Before there was Steamworks, there was the YMCA. And now the YMCA is changing its name to just “the Y ” but individual branches will still be called YMCA as in the “YMCA of Chicago.”
New York Times Article-
Note to the Village People: The lyrics in your biggest hit need an update. The organization previously known as the Y.M.C.A. is henceforth to be called “the Y.”
One of the nation’s most iconic nonprofit organizations, founded 166 years ago in England as the Young Men’s Christian Association, is undergoing a major rebranding, adopting as its name the nickname everyone has used for generations.
“It’s a way of being warmer, more genuine, more welcoming, when you call yourself what everyone else calls you,” said Kate Coleman, the organization’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer.
More on the YMCA
VIDEO: The Village People’sYMCA on YouTube.
READ:
Featured Book: John Donald Gustav-Wrathall – “Take the Young Stranger by the Hand: Same-Sex Relations and the YMCA”: Amazon | Preview on Google Books
An exert from a review on the book.
Gustav-Wrathall examines the complex relationship between the YMCA’s physical education program and homoeroticism—how the program “created a culture that facilitated and shaped same-sex sexual desires” but simultaneously called for increased self-control. By creating not only a discourse but also a physical setting devoted to men’s bodies, the YMCA became a center of contestation for notions concerning the male physique and male bonding.
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