If the Shoe Fits: the shifting landscape of Yale a cappella
Its pleasures are simple; its politics are not. Brittany Menjivar, ES ’21, presents two visions for the future of a cappella at Yale.
The day after Yale’s a cappella tap night, dozens of students happily sported spirit wear representing their new groups. Out of these students, seven were new members of the Duke’s Men, including Morgan Baker, JE ’21. As Baker strolled around in her Duke’s Men t-shirt, she was aware that she was different from the others in an obvious way — despite the group’s name, she was not a man.
“I’ve never felt so hypervisible in my life,” Baker said. “I was genuinely terrified to walk around campus, afraid that someone would make the connection between my shirt and my appearance and say something.” Baker, who identifies as gender non-binary and uses both she/her and they/them pronouns, is the Duke’s Men’s first and only non-male member. Earlier this year, the 2016–2017 Duke’s Men decided to open their doors to students of all genders, officially rebranding the Duke’s Men as the only all-gender TTBB a cappella group on campus (a group with a choral arrangement involving two tenors, a baritone, and a bass) . With Baker’s addition to the group, the Duke’s Men’s new vision has been realized. Never before has an all-male a cappella group at Yale become gender-integrated, so the event marks a notable change on campus.
The unease Baker felt immediately after tap night has now decreased, although she recognizes that some tension will remain around the issues of gender going forward. “It’d be naive to think otherwise in a transition like this, no matter how much thought and preparation the group put into the decision,” she says. Baker elaborated that the uncertainty is not only about her new a cappella membership, but is also closely linked to her own identity. “I’m still very deeply questioning my gender and what it means in the spaces that I inhabit,” she added. But the space she has chosen — and the group’s friendly, accepting attitude — has made her feel welcome. “I’m extremely proud to be a member of the Duke’s Men, and I’m so grateful for all the people who have reached out to me and offered their support.”
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Baker considered herself “a bit of an agitator in high school,” given that she was the vice president of her school’s gay-straight alliance and president of its diversity club. But she says that she didn’t rush the Duke’s Men to stir up controversy or make a point. “A lot of the activism I did in high school I did because I would’ve felt out of place and marginalized otherwise. During my first few weeks [at Yale], I’ve been focused more on exploring what makes me happy.”
And what made her happy was her musical fit with The Duke’s Men. “The Duke’s Men’s sound at their Singing Dessert was not only mind-blowingly amazing,” Baker shared. “It was also exactly what I was looking for in terms of genre and musical texture. I could see myself loving every song I sang with them, whereas with other groups I could see myself loving some of the music, but not all of the music.” Though critics of integrating a cappella groups would argue that admitting non-males to the group will affect its distinct musical character, contributing to the band’s TTBB sound has not been a problem for Baker. “What’s funny is that I don’t even have the highest range of the group. I’d say that title goes to David Washington [BF ’19]. The lower women’s alto and men’s tenor ranges are roughly equivalent, so range-wise I’m extremely comfortable.”
It was by the same reasoning that the Duke’s Men decided to change their all-male policy in May. Jerome Walker, BF ’19, the group’s musical director at the time, said that “while everyone in the group had their own set of reasons that convinced them that this was the right decision, we all acknowledged that there are singers who do not identify as male who are capable of singing our repertoire and participating in our group’s community, and we agreed that we were doing both them and ourselves a disservice by not considering them in our audition process on the basis of gender.” Baker agrees that the Duke’s Men’s sound is not contingent on gender. “I think that a cohesive vocal sound comes from matching vowel sounds and vocal tone. Having a female voice doesn’t keep me from blending with the rest of the group in the slightest.”
Yet though her voice fit their music seamlessly, the maleness of the group provided a bit of culture shock at first when Baker began the tap process. “It didn’t really sink in that I was interested in a (formerly) all-men’s space until I went to Tap Night Dinner,” she told me. “Before then, I had had rush meals with one or two members, but I hadn’t been in a room with the whole group. I don’t remember feeling any more alien [when] walking into any other new space at Yale on my own,” she says.
This is not to say that Baker doesn’t understand the significance of her decision in the context of Yale a cappella. “I don’t want to minimize the fact that this is political, even though I don’t necessarily feel the weight of the politics right now.” But at the same time, she believes that the Duke’s Men’s policy change is not such a radical departure for a group that had “diversity in gender expression already.” “I feel like my presence is more of an extension of that than a total 180. Of course, that’s not what it looks like from the outside — the optics of one femme person surrounded by 15 men can be sort of jarring, and I can understand why people would assume that it would be a huge social shift.”
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Baker’s admittance to the Duke’s Men does shed light on a hot topic on campus: the question of whether Yale’s all-male singing groups should become gender-integrated. The most notable controversy has been that surrounding the Whiffenpoofs. Founded in 1909, the Whiffenpoofs are not only Yale’s oldest a cappella group, but also the world’s oldest collegiate a cappella group; their reputation and the opportunities they have to perform are unrivaled. Being a Whiffenpoof means being one of 14 senior men chosen to take a year off from Yale and perform around the world.
