Cupola Journal 2023-2024

Christopher Ne wport un iver si ty

Cupola The

The Cupola is the undergraduate research journal of Christopher Newport University.

Papers published in The Cupola have undergone review by the Student Research Committee. The final product has been edited and compiled by the Office of Student Research and Creative Activity. The Cupola is published in print and online at www.cnu.edu/research.

Each student published in The Cupola is awarded a $100 stipend in recognition of their fine work; the top two accepted submissions are awarded $500 each.

The Cupola (Newport News, Va. Print)

ISSN 2688-5913

The Cupola (Newport News, Va. Online)

ISSN 2688-5921

Volume 18 2024

All rights belong to individual authors

The Office of Student Research and Creative Activity

Dr. David A. Salomon, Director

757.594.8586 cnu.edu/research

A Note from the Director

Welcome to the 2024 edition of The Cupola, Christopher Newport University’s undergraduate research journal. As the Director of Student Research and Creative Activity, it is my pleasure to serve as the journal’s editor, establishing guidelines and facilitating the vetting process.

Our top two essays reflect the complexity of research conducted by CNU’s undergraduates: from Whitney Flores’ study of the representation of autism in a contemporary American television show and Maeve Korengold’s examination of the enduring and oftencomplicated legacy of Marie Antoinette; these pieces indicate the rigor, the depth, and the variety of undergraduate research at Christopher Newport University.

The Office of Student Research and Creativity is proud of these students who, with enthusiastic and skilled faculty mentorship, continue to produce insightful and meaningful work.

The ORCA would like to thank the members of the 2023-2024 Undergraduate Research Committee who vetted and reviewed the many fine submissions received: Co-chair Dr. Laura Godwin; Co-Chair Dr. Francesca Parente; Dr. Federica Bono, Dr. Anna Teekell, Dr. Alonso Varo Varo, Dr. William Phelps, Dr. Emre Kirac, Dr. Brian McInnis, Dr. Steven Strehle, and Ms. Mary Sellen. A special thanks to the non-committee members who vetted submissions: Dr. Jessica Apolloni, Dr. Danielle Stern, Dr. Linda Manning, Dr. Michelle Erhardt, Dr. Eric Silverman, Dr. Hussam Timani, Dr. John Nichols, Dr. Jay Paul, Dr. Brianna Lane, Dr. Sarah Chace, Dr. Youssef Chouhoud, Dr. Willy Donaldson, Dr. Margarita Marinova, and Dr. Andria Timmer.

Thanks to Courtney Michel, Creative Services Manager of CNU’s Office of Communications and Public Relations, for her ongoing patience and assistance, and to Carrie Evans at Cardwell Printing.

Special thanks to President William Kelly, Provost Quentin Kidd and Associate Provost for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies Lynn Lambert.

Dr. David A. Salomon

Director, Office of Student Research and Creative Activity

July 2024

Table Of Contents

Whitney Flores Ideological Representations of Autism 7 in Everything’s Gonna Be Okay Winner of the Cupola Award

Maeve Korengold The Complicated Legacy of Marie Antoinette: 24 The Public’s Perpetual (De)Construction of a Queen Winner of the Cupola Award

Amber Baldwin How Medicine and Culture Impact Our Views of 33 Autism Spectrum Disorder

Christopher Bandy Alexander’s Inheritance of the Achaemenid Throne 41

Katherine Becker The Power of a Girl’s Voice As Shown By Little Red Riding Hood 63

Katelyn Bennett “Do You Guys Ever Think About Dying?” The Prevalence and 70 Implications of Gender, Race, and Class Identity in Contemporary Existentialist Film

Alexa Bergeron Mystery of the Minoans: The Snake Goddess, Her Identity, 84 and Legacy

Aimee Buchanan Sincere Stalking & Romantic Rage: The Romanticization of 113 Toxic and Abusive Behaviors in Movies

Ann-Marie Clark The Relationship between ADHD symptoms, attachment, 123 conflict resolution, and relationship satisfaction in college students

Joe Cooper Radical Right Parties in Western Europe: When Do They Win 136 and Can They Form Governments?

JT Cox, Vic Kegley, Stephanie Langan, Peter Manarin 144 Religiosity, Conflict Management, and Familial Satisfaction in Single-Child Families

Cynthia Craig The Big Lie: How Employment Laws Protect Business 152

Evelyn Davidson Western “I” vs. Native Collectivist “We” in Nature Memoirs 163

Katarina Demcheshen From Persona to Policy: Gender Dynamics in the 173 Decision Making of the Iraq War

Summer Duba The Tiger King’s Plot: Ethical Failure in the Big Cat World 186

Aidan O’Malley, Matthew Thompson, Tracy Johnson Cowboys Drink Coors: 194 Product Placement in Yellowstone

Paiton Jones “This is Our 9/11”: Connecting Al-Qaeda and Hamas 207

V. G. Kegley Followers Under Bad Leadership: A Case Study of 215 Warren Jeffs and the FLDS

William Kessler Acetal Formation: Modeling the Final Step of the 222 Torreyunlignan Synthesis

Erin McCarthy Academics, Area, and Association: The Effect of Life Experiences 231 on Awareness of Mental Health Court Dockets

Caroline Chmelko, Kenna McCarthy, and Kelsey Priestaf 245 The Complexity of Women and Gender Roles: An Analysis of Contemporary Feminist Discourse in Queen Charlotte

Grace N. McGonagle Levirate Marriage: Biblical, Historical, and Legal Perspectives 261

Emma Murphy and Malcolm King Adolescent Identity Formation in 268 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Kennedy Ross Double Dog Deviance: An Investigation of Criminal Motivation 283 in Film Noir

Phoebe Salomon Standing on Holy Ground: Exploring Taylor Swift Fan 293 Culture as a Modern Religion

Mackenzie Schwalenberg From Deficit to Difference: 302 Media Representations of Autism

Jaime Steigerwald A Comparison of Culture in Regards to Alcohol: 315 The United States and the Netherlands

Gillian Stolz Threaded Allegiancies: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries 326 as Agents of Diplomacy and Devotion

Irene Thornton State Level Abortion Policy: Protecting a Woman’s Access 345 to Healthcare

Rachel Thornton “At Their Wit’s End” but “In It Together”: Reentry 360 Practitioners on How the Pandemic Impacted Post-Incarceration Reentry

Abby Tucker, Douglas Hill, and Betsy Thorne Lasting Effects: Children of 377 High-Conflict Divorce and Their Emerging Adulthood Friendships

Reese Tunstall An Analysis of Diverse Composers Represented in the Core 389 Canon Literature for Wind Band

Hope Williams, William Murray, & Michelle Guin Monitoring Chiroptera 400 Species Richness Using Thermal Imaging Applications

Ideological Representations of Autism in Everything’s Gonna Be Okay

Whitney Flores

Winner of the Cupola Award

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Michaela Meyer, Department of Communication Studies

Abstract

The method of ideological criticism was utilized to explore ways that representations of autism in the American television show Everything’s Gonna Be Okay (2020-2021) reinforced and resisted dominant ideologies. The research question was guided by existing scholarship on the state and power of televisual representations of disabled and autistic people. The social model of disability and Kafer’s (2008) political/relational model of disability challenge the dominant ideology of the medical model of disability. The analysis reveals how the show resisted dominant ideology through depictions of sensory differences, neurodivergent family dynamics, and definitions of independence. Texts that disrupt dominant ideologies open the door to a greater understanding of how mainstream media represents autism and, ultimately, how these representations affect public perceptions of autism, neurodiversity, and disability. Keywords: autism, disability, ideology, medical model, representation

Ideological Representations of Autism in Everything’s Gonna Be Okay

The American comedy-drama Everything’s Gonna Be Okay (2020–2021) was written and produced by, and starred, Australian comedian and creator of Please Like Me (2013–2016), Josh Thomas. The show follows his character, Nicholas, and his two, teenage half-sisters, Matilda (Kayla Cromer) and Genevieve (Maeve Press), after their father dies of cancer. Matilda, her girlfriend, and later wife, Drea (Lillian Carrier), and eventually Nicholas, by the end of season two, are all openly autistic. The television show’s representations of autism through these characters garnered attention and was a hit with many autistic viewers. Clee (2020), an autistic writer at NeuroClastic, wrote, “Instead of relying on stereotypes, Matilda is a character going through a coming-of-age arc that feels refreshingly human. Autism is brought up a lot but it’s never used as a replacement or shortcut for her personality” (para. 5, emphasis in original).

Other reviewers expressed relating to Matilda, like Birch (2023), “I see so much of myself in Matilda. I have not made it through an episode yet that hasn’t brought me back to a difficult time in high school” (para. 10; Grimmer, 2023). Other reviewers appreciated the way the show handled romantic relationships with its autistic characters, such as Rozsa (2020) who wrote for Salon,

Everything’s Gonna Be Okay pays particular attention to the struggles faced by autistic people when they seek romantic relationships. Whereas Atypical often seemed to approach these problems from the vantage point of an outsider looking in … Everything’s Gonna Be Okay dives into the mindset of the autistic character herself … [Matilda] is a normal teenager who happens to process these things through an autistic lens. (para. 5)

In addition to inspiring intrapersonal reflection, the show sparked conversations within the disabled community and their allies. Professional speaker, author, and autism-film consultant, Magro (2020), shares hope in the potential of the show and future ones like it, When I get the opportunity to mentor individuals with special needs, I wish I had more resources I could provide them on relationships minus my own personal successes and challenges dating on the autism spectrum. (para. 5)

Regarding the show’s reception, 97% of reviews by “Tomatometer-approved critics and publications” from Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer were positive. Its IMDb Rating was 7.4 out of 10 from 3,100 reviewers (IMDb, n.d.a; Rotten Tomatoes, n.d.a; Rotten Tomatoes, n.d.b). Thomas’s success has been attributed, in part, to the fact that he was deliberate in making sure there were autistic voices in front of and behind the camera (Lawler, 2021; see also Cruz, 2021). The autistic representation was not what drew all in viewers nor all that viewers took away from it. A review from The New York Times called the show “a charming variation on the orphans-raising-one-another scenario” and Rolling Stone praised Nicholas’ complex, meanswell, messy character (Poniewozik, 2020, Subtitle; Sepinwall, 2020). These responses suggest the show captured a wide audience. This is further demonstrated by the fact that the show won a Seal of Authentic Representation from the Ruderman Family Foundation Seal of Authentic Representation and ReFrame’s 2021 Award for Narrative and Animated TV (IMDb, n.d.b).

Additionally, autistic actor Carsen Warne, who played Jeremy, won the Young Entertainer’s 2021 award for Best Recurring Young Actor Television Series (IMBd, n.d.b; Weaver, 2020).

The show was nominated for GLAAD’s 2021 Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, Australia’s 2021 Screen Music Awards for Best Music for a Television Series or Serial, Dorian TV’s 2020 Award for Best Unsung TV Show, and Hollywood Critics Association Television’s 2021 Award for Best Comedy-Cable Series (IMBd, n.d.b).

This project is significant because of the way that the ideological representations of autism in media can influence public perception of autistic people as well as disability and neurodiversity more generally. This research engages with a developing conversation between media studies and critical disability studies. Scholars from media studies perspectives ask

epistemological questions and challenge power dynamics (Parikka, 2020), while scholars working in critical disability studies specifically question dominant ideologies of disability to scrutinize barriers to integration into society faced by disabled people (Reaume, 2014). Together, they allow for an important perspective from which new voices and new questions emerge (Ellcessor & Kirkpatrick, 2019).

This study is grounded in research from disability studies that elucidate how disability is created and redefined by mass media such as television. The moral, medical, social, and political/relational models of disability offer a range of theoretical perspectives on disability (Kafer, 2008; Oliver, 1996; Olkin, 2022). Looking at the medical and social models of disability, Garland-Thomson (1997) discusses how media creates and perpetuates narratives and public conceptions of disability. Representations of disability in mass media are often stigmatizing and limited to a handful of stereotypes (Black & Pretes, 2007; Zhang & Haller, 2013). Common stereotypes of autism include White, cisgender, heterosexual males; the magical savant autistic character; and a complete disconnect to romance, sexuality, and dating (Baker, 2010; Brooks, 2018; Ryalls, 2023).

The purpose of my study is to analyze, through ideological criticism, how representations of autism in Everything’s Gonna Be Okay reinforce and challenge the medical model of disability. Ongoing scholarship about autistic representation highlights specific ideologies, narratives, and stereotypes of autism used in film and television.

Literature Review

Disability Theory

Disability can be understood through multiple theoretical models, including the moral, medical, social, and political/relational models (Kafer, 2008; Oliver, 1996; Olkin, 2022). The moral model of disability views disability as a sign of a person’s character or “karma” (Olkin, 2022, para. 2). This framework posits disability as a punishment for poor character or behavior, often coinciding with religious beliefs that say sin leads to poor health and good faith leads to good health (Retief & Letšosa, 2018). The medical model of disability similarly perceives disability as an individual problem (Berghs et al., 2016). The medical model pathologizes and medicalizes bodies with any “‘deviation’ from ‘normal’” and positions disability as something that needs to be fixed (Berghs et al., 2016, Medical Model section; Olkin, 2022). The social model of disability frames disability as an interaction between bodies and their environment (Oliver, 1996). Under the social model, individuals may have impairments, defined as conditions that disrupt everyday functioning regardless of the environment, but disability stems from social, legal, and physical barriers (Goering, 2015). Disabilities are manmade “disadvantage[s] or restriction[s] of activity” that “exclude” physically disabled people from fully integrating into or participating in society (Oliver, 1996, p. 22). The distinction between impairments and disability is subjective, but the implications remain the same. Under the social model of disability, society at large is responsible for creating access and care for disabled people through policy and design rather than leaving them as individual burdens. The political/relational model frames the definition and perception of impairments and disabilities as social constructs (Kafer, 2008). Kafer built on the social model’s recognition that man-made structural barriers can disable people but did not view impairments to be distinguishable from disability.

Representations of Disability

Disability is a social construct whose definition, uses, and boundaries have and will continue to change. Mass media communicates models of disability through narratives. Narratives are effective at dispersing ideas because they are how we make sense of the world

(Fisher, 1984). The stories we hear shape how we interpret our reality and future stories. This perspective on narratives is foundational for Garland-Thomson’s (1997) argument that disabled bodies are created by, seen in context with, and reinforced by media.

Representations of disability in mass media are often limited to stigmatizing narratives that can cause harm to disabled communities and provide limited understandings of disability for audiences (Zhang & Haller, 2013). Zhang and Haller (2013) asked disabled people about disability representation to analyze the perceived accuracy of the representation, the importance of accuracy, the reaction to observed stereotypes, and the effects of the representations on their self-identity. Their participants agreed, overall, that mass media generally portrays disabled people in one of three ways: “supercrips, disadvantaged, or ill victims” (Zhang & Haller, 2013, p. 329). These results aligned with previous studies concerning disability stereotypes such as the seven identified by Black and Pretes (2007) which were: pitiable and pathetic; supercrip; sinister, evil, and criminal; better-off dead; maladjusted-own worst enemy; burden to family/ society; and unable to live a successful life. Participants of Zhang and Haller’s study found representations of disabled characters as “disadvantaged” or “ill victims” worsened their “selfesteem about their self-identity” (p. 330) as the portrayals positioned disabled lives as “inferior to” and less than the lives of non-disabled characters. The representations negatively impacted their self-worth and ability to “envision themselves properly” (Zhang & Haller, 2013, p. 330). The “supercrip” narrative was, at times, positively received, unlike the other narratives, but was considered unrealistic. Black and Pretes (2007) define the supercrip narrative as a stereotype that “portrays the individual with a disability as exhibiting great courage, stamina, and determination to overcome his or her disability” (p. 67; see also Schalk, 2016). These narratives intend to be “inspiration” for audiences to do something extraordinary themselves (Black & Pretes, 2007, p. 79). However, these images often set “unrealistic” expectations and “unattainable goals” for disabled people which can lead to feelings of failure and lower self-worth (Zhang & Haller, 2013, p. 330). Black and Pretes (2007) also say that in supercrip narratives “disability is portrayed as an individual characteristic that can serve to build character” as opposed to recognizing social or systemic barriers (p. 80). Through this perspective, “audience members are blameless as to their role in perpetuating discrimination and oppression of individuals with disabilities” on top of being inspired (Black & Pretes, 2007, p. 80). Positive portrayals of disability strengthened participants’ sense of identity.

Representations of Autism

Mainstream representations of autism are often artificially limited to select stereotypes and tropes. As autism diagnoses have become more common in the last few decades, autism has become increasingly visible and a prevailing subject of interest (Nawaz & Norris, 2023). Subsequently, media representations of autism have become more common and prolific.

The typical autistic character, a White, cisgender, heterosexual male, does not represent the diversity of the autistic community (Ryalls, 2023). In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated one in thirty-six children in the U.S. are autistic (Maenner et al., 2020). Autism has been reported across all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. Maenner and their colleagues (2020) estimated that three percent of Black, Hispanic, Asian, or Pacific Islander children are autistic compared to two percent of White children (Nawaz & Norris, 2023). Children assigned male at birth remain four times more likely to be autistic, but that may be due to additional variables that complicate children assigned female at birth getting diagnosed as autistic (Maenner et al., 2020; see Nawaz & Norris, 2023). Autistic people are also statistically more likely to be LBGTQ+ than their allistics, or non-autistic, counterparts (Weir et al., 2021).

Another popular trope or stereotype is the autistic savant character whose intelligence and skill are treated like magic, superpowers, or as if they are part computer (see Baker,

2010; Draaisma, 2009). One of the earliest and most well-known autistic savant characters was Raymond Bobbitt from Rainman (1988) (Treffert, 2009; see also Baker, 2010). Treffert argued that the overrepresentation of the prodigious savant can indirectly harm the autistic community. Approximately one in ten autistic people demonstrate some savant skills, but there is a spectrum. The most common type, “splinter skills”, include, for example, “obsessive preoccupation with, and memorization of, music and sports trivia” (Treffert, 2009, para. 20). Prodigious savants, which are the most magical-like savants, are extremely uncommon. Treffert estimates one hundred prodigious savants are diagnosed and alive today. This overrepresentation of savant characters encourages the myths that autistic people are machine-like, not quite human, emotionless, or lacking empathy, and raises social and cultural expectations for real autistic people, most of whom are not savants (Baker, 2010; Draaisma, 2009; Poe & Moseley, 2016; see also Aspler et al., 2022). Poe and Moseley (2016) observed that these autistic characters were either so intelligent that their autism was forgotten or such a burden that their problems overwhelmed the other characters. Some characters play both roles when it suits the narrative, yet these extremes do not accurately reflect the experience of the majority of autistic people (Poe & Moseley, 2016). Baker (2010) called this use of savantism a “spectacularization” of autistic characters (p. 234). Autistic characters are already “exoticized” and seen as “separate from the normal world,” something that endorsing their representations with superhuman savant skills exacerbates (Baker, 2010, p. 230). Draaisma (2009) argued that in addition to reinforcing the myth of “machine-like” autistic people who “have no true feelings,” savantism makes autistic characters useful to other characters and moves the plot forward (p. 1478). As narrative props, autistic characters never become fully thought-out, human characters (Baker, 2010).

There is an assumption that autistic people are incapable of being in successful romantic relationships due to infantilization and a perception that autistic people lack empathy or are uninterested in relationships (Brooks, 2018). Brooks (2018) explains how these two assumptions work together to create the idea that autistic people do not and cannot care about or engage in relationships, intimacy, sexuality, and romance. Brooks argues this has led to an “overreliance on supercrip narratives” (Brooks, 2018, p. 176). Ryalls (2023) explores how the Australian reality television show Love on the Spectrum (2019–2021) creates supercrip narratives by ignoring systemic issues, such as racism, “in favor of telling individual stories of autistic success” (p. 151). Love on the Spectrum portrays autism as a problem all of the participants sought to “fix.” Specific autism-related traits or behaviors that were labeled problems ranged from living with parents as an adult to being nonverbal. The participants’ goal was to find a romantic relationship that would fix their autism. The way the show moved contestants towards this goal was by changing them to fit a specific whitewashed heteronormative narrative. Independence was also considered a key part of success. This narrative frame narrowly defines independence as being in a romantic relationship and living with your romantic partner away from home (Ryalls, 2023).

As a result of this literature review, it is clear that understanding representations of autism and disability is important to critical media studies which leads to my research questions: How do representations of autism in Everything’s Gonna Be Okay resist the dominant ideology of the medical model of disability?

Methodology

Textual representations of different groups of people, places, and cultures, explicit and implicit, are encoded with ideologies. Textual representations can reinforce dominant ideologies, bring back “residual” ones, as well as offer alternative, “emergent” ideologies (Williams, 1977, p. 122). In the words of Foss (2009), texts “embody, enact, and express” (p. 291) chosen ideologies. These ideologies can be identified and exposed through the method of ideological criticism.

Hegemony is made up of ideologies that are created, maintained, and disrupted through media texts. These “artifacts of popular culture” are legitimized as subjects worth studying “because they are places where struggles take place over which meaning and ideologies will predominate” (Foss, 2009, p. 294). All texts are inherently ideological, meaning they are all encoded by producers, consciously or unconsciously, with “biases, interest, and embedded values, reproducing [certain] point[s] of view” (Kellner & Durham, 2006, p. xiv). As sites of meaning, media texts may potentially influence “ways of thinking about, even defining, social and cultural issues” (Croteau & Hoynes, 2013, p. 160; see also Jhally, 2015; Lopez, 2020).

Ideological criticism is a method used to expose the reinforcement and resistance to dominant ideologies in specific texts (e.g. Piper & Meyer, 2020). Foss (2009) considers the objective of ideological criticism to be “to discover and make visible the dominant ideology or ideologies embedded in an artifact and the ideologies that are being muted in it” (pp. 295-296) with the goal being “the emancipation of human potential” (p. 296). Foss (2009) explains, “A dominant ideology controls what participants see as natural … normal discourse, then, maintains the ideology, and challenges to it seem abnormal” (p. 295). This process of normalization toward hegemony is insidious by the nature of their invisibility. Ignorance of the harm caused by different ideologies leads people toward accepting them without question. Thus it becomes significant to make ideologies in media visible and understand their relation to dominant ideologies.

This study examines the television series Everything’s Gonna Be Okay which has a forty-three-minute pilot and nineteen twenty-minute episodes. The show’s two ten-episode seasons were watched from beginning to end to gain a broad map of the ideological messages present in the text. Implicit or explicit ideological messages related to the medical model of disability or autism were noted while watching, culminating in twenty-seven pages of notes. The messages most closely considered were: character behavior; character motivations, goals, and intent; dialogue; relationships; and conflict. This viewing was sensitive to the stereotypes discussed in the literature, namely the relationship the autistic characters had to Whiteness and heteronormativity, any representations or lack of representations of savantism, and the framing and role of romantic relationships. Seven episodes were then selected for a closer reading: episodes five, six, nine, and ten from season one, and episodes five and six from season two. These episodes were selected because they explored or illustrated one or more ideological themes clearly, in-depth, or in an otherwise noteworthy manner. Some messages reinforced the dominant ideology, while others disrupted it or fell somewhere in between. These seven episodes were re-watched as needed for (1) selection, (2) content and broad details, e.g. characters in a scene, setting, conflicts, (3) implicit messages, and (4) smaller details that may have been overlooked, e.g. clothing being worn. The dialogue was transcribed when it was notably involved in the representation of an ideological message. Autistic coding was most often found in the interpersonal communication between the main characters, as a family, including how information was presented, what behaviors were normalized, and the ways they handled conflict. Miscommunication occurred frequently despite best efforts.

Analysis

Everything’s Gonna Be Okay offers counter-hegemonic representations of sensory differences, neurodivergent family dynamics, and definitions of independence.

Normalization of Sensory Differences

While sensory differences are not exclusive to autism, they are a part of the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2022; see also Grapel et al., 2015). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) (APA, 2022) described sensory issues as “Hyper- or hypo-reactivity to sensory input or unusual

interest in sensory aspects of the environment” (p. 57). Sensory issues can make processing everyday sensory information challenging (National Autistic Society, 2020). Self-stimulating behaviors, known as stimming, sensory sensitivities, needs, triggers, and coping skills utilized for sensory overloads vary from person to person. Sensory overloads occur when someone receives more sensory information than their brain can process at one time (Griffin, 2020). These overloads can lead to fight, flight, or freeze responses which can become meltdowns and shutdowns.

Matilda and Drea’s, her autistic girlfriend’s, sensory differences in Everything’s Gonna Be Okay are normalized in how their differences are represented, how their needs are communicated, and the reactions they incur from others. The ninth episode of season one which focuses on the couple, shows multiple representations explicitly exploring their differing sensory needs, triggers, and experiences. At the beginning of the episode, Matilda picks out an outfit for Drea to wear to her piano recital from her own closet because she, Matilda, in her own words, has “good style” (Thomas & Goldenberg, 2020, 2:11). In the scene, Matilda is wearing a light blue dress with a flowery pattern and buttons down the front over a t-shirt with ruffled sleeves while Drea has on an oversized dark green shirt over a long-sleeved black compression shirt, which are both outfits typical for the characters. While it might have been her chosen style regardless, Matilda’s performance of femininity may be “based on the internet’s collective opinion of what girls should wear” (Mylo, 2022, p. 53). Meanwhile, Drea worries less about gender performance and more about the “sensory impact” of her clothing (Mylo, 2022, p. 54). Drea rejects each outfit Matilda suggests due to sensory concerns. The first outfit Matilda pulls out is a loose, empire-style, red dress with a deep V-neck. Drea shakes her head at the sight of it and says, “I don’t like light flowy things that brush against me. I need fabric to be tight and heavy” (Thomas & Goldenberg, 2020, 2:13). The result is disappointing to Matilda because she has certain ideas in her head of how they should look and act as a couple, but she never dismisses or complains about Drea’s sensory needs. Drea communicates her sensory preferences for clothing clearly and Matilda accepts them.

Throughout the show, Matilda and Drea also use different strategies to cope with emotional overwhelm. In the first episode of season one, Matilda embarrasses her younger sister in front of her friends by sharing personal information that she did not realize was a secret, which overwhelms her (Thomas & Thomas, 2020). At first, Matilda paces back and forth, hits herself with her lunch box, and reprimands herself under her breath. She apologizes and leaves the scene to go to a piano she can access in the theater at the school. She looks comfortable doing this as if she has done so before. Once she begins playing the instrument, she visibly relaxes. This is the first time the show makes it clear that Matilda often self-regulates by playing music.

Drea does not use music to self-regulate. She often stims, pets her service dog, and folds in on herself if she is sitting, instead. The ninth episode of season one shows Drea experiencing an emotional overload caused by positive feelings. This scene stands out because emotional overloads are often misunderstood to be solely caused by negative input. In this scene, Drea’s body visibly shakes as she paces in front of Matilda and flaps her hands to stim. Matilda waits patiently for Drea to speak. Finally, Drea does, telling Matilda that she loves her for the first time. When Matilda says “I love you” back, which overwhelms Drea even more, and she has to sit down on the floor. She lays down on her back, taps her chest, and says to her service dog, “Duke. Duke, pressure” which tells the dog to lay on her chest to provide deep pressure to help her calm down (Thomas & Goldenberg, 2020, 4:40). Matilda, remaining patient, calmly asks Drea what she needs without judgment, “Do you want me to stay with you while you stim or can I go practice?” (Thomas & Goldenberg, 2020, 4:45). When Drea answers, “No, you can go. I’ll be done soon,” Matilda leaves the room quietly (Thomas & Goldenberg, 2020, 4:48).

Overloads cannot always be avoided. When an autistic person remains increasingly agitated

and irregulated, they may experience a meltdown or shutdown. Meltdowns can be confused for tantrums and, when seen in an adult, can be perceived as childish or “manipulative” (Rudy, 2023). Tantrums are intentional, emotional outbursts that, unlike autistic meltdowns, are “learned behavioral response[s]” used to get a need or want met (Autism Research Institute, n.d.). Meltdowns are involuntary neurobiological responses to information overload. The depiction of the build-up to the overloads before the meltdowns depicted in the show provides audiences with a linear narrative of the overwhelm expressed by the characters without leaving room for arguments that the response was intentional. Treating Matilda and Dreas’ meltdowns as understandable responses and generally depathologizing their sensory differences rejects the dominant ideology of the medical model of disability. When people make adjustments to their behavior or the environment to accommodate a disabled person’s needs, they reject the medical model of disability’s expectation that it is disabled people, alone, who are responsible for adjusting. These depictions in Everything’s Gonna Be Okay illustrate that someone could influence, for better or worse, a person struggling with sensory issues and normalizes conversations on the subject.

Support Needs and Parental Control

Nicholas and Drea’s parents offer Matilda and Drea advice, respectively, but do not make decisions for them or try to control their behavior even when they disagree with their choices or predict a situation will go poorly. They do not try to control Matilda and Drea nor infantilize them, which are common patterns in other mediated representations of autism, including Atypical (2017–2021) and The Good Doctor (2017–present) (see Boren, 2017; Frey, 2017). Instead, the parental figures treat the young women as adults who can and need to make their own mistakes.

This choice of guidance over control, demonstrated across many aspects of their lives, includes sexual autonomy. Matilda has specific ideas about sex based on what she has observed in the media that are not all realistic or healthy (Mylo, 2022). More than one conversation about sex between Matilda and Nicholas illustrates this dynamic. One occurs over the phone in the eighth episode of season one when Matilda calls Nicholas at the end of her school day. He is standing in the kitchen with his boyfriend when Matilda begins with the question, “Remember when we decided I could have sex if I asked you first?” which suggests at least one prior conversation about safe sex (Walshe & Goldenberg, 2020, 11:54). Nicholas is visibly uncomfortable with the conversation and unsure as to what he should say, but he listens to Matilda. When she asks “Can Jeremey and Drea come over for a threesome?” (Walshe & Goldenberg, 2020, 12:03) he hesitates, then says, “Yeah, I don’t see why not” (Walshe & Goldenberg, 2020, 12:23). Nicholas does not believe she is making a smart decision; however, he respects her bodily and sexual autonomy and accepts that she is capable of making decisions for herself.

Nicholas’ choice to guide rather than attempt to control Matilda is evident again in the fifth episode of season two when eighteen-year-old Matilda tells him she has invited a twentysix-year-old man named Ian over to the house for “a no-strings-attached hook up” (Walshe & Holder, 2021, 4:47). This plan is made with Drea’s permission when Drea realizes she is homoromantic asexual and together, she and Matilda, decide to continue dating romantically in a “non-sexual partnership” (Walshe & Holder, 2021, 7:35). Nicholas attempts to stop the plan, naming the age difference and reminding them that they do not know this man. Matilda rebuffs with the argument that she is old enough to make the decision for herself and does not need his permission. Not long after this conversation, Nicholas has a private conversation with Ian, who asks if he is okay with Matilda having him over. Nicholas says he is not and explains that it is because he believes this plan will end with, “realistically, either Matilda and/or Drea sad” (Walshe & Holder, 2021, 11:11). He did not agree with the plan from the start; however,

he does not believe he should force Matilda one way or the other, or as he puts it, “I don’t agree that what I want should matter” (Walshe & Holder, 2021, 11:16).

Dominant ideology understands independence for young adults as living away from home, ideally, with a romantic partner they may or may not live with (Ryalls, 2023). Autistic people may not all be able to achieve these statuses at the same age as their peers, if ever. Divergence from this vision of adulthood, by living at home after college or not being in a long-term, monogamous, heteronormative relationship, for example, is not “independence” under this perspective. Thus, autistic young adults may have to create their own definition of independence based on their support needs.

Matilda and Drea make efforts to prove to their parents and guardians that they could be independent. Living separately from their parents is an important part of their idea of independence. This is evident in episode six of season two when Drea plans an overnight stay at her family’s cabin with Matilda to demonstrate what their future together could look like. Upon arrival, Matilda gets out of the car and happily announces, “Smells like pine trees and independence!” (Donnelly & Thomas, 2021, 1:01). Drea exits next and jumps up and down in excitement, “We’re doing it, we’re doing it! We’re free!” (Donnelly & Thomas, 2021, 1:04). This was a big step for them to figure out what they wanted and what they could handle. Unfortunately, they quickly grew frustrated with tasks they did not want to complete, such as checking for snakes, and tasks they were unable to complete, such as chopping up firewood for warmth. One problem they faced was forgetting the bags filled with ingredients for their dinner, including perishable food, outside after they got distracted by the excitement of arriving. Drea’s parents had offered to bring the bags inside before they left, but Drea refused their help. After a long and stressful day, Matilda and Drea realize they cannot live away from their parents, at least not yet. Their conversation reckoning this was somber and emotional. Drea explained to Matilda why she wanted to make this trip and why it was so important to her, “Tonight I wanted to show you that we could live normal lives without grown-ups. Because together, we are grown-ups. Even if we can’t be independent alone, I thought maybe we could be independent together” (Donnelly & Thomas, 2021, 13:28). Drea recognized the two of them could not meet what they perceived to be the typical definition of independence, which included living alone together as a couple, but wanted to be with Matilda even if “there are things that other couples do that we don’t do” (Donnelly & Thomas, 2021, 13:49). Matilda assures Drea she wants to be with her, too, even if they cannot be as independent as they want to be, assuring her, “I promise I’m not gonna leave you because we don’t do all the things that other couples do” (Donnelly & Thomas, 2021, 14:28).

In the tenth and last episode of season one, Nicholas buys tickets for her, himself, and Genevieve to go to New York City to explore the campus after Matilda receives her acceptance into Juilliard (Thomas & Howard, 2021). In the morning, Nicholas and Genevieve drop Matilda off at the subway so she can experience taking the subway alone. When Matilda meets her siblings at their designated meeting spot, she is in tears. The pressure of navigating the city alone in addition to the sensory and social overload from the subway is too much for her. As a result of this experience, Matilda decides to give up her dream of going to Julliard because navigating New York City alone was too sensory-challenging. In the next episode, the first episode of season two, Matilda sits on her bed with her laptop, alone, in the dark. Although she made the decision not to attend Julliard, she still mourns her inability to make her dream a reality.

In the seventh episode of season two, at dinner with her family, Matilda announces her plans to propose to Drea the next day. Nicholas, his boyfriend, and Genevieve all ask questions meant to nudge her against the idea because she is so young, but she does not change her mind. Nicholas talks to Drea’s mother about how to best persuade Matilda to wait until she proposes and why. Both agree eighteen is too young to get married. Matilda and Drea being autistic is

not mentioned. When Nicholas attempts to talk Matilda out of her decision, she asks if he thinks she should not get married because she is autistic, suggesting they might not believe she has the emotional and social intelligence needed to make the decision to get married, “Do you think just because I’m autistic that means I don’t know whether I’m in love or not?” (Ward & Holder, 2021, 13:32). Nicholas firmly strikes this down, saying his disapproval is due to her age, “No, Matilda, that is not what this is. You’re eighteen. Eighteen is too young to get married. That’s it. That’s the whole story” (Ward & Holder, 2021, 13:35). Thus, the conflict becomes more about ageist cultural assumptions for relationships rather than concerns about disability preventing those relationships from being successful. He has multiple conversations with her to persuade her to wait to get married, but does not attempt to control her and, in the end, supports her decision to propose, and then marry, Drea because it is her decision to make.

The parents and guardians of Matilda and Drea consistently do their best to guide the young women in life without trying to control them. This is evident in the way they approach conversations about sex, relationships, and independence. After their overnight stay in the cabin, Matilda and Drea realize they cannot live alone together because of the additional support they need from their parents and guardians, yet still pursue marriage as something they both want. They were upset with this realization at first but eventually found an arrangement that worked for them in which they were able to find joy in with guardians who were able and willing to support them. As two romantically, but not sexually, involved women, Matilda and Drea do not have a traditional partnership. Their families recognize that these new definitions of independence and relationship configurations go against the status quo. They consider Matilda and Drea finding what works for them a net positive. These portrayals of Matilda and Drea as young adults with specific needs, which at times lead to atypical ways of doing things, as opposed to people who are deficient and will never be independent or “grown up,” disrupts the ideology of the medical model of disability and offers a perspective closer to Kafer’s (2008) political/relational model of disability.

Conclusion

Through ideological criticism, this study found ways the television show Everything’s Gonna Be Okay disrupts the dominant ideology of the medical model of disability and, at other times, reinforces it. The show does not frame autism as a problem to be solved, a key part of the way it resists dominant ideologies. The show’s autistic characters faced challenges related to their autism, but autism was not at the center of all conflicts. Conversations about sensory needs and the experience of sensory overloads were depicted as a normal part of the lives of not only the autistic characters but their families as well. Matilda and Drea have different sensory preferences and needs, as seen in their contrasting preference for clothing. Matilda plays the piano and Drea gets support from her service dog demonstrating different coping strategies to self-soothe and -regulate after sensory overloads. These differences are communicated when relevant, accepted, and not framed as a burden to other characters. The interpersonal family dynamics of Matilda’s neurodiverse family differ from other mediated representations of autism where two neurotypical parents are surprised by an autistic child. It is not uncommon for an autistic child to be born to one or two parents who are also neurodivergent, although they may not be diagnosed, as autism is genetic and can run in families (Cleveland Clinic, 2023; see also Hansen et al., 2019). In fact, in this aspect, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay excels in showing Nicholas’ journey toward his own autism diagnosis through his parenting style. His experience reflects the current reality of increasing numbers of parents being diagnosed with autism after their children are (Lyall et al., 2014; Malia, 2020; Moorhead, 2021).

Several autistic stereotypes and tropes used for autistic characters that play into hegemonic narratives of autism were identified in the literature. Everything’s Gonna Be Okay avoided many of the stereotypes, ultimately avoiding the tendency of “spectacularization” (Baker, 2010, p.

234) by not labeling any of the autistic characters savants, an overrepresentation described by multiple scholars (e.g. Baker, 2010; Draaisma, 2009; Poe & Moseley, 2016). Matilda was an extremely talented pianist and composer, demonstrated by her playing and acceptance to Julliard. However, her skills are attributed to extensive practice, not her autism or any superpowers that might come with it. Regardless of where she might fall on the spectrum, no one calls Matilda a savant. Her musical skills do not function as a narrative device to help other characters.

This show was the first to center an openly autistic female character played by an openly autistic actress, and the only show with autistic women on air at the time of production (Cromer, 2021; see also Gilchrist, 2020). This representation held particular significance due to persisting myths that only boys can be autistic (Diemer et al., 2022). The queer autistic characters and relationships in the show were also significant as they are typically underrepresented (Gilchrist, 2020). Since then other series like Young Royals (2022) and Heartbreak High (2021–2024) have included autistic teen characters played by autistic actors (Kapit, 2023; The Permanent Rain Press, 2021). Thus, the show truly opened a door for more diverse representations both in casting behind the scenes and in characters on screen.

The show could have gone more in-depth with conversations such as the one questioning Matilda’s ability to consent to sexual acts. A cast with greater racial and ethnic diversity and a story that reflects that was another missed opportunity. The entirety of the main cast is White or White-passing, which does not reflect the fact that Black, Hispanic, Asian, or Pacific Islander children are statistically more likely to be autistic than their White counterparts (Nawaz & Norris, 2023). There is a need for more representations of autistic characters of color that acknowledge and discuss this intersectionality.

Time was a limitation of this study. Further research could go more in-depth into the topics addressed in this study and discover more ways Everything’s Gonna Be Okay resisted or reinforced dominant ideology. As the show ended in 2021, the entire artifact was and continues to be available for viewing. Future research could compare the representation in Everything’s Gonna Be Okay to other mainstream television shows with autistic characters. For example, Abed Nair from Community (2009-2015) and Woo Young Woo from Extraordinary Attorney Wu (2022) could provide insight into how autism intersects with race and how these dual identities are represented (see Bunting, 2022). This would be worth studying because autistic people with marginalized racial and ethnic identities face specific intersectional challenges (Gilyard, 2023).

Representations of autism in Everything’s Gonna Be Okay both challenged the medical model of disability with social and political/relational perspectives and, at times, reinforced the dominant ideology. Through this ideological criticism, strong contenders of resistance to dominant ideology were found in scenes about sensory differences, neurodivergent family dynamics, and definitions of independence. Future media representations of autism have the potential to continue disrupting dominant ideologies of the medical model of disability and create a greater understanding of how autism, neurodiversity, and disability are represented and understood by general audiences.

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Walshe, V. (Writer), & Goldenberg, R. L. (Director). (2020, February 27). Maggots (Season 1, Episode 8) [TV series episode]. In J. Thomas, S. Swedlove, K. Whyt, R. Allen-Turner, D. Martin, & J. Thoday (Executive Producers), Everything’s Gonna Be Okay. International Avalon Television.

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About the Author

Whitney Flores is a May 2024 graduate of Christopher Newport University where they received their Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies. As a student, Whitney fostered community on campus by founding the Disabled Student Union and tutoring peers in the Alice F. Randall Writing Center. They plan to spend the next year writing for a high school’s communication department and working on their novel before pursuing their next degree. For this study, they engaged with critical disability studies from a media communication perspective to explore how media representations of autism reinforce and resist dominant ideologies.

The Complicated Legacy of Marie Antoinette: The Public’s Perpetual (De)Construction of a Queen

Maeve Korengold

Winner of the Cupola Award

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Michael Mulryan, Honors Program and Department of Classical Languages and Literatures

Abstract

The life of Marie Antoinette (1755-1794) and her involvement in the French Revolution has been the subject of thorough scholarship, which largely focuses on her purported shallowness and disinterest in the plight of the lower class. However, there is much to be said about the conditions of Antoinette’s upbringing and her life as a foreign-born monarch, which were largely influenced by the gendered expectations put upon women in the political sphere. This paper argues that French Revolutionary discourse bred a distinct set of expectations for women in politics based on the power associated with their sexuality and the focus on their physical appearance. The fictionalization of Marie Antoinette’s life in the centuries following her death greatly contributed to the continuation of these expectations as her legacy.

This conclusion is based on the work of various scholars of the French Enlightenment and Revolution, whose biographies give important historical context, as well as scholars of queer and feminist theory, whose models I use to construct an outline of how the sexism Antoinette faced set a precedent for the experiences of women in politics. The findings presented in this paper offer an alternate perspective on the implications of Marie Antoinette’s legacy in the context of today’s Western political sphere.

Like many figures who rose to prominence during the French Revolutionary era,1 Marie Antoinette (1755-1794) has remained the subject of much controversy. A notable number of concerns about Antoinette were related to her womanhood, particularly her sexuality. Antoinette struggled to adapt to her new role as Queen of France and to the conditions created by the virulent opposition she faced. Alongside their radically progressive ideas of religion and governmental power, revolutionary figures oversaw a regeneration of the constructs of gender in alignment with new systems. Although stereotypes surrounding women’s behavior and intellectual ability existed before the French Revolution, the level of antagonism against Marie Antoinette as a woman in political power reached a height that set the tone for evolving social standards that work against women in politics.

Over the past century, new theories exploring Marie Antoinette’s life in the contexts of sex and gender presentation have begun to enter academic circles. One historian, Pierre SaintAmand, offers a framework outlining how women, particularly in the political sphere, are socially defined and demonized by their sexuality. “Marie Antoinette Syndrome,” introduced in his 1994 article “Terrorizing Marie Antoinette,” involves three parts: the demonization and multiplication of a woman’s influence, the idea that a woman’s sexuality is the origin of her influence, and the appropriation of a woman’s body to be used as an object of influence at her expense. Saint-Amand gives the public’s treatment of Hillary Clinton at the time her husband was head of state as an example of “Marie Antoinette Syndrome” in action: both these women were charged with “corrupting the body politic” by using their sexual influence to interfere in political spaces built by and for men.2 New theories on gender, sex, and power, along with Saint-Amand’s “Marie Antoinette Syndrome,” produce an argument for Marie Antoinette’s life and death as the foundation of a new obsession with the sexuality of women in the political sphere. The public preoccupation with Marie Antoinette’s physicality, sexual behavior, and sexual orientation that resulted in the partial fictionalization of her legacy continues to impact women in politics today.

Becoming Marie Antoinette: Becoming A Woman

Maria Antonia was born in 1755 to Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa of Austria. At age eleven, she had already been proposed as the future wife of the future Louis XVI, and at fourteen, she was sent to France to become his wife and future queen.3 Upon her arrival, the adolescent was forced to strip naked and change from her Austrian-made clothing into French clothing.4 Her name was changed to Marie Antoinette, making her transition from her homeland to France official.5 These physical changes represent the symbolic loss of Antoinette’s agency and identity that she was not able to fully develop through adolescence. The standards Antoinette was held to following the announcement that she would be the next queen of France changed along with her appearance and name. Since she was incredibly young, many close to Antoinette noted her natural aversion to ventures expected of a noble lady: her disinterest in literature, dance, and etiquette was reported by various teachers.6 The new pressure to represent her new country greatly affected Antoinette: she became devoted to learning French customs; something she would struggle to master for the rest of her life.7 She dedicated her days to building relationships with other nobles and spending extravagantly,

1 Between the years 1789 and 1799, for the purposes of this paper.

2 Pierre Saint-Amand, “Terrorizing Marie Antoinette,” Critical Inquiry 20, no. 3 (1994): 400.

3 Stefan Zweig, Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman, trans. Eden and Ceder Paul (New York: Harmony Books, 1984), 3-4.

4 Zweig, 13.

5 “Marie Antoinette,” Palace of Versailles, February 17, 2023, https://en.chateauversailles.fr / discover/history/great-characters/marie-antoinette#a-queen-at-the-court.

6 Zweig, 5-6.

7 Palace of Versailles.

as expected. However, these efforts did not aid in mending her reputation but painted her as ignorant of her people’s plight. Interaction with other noble French women in the public eye was also difficult for Antoinette, as a feud with Madame du Barry, a former prostitute and the last mistress of Louis XV, would set the stage for the public’s overwhelming perception of her as shallow and disaffected.8

Progressions in understanding of the relationships between gender, sex, and society contextualize these conditions of Antoinette’s life. In their book Gender Trouble, first published in 1990, American theorist Judith Butler introduces the argument that gender is a social construct performed on the basis of one’s biological sex, as opposed to an immutable expression of one’s sex, into the field of gender studies. Butler cites French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir’s well-known statement that “one is not born a woman, but rather, becomes one,” but adds that people assumed female at birth are “always under a cultural compulsion to become one.”9 Antoinette was not only trying to perform according to the conventions associated with nobility and French society but also the basic expectations of expression based on her sex.

Not everyone received Antoinette’s efforts to “become a woman” negatively. Edmund Burke, an Anglo-Irish and anti-revolutionary statesman and philosopher, defended Antoinette in his 1790 book Reflections on the Revolution in France as a good woman and a good queen. He praises her “loyalty to rank and sex,” her “proud submission,” and her “dignified obedience,” and laments that France will never have a queen like her again.10 Royalists like Burke saw Antoinette’s traditionally feminine appearance and behavior as necessary for a successful society.

