Sororities, cults, and finals oh my: We spoke to the girl behind RECRUITMENT 2016

Victoria Valentine is a junior Art Photo major in Syracuse’s School of Visual and Performing Arts – and this week she released RECRUITMENT 2016, reimagining sororities as sinister cults.

Victoria’s video, which was originally created for a class, has been circling the web for about a week. As of today,  it has been viewed thousands of times.

She originally posted it on Vimeo, where it was taken down after sororities featured filed a copyright claim against her.

We got a chance to talk to her about who she is, why she made the video, and how her life has changed since the release of the video.

This is what she had to say.

Did you post this video knowing sorority recruitment is coming up?

I posted [the video] last Thursday night because I received an email from the Pan-Hellenic Council trying to get people to sign up for rush. I received this general email, so I was like, I think it is time to release this.

Tell me about the moment you heard the video was blowing up on the internet. 

By Saturday, it had kind of exploded. The comments on  Vimeo were the most interesting thing I think, especially since I didn’t put it on YouTube for that reason. Once I started getting like 50-60 comments I was like, people are definitely watching this, they’re making Vimeo accounts just to comment. What’s going on? This is crazy!

Has this video raised your profile as an artist? 

It is interesting because I don’t really consider myself someone who likes to stir the pot a lot, especially on the internet. I don’t really post things that make people mad. It has definitely informed me of how I interact on the internet. I realize that I’m going to need to represent myself professionally because so many people are looking at this, asking me questions, and viewing me as a catalyst for this discussion that has generated. Not really my profile as an artist, but my public image.

Do you think getting national attention for your video will guarantee an A in the class?

This was handed in back in October and I got an A. I did a couple of other cuts, and I kept showing it to people getting their feedback, and re-editing it, so this is probably the fourth time I’ve exported it and changed it around.

How long did all of the editing take you?

Cumulatively, I’d say I did about 20 hrs before the project was due, and then from then on I probably did another 20 hrs.

The video is pretty trippy, especially when you altered the voices in the sorority chants. What was your motivation behind that specific element?

I think I just wanted to distort it, because it is such a weird thing to hear. All of the chanting was from one video where they went from door to door to all of these sororities at Texas A & M and had them all chanting. So the manipulation of the pitch was to try to keep it consistent because their chants are all kind of different, and I wanted to keep the same kind of rhythm throughout the video. Also, honestly just to alter it because it is a big group of girls and they sound cute and they’re chanting, but when you make it high pitch or low pitch it changes the way you think about it.

Publications across the country are claiming you’re pissing off sorority girls everywhere. Has this been the same response at ‘Cuse?

No, not really anywhere. That is an interesting thing I’ve noticed with all of this attention from the media. It is kind of twisting things.

I’ve probably been reached out to by like 10 girls from Syracuse who are in sororities who are like thanking me, and acknowledging my work, and they say they love it. That was honestly the coolest thing, because obviously I don’t think sororities are cults, I have friends who are in sororities that go here, we all have friends that are in sororities. It is inevitable at Syracuse.

I don’t want people to think that I’m this close minded person. I’m an open-minded person, I don’t judge people. If you’re in a sorority cool, that works for you. It didn’t work for me and I didn’t want to be in a sorority, but I’m not going to judge you on that.

Did you consider Syracuse’s large Greek life before deciding to attend?

I remember driving down Comstock and seeing all of the frat houses. I knew there was a prevalence, and I didn’t really come here for that. I didn’t really have any expectations coming into the school.

I didn’t really like my first semester of freshman year. It was absolutely horrible. I was filling our transfer applications. I had to move with my roommate from Saddler to Lawrinson because we had mice. It was horrible.

It was rush, she was rushing, so everyone was gone for those two weekends and I was really feeling down. I thought about it, maybe I should have rushed, but I’m really glad that I didn’t rush.

I feel like sometimes first semester is really hard socially for freshman, because there is this pressure to go out with the people on your floor and go to frat parties and walk around. It is kind of romanticized. Personally I have a lot of guy friends, and I couldn’t go to frat parties, because I didn’t have the ratio. I would go out with like three or four guys because that’s who I wanted to hang out with, and I was like, fuck this I can’t hang out with my guy friends and go to a party? Why would I want to be involved in that?

What’s worse: the stress of finals or the stress of dealing with sorority headquarters?

Definitely the video. It has overshadowed [finals]. I’ve been a little stressed out about the whole copyright infringement, which Gamma Phi Beta and Kappa Delta claimed. This is why my video isn’t up on Vimeo. I’m working to get it back up.  I know for a fact that my use of their video is legal, but I have been stressed out trying to cover all the bases and communicate my intent effectively. But my main focus is studying abroad next semester.

Victoria Valentine is an artist who’s not afraid to step on toes. No matter how the media is spinning it, this art was undeniably dynamic and engaging.

This spring she is headed to Prague, for a semester abroad with a world partner program at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Art.