As an answer to the Whiffenpoofs, Yale’s all-female, all-senior a cappella group, Whim’n’Rhythm, was founded in 1981 (21 years after Yale began admitting women). Though the 14 women of Whim’n’Rhythm are as talented and hardworking as any Whiffenpoof, they lack the network and resources that the Whiffenpoofs have at their disposal. Some female singers on campus, like Mary Petzke, BR ’18, think that the Whiffenpoofs should be integrated for this very reason. Petzke’s January 2017 op-ed in the Yale Daily News, titled “Integrate the Whiffs,” caused a stir when it was published. “After I wrote the YDN op-ed, I had a lot of friends and other non-male members of the singing community reach out to me with their support, saying they wanted to get involved or even audition,” she says. That led to the creation of an “Integrate the Whiffenpoofs” petition spearheaded by Claire Carroll, GH ’18. Although many students signed the petition, the Whiffenpoofs still voted not to admit women in 2017.
Petzke herself auditioned for the Whiffenpoofs earlier this year. She was intrigued by the group’s touring schedule, but also had personal reasons for wanting to be in the group: the Whiffenpoofs were her “first exposure to a cappella” and “the initial reason [she] was attracted to Yale.” Of course, she was not admitted to the group; yet by auditioning, she made a clear statement about her beliefs.
When asked via email whether there is any place for single-gender groups in the world of a cappella, Petzke replied, “I think there is a place for a cappella that is either SSAA (all sopranos and altos) or TTBB,” but stressed that such ensembles should not be restricted to a certain gender. She also pointed out that a problem arises when TTBB groups are preferred over SSAA groups, which are normally all-female: “The all-male TTBB groups are the ones with the money, resources, and connections. So, the main reason I think the Whiffenpoofs should be made all-gender is because the group that has the most money, prestige, and connections should not be allowed to limit membership based on gender, as that does not allow for equality of opportunity.”
Engender, a student organization that lobbies for gender-integrated social spaces on campus, agrees with Petzke. “[Gender segregation] centers many social and performance groups around a heteronormative gender binary that, by definition, marginalizes queer, trans, and non-binary students. It reinforces in-group biases and out-group stereotypes, which spillover into the workplace to limit professional advancement,” Engender wrote in a statement to the Herald. “Separate has never been and will never be equal.”
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Yet there are also many female singers at Yale who are concerned about the potential drawbacks of admitting women to the Whiffenpoofs, including Sarah Householder, BK ’18, Whim’n’Rhythm’s musical director. Though she emphasized that she cannot speak for the whole group, Householder believes that integrating the Whiffenpoofs “would minimize the decades of work that mixed-gender and women’s groups have put in to make a voice for themselves on campus and in the wider a cappella community.” Whereas the Duke’s Men believe that all-male a cappella needlessly excludes non-male voices from a musical standpoint, Householder holds that women’s a cappella has a unique character that should be preserved: “Musically, women’s a cappella sounds differently than mixed a cappella and all-male a cappella, and it is important not to disregard the unique timbre of women’s voices and arrangements.” And, beyond the music,, “women’s ensembles have an ability to promote messages of empowerment that are less meaningful when sung in a mixed context.”
Householder also noted that the Whiffenpoofs are aware of the benefits that extend from their “prestige and finances.” “The Whiffs of 2018 understand [their privilege] and have developed a really good relationship with Whim and a commitment to share resources (including gig and tour information) whenever possible,” she said.
Considering all this, Householder believes that steps toward integrating the Whiffenpoofs should be taken with caution. “Throughout my time at Yale, being in an all women’s group has meant joining a support system and network of women singers that I am proud to be a part of. Women’s (and mixed gendered) groups have been cultivating their own institutional history since women were first allowed on campus, and while institutions must adapt, it is important not to belittle the work that has already been done.”
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Clearly, the ever-unfolding story of gendered a cappella at Yale is a complicated one. There are many students who would like to make the a cappella playing field more equitable for non-males, but different people have different opinions on how to accomplish that most effectively. On both sides of the debate are people who are equally passionate about creating a more balanced a cappella world — some who believe that gender integration is the best route, and some who have a vision for a more productive single-gender a cappella scene moving forward.
No matter where you stand, though, there’s no question that the addition of Baker to the Duke’s Men is a signal of social change. “I’ve only been on campus for a month, so I have an extremely shallow understanding of Yale and Yale a cappella in terms of their histories of exclusion. I don’t know what kind of legacy my decision will leave,” she says. “Nonetheless, I’m excited to see what kind of effect this will have on our conception of gendered spaces at Yale and in general.”