Sexuality as Power

In the eyes of the public, one of Marie Antoinette’s biggest failures was the seven-year delay in the consummation of her marriage to Louis XVI. This was of immense interest to her subjects because of the importance of her production of an heir to the French throne.11 However, the public also relished rumors surrounding Antoinette’s sexual orientation and behavior outside her marriage. Many became concerned that Antoinette was not devoted enough to the throne, citing the lack of consummation of her marriage along with her extravagant spending. Various explanations of this delay have been offered by various scholars, the main one being that the King suffered from phimosis, a condition described as an abnormally tight foreskin that makes sexual intercourse extremely painful. However, the many medical examinations ordered by Louis XVI’s father did not show anything abnormal.12 Other scholars cite the young couple’s lack of technical knowledge of the marital act and Marie Antoinette’s “coldness” towards her husband as the main factors contributing to the lack of consummation.13 Regardless of the true reason for it, this delay had a profound effect on the public perception of the couple and resulted in speculation surrounding their dynamic. In his biography of Antoinette, twentiethcentury writer Stefan Zweig asserts that Louis XVI’s inability to assert his dominance in this way led him to fulfill Antoinette’s material desires to placate her.14 Antoinette’s unfulfilled sexuality was seen as a source of power she held over her king, which was unacceptable. The unfounded notion of Antoinette finding sexual satisfaction outside of her marriage

8 Zweig, 42-58.

9 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York, New York: Routledge, 1999): 12.

10 Edmund Burke, “Burke's reflections on the Revolution in France, in a letter intended to have been sent to a gentleman in Paris,” Gale Primary Sources, Accessed November 17, 2023, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CW0103795495/ECCO?u=viva_cnu&sid=bookmarkECCO&xid=37a7f5f8&pg=1: 61.

11 Zweig, 23-24.

12 John Hardman, The Life of Louis XVI (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016): 33-34.

13 Hardman, 34.

14 Zweig, 25-26.

became a primary tool in vicious campaigns against her. Beginning as early as 1779, when Antoinette was twenty-four, pornographic political pamphlets depicting her alleged affairs, particularly with the Princesse de Lamballe, a friend and confidant of Antoinette.15 The assertion that the female head of state was a ‘tribade’16 was troubling because it threatened the natural order of society. If Antoinette did not conform to these heterosexual and monogamous standards for women, there were no bounds she would not cross, in the minds of those upset by these rumors.

In modern leadership theory, power is defined as the ability to influence a target.17 As Butler notes in Gender Trouble, power is typically associated with masculinity, as women are designated as the psychologically and physically incomplete counterpart to men.18 The desires for women that Antoinette was rumored to have associated her with masculinity, creating a threat to the conventions of the time. At the same time, Antoinette’s femininity posed a threat to the body politic. Male political figures feared women entering the public realm and disrupting the ecosystems they had created. One reason behind this fear was the belief that women had the unique ability to dissimulate, or conceal their true feelings in public.

An eminent historian of the French Revolution, Lynn Hunt explains in her essay “The Many Bodies of Marie Antoinette,” Rousseau, Montesquieu, and other thinkers who had a profound influence on revolutionary thought believed that women’s exclusion from the public sphere maintained social stability and prevented the demasculinization of society.19 Antoinette’s robust performance of femininity may have been received as fake and an attempt at dissimulation, threatening the natural order of the body politic and society at large.

Despite being unable to hold effective authority, Antoinette was villainized for her association with her male counterpart, Louis XVI. Although she did not have any official power to affect her husband’s decisions, her perceived sexual power over him made her a target for culpability. Revolutionary figures blamed her for the ways in which they felt the monarchy failed them. This, combined with accusations of deviant sexuality, made Antoinette a sinister character in the minds of French citizens and eventually, the Revolutionary Tribunal.

Trial and Execution by the Public

Antoinette was brought to trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal two days before she was executed. She was found guilty of conspiring with foreign powers, the depletion of the state treasury, and committing high treason by acting against the security of the French state.20 Another accusation was one of sexual abuse of her son, which shocked the public because of its severity.21 In the minds of those threatened by Antoinette based on the sexual power

15 Lynn Hunt, “The Many Bodies of Marie-Antoinette: Political Pornography and the Problem of the Feminine in the French Revolution,” The French Revolution: Recent Debates and New Controversies, (1997): 119, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203004036.

16 Early modern term for a lesbian or bisexual woman. Terry Castle, “Marie Antoinette Obsession.” Representations, no. 38 (1992): 1–38, https://doi.org/10.2307/2928682: 17.

17 Linda L. Neider and Chester A. Schriesheim, "Power: Overview," Encyclopedia of Leadership, Edited by George R. Goethals, Georgia J. Sorenson, and James MacGregor Burns, Vol. 3 (California: SAGE Reference, 2004), https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/ CX3452500304/ GVRL?u=viva_cnu&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=236b0589: 1248.

18 Butler, 14-17.

19 Hunt, 119.

20 “An Authentic Account of the Imprisonment, Trial, and Execution of Marie Antoinette, Late Queen of France; Who Was Beheaded at the Place de La Revolution, in Paris, October 16, 1793; In Pursuance of a Sentence Passed the Preceding Day by the Revolutionary Tribunal, Translated from the French of a Gentleman Present at the Trial and Execution,” Gale Primary Sources, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CW0107764336/ECCO?u=viva_cnu&sid=bookmarkECCO&xid=2204f306&pg=1: 7.

21 “An Authentic Account,” 13-16, Hunt 118.

they ascribed to her, it was logical that she would exert her power on those around her, even her young child. If a woman’s greatest power is her sexuality, she will use it in every area of her life to meet her goals. This power is extremely dangerous; therefore, Antoinette must be extinguished.

Although the methods with which people can smother the perceived power of women in politics are different today, female politicians experience similar contempt. In 2019, former California representative Katie Hill was forced to step down due to death threats leveraged by constituents and nude photos distributed by republican media after an alleged affair with a member of her legislative staff.22 Hill was not executed in the literal sense, but the loss of her contributions to the political world because of speculation surrounding her private life is emblematic of the continuation of the same association of a woman’s sexuality with power.

Postmortem Representations

Since Antoinette’s death, perceptions of her character have varied greatly. The three most prominent depictions focus on her beauty, her role as a political actor during her rule, and her sexual orientation. The interaction between these facets of Antoinette’s identity showcases the ways in which women in politics continue to be scrutinized.

Marie Antoinette, the Beauty

Some memorials of Antoinette call on her beauty to portray her positively. A poem written about Antoinette’s time in prison and execution written by Ann Yearsley illustrates the emphasis on the late queen’s femininity and appearance: one line reads “The beauteous Marie yields to woe.”23 Other language in the work focuses on Antoinette’s weakness relative to the “Troubles” working against her. While revolutionaries feared Antoinette’s perceived sexual power as a threat and villainized her, those who favored the monarchy believed that Antoinette’s beauty absolved her of her ability to affect the political landscape. Although those who espoused this defense had the intent of protecting Antoinette against criticism, it employs sex-based stereotypes in attempting to explain her innocence.

Marie Antoinette, the Politician

Often overshadowed by the sensationalism of palace affairs and lifestyle, Marie Antoinette exhibited an interest and intellect in French and international politics. Using her close relationship with her husband to her advantage in the last few years of her life, Antoinette was largely responsible for France’s decision to intervene in the American Revolutionary War,24 and securing Russian and Austrian support for France during this time.25 Her active role in state affairs, particularly during the Revolution, gave way to extreme criticism of Antoinette as a symbol of the French nation and its actions. The emphasis on Antoinette’s beauty, a natural consequence of her womanhood, intensified her position as a character, rather than a multidimensional head of state. Many only know Antoinette for her infamous utterance, “Let them eat cake” in response to being told that the surrounding peasants had no bread. Not only did this citation originally appear in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions as part of the story

22 Rebecca Klar, “Katie Hill says right-wing attacks were ‘dehumanizing’: ‘You’re not seen as a person anymore,’” The Hill online, November 24, 2019, https://thehill.com/homenews/house/471842katie-hill-says-right-wing-attacks-were-dehumanizing-youre-not-seen-as-a/.

23 Ann Yearsley, “An Elegy on Marie Antoinette, of Austria, Ci-Devant Queen of France: With a Poem on the Last Interview between the King of Poland and Loraski.” Gale Primary Sources, Accessed November 2, 2023, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CW0116587975/ECCO?u=viva_ cnu&sid=bookmark-ECCO&xid=82575cc3&pg=1: 4.

24 Larkin, T. Lawrence, “A ‘Gift’ Strategically Solicited and Magnanimously Conferred: The American Congress, the French Monarchy, and the State Portraits of Louis XVI and Marie‐Antoinette.” Winterthur Portfolio, 44, no. 1 (2010): 31–76, https://doi.org/10.1086/651087.

25 Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette: The Journey (New York: Doubleday, 2001): 152.

of an unnamed “great princess,” but Rousseau had finished writing the book in 1767, before Marie Antoinette had ever set foot in France.26 The willingness of the public to attribute this phrase to Antoinette was in part due to their association of her beauty with low intelligence and awareness of the state of the nation.

A dichotomy between beauty and intellect still exists for women in the public and political spheres and limits their ability to participate as full members in these areas. If a woman is thought to be beautiful, her contribution to intelligent conversation is questioned. Whether used in defense of her as Yearsley attempted, or used to discredit her, the focus on a woman’s physical appearance in reference to her decisions undermines her ability to be seen as a valuable participant in her community.

Marie Antoinette, the Queer Icon

More recent work involving Antoinette positions her in the context of the rumors surrounding her sexual orientation in a positive light. In her 1992 article “Marie Antoinette Obsession,” lesbian literary scholar Terry Castle confidently describes Antoinette as a “homosexual” and a “lesbian.”27 Castle describes how Antoinette was regenerated and used as a model throughout the development of lesbian pulp fiction as a genre, and that she continues to serve as an icon for sapphic women because of her rumored affair with the Princesse de Lamballe. With a new understanding of gender and sexuality that is more accepting of samegender attraction, the myth surrounding Antoinette is now seen in a positive light by many, especially those in the LGBTQ+ community seeking historical figures with which to identify. The addition of Judith Butler’s philosophy on gender as a performance allows authors to creatively explore Antoinette’s life and expand upon what is known about her in their works.

The appropriation of Antoinette’s legacy in the LGBTQ+ community explored by Castle is another example of a way in which positive attributions of the queen’s sensuality may be problematic in their assumptions of her private life. Apart from the demonization of Antoinette’s influence, the situation created by the new acceptance of the unsubstantiated notion that she had same-sex relationships by LGBTQ+ writers today fits seamlessly into Saint-Amand’s framework. This group celebrates Antoinette for her sexuality alone, and her physical body is used as a vehicle for the progression of their writing.

Women in Politics Today

Although representations of Antoinette’s supposed deviant sexuality have been used in posterity in an effort to empower her and other women, bad-faith usage of sexual stereotyping has also lasted up until this point. Women’s sexuality and relationships, whether real or alleged, are still used to discredit them in politics and public service. During her time as first lady of France, Carla Bruni was the subject of numerous rumors of infidelity. Although her husband, Nicolas Sarkozy, was also speculated to have extramarital relationships, social media users focused on Bruni’s wrongdoing.28 French media is adamant about their disinterest in the private lives of those holding political office, but the public does not hold back their conjecture.29 Instances of this reborn culture are not limited to France. For example, during the recent elections for Virginia’s General Assembly, it was revealed that Susanna Gibson, a

26 Susan S. Lanser, “Eating Cake: The (Ab)uses of Marie-Antoinette,” Marie-Antoinette: Writings on the Body of a Queen (New York: Routledge, 2003): 289.

27 Castle, 15-38.

28 “Are French President and Ex-Supermodel Wife Involved in Extramarital Affairs?,” ABC online, March 10, 2010, . https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/nicolas-sarkozy-carla-bruni-rumoredaffairs/story?id=10062204.

29 Tara John, Martin Goillandeau and Pierre Bairin, “This isn’t America say French politicians, after candidate quits in sex scandal,” CNN online, February 14, 2020, https://www.cnn. com/2020/02/14/europe/paris-mayor-benjamin-griveaux-intl/index.html.

democratic candidate for the House of Delegates, had engaged in sex acts with her husband on a pornographic website. In response, the Republican party of Virginia sent mailers with screenshots of Gibson’s videos. There is an uncanny similarity between this effort and the pornographic pamphlets described by Hunt. Although Gibson was leading her Republican opponent in pre-election polls, she lost the election, with many voters citing the dissemination of these mailers as the reason for their decision to vote for Gibson’s opponent.30 Monica Gary, another politician who ran for a seat in the House, was disparaged by her opponents for being a former exotic dancer.31 The success of these women was undermined by speculation and shame surrounding their sexual behavior, like Antoinette.

The beauty of female political figures is also still a factor in the public’s favorability towards them. A September 2023 article by conservative outlet Rare Politics lists the top five “hottest women in American politics.”32 The author cites the women’s facial structures, figures, and ways of speaking in his explanation for each ranking. A Google search for “prettiest female politicians” yields many other comparable articles encompassing women from varied countries. The use of physicality to praise women in politics survived along with the use of their sensuality to shame them.

Conclusion

Two-hundred and thirty years after her execution by guillotine, Marie Antoinette remains a controversial figure as scholarship continues to evolve. She is now given the privilege of a contextual understanding of the systems and ideologies that ruled her life, allowing for analysis of her behavior and the behavior of the people around her. The utilization of sexuality against women with political power that began with the publicized disinformation campaigns against Antoinette has adapted to affect women in politics today. Society at large remains preoccupied with the private lives of women who seek to improve the world through public service and uses rumors to discredit their ability to do so.

Simultaneously, the physical attractiveness of women is still exploited today in an attempt to elevate them. In their writing, Burke, Yearsley, and Smith attribute virtue to controversial female political figures based on their beauty, upholding the idea that women are worthy of respect or forgiveness based on how they look.

Marie Antoinette never became woman enough to be accepted by the French public, and women in the public sphere today still work against the constraints that outlived her. She could not live up to the impossible expectations of her subjects, whose dissatisfaction ultimately resulted in her death. The points of view explored in this article encapsulate the wide range of sentiments women involved in Western politics still must navigate today. Sexist stereotyping is only one symptom of the overarching issue: the public’s tendency to accept the representation of a person that confirms their preexisting bias.

30 “Republican leads over Democrat whose House of Delegates race became embroiled in sex Scandal,” Associated Press online, November 8, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/susanna-gibsondavid-owen-virginia-election-2023-5db9aec5a490a3a4cc9a695c0e1b7a17.

31 Leah Vredenbregt, “Meet the former dancer-turned-politician running for Virginia Senate,” ABC online, May 10, 2023, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/meet-former-dancer-turned-politicianrunning-virginia-senate/story?id=97720442.

32 Troy Smith, “Is Jen Psaki The Hottest Woman In American Politics? Our Top 5 Rankings,” Rare online, September 2023, https://rare.us/rare-politics/ranking-the-5-hottest-women-in-americanpolitics/.

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Yearsley, Ann. “An Elegy on Marie Antoinette, of Austria, Ci-Devant Queen of France: With a Poem on the Last Interview between the King of Poland and Loraski.” Gale Primary Sources. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CW0116587975/ECCO?u=viva_ cnu&sid=bookmark-ECCO&xid=82575cc3&pg=1.

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About the Author:

Maeve Korengold is a member of the Class of 2026 pursuing a double major in American Studies and Leadership Studies, and a minor in French. She is a member of Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity and Pi Delta Phi French Honor Society. Maeve’s other research endeavors have included a project on intersectionality for the Network for Undergraduate Research in Virginia and studying Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion law and initiatives at public institutions as a Junior Fellow for CNU’s Center for American Studies.

How Medicine and Culture Impact Our Views of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Amber Baldwin

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Cristina De Leon-Menjivar, Department of English

Abstract

When autism was first defined in the 20th century, there was a lot of misunderstanding and shame surrounding the disorder and those who were afflicted by it. Despite increased understanding of the disorder today, medicine and society still hold many stereotypes of what exactly autism “looks like,” and how it should be addressed. This paper discusses the deeply intertwined relationship between society’s view of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as it relates to the quality of care, understanding, and support provided by the medical field. Through analysis of the current diagnostic procedures, biases, and reflection on the future of support for Autistic adults, this paper seeks to examine the connection between culture and medicine in order to gain a deeper understanding of how both can move towards acceptance of Autistic individuals instead of apprehension.

Introduction

Since autism was first described in 1943 by psychologist Leo Kanner (AZA United, 2023), it has been largely misunderstood within the medical field and by society. Kanner noted that Autistic children, “have come into the world with an innate inability to form the usual, biologically provided contact with people” (Harris, 2018). This statement would be used by the public in order to justify the mistreatment of Autistic people for decades to come. During the 20th century doctors most commonly approached autism as a disease that needed to be cured–which was reflected in the treatment of Autistic individuals by the medical field. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, those labeled with the disorder were frequently institutionalized at first glance, and were not given proper long term care or support. If an Autistic patient was ever released from an institution, it was usually after being confined there for years–and for some, even decades (Hollins, 2021). Many patients were lucky if they could independently find a job, housing, or even if their families accepted them back into their homes after so many years. This unfortunate reality has had lasting effects on growing rates of homelessness and disability-related poverty in Autistic individuals–with one source suggesting that rates of autism among the homeless are 3000% to 6000% higher than the general population (Jones, 2016). This mistreatment fueled misunderstanding and stigmatization among the public, creating an environment where autism was treated as a taboo topic that was not frequently discussed, and even connected with shame for many families of Autistic individuals (Ghuman, 2021). In the late 20th century, misconceptions about what an Autistic person “looks like” contributed to a low rate of diagnosis nationally, with a prevalence believed to be two to four children out of 10,000 (National Academies Press, 2015). The “look” of autism at this time was believed to be white, male, children who were primarily non-speaking and labeled as “low functioning” by medical professionals (Mandell et. al., 2009). As medicine progressed, autism received its own diagnostic criteria independent of other behavioral disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition (DSM-III) in the year 1980 (Zeldovich, 2018). Though it is clear that the 20th century brought about a great deal of information regarding autism as a disorder, the treatment of Autistic people had not followed suit. Today, many misconceptions about the disorder remain as they did when the word “autism” was first recorded more than 80 years ago. Specifically, the treatment of Autistic people by the healthcare system–although improving–largely continues to be fueled by misinformation and mistreatment. Additionally, long standing cultural beliefs regarding autism (i.e. shame surrounding the disorder) continue to be heavily intertwined with the medical field–influencing how people perceive and treat those with the disorder, and how autism is addressed by healthcare professionals. This long-standing dynamic between culture and medicine has led to direct, negative impacts on the treatment of Autistic people in areas such as diagnosis, treatment, and (lack of) societal support.

Barriers to Diagnosis

A fundamental aspect of gaining support for Autistic individuals is having a formal diagnosis. Having a clinical diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) allows primary care practitioners (PCPs) to initiate individualized care and interventions (such as therapeutic, family, or educational support systems) that are key in the long-term success and management of the disorder (Malik-Soni, 2022). Despite this well documented fact, both medicine and society have had very rigid ideas about what exactly an Autistic person looks like–leading to delayed or completely absent diagnoses for individuals who do not fit the “look” of autism. Sex is a major factor that influences the rate at which people are diagnosed, and the subsequent level of support that they receive following diagnosis. It is estimated that for every four males diagnosed with autism, one female is diagnosed (Calleja, 2019). This disparity is not due to the common assumption that autism simply occurs more frequently in men–instead, it

is due to the flawed diagnostic process as well as the differences in how autism presents in women compared to men. Females with ASD typically display camouflaging behaviors–that is, behaviors done in order to assimilate with neurotypical people–at higher rates than men (Ratto, 2018). Camouflaging behaviors often include: forced eye contact, facial expressions, suppression of “stimming” (self-stimulatory behavior), and other cues that many Autistic people find to be unnatural in social situations. The prevalence of camouflaging in Autistic women is a direct cause of the disparities seen regarding age of diagnosis for males and females. I myself was diagnosed with ASD at the age of 17–despite showing clear signs of the disorder for my entire life. I attribute my late age of diagnosis to the fact that I am a woman who can do things that many people (including healthcare professionals) believe Autistic people are incapable of, such as: making eye contact, public speaking, and being a high academic achiever for my entire life. After I received a formal diagnosis of ASD, my doctors believed that I required no further assistance since I had lived with the disorder for so long, completely unsupported, but still managed to get good grades, maintain friendships, and lead a traditionally productive life. My reality is all too common for Autistic women due to the aforementioned stereotypes and flaws that exist within society regarding how autism presents.

In addition to sex disparities, factors such as race and socioeconomic status are variables that have been shown to delay diagnostic rates of autism spectrum disorder. In one study, it was found that white children were 19% more likely to receive a diagnosis of autism than Black children, and 65% more likely to receive a diagnosis than Latinx children (Aylward et. al., 2021). Additionally, one of the largest studies to date on racial inequalities within the diagnostic process found that on average, Black children do not get diagnosed with ASD until three years after their family initially voiced concerns to their pediatrician (Constantino et. al., 2020). Due to racism, biases, and mistreatment of Black patients by the medical field, many parents are unlikely to even approach their child’s physician in the first place with concerns–making delayed diagnosis even more severe for Black children (Wilkens, 2024). These disparities have been consistent across studies conducted up to two decades ago–suggesting that this systemic issue has not been adequately addressed (Pham et. al., 2022; Aylward et. al., 2021; Furfaro, 2021). In fact, it can be argued that the global and cultural imbalance of our knowledge on how autism presents, expresses, and is diagnosed has resulted in a diagnostic process and support system that is culturally and contextually biased (de Leeuw, 2020).

In rural populations, shortages of specialists who are able to diagnose and treat autism are common–contributing to a delay in diagnosis for people outside of metropolitan areas, mainly impacting impoverished and lower class populations (Aylward et. al., 2021). Families that do not have access to this specialized care are additionally unlikely to seek outside assistance due to substantial costs, time agreements, and interruptions to work or school (Malik-Soni, 2022). If one is able to overcome these barriers, the subsequent financial strain that diagnostic testing induces is often unattainable for many families. On average, children from low socioeconomic status households are less likely to receive a diagnosis, and experience later diagnoses more frequently than higher socioeconomic status families due to the substantial price of autism evaluations (Spartz, 2021). As of 2023, one therapist explains that a simple diagnostic assessment conducted by a psychologist may cost between $1,500 and $3,000, while more thorough diagnostic procedures (such as speech and language pathology) can add an additional $500 to $1000 to the bill (Zauderer, 2023). Shockingly, this expense is not covered by most insurance plans held by families with lower socioeconomic status–making it nearly impossible for impoverished families to afford access to much needed accommodations and support for their loved ones (Malik-Soni, 2022).

Intersectionality

The idea of intersectionality largely exemplifies the reality for many Autistic people and parents of Autistic children who are not male, white, wealthy, or otherwise belong to identities that are underrepresented and treated poorly by the healthcare system. Formally, intersectionality is defined as, “a metaphor for understanding the ways that multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage sometimes compound themselves and create obstacles that often are not understood among conventional ways of thinking” (Crenshaw, 1989). If someone belongs to multiple different minority groups, a diagnosis of autism becomes more and more unattainable. Although there have been great strides in the diagnostic processes for autism, much of the criteria in place to this day remains focused on impairments commonly observed in cis-gender, white, male patients–usually belonging to middle/high class families. For example, one study found that poor, African children with autism did not display many of the common stimming behaviors often observed in financially stable white children–such as hand flapping, or rocking back and forth (de Leeuw, 2020). In the DSM-IV (the most recent version of this diagnostic manual)–stimming is considered to be a behavior that must be displayed by a person seeking an autism diagnosis (CDC, 2022). Most practitioners recognize the aforementioned behaviors as stimming, but may not recognize behaviors exhibited by people of other cultures. Another major cultural difference that has been shown to delay diagnosis is eye contact. In some Asian, African, and Latinx cultures, looking your superior in the eye is viewed as shameful–meaning that decreased eye contact in these settings is more likely to be dismissed by parents and instead be seen as a form of obedience in young children (de Leeuw, 2020). Because the DSM-IV does not list less common avenues of stimming as well as differing presentations of autism–or provide deeper cultural context to varying behaviors–delay in diagnosis is now increasingly seen in those who do not display the few stereotyped behaviors that many practitioners are familiar with. This is just one example of how current diagnostic criteria does not provide enough insight on how autism presents differently depending on identity–decreasing the rate at which minorities are diagnosed with autism as well as delaying access to necessary interventions for these populations. The diagnostic process for myself–while difficult–was made easier due to the fact that I am white, speak English, belong to the middle class, and am able to advocate for myself. My diagnosis of ASD was delayed for more than a decade–a time frame that may be even longer for people of different racial/ethnic backgrounds, education levels, or already living with an additional mental or physical disability.

The Importance of Support For Autistic Adults

Another commonly held belief among the public as well as within clinical research is that autism is a childhood disorder that one will grow out of, or eventually no longer identify with. Although it is common for Autistic individuals to learn coping skills as they age, this does not change the fact that autism is a disorder that results in life-long effects on the brain and behavior (Shen & Piven, 2017). When learning how to manage symptoms and discomfort throughout childhood, Autistic people may seem “less Autistic” as they age, but the reality is that Autistic adults still require a great deal of support and have not simply grown out of the condition. Oftentimes, people have a hard time understanding this concept–frequently suggesting that a cure for autism must be found in order to rid individuals of the condition by the time they reach adulthood. Instead of searching for a cure, however, many Autistic adults suggest that access to appropriate support for adults with autism would greatly improve their overall quality of life–without altering behaviors in order to align with the standards of the general public (Botha, 2022). One promising intervention that has been gaining more recognition is Community-Based Intervention Programs, which aid Autistic adults in vocational, social, and leisure tasks (Bishop-Fitzpatrick et. al., 2014). Although these programs and other up and coming interventions show promise in aiding Autistic adults, it is also noted

that they have yet to be implemented on a larger scale across the country and are therefore not accessible to all adults seeking support. While research on potential interventions for Autistic adults is emerging very slowly, it is clear that the needs of this population are far from being met (Malik-Soni, 2022). Currently, there is little to no funding or incentive to publish research focused specifically on adults with ASD–further delaying progression towards increased resources (Malik-Soni, 2022; Korp, 2021; Camm-Crosbie et. al., 2018). In fact, current research suggests that over a quarter of Autistic adults do not have access to enough services or support for themselves (Korp, 2021). Some of the most common issues faced by Autistic adults include: difficulty forming meaningful relationships, burn out, problems acquiring and keeping a job, as well as attending higher education. One statistic claims that approximately half of students with autism who attend college leave without completing their intended degree due to lack of support (Morris, 2019). Additionally, autistic burnout is a syndrome experienced by some Autistic individuals resulting from chronic life stress and lack of general support–and is generally classified by pervasive, long term loss of function, reduced tolerance to stimulus, and exhaustion (Raymaker, 2022). Burnout is just one example of a debilitating and damaging result of lack of support for Autistic adults. Through current research it is suggested that the simple integration of transitional services for Autistic adults has the potential to produce more satisfaction, joy, and a sense of belonging among Autistic adults who feel more and more isolated as they continue to age–therefore effectively reducing rates of burnout and stress among this population (Morris 2019).

Although it is true that the way in which society as well as medicine perceive Autistic people has shifted since the disorder was first described in the 20th century, there is still major work that needs to be done in order to achieve true acceptance of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Through analysis of both the past and current climate of autism acceptance, it is clear that there are still a myriad of issues that Autistic people experience both on a day-today basis and also long-term. Among these issues, perhaps the most significant is the current diagnostic processes in place for ASD, which have been shown to exclude people belonging to marginalized identities–often delaying the age of diagnosis for women, racial minorities, and people belonging to lower socioeconomic levels–to name a few. Receiving a diagnosis of autism also does not guarantee support from the healthcare system or from society in most cases. Support for Autistic adults is especially lacking–leading to higher rates of burnout and mental duress compared to non-Autistic populations (Raymaker, 2020).

Community and Conclusions

In the face of this adversity, communities for Autistic individuals have boomed within the last decade–creating much needed spaces for Autistic people to be understood, welcomed, and cherished. Organizations like the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) provide support groups, educational resources, and emphasize justice for Autistic individuals. Groups such as ASAN not only fight for Autistic people, but are also composed primarily of Autistic people from very diverse backgrounds. The saying “Nothing About Us Without Us” is featured proudly on ASAN’s website–publicly advocating for the inclusion of Autistic individuals in decisionary actions that involve the future of ASD. In addition to groups such as ASAN, many individuals have come forward with their own stories about being Autistic while also belonging to other marginalized groups. The large increase in the amount of safe spaces created for the autism community provides a great sense of hope for future generations of Autistic individuals–a future where autism is not only better understood, but also celebrated rather than feared.

References

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About the Author

Amber Baldwin is a member of the CNU class of 2026 majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Spanish. Through her time at CNU, she has held the position of historian and is currently serving as the vice president of CNU’s Disabled Student Union, where she hopes to increase community for disabled students on campus. Undergraduate research has been a fundamental part of her CNU experience, having worked as a Research Apprentice through ORCA for three semesters, and most recently joining the ORCA office as an Ambassador for the College of Natural and Behavioral sciences. She is also a brother of Alpha Chi Sigma–the professional chemistry fraternity on campus. Outside of academics, she is an adamant animal lover and enjoys going on outdoor adventures with friends.

Alexander’s Inheritance of the Achaemenid Throne Christopher Bandy

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. John Hyland, Department of History

Abstract

This paper explores how Alexander the Great of Macedonia justified his takeover of the Persian Empire through propaganda found in the accounts of the ancient Alexander historians and how this propaganda aligned Alexander’s image with Achaemenid royal ideology. To delve into this topic, it was necessary to pay close attention to the ancient Alexander sources themselves, comparing one another for inconsistencies, while looking for similarities in how the ancient authors presented Alexander with the Bisitun Inscription’s portrayal of Darius I. During his campaigns, Alexander won two major battles against his nemesis, the then-king of the Persian Empire Darius III, and in doing so Alexander bolstered his own reputation as a warrior-king while undermining Darius III’s legitimacy to the throne. Alexander also took steps to erase Darius’s presence from historical records with the help of Achaemenid collaborators, leaving the substance of Darius’s character mentioned in historical accounts to be entirely based upon defamatory propaganda. To secure his reign, Alexander arranged marriages between himself, his Macedonian nobles, and numerous Persian brides to strengthen his support from the Persian collaborators. Alexander was not simply ambitious on the battlefield, he wanted to make an entire empire accept him as their king through Alexander’s attempts to appeal to Achaemenid culture, showing a political savvy that was overshadowed by Alexander’s heroism in the ancient sources.

Introduction

In the ancient world, there were few figures who had as much of an impact as Alexander the Great of Macedonia. Alexander continued the legacy of his father, Philip II, who had conquered the Greeks, and after Philip’s death, Alexander continued his grand plan of invading the Achaemenid Persian Empire and went on to conquer it, taking over the whole of the known world, a deed which would inspire future generals such as Julius Caesar of the Roman Republic. However, despite Alexander’s reputation for establishing a worldwide empire, this paper seeks to argue that the Achaemenid Empire survived under Alexander’s reign as he made use of its ideologies and systems to maintain control over his new territory.

Ancient historians’ accounts of Alexander’s life and career, who I will refer to as the Alexander historians, such as Arrian, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Diodorus Siculus, and Plutarch, placed heavy emphasis on Alexander’s charisma and personal bravery in battle as being the key reasons for his victory against the Persian Empire and its then-king Darius III. My focus in this paper is to shift away from Alexander’s battle tactics and courage and more towards how he was able to hold onto the Persian territory, which had formed the largest empire in the Mediterranean world at the time, unmatched in scale by any other nation or city-state before it. To hold onto his Achaemenid territories, Alexander necessarily needed to make some changes for his occupying forces to stay, but for the most part Alexander left the systems and administration that governed the Persian territories for over two centuries intact. Additionally, to justify his reign, Alexander needed to establish a connection to Achaemenid ideologies of rulership to create a sense of legitimacy and lower the chances of revolt, winning over the remaining Persian nobility who now recognized him as their king. To help with this Alexander undermined the reputation of his predecessor, Darius, to explain his own victory and Darius’s loss, to offer a narrative of a legitimate succession as Darius was swept away into historical obscurity.

In this paper, I endeavor to strip away the inherent biases of Greek superiority over the Persians prevalent in the Alexander historians’ accounts, as well as challenging prevailing historical narratives of the Persian Empire ending with Alexander’s conquest. The goal of this paper is to look past Alexander’s charisma to see how he needed to take advantage of the existing Achaemenid systems and ideologies to stabilize his potentially shaky rule, looking at alternative elements such as Alexander’s ability to negotiate and cater to his audience. This topic has importance in examining how men in power such as Alexander established their legitimacy to rule by inheriting not only past systems, but ideologies as well, showing how empires succeed and inherit many of their predecessors’ customs throughout history.

Summary of Ancient Sources

Almost all the ancient sources available to modern historians that describe Alexander’s campaigns against the Achaemenid Empire came predominantly from Greek or Roman sources who wrote several centuries after Alexander’s time. No contemporary accounts of Alexander’s campaign that came from his court historians such as Callisthenes or Alexander’s subordinates like Ptolemy the son of Lagos exist today, though the Alexander historians did refer to them heavily.1 Even so, a bias that all the Alexander historians shared was that their accounts often tended to be admiring of Alexander and his military prowess and personality, having lived under the umbrella of an empire full of men such as Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great who had admired the Macedonian general-king.2 Even so, in several cases the historians disapproved of Alexander’s behavior, such as his execution of Callisthenes, who was Greek like many of them, though Curtius Rufus tended to write more negatively in his portrayal of

1 Paul Cartledge, introduction to The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander, ed. James Romm and Robert B. Strassler (New York: Pantheon Books, 2010), xv-xvii.

2 Cartledge, introduction to The Landmark Arrian, xiii-xv.

Alexander than the other historians.3

The Alexander historians I will cover are Arrian, Curtius Rufus, Plutarch, and Diodorus. To clarify on the times when these authors were alive, Arrian lived from around 86 CE to 160 CE, Curtius Rufus died in 53 CE, Plutarch lived from about 45 CE to 125 CE, and Diodorus was alive during the first century BCE. Justin, who wrote an epitome or summary of what other ancient sources have said about Alexander, will not be covered since his account did not go into as much detail as the others.4 Arrian’s account was a biography of Alexander, a history of Alexander’s career from his rise to power succeeding his father to his death in Babylon.5 As praetorial legate of Cappadocia during Hadrian’s reign, Arrian was well-versed in military campaigns, and his experience lent him the ability to write extensively about Alexander’s command structure and how he had administered his forces, in addition to giving a generally more balanced portrayal of Alexander’s character.6 These were factors which lead to historians regarding Arrian’s history as one of the more reliable accounts of Alexander’s campaigns.7 Next, Curtius Rufus, a writer that many historians know very little about other than that he might be the same Curtius Rufus who was a praetor under Tiberius and later a proconsul under Nero.8 Curtius Rufus was the most skewed of the ancient historians in portraying Alexander, using his history to show Alexander’s decline into degeneracy as Alexander assimilated into Persian customs, since Curtius Rufus sought to compare Alexander with the Roman emperor Caligula.9 Even so, Curtius Rufus went into much detail on Alexander’s relationships with his subordinates and his appointments of Persians to key positions in his court, showing Alexander’s interactions with high-ranking Persians, information that is key to uncovering how far Alexander went to appeal to his new subjects.10 Despite Curtius Rufus’s bias, he provided a unique view on how Alexander had been drawn toward Persian culture. Compared with the other historians, the Greek historian Plutarch focused most heavily on Alexander’s political or public actions in his biography of the conqueror.11 Thus, it will be useful in understanding the image of himself that Alexander presented to the Persians. The last of the Alexander historians to be covered, Diodorus, wrote about Alexander’s career and conquest of the Persian Empire

3 Waldemar Heckel, introduction to Quintus Curtius Rufus: The History of Alexander, tr. John Yardley (New York: Penguin Books, 2004), 1-5; Ernst Badian, "Conspiracies," in Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction, ed. A.B. Bosworth and E.J. Baynham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 71-73.

4 Cartledge, introduction to The Landmark Arrian, xiii-xiv; Arrian, Anabasis Alexandrou, in The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander, ed. James Romm and Robert B. Strassler (New York: Pantheon Books, 2010); Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History: Book 17, in Library of History, Volume VIII: Books 16.66-17, tr. C. Bradford Welles, Loeb Classical Library 422 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963), https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/ Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/home.html; Quintus Curtius Rufus, The History of Alexander, in Quintus Curtius Rufus: The History of Alexander, tr. John Yardley (New York: Penguin Books, 2004); Plutarch, Life of Alexander, in Lives, Volume VII: Demosthenes and Cicero. Alexander and Caesar, tr. Bernadotte Perrin, Loeb Classical Library 99 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1919), https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Alexander*/home.html; Cartledge, introduction to The Landmark Arrian, xviii.

5 Cartledge, introduction to The Landmark Arrian, xiii-xiv.

6 Philip A. Stadter, Arrian of Nicomedia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980), 16-24; Ernst Badian, 2003, “Arrianus,” Brill’s New Pauly

7 Heckel, introduction to Quintus Curtius Rufus, 16.

8 Werner Eck, 2003, “Q.C. Rufus,” Brill’s New Pauly

9 Heckel, introduction to Quintus Curtius Rufus, 1-5.

10 Ibid.

11 Cartledge, introduction to The Landmark Arrian, xix.

in his universal history of the world.12 Diodorus paid special attention to the battles that Alexander fought during his campaign, especially the major victories and their implications at confrontations such as the Battles of Issus and Gaugamela.13

Despite this prevalence of Greek and Roman sources, there exist no known Persian records on Alexander’s campaigns to balance out the Greek biases of superiority, no accounts from the losing side of the battle that could contradict Alexander’s victor’s narrative. The closest thing was a Babylonian tablet of an astronomical diary depicting the weather and omens before the Battle of Gaugamela, one of Alexander’s major offensives, as well as the results of the battle, but this was written long after the battle itself in October of 331 BCE, after Alexander had taken the city of Babylon later that autumn.14 The tablet was written between Alexander’s takeover of Babylon in late 331 BCE and 330 BCE.15 Alexander and his forces would have been disposed to erase sources that contradicted the narrative that Alexander wanted to spread, likely resulting in pro-Alexander sources surviving and pro-Darius ones not. Alexander did not tolerate criticism or challenges to his authority, evidenced by his using the conspiracy of several pages as an excuse to have Callisthenes executed, since he became increasingly critical of Alexander and his decisions to adopt Persian customs.16 Alexander did not hesitate to silence his critics. The most relevant Achaemenid sources were those that helped to display the Achaemenid royal ideologies to which Alexander wanted to connect himself, such as the Bisitun Inscription created by Darius I on the Bisitun mountain to describe his accession to the throne, as well as a Persian seal showing the Persian king victorious in a hunt.17 Even so, all these sources together should give an idea of the message that Alexander wanted to spread. Many of the Alexander historians referred to Alexander’s contemporaries who helped propagate Alexander’s messages, so they will be useful in deciphering Alexander’s propaganda even as Alexander’s contemporaries are lost to historians today.

Persian and local sources of the Achaemenid Empire are much sparser than the Greek ones. Darius I’s Bisitun Inscription was his seminal monument of propaganda inscribed over one of the most important routes in the Achaemenid Empire, telling the story of Darius’s rise to power.18 To give some context, Darius I was a king of the Persian Empire who ascended during the late 520s BCE and after him all the members of the Persian royal family would be known as the Achaemenids since Darius linked them to a common ancestor, Achaemenes.19 The son of a provincial governor or satrap, Darius had killed the previous king in a bloody coup and Darius released propaganda to legitimize his ascension which happened under dubious

12 C. Bradford Welles, introduction to Library of History, Volume VIII: Books 16.66-17, tr. C. Bradford Welles, Loeb Classical Library 422 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963), 1-2, https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/home.html.

13 Welles, introduction to Library of History, 16-19.

14 AD I, in “A Contemporary Account of the Battle of Gaugamela,” Livius.org, last modified April 14, 2020, https://www.livius.org/sources/content/oriental-varia/a-contemporary-account-of-thebattle-of-gaugamela/; Robert Rollinger, “The Battle of Arbela in 331 BCE, Disloyal ‘Orientals,’ and the Alleged ‘Panic’ in the Persian Army,” in Cross-Cultural Studies in Near Eastern History and Literature, ed. S. Svärd and R. Rollinger (Munster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2016), 213-215.

15 Rollinger, “The Battle of Arbela,” 213-217.

16 Waldemar Heckel, “The Conquests of Alexander the Great,” in A Companion to the Classical Greek World, ed. Konrad H. Kinzl (Malden; Oxford; Victoria: Blackwell, 2006), 575-576.

17 Darius I, “Bisitun Inscription,” in The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources, ed. Amelie Kuhrt (London: Routledge, 2007), 7-15; Persepolis Fortification Seal 7, in Seals on the Persepolis Tablets Vol. 1: Scenes of Heroic Encounter, ed. Margaret Cool Root and Mark Garrison (Chicago: The University of Chicago, 2001), 68-69, https://isac.uchicago.edu/research/publications/oip/sealspersepolis-fortification-tablets-volume-i-images-heroic-encounter

18 Eran Almagor, “The Political and the Divine in Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions,” Ancient Historiography on War and Empire 67, (2017): 26-29.

19 Matt Waters, “Darius and the Achaemenid Line,” The Ancient History Bulletin 10, no. 1 (1996): 11-16.

circumstances.20 The inscription outlined Darius’s military prowess and his incredible of feat of winning nineteen battles in a single year, showing the Persian king’s invincibility, the model of the royal image that would be used by all Achaemenid kings after Darius, even Alexander himself as this paper would argue.21 Darius relied upon shows of force to build up his image and all Achaemenid kings would be impelled to follow suit to prove their worthiness.22 Darius’s own son, Xerxes I, would try to use his Greek campaigns as a chance to not only live up to his father’s image, but also to prove his legitimacy.23 Another source showing Achaemenid ideology was Persepolis Fortification Seal 7 (PFS 7), a seal used by a prominent Persian official in charge of provisioning the king and his court with food supplies.24 Several dozen seals have survived to form a large corpus, many of them bearing images of the king that show how he wanted to be perceived publicly, outlining Achaemenid ideology.25 Given the closeness of the seal’s official with the Achaemenid king and its excellent surviving detail, PFS 7 was an especially good example of art representing the king’s divinity and his relationship with Ahuramazda, the Persian creator god. It also helped to outline the Achaemenid king’s martial prowess, showing his victory in a hunt and thanking the divine Ahuramazda for his kill.26

Modern Historiography

Modern historians have written a variety of accounts and perspectives reflecting on Alexander the Great and his interactions with his Persian subjects. One such point of debate was the number of administrative systems that Alexander kept in place or changed during and after his conquest. Historians disagreed on how much importance Alexander placed upon the existing Persian structures, as some argued that Alexander was far more heavily influenced by Greek culture.27 According to A.B. Bosworth in his monograph Conquest and Empire, Alexander had kept in place the civil and administrative systems of the satraps while leaving behind garrisons managed by his own Macedonian commanders, embracing a great trend of appointing Persians as satraps to acquire local support for his reign and recognize his legitimacy.28 Pierre Briant’s account of Alexander trying to force away Darius to the background, not granting him a tomb like previous Persian kings or arranging a public funeral ceremony, supported this claim as Alexander relied on securing his power through continuing the legitimacy found in the Achaemenid line and Briant even characterized Alexander as the “last of the Achaemenids.”29 However, many historians such as Ernst Badian could not reconcile

20 Waters, “Darius and the Achaemenid Line,” 12-17.

21 DB, 7-15.

22 Adriano V. Rossi, “Inscriptions of the Achaemenids,” in A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire, ed. Bruno Jacobs and Robert Rollinger (Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, 2021), 74-83.

23 Hdt. 7.9-12. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Herodotus/home.html.

24 Margaret Cool Root and Mark Garrison, Seals on the Persepolis Tablets Vol. 1: Scenes of Heroic Encounter (Chicago: The University of Chicago, 2001), 68-69, https://isac.uchicago.edu/research/ publications/oip/seals-persepolis-fortification-tablets-volume-i-images-heroic-encounter

25 Cool Root and Garrison, Seals on the Persepolis Tablets, 1-3.

26 Ibid., 68-69.

27 A.B. Bosworth, Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 229-235; Pierre Briant, Darius in the Shadow of Alexander, tr. Jane Marie Todd (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015), 34-40; Ernst Badian, “Alexander the Great between Two Thrones and Heaven,” in Collected Papers on Alexander the Great, ed. Ernst Badian (New York: Routledge, 2012), 365-37; Michele Faraguna, “Alexander the Great and Asia Minor: Conquest and Strategies of Legitimation,” in Monarchical Representation and the Art of Government in the Empire of Alexander the Great, ed. Kai Trampedach and Alexander Meeus (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2020), 258-261; Ian Worthington, By the Spear: Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 195-198.

28 Bosworth, Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great, 229-235.

29 Briant, Darius in the Shadow of Alexander, 34-40; Robin Lane Fox, “Alexander the Great: ‘Last of the Achaemenids’?,” in Persian Responses, ed. Christopher Tuplin (Wales: The Classical Press of Wales, 2007), 267.

some of Alexander’s actions with continuing Achaemenid legitimacy, such as the burning of Persepolis, even if Alexander had previously honored the tomb of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire, at Pasargadae, as Badian argued that Alexander cultivated his image as a Homeric hero to cater to the Greeks.30 This would support Michele Faraguna’s argument where Alexander had ceased taxation of the Greeks in Asia Minor and granted them autonomy, although she claimed a middle ground where Alexander still demanded their subordination.31 Ian Worthington, in his monograph, provided a more measured view than Badian, supporting Bosworth’s claims by arguing that as Alexander conquered the Persian Empire, he did not intend to dismantle the system.32 However, Worthington added that Alexander would have needed to make changes since Alexander had inherited the existing problems that came with governing the Persian Empire.33 It is obvious that many historians have claimed that Alexander did not perfectly adhere to previous Achaemenid policies.

Additionally, historians have often debated how much Alexander himself and his court were influenced by the Achaemenid royal court’s customs. Some have argued that the Macedonian court had naturally adjusted itself to Persians customs while others saw this trend as Alexander challenging the power held by influential Macedonian families.34 Waldemar Heckel traced Persian influences back to Alexander’s father, Philip II, claiming that Persia inspired the design of Philip’s court and kingdom through Macedonia’s interactions with Persia as a client-state and Macedonia’s lower degree of xenophobia as compared with the Greek city-states to the south.35 Unlike Heckel, George Weber argued that adopting Persian customs served to take away power from influential Macedonian noble families who could have threatened Alexander’s position.36 Given the rumors that surrounded Alexander as having a role in his father’s death, and Alexander’s continued extension in his campaigns to dominate Asia, he needed a solid power base in his newly conquered territory, so Alexander built relations with prominent Persians, adopting many of their customs in the process.37

Even so, despite how Weber put it, Alexander’s treatment of his Persian subjects has also been a point of contention among historians. Many historians have agreed that Alexander tended to focus more on the Persian elites than the common masses, wanting to instill himself as the new center of their empire.38 Andrew Monson, in his article on Alexander’s tributary empire, portrayed Alexander as being uncaring about the lives of his new subjects, as he took a pragmatic attitude towards ruling and administrating the satrapies.39 Alexander did not care if the satraps he appointed, such as Cleomenes, exploited the people for their revenue so long as they were loyal to him, if Alexander possessed the favor of the elites, whether they were Greek, Macedonian, or Persian.40 Yet Alexander did put forth loyalty as the highest priority for his

30 Badian, “Alexander the Great between Two Thrones,” 365-375.

31 Faraguna, “Alexander the Great and Asia Minor,” 258-261.

32 Worthington, By the Spear: Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Empire, 195-198.

33 Ibid.

34 Waldemar Heckel, “Alexander and the Iranian Satraps in War and Peace,” in Brill's Companion to War in the Ancient Iranian Empires, ed. J. Hyland and K. Rezakhani (Leiden: Brill-DeGruyter, forthcoming), 1-4; George Weber, “The Court of Alexander the Great as Social System,” in Alexander the Great: A New History, ed. Waldemar Heckel and Lawrence A. Tritle (Malden: WileyBlackwell, 2009), 83-91.

