Avoid the hook-up black-list

Q: There's a girl in a certain sorority (to remain unnamed) who I want to hook up with, but I am absolutely not interested in forming anything more serious with her. Is it worth risking any chance I might have with the rest of the girls in her sorority who might hold more serious potential for me?

A: I don't pretend to be familiar with the inner workings of the university's sisterhood, but I've heard rumors about the consequences of trying to play the sorority field. It seems like it'd be an easy mistake to make.

You get all dressed up in your nice button-down shirt, quickly refresh yourself on the address of your 21-year-old alias and head to one of College Park's fine drinking establishments. You find out what the special is, and begin knocking back $1 beers as you scan the crowd for ladies. You set your sights on the girl across the room who's moving her body like a cyclone and spit your finest game in the hopes of getting lucky. Thankfully, she's a lover, not a withholder, and lucky you get.

This story sounds like something that could happen to you, right? I personally know guys who've messed with what they assumed was a drunken one-night stand, only to discover this forlorn sister has formed some sort of attachment. Before they know it, they've irreversibly ended up on The List.

Oh yes, The List. I'm not sure if this is a revelation of a little-known secret, or just an old wives' tale, but I'm a believer. I've heard too much mention of The List for it to be merely fantastical.

The notorious List could be a function of very few sororities, it could be more of a virtual list; it could even be entirely fictional. Regardless, the idea behind The List is that if a girl decides she would feel uncomfortable if one of her sisters got with a specific guy, she can put him on The List. She likes him, she hates him, she wants him, she wants to screw him over - all possible motives for listing.

However once on this list, our poor hero is doomed to wander Route 1 alone, totally off-limits to the other members of said sorority, lest the violator be deemed "unsisterly."

Obviously, depending on the sorority, the girl and the level of intimacy, there are ways around being "listed." The Greek community is notoriously incestuous (their words, not mine), so overlaps are bound to occur and there are leniencies allowed, especially in the case of random drunk encounters. When it comes to instances of repeated hooking up, or casual dating, the protocol is: Clear it with your sister before you do anything.

Now you might be saying (as I undoubtedly am), "Pffffffff! What a joke! No amount of side-ponytail- wearing, Vera Bradley-toting blondes can tell me who I can and cannot hook up with." Your argument has its place, but even if you don't respect the bonds of sisterhood, you'll be hard-pressed to find a girl who spent six weeks in a small basement memorizing the birthdays and favorite ice cream flavors of her pledge masters who would agree with you.

The immediate answer to your question is no. It's not worth it. What constitutes "unsisterly" conduct varies from sorority to sorority but if the legends are even close to being true, you don't want to burn your bridges and end up on the wrong side of some slutty girl's vendetta.

Esti Frischling is a sophomore studio art major, so she literally has nothing better to do than answer your questions. She can be reached at estidbk@gmail.com.