Male "Sorority" Controversy at Tennessee State
 

http://www.wsmv.com/video/11134838/index.html?taf=nash

Recently, at TSU in Nashville, TN, sub rosa male "sororities," which imitate NPHC sororites on campus have come to the attention of the school in such a way that there have been recriminations to members and threats of defamation suits by members of these groups. Interesting story all around

Wolfman,
Too "funny" that you just posted this, as I was just speaking about this to your wife not even 3 minutes ago. She referred me to some websites, and I honestly don't understand it...you can be interested in ABC all you want, but if the organization doesn't accept (and will never accept) males, then what exactly is it that they (think) they are doing.

I don't know but I wonder if this is an expression of some type of underground gay subculture on this HBCU, analogous to the drag scene but finding its particular "face" in traditional black sororities which have a lot of cache.

i mean, they're auxiliary groups. Delta Gents/Beax, MiAKAs(who those dudes are), Zeta Knights, & the ever so famous Sigma Rhomeos(even tho they've disaffiliated with SG Rho and became their own entity...they'll still always be male SG Rhos to me)...but these dudes took that shit to the next level. I mean if they wanted to do that shit, they should have pledge D9 frat(i'm not even gonna joke on anyone) or created their own org. so this isnt a new trend as far as these auxiliary groups, but tha flamboyantness was OD in that shit...the dudes i know that have been in an auxiliary group are str8 and are members of either Alpha, Kappa, Que, Iota or Sigma.

i am confused. can you please clarify? there are in fact auxilary groups for men to each of the nphc sororities, but the specific students discussed in the news piece are not members of an auxiliary group. these students have "initiated" (and i use that term loosely) themselves into one of the d9 orgs?

KSU Violet06 is correct. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated has NO affiliation with male groups who pose as members. We do not have auxillary organizations, and do not recognize those who claim to be affiliated with our organization.

Thats a little femme. Those boys need to butch up.

Are they like fraternity little sisters, where they functon in support of the sorority?

Which means the local sorority chapter would be unofficially affiliated with them.

OK, I watched the clip and the subject was a bit ... ummm ... bizarre. What I don't get is why the DJ was fired and suspended from school.

What I understood from the news report is that the DJ was suspended from his duties for "outing" the male faux AKA to the wider community at TSU.

What these groups are doing is no way shape or form has anything to do with activities of an "auxiliary" of a sorority, which is not sanctioned anyway. This is on another level altogether.

The video didn't work for me -- I'm assuming these guys are dressing up as women? If that's the case, do we know WHY they're dressing up as women?

Yep. They sport AKA jackets, shirt, etc & do their calls/hand signs.

"Some of these men joined this underground sorority because they were once rejected from the traditional fraternities."

WTF? Where is the logic in that? I don't get it.

Can't wait to see the rest of them get outed.

Oh, I see about the outing BUT these same pictures have been floating around for months. Some of them had the guys posing without their masks. Weren't they out already or were those pictures of another HAM group? Just wondering.

I guess what I found insulting was that the news report said that they used the same rituals of initation. That is soo suspect.

Apparently, they want to "be" in the real groups that they emulate. Since they have doodads and thusly dudes, that's not possible.

They could have tried Rho Tau or Tri-Ess. They may have fit in better.

\
Do you even visit the NPHC threads or other BGLO boards? This has been discussed for days now. Funny you would post it here in Greek Life.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=84698

For some reason, I thought the MiAKA pics they used in that were from Texas Southern, too.

That's what has been said everywhere else. In fact AKAs at Texas Southern have acknowledged those photos and are doing what is necessary to disban the group. So is this a different group or what? In any case, I think we should let the org in question handle it.

The pics came from the MySpace or Facebook page of one of the group--Joseph. The dressing up as women was separate from the MIAKA photos.

I can't believe it has made TV news. MIAKAs as well as other sorority "male groups", i.e. Delta Beaux/Gents have been around for years. And until now they have been ignored.

I guess Joseph has gotten his 15 minutes of fame and more. :(

But then how different is it than female members of fraternity aux groups who dress and act like the fraternity members--read: Omega Pearls/Gems? There are a lots of pics on the Net showing that, too. Wolfman why don't you post those?

I saw this a while back. it's old, but it fits the topic.


http://tsus-miaka.tripod.com/id1.html

The pics in the story are from Texas Southern. I wish they would have said that in the story.

And for the website, I think it is VERY IRONIC that the MIAKA chapter started RIGHT AFTER the AKAs at TSU came back. :rolleyes: :mad: Those girls (my sister included) were probably so busy trying to get the chapter going again they probably didn't pay attention to the guys who were wishing they were on line with them.

wow...

*Akception faints and gently falls on her compact as she leaves the site above...*

No, I don't scour all the boards all the time. I came across this information from another source. I thought this was an interesting story,period--not as it pertains to BGLOs per se.

I've never seen any female aux members as ... enthusiastic (?) as the male members from all these sites, but then I realized that there are probably calmer male members too, that we don't see all over the Internet. So I looked at a couple of fraternity auxiliary groups' websites. They can get pretty intense too ...

http://www.angelfire.com/sc2/lambdasigmaquepearls/
http://www.freewebs.com/quepearlsisterhoodnetwork/
http://www.jazzynupe.net/Kappa/Sweetheart/

It seems like the news story points out that these guys are crossing the line between appreciating and wanting to help the group into wanting to be in and pretending to be in the group.