35 Heckel, “Alexander and the Iranian Satraps,” 1-4.

36 Weber, “The Court of Alexander the Great,” 83-91.

37 Ibid., 86-91.

38 Andrew Monson, “Alexander’s Tributary Empire,” in Monarchical Representation and the Art of Government in the Empire of Alexander the Great, ed. Kai Trampedach and Alexander Meeus (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2020), 278-285; Heckel, “Alexander and the Iranian Satraps,” 1014.

39 Monson, “Alexander’s Tributary Empire,” 278-285.

40 Ibid., 280-285.

subordinates, according to Heckel, who showed cases of Alexander killing Macedonian officials and replacing them with Persian ones due to their disloyalty.41

All of these modern historians use the ancient Alexander historians’ accounts as the background for the foundation of their arguments. My paper will also consider their perspectives, yet I will focus on what the sources do and do not show, relating it to how Alexander wanted to present himself, since those historians were using the accounts of Alexander’s contemporaries as sources. Historians like Bosworth looked past the heroism present in those accounts, yet I want to focus more on the image that Alexander had been trying to mold for himself in the Persians’ eyes and the victor’s narrative that Alexander wrote. Given that many historians argued that Alexander had bended Achaemenid systems as he needed them, my paper will try to reconcile this with the idea of Alexander continuing the Achaemenid line, to show how Alexander mended his shortcomings as a foreign king taking over the previous system, by changing it as he needed to retain control.

This paper will approach the topic by scrutinizing the battles that Alexander fought against Darius III, the ways that Alexander defamed Darius’s character and gained collaborators, and how Alexander built long-lasting connections between himself and the Macedonians with the Persian court. The first section will be dedicated to examining the effects of Alexander’s first impressions upon the Persians, in the decisive battles which he waged against the Persian army at battles such as Issus and Gaugamela. Alexander’s victories established his reputation and image in the eyes of the Persian elites and altered how many of them approached Alexander’s advance. At the same time, Darius’s image was undermined and many of his subordinates began to lose faith in his legitimacy and his ability to deal with Alexander. Alexander’s victories helped to establish a stronger connection to the ideological appearance of an Achaemenid ruler beyond what Darius could possibly hope to achieve.

1. Alexander the Great’s Victories against the Persian Empire

Though Alexander’s presence at Darius’s side during the latter’s dying moments in the Alexander Romance was most likely fiction, we do know that these two nemeses had two significant confrontations against each other that shaped the fate of the Achaemenid Empire, the Battle of Issus and the Battle of Gaugamela.42 These two confrontations were where the two kings could test their mettle against each other and prove the power of their respective empires in hopes of expanding or securing their holdings of territory. Alexander was victorious at each battle, forcing Darius to run away, tail between his legs, as history would remember him as lesser to Alexander in both virtue and command.43 However, these battles possessed a greater significance than simply allowing Alexander to further advance into the kingdom that he would eventually call his own. They were opportunities for him to prove his own worthiness to succeed the Achaemenid throne, as Alexander would adhere to the principles of Achaemenid royal ideology as well as undermine Darius’s qualifications.

To understand how Alexander appealed to the ideological senses of the Achaemenid royal family and the royal court, it is imperative to clearly outline the tenets and justifications of this ideology. We must look to the monuments built by the Persian kings of the past to dissect the message they hoped to spread as well as the impressions of power that they wanted to convey upon their subjects.44 The most outstanding example of this is the Bisitun Inscription carved by Darius I.45 Firstly, the Bisitun Inscription was commissioned by Darius as a means of legitimizing his power to his subjects soon after his accession.46 The details of Darius’s

41 Heckel, “Alexander and the Iranian Satraps,” 10-14.

42 Briant, Darius in the Shadow of Alexander, 394-396.

43 Ibid., 266-268.

44 Rossi, “Inscriptions of the Achaemenids,” 75-77.

45 DB, 1-3.

46 Almagor, “The Political and the Divine in Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions,” 27-31.

accession were obscured and muddied by his propaganda-loaded messaging, which was similar to Alexander’s rise to power. Nevertheless, the difference was that Darius had come to power in a bloody coup, with his assassination of the king resulting in empire-wide rebellions incited by nine other kings who claimed to succeed the local royalty of the past, such as Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon.47

To justify his succession, Darius claimed to possess a personal connection to the creator Ahuramazda, an all-powerful god which Darius claimed had bestowed on him the right to become the Persian king of kings, as the previous king was an impostor who had ascended to the throne through the assistance of an evil entity called the Lie.48 The Lie’s influence threatened the empire’s order and stability whereas the Persian king was supposed to be its guardian and destroy all the Lie’s agents who had incited disorder. Through Ahuramazda’s influence, the king’s victory would be guaranteed whereas the Lie’s agents would be doomed to destruction and obscurity.49 To back up this claim, Darius listed his achievements in battle as he claimed victory against each of the nine rebel kings, their defeated forms chained up and submissive before Darius’s regal figure paying respect to Ahuramazda, as was carved above the inscription.50 Darius had really depended on his subordinates to command his armies to cover such a wide territory, but he claimed that their victories were really his since they would not have won if not for the blessing of Ahuramazda that Darius offered them.51 If his subordinates had lost, then Darius could claim no fault for it since Darius could claim they were acting contrary to Ahuramazda’s wishes. The point of this was to prove the king’s military power and discourage further rebellions since if the king was believed to be invincible and backed by a god, then no one would ever try to revolt against him, nor would people aid anyone apparently foolish enough to try it.52

The military power of the king was a major theme in Achaemenid art. In PFS 7, the Achaemenid king, adorned with a long beard and striated Persian robes is holding up two monsters by their horns up to the sky in offering to the winged figure above him.53 PFS 7 was found in the Persepolis Fortification Archive excavated from the fortification wall at the Persepolis ruins in Iran, once used by Persian officials handling the assignments of rations from the stockpiles of food meant to supply workers and travelers along the Persian roads.54 This winged figure is often thought by scholars to represent Ahuramazda. Here the king is showing his domination of the natural world through subjugating the two monsters capable of ravaging his subjects and thanking the creator god for his ability to keep order since without Ahuramazda’s blessing, the king has no ability to rule or keep the peace.55 It should be said that if the king were to appear to lose, then it would seem as if the king had lost Ahuramazda’s blessing and thus his right to the throne, which was what happened with Darius III at Issus and Gaugamela.56

In battle, all the Alexander historians claimed that Alexander acquitted himself as most courageous, and Curtius Rufus said that Alexander was just as much of a soldier as he was a commander.57 Even as early as the Battle of Granicus, over a year before the Battle of Issus, Arrian and Plutarch had showed Alexander throwing himself into the thick of the fighting

47 DB, 51-54.

48 Ibid., 14-16.

49 Ibid., 58-65.

50 Darius I, “Bisitun Relief,” Cabinet.ox.ac.uk, https://www.cabinet.ox.ac.uk/behistun-relief-andinscription-0

51 DB, 52-53.

52 Ibid., 58-65.

53 Cool Root and Garrison, Seals on the Persepolis Tablets, 68-69.

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid.

56 Rollinger, “The Battle of Arbela,” 235-237.

57 Curt. 3.11.7.

and risking his own life, as a Persian had pierced Alexander’s shield with a javelin and another had struck his helmet, splitting it and grazing his hair.58 All the historians’ accounts give the impression that Alexander was eager to prove himself, even at the risk of his own life. In their accounts of Issus and Gaugamela, the Alexander historians all showed Alexander leading his cavalry, particularly his elite Companion riders, against the wings of Darius III’s forces. Whenever Alexander caught sight of the Achaemenid king, he appeared not only eager to seize the opportunity for unmatched glory but confident that the Persian forces stood no chance against him, giving one the impression that they were just additional digits to Alexander’s body count.59 To always lead his Macedonian forces in charges like this would have been incredibly dangerous, and though Alexander would receive wounds, such as taking a sword’s blow at the Battle of Issus, it stretches the imagination to believe Alexander always put himself so directly in harm’s way since as the commander of his forces, Alexander’s death could easily have spelled the end of the campaign. Due to the claims that Alexander took so many risks in battle, always coming out unscathed to the point where one could say that Alexander was closer to death when he was ill, it is evident that the myth of Alexander as a great hero became intermixed with history at the most basic level of recounting these battles. This was most likely due to Alexander’s fixation with the Homeric heroes like Achilles, at whose gravestone he had sacrificed according to Plutarch.60 Alexander’s recorded actions during battle truly fit the mold of the Achaemenid warrior king.

Just as the Persian king was blessed by Ahuramazda, Alexander also appeared to have been blessed by the gods, according to the Alexander historians. The Persian king had not only relied on Ahuramazda for help, but all the other gods were also supposed to be subject to the creator god and offer the Persian king their assistance as well, and this could include a wide range of gods since the Persians were polytheistic and their empire had absorbed various religions and cultures.61 The Persian king Cyrus had appealed to the Babylonians in the past by claiming their supreme god, Marduk, had given him his blessing to rule the world.62 It would not be a stretch for Alexander to extend this pantheon to gods such as Zeus and Ammon, whom Plutarch and Curtius Rufus claimed that he had formed connections with them respectively, due to the assistance of the Egyptian priests.63 Having the gods on his side would give Alexander the kind of invincibility that Darius I had claimed to possess in the Bisitun Inscription. Alexander put much weight in prophecies as before he left Greece, he visited Delphi and would not leave until he got a prophecy saying that he was invincible.64 Nor, according to Curtius Rufus, would Alexander leave the shrine of Ammon until Alexander heard that he would remain undefeated until he joined the gods.65 Omens were highly prevalent in the sources’ recounting of the Issus and Gaugamela. According to Plutarch, before the Battle of Issus, Darius III received a prophetic dream where he saw Alexander and his cavalry on fire as well as Alexander wearing the garb of a Persian royal courier, like what Darius had worn before he became king.66 Plutarch’s interpretation of the dream was supposed to signify the brilliance of the deeds of Alexander and his army and Alexander’s destiny to become the new Persian king, that Darius had received a warning that he could not understand regarding the inevitability of Alexander’s victory.67 After the Battle of Issus was over and done with, Arrian had said that Darius had

58 Arr. Anab. 1.15.6-8; Plut. Alex. 1.16.1-11.

59 Arr. Anab. 2.10.2-3; Curt. 3.11.7; Plut. Alex. 1.20.8-9; Diod. Sic. 17.33.5-34.4.

60 Plut. Alex. 1.15.8.

61 Pierre Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire, tr. Peter Daniels (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2002), 240-242.

62 Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander, 40-41.

63 Curt. 4.7.25-29; Plut. Alex. 2.27.1-8.

64 Plut. Alex. 1.14.6-7.

65 Curt. 4.7.25-29.

66 Plut. Alex. 1.18.5-8.

67 Ibid.

refused to accept the larger meaning behind the battle, saying that the result had been chosen by the gods, though Arrian was admittedly very biased against Darius.68 Both these instances signified that Darius was ignorant of the gods’ will, so it would be hard to think that Darius had a connection with them.

As was recorded in the astronomical diary, there was a lunar eclipse a few days before the Battle of Gaugamela, as was also attested by Arrian, Plutarch, and Curtius Rufus.69 Arrian and Plutarch had claimed that Alexander’s priest, Aristander, interpreted the eclipse as an omen predicting Alexander’s victory over the Persians.70 However, Curtius Rufus was more cynical in his retelling of the event since he had said that Alexander ordered his Egyptian priests to interpret this phenomenon and they said that it signified the destruction of both Macedonians and Persians.71 Yet, Alexander twisted their interpretation, saying that the sun represented the Greeks and the moon the Persians and that the eclipse signified Macedonian victory over the Persians, dispelling the sense of dread that had befallen his soldiers.72 This was the most explicit example of Alexander exploiting superstition for his benefit, which makes sense since this came from Curtius Rufus’s critical perspective. Other examples of Alexander using religion for his benefit seemed more coincidental or almost fated to happen, such as when Plutarch said that Alexander misheard the priest of Ammon thinking he had been called the son of Zeus.73 This event was likely to be less accidental than Plutarch made it seem, considering how well it lined up with Alexander’s tastes, having himself be called the son of a god.74 Lastly, Curtius Rufus and Plutarch claimed that another omen happened during the Battle of Gaugamela, though they did not seem to have placed much weight in it.75 The omen was the eagle of Zeus appearing over Alexander’s head during his charge against Darius and his bodyguards. Taken literally, Alexander would seem to have been blessed by the king of the gods during his charge against the Persians but given how convenient this would be for Alexander to receive this blessing during the most important battle of the campaign at this point, the two authors did not place much weight in it, which may explain why Arrian or Diodorus did not include this event at all in their accounts. In the Bisitun Inscription and PFS 7, Ahuramazda was depicted as a winged figure floating in the sky, and Zeus was known by the Greeks as the sky god, with his representative animal being the eagle, a bird.76 It would not be a stretch for Alexander to connect Zeus with Ahuramazda given the similarity of their imagery and the Gaugamela omen could have served as the bestowed right to rule that Alexander needed to claim the throne. In the Alexander mosaic at Pompeii, the Macedonians carried a banner with an eagle on it as they charged against Darius III; the eagle was associated with the Achaemenid royal family, Cyrus had been called the Eagle of the East by the Jewish scribe Ezra and it would have been more appropriate for Darius’s army to carry that banner, but one could say that Alexander was already encroaching upon the throne at this point.77

Unlike Alexander, who in the Alexander historians’ accounts, was both courageous and blessed by the gods, the Alexander historians portrayed his opponent Darius as at worst, a

68 Arr. Anab. 2.14.1-3.

69 AD I, l. The thirteenth; Arr. Anab. 3.7.6-7; Curt. 4.10.1-8; Plut. Alex. 2.31.6-12.

70 Plut. Alex. 2.31.6-12.

71 Curt. 4.10.1-8.

72 Ibid.

73 Plut. Alex. 2.27.1-8.

74 Ibid.

75 Curt. 4.26-27; Plut. Alex. 2.33.1-3.

76 Cool Root and Garrison, Seals on the Persepolis Tablets, 68-69.

77 A. Shapur Shahbazi, “Derafs,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, online edition, 2011, available at https:// www.iranicaonline.org/articles/derafs, accessed April 1, 2024; Ezra, Book of Ezra, Oxford Bible, 18:13.

coward, and at best, indecisive and unlucky.78 All the Alexander historians, except Diodorus Siculus, had spread allegations against Darius where before the Battle of Issus, he tried to bribe Alexander’s doctor to poison him, or at least that was what Parmenion had claimed to Alexander in his letter.79 However, the doctor was too loyal to Alexander and provided him with the potion necessary to treat Alexander’s illness while Alexander had complete faith in him and took the potion before telling the doctor about Parmenion’s letter. In providing this anecdote of Alexander having trust in his men and his subordinate helping Alexander in his time of need, it showed that Alexander even at his weakest could inspire a sense of loyalty that even Darius’s temptations could not sway. While Diodorus did mention that Alexander was ill and that the doctor cured him, he completely left out this episode of Alexander’s trust being tested.80 This episode did seem highly dramatic, and it would not make sense for Alexander to let a doctor who had been contacted by Darius to keep treating him as in Arrian’s account, when he sent a messenger to Darius, Alexander forbade him from speaking with Darius’s party, so this seemed inconsistent.81 It was likely included as a rhetorical device to show Alexander’s trust in his men and Darius’s cynicism leading him to believe that he could violate that trust. While Alexander had been struggling with his illness, Arrian and Curtius Rufus took time to point out that Darius forced his army to hurry, hoping to get the drop on Alexander while he was sick, further emphasizing his cowardice.82

Darius’s actions in battle did not paint a very flattering picture of him either, though it must be said that the Alexander historians’ accounts of his action were inconsistent. Arrian, who generally had the most negative view of Darius, portrayed the Persian king as losing his nerve at the sight of Alexander’s charge during the Battle of Issus, stripping away his bow, cloak, and abandoning his war chariot to go on horseback as to allow him to run away faster. He also claimed that Darius repeated his actions at the Battle of Gaugamela, after being overwhelmed by the sense of dread he had going into the battle.83 The king’s bow and chariot were his tools of war, identifiable as the tools of office and symbols of authority for the Achaemenid throne since the Achaemenid kings based their legitimacy on their military strength.84 The arms were considered so important that when Darius’s captured family had heard they were retrieved by the Macedonians, they had started to weep, thinking Darius had died rather than throw away his tools of war.85 By showing Darius run away at the first sign of fighting, throwing away his weapons, Arrian showed Darius to not only be an utter coward, but that he also threw away the symbols that had distinguished Darius as the king. Arrian was obviously negatively biased towards Darius, the king did not even appear in his account until Arrian mentioned that Darius put the general Memnon in charge of the fighting in Asia Minor.86 Arrian’s summation of Darius’s career was also overly negative, saying that Darius had only ever faced disasters in battle when Darius had previously been successful in reconquering Egypt in 335 BCE.87

The other historians did not portray Darius to be as cowardly as Arrian made him sound, but he did not appear the part of a competent or courageous warrior either. Plutarch hinted, yet did not confirm, that Darius inflicted a wound on Alexander’s thigh at the Battle of Issus as Alexander charged at him but then Darius quickly ran away, as if Darius tried to get the jump on Alexander but he retreated when he failed to inflict a serious wound, throwing away

78 Carl Nylander, “Darius III – the Coward King Point and Counterpoint,” in Alexander the Great: Reality and Myth, ed. Jesper Carlsen (Rome: ARID, 1997), 149-151.

79 Arr. Anab. 2.4.7-11; Curt. 3.6.1-13; Plut. Alex. 1.19.1-10; Badian, “Conspiracies,” 70-79.

80 Diod. Sic. 17.31.1-5.

81 Arr. Anab. 2.14.4.

82 Arr. Anab. 2.6.3-6; Curt. 3.7.1.

83 Arr. Anab. 2.11.4-3.14.3.

84 Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander, 225-228.

85 Arr. Anab. 2.12.4.

86 Briant, Darius in the Shadow of Alexander, 130-131.

87 Arr. Anab. 3.22.2-6.

his arms in the process, which did not seem very honorable.88 At Gaugamela, many of Darius’s bodyguards suddenly ran away at the sight of Alexander and those that remained were being slaughtered, causing Darius to try and turn his chariot around only for the horses to get spooked, forcing Darius to abandon his chariot and his armor.89 The second instance did not seem to be as much Darius’s fault, but it did show that he could not inspire much loyalty in his men nor was Darius very practiced in operating his chariot, fumbling where Alexander was dominating. Curtius Rufus showed Darius to be indecisive, giving a mediocre impression of the man as a commander. At Issus, the horses of Darius’s chariot were impaled by lances, so Darius had leapt to the horse that he kept behind the chariot in admittedly clever preparation, but then Darius tore off his royal insignia and fled from the battle, frightened that he might be captured alive rather than consider standing his ground.90 At Gaugamela, Darius was torn by indecision, and his soldiers had started to scatter as they saw him falter and his forces were starting to be massacred, Darius took flight.91 Curtius Rufus gave the impression that Darius could not commit to being a commander on the field at the possible risk of his own life rather than being the cartoonish coward that Arrian thought he was. Lastly, Diodorus was the historian who best portrayed Darius as a warrior. Like in Curtius Rufus’s account of Issus, the Macedonians wounded the horses of Darius’s chariot, but Darius had been trying to move to a second chariot when he had suddenly panicked and fled the battlefield.92 At Gaugamela however, Darius acted more like a warrior. He even got to throw a javelin at Alexander, which missed, but it was the most warlike thing that Darius did across all the Alexander historians’ accounts, only for Darius’s chariot driver to get skewered, overturning his chariot, leading to his men thinking that their king had fallen, and thus scattering.93 Across all the accounts, each of the circumstances from which Darius fled the battlefield were very much different, giving varying levels of weight to Darius’s own cowardice for why he fled the battlefield. This lack of consistency made it difficult to believe that propaganda did not twist the portrayal of Darius’s actions in some way.

The only non-Greek or Roman account of the battles was the Babylonian astronomical diary, yet even that was likely affected by propaganda since it was written after Alexander’s takeover of Babylon.94 It gave an account showing that Darius only fled after his troop formations started to break up, but it mentioned that they and Darius were panicked from facing Alexander, who from the Babylonian word hattu, had seemed to have the presence of a superior king who was destined to win, against whom Darius and his army could only be crushed.95 This point was made even stronger when one considers that Darius’s army far outnumbered Alexander’s and yet the former still lost to the latter.

In each of the accounts, after Darius’s various flights or mishaps, all or the remainder of his troops would lose their courage and start to scatter.96 The Persian soldiers believed that their victory in battle depended on the king’s power in war and his invincibility bestowed by the divine, if he started to falter, then the soldiers would have started to believe the battle was lost.97 Thus, as the soldiers had varying loyalties and homelands from subjugated states across the empire, they would put their own lives above the needs of the empires and scatter since

88 Plut. Alex. 1.20.2-9.

89 Ibid., 2.33.8-9.

90 Curt. 3.11.11-12.

91 Ibid., 4.15.30-31.

92 Diod. Sic. 17.34.5-9.

93 Ibid., 17.60.1-5.

94 Rollinger, “The Battle of Arbela,” 213-215.

95 Ibid., 237.

96 Arr. Anab. 3.22.2-6; Plut. Alex. 1.20.2-9; Curt. 3.11.11-12; Diod. Sic. 17.60.1-5.

97 Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander, 225-230.

they would not risk their own lives for a king that was not even chosen by a god.98

Even despite the continued resistance from the satrap Bessus who assassinated Darius and now claimed the throne, Alexander already took numerous steps to secure support from Persian elites to help establish his victor’s narrative and legitimize his claim to the throne. Alexander had undermined the authority of Darius in battle, but now he took steps to minimize his presence in Achaemenid history.

2. Alexander’s Minimization of Darius III in his Victor’s Narrative

Alexander the Great was remembered as one of history’s greatest conquerors and Darius III was remembered as the disgraced king who lost to him. The most important ancient sources historians have of Darius III are the Alexander historians’ accounts, yet due to the sources they used, those accounts were utterly biased in favor of Alexander, not paying his nemesis anywhere near the same level of attention, as Alexander intended.99 Alexander had essentially usurped the throne from Darius III and like Darius I in his Bisitun Inscription, Alexander needed to create a narrative that would legitimize his reign. Darius III’s failures in battle had proven that he was unworthy of holding the throne along the lines of Achaemenid ideology, and Alexander was now in the perfect position to toss his nemesis into historical obscurity. Minimizing Darius’s presence in Achaemenid history while also tarnishing his character, Alexander made use of Persian collaborators to forward his narrative towards his new subjects. This propaganda is alive and well in the Alexander historians’ accounts.100

Even outside of battle, the Alexander historians portrayed Darius’s character to be that of an overly emotional, defeatist man-child who cannot make rational decisions for the sake of his empire. In reducing Darius to this mere caricature, Alexander could further ruin his reputation after his death and make him appear utterly unfit to manage the throne even in a civil capacity. In the accounts from Arrian, Curtius Rufus, Diodorus, and Plutarch, Darius was heavily susceptible to flattery and in the former three’s narratives, Darius had his ego bolstered by his courtiers, who convinced him to take the battlefield himself since it would boost the confidence of his troops.101 Alexander was going to do the same thing and the other historians did not call him foolhardy, although Alexander’s death would have caused the defeat of his side just as Darius’s would have meant defeat for the Persians. Plutarch claimed that Darius received a prophetic dream, the same one mentioned earlier, but Darius was easily convinced it was a good omen from a Magi’s flattering interpretation.102 It is easier to call this part made up since it involved people’s superstitions at the time, but it also showed how easily swayed Darius was by the words of people around him, even if they were suspect. Alexander appeared far more resolute in comparison, rejecting the advice of his subordinates when he did not agree with it, such as rejecting Parmenion’s counsel to accept Darius’s offer of co-rulership.103 Darius only seemed to be resolute when he was furious, as when his (exiled) Athenian advisor Charidemus had advised him not to risk his life on the battlefield, and Darius had him executed when Charidemus did not agree with him.104 Of course, the Alexander historians’ Greek bias was truly present here, saying that the most useful advice offered to Darius fell upon deaf ears, giving the impression that even if Darius had Charidemus executed, it might have been for more serious reasons than Darius losing his temper, rather than the stereotype of a Greek’s wisdom being ignored by a Persian.

98 Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander, 507-511; Pierre Briant, Kings, Countries, Peoples: Selected Studies on the Achaemenid Empire, tr. Amelie Kuhrt (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2017), 171-174.

99 Briant, Darius in the Shadow of Alexander, 130-131.

100 Cartledge, introduction to The Landmark Arrian, xv-xvii.

101 Arr. Anab. 2.6.3-7; Curt. 2.8.1-5; Diod. Sic. 17.30.1-31.1.

102 Plut. Alex. 1.18.1-8.

103 Arr. Anab. 2.25.1-3.

104 Diod. Sic. 17.30.1-31.1.

After his defeat at Issus, the historians recounted Darius making absurd offers to Alexander to hand over his family, who were captured at Damascus after the battle.105 The terms of the offers, as well as their number, vary across the sources, further evidencing their ridiculousness and substantiating the likelihood that they were Macedonian propaganda to prove Darius’s instability and cowardice.106 Arrian had Darius making two offers, the first being to form an alliance with Alexander, recognizing friendship with Macedon, in exchange for handing over his family, however it would be foolish of Darius to truly expect Alexander to hand over his hostages and just leave the empire.107 The second offer, one that was consistent across all the accounts, was Darius proposing to cede to Alexander half of the empire’s territory west of the Euphrates River, as well as his daughter’s hand in marriage, giving Alexander the opportunity to co-rule with him, in addition to a ransom of several thousand talents.108 This offer was in some ways even more absurd. The Achaemenid king claimed to be the ruler of the world, the supreme king of kings.109 Splitting up the empire would be completely contrary to Achaemenid royal ideology, and it would mean that Darius acknowledged that he was not the king of kings if he decided to co-rule with Alexander. It is doubtful that Darius would have considered a public move so heavily breaking away from Achaemenid ideology, even if it was a ploy to buy time, since Darius’s political position was already shaky after his major loss at Issus and the capture of the royal family which put the succession of Darius’s line into question. In fact, Alexander’s response of rejection to this message was much more in line with Achaemenid ideology since he wanted to rule the entire country, again showing how unworthy Darius was in comparison with Alexander.110 There were also no precedents to offering territory in negotiations in Persian history.111 The three offers recorded by Curtius Rufus entitled mostly the same terms. The first letter offered a ransom in exchange for the royal family and asked Alexander to return to the land of his forefathers and enter an alliance with Darius.112 The second was also a concession of territory, but the boundary was now the lands between the Hellespont and the Halys River instead of the Euphrates113. The third letter bumped up the ransom from ten to thirty thousand talents and now put the border to the west of the Euphrates.114 It should be mentioned that the Greeks believed the separation between Europe and Asia was either at the Euphrates or the Halys.115 The fact that Darius offered to split his empire at one of these two borders betrays Greek biases instead of historical truth. Plutarch said that Darius only offered Alexander one letter for a ransom, the territory west of the Euphrates, and the hand of Stateira in marriage.116 Furthermore, the timing of this letter was inconsistent with that of the third letter that Curtius Rufus mentioned. Curtius Rufus’s letter was sent after the death of Darius’s pregnant wife, but Plutarch recorded his letter as being sent before Darius’s wife had died in childbirth.117 The

105 Arr. Anab. 2.14.4-6; Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander, 831-835.

106 Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander, 1043-1045; M. Rahim Shayegan, “Contesting the Empire: Darius III and Alexander,” in The World of Alexander in Perspective: Contextualizing Arrian, ed. Robert Rollinger and Julian Degen (Harrassowitz Verlag; Wiesbaden: Classica et Orientalia, 2022), 285-286.

107 Arr. Anab. 2.14.4-6.

108 Ibid., 2.25.1-3.

109 DB, 1-3.

110 Arr. Anab. 2.14.7-9; Hilmar Klinkott, “’Great King’ or ‘Lord of Asia’? Arrian’s Understanding of Alexander’s Rule in the East,” in The World of Alexander in Perspective: Contextualizing Arrian, ed. Robert Rollinger and Julian Degen (Harrassowitz Verlag; Wiesbaden: Classica et Orientalia, 2022), 315-318.

111 Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander, 838.

112 Curt. 4.1.1-10.

113 Ibid., 4.5.1-8.

114 Ibid., 4.11.1-22.

115 Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander, 831-835.

116 Plut. Alex. 2.29.7-9.

117 Curt. 4.11.1-22; Plut. Alex. 2.29.7-9.

number of talents offered was different as well, Plutarch said ten thousand while Curtius Rufus said thirty thousand.118 Lastly, Diodorus had Darius making two offers, but he was offering territory from the very beginning. After Issus, Darius offered to concede land west of the Halys as well as a ransom of twenty thousand talents.119 With the second offer, Darius bumped up the ransom to thirty thousand and now offered territory west of the Euphrates, as well as one of his daughters’ hands in marriage.120 Given the inconsistency between the sources’ offers, it is difficult to lend any credibility to them.

After his wife died in childbirth while in Alexander’s custody, Plutarch and Curtius Rufus recorded Darius as not only lamenting his wife’s death but offering defeatist prayers to the gods.121 Given that these lamentations were absent from Arrian’s and Diodorus’s account, there is some doubt as to their validity. Not only that, but it would be hard to believe that Darius would put into words the possibility of his defeat. Darius’s legitimacy as the Achaemenid king was already shaky after his loss at Issus. If Darius was caught talking like this, he would lose what little legitimacy he had left, and Darius might as well have given up his throne for Alexander.122 Curtius Rufus had Darius saying that if his career was at an end, then he would ask the gods to allow Asia (a term the Greeks found interchangeable for the Persian territories outside of the Ionian territories) to be ruled by no one other than the most merciful and just Alexander.123 Calling Alexander merciful would be entirely inaccurate given some of the slaughter that he led during his campaign, such as the aftermath of the Siege of Tyre where thousands were massacred and the survivors enslaved.124 Darius I had said that he would cause no undue harm to the weak or the strong and this speech from Darius III was likely trying to relate this quality to Alexander so as to improve his reputation as a ruler.125 Plutarch had Darius question his own favorability with the gods through asking the gods if there was a divine jealousy and if there was then no one should sit on the throne but Alexander.126 Here, Darius might as well have said that he did not have Ahuramazda’s favor anymore. Darius’s speeches had the feeling of hindsight behind them as he turned into the Greek historians’ puppet for propaganda.

To support his tarnishing of Darius’s reputation and his claim to the Achaemenid throne, Alexander needed Persian collaborators to lend their support, and he found them in the highest echelon of Persian society: the Achaemenid royal family. They had been captured when Alexander advanced to Damascus after his victory at Issus and his interactions with them in the ancient Alexander historians’ account are very notable.127 The royal family had been fearing for their future after their capture, being surrounded by soldiers from a foreign land intent on invading, yet their worries were apparently put to rest due to Alexander’s generosity.128 Arrian and Curtius Rufus had Alexander promise the royals that they could retain the ranks, privileges, and retinues that they had previously enjoyed under Darius.129 In other words, the man that the Achaemenid royals had to depend on for their comfortable standard of living was Alexander rather than Darius. Diodorus even showed Alexander returning the jewelry that the

118 Ibid.

119 Diod. Sic. 39.1-3.

120 Ibid., 17.54.1-55.1.

121 Curt. 4.10.34; Plut. Alex. 2.30.1-15.

122 Worthington, By the Spear: Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Empire, 169-173.

123 Curt. 4.10.34.

124 Worthington, By the Spear: Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Empire, 177-178.

125 DB, 59-64.

126 Plut. Alex. 2.30.1-15.

127 Arr. Anab. 2.12.3-7; Curt. 3.12.1-24; Plut. Alex. 1.21.1-6; Diod. Sic. 17.37.3-38.4.

128 Arr. Anab. 2.12.3-7.

129 Arr. Anab. 2.12.3-7; Curt. 3.12.1-24.

royal women had lost.130 One could infer from this that Alexander could bestow and take away their luxuries whenever he wished, according to his favor. Plutarch had said that Alexander was ready to allow the royals to continue their traditions, allowing them to bury the dead at Issus according to Persian burial rituals.131 This signified that Alexander would tolerate their beliefs and customs. However, the event that showed the Achaemenids’ willingness to cooperate with Alexander was an event recorded by Arrian, Curtius Rufus and Diodorus. Darius’s mother, Sisygambis, when Alexander and his companion Hephaestion entered the royal family’s tent, had bowed to Hephaestion, thinking that he was Alexander since Hephaestion was the taller of the pair.132 In the Bisitun Inscription, Darius I towered over the rebel kings, meaning that the Achaemenid king was thought to be extremely tall in stature.133 By bowing to Hephaestion, Sisygambis had essentially signaled her acceptance of Alexander as the new Achaemenid king, an action which Alexander accepted very favorably given the ease with which he forgave Sisygambis’s mistake.134 Given the circumstances that surrounded her family, Sisygambis likely had little other choice but to cooperate with Alexander and support his claim to the throne, but her act of bowing to Hephaestion was likely an exaggeration or a fragment of propaganda. Just before this, Sisygambis had been weeping thinking her son was dead at Alexander’s hands, to have such an about-face stretches the imagination.135 With the royal family’s cooperation, it became much easier for Alexander to establish his victor’s narrative.

Afterwards, as he would have his audience think, Alexander’s relationship with Darius’s family seemed to become a familial one, judging from Curtius Rufus’s account. Alexander had started to think of Sisygambis as his second mother, on an equal level with his own mother, Olympias.136 Alexander started to foster a much more intimate relationship with the Achaemenid royal family, shifting away from his image and a conqueror and forcing himself into the position that Darius once claimed in his household. Painting himself as a member of this family and their guardian, when Darius had been killed by his cousin Bessus, Alexander shifted his role from Darius’s conqueror to his avenger and his successor. When Bessus was captured, Alexander denounced him for his betrayal of the king who bestowed upon Bessus all his honors, even as Bessus claimed that he had wanted to offer the country to Alexander.137 Alexander was trying to distance himself in his victor’s narrative from his more obvert stance of conquest before he captured the Achaemenid royals. Alexander had already accepted into his entourage Persian nobles who were complicit in Bessus’s betrayal, including Artabazus who would later become the satrap of Bactria, meaning that Bessus was simply the scapegoat, the punching bag that Alexander could conveniently use to distract everyone from the fact that it had been his two victories over Darius which created the circumstances leading to Bessus’s coup.138

3. Alexander’s Marriages at Susa

After Alexander’s victory at Gaugamela, Darius III would retreat to the Median city of Ecbatana, leaving Alexander free to capture two of the other centers of the Persian Empire, Babylon and Susa, while burning another, Persepolis.139 Having lost the qualifications to sit

130 Diod. Sic. 17.37.3-38.4.

131 Plut. Alex. 1.21.1-6.

132 Arr. Anab. 2.12.3-7; Curt. 3.12.1-24; Diod. Sic, 17.37.3-38.4.

133 Darius I, “Bisitun Relief,” Cabinet.ox.ac.uk, https://www.cabinet.ox.ac.uk/behistun-relief-andinscription-0

134 Arr. Anab. 2.12.3-7; Curt. 3.12.1-24.

135 Arr. Anab. 2.12.3-7.

136 Curt. 5.2.20-22.

137 Ibid., 7.5.38-39.

138 Ibid., 6.5.1-7.5.1.

139 Bosworth, Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great, 85-94.

on the Achaemenid throne, Darius was deposed by Bessus, an Achaemenid and the satrap of Bactria.140 Alexander would march against Bessus to capture Darius but he had been too slow and Bessus had Darius assassinated, leaving him free to put on the royal diadem and declare himself Artaxerxes V, the new king of Persia.141 However, more and more influential Persians were defecting to Alexander’s side, such as Mazaeus the satrap of Babylon, and as Alexander proceeded with his march against Bactria, more and more of Bessus’s supporters would leave him to side with Alexander who seemed unstoppable.142 Eventually, Alexander captured Bessus and punished him for his betrayal of Darius, treating him like Darius I had punished the rebel king Fravartish by having him mutilated, put on display for public humiliation, and impaling him.143 Bessus’s execution was overseen by Darius III’s brother, Oxyathres, who had allied himself with Alexander shortly after Darius’s death and Alexander allowed Oxyathres the opportunity to avenge his brother, helping Alexander to shift his image from being Darius’s nemesis to his avenger and successor.144 Even after killing Bessus, it took two years for Alexander to put down the revolts in Bactria and Sogdiana, ending them with his marriage of Roxane, the daughter of the Bactrian magnate Oxyathres, in 328 BCE.145 Wanting to proceed with his plans to become king of Asia, Alexander accepted an invitation from the Indian noble Taxiles to expand his territory into India.146 Alexander would start his return after his troops refused to cross the Hyphasis River in 326 BCE, desiring to return home.147 After a grueling march through the Gedrosian Desert, Alexander returned to the empire, only to hear news of revolts against him, leading him to dismiss massive forces of mercenaries and purge several Iranian satraps.148 Coming back from his long absence, Alexander realized he needed to strengthen his ties with the Persian nobility.149 Despite the mockery of Darius in the ancient sources, Alexander would build extremely strong ties with his family, even inducting the Achaemenid Oxyathres into the Companions.150 To win over the support of the Persian elites to accept him as the new king, Alexander would also adopt several Persian customs to appear more favorable with his new subjects and vassals.

Soon after he returned from his campaign in India, Alexander held a mass marriage ceremony at Susa. Alexander himself married Darius’s eldest daughter Stateira to create a link with the Achaemenid line.151 Alexander waited six years to marry Stateira given the circumstances that had engulfed his army and the empire during and after his Indian campaign.152 Alexander’s troops had mutinied against him after multiple years of hard campaigning and Alexander had to purge several Persian satraps who had revolted against him during his absence, so not only did Alexander need to strengthen his relationship with the Persian nobility, but he also realized he could not rely on the Macedonian veterans anymore, thus Alexander had to shift

140 Ibid., 94-97.

141 Ibid., 98-100.

142 Ibid.

143 Ibid., 108-112.

144 Rudiger Schmitt, “Oxyathres,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, online edition, 2002, available at https:// iranicaonline.org/articles/oxyathres, accessed April 10, 2024.

145 Bosworth, Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great, 115-117.

146 Ibid., 119-120.

147 Ibid., 125-130.

148 Bosworth, Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great, 146-151; Adrian Goldsworthy, Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors (New York: Basic Books, 2020), 465-470.

149 Peter Green, Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 435-446.

150 Schmitt, “Oxyathres,” https://iranicaonline.org/articles/oxyathres

151 Arr. Anab. 7.4.4-6; Curt. 10.3.12; Plut. Alex. 7.70.1-72.1; Diod. Sic. 17.107.6-108.1.

152 Bosworth, Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great, 125-151; Goldsworthy, Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors, 465-470.

the balance of power away from the Macedonians in his army.153 When Darius I took the throne, he married the daughters of Cyrus the Great to continue the Achaemenid line and create a sense of an ongoing legitimacy.154 Alexander followed in Darius’s footsteps, a step even more necessary for Alexander given his origins from outside the empire, in addition to the benefit of having heir with Stateira as the mother that will be part of the Achaemenid line. The marriage at Susa did not only establish a link for Alexander, for he also had eighty-six of the most prominent Macedonian nobles marry over eighty of the noblest and most distinguished Persian women.155 Alexander was trying to create long-lasting connections and intermixing between the Macedonian side of his royal court and the Persian side. Some of these marriages included Alexander and the youngest daughter of Artaxerxes III, Parysatis, Hephaestion and the younger daughter of Darius III, Drypetis, and Perdikkas, a Companion commander who led battalions in the Battles of Issus and Gaugamela, and the daughter of Atropates, the satrap of Media.156 Alexander marrying the daughter of another Achaemenid king would strengthen his ties to the royal family, Hephaestion marrying Drypetis would establish another link to the Achaemenid for Alexander’s closest Companion, as well as make the two of them inlaws, and Perdikkas would marry the daughter of the satrap of one of Persia’s most central satrapies. Persian culture strongly influenced the marriage ceremony. As Arrian had described the ceremony, the chairs were placed in the order of the bridegrooms and after the toasts were drunk, the brides would arrive and sit down beside her groom, then the groom would take their brides by the hand and kiss them.157 Alexander also gave dowries to the Persian brides, and he gave gifts to the Macedonians who already married Asian wives.158 Alexander even wore Persian dress to the ceremony.159 In conducting the ceremony in this manner and adopting that sort of dress, Alexander was adjusting his court to be more inclusive of Persian customs, to make his new Persian subordinates feel at home. Alexander had taken Darius III’s tent after Issus, which was seen to be the center of the Persian court, and now with these ceremonies and the customs he was adopting, Alexander was now trying to become the new center of this MacedonianPersian court.160 Additionally, Alexander also took steps to integrate his armies, recruiting thirty thousand Persian boys that had been trained in Macedonian warfare, replacing the aging Macedonian veterans when previously the Persians’ participation in Alexander’s new regime had mainly been administrative.161 Now that his campaigns were basically over, Alexander was trying to create a new regime that would stand the test of time, one that would appeal to his new Persian subjects.162

Conclusion

Despite what the ancient Alexander historians have said, Alexander the Great did not take over the Persian Empire through bravery and charisma alone; the struggle to take over the empire was not just a military one but a political one as well. Alexander and his court historians spun Darius’s failures to win against the Macedonians at Issus and Gaugamela as being due to his cowardice and unworthiness to be king. Darius’s conduct outside of the battles was not safe either, as with the coerced support of the captive Achaemenid royal family, Alexander tarnished Darius’s character into being emotional and defeatist, qualities unsuited for the king of kings. Then to improve his relationship with the Persian nobility and shift the

153 Ibid.

154 Hdt. 3.88.

155 Arr. Anab. 7.4.4-6.

156 Ibid.

157 Ibid., 7.4.7-8.

158 Ibid., 7.5.1-3.

159 Ibid., 7.5.2.

160 Ibid., 2.12.3.

161 Ibid., 7.6.1-5.

162 Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great (London: Penguin Books, 1975), 417-420.

balance of power away from the Macedonians in his army, Alexander strengthened his ties with the Persian nobility by marrying the Achaemenid ladies and marrying the Macedonian nobles with Persian brides, trying to mix the two sides of his court to lay foundations for a long-lasting empire spearheaded by him and his Achaemenid heirs. Alexander was not simply ambitious on the battlefield, he wanted to make an entire empire accept him as their king through Alexander’s attempts to appeal to Achaemenid culture, showing a political savvy that was overshadowed by Alexander’s heroism in the ancient sources.

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About the Author

Originally from Virginia Beach, Christopher Bandy is a May 2024 graduate of Christopher Newport University. Christopher is a history major and an economics and Asian studies minor. Christopher has learned Mandarin during his time at Christopher Newport University. He has been inducted into three honors societies, Alpha Chi for honors students, Phi Alpha Theta for honors in history, and Omicron Delta Epsilon for honors in economics. Christopher studied abroad in Greece during the summer of his sophomore year. He has also previously won the Military History Award in 2023 for his paper on Julius Caesar during the Gallic Wars and was the runner-up in 2024. Christopher is also the co-winner of the 2024 William Parks Award for having one of the highest grade point averages in history coursework. After graduating from Christopher Newport University, Christopher plans to study abroad in Japan to learn about East Asian history and culture.

The Power of a Girl’s Voice As Shown By Little Red Riding Hood

Katherine Becker

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Kara K. Keeling, Department of English

Abstract:

Since its earliest recorded versions by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, “Little Red Riding Hood” has been a story warning young girls about the dangers that await them beyond their front door. In Perrault’s telling, the protagonist was helplessly susceptible to the wolf’s tricks. She dies because of this. The Brothers Grimm changed the story slightly, having Little Red be rescued by a huntsman in the woods. They propose that it doesn’t matter if a child cannot help themselves, there will always be a man around to save her. Versions from the last century, including those by Mia Sim, Bruno de La Salle, and Claude Clément, adapt the tale to a much greater extent. These authors attempt to have the child rescue herself by way of her voice. Their Little Reds learn, unlike the Grimm’s protagonist, that help is only sure to come if they cry out or speak up. By referencing both Perrault’s tale and the version written by the Brothers Grimm, these versions emphasize their new, adapted morals: that children do find themselves in risky situations, but if they are brave and use their minds, they can find their way out of them. These stories do, however, also provide limits. Often there is an intermediary between Little Red’s voice and the action that stops the wolf. Ed Young, author of Lon Po Po, rids his story of a middleman, giving his Little Red the same power that the wolf uses to trick her.

Charles Perrault, the French writer who authored the first recorded version of “Little Red Riding Hood,” characterizes his protagonist in only a few words. He says she is “a little country girl, the prettiest creature who was ever seen.” She is not careless or disobedient, she is not intelligent or brave. The first Little Red Riding Hood is only one thing: innocent. Carole and D.T. Hanks say, “The tale’s brevity makes it clear that Perrault is here unconcerned with character development or an elaborate plot” (68). Instead, he writes about the dangers that await little girls and young women in the real world. He includes an explicit moral at the end of the story, stating that “Children, especially attractive, well bred young ladies, should never talk to strangers” (Perrault). His story, with its unfortunate ending (Little Red Riding Hood gets eaten, just like her grandmother, never to see the light of day again) implies that once a child gets into danger, there is no way out of it. But centuries later, in a time where it is more appealing if Red Riding Hoods do survive, the tale has changed.

In some adaptations (particularly the Grimms’), the child is rescued by an adult man, whether a hunter or a woodcutter. But in many other, even more recent versions, she learns her own power. She is intelligent and quick-witted, she knows how to save herself, whether that is on her own, or by asking for help. Four of these newer versions, including The Little Girl Who Knew How to Fly by Bruno de la Salle, Pooh! How Did She Know? A Story of a Little Red Riding Hood Who Escaped from Her Abductors by Mia Sim, A Little Red Riding Hood by Claude Clément, and Lon Po Po by Ed Young, increase the child’s agency, presenting Little Red Riding Hood as someone who can get herself out of a dangerous situation by using her voice. Many of these modern Red Riding Hoods know the story as readers might, and so they play off of the old image of a helpless girl in the woods. By referencing both Perrault’s tale and the version written by the Brothers Grimm, these versions emphasize their new, adapted morals: that children do find themselves in risky situations, but if they are brave and use their minds, they can find their way out of them. These stories do, however, also provide limits. Often there is an intermediary between Little Red’s voice and the action that stops the wolf. Ed Young, author of Lon Po Po, rids his story of a middleman, giving his Little Red the same power that the wolf uses to trick her.

