In this commentary, the speaker discusses a recent controversy at Princeton University where the a cappella group the Princeton Tigertones decided to stop performing their "Kiss the Girl" routine after a student editorial highlighted that the on‑stage kissing segment pressured participants and conflicted with campus teachings on consent and respect. The speaker contrasts two reactions: one that dismisses the change as excessive political correctness, and another that applauds the group's willingness to listen to feedback and prioritize respect. The speaker ultimately celebrates both the student author of the editorial, Noah Wolstein, and the Tigertones as "Respect Champions of the Week" for their commitment to fostering a culture of consent and respect.
Chapters
Have you heard how nuts things have got? How politically correct today is? The Princeton Tigertones, an a cappella group, is no longer singing the song Kiss the Girl because it offends people when they bring people up on stage and make them kiss during the song whether they want to or not. So what? It's a song. It's a Disney song. This is political correctness gone awry. Or did you hear that the a cappella group at Princeton University named Tigertones received feedback in an editorial from a student named Noah Wolstein that the routine they were doing during the song, where they brought people on stage and then those people felt pressured or were pressured to kiss each other, went against everything that the campus and our society is trying to teach about respecting each other, respecting boundaries, and consent. And the a cappella group, instead of getting defensive and going, this is crazy, this is just a song, Listened and said, you know what? We don't want to be part of a routine or a song that is going against teaching consent, going against teaching respect, making people uncomfortable. That's not what we want to be a part of. So we're not going to do this anymore. So there's 2 very different reactions to this. There's either, come on, can you overreact anymore? Or there is the, wow, Somebody listened to feedback and instead of becoming defensive and going, you can't tell us what to sing, or, stop sending messages into what we do that aren't there, they listened and said, we don't want to be part of anything that creates a culture of disrespect or in any way goes against teaching consent. We don't want to be part of that. You know, if we were talking about children right now and your child came up to you and said they were no longer going to engage in an act that created disrespect for others, you'd be applauding typically. The problem is not that in a case like this, it's political correctness gone awry. The problem is a culture that says stopping, listening to feedback, and actually wanting to create a respect for everyone, that there's something wrong with that. We should be applauding that. In fact, more of us should be doing that on a daily basis. And that's why this week's Respect Champion of the Week goes to 2 winners of it, 2 recipients of it. One, the student who wrote the editorial that sparked this conversation, Noel Wollstein. Thank you for doing that. And 2, the Tiger Tones because they listened and they took in that feedback and said, we don't want to be part of a disrespectful culture. And they made a choice to stop doing that song with that routine until they could find a way to potentially maybe do the song down the road. a different way that didn't teach those messages. So those are our 2 Champion Respects of the Weeks: the Tigertones of Princeton and Noah Wollstein.
