphone in her hair tie.
Merissa Lee who was the first president of Phi Mu at the University of Alabama has said that the things inside are much more complicated and a lot more nuanced than they appear.
She even points out that it would be a very difficult task to capture all of its subtleties in just two hours in a documentary film. The president adds that everyone’s experiences are unique in their ways and that calls for more definitions.
With the release of the documentary, the viewers get a new opportunity to relive the TikTok virality while they dig deep into the stories. This becomes a way to relate the Greek Life with the larger culture.
What are the Things Bama Rush can Teach Us?
The Bama Rush has four characters Shelby, Isabelle, Holliday, and Makalya who come from different cultures and backgrounds. Their common goal is that they aim to seek membership in the largest Greek population in the nation. The rush shows the vast landscape of Alabama and how fitting into the new culture and status of the university at the age of 18 becomes crucial.
The story centres around four young women who steer themselves through the massive Greek Life process of Alabama besides searching for themselves. Through the documentary, we get to see how the girls talk about their physical attributes and the things they wish to work on.
The documentary not only focuses on the sorority alone but largely talks about the Greek ranking and how it arrived. The concept of sorority here is not the general notion of ranking through charity and social work.
It rather stemmed from the Alabama fraternity house that ranked on who had the more attractive batch of Prospective New Members each year. The focus here moves to the toxic college culture which involves both the women as well as the men.
Many of the former Greek members have spoken about how the standards board is a way to monitor the online presence of the members. Here in the documentary, the current sorority speaks about how they have been policed in the past for their activities on social media. Moreover, it is quite visible that the members are nagging about being a part of the highly identifiable organisation.
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