Before looking at these new adaptations, it is necessary to remember the Grimms’ version, as many of these stories are influenced by theirs as well. It was supposedly taken from the German oral tradition, but was most likely adapted to fit the authors’ ideas of what it should look like. The first of their changes to Perrault’s story is that Little Red Cap gets into danger because of her disobedience. While Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood didn’t do anything to spark danger, the Grimms’ protagonist ignores her mother’s warning: “when you are going, walk nicely and quietly and do not run off the path” (Grimm). At the wolf’s comment, “See Little Red Cap, how pretty the flowers are about here -- why do you not look round?” (Grimm), Little Red Cap wanders about, disobeying her mother and giving the wolf an opportunity to run off to eat her grandmother. The Grimms’ Little Red Cap feels odd entering her grandmother’s house (“how uneasy I feel to-day”), but she cannot figure out why, like future Red Riding Hoods must if they are to survive, so the wolf eats her. This version ends when a huntsman passes by, and, feeling something is off, goes to investigate the grandmother’s house. He finds a wolf, slays it, saves Little Red Cap and her grandmother, and all is well again. Little Red Cap has learned her lesson. While Perrault’s version warned readers to be careful of the inescapable danger in the world and to learn where Little Red can’t anymore, the Grimms’ version adds firstly that children should obey their parents, and secondly, that there will always be a man around to save the day.

In the 2010 Korean version by Mia Sim titled Pooh! How Did She Know? A Story of a Little Red Riding Hood Who Escaped from Her Abductors, Little Red encounters many potentially dangerous people, though she only suspects one of them: the wolf. Beckett states, “The lengthy, descriptive subtitle clearly establishes that this retelling is a tale of abduction” (39). In each

encounter with a stranger, Little Red Riding Hood is tempted to fall prey to the dangerous traps, but every time, she hears her mother’s voice echo in her head: “Little Red Riding Hood, wait!” (Sims 43). Then she rethinks her actions and switches course back to safety. The final time she’s approached, a cat grabs her arm. This time, she cannot rethink herself out of trouble, so first, she panics. Then, her mother’s voice echoes, with an additional message: “You are a courageous girl!” (Sims 43). And with this encouragement, Little Red Riding Hood screams for help. Beckett states that “Korean children, like many Asian children, are taught to be quiet and well-behaved, so shouting is not customary behavior” (42). Sim expresses that calling for help is not disobedient, but rather brave (Beckett 42). Others do come to save this Little Red, just like in the Grimms’ version, but without her action, they wouldn’t have. Unlike the Grimms’ Little Red Cap, who received help without asking for it, Sims’ Little Red Riding Hood uses her own resources—even if it is only her voice—to save herself. Instead of advising “don’t get yourself into trouble,” this tale assumes that trouble will inevitably come, and informs readers to use their smarts and their voices to get themselves out of it. Sim’s characters says this explicitly on the back cover: “When you are in danger,/shout fearlessly: ‘Help!’” (Sims, qtd. in Beckett 41). Asking for help and using one’s voice is a choice that a child has to make independently, and so by shifting this idea into a good light—it is the single action that saves the child—Sim tries to tell readers that shouting and screaming is not always bad.

In a 1996 French version of Little Red Riding Hood by Bruno de La Salle, titled The Little Girl Who Knew How To Fly, the protagonist knows an old version of the tale. She is headed on a long journey to see her grandmother, not through the woods, but through the sky. She stops in a little town and meets a kind man, who offers her hot chocolate. He asks her her name, and she says, “for fun, ‘I am Little Red Riding Hood.’ To show he also knew the story, he said, ‘Then I am the Big Bad Wolf.’ And they both laughed” (La Salle 76). By explicitly referencing the old fairy tale, the author brings attention to the connections between his story and the original. This is a Red Riding Hood story, whether the characters realize it or not. Later on, the story progresses in a somewhat expected manner, and the girl finds herself in her grandmother’s house with that same man, disguised as her grandmother. This version maintains an aspect of Perrault’s, where the wolf asks the girl to strip and get in bed with him. But unlike Perrault’s Red, she realizes that he is not who he says he is. She asks to go to the outhouse, escapes, and informs adults of the dangerous wolf. “She told them what the man… was like, where he was, and how they had to catch him” (La Salle 79). With her information, they take care of him. Perrault’s version alerts readers to the danger of what lies beyond home. The Grimms’ additionally warns readers not to disobey their parents. La Salle was aware of these stories when writing his own: “While he felt it was necessary to transpose the tales into the contemporary world, he also recognized the danger of destroying their fragile symbolic meanings” (Beckett 72). So La Salle’s version retains these morals, but also adds the message that with resourcefulness, a girl can get herself to safety. Even if she cannot finish the job by herself, she is capable of at least escaping. By referencing more commonly known versions, La Salle emphasizes the changes he makes. His protagonist escapes, as other girls in danger can, by using their voice to find a way out of immediate danger and asking for help in addressing the problem.

A 2000 poetic version of the story by Claude Clément and illustrated by Isabelle Forestier, appropriately titled, Little Red Riding Hood, really focuses on the trauma that comes from an experience like Little Red Riding Hood’s. Clément intended to make this story into one about “overcoming the silence and shame experienced by the victim” of sexual abuse (Beckett 30). Before setting off, this child is told by her mother, “I have confidence in you:/you are a resourceful Riding Hood!” (Clément 34). This child is not only sweet and kind, as Perrault’s and the Grimms’ are, but she is also resourceful. This statement is a clue that her ending will not be the same as in the oldest recorded versions. Late in the story, when the wolf asks her to

get in bed with her, she outright refuses. And when she makes the connection that the wolf is not her grandmother, she runs far away. The story diverges from the original in its ending. Little Red returns home safely, due to her quick wits, but she’s lost her voice, which is the girls’ most powerful resource in the previous two stories. Over time, and with her mother’s coaxing, Little Red begins to open up and share her traumatic experience, in hopes that with it, the wolf will be prosecuted. With her words, with the power of her voice, the wolf is sentenced, and eventually throws up the grandmother whole. One of the last stanzas says, “Instead of keeping the incident secret,/everyone decided to talk about it,/so that it would never happen again” (Clément 38). There are obvious echoes of true stories about sexual assault. “Through this Riding Hood’s story, the author and illustrator explore the psychological consequences of sexual abuse, as well as its judicial implications” (Beckett 30). Clément takes remnants of Perrault’s version, which is subtextually about rape, and makes them much more noticeable. Even though he doesn’t use the word “rape”—he instead uses “devour” to go with the typical action of eating—he lets Little Red be traumatized, and experience that trauma through the loss of her voice. While no child will meet a literal talking wolf in the woods, plenty do meet metaphorical wolves who take their voice away. Children who have experienced trauma like this Little Red will ideally recognize themselves in the work and realize the power that they have in their words. This story aligns much more obviously with real-world situations than the previous couple, but it too highlights the power of a girl’s words. Speech is a type of power that many girls in Perrault’s time, and even the Brothers Grimm’s probably didn’t have. Like the Korean children Beckett and Sim talk about and to, they were taught that being quiet is most respectable. Voices in today’s world, as Sim, La Salle, and Clément try to express, have an undeniable power.

Ed Young’s Caldecott-winning picture book Lon Po Po, translated as “Grandmother Wolf,” does indicate the power of the voice, but in a very different way. The three Little Red Riding Hoods, siblings named Shang, Tao and Paotze, do not traverse through the woods. Their mother does instead, leaving the children alone for the night. The wolf, seeing that they are alone, approaches the door, acting as their grandmother. Shang, the oldest child, questions the wolf from the start. She asks, “why did you blow out the candle? The room is now dark” (Young 11). She asks about the bushy tail she finds in the bed, and the claws she finds on Po Po’s hands. Her instincts are on high alert. When she is certain that “Po Po” is actually a wolf, she devises a plan to get her and her siblings out of danger. Skillfully, she carries it out, and when her mother returns, the wolf is dead.

Lon Po Po drastically changes the story of “Little Red Riding Hood.” One child becomes three, they are stationary instead of traveling, and they never, not once, require any adult assistance in solving their problem. The roots of the story are still obviously there, most clearly in the wolf-grandmother disguise trick. Because the intertextual references exist, Shang’s wariness compares to Perrault’s Little Red’s lack of any about the wolves and the woods. Perrault calls his protagonist “the poor child, who did not know that it was dangerous to stay and talk to a wolf.” The Brothers Grimm said theirs “did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.” Though the Grimms’ is conscious of her unsettling discomfort in her grandmother’s house, she can’t identify why it is there. Shang, on the other hand, questions “Po Po” until she figures out what’s happening.

Sim’s, La Salle’s, and Clément’s adaptations focus on the power of the voice, including how shouting can call attention to a child when they can’t get away on their own, and also how sharing information and spreading the word can help to stop a “wolf” for good. Young’s version does emphasize the importance of the voice, but in a different way. Shang and her siblings do not have anyone around them who might be able to help. They live in the remote countryside. Calling for help will not do anything. Neither will sharing their story with the air. The only people they can talk to are each other and the wolf. So, they choose to use their voices

in the same way that the wolf often uses his: in trickery.

In many adaptations, the wolf is known to make conversation with the girl in the woods. He asks her what she’s doing and where she’s going, and then often points out something to distract her, whether flowers, or hot chocolate. In some versions he proposes races he knows he will win, because he knows shortcuts. He tricks her into letting him have an advantage. He uses his voice later to deceive her grandmother, by pitching it higher, and tricks Little Red by saying he has a cold. He uses his voice to affect the way that she behaves, to influence her to act a certain way that benefits him. While he is physically frightening, the wolf’s power has always come from his voice, though in a very different way than Little Red’s.

Thus far, her voice’s power has relied on the presence of other people. In La Salle’s version, for example, Little Red can escape on her own, but she has to get help to defeat the wolf entirely. In Sim’s, she yells for help. In Clément’s, she learns to spread the word about danger, so that others won’t find themselves in the same situation she did. Using one’s voice to ask for help or to spread the word is a type of power. Those girls take initiative; they don’t let the wolves take advantage of them like Perrault’s and the Grimms’. But Young’s Little Red? She has power like the wolf. She uses her words to trick him, like he tries to trick her. She tells him that they will pick delicious nuts for him. He lets them go up the tree. Then she tells him that he must pick them for himself, but they’ll help him up. He obliges, letting her and her siblings pull him up and drop him back to the ground, three times, until he is dead. Shang uses her voice not to escape, but to outsmart the wolf, defeating it herself.

In two of the oldest recorded versions of the Little Red Riding Hood story, those of Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, Little Red was either fated for death, or could only survive with the help of a man. Newer versions attempt to have her save herself, most often with the power of her voice. They try to promote the message that great action can come from any child’s words. Because they build off of the classic versions where Little Red doesn’t have agency, her power in these new stories is emphasized. But they too place a limit on what the child can actually do. Little Red asks for help, and someone else comes to rescue her. She shares how to slay the beast, and someone else carries out her instructions. She tells her story, and the judge does the sentencing that ends up saving her grandmother. They try to make the connection direct, where because of her voice, she and others will be kept from danger, but there’s always someone else between her words and the wolf’s fate. Ed Young’s Lon Po Po gives the child more power than one of asking for help. His Little Red, Shang, takes the wolf’s vocal power, that of trickery. She doesn’t need her voice to communicate with others, instead, she uses it to deceive the one trying to fool her. Shang has the ultimate agency, a quality unable to be reached by the other modern Little Red Riding Hoods.

Works Cited

Clément, Claude. “A Little Red Riding Hood (Un petit chaperon rouge).” Revisioning Red Riding Hood Around the World: An Anthology of International Retellings, by Sandra L. Beckett, Wayne State University Press, 2014, pp. 32-38.

de La Salle, Bruno. “The Little Girl Who Knew How to Fly (La petite fille qui savait voler).” Revisioning Red Riding Hood Around the World: An Anthology of International Retellings, by Sandra L. Beckett, Wayne State University Press, 2014, pp. 74-80.

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, and Heidi Anne Heiner. “Little Red Riding Hood Annotated Tale.” SurLaLune Fairy Tales, https://www.surlalunefairytales.com/h-r/little-red/stories/ redcap.html. Accessed 11 April 2024.

Hanks, Carole and D.T. Hanks, Jr. ‘Perrault’s ‘Little Red Riding Hood’: Victim of the Revisers.” Children’s Literature, vol. 7, 1978, p. 68-77. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/ chl.0.0528.

“The Little Girl Who Knew How to Fly (La petite fille qui savait voler).” Revisioning Red Riding Hood Around the World: An Anthology of International Retellings, by Sandra L. Beckett, Wayne State University Press, 2014, pp. 72-74.

“A Little Red Riding Hood (Un petit chaperon rouge).” Revisioning Red Riding Hood Around the World: An Anthology of International Retellings, by Sandra L. Beckett, Wayne State University Press, 2014, pp. 30-31.

Perrault, Charles, and Heidi Anne Heiner. “Little Red Riding Hood Annotated Tale.” SurLaLune Fairy Tales, https://www.surlalunefairytales.com/h-r/little-red/little-red-tale. html. Accessed 11 April 2024.

“Pooh! How Did She Know? The Story of a Little Red Riding Hood Who Escaped from Her Abductors (Ches! Eotteohge alassji? Honjaseo gileul gadaga yugoebeomeul mulrichin bbalganmoja iyagi).” Revisioning Red Riding Hood Around the World: An Anthology of International Retellings, by Sandra L. Beckett, Wayne State University Press, 2014, pp. 39-42.

Sim, Mia. “Pooh! How Did She Know? The Story of a Little Red Riding Hood Who Escaped from Her Abductors (Ches! Eotteohge alassji? Honjaseo gileul gadaga yugoebeomeul mulrichin bbalganmoja iyagi).” Revisioning Red Riding Hood Around the World: An Anthology of International Retellings, by Sandra L. Beckett, Wayne State University Press, 2014, pp. 42-44.

Young, Ed. Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China. New York, Philomel Books, 1996.

About the Author

Katherine Becker, a member of Christopher Newport University’s class of 2026, is majoring in English with minors in Linguistics, Childhood Studies, and Leadership. After working as the CNU Prose Editor of Currents, CNU’s literary magazine, for the 2023-2024 academic year, she will become the Managing Editor in the fall. She has been inducted into both Sigma Tau Delta, the national English honors society, and Pi Delta Phi, the national French honors society, and is the Vice President of the former. As the president of Flourish, CNU’s nondenominational campus ministry, Katherine aims to spread love and acceptance to all community members. She is a passionate learner, constantly working to advance her knowledge in a variety of subject areas. As part of the Presidential Scholars program, she is studying abroad at Oxford this summer. After graduation, Katherine hopes to become an author of young adult books.

“Do You Guys Ever Think About Dying?”

The Prevalence and Implications of Gender, Race, and Class Identity in Contemporary Existentialist Film

Katelyn Bennett

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Joe Balay, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies

Abstract

Whereas traditional Existentialism tied consciousness of one’s existence exclusively to the question of mortality, contemporary existentialist films demonstrate this relationship is also inextricable from factors of identity like gender, race, and class. This leads one to wonder, can modern expressions of Existentialism be understood by awareness of man’s existence alone? The answer, in short, is no. Using a phenomenological methodology, this paper looks to trailblazers of traditional Existentialism, such as Martin Heidegger and Jean Paul Sartre, to consider their engagement with free, authentic identity. Then, it explains how Existentialism has long used art as a medium for helping us understand both traditional and evolving existentialist ideals, thereby making film an appropriate representation of the field. Finally, two stark examples of contemporary existentialist film – Barbie and Poor Things – will be explored, revealing that issues of identity are explicitly credited for the characters’ growing consciousness of their existence. This analysis confirms that contemporary depictions bring a new light to Existentialism, one that must include gender, race, and class identity in the understanding of existence and mortality. These findings do not mean to invalidate traditional Existentialism, but rather serve to indicate an important shift in how this field is contemplated today.

Introduction

All eyes turn to look at Barbie as she blurts out, “Do you guys ever think about dying?” over the sounds of dancing and celebration at her party. In another cinematic universe, Poor Things, Bella Baxter is confronted by her mortality as she is brought back to life from suicide and forced to contemplate exactly what motivated her death in a past life. As both of these films unfold, it becomes clear that their characters struggle with not only issues of life and death, but gender, race, class, and other aspects of identity. Existentialism is a branch of philosophy that deeply considers these notions of mortality and human existence, especially regarding how that should influence the way we live once we become conscious of them. The choice to depict these concepts through forms of art such as film is not new by any means, but contemporary films such as Barbie and Poor Things seem to suggest that other factors of what it means to be human are increasingly at play.

Traditionally, consciousness of one’s existence and mortality has been regarded as extremely abstract; so much so that it cannot be understood in terms of constructs like gender, race, and class. Modern-day film depicts Existentialism in a way that attempts to close this gap. Feelings of life and death are instead expressed through questions of identity – such as gender, race, and class – and what it means to live with that identity. In other words, whereas traditional Existentialism and its early cinematic depictions tied authentic identity exclusively to the question of mortality, contemporary existentialist films demonstrate that this relationship is inextricable from other issues of identity politics like gender, race, and class. This leads one to wonder, can contemporary expressions of Existentialism be understood by contemplating man’s mortality alone?

The answer, in short, is no. Contemporary films such as Barbie and Poor Things demonstrate that existential autonomy cannot solely be explained in relation to one’s mortality (as shown in traditional Existentialism), but by one’s complex position within the identity politics of race, gender, and class. In this paper, I will first look back to trailblazers of traditional Existentialism, such as Martin Heidegger and Jean Paul Sartre, to consider their engagement with the field and its central understanding of free, authentic identity. Next, I will explain why film is an appropriate medium for helping us understand both traditional and evolving existentialist ideals. The answer to this lies in the fact that Existentialism is a movement that has always been defined by the overlap of art, philosophy, and literature; film is therefore no exception. Several traditional existentialist films will be discussed to support this. Then, two examples of contemporary existentialist films, Barbie and Poor Things, will be explored in-depth. In analysis of each film, issues of identity are explicitly credited for the characters’ growing consciousness of their existence. Ultimately, I will assert that while the notion that consciousness of finitude is independent of gender, race, and class identity may have been accepted in the past, contemporary depictions of Existentialism demonstrate that it has taken on a new lens, one that must include other considerations of what it means to be human.

Traditional Existentialism: Connections Between Identity and Consciousness of Finitude

Broadly defined, Existentialism is an area of philosophy that contemplates the nature of human existence, and how humans are free to define this existence. A major theme of Existentialism revolves around the notion that human existence, particularly concerning the fact that it makes us consciously aware of our finitude, provokes a deeply uncomfortable reaction in man. Martin Heidegger, a trailblazer in existentialist philosophy, positioned these feelings of uncomfortability at the core of his understanding. As Glenn Gray, author of The Idea of Death in Existentialism notes, “Death is in fact, with Martin Heidegger, near the center of his interpretation of reality and human existence. They assert emphatically that a proper understanding of, and right attitude toward, death, one’s own death, is not only a sine qua non

of genuine experience, but also of gaining any illumination about the nature of the world.”1

Traditionally, the consciousness of one’s finitude comes about as the individual wrestles with the tension of living despite existing in a meaningless world that is bound to end someday. It is not referenced as being in connection with other parts of the human body or mind, but rather something separate, so abstract that it must be considered independently of other factors. As Gray depicts, “If someone asks us what is troubling us when we are oppressed with the feeling of the uncanny, we are likely to answer: ‘It is nothing.’ For what has oppressed us is the primary institution that we are not sustained by infinite power and plenitude of being, as so many philosophers have taught.”2 When we feel ‘anxious,’ we cannot seem to point to any particular reason. Rather, according to traditional Existentialism, this anxiety is an implicit demonstration of man reckoning with their finitude. This, for Heidegger, can be described as literal nothingness, for “exist[ing] as a human being means to be[ing] exposed to the Nothingness.”3 Ultimately, this understanding of existence has come to be widely acknowledged by the field of Existentialism.

This is seen through the work of another major existentialist philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre. In a 1946 lecture, he emphasizes, “All humans are autonomous and therefore free to act as they wish. As a result, we must limit ourselves to reckoning only with those things that depend on our will, or on the set of probabilities that enable the action.”4 Essentially, true consciousness of our existence – or despair – can only come about by acting on the things that are directly within our control, and recognizing that others have the freedom to realize the same. Though identity is a topic of interest for traditional philosophers like Sartre (and Heidegger, too), his understanding of the term was almost exclusively considered through the concept of authentic and inauthentic identity. For instance, failing to express one’s freedom by not engaging in experiences that would lead to the gain of greater consciousness would be considered inauthentic. Nevertheless, today’s concept of identity is understood on a much broader level, with this paper focusing on the term in relation to certain aspects of one’s way of living such as gender, race, and class; this notion seems to be much less present in traditional Existentialism.

It is important to note that while this was the dominant opinion of the field of Existentialism at the time, many philosophers did work to incorporate other conditions of being human into the awareness of one’s existence. Simone de Beauvoir, for example, presented an incredible argument for how identity – particularly gender – can influence one’s understanding of anxiety. In The Second Sex, she writes, “[A woman’s] destiny is outside her, scattered in cities already built, on the faces of men…The young girl throws herself down into things with ardor, and the fact that she accomplishes nothing, that she is nothing, will make her impulses only the more passionate. Empty and unlimited, she seeks from within her nothingness to attain All.”5 In other words, man’s mortality still brings about this concept of nothingness because of life’s temporality and life’s implications. A woman ultimately gains consciousness of her finitude as she understands her place in society. By acknowledging the onset of nothingness that the realization of one’s finitude brings, de Beauvoir appeals to notions supported by traditional philosophers like Heidegger and Sartre, making her undoubtedly existential. Nonetheless, her choice to focus on gender and nothingness is rather unique, proving the role of identity (in regards to aspects like class, race, and gender) to be present, but not dominant at this time.

Franz Fanon, on the other hand, was a black exzzistentialist philosopher who articulated how his consciousness of existence was felt in connection to his identity, specifically his race.

1 J. Glenn Gray, “The Idea of Death in Existentialism.” The Journal of Philosophy 48, no. 5 (1951): 114. https://doi.org/10.2307/2020575

2 J. Glenn Gray, “The Idea of Death in Existentialism,” 116.

3 Martin Heidegger, “What is Metaphysics,” Existence and Being, 32.

4 Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism (Yale University Press, 2007), 34.

5 Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (London: Vintage Classics, 2015).

In his work Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon touches on the tension between his identity as a black man and the quality of his existence in a society that views this identity as inferior. He writes, “The black man wants to be white. The white man is sealed in his whiteness…Society cannot escape human influences. Man is what brings society into being. The prognosis is in the hands of those willing to get rid of the worm-eaten roots of the structure.”6 Essentially, Fanon is acknowledging that man is free to act in ways that pit black men against white men, but that does not stop man from also feeling uncomfortable with how this freedom plays out. By centering the concept of existence in his philosophy, especially regarding the freedom that is granted to us by our existence, Fanon is undoubtedly a traditional existential philosopher. However, his choice to narrow in on being through the lens of aspects like race signals that identity was a worthwhile component in gaining consciousness of the self, which was less supported at this time. A shift in the value of the relationship between identity and consciousness of finitude was not only possible, but likely.

Ultimately, the prominence of Simone de Beauvoir’s and Franz Fanon’s philosophies at the time of their writing seems to suggest that a relationship between one’s consciousness toward their mortality and identity has already been established. Yet, while their works were widely read, the ideas contained within them were much less agreed upon. The nature of these two authors’ philosophers can therefore be considered the minority opinion, one that was crucial for the advancement of Existentialism, but not quite ready to be fully acknowledged yet. Instead, Fanon and de Beauvoir demonstrate that a shift in understanding of consciousness as an independent being to consciousness as a direct result of identity was possible, and even more importantly, oncoming. Fanon and de Beauvoir were consequently trailblazers in their field, as they were able to push the boundaries of existence and finitude while remaining traditionally existential.

Finally, it is worth noting that major traditional existentialist philosophers like Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre also came to familiarize themselves with this more postmodern concept of identity as time went on. By undergoing his own experiences, Sartre became more concerned for the self in the political realm, which often incorporates gender, race, and class. Heidegger, on the other hand, came to release work that advocated for man’s connection to the external world, known as The Fourfold. This proves that even traditional existentialist philosophers were capable of noticing an incoming shift to the field. Existentialist films have continued to depict this over time.

Film as a Valid Expression of Philosophy

These concepts of Existentialism have long been expressed by various mediums of art like theater, poetry, and cinema. The use of fiction plays a particularly important role here, as it allows the audience to imagine perspectives and situations that are not necessarily able to be portrayed in real life, such as questions of death and the afterlife. Prominent existential philosophers like Jean Paul Sartre and Frederich Nietzsche provide notable examples of this. Sartre’s No Exit is a play that depicts the obstacle that comes with one’s radical freedom to do as they please - the fact that other people are free to act as well. This work illustrates three people who are trapped in hell and forced to recollect the actions that got them there. By watching the lives of these three characters unfold, one can consider the possible consequences of their actions, and especially contemplate how they would act in the situation themselves. As Adrian Van Den Hoven, author of Sartre’s Conception of Theater points out, “In [No Exit], Sartre’s theater functions as a privileged space in which the imagination - unreality - reigns supreme and where the dramatist can entertain situations that are impossible in reality, and

6 Fanon, Frantz, 1925-1961, Black Skin, White Masks. New York : [Berkeley, Calif.], Grove Press ; Distributed by Publishers Group West (2008): 11-13.

hence, remain closed to him as a philosopher.”7 This proved to be quite successful, as No Exit continues to be viewed as a major work in the field of Existentialism.

Another major philosopher, Frederich Nietzsche also heavily relied on the use of art to express his understanding of existence. One notable example is Thus Spoke Zarathustra, a fictional story depicting a conversation between a man, Zarathustra, and a group of animals. Here, Nietzsche presents work that is dramatic in performance, but contemplative in nature. For example, as Zarathustra comes to terms with the idea of his mortality, he exclaims, “I, Zarathustra, the advocate of life, the advocate of suffering - I call you, my most abysmal thought! My abyss speaks, I have turned my ultimate depth into the light!”8 Art serves to depict real questions being asked in Existentialism at this time. Considering traditional Existentialism was quite divided between how one should react to their radical freedom (either optimistically or pessimistically), Thus Spoke Zarathustra provided readers with a space to consider how they wish to react to their finitude without directly facing it themselves. This, like Sartre’s No Exit, was widely embraced. Art stands to be an appropriate depiction of widely accepted ideals in existentialist philosophy.

Cinema is a particularly useful method of painting existential scenarios. Jean Paul Sartre felt as though film was one of the greatest ways to express current trends in philosophy. According to the authors of Existentialism and Contemporary Cinema, “[Sartre] claimed that film offers a broader horizon than theater, pointing out that one can embrace more realistically in film the collective and the crowd.”9 Another film scholar, William Pamerleau, writes, “In advocating that film can be a tool for understanding existentialist themes, there are two levels at which filmic insights can be directed: the theoretical…and the personal.”10 In other words, film allows one to digest concepts of Existentialism by engaging in portrayals that run parallel, but do not come in direct contact with, the person engaging in the thought experiment. Although this is performed through several forms of art, cinema is especially effective at this because it depicts characters and instances that are relatable and coherent to us as humans, although the concepts being contemplated are rather challenging.

A plethora of philosophical films across a wide range of time exist to support this notion. In line with traditional existential philosophy, many of these films address major concepts like consciousness of existence with minimal connection to aspects of identity like gender, race, and class. Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960) illustrates the reckless life of Michel Poiccard, a man who, in light of embracing his finitude, strived to live life to the fullest (though sometimes in inappropriate ways). Shame is a 1968 Swedish film that follows the story of a young, apolitical couple during a period of civil war. Though they do eventually engage in political conversation as the war progresses, the fact that they were able to notice feelings of discomfort regarding finitude while remaining outside of their political context for some time suggests that true awareness of one’s existence, and therefore finitude, comes on independently of other factors. Elevator to the Gallows (1958) is another major existentialist film. In this film, a businessman chooses to murder his boss, who also happens to be his mistress’ husband. This leads to a rather peculiar chain of events that forces the characters to consider the complexity of life and death, but not necessarily through the lens of how identity plays into it. Lastly, the 1972 film Solaris depicts a man’s mission to a space station on a distant planet, in which he must investigate why the crew members aboard the station are going mad. This forces him to undergo the very conditions that are leading others to become radically conscious of themselves. Regardless, this

7 Adrian Van Den Hoven, “Sartre’s Conception Of Theater: Theory And Practice,” Sartre Studies International 18, no. 2 (2012): 60. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42705197

8 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, 1883-1885, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: a Book for All and None (Cambridge University Press, 2006), 233.

9 Jean-Pierre Boulé and Enda McCaffrey, eds, Existentialism and Contemporary Cinema: A Sartrean Perspective (New York, NY: Berghahn Books, Incorporated, 2011), 6.

10 William C Pamerleau, Existentialist Cinema (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 36.

film, as well as all of the others mentioned so far, does not place the influence of identity at the center of the plot.

These films narrow in on issues of authenticity and mortality as being of primary importance, while factors like gender, race, and class are merely secondary to the story. Traditional existentialist film is compatible with the philosophical notions it attempts to depict, such as the disconnect between the consciousness of existence and gender, race, and class. The fact that some of the individuals creating these films – such as Jean-Luc Godard –have been noted referencing existentialist thinkers like Martin Heidegger and Jean Paul Sartre at the time of their works’ production provides even more support for this.

Nonetheless, traditional existentialist film does not only portray instances in which consciousness is considered disconnected from other human conditions. The Last Laugh (1924) tells of a man who loses his job as a hotel doorman. To him, this job is everything; by losing it, he loses part of his identity. Consequently, the man is ultimately forced to reconcile with the uncomfortable feelings that follow. The existence of this film indicates that at least some traditional existentialist philosophers were beginning to consider the relationship between one’s consciousness of their finitude and identity – particularly those things that involve class, race, and gender. However, the overwhelming majority of films during this early period did not include identity in their contemplation, and therefore only suggest that a shift was coming. Instead, the inclusion of identity in depicting existence and mortality through film would come to popularization much later; expressions of Existentialism today are much more plentiful and explicit about their connection to identity.

Barbie: Identity as Gender

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023) depicts the story of Stereotypical Barbie venturing from Barbieland – a place where all of the Barbies and Kens live – to the “real world,” in Los Angeles, California. In Barbieland, women are taken to be superior to men. In other words, “she’s Barbie,” while, “he’s just Ken.”11 Barbie was incredibly content with this kind of societal structure, as she never knew anything different. Yet, she begins to experience feelings of death and anxiety that she cannot quite place. Even in times of great celebration, she was left to wonder whether those around her also contemplated the absurdity of human life. Eventually, she discovers that she must enter the real world and find the human girl who is playing with her, as she (the human) is the one having these irrepressible thoughts of death. Once in the real world, she quickly learns that gender roles are quite reversed, and is forced to decide how to react.

Shortly after arriving in the real world, Barbie says, “I feel kind of ill at ease. I don’t know the word for it, but it’s like I’m conscious, but it’s…myself that I am conscious of.”12 Ken (who somehow managed to tag along on Barbie’s journey), responds, “I’m feeling what can only be described as admired, but not ogled at, and there’s no undertone of violence.”13 Barbie notes, “Mine very much has an undertone of violence.”14 This is Barbie’s (and Ken’s) first clue that the real world’s structure is nothing like Barbieland. Immediately upon realizing this imbalance, and her position in it as a woman, she starts to feel poorly. This feeling only continues later in the film, as Barbie notes, “I am starting to get all those ‘weirdo’ feelings like I have fear with no specific object. What is that?” Somebody behind her responds, “It’s called anxiety. I have it too.”15

Heidegger would consider this to be the phenomenon of Angst, in which man must reconcile with the feelings that invade Being, the consciousness of our finitude, and the fact

11 Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, Warner Bros, 2023.

12 Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, (Warner Bros, 2023), 1:25:00.

13 Barbie, 1:25:00.

14 Barbie, 1:25:00.

15 Barbie, 1:15:00.

that there is no metaphysical foundation to the world This type of reaction, however, is rather unrelated to Barbie’s identity as a woman according to Angst. It is instead connected to the absurdities that come with being human, such as mortality. In Being and Time, Heidegger writes, “The fact that what is threatening is nowhere characterizes what Angst is about. Angst ‘does not know’ what it is about which it is anxious. But ‘nowhere’ does not mean nothing; rather, region in general lies therein, and disclosedness of the world in general for essentially spatial being-in.”16 Essentially, anxiety is not brought about by external-facing factors like identity for Heidegger but is rather the direct result of one’s internal contemplation of oneself as a human.

Yet, Barbie proves otherwise. It is not until her understanding of her place in the real world as a woman comes along that she begins to feel anxious. She may not be able to place the cause of her anxiety herself at the time, but it presents clear ties to her realization that women are not perceived as gracefully in the real world compared to Barbieland. Heidegger posits that man is only able to cope with their consciousness of being through an experience of their own. He writes, “Existence is decided only by each Dasein (being) itself in the manner of seizing upon or neglecting such possibilities. We come to terms with the question of existence always only through existence itself.”17 This rings true for Barbie, as it is not until she is forced to experience inequality according to gender that she is thrown into feelings of discomfort and radical consciousness herself. Ultimately, this suggests that certain tenets of traditional Existentialism do persist today, and are being activated by contemporary films like Barbie, but that concepts such as identity (in direct relation to these tenets) are also increasing in relevance. This shift deserves to be addressed.

It is safe to say that Barbie did not initially cope well with this realization. At one point in the film, Ken returns to Barbieland without Barbie to tell all of the other Kens what he has learned about the real world. By the time Barbie returns, the Kens have turned Barbieland into “Kenland,” and the men have transformed the social structure of men and women to match that of the real world. In response, she turns to the woman who was playing with her in the real world and cries out, “Why did you wish me into your messed up world using your complicated human thoughts and feelings? Barbieland was perfect before. I was perfect before.”18 She then lies down on the ground and refuses to get up, stating, “I am just going to sit here and wait and hope that one of the more leadership oriented Barbies snaps out of this.”19 She proceeds to stay like this for a considerable amount of time as those around her try to restore the past conditions of Barbieland. Nonetheless, she is eventually convinced that saving Barbieland is something she needs to be a part of and returns to her role as a key leader in the situation.

This chain of events appeals to a kind of optimism that Jean Paul Sartre takes in traditional Existentialism. In a lecture titled Existentialism is a Humanism, Sartre notes, “[Existentialism] cannot be called a pessimistic description of man, for the doctrine is more optimistic, since it declares that man’s destiny lies within himself. Nor is Existentialism an attempt to discourage man from taking action, since it tells him that the only hope resides in his actions.”20 The fact that man is free to do as they wish should provoke positive, act-forward feelings, rather than bring man down regarding the idea of death. Though she does not initially respond this way, Barbie does eventually come to accept this kind of thinking – so much so that she decides to commit to humanity wholeheartedly in the end. Barbie is therefore undoubtedly existential and is quite compatible with several traditional existential philosophers’ theories. However, this contemporary film takes the field of Existentialism one step further. It is not the simple fact that life is uncomfortable, as traditional philosophers like Heidegger and Sartre would

16 Martin Heidegger, Being and Time (1962), 174.

17 Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, 54.

18 Barbie, 48:00.

19 Barbie, 48:00.

20 Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism (Yale University Press, 2007), 40.

argue, but the evolution of Barbie’s identity as a woman that compels her to realize these tenets of Existentialism. Considering Barbie viewed Barbieland as “perfect” before this shift, it is unlikely that this kind of realization would have come upon her without the impact of coming to understand her gender identity.

Poor Things: Identity as Gender and Class

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things (2023), on the other hand, illustrates the life of Bella Baxter, a woman who is brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist after committing suicide. The scientist revives Bella by replacing her former brain with that of a newborn child’s, thereby giving her a second chance at life from the ground up. Once she is quite developed, she decides to set out and reacquaint herself with the world. However, throughout this journey, she encounters many male characters who wish to exhibit control over her. This leads her down an incredible path of self-discovery, in which she is forced to reconcile the relationship between her identity – especially through issues of gender and class – and the feelings of consciousness that at one point drove her to suicide.

Godwin Baxter, the scientist who revived her from suicide, is the first man to express a desire to control Bella in her new life. This could be considered, at least partially, a fatherly type of supervision. The life that Godwin has built for Bella is all her new brain has ever known, leading him to be apprehensive about her desire to travel without him. Yet, when Godwin voices this hesitation, Bella responds, “You hold Bella too tight. I must set forth into the waters…Kiss me and set me forth. If you do not, Bella’s insides shall turn rotten with hate.”21 As Bella expresses an awareness of the scientist’s control over her, and the desire to end it, she demonstrates that she is coming to understand pieces of her identity that directly influence how she reacts to life. Nonetheless, this identity is not completely realized until she is separated from Godwin and the lifestyle that once surrounded her.

Bella first travels to Lisbon, Portugal with a man named Duncan Wedderburn. Mr. Wedderburn had previously come to assist Godwin in drafting a contract, in which he met Bella and ultimately proposed they run away together. Interestingly, Mr. Wedderburn is the first man that Bella engages in sexual intercourse with. She instantly becomes enamored by the act, shaping herself by the experiences that came of it. As a result, her identity as a woman begins to harden. Eventually, Duncan Wedderburn comes to be the second man who tries to exhibit control over Bella, causing her to double down on her developing identity. At one point, as he is expressing frustration that Bella keeps running off without him, she answers, “You are crossed at Bella’s outings and adventures, and yet we must discover by whim, as spoken by Duncan Wedderburn to Bella Baxter on day one of our Lisbon love affair.”22 Here, Bella points out the irony in Mr. Wedderburn’s asking Bella to stop behaving in a way that he would, and at one point did, support himself.

The pair continued to travel to several other places – many of which by ship, as Mr. Wedderburn had tricked Bella into boarding a cruise in hopes of limiting her outings – and ultimately ended their journey together in Paris, France. The two had no funds left to move forward, so as a solution, Bella resorts to prostitution. Mr. Wedderburn was not happy with this course of action at all, for he could not imagine a woman that he had claimed for himself lying with another man. Yet, Bella does not care. In response to his anger, she calmly and confidently states, “We should definitely never marry. I am a flawed, experimenting person and I will need a husband with a more forgiving disposition.”23 Keeping in mind that Bella was driven to suicide in her previous life, it would seem that she was once quite unforgiving of herself. Nonetheless, by coming to understand her identity as a woman, and remaining firm in it, she was able to maintain her autonomy against numerous male captors. Overall, this

21 Poor Things, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (Searchlight Pictures, 2023), 37:40.

22 Poor Things, 54:20.

23 Poor Things, 1:30:00.

demonstrates the growing prevalence of aspects like gender and class in understanding one’s finitude.

The last man to try and control Bella is her husband from her previous life, General Alfred Blessington. At this point, Bella is aware of the fact that her previous life ended in suicide, and she yearns for a greater understanding of it. Consequently, after noticing a photograph of her in the newspaper, General Blessington immediately arrives to bring her back home, and she quickly obliges. Once there, she realizes that this past life is no longer who Bella is. At one point, the General mentions that he is aware of Bella’s history with prostitution. In response, Bella simply and shamelessly responds, “I was [a prostitute] in Paris. I tired of it, but it was fascinating.”24 Rather than General Blessington lightening up at this remark, he doubled down, expressing that he plans to never let her go now that she is back in his life. Yet, she fearlessly responds, “I am not territory.”25 It is here that she truly comes to understand not only what led her to suicide in her past life, but what caused her to live so optimistically despite it in her new life. Her identity as a woman, built by the experiences she was given by truly exploring what it means to be human, granted her an entirely distinct relationship with mortality.

Bella’s constant need to escape the men that entrap is deeply resemblant of the traditional existentialist notion known as despair, coined by Jean Paul Sartre. Simply put, despair comes with the realization that “hell is other people.”26 Though one is free to act in whichever they choose, so too is everyone else. There is a possibility of being made unhappy, even if one makes it a point to live exactly according to their will. Although Bella refused to act in any way other than her own, all of the men in her life possessed the freedom to try and change this, and they shamelessly did so. This only becomes more prevalent as the concept of identity is introduced. The men feel as though they have a right to control Bella. Yet, as she comes to embrace her gender identity, she can fearlessly and cleverly escape their grip at times of near-death. Overall, the fact that both Bella and the men in her life had the freedom to act in ways that were in direct tension with one another seems to assert that Sartre’s traditional concept of despair is present, but that the concept of identity concerning one’s comfortability with their humanity is also very much at play.

While Sartre would likely agree with the freedom by which Bella Baxter lives in her new life, it is important to note that he would be much less approving of the fact that she chose to end her first one. In his work Being and Nothingness, he notes, “Sucide cannot be considered as an end of life…Since it is an act of my life, indeed, it itself requires a meaning which only the future can give to it; but as it is the last act of my life, it is denied the future. Suicide is an absurdity which causes my life to be submerged in the absurd.”27 Essentially, Sartre feels as though suicide eliminates the opportunity for one to truly realize, and therefore embrace, the discomfort of mortality. Nevertheless, the role of identity could provide an important link to this gap. Bella can embrace the notion of death in her new life, and live boldly despite it, only by coming to understand her gender identity. The concept of identity therefore proves to be growing in prevalence within the field of Existentialism28.

Class plays a similar role in influencing Bella’s identity, influencing how she regards her mortality. Bella is far from poor in her new life, though she is not terribly wealthy either. This leads her to live life more humbly, as seen by the experiences she has while on the ship with Duncan Wedderburn. On the cruise, Bella befriends a man by the name of Harry Astley. He proved to be great company for Bella, but he also thought her to be quite naive, and too

24 Poor Things, 2:02:20.

25 Poor Things, 2:02:20.

26 Jean-Paul Sartre, 1905-1980, No Exit, (Huis Clos) a Play in One Act: & The Flies (Les Mouches) a Play in Three Acts (New York, A.A. Knopf, 1975).

27 Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness (Washington Square Press, 1956), 691.

28 It is important to note that though he is not mentioned in this analysis, Albert Camus was also deeply influential to the topic of suicide in traditional Existentialist philosophy.

optimistic considering the horrors of the world. In an attempt to show Bella just how cruel the world can be, Harry takes her to a high-class hotel that sits atop a hill. Down below this hill, he reveals, are hundreds of starving people who cannot afford to live. Shocked, Bella yells, “We have to go down there and help them!” Yet, Harry only replies, “How will we do that? [If] we go down there, they will rightfully rope us, rob us, and rape us, and if they were here and were there, we’d do the same to them.”29 This quickly throws Bella into an episode of anger and sadness as she tries to run to the starving class, but ultimately falls to her knees, sobbing. Once back on land, she gathers all of the money in her suite and asks an employee on the ship to deliver it to the poor by the hotel. When asked why, she simply answers, “Who am I? Lying in a feather bed, while dead babies lie in a ditch.”30

Many traditional existentialist philosophers like Martin Heidegger believed that the realization of one’s being, and therefore one’s finitude, can come only after a radical realization of the self and its purpose in the world. This is often provoked by the challenging experiences that we are forced to endure as humans. For Bella, the image of severe inequality between the rich atop the hotel and the poor below it was enough to throw her into a more elaborate consideration of her existence. Why does she somehow get to live well, while others do not? For Heidegger, it is precisely this contemplation that brings about true being. In his work

The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, he writes, “Thinking only begins at the point where we have come to know that reason, glorified for centuries, is the most obstinate adversary of thinking.”31 Existence cannot be explained by reason alone, as it is much more complex than that. Reason does not call for men and women to be placed at structural odds with each other, nor does it call for the same inequality in class structure, yet we have made a world that reflects so. It is therefore necessary to understand that life is not defined by a strict standard of expectations, for once this is realized, one can truly begin to live for Heidegger. This traditional concept is undoubtedly depicted in Poor Things, as the fact that Bella is even able to live a second life in this way seems to defy reason enough. Nevertheless, this notion is much more enhanced by the concept of identity, as she is only able to entertain these realizations by processing certain aspects of herself like class and gender.

Finally, Bella is forced to consider her existence and aspects of identity like class by learning of the way she used to carry herself in her past life. Upon agreeing to reconnect with her previous husband, General Blessington, she is brought back to their once-shared home and reminded of the wealth she used to have. Even further, the General recollects times in which they used to disadvantage those who were of a lesser class than them. For instance, as a server came in to prepare the table for dinner, the General signaled his dog to bark in a way that would frighten the woman. It did, causing her to drop all of the food she had been carrying in. Bella was appalled at this scene; she could not stand to consider a life where she would be okay with this mistreatment simply based on wealth. Yet, this observation is exactly what leads her to understand her choice to commit suicide in the first place. Bella had minimal connection to her identity in her past life, so much so that she preferred to eliminate it. Now, as she has come to understand herself through aspects of identity like class and gender, she can feel much more dedicated to developing her existence. Moreover, the optimistic nature by which Bella operates in her new life is closely resemblant to the optimism that Sartre advocated for in works like Existentialism is a Humanism. Identity is therefore proving to be a crucial component in contemporary Existentialism’s understanding of man’s response to existence and mortality, as shown by recent films like Poor Things.

29 Poor Things, 1:16:55.

30 Poor Things, 1:19:15.

31 Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, First ed, (New York: Harper & Row, 1977), 112.

Connections and Contrasts Between Barbie and Poor Things

These two films demonstrate the opposing ways that man can choose to react to the gaining of consciousness of their existence. In Barbie, although she ends up being so enamored by the concept of humanity that she decides to become human herself, she initially responds with great pessimism. She physically lies down on the ground, refuses to move, and tells all those around to “go on without her.”32 Upon realizing that her identity provoked a certain type of treatment from the world, and therefore a greater consciousness of her mortality, she is overwhelmed with inaction. Bella Baxter, on the other hand, saw this realization of her identity as a type of liberation. Upon discovering aspects of her past life, she realizes that she is much happier with the quality of her new identity. She therefore takes on a rather optimistic response to being, one that is likely to be praised by influential existentialists like Jean Paul Sartre. As he emphasizes in his work Being and Nothingness, “By being interiorized, death is individualized. Death is no longer the great unknowable which limits the human; it is the phenomenon of my personal life which makes this life a unique life. I become responsible for my death as my life.”33 In other words, one’s realization of their finitude does not have to be a limitation on life. Instead, it should be taken as an opportunity to live how you truly wish, in ways you can directly control.

The difference in reaction between Barbie and Bella Baxter demonstrates that film continues to be a prominent illustration of Existentialism today, though their respective emphasis on identity through gender, race, and class indicates a shift on how that imagery is perceived. Nonetheless, it is just as important to note that Barbie does eventually take an optimistic stance on life as well. Despite the unfortunate truths she was exposed to, and the passive reaction she gave in response, Barbie chose to become human in the end. Once she came to truly understand her identity as a woman, she chose to live freely amongst them. Ultimately, this similarity between Barbie and Bella is valuable because it depicts the shift in philosophy according to identity, while still managing to maintain many traditional existentialist ideals like optimism and freedom.