Auxiliary groups, if your national group allows them, seem fine to me, but it doesn't seem like guys would be dressing up in the colors and doing the signs if they were just supporting the women.

I hope that this weirdness doesn't reflect badly on the auxiliary groups that are really what they are supposed to be.

I posted this because it was a news story.It has, because of the certain actions on that campus, become a story that has merited some media attention. That's what was noteworthy to me.I've seen all kinds of pics from Que Pearls that have crossed the lines and I've seen a lot of heated dialogue by Ques in our circles. To my knowledge, there haven't been attempts of these women to actually try to replicate Omega Psi Phi and claim to be Ques.If there was a news story out there about it, I'd post that too. Why be so defensive? It makes no sense. My interest is sociological just as much as it about Greek life. It definitely has something to do with the construals of gender,gender relations and how it intersects with sexuality in the African American community,which has implications for far more important matters that affect the community, I think.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg88cgsw_6gcsc47

smh...

uhrm WOW

Is that for real? Or is it a bad joke?

Well, it depends on your definition of "for real."

The people in the photographs have already been identified and advised/counseled/admonished, whatever.

But they were serious? Wow. I just don't get it ...

Again this is not something new as even mentioned in the story. What made it "newsworthy" now? Because pics were posted on the internet? Guess what, other pics such as these have also been posted on the Net for a long time.

So the Nashville station showed those pics (which were from Texas Southern.) The story mentions ONE person being outted and more to come--will they then do a follow up story on that and who was their source?

They interviewed two female students--neither of whom are AKAs.

If nothing else, this story is inflammatory and unnecessary journalism. That's why am I defensive, because I fear this story will generate hate crimes. And then it will be newsworthy. :(

Ladygreek, the sexual politics of this situation as depicted in the news story, placed on the tableux of the typically conservative and even homophobic context of many HBCUs, was one of the things that made me post this,albeit in a subtle manner, because it brings to the fore all kinds of issues. (There was a situation at Morehouse a few years ago that pricked some allied concerns.)

It's not that this is a "new" situation, no more than what DZ HQ was trying to do at DePauw, or the various instances of white Greeks putting on blackface at parties or other things mocking certain black stereotypes, as if it's a new phenomenon. It's more a case of the convergence of the media with the current cultural context which is more "PC" on the one hand and in which things that are exposed have a taboo character to it so that there may be consequences for those involved. This is the complex, ambivalent social context which Greeks--black,white,multicultural,etc.--have to navigate.

Please break this down for me in laymen's terms. I am not a psychologist, or philosopher, just an MBA with a marketing and communications background. And to me this is spreading a message of hate that could have dire consequences. Thus the more exposure given to it, the more people that will get riled up.

More exposure, yes. Spreading hate, no, not really. See, the story itself was framed in such a way that it played into certain sexual stereotypes. But in reality,like most stories, it's multifaceted and multilayered. It can be "spun" in different ways, to bring "heat" or "light." I'm interested in the Greek aspect of it as a non-sanctioned phenomenon and beyond that the "why" of this particular manifestation at this time in our culture. I think it has something to do with some men carving out a counter cultural identity in a hostile environment, using Greekdom. This is reflected in the broader contentious space of what is black manhood in this society,with its structres regarding gender,status, power and race. I can go into more detail but it would take us far afield from what this forum is about. But Greekdom, in a sense, is but a reflection of the social trends and the way our common life in America works along gender, racial, ethnic, and class/caste lines.This story,the DePauw one and the "blacflace" one must all be understood this way. We have to ask the right questions--we must demand that this happens--so that we can actually bring good and self-understanding out of it.

No offense Wolfman, but I think you're trying to be too deep with your assertations regarding the "male sorority". The bottom line is that it is totally disrespectful to mock an organization by using the symbols and letters to glorify or flaunt the fact they feel they can do so. I don't think it has underlined implications of how society works. I think they are just a group of men who really think they can become AKA's by playing dress up. They are no different than those women who buy a pin off of ebay and attempt to "pass" as a member. The men who do this are just plain weird.

Thanks sistergreek. I thought it was just me. :p

You're welcome Sistergreek. I thought Wolfman was about to write his thesis for a minute!:D

I've been restrained in the way I've done posts in this thread for exactly the reason you stated.:) I was tempted to launch into a mini-dissertation. But, I vehently disagree with your assertion about the multifaceted,multilayered nature of the story. It's the lack of deep, critical thought about issues that actually empowers what some people fear:the distortion and abuse of news stories for rank political reasons to hurt people. People use sterotypes to stave off real, thoughtful dialogue. People who have changed the world for the better have always sought to see the big picture and the interrelationships in society and amongst cultures. It's no accident that Dr. King used such strange stuff as personalist philosophy, the praxis of Gandhi, along with his all important background in the OT prophetic tradition as an analytic and critical basis for how he "exegeted" this society and what he did. Nuff said.

:confused: :eek: :D :confused: Wow!