Disciplining Women: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Black Counterpublics, and the Cultural Politics of Black Sororities
Deborah Elizabeth Whaley
State University of New York Press
![Picture](/uploads/1/3/9/7/139755227/published/aka-book.jpg?1639002560)
During this semester in my Critical Culture Theory course, we had the chance to explore theories that were relevant to cultural studies. This class covered theories that primarily pertain to sports, gender and race, and politics and publics. After being introduced and gaining an understanding of critical culture theories, we were tasked to complete a book review of a book that engages and intersect theories from the course. The book that I will be conducting a review on is Disciplining Women: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Black Counterpublics, and the Cultural Politics of Black Sororities by Deborah Elizabeth Whaley.
Disciplining Women: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Black Counterpublics, and the Cultural Politics of Black Sororities was written by professor and critical culture scholar Deborah E. Whaley. As Whaley’s first book, she analyzes the first Black Greek Letter sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated (AKA) as an impactful and resourceful Black counterpublic and cultural phenomenon through methods of ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, and interviews with current members of AKA. Outside of seeing the correlations this book has with the theories discussed in the course, my other reason behind selecting it was personal due to me being a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and my own connection and sense of what it means to be an Alpha woman in White America. The main question that this book answers is how culture ultimately influence and collides with Black public life politics, specifically Alpha Kappa Alpha. This timely and relevant work is significant in critical culture scholarship because it provides a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the intersection of culture, politics, power, disciplinary practices, and hegemonic control all while examining the practices, work, and politics of AKA.
The book is composed of five unique chapters along with an introduction and conclusion. Chapter one explores the representational politics in film of Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs) and how notable films such as School Daze and Stomp the Yard, portray BGLOs and Black college life in an unrealistic matter. Specifically, Whaley asserts that School Daze and Stomp the Yard promotes masculinity and irresponsible signifier of Blackness. Without the representation of Black sorority life in films, it “may appear as an unimaginable site to articulate similar shifts and cleavages in the understandings of culture, class, and gender” (pg. 15). Furthermore, Whaley asserts that the representation of BGLOs and the Black college experience in films has negatively affected our perception of these two topics. This chapter intersects with gender performativity and how film portrayal of BGLOs continue to engage in traditional norms and normative sexual codes.
Chapter two introduce the notion of Alpha Kappa Alpha being a Black counter public by its characteristics where women in the sorority creates their own sense of social justice theory and their affiliation with the sorority immerse them in social change. Incorporating the Black Public Sphere Collective theory of Black counterpublics, Whaley argues that AKA demonstrates the commitment to progress the advancement of the Black community at a local and global level. Whaley assertion of AKA being a Black counter public allows for it to be situated in counterpublic and publics theory that will be further explored later in this paper.
Chapter three focus on how AKA identity is assumed through symbolic behavior and cultural practices that emphasizes sexuality and femininity. Whaley draws from the African diaspora and performance theory to support claims. In this manner, I correlate this as articulation and a responsive constructive of ideologies that are assumed about sororities, especially the Black sororities. Also, chapter three engages theory because it challenges the notion that stepping is a masculine practice which I intersect with gender performativity as well. Chapter four coincides with gender trouble and norms by having the conversation about controversial topics in BGLOs such as hazing and respectability.
Lastly, I interpret chapter five as involving characteristics of affect by including brief excerpts from members of Alpha Kappa Alpha on their reason to joining the sorority, meaning of Black sorority life, and how they are voices and agents of change. This chapter also provides a thorough analysis of the impact AKA has had not only the Black community but other marginalized communities and its commitment to being a service to all mankind. Nonetheless, as a catalyst for social change and progressive phenomenon, Whaley highlights the continued struggle for Black counterpublics today. Overall, Whaley has not only provided a thorough analysis of one of the most influential and impactful organization that has been around for nearly 114 years, she allows her work on Alpha Kappa Alpha be situated in critical and cultural studies in the lens of scholarship.