Broad Counters

Despite all of this, critics may still be inclined to argue that while this assertion that Existentialism is closely connected to identity may be somewhat true, it is mortality that remains at the forefront of the issue. This remains in line with traditional Existentialism. This may be true, but as we have seen through this in-depth analysis of contemporary existentialist film, features of Existentialism and issues of identity politics have become so entangled over time that it becomes nearly impossible to designate one component as being more important than the other in humanity. This line of thinking has also gone so far as to influence other major fields of philosophy such as Posthumanism, which advocates for a decentering of humanity in relation to other life forms. Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, for instance, ignited a spark in many other disciplines to explore the role of identity in existence. As Christine Daigle, author of Can Existentialism Be a Posthumanism? Beauvoir as a Precursor to Material Feminism reveals, “The phenomenological ontology upon which [The Second Sex] rest allows for this shift to occur and has inspired numerous philosophers to explore and develop the themes launched by Beauvoir.”34 The concept of identity with aspects like gender, race, and class, has not only grown in prevalence in the field of Existentialism, but has also started to bleed over into other fields of philosophy. This indicates that the connection between one’s identity and the consciousness of their finitude is just as vital as mortality in understanding the evolution

32 Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, (Warner Bros, 2023).

33 Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness (Washington Square Press, 1956), 682.

34 Christine Daigle, “Can Existentialism Be a Posthumanism? Beauvoir as Precursor to Material Feminism.” Philosophy Today, 64, no. 3 (June 1, 2020): 764. https://search-ebscohost-com.cnu. idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=phl&AN=PHL2407312&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

of Existentialism.

Moreover, some may be inclined to argue that considering society has come to understand aspects of identity like gender, race, and class as social constructs that we create ourselves, Existentialism is an outdated field of philosophy anyway. If so, these assertions would be better positioned in philosophical areas. Nonetheless, given the number of existential cinematic examples that continue to be produced and contemplated today, advancements in the field of Existentialism are still occurring, and therefore very much worth addressing.

Conclusion

Overall, these findings do not mean to invalidate traditional Existentialism in any way, but rather serve to indicate an important shift in how this field is contemplated today. The examination of contemporary existentialist films such as Barbie and Poor Things reveals a significant development in the portrayal of human existence, one that considers identity with the way it brings about our consciousness, rather than exclusively about how we live. Consequently, while traditional Existentialism focused primarily on the abstract contemplation of finitude apart from other conditions of the human body/mind, contemporary existentialist film narrows in on the complexities between aspects that shape identity (such as gender, race, and class) and consciousness of existence. Therefore, the characters in films like Barbie and Poor Things confront not only the awareness of their finitude but also the intersections of their identities. This suggests that viewers should reconsider traditional understandings of Existentialism, as film is a useful medium for depicting supported trends in philosophy. Ultimately, when asked, can contemporary expressions of Existentialism be understood by the contemplation of man’s mortality alone? The answer is simple: modern existentialist films such as Barbie and Poor Things demonstrate that existential autonomy cannot solely be explained in relation to one’s mortality but by one’s complex position within aspects of identity like race, gender, and class.

Bibliography

Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. London: Vintage Classics, 2015.

Boulé, Jean-Pierre, and McCaffrey, Enda, eds. Existentialism and Contemporary Cinema: A Sartrean Perspective. New York, NY: Berghahn Books, Incorporated, 2011. Accessed February 5, 2024. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Daigle, Christine. “Can Existentialism Be a Posthumanism? Beauvoir as Precursor to Material Feminism.” Philosophy Today 64, no. 3 (June 1, 2020): 763–80. https://search-ebscohostcom.cnu.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=phl&AN=PHL2407312&site=eho st-live&scope=site

Fanon, Frantz, 1925-1961, Black Skin, White Masks. New York : [Berkeley, Calif.], Grove Press; Distributed by Publishers Group West, 2008.

Gerwig, Greta, director. Barbie. 2023. Warner Bros.

Gray, J. Glenn. “The Idea of Death in Existentialism.” The Journal of Philosophy 48, no. 5 (1951): 113–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/2020575.

Heidegger, Martin. Heidegger, Being and Time, 1962.

Heidegger, Martin. The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. First ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.

Heidegger, Martin. “What is Metaphysics?” Existence and Being, 1949.

Lanthimos, Yorgos, director. Poor Things. 2023. Searchlight Pictures.

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1883-1885. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: a Book for All and None. Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Pamerleau, William C. Existentialist Cinema. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness. Washington Square Press, 1956.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism is a Humanism. Yale University Press, 2007.

Sartre, Jean-Paul, 1905-1980. No Exit, (Huis Clos) a Play in One Act: & The Flies (Les Mouches) a Play in Three Acts. New York, A.A. Knopf, 1975.

Van Den Hoven, Adrian. “Sartre’s Conception Of Theater: Theory And Practice.” Sartre Studies International 18, no. 2 (2012): 59–71. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42705197.

About the Author

Katelyn (Kate) Bennett is a senior majoring in International Affairs and Philosophy with minors in Leadership Studies and Philosophy of Law. Throughout her time here, she has engaged in a number of involvements, such as the Student Government Association, Phi Alpha Delta Pre-Law Fraternity, the Student Diversity and Equality Council, and Greek Life. She has also dedicated a number of years to conducting research with the Reiff Center for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution. This project served as her Senior Defense for the Philosophy Department, after she was inspired by the practice of engaging with existentialist philosophy through cinema in Dr. Joe Balay’s Existentialism course the year prior. Following graduation at Christopher Newport University, she will be attending the University of Richmond Law School to study International Human Rights.

Mystery of the Minoans: The Snake Goddess, Her Identity, and Legacy

Alexa Bergeron

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Rebecca Wolff, Department of Fine Art and Art History

Abstract

The Minoan snake goddess is one of the most well known figures amongst ancient Mediterranean art historians. Appearing in sculpture, wall painting, and on jewelry, the snake goddess is a well-established art historical figure, though it is highly debated what she truly represents. Sir Arthur Evans, who put forth the canonical interpretation that is held today, argued that she was a goddess and the Minoan peoples operated under a priest-king, Minos, hence the name “Minoan.” Rejecting the androcentric views of Evans, I argue that she is not a goddess at all, but a representation of the priestesses of the ancient Minoan religion. Analyzing the form and context of the figure of the Minoan snake priestess through art historical sources, I situate the Minoan snake priestess as an important figure in a Minoan society that operated under a more egalitarian social hierarchy. By formally analyzing three main representations of the Minoan snake priestess, as well as other supplemental works, I will use this information to support my argument. In this reinterpretation, my research will show that women held positions of power in this ancient Mediterranean society. Ultimately, my research will add nuance to how we understand gender roles in ancient Mediterranean society and how this ancient figure has even contributed to feminist movements today.

Introduction

Ancient art is filled with ambiguity. The lack of deciphered written records in most ancient civilizations makes it difficult to understand the meanings behind many artforms. This leaves many pieces of art, such as the Minoan Snake Goddess, open to interpretation when it comes to their exact identity or meaning. From the moment the snake goddess was discovered in the Palace of Minos at Knossos by Sir Arthur Evans, there have been assumptions made about her identity as a supposed “goddess,” as well as about Minoan society as a whole. This has led to many misconceptions about the way the Minoans operated as a civilization, their religion, and their social hierarchy. I posit that the snake “goddess” is, rather, a priestess, as newfound evidence supports the fact that women held these specific positions of power. In order to support this claim, I will be analyzing multiple depictions of the Minoan Snake Goddess and identify key attributes that allude to her being a priestess rather than a goddess. In turn, this will inform our understanding of Minoan society as a whole, as I propose women held more important roles than previously believed by Evans. I will also be analyzing the ways the snake goddess figure has continued to inspire artists and the legacy the figure has established since her discovery at Knossos. Not only this, but the snake goddess statuette has had a continued influence that holds a special place in art history and is an important figure to modern day feminism. By rejecting the original androcentric ideas of Sir Arthur Evans and utilizing formal analysis, we can determine that the Minoan Snake Goddess actually represents the priestesses of the Minoan religion; this information therefore supports the idea that women held elevated roles in Minoan society, as they were not only limited to domestic roles.

The Minoans

The Minoans were a thriving Mediterranean civilization located on the Greek island of Crete from 3100 BCE to about 1000 BCE.1 Crete is the largest Greek island and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean, spanning 160 miles from east to west; the terrain varies from snow capped mountains to fertile plateaus and sandy beaches.2 The diverse landscape and its location at the crossroads of three different continents, has attracted traders and visitors for tens of thousands of years.3 The Minoans were skilled in the arts and produced pottery, sculptures, seals, wall paintings–specifically frescoes–and remarkable architectural sites. Frescoes were possibly one of the most common art forms of Minoan civilization, as they were used to decorate the walls of buildings. Frescoes are made by mixing pigment directly into wet plaster, allowing artists to create beautiful murals that were embedded directly into the wall. The Minoans utilized a primary color palette and depicted landscape and leisure scenes. The Minoans, referenced by some as “the first great civilization of Crete,” were suggested by Sir Arthur Evans to have been refugees forced to the island from northern Egypt by invaders over 5,000 years ago.4 Though scholars do not know for sure where the Minoans came from, Evans made this assumption due to the fact that, in the era he was working, it was impossible to fathom a thriving and sophisticated Aegean civilization that did not in some way tie to Egypt, whose extensive religious complexity, politics, and antiquity had been renowned.5 In fact, Arthur Evans divided the chronology of the Minoan civilization into Early, Middle, and Late, similarly to the Old, Middle, and New Kingdom model of Egypt.6 For the purposes of this paper, we will be focusing on the Middle Minoan period, also referred to as the Bronze Age, and the Palace of Minos, excavated by Evans in the early 20th century.

1 Jarrett A. Lobell, “The Minoans of Crete,” Archaeology 68, no. 3 (2015): 30-31.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 Jarrett A. Lobell, “The Minoans of Crete,” Archaeology 68, no. 3 (2015): 30.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

Sir Arthur Evans: An Introduction

Sir Arthur John Evans was born on July 8th, 1851, in Hertfordshire, England.7 He was the son of John Evans, an extremely successful paper manufacturer, antiquary, and explorer.8 He grew up wealthy, facilitating his knowledge of antiquity and artifacts.9 Specifically interested in ancient coins, Arthur continued his research and he published his first paper at Oxford in the Numismatic Chronicle at age twenty.10 At age twenty-four, after graduating with an education in History, he traveled to the Balkans in 1875 in order to expand on European travels; there, he studied ancient sites and their antiquities.11 His archaeological work was published in Archeologia 48 and 49 in 272 pages.12

He eventually married Margaret Freeman, daughter of Edward Freeman, a historian, in September of 1878, and the couple relocated to Ragusa, Sicily.13In 1882, the couple made Oxford their home where, in 1884, Evans became Keeper of the Ashmolean, and is considered to be the museum’s second founder; throughout this time he still continued on with his research, publishing papers on numismatics and on excavations.14 Unfortunately, Margaret passed away in 1893, after fourteen years of traveling around the Mediterranean, helping Arthur with his research.15

In 1892, Evans met and became friends with Federico Halbherr, an Italian anthropologist, who ultimately inspired Arthur’s fascination with the island of Crete. In March of 1894, the two would arrive on the Greek island, where they would survey the site of Knossos throughout the 1890s, along with the help from archaeologist Joseph Hatzidhakis.16 In 1900, Evans and a team of archaeologists began excavating the Palace of Minos at Knossos, and they continued working there until 1931.17

The Palace of Minos and The Labyrinth

The Palace of Minos itself is large and complex, and has been considered to be mazelike, with no single straightforward point of entry.18 The design of the palace is likely what connected it to the myth of the Labyrinth. According to this myth, King Minos of Crete had proclaimed that he would sacrifice a bull to the god Poseidon; however, he had grown fond of the bull, so he did not sacrifice it.19 Poseidon, a vengeful god, therefore caused Minos’ wife to fall in love with the bull, a union which ultimately produced the Minotaur, a half man half bull named after King Minos.20 In order to house the monster, a Greek in the court of Minos named Daidalos created a maze-like structure in which the Minotaur was kept in the center;

7 Peter Warren, “Sir Arthur Evans and His Achievement,” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 44, (2000): 199.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid.

13 Peter Warren, “Sir Arthur Evans and His Achievement,” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 44, (2000): 199.

14 Ibid., 200.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

17 “Rebuilding the Palace of Minos at Knossos,” Ashmolean Museum, Accessed April 3, 2024. https://www.ashmolean.org/article/rebuilding-the-palace-of-minos-at-knossos#:~:text=Sir%20 Arthur%20Evans%20began%20excavating,BCE%2C%20using%20modern%20building%20 materials.

18 Sterling Dow, “The Minoan Thalassocracy,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 79 (1967): 5.

19 Ibid., 4.

20 Sterling Dow, “The Minoan Thalassocracy,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 79 (1967): 4.

this maze was called the Labyrinth.21 On every eighth year, the Minotaur is fed seven youths and seven women who are sacrificed to the beast.22 Theseus, a young Attic hero likened to Hercules, volunteered to sail to Crete to be a sacrifice to the Minotaur; there he falls in love with Minos’ daughter, Ariadne, who aids him in finding his way out of the Labyrinth after he slays the Minotaur.23

With the maze-like design of the Palace of Minos, the presence of a bull fresco found in the palace the myth surrounding the Labyrinth and the Minotaur, along with the fact that all of these features are found in no other excavated site on Crete, it seems as though there are clear ties to the structure and mythology. Evans himself even believed he had discovered archeological proof of the mythological tale.24

Sir Arthur Evans, The Palace at Knossos, and the Snake Goddess

Inspired by this belief, Sir Arthur Evans began excavating the palace at Knossos in the early 20th century and this process led to the discovery of key artworks of Minoan culture, the most notable of which being the Minoan Snake Goddess, which has become one of the most well known ancient Greek figures.25 It wasn’t until late May 1903–an entire three years after the beginning of the excavation–when the snake goddess was discovered in a previously overlooked space lined with stone and covered by gypsum slabs.26 Throughout his excavation at Knossos, Evans found many different artifacts including pottery and glazed earthenware ceramic figures known as faience figures, the Minoan Snake Goddess and Votary being two of them. The Snake Votary is particularly interesting because it is quite similar to the Snake Goddess figure, however it is indicated by Evans to be a figure of devotion, usually commissioned by a wealthy member of society who wishes to express their faithfulness, typically to a deity.

Though widely credited with discovering the Minoans, Arthur Evans actually borrowed terms such as “Minoan” from Karl Hoeck, who asserted that the island of Crete was inhabited by non-Hellenic peoples.27 Using these ideas from Hoeck, Evans referred to the people of Crete as both Minoans and Mycenaens, and differentiated between the two by time period rather than racial and ethnic indicators.28 The Palace at Knossos was considered to have been a Minoan palace, according to Evans, placing it in the time period from 2100-1600 BCE.29 Of the faience figures discovered by Evans at Knossos, the most well known figure of the Snake Goddess (Figure 1) is the smaller of the two. It is freestanding, wearing a flounced skirt, a bare-breasted bodice, an elaborate headpiece, holding her arms upright with two snakes, one in each hand.

The figure, asserted by Evans to be “The Snake Goddess” or “Snake Mother” gave insight to the Minoan religion and the possible deities that were worshiped based on his assumptions. Evans describes the Snake Goddess and her role in the religious practices of Crete stating, “She is, in fact, the divine ‘house-mother’ of a cult still closely related to the simple domestic form in which the snake itself stands as the material incarnation of the household Spirit.”30 He seems

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid.

24 Rachel Herschman, Restoring the minoans - introduction, Accessed April 5, 2024. http://assets. press.princeton.edu/chapters/i11119.pdf.

25 Diane Boze, "Creating History by Re-Creating the Minoan Snake Goddess," Journal of Art Historiography no. 15 (12, 2016): 1-31.

26 Kenneth D.S Lapatin, “Snake Goddesses, Fake Goddesses,” Archaeology 54, no. 1 (2001): 33.

27 Ilse Schoep, “Building the Labyrinth: Arthur Evans and the Construction of Minoan Civilization,” American Journal of Archaeology 122, no. 1 (2018): 6.

28 Ibid., 7.

29 Ibid.

30 Arthur Evans, “Snake in Primitive Cult Beneficent Genius,” Essay, In The Palace of Minos at Knossos, 185–86. New York City, New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1964.

to make this assumption about the snake goddess as being a figure of a “divine house-mother” based on another version of the snake goddess made of limestone (Figure 2).

The limestone piece, which is larger than either of the two faience figures found in the palace, stands at 40 centimeters tall and is carved from one single block of limestone.31 It is unclear where exactly this figure is from, as Evans introduces it without clarifying this. The supposed “goddess” carefully holds one snake in two hands, with her left hand holding the head of the snake steady while her right hand grasps the tail. She wears the same costume as the faience figures and a tiara separated in three bands. Overall, she lacks the symmetry found in the other two figures discovered at Knossos, as the tail of the snake nearly coils her ear and her head is slightly tilted towards the head of the snake.32 Arthur Evans declares this piece a “Snake Mother” due to the fact that the snake gazes up at her and appears to be well-fed, claiming it to be a “tame snake.”33 Her divinity, he asserts, is signaled by her tiara-like headdress, which he states is reminiscent of a “cap of liberty.”34 Interestingly, a similar headdress is found on the second faience figure found at Knossos which Arthur Evans himself asserts as a votary figure (Figure 3).35 In addition to the headdress, the votary also shares the same skirt and apron seen on the snake goddess figures. This inconsistency in naming figures when they are wearing identical costumes and holding the same animal is where Evans’ claims of the faience figure at Knossos being that of a goddess feels unconvincing. Not only that, but fourteen unprovenanced “Minoan” goddesses infiltrated private collections and museums during the years following the discovery of the Minoan Snake Goddess.36 Early publications even accuse those close to Evans for being responsible for the forgeries.37 Genuine snake goddess figures were made of pieces carefully fitted together, and the majority of the fakes were made of single pieces.38 This raises suspicion on the authenticity of the piece that Evans uses to base his “Mother Goddess” theory off of. Given the fact that Evans does not specify where exactly this limestone figure was found, we do not know where it originated from, making its provenance unclear, which certainly could point to the figure being one of the fakes.

Restoration Without Confirmation

Perhaps among the most controversial decisions on Evans’ part was the restoration of the palace using modern materials, as seen in the Throne Room before restoration (Figure 4) and after (Figure 5).39 Overall, Arthur Evans and his team were responsible for infamously reconstructing staircases, frescoes, and figures with little to no information about how the artifacts originally looked. In fact, the Snake Goddess statuette was restored, adding her head and her right arm (Figure 6).40 Interestingly, Evans did not seem to model the reconstruction of the Snake Goddess off of the Snake Votary nor the limestone snake goddess figure, even though they are wearing similar costumes and likely depict a woman of the same role. Restoring sites and figures with no written documentation of how they were originally constructed allows for

31 Arthur Evans, The Palace of Minos at Knossos, Volume IV: Part I (New York City: Biblo and Tannen, 1964), 195-196.

32 Ibid.

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid.

35 Diane Boze, "Creating History by Re-Creating the Minoan Snake Goddess," Journal of Art Historiography no. 15 (12, 2016): 1-31.

36 Kenneth D.S Lapatin, “Snake Goddesses, Fake Goddesses,” Archaeology 54, no. 1 (2001): 34.

37 Ibid.

38 Ibid.

39 “Rebuilding the Palace of Minos at Knossos,” Ashmolean Museum, Accessed April 3, 2024. https://www.ashmolean.org/article/rebuilding-the-palace-of-minos-at-knossos#:~:text=Sir%20 Arthur%20Evans%20began%20excavating,BCE%2C%20using%20modern%20building%20 materials.

40 Angelo Mosso, Palaces of Crete and Their Builders, Nabu Press, 1907.

misrepresentation of these artifacts. Critics of Evans called his reconstruction of the palace of Knossos a “movie city” and is noted to be a “very imaginative vision of the past.”41

Through his discovery at Knossos, Arthur Evans laid down the foundations of what we know and considered to be true about Minoan society and religion. He characterized the Snake Goddess as one who represents the domestic spirit, which was a very common assumption about female figures in art during this time.42 In the article “Prehistoric Goddesses: The Cretan Challenge” by Marymay Downing, she points out that it was quite common for male art historians during this time to mischaracterize female icons as those representing nature, domestic, and fertility icons.43 Though not entirely incorrect, as the Snake Goddess is widely considered to reference the cycle of birth and death, this theory of the figure being a goddess rather than a priestess falls short in the fact that it fails to recognize the attributes of Minoan society that clearly point to the establishment of a society in which women are not limited to only holding domestic responsibilities.44

Arthur Evans’ hypothesis about the Snake Goddess relies heavily on an androcentric point of view and fails to acknowledge the evidence that it was far more likely for Minoan society to have operated under a societal structure in which women hold greater responsibility, such as the role of priestess. The claims simply rely on the biased assumption that all civilizations were ruled and operated by men, with men primarily holding positions of power. Evans likely drew this conclusion based on the state of the contemporary world, with many nations operating under a patriarchy. This can be supported by the fact that Evans can be noted describing ancient Greece as the cradle for European modern society; this correlation between ancient Greece and the modern patriarchal state of Europe is a result of Evans’ androcentric bias.45 Establishing a connection between the civilization of the ancient Minoans and modern Europeans, Evans solidified his idea of the Minoan patriarch, and this assumption carried on as the leading theory of the way Minoan society operated for over a century.

The Role of Minoan Women in Society

The role of women in Minoan society can be determined primarily by the written records of Linear B tablets. These tablets were clay slabs inscribed with an ancient language known as Linear B and they were initially intended for temporary use, however when the buildings housing these tablets were burned, the clay slabs were fired, thus preserving them for future knowledge.46 These tablets illustrate clear gender divisions in Minoan society; of the twenty two positions held by women, only two overlapped with men, those being religious affiliates and slaves.47 This is not to say women did not hold equally important roles as men in Minoan society, however there was a clear division of the sexes. Despite the gender divisions in Minoan society, women were still socially prominent and maintained a degree of freedom. In art, Minoan women were often depicted solely in religious works and very rarely in leisure scenes, though there is one example of women participating in sports and that is in Bull Leaping (Figure 7). In this fresco, two women stand on either end of the bull in the fresco, as a man attempts an acrobatic performance on the back of the bull. This performance would have likely been performed in public as a form of sport. This shows women were not only accepted in

41 Ibid.

42 Marymay Downing, “Prehistoric Goddesses: The Cretan Challenge,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 1, no. 1 (1985): 7–22.

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid.

45 Ilse Schoep, “Building the Labyrinth: Arthur Evans and the Construction of Minoan Civilization,” American Journal of Archaeology 122, no. 1 (2018): 5–32.

46 Barbara A. Olsen, “Women, Children and the Family in the Late Aegean Bronze Age: Differences in Minoan and Mycenaean Constructions of Gender,” World Archaeology 29, no. 3 (1998): 383.

47 Ibid.

society, but encouraged to participate within the social sphere. Furthermore, across all known Minoan artforms, the depiction of a woman in a domestic scene or as a parental figure is virtually absent.48

The inclusion of women in leisure and sports scenes, rather than in domestic scenes, allows us to understand the role of women in Minoan society. Not only were women respected beyond their domestic roles, they were also accepted into and encouraged to participate in social spheres in which men and women were placed on an equal footing.

Minoan Priestesses in Art, Symbology, and Recorded History

The discourse surrounding the way Minoan society operated began with Arthur Evans and his androcentrism; however, the evidence from Linear B tablets supports the idea that women held elevated roles within the Minoan social hierarchy. Linear B tablets also provide documentation that women held roles as religious functionaries, or priestesses.49 In art, there are instances where women acting as religious functionaries are displayed in group compositions. In one of these group scenes on a gold signet ring (Figure 8), the engraving portrays four supposed “Snake Goddesses” in a ritualistic formation. The gold signet ring depicts two women to the left of the ring, one in the middle, and one to the right.

Though the snakes are absent from the composition, the figures are dressed similarly to the faience figure found at Knossos by Sir Arthur Evans. They all wear a flounced skirt and a bare-breasted bodice, and hold their arms up to the heavens. The presence of more than one of the Snake Goddess on the signet ring begs the question: Why would one singular goddess be represented multiple times in the same scene? It is suggested in an article by Jo Day entitled “Crocuses in Context” that the gold ring depicts a goddess and three worshippers.50 However, given the evidence, it seems to be far more likely for this scene to be depicting a ritualistic practice between priestesses of the same cult rather than a depiction of one goddess and her worshippers. For instance, there is no hierarchy of scale, which is seen throughout ancient ancient art to represent the most important figure, whether that be a ruler or a divinity. Hierarchy of scale is seen throughout ancient art to represent the most important figure, and this being absent from this composition on the gold signet ring is abnormal. It is difficult to find examples of hierarchy of scale in Minoan art, this is because the majority of their art does not depict figures, with the majority being nature scenes. Additionally, when human figures are present, they are all of the same status, such as in the Ladies in Blue fresco. This fresco, also found at Knossos, depicts three women who look like copies of each other, as they all wear the same dress, the same hairstyle, and adornments. Therefore, all of these figures on the signet ring being a similar size and in similar dress allows them to hold the same status or importance, something that was not common when goddesses were depicted amongst their worshippers. Therefore, I posit that this is, in fact, a ritualistic practice being performed by three priestesses of the same ancient Minoan cult, devoted to an unknown deity.

Additionally, in the foreground of the gold signet ring, there are depictions of vegetation similar to a fresco found on Crete. In the wall painting entitled Girl Gathering Saffron Crocus Flowers (Figure 9), a figure is seen depicted with these floral motifs. Discovered in the 1960s in Xeste 3 at Akrotiri, this fresco depicts a girl who can be seen gathering crocus flowers, a key component to Minoan iconography that was often used in ritual and medicine.51 Due to the fact that she is wearing the same clothing as the snake goddess and she is gathering ritualistic materials, it seems only likely that she is a priestess.

48 Ibid.

49 Ibid., 383.

50 Jo Day,“CROCUSES IN CONTEXT: A Diachronic Survey of the Crocus Motif in the Aegean Bronze Age,” Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 80, no. 3 (2011): 337–79.

51 Ibid.

A popular image in Minoan art, crocuses and saffron played a pivotal role in everyday Minoan life. The crocus flower can be found on multiple artifacts found at Knossos, as well as on clay tablets, seals, and sealings.52 Of the eighty-five species of crocuses found in the ancient world, eighteen of these species are found in Greece and colors vary from dark purple, lavender, yellow, and white.53 Saffron is derived from dried crocus flowers, and at one point in time was a key export from Crete, though the flower is no longer part of the island’s agriculture.54 The process of saffron harvesting is painstakingly laborious, the flowers only bloom for a few days in the Autumn season and were harvested by hand before the flowers withered; next, the petals would have been separated from the inner flower, the styles would then be separated from the stamen, then the styles would be dried by sun-baking, thus producing the saffron.55 While frescoes such as Girl Gathering Saffron Crocus Flowers provide some of the most striking evidence of the cultivation process in the Aegean Bronze Age, the floral motif is included in a multitude of different media such as on the gold signet ring.56 Due to the fact that crocuses were used in ritual, it seems likely that these flowers were being cultivated and depicted amongst these figures as an allusion to this religious practice. Additionally, there are no instances where divinities are seen gathering materials for their own ritualistic practices.

In Girl Gathering Saffron Crocus Flowers, the figure can be seen climbing a ledge, wearing the same flounced skirt and bare-breasted bodice as the faience figure found at Knossos. Due to the fact that these figures share similar attributes, it is fair to assume they hold the same role in society. Other frescoes that were also found at Akrotiri depict supposed priestesses as well. This can be seen in detail of the young priestess fresco from the doorway between rooms 4 and 5 (Figure 10).

Though dressed slightly differently from the Girl Gathering Saffron Crocus Flowers, the priestess fresco shares many similarities. For example, the priestess has a serpent-like updo and is adorned with jewelry, as is the Girl Gathering Saffron Crocus Flowers. She also wears the same bare-breasted bodice, though it is covered by a shroud draped over her shoulder. I hypothesize that it is the same bare-breasted bodice as that found on the faience figures and in the fresco due to the fact that the sleeves of the bodice are the same half-sleeves. Additionally, her bare chest can be seen partially covered by the orange cloth draped over her, indicating that the bodice she is wearing is in fact the bare-chested one that has been found to be consistent in the other examples. Additionally, scholars point out that the priestess can be seen sprinkling what looks to be “orange threads” which many have noted to be saffron, thus further relating her to the fresco of the saffron gatherer. The orange threads can be seen in the hand elevated above the vessel the priestess is holding, though it blends in slightly with the top of the vessel, the threads are clearly visible in her hand.

The image of Girl Gathering Saffron Crocus Flowers and the fresco of the priestess from room 4 could easily depict two priestesses of different rankings in the cult, as they share many similar characteristics despite wearing a slightly different dress. When comparing the frescoes with the faience figures of the Snake Goddess, there is a clear absence of the crocus flowers in the three dimensional figures. The lack of crocus flowers in the faience figure could be due to the fact that the item was restored, so it is certainly possible that she could have been holding crocus flowers in her right hand, as there is surviving evidence from Knossos that faience sculptures of these saffron crocus flowers existed. In fact, they were found and identified as this specific flower by none other than Evans himself.57

It should also be noted that snakes were often used in ritual ceremonies as well, possibly

52 Ibid., 338.

53 Ibid., 339.

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid.

56 Ibid., 344.

57 Ibid., 358.

as a sacrifice.58 Although the snakes are absent from the signet ring and fresco compositions, it can be seen in the Snake Goddess figures found at the Palace of Minos. Though not much information can be found about the symbology of snakes in the ancient Aegean, there is significant documentation of snakes in later Greek history. The snake is noted by scholars to be a polysemic symbol of art, to quote 19th century German classicist, Friedrich G. Welcker, “The serpent is the most ambiguous of animals.”59 The snake is seen prominently in visual culture both ancient and modern around the world; the Snake Goddess standing as one of the prime examples of this.60 With the shedding of skin, slithering motion, and venom in poisonous snakes, the biological characteristics of these creatures allow for a multitude of metaphorical uses.61 These uses can include, but are not limited to, the cycle of life and death, identity, ancestry, and otherness.62 This is particularly interesting considering many religions have much to do with the cycle of life and death, the afterlife, and sometimes ancestor worship. Indeed, scholars have noted that snakes serve almost exclusively a solely religious purpose.63 Priestesses may have used the snake as an offering to appease deities, as they act as a bridge between life and death. Furthermore, in ancient Greek literary and visual culture, the snake recurs a multitude of times with an emphasis on its protective role.64 This idea could be conflated with the initial assumptions of Arthur Evans, posing the Snake Goddess as a “Mother Goddess,” as mothers tend to be nurturing and protective of their children. However, in Greek mythology, snakes tend to symbolize enemies of gods and goddesses.65 Considering this interpretation of the snake representing a foe, it makes sense that the snake would be used as a sacrifice in homage to the gods. This supports the idea that these figures represent priestesses, as they participate in this ritualistic practice in order to honor the deities they worship. Although snakes can hold a variety of metaphorical meanings, it is more likely that the snake in the Snake Goddess image, is meant to be interpreted more literally; this means that, in reality, this snake was either of a specific type or relating to a specific myth and used in the ritualistic practice they are being depicted in.66 This is not to say that the snake is meaningless by any means, as they still hold great significance in the ritual practices of the Greeks and the Snake Goddess image makes this abundantly clear. Looking closely at the original snake on the faience figure of the Snake Goddess, that being the one held in the left hand, there is a clear longitudinal pattern on the first half of the body. Based on this pattern, I believe the snake is either a dice snake or a balkan whip snake, both native to Crete. Both of which are associated with water in some way; water, in other ancient religions, also has an association with the afterlife and transition, which could explain the possible significance of the specific snake to this ancient Minoan religion.

Although the attributes of the faience figures, frescoes, and gold signet ring are slightly different, some having snakes and others having crocus flowers, each composition nonetheless has a ritualistic item present. The faience sculpture at Knossos, the gold signet ring, and Girl Gathering Saffron Crocus Flowers all share the following characteristics: a flounced skirt, a bare-breasted bodice, an elaborate updo or headdress, the presence of ritualistic material, and jewelry. Given the fact that they are all dressed and adorned in a similar fashion, as well as seen with a ritualistic material –either saffron crocus flowers or a snake– it is fitting to identify them as representative of women who hold the same role, that being a priestess. The similarities

58 Mara Lynn Keller, “The Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone: Fertility, Sexuality, and Rebirth,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 4, no. 1 (1988): 32.

59 Diana Rodríguez Pérez, "The Meaning of the Snake in the Ancient Greek World," Arts 10, no. 1 (2021): 2.

60 Ibid.

61 Ibid.

62 Ibid.

63 Ibid., 3.

64 Ibid., 2.

65 Ibid.

66 Ibid., 3.

between the priestess from room 4 and Girl Gathering Saffron Crocus Flowers draws parallels between the roles of the two women and the presence of the saffron crocus flowers indicates a preparation for a ritualistic practice. In another instance where saffron crocus flowers are present, the gold signet ring has an absence of hierarchy of scale, which indicates that no single figure in the engraving holds more importance than the others, and therefore supports the idea that these are women acting in a religious practice as a part of a cultic ritual. This evidence, along with the fact that Linear B tablets asserted the role of women as priestesses, backs the claim that these women are in fact representations of priestesses rather than a specific goddess.

Minoan Influence on the Mycenaeans and Later Greek Culture

The term Mycenaean describes the culture and art of Greece from 1600-1100 BCE.67 During this time, contact with the Minoans of Crete contributed greatly to the formation of Mycenaean arts and culture.68 This contact allowed for sculptures such as the snake goddess to inspire different Mycenaean artforms, specifically the Psi-type figures (Figure 11) and The Dancing Figures from Keos (Figure 12). A Psi-type figure is a female figure meant to look like the Greek letter Psi (Ψ). These female figures stand with an upright posture and arms raised, a similar pose to that of the snake goddess. The form is also significant, as many Psi-type figures look as though they are wearing skirts or dresses, headdresses, and have an emphasis on the breasts. Oftentimes these figures are patterned geometrically, much like the snake goddess’ geometric patterns on her skirt. Additionally, The Dancing Figures from Keos exemplify the influence of the Minoans in Mycenaean sculpture. In this series of terracotta figures found on the island of Kea, the site of the ancient Keos, the statues all stand erect, with flared skirts, bare breasts and serpent-like belts and necklaces. When comparing these terracotta figures to the figures found at Knossos, the similarities in stance and dress are apparent. The Keos figures wear a short open jacket, much like the bodice found on the snake goddess figures. Not only that, but the statues from Keos were found at a temple site, implying a religious function much like the snake goddess. Though not entirely the same, as the snakes are not overtly depicted on the Keos figures, the forms are extremely similar and the figures seemed to have had similar functions as a representation of a religious figure or attendant, making a clear connection to Minoan influence in Mycenaean culture. Furthermore, in 1968, terracotta statues similar to those found at Keos were discovered in Wace’s Citadel House at Mycenae.69 Among these 16 terracotta figures, two snakes in a coiled position, as well as remnants of four more, were found in the citadel storeroom.70 The presence of the snakes, in this instance, shows clear evidence that the snake goddess was influential to the later Mycenaeans. This influence was then carried from the Mycenaeans into the present day, where the snake goddess stands as a prominent feminist icon.

The Snake Goddess in a Contemporary Context

Today, the two Minoan snake faience figures found at Knossos by Sir Arthur Evans and restored by his team are housed in the Heraklion Museum and remain one of the Museums most popular pieces. The figures as well as the site of Knossos have also appeared on travel brochures for Crete and in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece, an actress dressed in the iconic costume of the Snake Goddess figure performed the opening procession.71 These

67 Hemingway, Seán, and Colette Hemingway, “Mycenaean Civilization: Essay: The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History,” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, October 2003. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/myce/hd_myce.htm.

68 Ibid.

69 Robert Eisner, The Temple at Ayia Irini: Mythology and Archaeology 13, no. 2 (1972): 126.

70 Ibid.

71 Diane Boze, "Creating History by Re-Creating the Minoan Snake Goddess," Journal of Art Historiography no. 15 (12, 2016): 1-31.

examples place the statuettes as a symbol of Greek civilization even in the modern day. Not only that, but the figures have also become a symbol of feminism.72 With the strong and confident stance of the figure showing off her feminine form, it is no wonder she has become a symbol that many women resonate with. Not only that, but her fashion has also piqued the interest of scholars such as Bernice Jones, who recreated the dresses of various Snake Goddess figures with the help of professional weaver, spinner, and dyer Valerie Bealle and photographer Massimo Gammacurta (Figure 13).73 Through a series of photographs, Jones posed a model dressed in the Minoan fashion, specifically modeled after Girl Gathering Saffron Crocus Flowers Through this series, the priestesses of the Minoan religion were brought to life in the modern day.

Additionally, the snake goddess also holds a place setting in the iconic work The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago (Figure 14). In this work, Chicago utilizes mixed media to create place settings for iconic female figures throughout history. In the snake goddess place setting, a plate, chalice, and silverware sit atop a linen runner embroidered with the name “Snake Goddess” on the bottom. Snake motifs are seen on the back of the runner as well as intertwined within the S in the word snake. The place setting utilizes the color scheme found on the snake goddess statuette, that being gold, brown, and a muted yellow. The plate itself is decorated with a vulvar central shape, echoing the female form and reinforcing this idea of the Snake Goddess as a feminist icon.74 The pattern that adorns this shape and the forms radiating from the central figure not only evoke the flounce of the snake goddess’ skirt, but also the scales of a snake.75 The inclusion of the snake goddess place setting in The Dinner Party situates this statuette as a critically important figure in women’s history. Through both the recreation of the costume from both the snake goddess and Girl Gathering Crocus Flowers, as well as the presence of the place setting in Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, the works situate the snake goddess as an icon of not only Greek civilization, but also of feminism. Overall, it is clear that since its discovery at Knossos, the Minoan Snake Goddess has become one of the most recognizable early Greek figures that continues to inspire artists and social movements, this shows the distinguished legacy of the snake goddess.

The argument that the snake goddess is, in fact, a priestess, elevates the feminist undertones of her contemporary representations. The snake goddess is not just a fertility figure, or a mother goddess, but a strong woman who is able to hold positions of power that scholars such as Arthur Evans assumed were only held by men. This shows a degree of equality in ancient Aegean civilizations that were not previously thought to be true.

Conclusion

During the Bronze Age from 2100-1600 BCE, the Minoans created astonishing architectural sites such as the maze-like Palace of Minos located at Knossos, which scholars relate to the myth of the Labyrinth due to its design. Excavated by Sir Arthur John Evans in the early 20th century, the Palace of Minos was home to artifacts such as the faience Snake Goddess and Votary figures, pottery, and frescoes. For the past century, the initial assumptions made by Evans about Minoan society based on his impressions of the Palace of Minos have been debated, though widely considered to be true. The assertion of the Minoan Snake Goddess actually being a priestess informs our understanding of Minoan society. Not only did women hold positions of power, but they were respected beyond their domestic

72 Bernice R. Jones,“The Minoan ‘Snake Goddess,’ New Interpretations of Her Costume and Identity,” Essay, In Potnia, Deities and Religion in the Aegean Bronze Age, Proceedings of the 8th International Aegean Conference Göteborg, Göteborg University, 12-15 April 2000, 259–69.

73 Bernice R. Jones, “Revealing Minoan Fashions,” Archaeology 53, no. 3 (2000): 36–41.

74 “Snake Goddess,” Brooklyn Museum. Accessed April 19, 2024. https://www.brooklynmuseum. org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/snake_goddess.

75 Ibid.

roles, and this is supported in the written record of the translated Linear B tablets. Sir Arthur Evans was misinformed in his assertions about the Snake Goddess as he decontextualized the images by restoring them with no information as to how they originally looked. Not only that, but he held an androcentric bias which situated Minoan society as one that was led by a patriarchal priest-king, when written documentation that has recently been translated, such as the Linear B tablets do not confirm that assumption. Evans’ initial ideas about Minoan society are not only outdated due to newfound information, but also baseless. He recklessly restored sites, figures, and frescoes without any written documentation on how they originally looked, ultimately decontextualizing them. By rejecting these initial assumptions of Evans, we can broaden our understanding of the roles women held in Minoan society, and we can also determine that women held equally important roles to men during the Bronze Age, as can be seen in the fresco Bull Leaping and by holding the role as religious functionaries as evidenced by the Linear B tablets.

Attributes of the Minoan Snake Goddess such as the snake itself and the saffron crocus flowers depicted in the frescoes at Akrotiri and on the gold signet ring were often used in ritualistic ceremonies. Due to the fact that it is unlikely a goddess herself would be performing such ceremonies, it seems as though these images depict women who hold the role of priestess. This is further supported by the fact that all of the figures share similar costumes.

Through the analysis of images such as the frescoes from Akrotiri depicting a saffron gatherer and priestess, the gold signet ring depicting a ritualistic scene, and the faience figures found at Knossos, it can be determined that these images depict women who held the role of priestesses as they all share characteristics that indicate this fact, such as the flounced skirt, bare-breasted bodice, elaborate hair or headdress, and the common presence of an item that holds ritualistic significance such as a snake or saffron crocus flowers. These attributes, coupled with the fact that women were often depicted in non-domestic settings, allows us to conclude that the Snake Goddess is not a “Mother Goddess,” but rather, a priestess.

Ultimately, the Snake Goddess allows art historians to draw conclusions about the roles women held in Minoan society, and this information disproves previous assumptions put forth by Sir Arthur Evans. Today, the legacy of the Minoan Snake Goddess continues to stand as an iconic representation of Greek civilization. Appearing on tour guides, in olympic processions, and inspiring artists such as Judy Chicago, the Minoan Snake Goddess is considered one of the most well known artifacts from this ancient civilization on the island of Crete. The snake goddess being a priestess elevates her as a feminist icon as she occupies a position of power previously thought to only be held by men.

Figure 1. Snake Goddess, Knossos, Middle Minoan, Faience, 1700-1550 BCE. Heraklion

Figure 2. Snake Goddess, Middle Minoan Limestone.

Figure 3. Snake Votary, Knossos, Middle Minoan, Faience, 1700-1550 BCE. Heraklion Museum.

4. Throne room

from the title page of a brochure appealing for support issued by the Cretan Exploration Fund, 1900.

Figure

, Knossos,

Figure 5. Throne room (restored), Knossos, Photograph by Olaf Bausch.

Figure 6. Snake Goddess, Knossos, Middle Minoan, Faience, 1700-1550 BCE. (Before restoration by Evans)

Figure 7. Bull Leaping, From Palace of Minos, Frieze in Courtyard of East Wing, Fresco. c. 1500 BCE

Figure 8. Gold signet ring with cult scene. Late Bronze Age, 1500-1450 BCE. Heraklion Museum.

Figure 9. Girl Gathering Saffron Crocus Flowers, Detail of Wall Painting, Room 3 of House Xeste 3, Minoan, Before 1630 BCE.

Figure 10. West House: Room 4: Young Priestess, Fresco, 16th century BCE.

Figure 11. Mycenaean female figurine (Psi-Type), Clay, 1300-1150 BCE. Museum of Cycladic Art.

Figure 12. Dancing Figures from Keos, Kea, Terracotta, 1450-1400 BCE. Museum of Cycladic Art.

Figure 13. Diane Boze, Valerie Bealle, and Massimo Gammacurta. Recreation of Minoan “Snake Goddess” Fashion, Textiles, 2000.

Figure 14. Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party (Snake Goddess place setting), ceramic, porcelain, textile, 1974-79. Brooklyn Museum.

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Pérez, Diana Rodríguez. “The Meaning of the Snake in the Ancient Greek World.” Arts 10, no. 1 (2021): 1-26. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/arts10010002. https://cnu.idm.oclc.org/ login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/meaning-snake-ancient-greekworld/docview/2524414195/se-2.

“Rebuilding the Palace of Minos at Knossos.” Ashmolean Museum. Accessed April 3, 2024. https://www.ashmolean.org/article/rebuilding-the-palace-of-minos-at-knossos.

Schoep, Ilse. “Building the Labyrinth: Arthur Evans and the Construction of Minoan Civilization.” American Journal of Archaeology 122, no. 1 (2018): 5–32. https://doi. org/10.3764/aja.122.1.0005.

“Snake Goddess.” Brooklyn Museum. Accessed April 19, 2024. https://www.brooklynmuseum. org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/snake_goddess.

Thomas, C. G. “MATRIARCHY IN EARLY GREECE: THE BRONZE AND DARK AGES.” Arethusa 6, no. 2 (1973): 173–95. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26307431.

Verduci, Josephine, and Brent Davis. “ADORNMENT, RITUAL AND IDENTITY: INSCRIBED MINOAN JEWELLERY.” The Annual of the British School at Athens 110 (2015): 51–70. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44082106.

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About the Author

Alexa Bergeron is a senior at Christopher Newport University who is majoring in Art History and double minoring in Museum Studies and Studio Art. Ancient art has always fascinated her since she was placed in her first survey class. In her sophomore year she took Special Topics in Ancient Art and learned about the Snake Goddess figurine, where she became fascinated with the mystery surrounding her identity. Alexa hopes to go on to complete her Ph.D. in Art History at Virginia Commonwealth University and is aiming to one day be a professor at a university where she will continue to spread her knowledge and love of art.

Sincere Stalking & Romantic Rage: The Romanticization of Toxic and Abusive Behaviors in Movies

Aimee Buchanan

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Lindsay Hicks, Department of Psychology

Abstract

Movies can provide respite from reality, but some of the themes gleaned from movies can be problematic when applied to real world situations, such as people’s romantic relationships. Indeed, in many romantic movies, toxic and abusive behaviors are portrayed as romantic or are justified in some way. This portrayal may cause severe issues for audiences who interpret those harmful behaviors as acts of love and affection and then choose to pursue or emulate such behaviors in their own romances. This paper examines four types of abusive behaviors (manipulation, stalking, control, and anger and aggression) across five different films (Beauty and the Beast (1991), Twilight (2008), Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), Phantom of the Opera (2005), and The Notebook (2004)). Using examples from these movies, we explore how these behaviors are romanticized. In addition, the implications of this romanticization are detailed, including connections to intimate partner violence, romantic beliefs, and eating disorders. Suggestions are provided on how to prevent these beliefs from being enacted.

Key Words: abuse, movies, romantic relationships, manipulation, anger, control

Manipulation

Manipulation is used when the manipulator wants to elicit or terminate a behavior in someone else (Buss et al., 1987). There are different tactics used depending on the manipulator’s goal. For instance, charm is the most frequently used tactic for eliciting a behavior (Buss et al., 1987). Charm as manipulation can manifest as giving the victim a present before asking them to do something or complimenting the victim so they’ll do what the manipulator wants (Buss et al., 1987). In movies, manipulative charm is often presented as a grand romantic gesture. Grand romantic gestures are used to mitigate damage rather than actually changing the behavior that caused harm. It veils the abuse which can make it difficult to identify, in film and in reality. Instead of apologizing for frightening Belle, the Beast gifts her the library to smooth over the relationship and prevent her from running away again (Trousdale & Wise, 1991). Throughout Fifty Shades of Grey, Christian sends expensive gifts to Ana’s house and takes her on helicopter rides to convince her to be his submissive (Taylor-Johnson, 2015). Many of these gifts and experiences are timed to when Ana is thinking of leaving Christian, so he uses these to prevent her from leaving him. In New Moon, the second film in the Twilight saga, Edward uses Bella’s desperate desire to become a vampire as a way to get something he wants by saying the only way he will turn her is if she agrees to marry him (Weitz, 2009). As exhibited by the examples listed above, manipulation is commonly used in fictional romantic couples. All three examples are portrayed as romantic, but they are less about displaying love to the victim and more about the manipulator getting what he wants. They are used to keep the victim in the relationship with melodramatic romantic gestures.

