Unchanged Trebles: What Boy Choirs Teach Us about Motherhood and Masculinity
Unchanged Trebles: What Boy Choirs Teach Us about Motherhood and Masculinity
Unchanged Trebles: What Boy Choirs Teach Us about Motherhood and Masculinity
Description
Description
Boy choirs are one of the oldest musical traditions in the Western world. While audiences admire boy singers for their distinctive treble notes, boys who sing in soprano voices have to contend with the notion that they're doing something effeminate, even emasculating, because they sing in a vocal range typically reserved for women and girls. Known as the "unchanged trebles" within choirs, boys who sing in soprano voices defy prevailing norms of traditional masculinity. What do boy choirs represent in a culture that increasingly sees gender as an individual choice rather than a fixed, biological category? And is this tradition, which is rooted in exclusion of girls and women, one worth saving? In Unchanged Trebles, Rebekah Peeples charts an unexpected, thought-provoking, and deeply personal journey into the peculiar world of contemporary boy choirs, where boys learn to do something together that they're often embarrassed to do alone: sing in their soprano voices. Considering her experience as the unlikely mother of a boy soprano alongside dozens of interviews with current directors and former choristers, she argues that some of the tools for creating a more gender-inclusive future can be found in an ancient tradition that has long recognized gender fluidity within the pre-pubescent male body. With humor, insight, and the voice of a gifted storyteller, Unchanged Trebles explores a cultural tradition in which singing and expressing emotion are encouraged for boys, showing them a more expansive form of masculinity as they transition from boyhood to manhood.
About the Author
About the Author
Rebekah Peeples is Associate Dean of the College for Curriculum and Assessment at Princeton University. She is the author of Walmart Wars: Moral Populism in the Twenty-first Century (NYU Press, 2013).
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"Unchanged Trebles is Peeples's contribution to the great tradition of social scientists turning an analytical lens on their own family lives. She bravely examines her journey as a parent through the unique and underexamined activity of boy choirs--a topic on which her meditations on gender identity and masculinity could not be more timely."
--Hillary Levey Friedman "author of Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture" "Unchanged Trebles is an exquisite read: a rich, clear, and compelling contribution at the cutting edge of gender studies, it is also a deeply moving search by a boy mom for a world where her son can fully be himself. Though it is about a relatively rare cultural niche, the boy choir, Rebekah Peeples's book demonstrates the thrilling power of social science research to help us get things right for children."--Michael C. Reichert "author of How to Raise a Boy: The Power of Connection to Build Good Men" "In this honest and beautiful account of her experiences with her son during his early adolescent years, Rebekah Peeples provides carefully researched insights alongside thoughtful personal reflections that illuminate ways to foster boys' healthy emotional expression and relationships. Unchanged Trebles emphasizes the power and pleasure of listening to boys and explores the possibility of building communities with boys that are inclusive, center on mutual respect and collaboration, contribute to their sense of purpose and belonging, and enable their authentic voices to develop and find resonance."--Judy Y. Chu "author of When Boys Become Boys: Development, Relationships, and Masculinity" "Unchanged Trebles isn't an academic look at boys' choirs; it's the story of a mom and son grappling with social expectations and biology at a time when gender, sex, and masculinity are undergoing redefinition. Parenting a boy challenges Rebekah Peeples's understanding of gender, and together she and her son chart a path through the messy terrain of boyhood. Brava to Peeples and her son for showing us a world that's surprisingly relevant to the present moment."--Jennifer L. W. Fink "author of Building Boys: Raising Great Guys in a World that Misunderstands Males"
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Rutgers University Press
Pub date:
2025-10-14
Length:
278 pages
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