In Sloop’s book, Disciplining Gender: Rhetorics of Sex Identity in Contemporary U.S. Culture, he discussed Judith Butler’s idea of gender being performative and implicate “gender is what we do rather than what we are” (pg. 6) and due to popular culture, gender norms are heavily policed and are treated essential rather than contingent. Furthermore, Sloop discusses the importance of understanding the ideological mechanisms of keeping gender/sexuality literalized and how it is “…persistently reaffirmed and returned to “gender normality” on a mass cultural and ideological level” (pgs. 11-12) and in chapter one of Disciplining Women this is seen in the popular films, School Daze and Stomp the Yard. Whaley supports Sloop and Butler’s assertion of gender/sexuality being policed which ultimately influence it as being normative rather than fluid especially in BGLOs. Whaley states, “ In explaining Black American middle-class patrolling of sexuality among Black people exist in a large part to compensate for racist myths that present Blackness and Black people as sexually and morally depraved” (pg. 27). Unfortunately, the Black community and other marginalized communities often do not have the luxury to identify as other than heterosexual because it can alter their power and privilege. The heteronormative and heterosexual appeal in BGLOs reveals how race converge with sexuality in the Black community that impacts their privilege in society. Members of these organizations who do not identify as heterosexual and but rather gender-fluid or non-heteronormative can find themselves in risky situations (Whaley 27). Due to media portrayal of fraternal organizations, the representation of gender behavior can be seen as cultural practices and behavior that creates identity and influence their power and impact. Even though AKA has a strong preeminence on femininity, it goes back and forth with challenging gender norms from its portrayal in films to its symbolic behavior and cultural performance.
AKA supports, and at the same time, challenge gender norms through Whaley’s assertion of their production and performance of in stepping. Alpha Kappa Alpha identity is not only created in what they do as a Black counterpublic but also in their performance of “gender, sexual, and ethnic identity” (Whaley 60). Through their signature usage of hand gesture (holding just a pinky up), chant “Skee-Wee”, pink and green paraphernalia, AKA articulates this social public image. According to Stuart Hall (1986), articulation “is the form of the connection that can make a unity of two different elements, under certain conditions.” AKA does this by connecting their hand gesture, chant, attire, performance, and overall appeal to create an identity that is unique to the organization. Also, Hall asserted that there is no need to turn everything into discourse for it to be articulation and once again AKA demonstrates this in the practice of stepping and strolling in a signature way. AKA uses stepping as a practice that media has portrayed as masculine, to “reclaim Black womanhood, create sexual identity, and revitalize Black cultural forms” (Whaley 61).
Furthermore, I found contradicting statements from Whaley and Todd Resser regarding the ideology associated with masculinity. Whaley stated that sororities’ emphasis on femininity was to “…counterbalance the history and materiality of Black women being hypersexualized and masculinized in order to exploit them sexually and economically during and after slavery” (pg.77) whereas Resser (2010) refers to masculinity as an important aspect of power. This proves that the masculinity has a certain ideological connotation to it depending on which culture it is effecting.
“AKA is a material example of counterpublic formation and work, as they used direct action, deployed counterdiscourses, proposed anti-racist legislation, and encouraged and ensured higher education for Black women and men” (Whaley 41). Counterpublics function in response to dominant ideologies to counter the discourses of their image and identities. Whaley offers a comprehensive examination of how AKA has emerged as a counterpublic which I intersect with Dana Cloud’s “Big Five” and her analysis of Black Lives Matter being a counterpublic. Similar to AKA, the Black Lives Matter movement was created in response to counter the narrative of the Black body and to raise awareness of the injustices Black men and women face such as police brutality. Cloud illustrate that the Black Lives Matter movement employs the “big five” which are narrative, myth, embodiment, affect, and spectacle which makes it a counterpublic. I would like to contend that Alpha Kappa Alpha also possess Cloud’s “big five”.
AKA exhibits affect in its usage of step performance in its connection of keeping African diaspora and cultural practices alive that plays a critical role in Black history. Myth and narrative are seen in AKA’s historical and present impact on the community. The spectacle of AKA has been at the epicenter of social change for 113 years which embodies a cultural and political actions. AKA’s impressive role in the Black public sphere allows for it to formulate their own theories on social justice, and politics and policy. Although Cloud states that Black Lives Matter is timely and relevant today, Alpha Kappa Alpha continues to leave a paramount and apt legacy as a counterpublic and impetus for the Black community.
Whaley’s analysis of Alpha Kappa Alpha is important to critical culture studies and theory because it disclose how BGLOs are socio-political organizations that support and challenge gender normativity, exhibit characteristics of Black counterpublics, dispute dominate ideologies, create identity and meaning through rhetorical devices, and possess unique cultural practices. Whaley explicitly states that cultural theory has allowed this study to conceptualize AKA as a feasible political and cultural enterprise. I would like to see Whaley or another cultural scholar conduct this study on Alpha Kappa Alpha and even other BGLOs today since the increasingly acceptance and respectability of non-heteronormativity.