One reason these textbook manipulation tactics are misattributed is because of the “what is beautiful is good” heuristic. When shown attractive and unattractive faces, participants were more likely to assign moral traits to attractive faces than unattractive faces, and this effect was greater than the effect for non-moral traits (Klebl, 2021). Because attractive actors are cast to portray abusers, audiences assume that their intentions are good and are therefore less likely to recognize the harm they are doing to their victim. If someone you are attracted to sends you gifts to seduce you, then that act will be interpreted differently compared to if someone you are not attracted to sends you gifts. Audiences have a harder time picturing an attractive actor as someone with nefarious intentions, so their manipulation is instead seen as romantic.

However, there are some instances where the manipulator acknowledges their faults and ill intents, and they use this to attract their desired partner. Disclosing their flaws creates “a simultaneous sense of danger, humility, and sense of desire” which keep the victim interested and engaged because they have been “adequately warned” (Maas & Bonomi, 2020, p. 518). Edward constantly gives reasons for Bella to distance herself from him with statements including “I’m designed to kill…I’ve killed people before” and “if you were smart, you would stay away from me” to which Bella responds that she doesn’t care and trusts him still (Hardwicke, 2008, 0:53:38; Hardwicke, 2008, 0:30:43). Christian Grey employs a similar tactic telling Ana that “[she] should steer clear of [him]” (Taylor-Johnson, 2015, 0:20:29). Later in the movie, Ana says that she has been waiting for Christian despite his warnings that she should stay away from him (Taylor-Johnson, 2015). The Notebook has a slightly different portrayal where Allie admits she should be with Lon, her fiance, yet she chooses Noah instead of Lon anyways (Cassavetes, 2004). Why are these women choosing men that they either know they should not be with or the men are actively telling them they should not be together? One explanation could be that the women’s implicit attitudes are driving their choices. Implicit attitudes are based on spontaneous affect whereas explicit attitudes are based on reasons (Eastwick et al., 2011). In romantic relationships, it is acceptable to base decisions off of gut level feelings of chemistry and attraction (Eastwick et al., 2011). Despite the women knowing they shouldn’t be with the man, they still choose to be with them because of their implicit attitudes towards their partner which override their explicit reasoning.

Stalking

Stalking is defined as repeated, threatening or harassing behavior that includes behaviors such as following someone or showing up at their home or workplace (Maas & Bonomi, 2020). Although stalking is a crime, movies romanticize it and frame the stalking as an intense desire for the female character (Maas & Bonomi, 2020). Despite what these films want you to think, this is an unhealthy behavior, and it is certainly not romantic. Obsessive passion is when the pursuer places all of their efforts and energy into the relationship and often results in aggressive pursuit tactics including surveillance, invasion, harassment and coercion (Belanger et al., 2021). In The Notebook, Noah follows Allie onto the ferris wheel as she’s on a date with another man, and he then threatens to kill himself by dropping off the ferris wheel if Allie did not agree to go on a date with him. Noah continues to show up where Allie is because he felt drawn to her, even though she repeatedly denied his advances (Cassavetes, 2004). Edward snuck into Bella’s bedroom to watch her sleep for months before they became romantically involved, and he continued this behavior after they got together (Hardwicke, 2008). In the entire written saga of Twilight, there are 11 instances of Edward stalking Bella (Maas & Bonomi, 2020). Christian Grey is probably the most obvious stalker on this list; he constantly shows up where Ana is, whether it is at her job, a bar, her house, or to Georgia to visit her mom (Taylor-Johnson, 2015). All of these examples are depicted as the man’s intense desire to be with the female character, but there is another way that stalking is romanticized in movies. In some films, the man stalking the female leads to him being able to save her from some threat which overpowers the fact that he stalked her and associates stalking with protection rather than harassment. The Beast follows Belle after he scares her into running away, but he then saves her from a pack of wolves which overshadows the fact that he followed her (Trousdale & Wise, 1995). Another example is when Edward stalked Bella and saved her from a group of men who were about to attack her; he even goes as far as to say “I feel very protective of you” after this incident (Hardwicke, 2008, 0:42:40). When Ana drunkenly calls Christian, he finds her location to pick her up and then stops a man from assaulting her (Taylor-Johnson, 2015). Portraying stalking as desire or protection creates an association for audiences that stalking is a positive and romantic act instead of a controlling and aggressive one.

Control

A common theme throughout these movies is that they portray control as signs of commitment and love rather than as domineering (Papp et al., 2016). In The Phantom of the Opera, the Phantom is extremely controlling of Christine. After finding out that Christine is engaged to another man, the Phantom sings “You will curse the day you did not do/All that the Phantom asked of you” (Schumacher, 2004, 1:16:00). It is clear through the songs that the Phantom wants control over Christine rather than an equal partner. “Music of the Night” is the Phantom’s seduction song to Christine where he constantly refers to her giving in and succumbing to his darkness, saying that she cannot fight it (Schumacher, 2004). This messaging is conveyed not only through the lyrics of the songs but also through the type of the song. “Music of the Night” is a solo which reflects the control that the Phantom has over Christine. Raoul, Christine’s fiance, sings a duet with her called “All I ask of you” in which he asks if he can share his life with her and walk alongside her (Schumacher, 2004). The controlling nature of the Phantom’s love song is expressed via a solo, in addition to it’s onesided lyricism, and it is heightened when compared to Raoul’s duet with Christine in which he allows her a choice and a voice, literally. Another obvious example of control is in Beauty and the Beast as the Beast keeps Belle isolated in his castle, preventing her from seeing her father, and even limits her actions within the castle with statements like “If she doesn’t eat with me, then she doesn’t eat at all!” (Trousdale & Wise, 1991, 0:35:47).

Many of the relationships focused on in these films have a power imbalance that acts as a method of control. These imbalances are the result of differences in money, age, status, or strength which is then used to coerce the victim into doing what the abuser wants. In the titular song of Phantom of the Opera, the Phantom uses his talent as a musician to coax budding opera singer Christine and asserts that his “power over [her] grows stronger yet” (Schumacher, 2004, 0:32:15). The Beast is physically stronger than Belle which he frequently uses to intimidate her, either to get her to do things with him or prevent her from leaving (Trousdale & Wise, 1991). Edward also uses his strength and age to make decisions for Bella without consulting her, like preventing her from turning into a vampire despite the fact that she wants to become one (Hardwicke, 2008). Christian Grey has significantly more wealth and status over Ana, who is a senior in college, and he uses his resources to control her and get his way (Taylor-Johnson, 2015).

The reason that these actions are viewed as romantic is because controlling behaviors are seen as an expression of masculinity and an even desirable mate retention strategy (Papp et al., 2016). Many young women feel that a man taking ownership of his partner are indications of “intimacy and dedication” (Papp et al., 2016, p. 99). Furthermore, evolutionary theory suggests that women are attracted to men who have money and status which is typically associated with older men (Li & Meltzer, 2015). As a result, control is intertwined with expressions of masculinity. In the chosen movies, the gap in age, status, wealth, and or strength is used to assert control over the other partner, but since an older and wealthier partner is evolutionarily attractive for women, they might not view that difference as a problem. The ties between controlling behaviors and masculinity can make the behaviors seem appealing or desirable for women who want a masculine partner, and therefore, they don’t recognize the power imbalances as forms of abuse and control.

Anger & Aggression

Anger and violence are typically dealt with in one of two ways: it is explained as uncontainable emotion or blame is deferred to the male’s circumstances so he does not have to take accountability. Anger as uncontainable emotion is typically portrayed as an overflow of love and devotion. Noah and Allie in The Notebook are a highly combative couple. Older Noah states that “They didn’t agree on much/ In fact, they rarely agreed on anything” (Cassavetes, 2004, 0:25:09). This behavior is displayed by both partners, but it is depicted as intense emotion rather than an unhealthy approach to conflict. The constant fighting was paralleled with intense passion, so the fighting was associated with an act representative of love which made the conflict itself feel romantic. The Phantom has violent outbursts that are written off as uncontainable emotion. He writes an opera, casts Christine as the female lead, and then kills the male lead and takes his place so that the Phantom can be close to Christine (Schumacher, 2004). The Phantom then later kidnaps Christine and threatens to kill her fiance if she does not choose to be with him (Schumacher, 2004). The singer the Phantom murdered and the attempted murder of Raoul were simply part of a grand scheme to be with Christine. Because the Phantom’s violence was committed out of desire for Christine, it makes it romantic.

The other way that aggression is often depicted is not necessarily romanticized, but the aggressor is almost never at fault; his aggressive outbursts are blamed on some feature of his circumstance (Maas & Bonomi, 2020). Christian Grey, for example, likes to hurt sexual partners that resemble his mom because he holds a lot of resentment towards her since she was a crack addict (Taylor-Johnson, 2015). As a result, any abuse that Ana faces at the hands of Christian is not his fault because he himself was abused. The Beast gets extremely angry with Belle and breaks a table which causes her to run away, but the Beast was cursed to be a beast which absolves him of responsibility for his actions (Trousdale & Wise, 1991). The Beast was also acting out of a fear of abandonment which is used to both garner sympathy and fuel his

aggression (Belanger et al., 2021). After Edward reveals he is a vampire to Bella, he goes on a rampage ripping trees out of the ground, saying how he has killed people before, and how he has “never wanted a human’s blood so much in his life”, referring to Bella (Hardwicke, 2008, 0:53:57). Edward never wanted to be a vampire and has always resented his powers so that excuses him being one and his actions as a vampire (Hardwicke, 2008).

Another way that accountability is prevented is by attributing the anger to something that is assumed to be a fixed aspect of the character and that the woman just has to accept that that is the way it is. Throughout the entire movie, Christian asserts that he is “fifty shades of fucked up”, and that he is incapable of changing (Taylor-Johnson, 2015, 1:50:46). Edward can’t stop being a vampire, so there’s no use in trying to adjust his vampiric actions. Another fixed trait that is often blamed is the male’s appearance. The fear elicited from the aggression can be blamed on appearance rather than action to prevent the aggressor from having to take accountability. The Beast laments that Belle will “never see [him] as anything but a monster” (Trousdale, & Wise, 1991, 0:36:40). Instead of taking accountability for his actions, the true source of the fear, he defaults to his appearance as the frightening factor. The Phantom assumes everyone is scared of him because of his disfigurement instead of his murderous tendencies (Schumacher, 2004). In the final song, Christine even tells the Phantom “This haunted face holds no horror for me now/It’s in your soul that the true distortion lies” (Schumacher, 2004, 2:01:26). Despite showing anger as a fixed character trait, all of the men improve over the course of the story without putting in effort to change. In all the movies, the abusive partner gets less abusive over the course of the film, or films if there are multiple. For some couples, it’s after they get married (The Notebook, Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey), but the others are simply the expression of love that changes the abuser (Beauty and the Beast, Phantom of the Opera).

Why it matters

Contrary to the endings of these movies, abusers typically do not stop being abusive. A study of 60 domestically violent couples found that only one man fully stopped his violent behavior over the course of a two year period. Although physical abuse did decrease in 54% of the couples who were still together after 2 years, emotional abuse did not decrease (Jacobson et al., 1996). The lessened physical violence might give the appearance that the abuse has stopped or gotten better, but the emotional abuse is still prevalent and dangerous. In fact, some research suggests that intimate terrorism, abuse that is intended “to control or dominate a victim”, actually escalates in both frequency and intensity over time (Eckstein, 2017, p. 2). These films encourage women to stay in dangerous relationships because they tell stories where love will stop the abuse or the partner will magically get better if they are just patient. These films place an unjust burden on the women to “fix” the male. The male’s violence or aggression is made the female’s responsibility. This “I can fix him” mentality has become part of mainstream culture and has real impacts on people in domestically violent relationships. Women in abusive relationships believe that their love for their partner will stop the abuse (Papp et al., 2016). These films teach women to ignore red flags in the vain hope that their partner will change.

Another way these movies encourage victims to stay with their abusers is the promotion of “love conquers all” and romantic destiny. As mentioned before, movies have the power to shape our beliefs about romantic relationships, and we tend to adopt the beliefs that are endorsed in our favorite movies (Lippman et al., 2014). Research has found that exposure to romantic movies is positively associated with a stronger endorsement of the “love will find a way” mentality (Lippman et al., 2014). If victims believe they are in love with their partner, and their partner loves them in return, then they are more likely to stay in that relationship because they believe their love will overcome the abuse. Romantic destiny is the belief that people are either destined to be together or they’re not. Believing in romantic destiny is associated with an avoidant approach to conflict resolution (Knee, 1998). This means that people are more likely to just wait for things to get better rather than put in the work to fix it. This is exhibited by

both the victim and the abusers in these films. The women hope for the best, that their partner will change, and the men suddenly change with minimal to no effort.

Furthermore, romantic beliefs are related to the experience of intimate partner violence (IPV; Papp et al., 2016). The highly idealized versions of relationships depicted in popular media shape how audiences view their relationships. Victims of domestic violence view their relationship through a fairytale lens; they rationalize their experience by saying things like “the abuse is not that bad”, “it could be worse”, or “the abuser is not being themselves” (Papp et al., 2016). Romantic beliefs can help disguise or rationalize abuse, but the abuse itself can be romanticized. Research has found that controlling behaviors and emotional manipulation are strong predictors of IPV, and the romanticization of controlling behaviors is related to women’s reports of both physical and psychological abuse (Papp et al., 2016). In addition, obsessive passion is positively related to the experience of abuse (Belanger et al., 2021). Psychological abuse, although it is not illegal, is a widespread issue that has devastating effects. One metaanalysis found that 40.5% of women in the community had experienced psychological violence at some point in their lifetime (White et al., 2023). The same meta-analysis noted the worsened mental health outcomes resulting from IPV including depression, anxiety, PTSD, suicidal ideation, and psychological distress (White et al., 2023).

These movies do not just relate to the experience of IPV, but they can also impact eating behaviors and attitudes towards sexual violence via the gender stereotypes they endorse. Research has found that women who believe that men are meant to be aggressive and women are meant to be passive in romantic relationships have higher levels of disordered eating than women who do not believe this norm (Sharp & Keyton, 2016). The trope of the aggressive man and the passive woman is witnessed in many films, not just the ones included on this list. This gendered dynamic is translated into common rape myths such as blaming the victim instead of the perpetrator since the man is expected to be violent, and the woman is expected to take it. Research has found that exposure to sexually explicit and sexually violent content is positively related to more accepting attitudes on dating and sexual violence, and exposure is positively related to anticipated and actual dating and sexual violence victimization and perpetration (Rodenhizer & Edward, 2017). Male aggression towards women has become so normalized that women have come to expect violence in sexual encounters (Maas et al., 2015). The heavily gendered stereotypes depicted in movies put women at risk for eating disorders and sexual violence.

Perhaps the most important reason why this matters is that audiences do not recognize all of the abusive behaviors, even when they are looking for them. One study specifically asked participants what behaviors they found appealing or unappealing in Fifty Shades of Grey, and there are some glaring contradictions in the responses. Despite participants saying they would not tolerate being stalked, one participant thought it was “actually cute how Christian popped up” at Ana’s workplace, which was an instance of stalking (Bonomi et al., 2016, p. 142). Participants stated that they would accept the gifts and adventure in their own life, but those are manipulation tactics (Bonomi et al., 2016). An analysis of incarcerated abuser’s phone calls to their victims found that the abuser would compel the victim into forgiving them or retracting their statement in court “through grand gestures of marriage, writing poems, and sending gifts” (Mass & Bonomi, 2020, p. 513). Despite saying that they would not tolerate abuse, these films do an impeccable job of masking abuse as romance to the point where the two almost become indistinguishable.

What should we do about it?

It is unlikely that movies will stop depicting these sorts of relationships, so the solution then lies with the viewers. We need to become more critical movie watchers and understand the difference between fiction and reality. Sometimes, it can be hard to differentiate between

what is ok in movies but unacceptable in real life, but it is not impossible. Many people watch these movies as guilty pleasures or they recognize the problematic behaviors and actively choose to not implement them in their actual relationships. The problem occurs when the line between romance and abuse, fiction and reality, is blurred. Watching problematic relationships in films can be entertaining because of the fiery emotions and conflict, but audiences should discern the difference between romance and abuse so that they don’t tolerate harmful behaviors in their own relationships.

Conclusion

Movies are a massive part of mainstream culture and provide a way to escape reality. However, many films are rooted in reality which can make them feel more real than fiction which can be problematic if the message of the film is harmful. Viewers who believe that the behaviors described above are romantic may argue that the context in which they occur and the individuals involved can influence how abusive the behavior is. Yet, just as there is a difference between fiction and reality, there is a difference between having empathy for another’s hardships and being a victim. Abuse is abuse no matter what attractive actor you cast to portray it or how you justify it or explain it away. Modeling real world relationships off of these movies is detrimental to women’s psychological and physical well-being. Despite what these movies might suggest, no, you cannot fix him.

References

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About the Author

Aimee Buchanan is a senior from Annandale, Virginia double majoring in psychology and leadership studies. She is a member of the Honors Program, the President’s Leadership Program (PLP), Psi Chi, Alpha Chi, and Omicron Delta Kappa. Her involvements include volunteering at the Virginia Living Museum, acting on the e-board for the National Alliance on Mental Illness Club, and leading an undergraduate research lab. Aimee has presented at conferences around the country, published an article in the World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, and has won the 2024 Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Scholarship in the Liberal Arts. In addition to her academic achievements, Aimee is a lover of movies. She was excited to combine her passions of psychology and movies in this paper, and she hopes you enjoy reading this as much as she enjoyed writing it.

The Relationship between ADHD symptoms, attachment, conflict resolution, and relationship satisfaction in college students

Ann-Marie Clark

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Michelle Lange, Department of Psychology

Abstract

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder often characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, social difficulties, and executive function deficits. Previous research indicates that individuals with ADHD tend to exhibit lower rates of relationship satisfaction, increased rates of anxious attachment, and conflict engagement. The current study sought to examine the association between variables of ADHD symptoms, attachment, conflict resolution, and relationship satisfaction in a population of college students. It was hypothesized that respondents who exhibited greater symptoms of ADHD would have negative associations in attachment style, conflict resolution, and relationship satisfaction variables. Results were found using the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale, Experiences in close relationships questionnaire, and Conflict Resolution Styles Inventory. Results of this study proved the research hypotheses to be correct.

Keywords: ADHD, attachment, conflict resolution, relationship satisfaction

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a widely known psychological disorder that is often diagnosed in childhood, and is defined as a “neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a distinctive pattern of inattentive, hyperactive and impulsive behavior, which causes daily disruption in academic, social, and occupational functioning” (Asadi et al., 2021, p.958). Although frequently diagnosed during one’s childhood years, ADHD is not strictly a childhood disorder in which individuals will grow out of their symptoms as they continue to develop and mature. Statistics show that 5.6% of US college students have a diagnosis of ADHD, indicating this disorder often carries into adulthood (Hotez et al., 2022).

Generally, college students experience many changes including increased academic workload, newfound independence, navigating romantic relationships, and substance intake while in college. Students with ADHD often struggle more in this transition, due to the deficits in social interactions, sleep and sleep quality (Pacheco & Dimitriu, 2023), emotional regulation (CHADD, 2024), and romantic relationships (Wozniak, 2022) associated with ADHD.

Of these areas of functioning, the present study will focus on romantic relationships in college students. Romantic relationships are a universal desire and need for most individuals across cultures and are notoriously difficult to maintain, even for neurotypicals. During this age, college-aged individuals especially aim to find romantic relationships due to social expectations, emphasis on partnerships, and increased interest in marriage. Relationships involve non-verbal communication, conflict resolution, attending to one’s partner, and patience. Individuals with ADHD, however, may have more negative associations in beginning and maintaining relationships due to deficiencies in these important skills. In addition to the concern this poses for college students who have ADHD symptomatology, neurotypical college students may be in a relationship with someone with ADHD, and/or may have friends or family that have ADHD, and therefore this research will help with an understanding of how ADHD may impact their relationship experiences. For those with ADHD, one can use this research to understand themselves more and also understand potential difficulties they may face in romantic relationships. If one is aware of these potential struggles, one can use proactive strategies to possibly mitigate these negative behaviors, as well as ask for help. For partners of individuals with ADHD, they benefit from this research to understand the struggles they may face in a relationship with their partner. This can help facilitate empathy and understanding towards close others and what to expect in a relationship with someone with ADHD. Findings from this will also be of use to therapists and doctors. Awareness of difficulties commonly experienced by these individuals may aid in supporting clients or patients with this disorder, in the hopes of facilitating communication to help romantic relationship struggles.

Literature Review

Attachment

Previous research has indicated that interpersonal attachment has multiple important implications for romantic relationships, including childhood attachments influencing one’s attachment in future relationships. Attachment is defined as “a global, relatively stable orientation to close others based on our beliefs and experiences with others” (Miller, 2018). Attachment theory, developed by John Bowlby, is the leading theory on attachment to close others. According to attachment theory, attachment styles in adult relationships stem from the interaction with caregivers at a young age. Kordahji et al. (2021) noted that “children develop a close relationship with one major caretaker figure, which persists into adulthood and defines the ways in which individuals create emotional bonds with significant others (attachment figures) for protection, comfort and emotional support” (p.1712). This information is important in understanding the basis of attachment for all individuals in adulthood. This shows that if

children do not develop secure relationships with their caregivers, this can influence their attachment patterns with romantic partners as adults.

There are multiple subcategories of attachment styles. Secure attachment, which is “widely accepted as the optimal style, develops when an individual grows up knowing they can count on their main caregiver to be accessible and responsive” (Knies et al., 2020, p. 44). Prior research investigating the relationship qualities of parents and peers in adolescents has shown that “a secure/autonomous adult attachment organization has been robustly linked not only to the security of one’s infant offspring but also to indices of adult mental health, romantic relationship quality, and broader social functioning” (Allen et al., 2018, p.1127). This style of attachment is associated with adults who are warm and responsive towards their partner, empathetic, and able to instill appropriate boundaries and trust in their partner’s affections when they are close proximity as well as away.

Anxious attachment “is associated with a negative working model of the self and the belief that one is not worthy of support from caregivers” (Knies et al., 2020, p. 44). Anxiously attached individuals are those who need frequent reassurance that they are a good partner and that the other individual loves them. According to Conradi and colleagues, “anxiously attached partners, in contrast to avoidant partners, try to satisfy their attachment needs in connection with their partners, albeit in suboptimal ways (e.g., by clinging, claiming, and sometimes blaming their partner) ” (p. 692). In other words, partners who are anxiously attached require frequent reassurance from the other person. Due to maladaptive attachment experiences in childhood, one has an internal disposition and belief that they are undeserving of support and therefore behave in a clingy manner. A final attachment type, avoidant attachment, “typically manifests as physiological distress linked with suppressed and delayed expression of emotion” (Knies et al., 2020, p. 44). Individuals with avoidant attachment restrict emotions and behave suspicious and resistant towards close others. Prior research has indicated that “Individuals with avoidant characteristics are hesitant to enter into any deep and long interactions with emotionally important figures in their lives. To engage in other-pleasing behaviors may raise the expectation of being rewarded for love and care, which to them means asking for the inevitable pain of disappointment” (Shi, 2003, p. 153).

ADHD and Attachment

Previous research has shown a significant relationship between ADHD and negative attachment styles in childhood. For instance, a study conducted to investigate childhood attachment in children with and without ADHD found that on average, children with ADHD are more insecurely attached to their caregivers (Hornstra et al., 2019). Due to the understanding of future romantic relationships through attachment theory, this is a noteworthy consideration when examining ADHD and attachment due to the prior understanding that attachment behaviors in childhood often persist into adult relationships. Due to children with ADHD being at heightened risk of developing insecure attachments as children, and given that attachment styles tend to stay stable over time without intervention, this has implications for these individuals’ attachment behaviors in the future.

Interestingly, prior research has also shown that ADHD symptoms may be exacerbated by adverse childhood upbringing. Roskam et al. (2013) conducted a study investigating the relationship between early attachment deprivation and ADHD symptom levels for adolescents. Results showed that for children who experience neglect “in 1 month of life, i.e. the lack of stable care and nurturance which has an impact on the development of attachment relationships, contributes to an increase in the level of ADHD symptoms several years later. As suggested in earlier studies, attachment processes apparently contribute to the development of attention skills and of emotional and behavioral self-control” (Roskam et al., 2014, p. 140). Both of these findings show that not only can ADHD symptomatology increase the likelihood

of insecure attachments, but insecure attachments may worsen ADHD symptoms in the future. These findings on childhood attachment are an important basis for investigating adult and adolescent relationships.

Prior research has shown a significant relationship between ADHD and negative attachment styles in adults, especially anxious attachment. Knies et al. (2020) indicated that “adults with ADHD themselves are more likely to have insecure attachment styles than the general population” and “the negative effect of ADHD symptoms on romantic relationship quality may be exacerbated by a partner’s high level of anxious attachment” (p. 60). Further, a study that examined attachment, emotional dysregulation, ADHD symptoms, and risktaking behavior in undergraduate students found that “attachment anxiety, most dimensions of emotional dysregulation …and both dimensions of ADHD (inattention and hyperactivity/ impulsivity) were correlated with RTB” (Asadi et al., 2021, p. 965). Risk-taking behavior (RTB) is defined as the “engagement in behaviors that are associated with some probability of undesirable results” such as substance abuse, dangerous driving, gambling, and unprotected sex (Asadi et al., 2021, p. 957). The results from this study illuminate RTB and emotional dysregulation as behaviors that individuals with ADHD struggle with more. These behaviors stem not only from the disorder itself but that due to anxious attachment these behaviors are more prevalent and harmful in relationships overall.

Similarly, Knies and colleagues state “that individuals with greater ADHD symptoms have more difficulty with emotion regulation than those with fewer ADHD symptoms” (p. 58). Emotional regulation is a deficit common to those who are anxiously attached as well as those with ADHD. This may explain why individuals with ADHD on average have been found to be more anxiously attached. Emotional regulation is defined as “a range of mechanisms associated with self-regulation, which encompasses some features as intensity, duration and stability of emotions, and skills of affection recognition, modulation and responsiveness” (Soares et al., 2021, p. 5). Another study examining individuals with ADHD, anxious attachment and psychological distress found “that adults with ADHD are at higher risk for anxiety and depressive disorders, especially anxiously-attached individuals who have difficulty regulating their emotions, tending to experience more stress and anxiety” (Kordahji et al., 2021, p. 1719). These researchers explained these results by stating “that the combination of attachment anxiety, which is characterized by amplified responses to threat and danger, with symptoms of ADHD such as impairment in coping with interpersonal stressors, make the individuals more susceptible to experiencing anxiety and, in the case of a lack of the fulfillment of their emotional needs, to depression” (Kordahji et al., 2021, p. 1719). These are incredibly important results to consider in the study of individuals with ADHD because one must understand the potential risks of individuals with ADHD and anxious attachment, including the possibility of more psychological distress overall. These findings clearly indicate an intricate relationship between ADHD and anxious attachment. In childhood, ADHD and attachment to one’s caregivers may predict behaviors with one’s partner. Anxious attachment may exacerbate ADHD symptoms and can be explained due to emotional regulation difficulties. The stress of ADHD symptoms, anxious attachment, and emotional dysregulation can also further increase psychological distress, which negatively affects romantic relationships overall.

Conflict Resolution

Pre-existing research has shown that conflict resolution is a highly important aspect of romantic relationships, especially impacting longevity and stability. In general, it is important for individuals to learn how to communicate effectively and engage in constructive conflict resolution in order to move through difficulties that all relationships face. There are multiple conflict resolution styles characterized by different behaviors partners engage in, including positive problem-solving, withdrawal, compliance, and conflict engagement. Positive

problem-solving is a style of conflict in which both individuals “focus on the problem in question, discuss differences in a constructive manner, find acceptable alternatives for both partners, negotiate and compromise” (Scheeren et al., 2014, p. 178). This strategy for conflict is one that is ideal for maintaining a healthy long-term relationship. Individuals who engage in this form of conflict resolution maintain the mentality of working through one another’s differences and resolving the conflict for the benefit of both partners. The withdrawal conflict resolution style is characterized by behaviors such as “refusal to talk for long periods, refusal to continue a discussion, shutting down the other spouse and withdrawing, and acting in a distant and disinterested manner” (Scheeren et al., 2014, p. 178). In other words, this conflict style involves one individual giving the “silent treatment” to the partner and showing no interest in talking about or through the issue(s) at hand. This style is sometimes referred to as “self-protection” because the behaviors the individual engages in “aid a person in removing themselves from a difficult argument with a partner” (Bisht & Tripathi, 2023, p. 4177). Another form of conflict resolution is compliance. Compliance, or Acceptance, is described as “behaviors of complacency, no defense of his or her position and quick giving up after a few attempts to try and present an opinion” (Scheeren et al., 2014, p. 178). Partners behave in such a way that one partner expresses feelings and frustrations in conflict, while the other behaves in ways “that advance one’s partners’ positions during conflicts” (Bisht & Tripathi, 2023, p. 4178). Reminiscent of learned helplessness, one partner “gives up” stating their position due to learning to be silent in order to “resolve” conflict. Lastly, conflict engagement is another form of conflict resolution that individuals may engage in. This style is characterized by “behaviors such as personal attacks, insults, bursting out and loss of control, in addition to attitudes such as getting carried away and saying things one does not really mean” (Scheeren et al., 2014, p. 178). This form of conflict strategy is very harmful in a conflict resolution situation, due to one individual being more aggressive and combative towards their partner which oftentimes leads to the other partner defending themselves. The individual receiving the negative comments protects themselves from this by insulting them back. Ultimately, this style is also harmful, due to both individuals no longer engaging in conflict over issues they are experiencing in their relationship and trying to resolve them, but rather how to defend themselves against attacks from one another.

Attachment and Conflict Resolution

Extensive research has been conducted indicating a strong relationship between attachment and conflict resolution in romantic relationships. For example, a study investigating the associations between attachment, conflict resolution style, and relationship quality in Spanish couples found that “female participants more frequently used conflict engagement and withdrawal in conflictive interactions” and males were more likely to use compliance, indicating differences in strategies between gender (González-Ortega et al., 2021, p. 5). Additionally, this study found that “insecure romantic attachment is related to conflict management styles that are likely to hinder satisfactory conflict resolution” such as conflict engagement, compliance, and withdrawal (González-Ortega et al., 2021, p. 6). Further, Shi (2003) indicates that “partners with an Anxious/Ambivalent (or preoccupied, in some classification systems) attachment characteristic have a strong tendency to exercise pressure on their partners, dominate conflict resolution processes, and display greater hostility” (p. 152). This clearly shows that individuals who are anxiously attached to their partner are more likely to be combative and controlling whilst engaging in conflict, which for cooperative resolution purposes, is not beneficial for a relationship. This research also showed results indicating that individuals who are securely attached are more likely to engage in behaviors associated with positive conflict resolution.

ADHD and Conflict Resolution

Previous research has shown that individuals with ADHD engage in higher rates of conflict engagement strategies with their romantic partners. Bruner et al. (2020) indicated that “ADHD has also, among adolescents, been linked with more frequent and more hostile conflict with loved ones such as parents, including higher levels of verbal aggression and anger” and “because hostility expressed toward parents in adolescence is highly predictive of hostility expressed towards romantic partners in adulthood, it is likely that young adults with ADHD show elevated levels of hostile conflict with their dating partners” (p. 99). This shows the importance of understanding that conflict is not limited to one’s romantic partners. Similar to attachment in childhood, this study indicates one’s conflict with a caregiver may influence the way one engages in conflict resolution in the future. Additionally, a study conducted by Canu et al. (2014) investigating ADHD subtypes and conflict resolution styles found that individuals with combined type ADHD diagnosis engaged in more negative behaviors attributed to conflict engagement during a conflict resolution task. It was also stated that, in general, individuals with ADHD are more prone to competitiveness and anger when engaged in conflict with a partner (Wymbs et al., 2020).

It is important to note that individuals with ADHD behave in ways that may increase the likelihood of conflict. For instance, Oncu and Kislak (2021) indicated that “an individual who has difficulty in focusing and maintaining attention would experience problems in fulfilling his/ her financial, social, and emotional responsibilities in a relationship, which would eventually lead to conflicts. Therefore, it is an expected result to observe reduced marital adjustment and increased conflicts with worsening symptoms of attention deficit” (p.131). In other words, due to struggles with the disorder, the partner of the individual with ADHD may become more aware of the discrepancies in perceived effort in maintaining a romantic relationship.

ADHD and Relationship Satisfaction

Previous investigations have found results that indicate individuals with ADHD have lower relationship satisfaction rates. Contributors of this low relationship satisfaction rate include ADHD type, increased conflict, insecure attachment, and difficulty with regulating emotions. For example, Brunner et al. (2015) state that “individuals with ADHD demonstrate poorer affect recognition, greater emotional intensity, and more emotional impulsivity than those without ADHD, possibly contributing to poor relationship quality” (p. 99). This indicates that those with difficulty regulating emotions (often including anxiously attached individuals) may experience lower relationship satisfaction rates. Additionally, it was found that individuals with the combined type presentation of ADHD not only engaged in more maladaptive conflict strategies but also were less satisfied than those not diagnosed with ADHD (Canu et al., 2014). Ultimately, the combination of negative conflict resolution, ADHD symptomatology, and attachment all play a role in the relationship satisfaction of individuals with ADHD.

The Present Study

Although ADHD, attachment, conflict resolution, and relationship satisfaction have been extensively studied, there have not been many studies conducted attempting to examine the relationship between these variables in college students specifically. Most studies research these variables independently from one another or with a general adult population rather than the college student population specifically. The aim of this study is to further the understanding of ADHD within romantic relationships in college students using ADHD symptomology, attachment, conflict resolution, and relationship satisfaction variables. Based on previous research, it was hypothesized that individuals with more ADHD symptoms will have more negative attachment. Additionally, those with ADHD symptoms will report lower relationship satisfaction rates and engage in more maladaptive conflict resolution styles such as conflict engagement, self-protection, and acceptance.

Method

Participants

Participants consisted of undergraduate students (N= 59) 18 years or older from multiple universities, primarily from a small southeastern liberal arts university. Participants signed an electronic informed consent before completing a survey through Qualtrics. A convenience and snowball sample of participants was recruited via the Psychology Department’s participant pool, text message, and social media outlets such as Instagram and Snapchat, where the participants were then invited to send the survey to other college-aged students. This research was approved by the Institutional Review Board, and was administered electronically and remotely in survey form. It should be noted that for the relationship satisfaction and conflict resolution measures contained within the survey there are different total numbers of participants due to an unexpected issue with the survey platform not collecting complete data for some participants. A total of 59 participants attempted to fill out the entire survey, but for relationship satisfaction only 54 responses were recorded, and for conflict resolution 56 responses were recorded. The survey data included the use of an identifier to assign participants course credit for completing the survey, however, only the researcher was only able to access data in a de-identified form in order to ensure confidentiality.

Measures and Procedures

For the first hypothesis, the Adult ADHD self-report scale (ASRS) and Experiences in close relationships (ECR) questionnaire were used. These measures were used to examine ADHD symptomatology and attachment style in participants. The ASRS consisted of an 18item Likert scale, where participants had to indicate on a scale ranging from “never” to “very often” how often they felt or engaged in various behaviors (e.g., “how often are you distracted by activity or noise around you?”) listed in the past 6 months, in which higher scores indicate more ADHD symptoms. The ECR is a 36-item Likert scale that measures adult attachment style in which participants were asked to answer questions on a scale of 1 to 7 where 1 indicates strong disagreement and 7 indicates strong agreement with a statement (E.g., “I’m afraid that I will lose my partner’s love”). This measure has been tested and shown to have adequate statistical validity and reliability.

The second hypothesis investigated ADHD symptoms and relationship satisfaction. The Couples satisfaction index (CSI) was used to examine relationship satisfaction. The CSI consisted of a single item Likert scale that ranged from “extremely unhappy” to “extremely happy” when responding to the degree of happiness of their romantic relationship on average.

The final hypothesis investigated ADHD symptoms and conflict resolution styles. The Conflict resolution styles inventory (CRSI) was used to ask participants questions about the conflict resolution strategies they use. The CRSI was composed of questions associated with 4 subscales of conflict resolution, specifically conflict engagement, positive problem-solving, self-protection, and acceptance. Each subscale consisted of 4 Likert type scales for participants to indicate how frequently they used these styles, ranging from “never” to “all of the time.” The conflict resolution styles inventory has been demonstrated to have adequate internal consistency and validity.

Results

It was hypothesized that college students with more ADHD symptoms would have more negative attachment styles (anxious and avoidant) with their romantic partners. A correlation test was conducted to compare the relationship between participants’ ADHD symptom levels and attachment. Results indicated that there was a significant relationship between higher ADHD symptoms and anxious attachment. Results showed that ADHD symptoms and

anxious attachment were strongly positively correlated, r(59) = 0.525, p < 0.001. Additionally, results indicated a significant relationship between ADHD symptoms and avoidant attachment. Results for ADHD symptoms and avoidant attachment were moderately positively correlated, r(59) = 0.370, p = 0.004.

Table 1

Correlation between ADHD symptoms, Anxious Attachment, and Avoidant Attachment

Note. This table indicates a statistically significant positive correlation for ADHD and anxious attachment as well as ADHD and avoidant attachment. All participants who attempted to complete this section of the survey had workable data.

Second, it was also hypothesized that college students with more ADHD symptoms would have lower relationship satisfaction scores. A correlation test was conducted to compare the relationship between ADHD symptoms and relationship satisfaction. Results indicated that there was a significant relationship between ADHD symptoms and relationship satisfaction. Findings showed that ADHD symptoms and relationship satisfaction were moderately negatively correlated, r(54) = -0.480, p < 0.001.

Table 2

Correlation between ADHD symptoms and Relationship Satisfaction

Note. This table indicates a statistically significant negative correlation between ADHD and relationship satisfaction. 59 participants attempted to complete this section and we got workable data for 56 participants.

Lastly, it was hypothesized that participants with greater ADHD symptoms would engage in maladaptive conflict resolution styles more often. A correlation test was conducted to compare the relationship between ADHD symptoms and conflict resolution styles including conflict engagement, positive problem-solving, self-protection, and acceptance. Results found a significant association between higher ADHD symptom levels and conflict engagement where ADHD and conflict engagement variables were moderately positively correlated, r(56) = 0.346, p= 0.009. A significant negative relationship between ADHD and positive problem solving was also found in which ADHD symptoms and positive problem solving were weakly negatively correlated, r(56) = -0.264, p = 0.049. For ADHD symptoms and self-protection variables, a positive association approaching statistical significance was found. Results showed that ADHD symptom levels and self-protection variables were weakly positively correlated, r(56) = 0.243, p= 0.072. A significant positive association was found between ADHD symptom levels and the acceptance conflict resolution style, with results indicating a moderate positive correlation, r(56) = 0.340, p= 0.010.

Table 3

Correlations Between ADHD Symptoms and Conflict Resolution Strategies

Note. This table indicates a statistically significant negative correlation between ADHD and problem-solving, as well as statistically significant positive correlations for conflict engagement and acceptance conflict styles. The relationship between ADHD symptoms and self-protection is positive and approaching significance. 59 participants attempted to complete this section and workable data was only available for 56 participants.

Discussion

The results of this study showed multiple statistically significant correlations consistent with the hypotheses of this study. First, a positive correlation was found between ADHD symptomatology and negative attachment styles (anxious and avoidant). Second, relationship satisfaction rates were negatively associated with ADHD symptoms. Lastly, a relationship between negative conflict resolution and ADHD symptoms was found. These correlations aligned with previous research indicating that people with ADHD and ADHD symptoms are at a greater risk for a variety of negative relationship outcomes, including all of the ones measured in this study, and suggest these outcomes extend to college aged individuals in relationships.

This study can help further the important research on ADHD and romantic relationships in college aged participants, as well as offer practical guidance for college aged students engaging in romantic relationships. These results are beneficial for college students, who may lack knowledge of how this disorder and associated symptoms may present difficulties not

only academically and in areas of one’s individual life, but also in aspects of life one may not expect, such as romantic relationships. Not only do over 5% of college aged individuals carry a diagnosis of ADHD (Hotez et al., 2022), with more meeting partial criteria, but many college aged students have friends or family with ADHD; thus, the results of this study can possibly help explain behaviors and help build empathy between these individuals. For individuals with ADHD, this research is also important in order to be aware of and seek support and treatments for the impact of ADHD in one’s life. This can include stimulant medications, individual therapy such as cognitive behavioral therapy (Bruner et al., 2015), couples therapy (for treating attachment style issues), and learning skills to benefit relationship satisfaction such as learning effective mediation methods and conflict resolution strategies (Kordahji et al., 2021). For partners of those with ADHD, this research is also important to be aware of symptoms so one can know what to expect from a partner with ADHD. Partners can use this knowledge to be better equipped for a variety of scenarios and gain an understanding of the complexities of ADHD. It is also important to note that it is important for partners of individuals with ADHD to support themselves and seek help if warranted, due to relationships with ADHD individuals being more taxing.

Limitations

There are multiple limitations of this study to take into consideration. Due to the smaller sample size, the results of the study may be skewed due to the true importance of the information being hard to determine. Specifically, one respondent’s score could affect the scores of the rest of the sample, leading to potentially less accurate results. External validity is another limitation of this study, due to the majority of the participants being students at Christopher Newport University and therefore not being a representative sample of the general population. Another important limitation of this study was that this study was conducted over a short period of time. This affects the amount of time being able to troubleshoot Qualtrics and the SONA programs before distribution, as well as limits the number of respondents that could fill out the questionnaire. Lastly, due to difficulties with Qualtrics, there was difficulty in collecting data for all participants. Unfortunately, some data was not recorded due to this difficulty with Qualtrics, leading to certain sections of my results not having equal distributions of respondents.

Future research

The present study consisted of a small sample size (N=59), and for relationship satisfaction (N=54) and conflict resolution (N=56) variables, this was even slightly smaller. Nevertheless, all hypotheses yielded significant findings. However, future research should attempt to replicate these findings with larger samples. Future research should additionally include participants from multiple universities, including international universities in order to further ensure generalizability. Additionally, future researchers should consider the comorbidities of ADHD. Often, individuals with ADHD are also diagnosed with depression, anxiety, OCD, learning disabilities, sleep disorders, and ASD (CHADD, 2019). Investigating further into these other disorders may help distinguish if ADHD is truly the most direct contributor to the majority of relationship difficulties these individuals face. It would be interesting to compare and contrast how neurotypical individuals, individuals only diagnosed with ADHD, and those with multiple disorders differ or overlap to possibly find more definitive explanations on this subject. Additionally, more research should be conducted investigating the perspectives and experiences of both individuals in a romantic relationship. Specifically, it should be investigated whether both individuals have ADHD, or one does, and also include various other disorders to generalize this research to various types of partners.

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About the Author

Ann-Marie Clark is a recent graduate from Christopher Newport University. Ann-Marie graduated with a Bachelor of the Sciences in Psychology and a Childhood Studies minor, as well as cum laude Latin honors. Passionate for the field of psychology, she completed multiple demanding courses, and began working with children on the autism spectrum disorder during her senior year. Before her studies at CNU, she moved to America in 2012 from Germany and successfully learned English. Interests such as teaching and leadership where honed through playing the clarinet in marching band ensembles and concert bands, learning and teaching American Sign Language, working as a cashier, and tutoring others in German. Later, she was diagnosed with ADHD and became deeply interested in the disorder and the passion to help others who are struggling started. Fortunately, CNU offered the chance for Ann-Marie to independently research ADHD and gain more knowledge of the subject.

Radical Right Parties in Western Europe: When Do They Win and Can They Form Governments?

Joe Cooper

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Andrew Kirkpatrick, Department of Political Science

Abstract

Radical right parties have risen in prominence across Western Europe in recent years. This research attempts to determine in what circumstances radical right parties can achieve electoral success and if that translates to forming governments. An analysis of research on populist and radical right voters was first done to explain why some cast their vote for these radical right parties. The research showed that these voters were not necessarily uninformed or even strong anti-establishment voters, but were greatly supportive of anti-immigration policies and would possibly shift their vote if other parties adopted similar views. Two case studies, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, were then used to determine that the adoption of radical right views by a mainstream party were the significant factor in a radical right party’s electoral chances. A radical right party’s ability to form or join a coalition was found to be based on factors like the history of the party, their current views, and possible disengagement strategies used by other parties.

The traditional idea of politics being organized on a left-right economic axis has become unable to completely explain current trends in West European politics. The emergence of second-dimension parties, who often adopt a multitude of policies from across the political spectrum, has caused the mainstream parties trouble. From the Greens in Germany to the National Rally (formerly National Front) in France, these parties show very little signs of just fading away. Radical right parties, in particular, have shown a surprising ability to attract voters and attention. These parties have created alarm in many nations for their rhetoric and nationalist views, especially in nations like Germany that still grapple with their fascist past. However, radical right parties have not been successful in every Western European nation, with parties like the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) floundering in Britain. Even electoral success does not guarantee victory, as forming a governing coalition can be difficult for these often-controversial parties. Importantly, this paper will only be looking at Western European radical right parties, so examples like Orban’s Fidesz in Hungary will be excluded. Why have some radical-right populist parties succeeded electorally in certain nations and failed in others? Even if they achieve electoral victory, why do some parties fail to form coalition governments? These parties can succeed electorally as long as their ideas on issues like immigration and euroscepticism are not co-opted by mainstream parties; however, their radical right policies, far-right pasts, and disengagement strategies by mainstream parties can make coalitions difficult to form.

Background: How Did Radical Right Parties Become Relevant?

Before exploring how the radical right rose to relevancy across Western Europe, it would be best to provide some information on what exactly the radical right even is. All radical right parties have the common theme of being nativist, nationalist, and generally opposing immigration (Art 2013). Beyond that, these parties can vary greatly on policy from nation to nation. It is also important to note the complex and still unsettled debate on the difference between the radical right and far-right. Some scholars argue that the modern radical right, despite previous connections to far-right movements, is a separate movement that works through democratic means to obtain power and excludes extremists (Art, 2013). Other scholars break down these movements based on whether they are anti-democratic, landing them in the far or extreme right, or anti-pluralist, placing them in the radical right (Bjånesøy et al. 2023). Due to this uncertainty on where the exact line between far-right and radical right is, this paper will refer to movements closer to neo-fascism as the far-right, while the more modern radical right parties will be referred to as the radical right.

