02 Feb 2018

Whiffenpoofs (and the Senior Girls Imitation Group) Go Totally PC

, , , ,

Not a satire. This is from today’s Yale Daily News:

Breaking with more than a century of tradition, the Whiffenpoofs and Whim ’n Rhythm, Yale’s all-male and all-female senior a capella groups, announced on Thursday that this year both groups will consider accepting singers of all genders.

According to a joint announcement posted on Facebook, Whim ’n Rhythm will from this point on describe itself as, “SSAA,” — or Soprano I and II and Alto I and II — rather than all-female, while the Whiffenpoofs will use the label “TTBB,” or Tenor I and II, Baritone and Bass. The statement called these terms “more informative of the art [they] create” and “more inclusive” to members past, present and future, especially those who identify as transgender, gender nonbinary and gender nonconforming.

“Instead of talking about the membership of the group, [we want to] talk about the people who make that type of music,” said Kenyon Duncan ’19, the music director of the Whiffenpoofs. “We’re trying to make this as much about the music and ease gender boundaries.”

The statement also announced a series of changes designed to close the “gap in opportunity” between the two organizations. The Whiffenpoofs, well-established in the world of a cappella, take a year off from school to tour the world, while the much newer Whim ’n Rhythm tours internationally only during the summer and performs locally throughout the year. Whim ’n Rhythm also brings in significantly less revenue than do the Whiffenpoofs — during fiscal year 2013, for example, Whim ’n Rhythm’s earnings amounted to less than a quarter of the Whiffenpoofs’.

With these changes, the announcement said, the two groups hope to “more explicitly link” together as two performing bodies representing the same Yale senior class.

Next year, both the Whiffenpoofs and Whim ’n Rhythm classes of 2019 will have the option to take a leave of absence or remain enrolled at Yale, with rehearsal, performance and tour schedules defined by each future class of singers. And the groups’ operations will become more cohesive in the future, through a joint website with shared booking information and closer integration of the two groups’ business teams. The statement also expressed a commitment to expanding the SATB — of Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass — repertoire so that Whim and the Whiffs can more often perform together on campus and for clients.

The joint decision to go all-gender as well as to implement the set of changes announced resulted from a prolonged conversation among all 28 members of the Whiffenpoofs and Whim ’n Rhythm classes of 2018 over the past six months about how to make senior a cappella at Yale more equitable.

RTWT

StumbleUpon.com
4 Feedbacks on "Whiffenpoofs (and the Senior Girls Imitation Group) Go Totally PC"

GoneWithTheWind

A shirt tail relative, a mother of a niece, has once again placed her mental illness on display by once again threatening suicide after long and heated public (facebook) arguments with children, spouse, lover(s) and acquaintances. Her public threats (on facebook of course) and the pleas and comments play out for all to see. Followed by acquisitions, blaming and insults back and forth (on facebooj of course). But she didn’t commit suicide of course she only did it for the drama and the attention and opportunity to shame and insult others for past slights real and imagined. She is mentally ill of course. Undiagnosed and untreated like so many mentally ill. At least we don’t treat here like an entitled minority and make special rules for her and punishments for those who would say the truth about her. She is sick and will never seek or receive help and one day she may well kill herself. IMHO she is no different from those who do not know their gender or think they are some thrid gender or perhaps even a fourth or fifth gender. Mentally ill, in need of help and will never git help. However, for simply expressing that opinion I could be fired from a job and kicked out of most organizations. Hmmmm! Perhaps the PC meme is a symptom of mental illness too.



GoneWithTheWind

“accusations” of course, not “acquisitions”. I could blame it on spell check but…



Seattle Sam

The letter they sent out to Whiff alumni said, “Thank you – your opinions and ideas were wide-ranging and thoughtful, and they gave us invaluable perspectives as we deliberated.”
They had show trials in the Soviet Union that were more credible.



Seattle Sam

109 years of work from 1400 Yale MEN trashed overnight because 14 teenagers woke up one morning and decided it would be oh so much more enlightened and fashionable to change everything.
This is the same mentality that allows liberals to treat the US Constitution as a “quaint set of suggestions”.



Comments

Please Leave a Comment!




Please note: Comments may be moderated. It may take a while for them to show on the page.
















Feeds
Entries (RSS)
Comments (RSS)
Feed Shark