Disciplining Women: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Black Counterpublics, and the Cultural Politics of Black Sororities was written by professor and critical culture scholar Deborah E. Whaley. As Whaley’s first book, she analyzes the first Black Greek Letter sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated (AKA) as an impactful and resourceful Black counterpublic and cultural phenomenon through methods of ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, and interviews with current members of AKA. Outside of seeing the correlations this book has with the theories discussed in the course, my other reason behind selecting it was personal due to me being a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and my own connection and sense of what it means to be an Alpha woman in White America. The main question that this book answers is how culture ultimately influence and collides with Black public life politics, specifically Alpha Kappa Alpha. This timely and relevant work is significant in critical culture scholarship because it provides a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the intersection of culture, politics, power, disciplinary practices, and hegemonic control all while examining the practices, work, and politics of AKA.
The book is composed of five unique chapters along with an introduction and conclusion. Chapter one explores the representational politics in film of Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs) and how notable films such as School Daze and Stomp the Yard, portray BGLOs and Black college life in an unrealistic matter. Specifically, Whaley asserts that School Daze and Stomp the Yard promotes masculinity and irresponsible signifier of Blackness. Without the representation of Black sorority life in films, it “may appear as an unimaginable site to articulate similar shifts and cleavages in the understandings of culture, class, and gender” (pg. 15). Furthermore, Whaley asserts that the representation of BGLOs and the Black college experience in films has negatively affected our perception of these two topics. This chapter intersects with gender performativity and how film portrayal of BGLOs continue to engage in traditional norms and normative sexual codes.
Chapter two introduce the notion of Alpha Kappa Alpha being a Black counter public by its characteristics where women in the sorority creates their own sense of social justice theory and their affiliation with the sorority immerse them in social change. Incorporating the Black Public Sphere Collective theory of Black counterpublics, Whaley argues that AKA demonstrates the commitment to progress the advancement of the Black community at a local and global level. Whaley assertion of AKA being a Black counter public allows for it to be situated in counterpublic and publics theory that will be further explored later in this paper.
Chapter three focus on how AKA identity is assumed through symbolic behavior and cultural practices that emphasizes sexuality and femininity. Whaley draws from the African diaspora and performance theory to support claims. In this manner, I correlate this as articulation and a responsive constructive of ideologies that are assumed about sororities, especially the Black sororities. Also, chapter three engages theory because it challenges the notion that stepping is a masculine practice which I intersect with gender performativity as well. Chapter four coincides with gender trouble and norms by having the conversation about controversial topics in BGLOs such as hazing and respectability.
Lastly, I interpret chapter five as involving characteristics of affect by including brief excerpts from members of Alpha Kappa Alpha on their reason to joining the sorority, meaning of Black sorority life, and how they are voices and agents of change. This chapter also provides a thorough analysis of the impact AKA has had not only the Black community but other marginalized communities and its commitment to being a service to all mankind. Nonetheless, as a catalyst for social change and progressive phenomenon, Whaley highlights the continued struggle for Black counterpublics today. Overall, Whaley has not only provided a thorough analysis of one of the most influential and impactful organization that has been around for nearly 114 years, she allows her work on Alpha Kappa Alpha be situated in critical and cultural studies in the lens of scholarship.
In Sloop’s book, Disciplining Gender: Rhetorics of Sex Identity in Contemporary U.S. Culture, he discussed Judith Butler’s idea of gender being performative and implicate “gender is what we do rather than what we are” (pg. 6) and due to popular culture, gender norms are heavily policed and are treated essential rather than contingent. Furthermore, Sloop discusses the importance of understanding the ideological mechanisms of keeping gender/sexuality literalized and how it is “…persistently reaffirmed and returned to “gender normality” on a mass cultural and ideological level” (pgs. 11-12) and in chapter one of Disciplining Women this is seen in the popular films, School Daze and Stomp the Yard. Whaley supports Sloop and Butler’s assertion of gender/sexuality being policed which ultimately influence it as being normative rather than fluid especially in BGLOs. Whaley states, “ In explaining Black American middle-class patrolling of sexuality among Black people exist in a large part to compensate for racist myths that present Blackness and Black people as sexually and morally depraved” (pg. 27). Unfortunately, the Black community and other marginalized communities often do not have the luxury to identify as other than heterosexual because it can alter their power and privilege. The heteronormative and heterosexual appeal in BGLOs reveals how race converge with sexuality in the Black community that impacts their privilege in society. Members of these organizations who do not identify as heterosexual and but rather gender-fluid or non-heteronormative can find themselves in risky situations (Whaley 27). Due to media portrayal of fraternal organizations, the representation of gender behavior can be seen as cultural practices and behavior that creates identity and influence their power and impact. Even though AKA has a strong preeminence on femininity, it goes back and forth with challenging gender norms from its portrayal in films to its symbolic behavior and cultural performance.