The far-right found itself largely marginalized in the decades after World War II. Postwar laws and electoral systems were sometimes established with the intent to limit far-right voices, like Germany’s five percent electoral threshold. This would begin to shift as two major changes impacted Western European politics. The first was increasing ethnic diversity in Western European nations due to immigration and the use of foreign workers (Art, 2013). The second was the changing nature of politics. European left-wing parties faced issues as their traditional labor union voter base weakened due to the shift from manufacturing to the service industry (Art 2013). Meanwhile, the right was weakened by the secularization of society, reducing the power of the religious voter base they relied on (Art 2013). Radical right parties began to fill this vacuum, with one of the first breakthroughs for them coming in France. The National Front (FN), led by Jean-Marie Le Pen, rose in relevance after a breakthrough in the 1980s (Goodliffe 2023). The FN would even reach the second round in the 2002 French presidential election, a major victory even though they only received 18 percent of the vote (Goodliffe 2023).

Two crises would hit Western Europe that propelled the radical right into becoming a mainstay of politics, the economic crisis in 2008 and the 2015 refugee crisis (Polyakova &

Shekhovtsov 2016). The economic crisis harmed belief in the European Union, giving the radical right parties’ euroscepticism more credence (Polyakova & Shekhovtsov 2016). The 2015 refugee crisis saw “millions of predominantly Muslim refugees fleeing to Europe to escape the war in Syria” (Polyakova & Shekhovtsov 2016, 71), making the issue of immigration, the core of many radical right parties, an important political debate. The aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic proved a mixed bag for radical right parties, with the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) falling behind its previous results by 2.3 percent of the vote in the 2021 German presidential election (Bayerlein & Metten 2022). Despite that, several electoral successes have recently occurred for the radical right. The Party for Freedom (PVV) won 37 seats in the Dutch 2023 elections, making them the largest party (Veuger 2023). In 2022 the Brothers of Italy (FdI), won 26 percent of the vote and were able to lead a right-wing coalition into power (Clinch 2022). With the surprising success of these parties, it is important to look into who composes their voter base and what attitudes they have towards these radical right parties. Is there something deeper to these voter’s priorities than just immigration?

Radical Right Parties and Their Voters: What Policies Do They Support?

The early voters of many radical right parties were quite far on the fringe of political society, bordering or even crossing the line into far-right beliefs. FN voters when Jean-Marie Le Pen was leader were described as “Vichy sympathizers, neo-fascists, Catholic fundamentalists, and dissidents from the mainstream right” (Goodliffe 2023, 53). However, these parties have grown significantly since then and now include broader coalitions of voters. Some describe the voters of radical right parties as the “losers of modernization” (Polyakova & Shekhovtsov 2016, 73), working class and unemployed men who struggle to fit into the modern economy of Europe. However, it is important to analyze if this generalization of radical right voters hides certain trends on why they vote for radical right parties.

First, looking at how engaged and informed radical right voters are might be helpful. There is a common stereotype that radical right and populist parties are often used as a protest vote for those uninformed and uneducated voters frustrated with the system (van Kessel et al. 2021). However, is that really the case, or is it just a generalization of their support base? There is some evidence that “university-educated individuals across Europe are less likely to be ‘populist citizens’” (van Kessel et al. 2021, 588). This theory hits a snag when compared to other research however, as previous works have found that populist voters are more likely to be engaged in politics (van Kessel et al. 2021). Furthermore, when looking at the probability of voting compared to political information, there isn’t a strong trend showing that populist voters are uniquely uninformed. When placing political information on a scale of -1 to 2, both nonpopulist and populist voters increased their probability of voting as the political information value increased (van Kessel et al. 2021). Importantly though, higher values of misinformation also had little effect on the likelihood of a populist voting, but radical right voters did have a higher chance of being misinformed compared to left-wing populists (van Kessel et al. 2021). Thus, while populist and radical right voters are sometimes driven by frustration with the system, they are not necessarily uninformed or less educated as is commonly thought.

While they may not be uninformed, there is also an important question to ask regarding whether radical right party voters are simply single-issue voters. Anti-immigration policies are often a huge bulwark of these party’s platforms, even more so than frustration with the political mainstream. In fact, some argue that radical right voters are not even true anti-establishment voters, but frustrated single-issue voters on topics like immigration (Chou et al. 2021). This view is supported by the fact that “voters of more established populist parties are less likely to hold these [anti-establishment] attitudes than are supporters of less established ones” (Chou et al. 2021, 2232). Regardless, immigration policy is a powerful fuel for strengthening radical right parties. For example, German Chancellor Merkel adopted more liberal views on

immigration in the face of the 2015 refugee crisis, which resulted in the radical right AfD “winning 12.6% in the 2017 elections” (Chou et al. 2021, 2236).

To further highlight how important anti-immigration views are to radical right parties’ performance in elections, research has shown that when mainstream parties adopt similar views on immigration the radical right is hurt. Chou et al. found that if other parties adopted more strict policies on refugees and immigration, the AfD voter base would be hurt by five to fifteen percent (Chou et al. 2021). If the AfD were to soften their views on refugee policy, they could be in significant electoral trouble, with 50 percent of an AfD candidate’s voters leaving them if another candidate adopts a stronger immigration policy like a complete ban (Chou et al. 2021). However, radical right parties do have more policy that appeals to voters than just immigration, even if that remains the largest issue for many.

Radical right parties have a wide variety of economic policies that can attract voters from across the political spectrum. It should be noted that these parties have been known to change positions on economic issues, especially welfare, depending on the actions of mainstream parties (Schumacher & van Kersbergen 2016). For example, due to many mainstream Western European parties adopting pro-immigration stances, radical right parties turned to “welfare chauvinism” (Schumacher & van Kersbergen 2016, 300) as an electoral strategy. This strategy sees radical right parties’ campaign on limiting access to welfare to native citizens (Schumacher & van Kersbergen 2016). However, some radical right party support bases genuinely do support more left-wing economic policies, with AfD voters saying they would support a candidate who raised taxes on the rich and improved pensions (Chou et al. 2021). Others argue that modern radical right parties engage in a strategy of blurring their economic positions (Enggist & Pinggera 2022). This strategy involves a delicate balance of more left-wing economics to keep working-class voters while using anti-immigration policy to keep middle-class voters who are more opposed to the welfare state (Enggist & Pinggera 2022).

Finally, Euroscepticism is another core aspect of many radical right parties across Western Europe. Euroscepticism can be considered as opposition to deeper integration into the European Union (EU), and varies from party to party (Gómez-Reino & Llamazares 2013). Surprisingly, radical right parties are sometimes not necessarily the most Eurosceptic parties (Gómez-Reino & Llamazares 2013). Despite the differences in how Eurosceptic radical right parties are across nations, it is still a very important factor to these parties’ core ideology.

Why Some Parties Win and Others Fail: Case Studies on Mainstream Co-optation

After analyzing the policies and views of radical right parties and their voters, the question still remains as to why some parties have seen electoral victories while others remain an electoral fringe. The biggest factor in determining whether a radical right party is successful is if the mainstream parties can co-opt certain radical right positions into their platform, like anti-immigration policy. If mainstream parties fail to adopt these positions and backlash to current policy grows, you can enter a situation like in France where the radical right FN has begun to form a portion of the mainstream (Bastow 2017). The two case studies chosen to highlight this trend are UKIP and its successor parties in the United Kingdom and the PVV in the Netherlands.

UKIP started as a radical right party in the 1990s focused on pushing for the United Kingdom to leave the EU (Usherwood 2019). It won 12 seats in the European Parliament in the 2004 elections, the party’s major breakthrough (Usherwood 2019). Its strength only grew as years passed, with 2 members of parliament defecting to the party in 2014 (Usherwood 2019), and the party winning 12.6 percent of the vote in the 2015 United Kingdom elections (BBC 2015). The Brexit Referendum and the Leave Campaign’s victory would seem to have been the beginning of UKIP entering the mainstream as a viable third party similar to the Liberal Democrats, yet by 2019 a breakaway successor of UKIP, the Brexit Party, only won two

percent of the vote (BBC 2019). This is because of the internal change within the Conservative Party that shifted them towards policies the radical right supports. Since the 1990s, there has been a degree of Euroscepticism in the Conservative Party (Altiparmakis & Kyriazi 2024), but the 2010s would see it become mainstream within the party. Boris Johnson in 2019 ran on a pro-Brexit campaign, making his slogan “Get Brexit Done” (Adam 2019). Radical right positions on immigration and refugees were also adopted by the party, with the Rwanda Plan planning to deport any asylum seekers to the nation of Rwanda (BBC 2024). The adoption of these policies is what greatly undercut support for UKIP and their successors in the United Kingdom, as voters will simply vote for the mainstream party that integrates their views.

The PVV in the Netherlands has ridden a much different trajectory than their fellow radical right colleagues in UKIP. The radical right in the Netherlands really got its start with the Lijst Pim Fortuyn’s (LPF) campaign in the 2002 Dutch elections, a campaign which saw its leader assassinated (de Lange & Art 2011). Despite a successful result in the election, by 2004 the LPF had greatly declined and would be completely dissolved in 2008 (de Lange & Art 2011). Geert Wilders, a parliament member for the Volkspartijvoor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD), left the party in 2004 over its immigration policy and founded the PVV in 2005 (de Lange & Art 2011). The PVV would fill the radical right niche of Dutch politics for years, but the 2023 Dutch elections would prove to be the breakthrough for the party. The longstanding coalition led by VVD leader Mark Rutte broke down over internal conflicts regarding immigration and refugee policy (Euronews 2023). The new leader of the VVD, Dilan Yesilgoz, attempted to court radical right voters at first by offering to cooperate with the PVV, but eventually “tried to walk back her earlier words” (Veuger 2023). The failure of the VVD to stick with adopting radical right policies during the campaign contributed to the PVV winning 37 seats in the 2023 election (Veuger 2023), making them the largest party. In comparison to the British case, the failure of a mainstream party (VVD) to fully adopt radical right policies into their platform led to anti-immigration voters choosing to stick with the radical right party.

When Winning Isn’t Winning: Radical Right Parties and Coalition Building

The political system of many Western European nations necessitates the formation of party coalitions to ensure a majority in parliament. These coalitions can be ideologically vast, like the grand coalitions between the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany. However, radical right parties find themselves in an awkward position when it comes to forming coalitions in Western Europe due to their policies and views. They are rarely invited into coalitions and often remain opposition parties.

It might help to first determine what parties look for in a coalition partner, and which situations create lasting coalitions. Usually, most studies of coalition viability focus largely on “the ideological distance of the parties in a uni-dimensional space” (Dumont et al. 2024, 62). So, for example, one would expect two parties that are supportive of left-wing policy to be pleasant partners. Yet, in reality, coalition formation can often be complicated by the varying importance some parties put on issues and policies (Dumont et al. 2024). A social democratic party might coalition with a center-right party since ideologically similar parties would try to exert influence on certain policies (Dumont et al. 2024). Under these circumstances, it seems like there would be room for a radical right party in certain coalitions. In fact, Italy is currently governed under a coalition led by a radical right party (Garzia 2023). But radical right parties are often left out of the coalition forming process in many other nations, like the Netherlands. Even after winning the most seats in the 2023 Dutch elections, the PVV has had immense trouble forming a coalition with themselves at the head (Veuger 2023).

This difficulty for radical right parties forming or even joining coalitions is due to their distance from mainstream policy preferences and the tactical use of disengagement strategies by other parties. Radical right parties largely hold Eurosceptic views, which automatically puts

them at a disadvantage when forming coalitions with mainstream parties who, even if not enthusiastically supportive of further EU integration, are not clamoring for anti-EU policies. The legacy of fascism and their party’s often far-right origin also leads to radical right parties being avoided by mainstream parties. These parties will use disengagement strategies to avoid granting power or influence to radical right movements (Heinze 2018). One of the strongest is a cordon sanitaire which is “a blocking coalition between most or all the mainstream parties” (Heinze 2018, 289). This is why even when radical right parties have electoral victories, like the PVV’s in 2023, they don’t always translate into forming or joining a coalition.

Not all radical right parties face these kinds of disengagement strategies, however, as several Scandinavian examples show. The Danish People’s Party (DF), was “a ‘normal’ party from the beginning” (Heinze 2018, 288), and radical right parties in Finland and Norway have been minor members of coalitions (Heinze 2018). Once a radical right party has been engaged as a genuine coalition partner, it is difficult for mainstream parties to return to a strategy of disengagement (Heinze 2018). The past of a radical right party is also important in determining if mainstream parties will refuse to work with them. The DF in Denmark came from a moderate background, while the Sweden Democrats, who face a cordon sanitaire, came from the Swedish far-right movement (Heinze 2018). For radical right parties to make their electoral victories into actual influence within government, they need to be viewed as a reasonable partner by the mainstream. This doesn’t necessarily mean they need to moderate to participate in government, as the Norwegian and Finnish radical right show, but they need the mainstream parties to be divided enough to view working with a radical right party as the best way to keep power.

Conclusion: The Future of the Radical Right Parties

Radical right parties can still win significant electoral victories if there is enough support for their policies on issues like immigration and the mainstream parties avoid co-opting these ideas. When it comes to coalition building, radical right parties will face trouble due to their often far-right past, disengagement strategies by mainstream parties, and radical right policies. The future of radical right parties in Western Europe is difficult to determine. The mainstream parties in many nations still maintain a strategy of disengagement even as radical right parties rise in the polls. In Germany, where the AfD has seen a shocking rise in support, the CDU has ruled out a coalition with them (DW 2023). Moderation by these radical right parties to make them more acceptable to the mainstream parties would likely result in more votes lost than gained (Chou et al. 2021), so these parties find themselves in tough situations. The future of these parties likely hinges on whether they can win electoral victories that make disengaging with them a politically unviable strategy. In multiparty parliamentary systems, however, this will be very unlikely without holding a significant number of seats.

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About the Author

Joe Cooper is a May 2024 Graduate of Christopher Newport University from Hampton, Virginia. He is majoring in Political Science, having always had a passion for politics, history, and how governments function. His long-term goal is to work for a city government in the Hampton Roads region and help contribute to building a strong local community.

Religiosity, Conflict Management, and Familial Satisfaction in

Single-Child Families

JT Cox, Vic Kegley, Stephanie Langan, Peter Manarin

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Alice Veksler, Department of Communication Studies

Abstract

Families with only one child have increased over the years. With this increase, it is interesting to study and understand the relationships between families with only children and to understand how they differ from multi-child households. Additionally within families, understanding how religion can influence the families’ overall satisfaction of their respective lives. Also as an effect of religious tendencies, satisfaction also betters the development of the child behaviorally and spiritually. Understanding how religion influences families’ lives is important to understanding the levels of satisfaction in a household. Also, understanding religious respect and how that could correlate with family life satisfaction is a purpose sought in this study. Regarding singlechild households, a part of this study was done in order to discover the levels of family life satisfaction in families with only one child and how they differ from multi-child households. Many previous studies have been designed to look at religion and how it impacts families’ life satisfaction. However, not many studies have been done on how these religious tendencies can impact single-child families and ultimately, that is what this study explores.

The number of single-child families is growing rapidly in the United States. From 1976 to 2015, the percentage of American families with only one child grew from just 11% to 22% (Pew Research Center, 2015). While there is some research conducted in China due to their one-child policy, there is a space for further research on how being an only child in an American family influences the child’s outcome in various aspects of life. In particular, there can be additional research regarding conflict management and relational satisfaction within this demographic. By expanding only-child research more globally, there will be improved clarity on how being an only child affects parent-child communication behaviors, specifically concerning how they behave during conflict. Moreover, religion greatly influences identity, thereby influencing interpersonal interactions. Since religious identity can play a large role in interpersonal communication, it is important to understand how it may influence familial relational satisfaction and conflict management as well. For instance, tension can be displayed and mediated through various strategies depending on these factors. We believe that by widening research examining conflict management in single-child households, and how religiosity contributes to the development of an only child, we can better understand and predict their behavior styles in the future.

Rationale

The study of conflict management amongst single-child households is a particular topic that has yet to be looked at in depth. Because of the gap within research on these family types, only children are often stereotyped to be “more egocentric, less cooperative, less affiliative, and more maladjusted than sibling children” (Jiao et al., 1986, p. 357). However, the current studies on only children have presented conflicting results. For instance, in a recent study, researchers hypothesized that only children would have difficulty with social skills and communication abilities due to the lack of early sibling interaction. This study showed that there was a slight disadvantage in only children when considering communication abilities on its own. However, when considering other aspects of social skills, there was not a significant enough difference, possibly due to the only child’s more highly-educated parents and better educational opportunities (Wang et al., 2020). Similarly, only children display increased loneliness and a lack of certain types of communication at home, influencing their behavior later in life (Jamshidi et al., 2013). However, another study examined anger and emotional intelligence in children who grew up without any siblings and found that there was not a significant difference between such children and their peers who grew up with siblings (Rodrigues & Abhyankar, 2012).

Additionally, within single-child families, we are interested in examining the relationships of those in a family with levels of high religious devotion. This examination focuses on analyzing satisfaction with their family life. Religious affiliations within a family can be key determinants of relational satisfaction as well as contributions to a child’s development not only behaviorally, but also in values and spiritually (Bunge, 2006). We expect overall familial satisfaction to be greater in comparison to families with significantly high religiosity. This would likely be due to religion’s influence on identity, which then affects interpersonal communication. Instances of especially high religiosity in a family can contribute to high pressure for conformity. This may create lower satisfaction and lower religiosity for a child later on in life (Myers, 1996). Moreover, inconsistent or incongruent experiences with religion can lead to behavioral issues and familial conflict (Petts, 2011). Since religious identity can play a large role in interpersonal communication, it is important to understand how it may influence familial tendencies and behavioral patterns (Wangmo et al, 2015). Considering these factors, single-child households with moderate and aligned religiosity would likely have more positive outcomes in childhood development as well.

Hypotheses

According to Anderson et al., the number of siblings in a family affects the conversation and conformity orientation. More specifically, the lower the number of siblings, the higher the conformity orientation. “Conformity orientation deals with how deeply family communication emphasizes homogeneity of values, attitudes, and beliefs” (Anderson et al., 2018, p. 2). In other words, only children will be more likely to conform to their parent’s beliefs and be less open to talking about conflict within the family. This leads us to believe that only children will practice avoiding and accommodating conflict management styles within their families. The avoidance style indicates that some or all parties will avoid the conflict or ignore its existence altogether, while the accommodative style indicates that one party involved wins, and one loses (Ronquillo et al., 2022).

H1: Children from single-child households are more likely to use the avoiding and accommodating conflict management styles than children from multi-child households.

Religious affiliation within a family can be a key determinant of relational satisfaction. We also believe that positively correlated religiosity between family members and children can positively impact the children’s development behaviorally and spiritually (Bunge, 2006). We hypothesize that levels of religiosity and family life satisfaction are positively correlated.

H2: Religiosity is positively correlated with family life satisfaction.

H3: Religious respect within families is positively correlated with family life satisfaction.

H4: Single-child households are more likely to have higher family life satisfaction than multichild households.

Methods

Data were collected between the end of February 2024 to the end of March 2024. Approval for the study was obtained from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) prior to data collection.

Participants

There were 299 participants in the study. Participants reported their age range and were anywhere from 18-54 years of age. Fifty seven point two percent were between the ages of 18-24. Males made up 30.4% of the participants, females made up 55.9% of the participants, 3% were nonbinary, and .30% preferred not to say. One hundred and forty seven were from Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino origin. Two hundred and fifty one (83.9%) were White or Caucasian, 10 were Black or African American, two were American Indian/Native American or Alaska Native, 10 were Asian, one was Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, five identified as some other ethnicity, and one preferred not to say. Eighty four point six percent had siblings and 15.4% did not have siblings. Participants were offered the opportunity to enter a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card upon completion of the survey.

Procedures

The average completion time for the survey was 32 minutes. Upon opening the survey, participants were asked to complete an informed consent form. There were no screener questions. Data were collected in various locations, being posted on personal Instagram accounts, the Class of 2024 Facebook page from a small east coast university, the r/SampleSize Reddit page, the r/ OnlyChild Reddit page, as well as being sent personally to friends and family.

Measures

Conflict Management Style

To measure conflict management styles, we used the Romantic Partner Conflict Scale (Zacchilli et. al., 2009). We used only the compromising and submission-related items.

The wording was changed so that the participants were answering the questions with their parents in mind, not a romantic partner. Submission was measured on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree.” Sample items include, “I give into my parent(s) wishes to settle arguments on my parent(s) terms,” and “When we argue, I usually try to satisfy my parent(s)’ needs rather than my own.” Compromising was also measured on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree.” Sample items include, “My parents and I collaborate to find a common ground to solve problems between us,” and “When my parent(s) and I disagree, we consider both sides of an argument.” The measures were reliable (Compromising �� = .94; Submission �� = .82).

Religiosity

To measure religiosity, we used the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (Huber & Huber, 2012), specifically the fifth level, CRS 5. Religiosity was measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “Never” to “Very Often.” Sample items include, “How often do you think about religious issues?” and “How often do you pray?” The measure was reliable (CRS 5 �� = .77).

Family Life Satisfaction

To measure family life satisfaction, we used the Satisfaction with Family Life Scale (Zabriskie & Ward, 2013). Family Life Satisfaction was measured using a 7-point Likert scale ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree.” Sample items include, “In most ways my family life is close to ideal,” and “So far I have gotten the important things I want in my life.” The measure was reliable (FLS �� = .76).

Religious Respect

To measure religious respect, we used the Nonaccommodative Religious Communication Scale (Respecting Divergent Values) (Colaner et. al., 2014). Religious Respect was measured using a 7-point Likert scale ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree.” Sample items include, “My parent(s) are respectful of my religious opinions in our conversations,” and “My parent(s) are tolerant of my religious beliefs when we disagree.” The measure was reliable (Respecting Divergent �� = .86).

Results

To examine the first hypothesis, we looked at conflict management styles between single-child households and multi-child households. An independent samples t-test with group (single-child households or multi-child households) as the independent variable, and compromising and submission conflict management styles as the dependent variables. The results of the compromise conflict management style was t(265) = .403, p = .344; and the results for submission conflict management style was t(369) = 1.07, p = .142. The results show that there is no statistically significant difference between single-child households (M = 4.22, SD = 1.5) and multi-child households (M = 4.3, SD = .96) with compromising conflict management styles. The results also show that there is no statistically significant difference between single-child households (M = 4.04, SD = 1.54) and multi-child households (M = 4.24, SD = .98) with submission conflict management styles. This hypothesis was not supported. The second hypothesis tested looked at religiosity and family life satisfaction. A correlation was performed with religiosity and family life satisfaction. The results of the correlation found a statistically significant positive relationship between religiosity and family life satisfaction, r = .34, p < .001. Hypothesis two was supported by the results.

Hypothesis three looked at religious respect within families and family life satisfaction. A correlation was performed with religious respect and family life satisfaction. The results of the correlation found a statistically significant positive relationship between religious respect

within families and family life satisfaction, r = .47, p < .001. Hypothesis three was supported by the results.

To examine the fourth hypothesis, we looked at family life satisfaction between single-child households and multi-child households. An independent samples t-test with group (single-child households or multi-child households) as the independent variable and family life satisfaction as the dependent variable. The results of this hypothesis showed t(288) = .456, p = .11. These results show that there is no statistically significant difference between single-child households (M = 4.44, SD = 1.39) and multi-child households (M = 4.46, SD = 1.05) on family life satisfaction. This hypothesis was not supported.

Discussion

After conducting the first hypothesis, it was evident that there was no significant relationship regarding conflict management styles in both single-child households and multi-child households. The independent variable in this specific hypothesis was the group of single or multi-child households. The dependent variable was listed as the compromising and submission conflict styles. Ultimately, a t-test was conducted to test the relationship between single and multi-child households and compromising and submission styles. The main purpose of this test was to examine if children from single-child households were more likely to use compromise and submission conflict styles than children from multi-child households. With no supporting evidence that the hypothesis was correct, it seems that there are no significant differences between single-child and multi-child households and how they deal with compromise or submission during interpersonal conflicts. This may be a result of multi-child households being more likely to resolve conflict by compromise not only between siblings but between both children and parents as well. A study done in 1997 examined relationships and how conflict was resolved in a family. Some instances showed that children were likely to compromise, negotiate, and engage in conciliation to resolve conflict even by the age of two (Dunn & Herrera, 1997). As a result of the hypothesis being rejected, there are also limitations within the study that should be pointed out. With a larger sample size and a more diverse population of participants, it is possible that the results would be much more accurate. A previous study done in 2012 explores the idea that family structure (single-child or multi-child households) may demonstrate differences in family communication and interpersonal conflict (Trockman & Lee, 2012). An important takeaway from this is that children are also likely to learn compromising styles from parents therefore, single parents and dual parents may have an effect on results (Van Doorn et al., 2011). It is important to note that differences in family structure can also reveal variations in conflict resolution styles. Other factors such as age, culture, and ethnicity can affect these tendencies.

The second hypothesis that was tested showed a positive correlation between variables. The independent variable was religiosity while the dependent variable was family life satisfaction. With a positive correlation between both variables, the hypothesis was ultimately supported. This hypothesis suggested that religiosity and family life satisfaction are positively correlated. With the hypothesis supported, this suggests that with a higher level of religiosity within a family, satisfaction with family life will also see an increase. In a family where religiosity is important, it is likely for satisfaction levels to be higher. This can be a result of many different factors. Families with high religious tendencies could potentially be more likely to feel as if they are part of a community (Williams, 2002). Religiosity also serves as a guideline for many parts of people’s lives. For example, individuals turn to religion in order to make decisions throughout their everyday lives. A study done in 2016 found that 86% of participants rely on prayer and personal religious reflection when making major life decisions (Pew Research Center, 2016) When an individual living a life where they feel as if they are guided in making good decisions, they may feel a sense of satisfaction (Gee and Veevers, 1990). Similarly, within a family where each member participates in religious tendencies, it is likely for the family to experience higher

family life satisfaction altogether. A study done in 1995 dives into how religion can be a resource for the community as well as a guideline for many people to follow in order to achieve higher levels of satisfaction. Religion can serve as a pathway for families and children with resources for support, lifestyle values, and community access (Maton & Wells, 1995). Some studies suggest that satisfaction may not be consistent within all religions (Gee and Veevers 1990) and is a limitation that is important to consider.

The third hypothesis was tested using a correlation test to identify religious respect within families and family life satisfaction. The independent variable was religious respect while the dependent variable was family life satisfaction. The hypothesis suggested that religious respect within families is positively correlated with family life satisfaction. Ultimately, a significant positive relationship was found. With this information, one can conclude that a family that demonstrates respect for religious beliefs is likely to experience higher levels of satisfaction within the family. A family where religious beliefs are prominent is more likely to experience a more supportive environment in the household. When all members of the family exert the same religious beliefs, it is expected that all members will experience well-being with one another. A study done in 2010 also explores the topic of families who exert religious tendencies and their overall family satisfaction. The study suggests that social networks forged in congregations and strong religious identities are the key variables that mediate a positive connection between religion and life satisfaction (Lim & Putnam, 2010). While the study certainly shows the importance of religion on family life satisfaction, there is no significant evidence that it promotes individual well-being, which may be an interesting topic to explore in the future.

The fourth hypothesis was tested using an independent samples t-test where the group of single-child or multi-child households was the independent variable and family life satisfaction was the dependent variable. The final hypothesis suggested that single-child households are more likely to have higher family life satisfaction than multi-child households. Overall, there was no statistically significant difference regarding family life satisfaction in single and multi-child households. This suggests that the hypothesis is incorrect. It was expected that only children would have experienced more centered devotion leading to a more positive outcome for the whole family. However, limitations and different various underlying factors need to be addressed. This is interesting for a future study. Examining how life satisfaction differs between families of various structures could be beneficial to finding more evidence helpful for this study. A larger and more diverse sample size could have been beneficial in order to get more significant results. There are also many different underlying factors that could affect family life satisfaction in single and multi-child households. These underlying factors can include financial stability, the order of children born, and gender differences within the family (Liu & Jiang, 2021).

References

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Bader, C. D., & Desmond, S. A. (2006). Do as I say and as I do: The effects of consistent parental beliefs and behaviors upon religious transmission. Sociology of Religion, 67(3), 313–329. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25046741

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Jamshidi, B., Afshar, M., & Rastgaran, M. (2013). 2053 – Single child families and conflict of families. European Psychiatry, 28(S1), 28-E1260. doi:10.1016/S0924-9338(13)76972-4

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Lim, C., & Putnam, R. D. (2010). Religion, social networks, and life satisfaction. American Sociological Review, 75(6), 914–933. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122410386686

Liu, Y., & Jiang, Q. (2021) Who benefits from being an only child? A study of parent-child relationship among Chinese junior high school students. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, Article 608995. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.608995

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About the Authors

JT Cox is a junior at CNU and is majoring in communication with a minor in digital humanities. Vic Kegley is a graduating senior at CNU. Stephanie Langan is a senior graduating from CNU in May 2024; she is studying Communication Studies with minors in Leadership Studies and French. Peter Manarin is a major in Communication Studies at CNU and will graduate in May 2024. They wrote this as a part of their senior seminar course.

The Big Lie: How Employment Laws Protect Business

Cynthia Craig

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Linda Ficht, Department of Finance and Accounting

Abstract

Employment laws in the United States are often considered to protect the employee. With America’s fundamental ideals of freedom, individual rights, and financial prosperity, the foundational principles of law are posed to represent these ideals. However, specific employment laws and structures contrast the aforementioned principles by inhibiting the employee and instead favoring businesses. This paper analyzes and explains modern American employment laws and demonstrates the inhibition of an employee by these laws.

Introduction

The framers of the U.S. Constitution designed for the document to not only structure the government, but also to establish strong American ideals which would shape the whole country. In the Preamble to the Constitution, the framers list the principle of establishing Justice,1 which has prefaced numerous laws throughout American history. Employment laws are a category in which this ideal becomes a forefront. Employment laws, also known as labor laws, are vitally important to know as each law affects not only employers, but everyone in the workplace, such as employees.2 Most Americans are employees and are dependent upon their jobs in order to sustain their livelihoods. Therefore, the understanding of these laws and how they are upheld within the court systems is essential to every American, especially if they are an employee living off a wage.3 However, within these laws there are shortcomings which limit the power of the employee and deliver an injustice in which the business reaps the benefits. The freedom of these individuals become threatened upon this dependence towards corporations, and subsequently, the shortcomings within the laws.4

Background

Though the framers sought justice and equality, there were few laws for the workplace that actually mirrored these values. In the early 1900s, the working conditions in America were gruesome. There were little to no safety regulations to monitor hazardous and dangerous working conditions, employees were being paid little to nothing for strenuous hours, and if an accident had occurred during the job, the employee was penalized.5 In addition to these acts, there became a significant increase in the practice of child labor, where children were no longer in schools and instead were exposed to such dangerous working conditions. Children heavily comprised jobs in mines, cotton mills, and operating factory equipment. The subject became a battle over whether children were to be seen as economic commodities in which the parents were in control.6 These conditions had been in practice for over a hundred years and were predominant in the southern regions especially during the Civil War. Child labor was a cultural topic that frequently divided the northern and southern regions, causing the movement against child labor to stand still in most states until the Great Depression. The shortage of jobs during this period caused the majority of citizens to make the agreement that all available jobs should be given to adults rather than children. With this new unity President Franklin D. Roosevelt included a child labor law within his proposed New Deal agreement that was passed by the Supreme Court in 1938. This law banned child labor for children fourteen and under in most industries.7

In addition to child labor and dangerous and unfit working conditions, those who were employed did not receive a livable wage or any benefits. The American economy grew rapidly with industrialization, creating a large divide between economic classes. While there were wealthy industrialists and a growing middle class, the blooming of industries and factories

1 U.S. CONST. pmbl.

2 Employment Laws: Overview and Resources for Employers, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR (Jul. 1, 2023, 9:38 AM), Employment Laws: Overview and Resources for Employers | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov).

3 FRANK TANNENBAUM, A PHILOSOPHY OF LABOR 9 (1951).

4 Lawrence E. Blades, Employment at Will vs. Individual Freedom: On Limiting the Abusive Exercise of Employer Power, 1404 COLUM. L. REV. 67, 8 (1967).

5 America at Work, LIBRARY OF CONG. (Jul. 1, 2023, 10:41 AM) America at Work  |  Articles and Essays  |  America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915  |  Digital Collections  |  Library of Congress (loc.gov)

6 HUGH D. HINDMAN, CHILD LABOR 31 (2002).

7 Betsy Wood, How Child Labor Ended in the United States, THE NAT’L INTEREST (Jul. 2, 2023, 8:15 PM), How Child Labor Ended in the United States | The National Interest.

swelled the working class.8 Most workers’ wages were based on production performance, in which they calculated pay based on how many pieces of product they produced. These wage rates often were not overseen efficiently, and many factory workers were underpaid even based on the performance rate. Farm and agricultural workers were often held to a different pay standard, where it was common for their work to be paid in kind. Kind pay is compensation in the form of housing or meals, instead of monetary wage.9 With there being no set regulations for issuing wages, many businesses took advantage of this and severely underpaid their workers. During the 1840s and 1850s, workers began joining labor unions. These unions were essentially groups of employees that tried to bargain with their employers for fair wages and better working conditions, with the threat of labor strikes and work stoppages.10 These labor unions publicized the conditions of these workers and drew attention to the business in which they worked, often leading to public backlash that interfered with the business’ profitability. However, these unions were not wholly effective at inspiring legal change until the economic collapse of the Great Depression in the 1930s.The Great Depression was an important time for the labor industry, as the collapse brought forth several crucial labor laws that still serve as a basis for regulation in today’s workplace.11

With the prominence of unsafe and often dangerous working conditions, accidents would occur on the job that often resulted in the employee no longer being able to work for a period of time, or even in death. No compensation of any kind was given to any of these injured workers, and the time off to recover was unpaid and led to the job most likely to be filled by someone else. This meant that the injured worker would have no protection for their job or their wage. Those who sustained injuries would still come to work in order to maintain their livelihood despite putting themselves more at risk for injury or infections of untreated wounds.12 As the number of workplace injuries arose, more calls for reform for workplace conditions came from the public. Reports from states based on the number of workplace injuries and their increase served as a basis for reform within the states. States began to create safety and health legislations in order to amend working conditions. However, more amendments within these regulations had to be introduced as new hazards arose. States also were unable to provide the necessary funding to maintain these regulations, and a large number of businesses did not follow the state regulations as they were not strongly implemented.13 With the need for a stronger, federal regulation to apply to all states, President Richard Nixon signed into law the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA).14 As businesses grew and expanded industries, more workers were needed to maintain economic growth. The South’s main industry relied on agriculture and farming, with the

8 Jan De Vries, The Industrial Revolution and the Industrious Revolution, 54 THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY, 249, 250 (1994).

9 Thomas Moehrle, The Evolution of Compensation in a Changing Economy, U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS (Jul. 2, 2023, 8:35 PM), The Evolution of Compensation in a Changing Economy (bls.gov)

10 Rise of Industrial America, LIBRARY OF CONG. (Jul. 2, 2023, 8:40 PM), Overview  |  Rise of Industrial America, 1876-1900  |  U.S. History Primary Source Timeline  |  Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress  |  Library of Congress (loc.gov).

11 Work in the Late 19tah Century, LIBRARY OF CONG. (Jul 2, 2023, 9:03 PM), Work in the Late 19th Century  |  Rise of Industrial America, 1876-1900  |  U.S. History Primary Source Timeline  |  Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress  |  Library of Congress (loc.gov)

12 Achievements in Public Health, 1900-1999: Improvements in Workplace Safety – United States, 1900-1999, CDC (Jul. 4, 2023, 11:24 AM) Achievements in Public Health, 1900-1999: Improvements in Workplace Safety -- United States, 1900-1999 (cdc.gov)

13 Jason MacLaury, The Job Safety Law of 1970: Its Passage Was Perilous, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR (Jul. 4, 11:32 AM) The Job Safety Law of 1970: Its Passage Was Perilous | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov).

14 Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, 29 U.S.C. § 2 (1970).

cotton industry earning over half of the United States’ export earnings during the pre-Civil war period. The South relied heavily on slavery of African Americans in order to keep up with the production demand. Slavery provided workers on farms and mills; however, these workers were not truly workers as they earned no wage, were not free to leave, and often sustained horrifying treatment. They were considered as property legally and socially.15 With the abolishment of slavery in 1865 due to the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution,16 freed slaves began to move to the Northern states to search for job opportunities and to escape intense discrimination from the South. Nonetheless, they were still met with prejudices that affected their abilities to receive housing, employment, and various other necessary services.17 In addition to discrimination against African Americans, women were also a large demographic that received unfair treatment in employment. Women were societally the homemakers and caretakers of the household, with the men making up the workforce in most specialties. If the women were to have a job, it was usually teaching, piece making in factories, or other domestic work.18 During World War II, women were needed to fill in other roles in employment, as most of the men were off in the war. The women held a large number of the jobs previously held by men and comprised most of the workforce. After the war, women fought to stay in the workplace instead of returning as homemakers.19 In the workplace, they received a multitude of discrimination, harassment, and economic backlash such as differences in wages between men and women. Other minority groups also have a history of social and economic discriminatory practices that were carried into employment behaviors and decisions. These groups include Hispanic and Asian immigrants, Indigenous People, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.20

Discrimination in employment has been a longstanding issue that is still present in today’s society, despite legal efforts to combat it.

These issues called for action of the American people and lawmakers. Businesses and the economy were growing rapidly and these practices within the workplace were dangerous and unjust, as recognized by many. It has taken the efforts of several presidents, Supreme Court cases, and the American people in order to set precedents and regulations for businesses using these practices.21 However, even after centuries of enacting change, these laws still have discrepancies within them that prove to favor the businesses and these practices rather than the employees that they were intended for.

Fair Labor Standards Act

The Fair Labor Standards Act22 (FLSA) was passed in 1938 by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor. The act was created to combat numerous issues in the workplace by issuing a set of regulations that would apply to all states and businesses. As an overview, FLSA requires there to be minimum wages paid to workers by the businesses for their work, establishes minimum age requirements for jobs and industries in order

15 American YAWP, Cotton and Slavery, S.F. UNIVERSITY PRESS (Jul. 5, 2023, 5:20 PM), 11.3: Cotton and Slavery - Humanities LibreTexts

16 U.S. CONST. AMEND. XIII § 1

17 From Slavery to Freedom, SENATOR JOHN JEINZ HISTORY CENTER (Jul. 5, 2023, 5:40 PM), From Slavery to Freedom | Senator John Heinz History Center.

18 Janet Yellen, The History of Women’s Work and Wages and How It Has Created Success for Us All, BROOKINGS (Jul. 8, 2023, 12:05 PM), The history of women's work and wages and how it has created success for us all | Brookings

19 Claudia Goldin, The Role of World War II in the Rise of Women’s Employment, 81 The American Econ. Rev. 741, 756 (1991).

20 Rekindling Civil Rights, 1900-1941, NAT’L PARK SERVICE (Jul. 9, 2023, 12:44 PM), Rekindling Civil Rights, 1900-1941 - Civil Rights (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

21 William Carey & et al., Employment Discrimination, 29 THE BUSN. LAWYER 577, 614 (1974).

22 Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § § 201-219 (1938).

to combat child labor, and defines overtime work and the standard workday hours.23 The minimum wage requirements are differentiated by both federal and state requirements, where the federal requirement is a default unless the states choose to raise their wage above that of the federal requirement. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 hourly, as of July 2009.24 Additionally, nonexempt employees, or those who receive an hourly pay rate rather than a salary pay, are entitled to overtime compensation if they work over forty hours within a workweek.25 Finally, another major aspect of FLSA was the rule of age minimums for employees. This made child labor federally illegal and was meant to protect children from leaving school early in order to enter the workplace. It also was set with the purpose of protecting children from the exceptionally dangerous conditions that riddled businesses, especially in the early 1900s. The Act currently prohibits persons under the age of eighteen from working certain jobs and places hourly requirement rules for children under the age of sixteen.26

While the Act put into place significant laws that tremendously changed American employment, there is still a significant shortcoming within the law that compromises the effectiveness of it. This comes from the civil monetary penalties that are placed on the businesses that violate any of the requirements of FLSA. In the situation of violating recordkeeping and employer assurances, the maximum penalty is $1,240.27 This is an extremely low cost for more developed and wealthier businesses to pay after violating the law and does not effectively delegate punishment. For example, if the violation of recordkeeping was intentional in order to cover for paying an employee under the set minimum wage, it could lead to the cost of the FLSA fine saving the business money in the long term, as they were not paying their employee the correct wage for whatever period of time. Another incredulous fine is that of violating child labor standards that results in a serious injury or death of a minor. This fine is only $137,602.28 While that may seem like a hefty price tag, a large business or corporation may be able to effortlessly pay it. The fine does not amount to the severity of the violation, and it may cause a child’s life because of it. Another injustice to FLSA is that it does not apply to independent contractors. Independent contractors span a multitude of professions, such as doctors, lawyers, accountants, and building contractors. These people are considered self-employed because they do not perform services controlled by an employer

FLSA is one of the many laws that do not apply to independent contractors and therefore do not protect against child labor, minimum wage, or overtime violations.29

These issues are vital to the livelihood and wellbeing of employees across America. Minimum wage violations are especially detrimental with inflation rates, as the federal requirement has not been raised in almost fifteen years, despite living costs skyrocketing.30

23 Wage and Hour Division Historical Summary, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR (Jul. 12, 2023, 8:28 PM), History | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov)

24 Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR (Jul. 12, 2023, 8:34 PM), Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov)

25 Overtime Pay, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR (Jul. 12, 2023, 8:41 PM), Overtime Pay | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov)

26 Coverage Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR (Jul. 12, 2023, 8:49 PM), Fact Sheet #14: Coverage Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov).

27 Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR (Jul. 13, 2023, 9:13 AM), Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov)

28 Part 579-Child Labor Violations-Civil Money Penalties, NAT’L ARCHIVES (Jul. 13, 2023, 9:37 PM), eCFR :: 29 CFR Part 579 -- Child Labor Violations—Civil Money Penalties.

29 Independent Contractor Defined, IRS (Jul 13, 2023 10:00 PM), Independent Contractor Defined | Internal Revenue Service (irs.gov)

30 Josh Bivens, Inflation, Minimum Wages, and Profits, ECON. POLICY INSTITUTE (Jul. 13, 2023, 10:15 PM), Inflation, minimum wages, and profits: Protecting low-wage workers from inflation means raising the minimum wage | Economic Policy Institute (epi.org).

Employees depend upon wages in order to continue to afford housing, food, and other basic needs. Any employer violating the minimum wage is affecting the livelihood of the employee and their family. As with child labor as well, the violation of employing a minor under illegal conditions or by allowing them to work in hazardous conditions severely expose them to a variety of issues including mental and physical health.31 The caps on penalty amounts do little to ward off a business from violating the FLSA laws. While the violations have been updated in the recent year in order to accommodate for inflation, the caps are not high enough to effectively disparage employers of violations.32 The penalties need to be raised significantly to address the severity of the violation and to protect the employee against an unjust and, in some cases, dangerous outcome.

Family and Medical Leave Act

The Family and Medical Leave Act33 (FMLA) is a federal law that allows an employee to take a temporary medical or family leave under a specific set of circumstances while maintaining their current employment.34 Although this sounds like an appreciable law for an employee, there are significant limitations that hinder the value of FMLA’s benefits upon the employee. The act was established in order to entitle employees to take a leave for medical reasons for themselves or members of their families, as well as to promote economic stability and job security for families.35 However, the law only allows for a maximum leave of twelve workweeks in the period of twelve months of employment. This aspect fails to allow for employees suffering chronic illnesses or handling loved ones from continuing their employment should they exceed the twelve-week leave, and the employee would most likely either must return to work in some capacity, or to leave their current employment. For some people with extenuating circumstances that may need additional leave, having to choose between these options can be difficult and unjust. Another issue with FMLA is that the leave is only protected as unpaid leave. If the employer does offer a paid leave period, the FMLA leave must be used as the same time as the employer leave in order to receive compensation36 Employees in single-income or low-income families may have no other method of receiving compensation towards living expenses and are harshly affected by the unpaid leave. As a result, employees may be hesitant or resistant to taking the leave and can jeopardize their health or the wellbeing of a close family member in order to maintain their livelihood.

Another crucial issue of FMLA is regarding the specific conditions in which the leave is granted. There are extensive requirements on who is covered by FMLA standards in order for the employee to take the leave. The coverage includes the birth of a child by the employee, the placement of the employee with a child from adoption or foster care, to take medical leave while the employee has a serious health condition, or to care for an immediate family member with a serious health condition.37 The immediate family specification does not leave room

31 Kathryn Reid, Child Labor: Facts, FAQs, and How to End It, WORLD VISION (Jul. 13, 2023, 10:15 PM), Child labor: Facts, FAQs, and how to end it | World Vision

32 Part 578-Tip Retention, Minimum Wage, and Overtime Violations-Civil Money Penalties, NAT’L ARCHIVES (Jul. 13, 2023, 10:16 PM), eCFR :: 29 CFR Part 578 -- Tip Retention, Minimum Wage, and Overtime Violations—Civil Money Penalties.

33 Family and Medical Leave Act, 29 U.S.C. § § 2601-2654 (1993).

34 The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR (Jul. 15, 2023, 11:43 AM), The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov)

35 The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, As Amended, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR (Jul. 15, 2023, 11:52 AM), The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, as amended | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov)

36 Fact Sheet #28: The Family and Medical Leave Act, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR (Jul. 15, 2023, 12:01 PM), Fact Sheet #28: The Family and Medical Leave Act | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov)

37 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR (Jul. 15, 2023, 12:09 PM), Family and Medical Leave (FMLA) | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov).

for interpretation, however. The only immediate family that the employee may use FMLA to care for in most cases are current legal spouses, biological or adoptive parents, and biological or adoptive children. FMLA does not include siblings, grandparents, or grandchildren. An exception may be made for the employee under the parent and child requirement if the employee is able to prove that they are in loco parentis of the child, or that they were in loco parentis of someone else while they were a child.38 This condition proves an additional hardship to the employee as they have to have significant evidence that they were legally under someone else’s care or in the place of a legal guardian in order to be granted a leave. There is also a specification that the person the employee is using the leave to care for has an incapacity to care for themselves and perform regular daily activities.39

These guidelines strongly impair the ability of the employee to truly take care of themselves and their families, for a variety of reasons. If the employee is unable to afford to take unpaid leave or cannot receive any other forms of relief either from the employer or through government assistance, the employee will be at risk of losing their job, healthcare, housing, food, and several other basic needs. If the employee’s leave to provide care for a family member is not considered immediate family under the guidelines, they will have to seek other treatment or care options that are costly or does not allow for the support for the family member that the employee wishes to provide. While there are a few exceptions made for these circumstances, many employees are not adequately covered by FMLA. While the law was created in order to provide assurances to employees and create guidelines for employers40 regarding a difficult matter, there are shortcomings that disparage or hinder the employee from taking the leave or receiving benefit from it. The law would benefit employees more by offering extended leave options in serious cases or offering even a portion of wages provided to the employee in order to maintain the economic wellbeing of the employee. An additional remedy for FMLA would be to extend the definition of immediate family to include siblings, grandparents, and grandchildren, with the addition of minimizing the burden of the employee to provide proof of in loco parentis for their circumstances. This law was profound in its capacity to provide for both the employee and the employer, although there needs to be amendments to FMLA in order to dutifully protect the employee.