AKA supports, and at the same time, challenge gender norms through Whaley’s assertion of their production and performance of in stepping. Alpha Kappa Alpha identity is not only created in what they do as a Black counterpublic but also in their performance of “gender, sexual, and ethnic identity” (Whaley 60). Through their signature usage of hand gesture (holding just a pinky up), chant “Skee-Wee”, pink and green paraphernalia, AKA articulates this social public image. According to Stuart Hall (1986), articulation “is the form of the connection that can make a unity of two different elements, under certain conditions.” AKA does this by connecting their hand gesture, chant, attire, performance, and overall appeal to create an identity that is unique to the organization. Also, Hall asserted that there is no need to turn everything into discourse for it to be articulation and once again AKA demonstrates this in the practice of stepping and strolling in a signature way. AKA uses stepping as a practice that media has portrayed as masculine, to “reclaim Black womanhood, create sexual identity, and revitalize Black cultural forms” (Whaley 61).
Furthermore, I found contradicting statements from Whaley and Todd Resser regarding the ideology associated with masculinity. Whaley stated that sororities’ emphasis on femininity was to “…counterbalance the history and materiality of Black women being hypersexualized and masculinized in order to exploit them sexually and economically during and after slavery” (pg.77) whereas Resser (2010) refers to masculinity as an important aspect of power. This proves that the masculinity has a certain ideological connotation to it depending on which culture it is effecting.
“AKA is a material example of counterpublic formation and work, as they used direct action, deployed counterdiscourses, proposed anti-racist legislation, and encouraged and ensured higher education for Black women and men” (Whaley 41). Counterpublics function in response to dominant ideologies to counter the discourses of their image and identities. Whaley offers a comprehensive examination of how AKA has emerged as a counterpublic which I intersect with Dana Cloud’s “Big Five” and her analysis of Black Lives Matter being a counterpublic. Similar to AKA, the Black Lives Matter movement was created in response to counter the narrative of the Black body and to raise awareness of the injustices Black men and women face such as police brutality. Cloud illustrate that the Black Lives Matter movement employs the “big five” which are narrative, myth, embodiment, affect, and spectacle which makes it a counterpublic. I would like to contend that Alpha Kappa Alpha also possess Cloud’s “big five”.
AKA exhibits affect in its usage of step performance in its connection of keeping African diaspora and cultural practices alive that plays a critical role in Black history. Myth and narrative are seen in AKA’s historical and present impact on the community. The spectacle of AKA has been at the epicenter of social change for 113 years which embodies a cultural and political actions. AKA’s impressive role in the Black public sphere allows for it to formulate their own theories on social justice, and politics and policy. Although Cloud states that Black Lives Matter is timely and relevant today, Alpha Kappa Alpha continues to leave a paramount and apt legacy as a counterpublic and impetus for the Black community.
Whaley’s analysis of Alpha Kappa Alpha is important to critical culture studies and theory because it disclose how BGLOs are socio-political organizations that support and challenge gender normativity, exhibit characteristics of Black counterpublics, dispute dominate ideologies, create identity and meaning through rhetorical devices, and possess unique cultural practices. Whaley explicitly states that cultural theory has allowed this study to conceptualize AKA as a feasible political and cultural enterprise. I would like to see Whaley or another cultural scholar conduct this study on Alpha Kappa Alpha and even other BGLOs today since the increasingly acceptance and respectability of non-heteronormativity.
Works Cited
Cloud, Dana. Reality Bites: Rhetoric and the Circulations of Truth Claims in U.S. Political Culture. Ohio State University Press, 2018.
Resser, Todd. “An Introduction.” Masculinities in Theory. Blackwell Publishing, 2010.
Sloop, John. Disciplining Gender: Rhetorics of Sex Identity in Contemporary U.S. Culture. University of Massachusetts Press, 2004.
Whaley, Deborah. Disciplining Women: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Black Counterpublics, and the Cultural Politics of Black Sororities. State University of New York Press, 2010.
Cloud, Dana. Reality Bites: Rhetoric and the Circulations of Truth Claims in U.S. Political Culture. Ohio State University Press, 2018.
Resser, Todd. “An Introduction.” Masculinities in Theory. Blackwell Publishing, 2010.
Sloop, John. Disciplining Gender: Rhetorics of Sex Identity in Contemporary U.S. Culture. University of Massachusetts Press, 2004.
Whaley, Deborah. Disciplining Women: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Black Counterpublics, and the Cultural Politics of Black Sororities. State University of New York Press, 2010.