Worker’s Compensation

Worker’s compensation varies by state and is not administered by the U.S. Department of Labor. Although there are a few federal programs held by the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs such as the Federal Employees Program, the Energy Workers Program, the Longshore Program, and the Black Lung Program,41 the regulations and requirements are generally different in each state. There are, however, some federal applications to workers’ compensation that provide guidelines to the states. Workers’ compensation was created in order to provide awarded compensation to employees who suffer injuries on the job.42 This compensation is generally that of lost wages during recovery from injury, the cost of medical expenses, and providing benefits to dependents of a worker who dies due to an illness or injury caused by

38 Fact Sheet #28F: Reasons that Workers May Take Leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR (Jul. 15, 2023, 12:15 PM), Fact Sheet #28F: Reasons that Workers May Take Leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov).

39 Fact Sheet #28G: Medical Certification under the Family and Medical Leave Act, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR (Jul. 15, 2023, 12:20 AM), Fact Sheet #28G: Medical Certification under the Family and Medical Leave Act | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov)

40 Family and Medical Leave Act, 29 U.S.C. § § 2461 § 825 (2013).

41 Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR (Jul. 17, 2023, 1:11 PM), OWCP | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov)

42 Summary of the Major Laws of the Department of Labor, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR (Jul. 17, 2023, 1:15 PM), Summary of the Major Laws of the Department of Labor | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov).

the job.43 The law was created in order to counter the extensive number of injuries as a result of a work-related injury caused by often hazardous working conditions. These conditions were frequently enabled by the employer and if an accident occurred, it was either deadly or left employees disabled or out of work for periods of time without pay.

Workers’ compensation is often bought as insurance by employers through private insurance companies or state-certified funds, but there is often an option for self-insurance for larger companies. When a work-related accident occurs, the employee must file a claim within a certain amount of time after the accident and will most likely be asked to provide the nature of the illness/injury as well as how it occurred in relation to the job. There are several hoops to jump through in order to accurately prove that the injury is related to the job and did not happen by employee negligence or failure to comply with company policies in order to receive compensation.44 In Virginia, compensation will not be awarded if the employee is found to have used willful misconduct, proceeded with an attempt to injure another person, if the employee was intoxicated by a substance, failed to use a safety appliance, or had any willful breach of a reasonable rule by the employer.45 Providing clear and convincing evidence that these provisions did not occur is a hardship taken on by the employee in order to receive compensation, often in the form of a hearing with the state Worker’s Compensation Commission. If it is found that a case is eligible for workers’ compensation, there are additional challenges that inhibit the employee from justice for their illness or injury.

If workers’ compensation is granted to an employee, the employer is responsible for its issuance. If the employer fails to provide such compensation, the employer is penalized $250 per day of noncompliance, with a maximum penalty of $50,00046. This maximum penalty for violations is significantly small compared to the size and profit margins of some businesses who may be violating the workers’ compensation guidelines. While the business may receive a small fine, the employee is left without the compensation that they were guaranteed. Another issue with workers’ compensation is the size of the business determines if workers’ compensation is even available. This is determined by the number of employees in the business and the different employee requirements of each state. While Virginia only requires two employees as a minimum for the employer to provide coverage, other states like Tennessee require five or more employees. Small businesses employees are affected in this circumstance as if their employer does not meet the minimum requirements for coverage in their state, they are not guaranteed workers’ compensation.47 Finally, workers’ compensation is an exclusive remedy to injury in the workplace. This exclusive remedy gives an employer immunity from lawsuits by the employee in relation to their injury/illness, even if there was negligence by the employer that resulted in the injury. There is no option for private civil lawsuits for additional awards from the employer, only the amount awarded in workers’ compensation.48 The compensation awarded is a fraction of what could be fairly awarded within a civil trial, if the employer was found guilty of negligence. The employee receives a small portion of the compensation that they are entitled to, especially as a result of negligence.

Workers’ compensation is becoming more prominent in current news topics, as the rise of workplace shootings continues. While most states have a provision within them noted as the intention injury exception, where the exclusive remedy rule does not apply if the injury was

43 Workers’ Compensation, USDA (Jul. 17, 2023, 1:18 PM), Workers' compensation | USAGov.

44 What is Workers’ Compensation?, CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (Jul. 19, 2023, 2:40 PM), What is workers' compensation? - CWCS | NIOSH | CDC

45 Virginia Workers’ Compensation Code § 65.2-306 (1968).

46 Virginia Workers’ Compensation Code § 65.2-805 (1991).

47 Workers’ Compensation Laws- State by State Comparison, NFIB (Jul. 19, 2023, 3:05 PM), Workers’ Compensation Laws – State by State Comparison (nfib.com)

48 Virginia’s Workers’ Compensation System and Disease Presumptions, JOINT LEG. AUDIT AND REV. COMMISION (Jul. 19, 2023, 4:35 PM), Rpt530Pres.pdf (virginia.gov).

intentional, and therefore an additional tort can be filed for additional damages. In Virginia, the intentional injury exception has not been recognized. As a result, courts have held that injuries involving assault are covered exclusively by workers’ compensation.49 In January of 2023, Newport News school teacher Abby Zwerner was shot by her six-year-old student. While she survived, she sustained an injury to her hand and chest, and quit her job as a result of the trauma that had taken place while she was working and the backlash she received from the school board regarding her injury. She, alongside several other teachers, had reported the child to administrators after receiving numerous threats of gun violence from the student. These reports were intentionally ignored by the administrators, and Zwerner was shot a few days later. The teacher is now attempting to sue the school for their negligence of ignoring her reports and contributing to her injury and trauma. The school board however has responded by stating that the shooting was a workers’ compensation issue and that there will be no additional trial in relation to her injury.50 The defense for the lawsuit has stated that the shooting occurred within the scope of Zwerner’s employment, and that workers’ compensation is the only applicable law. Zwerner has denied the compensation and is trying to move forward with her trial to determine if the exclusive remedy applies51 in this special and horrifying situation. This case will no doubt either set a new precedent for Virginia workers’ compensation in relation to workplace shootings that will be used for numerous other workplace shootings or will continue to remain a workers’ compensation issue.

Various amendments can be made to provide stronger protections for the employee in the subject of workers’ compensation. Namely, that workplace shootings no longer fall under the exclusive remedy rule and allow for victims to open private torts if they choose. As shootings become ever-present in today’s society, ensuring that employees receive just compensation and legal protections is vital to expanding the workforce. Secondly, the penalty caps for violating workers’ compensation need to be substantially raised in order to demonstrate the severity of the violation. An employer who chooses to violate this law affects the employee economically, mentally, and physically. Finally, although the laws are mainly composed by the states, having a uniform number of employees for workers’ compensation to apply is crucial in keeping employees at small businesses. A profound solution would be to eliminate the minimum employee requirement altogether in order to protect all employees, no matter the size of the business.

Title VII

In 1963, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act of 196352 that established sex-based wage discrimination for the performance of equal work under the same employer. The following year, the Civil Rights Act of 196453 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in order to eliminate different forms of discrimination. A section of this Act is known as Title VII, in which discrimination in employment is unlawful on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, and national origin.54 The Civil Rights Act and Title VII were created in legislative

49 Ryan Murphy, Is a Workplace Shooting a Worker’s Compensation Issue?, V.A. PUBLIC MEDIA (Jul. 21, 2023, 2:25 PM), Is a workplace shooting a workers' compensation issue? | VPM

50 Laura Philion, UPDATE: Richneck Shooting- Toscano Law Group Representing Zwerner, Releases a New Statement, WHRO PUBLIC MEDIA (Jul 21, 2023, 2:34 PM), WHRO - UPDATE: Richneck shooting - Toscano Law Group, representing Zwerner, releases a new statement.

51 Heather Eckstine, Timeline: Everything We Know About the Shooting at Richneck and the Aftermath, 3WTKR (Jul. 21, 2023, 2:43 PM), TIMELINE: Everything we know about the shooting at Richneck and the aftermath (wtkr.com)

52 Equal Pay Act of 1963, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d) (1963).

53 Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000a-1, 2000e-17 (1964).

54 Timeline of Important EEOC Events, U.S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION (Jul. 23, 2023, 9:18 AM), Timeline of Important EEOC events | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

response to the Civil Rights Movement occurring predominantly in the 1950-60s. While slavery was abolished, segregation of races as well as discrimination of African Americans, women, Asian immigrants, and other minority groups was a common practice especially in employment.55 The Civil Rights Movement inspired a series of reforms and establishments of legislation in order to unify the instability of the state. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as Title VII allowed for new political and social change that is an outstanding foundation for employment considerations and discrimination cases today.56 Title VII was expanded to include discrimination of gender, gender identity, pregnancy, and sexual orientation. The Bostock v. Clayton County57 case regarded the unlawful firing of a transgender and homosexual employee by their employer after they disclosed their sexual orientation. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the defendant and therefore extended the Title VII protections to include gender identity and sexual orientation, among other matters that regard sex discrimination.58

The years following the establishment of Title VII included many cases brought for employment discrimination. If the unlawful discrimination were to occur, the victim may file a lawsuit against the employer, so long as they are able to provide clear and concise evidence that they received disparate treatment within the workplace, disparate impact of practices that affects an employee of a protected class, retaliation, negligence of discrimination of an employee by other employees, or quid pro quo harassment. 59 Any of these circumstances can warrant a lawsuit in which the employee is entitled to damages if the case is found to be legally sound under Title VII. However, there are caps on the amount of compensatory and punitive damages that is able to be awarded to the employee, which is based on the size of their employer in terms of total employees. For example, if an employee wins a Title VII violation case from their employer of 15 employees, the employee can only receive up to $50,000 in damages, before taxes and legal fees.60 The caps on Title VII are incredibly small compared to the action in which they are awarded. Legal fees alone in some cases can consume a large portion of the damages, leaving the employee with little to nothing to live on as a result of their discrimination. Many people in lower- or working-class families are not able to afford a lawsuit in the first place, permitting no legal action against the employer and giving reason to continue their practice of discrimination. The damage caps and cost of lawsuits of this kind are contradictory and daunting to an employee that may have faced harsh discrimination by their employer.

Despite the passing of Title VII, there continues to be a pay gap between men and women in the workplace. Recent studies have concluded that on average women make 82 cents for every dollar that a man earns while working the same job.61 While Title VII was placed to protect against wage discrimination, it is still a widely enacted practice among businesses. Claims for unequal compensation can be brought under Title VII, however the wage gap

55 Barbara Reskin, The Proximate Causes of Employment Discrimination, 49 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION 319, 328 (2000).

56 Cynthia Deitch, Gender, Race, and Class Politics and the Inclusion of Women in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 7 GENDER AND SOCIETY 183, 203 (1993).

57 Bostock v. Clayton County, 590 U.S. 208 (2020).

58 Bostock v. Clayton County, LEGAL INFORMATION INST. (Jul 23, 2023, 10:05 AM), BOSTOCK v. CLAYTON COUNTY | Supreme Court | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute (cornell.edu).

59 What You Need to Know about Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, THOMAS REUTERS (Jul. 23, 2023, 10:12 AM), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act: The basics you should know | Thomson Reuters

60 Remedies for Employment Discrimination, U.S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION (Jul 23, 2023, 10:17 AM), Remedies For Employment Discrimination | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (eeoc.gov)

61 Rakesh Kochhar, The Enduring Grip of the Gender Pay Gap, PEW RESEARCH (Aug. 1, 2023, 11:00 AM), The Gender Wage Gap Endures in the U.S. | Pew Research Center.

continues.62 Title VII violations need to include higher damage awards in order to not only allow actual and fair compensation to the employee, but also to effectively punish the business in which the employee was discriminated against.

Conclusion

While the United States has made dutiful progress for employment laws within the past century, there is still plenty of progress that can be made. Many labor laws result in the businesses being favored rather than the employee who is violated. This practice does not adequately provide diligence to the employee, and contradicts the foundation of justice that the framers, lawmakers, and the American people set out to structure. In future legislation amendments should be made in order to remedy this disparagement, including removing or significantly raising Title VII and FLSA damage caps, removing the exclusive remedy of workers’ compensation, and rectifying the unpaid and specific leave for which FMLA is structured. By enacting these provisions, the American workforce can truly be protected against businesses and corporations that are negligent of the law that stands to protect employees.

About the Author

Cynthia Craig is a student of the class of 2025, majoring in accounting. Cynthia was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, and moved to Newport News, Virginia in 2023, where she currently resides. After graduating, she plans to pursue a career in tax preparation and planning, as well as earning her CPA license. She is currently employed as the Student Ambassador to the Department of Finance and Accounting for the Office of Research and Creative Activity at Christopher Newport University.

62 Section 10 Compensation Discrimination, U.S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION (Aug. 1, 2023, 11:03 AM), Section 10 Compensation Discrimination | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (eeoc.gov).

Western “I” vs. Native Collectivist “We” in Nature Memoirs

Evelyn Davidson

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Joanna Eleftheriou, Department of English

Abstract

Comparing the authorial “self” in Leslie Marmon Silko’s nature memoir The Turquoise Ledge and Gretel Ehrlich’s memoir, The Solace of Open Spaces demonstrates that neither the frequent presence nor the noticeable absence of the first-person “I” signifies the scope of the author’s perspective in memoir or life writing. Each author’s “way of seeing” is sculpted by their cultural values, upbringing and ethnic history. With Ehrlich’s memoir, she forgoes the authorial “I” and, at first, appears to insert herself into her writing less. However, in reality, she adopts a very limiting cultural “we” in her narrative that effectively excludes the native perspective. As much as Ehrlich’s writing is a portrait of the white, all-American west that captures the essence of cowboy culture, it is also an erasure or imbalanced retelling of western expansion – at the detriment of the native people’s voice in history. Although Silko provides deeply introspective moments within her memoir, her authorial voice includes more than just her human self, encompassing wildlife, spirits, nature and the landscape.

In studying nature writing as a genre, we must understand the author’s relationship with nature and the ways in which the elements of the natural world are redefined by the perception of the authorial self. Neal Alexander suggests in his article, “Theologies of the Wild: Contemporary Landscape Writing,” that the term “nature writing” is inadequate, as it is limited solely to the natural world, disregarding the human, cultural aspects frequently found in this genre of writing. Alexander argues that nature “is neither innocent nor merely ‘natural,’ but inevitably entails acts of framing, selection, and perspective that imply both aesthetic and political values” (Alexander 4). Alexander goes on to emphasize a “way of seeing’’ that each author curates through their perspective of the natural world. By analyzing an author’s unique perspective or “way of seeing,” we can better understand how they define the self or the authorial “I.” This is the case in the writings of nature memoirists, Leslie Marmon Silko and Gretel Ehrlich. In Silko’s memoir, The Turquoise Ledge, and Ehrlich’s memoir, The Solace of Open Spaces, neither author offers an objective portrayal of nature in their writing. Their authorial framing of the natural world and their interpretation of the “self” is determined by their political and social values, backgrounds, and cultural upbringing. My paper will demonstrate how these two authors’ “way of seeing” differs; despite Ehrlich’s externalized focus versus Silko’s more introspective life writing, it is Ehrlich who is actually more self-focused and limits herself to a narrower perspective than Silko’s writing.

In Ehrlich’s The Solace of Open Spaces, she gives the reader a detailed glimpse into the American west and the lively cowboy culture that has developed there. Ehrlich crafts vignettes that highlight the different personalities and lifestyles of the cowboys and ranchers of Wyoming. On the surface level, Ehrlich seems to depart from the typical expectations of memoir or life writing by casting her own presence aside. She spends more time introducing the reader to the various people she encounters living on the land than she does talking about her own life. In other words, her writing centers around the external world, instead of her own internal. In contrast, Leslie Marmon Silko takes the reader on an introspective journey through nature, as seen through her own lens of the world, in her memoir, The Turquoise Ledge. Silko talks about her relationship with the rocks, earth and natural land that makes up the surrounding environment and the creatures with which she cohabitates. Her inner imaginings about the significance of nature and her intimate observations of the native wildlife demonstrates her personal mindset of care and respect.

Although Ehrlich uses the self-referential “I” less frequently than Silko, she replaces this self-referential “I” with a collectivist “we” that encompasses western imperialist culture as a whole. By situating her memoir in this singular perspective, Ehrlich has excluded native and indigenous peoples from the colonial “we” that is defined by imperialist expansion and the overtaking of native lands. Ignoring the negative impact of western encroachment on native lands and failing to acknowledge colonialist wrongdoing in her memoir, allows Ehrlich to “other” native peoples and their history, while simultaneously establishing western mindset as the dominant, all-encompassing culture. Silko, on the other hand, self-references herself frequently in her memoir, but also respects the world outside of her own – from animals to spiritual beings – she looks further beyond the scope of her own humanistic needs.

In putting Ehrlich and Silko’s life writing in conversation with each other, we can gain insights into the sociocultural foundations from which they build their narrative “self.” To do this, we must first define what constitutes life writing. In Silke Schmidt’s book, (Re-) Framing the Arab/Muslim: Mediating Orientalism in Contemporary Arab American Life Writing, Schmidt explains the origins and definitions of autobiography and life writing, which she uses synonymously. In Schmidt’s chapter titled, “Life Writing Theory: Constructing Life, Claiming Authenticity,” she ties the term autobiography back to the Greek term “self life writing” to literally mean writing about one’s own life. While autobiography and life writing are interchangeable by Schmidt’s definitions, memoir writing falls under a certain subset of life

writing, “Memoir therefore puts specific emphasis on the historical and cultural circumstances surrounding the writing of self” (Schmidt 49). Instead of a simple recounting of one’s own life in an isolated context, memoir is interpreted through a broader social and cultural scope which compels the reader to consider the “self” alongside certain social, cultural and historical aspects. Schmidt describes memoir’s less singularly focused “self,” stating that “The extended definition of memoir softens these borders between self and other, between individual and collective” (Schmidt 50). We will explore this with Ehrlich’s writing, which tends to deflect from the self, instead strongly reinforcing western cowboy culture as a collective.

Schmidt then ties the differentiation between self and other and individual and collective to the historical tradition of memoir as a “western” writing genre, due to its emphasis on the individual. The individual as the subject of memoir writing often excluded women, people of color, and other minority groups from voicing their own narrative. The emergence of narratives from underrepresented groups who were finally able to reclaim their own cultural stories and histories, changed and broadened the memoir landscape. According to Schmidt: With respect to the individual subject of ethnic autobiography, the memories sketched ethnic writers thus take the form of ‘politics of memory’ in which political facts and historical experiences, such as the experience of colonial oppression, are written and read through the lens of ‘ethnic interpretation.’ (Schmidt 66)

Using the genre of memoir, writers from marginalized groups told their stories through what Schmidt is referring to as the “lens of ethnic interpretation,” in which they call attention to past historical experiences and shed light on the disparities that aren’t generally acknowledged, and sometimes purposefully omitted, by memoir writers of the predominant culture. For instance, as a Mexican and Native American woman, Silko’s politics of memory shapes her experience of western expansion and the erasure of indigenous culture. However, by using the term “ethnic,” Schmidt implies that ethnic immigrants, or those who were born outside of the United States, are the only ones who view the world through a particular cultural lens. She even states in her book, “Writing the self does not exclude the process of invention – the invention of the self and the invention of the other” (Schmidt 48). It’s important to note that Schmidt is actually further reinforcing this line between self and other. She does so by limiting writers, like Silko, to the confines of “ethnic” interpretation, which serves to “other” the voices of writers from non-western cultures. While it is true that Silko represents one “lens of ethnic interpretation,” Ehrlich offers another. Despite writing from the perspective of the predominant cultural narrative, Ehrlich’s focus on the western, collective “we,” in place of the authorial “I,” is an ethnic lens that suggests her own set of cultural biases.

In The Solace of Open Spaces, Ehrlich creates distance between herself and the reader early on and takes an almost backseat perspective to her own narrative. Beyond the vague descriptions of herself that she offers in the beginning of the book, there is a noticeable lack of the selfreferential “I” that is so commonly associated with life writing. When she does self-reference, Ehrlich is short and to the point, “I came here four years ago. I had not planned to stay, but I couldn’t make myself leave” (Ehrlich 3). Even in her introspective moments, she attributes her personal growth and healing to the surrounding land and people. For instance, she says that the rancher lifestyle “woke her up” and that “the arid country was a clean slate” for her (Ehrlich 4). In effect, Ehrlich’s memoir “softens the border,” as Schmidt calls it, between Ehrlich as an individual and her role as part of a collective cowboy culture. The collectivist “we” takes the place of the “self” or “I” that is typically characteristic of memoir writing. Her husband’s death and her personal struggles are hardly the main focus of her writing; instead, they only serve as a catalyst for her decision to stay in Wyoming. Descriptions of Ehrlich’s relationship with her husband, his declining health, and eventual death are mostly condensed to a singular chapter, “Other Lives.” What’s interesting to note here is that she didn’t choose to title this chapter “My Life,” which demonstrates how she continues to situate herself on the periphery of her own

narrative. Erlich’s detailed descriptions of the cowboys she encounters and life on the ranch occupies a majority of her memoir, to the point where she begins to self-identify only as one part of a greater whole. “I had a chemical reaction to this old fashioned ranching community. I was loved, hated, flirted with, tolerated. I fitted in” (Ehrlich 44). This line demonstrates the way in which Ehrlich’s authorial “I” represents a small fixture in the larger, collective western “we.” In bringing the cowboy lifestyle to the forefront of her writing, she describes in great detail, “It’s not toughness, but ‘toughing it out’ that counts,” “chivalrousness and strict codes of honor” and the “necessary spirited resilience” that she encounters in her many interactions with local cowboys and ranchers (Ehrlich 43, 49 and 51).

Ehrlich paints an incomplete picture with her collectivist “we” that excludes or diminishes non-western existences within her narrative, such as the native peoples who are barely addressed in her memoir and the animals with which cowboys’ entire livelihoods are based. Her exclusive focus on cowboy culture does not leave room for a more complete understanding of the land, resources and settlement that make western cowboy culture possible. She establishes this culture as the only ideal – placing value on one’s ability to march to the beat of their own drum and create their own success. In each of the vignettes that she provides to her readers, Ehrlich glorifies this self-made, independent, but community-oriented western culture. For instance, one of the many people she meets and writes about is Red, a man who had dropped out of school to become a nomad, joining the circus and eventually committing himself to the life of a herder. Red doesn’t believe in daylight savings time and only does business in person. In another interaction, a woman named Reyna tells Ehrlich that, “‘I’ve slept on the dirt floors and also in the best houses. I’ve eaten just beans and the best steaks. That’s how I am. I know what the world is made of, and I still love all of it’” (Ehrlich 45). In both instances, Ehrlich idealizes western grit and stamina. The ideal cowboy, according to Ehrlich, should experience the hardships of life and still come out on the other side, even tougher and stronger. These are examples of what Heike Paul calls the “Self-Made Man” in his book, The Myths That Made America. Paul explains, “the myth of the self-made man refers, first of all, to expressive individualism and individual success and describes a cultural type that is often seen as an ‘American invention’” (Paul 368). In her writing, Ehrlich is promoting the expressive individualist in the image of a loner cowboy or rancher who moves west with nothing but the clothes on their back and is able to tame and live off the land. Paul argues that such expressive individualism actually feeds into the “collective success” and “ideology of mobility” that came to define the new world.

However, Paul points out that the invention of the“Self-Made Man” fails to acknowledge the uneven socio economic playing field that mainly serves to benefit white males. Similarly, Ehrlich recognizes the white, male cowboys within the collective “we” of western culture, while simultaneously failing to mention the native peoples who did not benefit from the “Self-Made Man” narrative. One instance of this is evident in her contrasting descriptions of rodeos versus a native Sun Dance ceremony. Ehrlich describes rodeo as “... a fast paced game of catch with a thousand-pound ball of horned flesh” (Ehrlich 93). Despite being a dangerous and often violent sport, Ehrlich spends an entire chapter explaining the sport as an admirable feat that only the grittiest westerners can partake in, “they land on their feet with a flourish – hat still on – as if they had been ejected mechanically from a burning plane long before the crash” (Ehrlich 94). Yet, when describing her observation of a traditional native Sun Dance ceremony, in which participants must refrain from drinking water or consuming food for four days straight, she casts an outsider’s lens upon the ritual. She calls it a “serious and painful undertaking” (Ehrlich 106) and notes that “Sun Dance was suppressed by the government in the 1880s…” (Ehrlich 107). It’s important to recognize that through Ehrlich’s “way of seeing,” she doesn’t ascribe the concepts of grit and perseverance to the natives’ experience, because their cultural endeavors fall outside of the realm of the “Self-Made Man.” Instead, she “others” the natives in

her depiction of their cultural traditions as primitive and self-defeating.

In examining Ehrlich’s memoir, it’s important to note that she doesn’t acknowledge this bias. Her writing seems to suggest that the entirety of the western frontier was empty and “up for grabs” so to speak, until the cowboys came along and “tamed” the endless wilderness. Ehrlich even says early on in her memoir, “I suspect that my original motive for coming here was to ‘lose myself’ in new and unpopulated territory” (Ehrlich 3). A closer look at this statement forces us to question what Ehrlich is implying by the use of the word “unpopulated.” Despite being only a few pages into her memoir, Ehrlich has already begun perpetuating the idea that western land is uninhabited. White House Historian, Sarah Fling, ties this mindset to expansionist ideology or “Manifest Destiny” in her article, “The Myth of the Vanishing Indian.” Fling asserts that this ideology became a “self-fulfilling prophecy” in the 1800s when the U.S. federal government began enforcing the removal of native people from their land as white settlers began expanding westward. She explains that the government, along with white settlers, adopted the belief that only the displacement of natives by white expansionism would save them from complete extinction, as they could not peacefully exist within the constructs of white civilization.

Ehrlich carries this antiquated belief of the “vanishing Indian” into her own contemporary writing, in which she suggests that they never populated the region. Her interactions with the other cowboys, in which they omit any mention of Native Americans, further reinforces the “vanishing Indian” as a part of western ideology. In one scene, a rancher tells Ehrlich that Wyoming is “all a bunch of nothing” (Ehrlich 2), and later on, Ehrlich asserts that, “The emptiness of the West was for others a geography of possibility” (Ehrlich 9). This repeated insistence that Wyoming was barren and lacking a cultural presence before westerners occupied the area, serves as an erasure of native existence. Even when Ehrlich does make mention of the native inhabitants, she reduces them to a brief mention or sidenote. For instance, she writes, “What was life-giving to Native Americans was often nightmarish to sodbusters who had arrived encumbered with families and ethnic pasts to be transplanted in nearly uninhabitable land” (Ehrlich 8-9). Ehrlich’s use of the word “uninhabitable” essentially invalidates the existence of natives who were already inhabiting the land. In other words, the land is unlivable, until the sodbusters arrived, because the native communities don’t count. She also underscores the “families and ethnic pasts” of the sodbusters, yet she doesn’t acknowledge that the native peoples already living in the west also had families and rich cultural pasts. In another section of the book, Ehrlich talks about the water sources, “Long strips of land on both sides of the creeks and rivers were grabbed up in the 1870s and ‘80s before Wyoming was a state” (Ehrlich 80). By using the passive voice in the phrasing, “were grabbed up,” Ehrlich dodges accountability and avoids addressing that colonists forcibly took land and water from natives. Furthermore, “before Wyoming was a state” suggests an emptiness or illegitimacy of the already existing presence in that space, before western expansion. Examining the subtleties within Ehrlich’s word choices allows us to pinpoint the frequent, but indirect ways in which she “others” native people and excludes them from the collective “we” of western culture that she self-references.

We also witness Ehrlich’s exclusivity in the way that animals are treated as disposable beings, outside the bounds of the western collective, “On a ranch, a mother cow must produce calves, a bull has to perform, a stock dog and working horse should display ambition, savvy, and heart. If they don’t, they’re sold or shot” (Ehrlich 63). Animals cannot simply exist; their worth is directly tied to their usefulness. In addition, animals are held to human expectations and characteristics – “ambition, savvy, and heart” are all traits encompassed within western cowboy culture. Animals who are considered tools aren’t allowed to roam freely; instead, they remain tied to the land, a reminder that they are viewed simply as property, “When I visited her house, two goats, a milk cow, a steer, geese and two dogs chained to a tree greeted me” (Ehrlich 40). Another element of cowboy culture is the conquering of animals by aggressive

force. In “Boyish Play and Manifest Destiny: The Transition from Civilizer to Killer in America and Abroad,” Jeffrey Gross ties expansionism and manifest destiny to a masculine ideology that promotes and rewards acts of “individual violence” (Gross 64). In Ehrlich’s memoir, we see that when animals aren’t being used as tools, they’re viewed as vicious and feral, a justification for violence being inflicted upon them. Ehrlich writes, “He had once kept a pet coyote tied up in his backyard, but when he came home from school one day, the animal was gone. ‘Your grandfather just didn’t think it looked right having a predator staked out front,’ his grandmother explained” (Ehrlich 35). If the animal can’t be domesticated, then it doesn’t belong and it must be removed. Gross explains, “In the opinion of the expansionist, the man who practiced a restrained form of masculinity stood in the way of American Destiny, so the culmination of the errand into the wilderness came to be the violent encounter with the nonwhite enemy” (Gross 63). Taming the wilderness becomes a necessary step in fulfilling manifest destiny. In other words, the cowboys’ unrestrained killing and domestication of animals can be interpreted as representative of their expansionist ideology, in which wildlife and natives alike, are the “enemy,” in opposition of the collective, western “we.”

Wildlife is not the only thing that Ehrlich diminishes and “others.” She also reveals how nature is subjugated in western cowboy culture. In “The Rise of Nature Writing: America’s Next Great Genre?,” John Hains asserts that “... we are prone to think of nature as something outside of us and therefore subject to control and exploitation if only we can find the mean” (Bass, Rick, et al 83). Returning to the water and land example, Ehrlich refers to the land as “cheap and relatively easy to accumulate” (Ehrlich 80). Her phrasing commodifies natural resources by attaching a monetary worth, while also suggesting a more permanent state of human possession and ownership. The western culture that Ehrlich depicts goes beyond just commodifying these natural resources; instead she reveals an ingrained belief that nature exists only to serve or uphold mankind. Such a “man against the great wilderness” ideology is evident in a scene in which Ehrlich introduces a man named Frank, who tells her, “‘Mother nature is a bitter old bitch, isn’t she? But we have to have that challenge…’” (Ehrlich 82). This suggests that nature cannot exist on its own – everything within nature is reactionary to humans. Ehrlich touches on this human-centric perspective when she discusses the discovery of a new solar system, which “... has startled us out of a collective narcissism based on the assumption that we dominate the cosmic scene” (Ehrlich 105). It’s important to note Ehrlich’s specific use of the word “dominate,” which implies an innate hierarchy in which humans occupy the highest level. It’s also worth pointing out that Ehrlich’s assumption formed from the so-called “collective narcissism” in which she references, is again, based on western collectivism. Thus, she is not considering that this human-centric narcissism might just be specific to her western, expansionist beliefs and do not translate into other cultures.

Despite Ehrlich’s detailed descriptions of the natural beauty of the landscape, she reduces the natural world of Wyoming to a mere backdrop for western culture – something that exists, but doesn’t have a life or purpose of its own, beyond what the people harvesting the land, resources and animals can pull from it. Pamela Frierson offers an interpretation of the frontiersmen culture in “The Rise of Nature Writing: America’s Next Great Genre?”: Frontiersmen do not ‘wed the spirit of the land’-they do not root themselves deeply in it, or honor its indigenous forms and inhabitants. They can live in a place for generations and remain essentially unchanged by it; their children can pack and move and not look back. ( Frierson 81)

Western cowboys and ranchers don’t “root themselves deeply” in the vast landscape, but sit on top of it, dominating and exploiting it for their own purposes. They are constantly imposing change upon the land and its natural inhabitants, instead of letting the environment affect or change them. Frierson’s “spirit of the land” is not included in the collective “self” that Ehrlich develops out of western culture. Instead of self-referencing herself as an individual, Ehrlich’s

life writing perpetuates the collectivist “we” of western culture – a “we” that encompasses the cowboys, the herders and the conquerors of land and animals. This exclusivity allows her to draw an impenetrable boundary between westerners and the “spirit of the land,” which includes its resources and the animals that inhabit it.

In Silko’s The Turquoise Ledge, she offers a different “way of seeing” nature and the authorial “self” that, like Ehrlich, is influenced and shaped by her cultural upbringing. Silko notes, “All my life at Laguna I was surrounded by people who loved to tell stories because it was through the spoken word and human memory that for thousands of years the Pueblo people had recorded and maintained their entire culture” (Silko 27). Silko is able to reclaim her native narrative as someone of Laguna Pueblo descent, all within the structure of the memoir – a genre that had previously excluded voices such as her own. Due to this, Silko’s writing seems significantly more self-referential and “I” focused than Ehrlich’s memoir, at first glance. For instance, Silko’s first chapter details her internal musings as she walks through the Tucson Mountain trails, “The idea was that the exercise and open air would help release my mind into a less self-conscious state where I could better perceive the delicacy of the light and the dawn moisture in the breeze” (Silko 7). This line suggests that Silko’s focus lies solely in her own conscience and in her sensory perceptions. She also spends time unfolding her family’s personal history – tracing her roots back to her Great Grandma A’mooh, “Twice in my dreams I visited with Grandma A’mooh. Both times she hugged me close to her as she did when I was a little girl…” (Silko 16). While it is true that Silko focuses on her personal history and invokes the self-referential “I” more than Ehrlich, her acknowledgement and deference for other living creatures or “more-than-human” beings, as she calls them, demonstrates the wider scope of her writing.

It’s important to note Silko’s use of the word “more-than,” instead of non-human. By choosing this terminology, she de-centers human beings as the default and suggests that there is “more” to the world than human existence. She even states in chapter 5, “From my earliest days, animals and beings of the natural world occupied as much of my consciousness as human beings did” (Silko 22). In this way, Silko has expanded her authorial “I,” casting a wider lens that includes animals, nature, and more-than-humans in her collective consciousness. In Susan Miller’s “Native Historians Write Back: The Indigenous Paradigm in American Indian Historiography,” Miller traces these non-human-centric values to the Native American belief system:

“Everything is alive and has needs and rights. People must therefore concern themselves with the health and well-being of everything in the cosmos just as they concern themselves with their families and communities” (Miller 28).

Like her personal family history and Laguna community, The cosmos in its entirety falls under the authorial “I” that Silko invokes throughout her memoir. Instead of locking herself within the bounds of her own human-centric lens, as does Ehrlich with her self-referential “we” of western culture, Silko accepts that she is just one creature within a diverse, multi-species ecosystem of plants, natural resources, wildlife and even spiritual forces.

Silko ignores, and even subverts, the boundaries between herself, as human, and the natural world. Whereas Ehrlich views animals as either pests to be removed or as tools that serve humans, Silko celebrates animals as an existence of their own, as creatures living for their own purpose. She demonstrates this by calling the rattlesnakes and pack rats her “neighbors,” which suggests that she respects their right to exist and inhabit the land (Silko 82). She also doesn’t diminish their intelligence or underestimate their ability to act with intention in the same way that humans do. She writes, “The pack rats found holes left by inept, careless remodelers and gnawed their way up through the floor into the kitchen cabinets, next to the electric range” (Silko 116). In this case, as in many of Silko’s one-on-one interactions with “more-than-human” beings, she does not reduce animals to mere “critters.” Instead, she

ascribes agency and intention to these creatures – even going so far as to note their intelligence and survival skills in avoiding man made traps, “The sprung traps gave me an appreciation for their cleverness” (Silko 117). In acknowledging wildlife intelligence and respecting their right to exist, Silko doesn’t push “more-than-human” beings to the periphery of her narrative, nor does she other them. In contrast to Ehrlich, she gives them as much weight and significance in her storytelling as she does her own personal history and introspective thoughts.

Building on their innate intelligence, Silko also suggests a mutual understanding between herself and the “more-than-human” beings that isn’t based on a prey and predator structure. She says, “Bees understand kindness. They never try to sting me while I try to save one of them from drowning” (Silko 115). This line highlights how Silko doesn’t view all wildlife as vulnerable and at the mercy of human will, like Ehlrich does. In another instance, Silko talks about her efforts to free a snake that had become trapped in her cistern, “Because the cistern belonged to me, I felt obligated to free the snake” (Silko 100). She does not imply that the snake is helpless or weak, she simply wants to rescue the snake because it is her cistern that got in its way. In these moments, Silko works in cooperation with the “more-than-human” beings, unlike Ehrlich who’s western cowboy culture fosters a desire for human domination over animals. In fact, Silko has little desire to contain or trap wildlife for the mere fun of it. She reflects on a childhood memory, in which she tries to catch a wild kitten, “When I was finally able to grab hold of one it hissed and scratched me until I let it go and it fled to the safety of the rocks. I never tried to catch one again” (Silko 24). While Ehrlich’s western cowboys would view a kitten as a domestic animal, Silko respects its agency and paints the kitten to be as agile and self-protective as any other wild animal. In general, Silko associates “more-than-human” beings with freedom, instead of domination and possession. As a child, Silko often fantasized about roaming freely, “I wanted to have four legs and be able to run free in the hills as a deer or as a horse. For a long time I wished I wasn’t a human being.” (Silko 23). This shows how Silko doesn’t hold freedom as a solely human concept, nor does she glorify the human experience as the utmost form of agency. In applying typically human concepts, such as agency, freedom and intelligence to animals, Silko is broadening the scope of her lens, to be less self-referential and more inclusive to a diverse cosmos of human and “more-than-human” interactions.

In addition, Silko respects “more-than-human” beings’ right to occupy the same space in which she lives, because she relates to their feelings of displacement. This is why she either helps free rattlesnakes or leaves them to their own devices, but refuses to kill them. She allows the creatures to tunnel under her house and regularly enter her home as they please. Silko believes it is the rattlesnakes’ home too, stating, “The snake made me feel welcome here…” (Silko 82-83). For her, she is intruding on their space, just as much as they’re intruding on hers. This is a stark contrast to Ehrlich’s world, in which there is a defined boundary between wildlife and domestic spaces, “Most characteristic of the state’s landscape is what a developer euphemistically describes as “indigenous growth right up to your front door…” (Ehrlich 3). While Ehrlich draws the line between what belongs indoors and what belongs outside, Silko does not distinguish between the two – her “front door” is always open. As Nathaniel Otjen argues in his article, “Indigenous Radical Resurgence and Multispecies Landscapes: Leslie Marmon Silko’s The Turquoise Ledge,” “Silko frames two acts of historical and contemporary rattlesnake eradication— the use of fences and nets to demarcate boundaries and the belief in the home as a bounded, singularly human space— as forms of continued settler- colonial possession and displacement” (Otjen 139). Silko’s cultural history allows her to relate to and understand the rattlesnakes and other “more-than-human” beings. By doing so, it enables her to incorporate them into her authorial “self” or “I,” in a way that Ehrlich does not.

Throughout her memoir, Silko continues to draw connections between herself and “morethan-human” beings in their feelings of displacement. She writes about the wild bees returning to drink water from a nearby cistern pool, “I was afraid they might have lost their home to the

real estate developers as the others had” (Silko 163). This statement takes two meanings: we can interpret one to mean that Silko was concerned about the bees losing their source of water, as another group of bees had already. However, we can also read, “as the others had” as an indirect reference to the land and resources being taken from natives by western expansionists. In another example, Silko expresses her discontent with the idea of eradicating spiders in her home, “I don’t like to disturb the spiders by dusting the portraits. It is possible to use a lamb’s wool duster to remove the spiders’ webs and eggs without harm but the spiders are forced to relocate’’ (Silko 163). Much like the spiders, many native peoples were forced to relocate as western expansionism encroached upon their space. According to Otjen, Silko expands the traditional indigenous values of collectivism to include the “more-than-human” beings that make up “a communal, collective sense of self” (Otjen 136). This diverse, multispecies collective self is embodied through Silko’s inclusive, but singular authorial voice. Through this, she offers a broader cultural perspective than Ehrlich does in her vignettes of western cowboy life.

When looking at the memoirs of Ehrlich and Silko, we see that both authors have a unique “way of seeing,” that influences how they define their authorial “self.” Ehrlich exchanges her self-referential “I” for a collectivist “we,” but it is limited to the lens of western, cowboy culture; she others the natural world and the native experience. In contrast, Silko employs the firstperson “I” more often than Ehrlich, yet her narrative de-centers the human experience and acknowledges a larger cosmos of wildlife and nature. By Putting Ehrlich and Silko’s respective memoirs in conversation with each other, identifying how they define their authorial “self,” and understanding the cultural contexts that have shaped their “ethnic lens of interpretation,” allows us to assess their sociocultural self-awareness. By recognizing these biases and identifying the ideologies that shape their “way of seeing,” we can receive a broader and more accurate reading of their life writing. Memoirs, as a literary genre, become a more valuable tool for understanding history and the lives of others when the sociocultural context in which it was written is fully recognized and understood.

Works Cited

Alexander, Neal. “Theologies of the Wild: Contemporary Landscape Writing.” Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 38, no. 4, 2015, pp. 1–19. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2979/jmodelite.38.4.1. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

Bass, Rick, et al. “The Rise of Nature Writing: America’s Next Great Genre?” Manoa, vol. 4, no. 2, 1992, pp. 73–96. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4228789. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

Cason, Jacqueline Johnson. “Nature Writer as Storyteller: The Nature Essay as a Literary Genre.” CEA Critic, vol. 54, no. 1, 1991, pp. 12–18. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44377075. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

Ehrlich, Gretel. The Solace of Open Spaces. Penguin Books, 1985.

Fling, Sarah. “The Myth of the Vanishing Indian.” whitehousehistory.org, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-myth-of-the-vanishing-indian. Accessed 14 April 2024.

Gross, Jeffrey. “Boyish Play and Manifest Destiny: The Transition from Civilizer to Killer in America and Abroad.” South Atlantic Review, vol. 73, no. 2, 2008, pp. 59–80. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27784779. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

Miller, Susan A. “Native Historians Write Back: The Indigenous Paradigm in American Indian Historiography.” Wicazo Sa Review, vol. 24, no. 1, 2009, pp. 25–45. JSTOR, http://www. jstor.org/stable/40587764. Accessed 14 Feb. 2024.

Otjen, Nathaniel. “Indigenous Radical Resurgence and Multispecies Landscapes: Leslie Marmon Silko’s The Turquoise Ledge.” Studies in American Indian Literatures, vol. 31 no. 3, 2019, p. 135-157. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.5250/studamerindilite.31.3-4.0135.

Paul, Heike. “Expressive Individualism and the Myth of the Self-Made Man.” The Myths That Made America: An Introduction to American Studies, Transcript Verlag, 2014, pp. 367–420. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wxsdq.11. Accessed 14 Feb. 2024.

Schmidt, Silke. “Life Writing Theory: Constructing Life, Claiming Authenticity.” (Re-)Framing the Arab/Muslim: Mediating Orientalism in Contemporary Arab American Life Writing, Transcript Verlag, 2014, pp. 47–136. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1xxs1s.5. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

Silko, Leslie M. The Turquoise Ledge. Penguin Books, 2010.

About the Author

Evelyn Davidson is a CNU 2024 graduate, who majored in English and double minored in psychology and journalism. During her time at CNU, Evelyn contributed to the student newspaper, The Captain’s Log, where she served as the News Editor for two years and led the paper as Editor-in-Chief during her senior year. Evelyn is pursuing a career in print journalism and is freelance writing for local papers over the summer.

From Persona to Policy: Gender Dynamics in the Decision Making of the Iraq War

Katarina Demcheshen

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Andrew Falk, Department of History

Abstract

This paper explores the influence of American conceptions of gender and sexuality on the decisions made by the Bush Administration during the Iraq war. The current historiography features many approaches for explaining policy decisions, including diplomacy, foreign policy, tactics, strategy, and others, but does not prevalently consider gendered politics. Through the use of primary source material, such as news articles, presidential speeches, and released documents, and secondary sources that provide needed historical context and theoretical bases, this work aims to address this gap in the scholarship, allowing for a more nuanced and interdisciplinary understanding of the Iraq war. This paper argues that American ideas of gender and sexuality influenced the actions of President George W. Bush and his administration through the construction of a masculine presidential persona, conceptions about strength and credibility abroad, and the legacy of George W. Bush in American-Iraqi relations. The situation in Iraq, especially as viewed through this gendered lens, provides valuable insight for the greater examination of the United States’ position as a world power. Specifically, this work’s findings help to address broad questions regarding the rationale behind political decision-making, as well as the effects of a president’s beliefs upon the expression of power abroad, deepening historians’ understanding of the United States’ actions.

It is the afternoon in Crawford, Texas, and a god-fearing cowboy stands strong against a chaotic force of foreign outlaws. His shadow is long in the hot, demanding, sun, never faltering, never departing from his mission of delivering the long arm of justice to the evildoers who deserve it. The scene is pulled straight from an old American western, a picture of courage, independence, and masculine strength in the face of certain danger. But this is no historical story or film, rather, it is a scene drawn from the twenty-first century. The heroic cowboy depicted is none other than President George W. Bush, and the “outlaws”, in Bush’s own words, are the country’s enemies in Iraq and the greater Middle East, including the Iraqi politician Saddam Hussein. It is from this environment, Bush’s ranch in Crawford, where he conducted many of his diplomatic meetings, and this mindset, one of traditional American manhood, that Bush and his administration conducted much of their early decisions concerning the Iraq War. This circumstance, combined with the complicated legacy left by his father, George H.W. Bush, concerning Iraq and Hussein, placed the younger Bush in a context rife with implications about how American ideas of masculinity and credibility affected his actions and policies during his presidency. These gendered effects can be placed within the larger narrative of the Iraq War and the War on Terror, providing insight into the rationale behind the United States’ actions during these conflicts. Overall, the actions taken by President Bush and his administration were influenced by American ideas about gender and sexuality through the construction of a masculine presidential persona, conceptions about strength and credibility abroad, and the legacy of George H.W. Bush in American-Iraqi relations.

The broad goal of this topic is to identify instances of gendered language and thought as they relate to decisions made by policymakers during wartime. By investigating the construction of American masculinity and patriarchy, historians can identify key traits, methods of action, and processes of thought that signify what a good man is thought to be, and further, how men attempt to prove themselves as being “real men’’. In relation to policy-making, such analysis also requires the assertion that the men in power feel compelled, frequently if not constantly, to prove themselves as being masculine, a phenomenon that is addressed by authors of many disciplines, including historian Anthony Rotundo in his work on American manhood.1 Generally, desirable male traits include courage, assertiveness, independence, confidence, boldness, and perhaps most important to this context, strength. This trait of strength, either shown through determination, uncompromising action, or in many cases, forms of force and violence, is the traditionally masculine aspect seen most often in times of war. Perceptions of strength, and more importantly, the avoidance of weakness, are especially poignant in the analysis of how and why the United States applies force abroad.

An applicable study from the Vietnam War, written by Robert Dean, focuses on how gender, masculinity, and the American “imperial brotherhood” impacted US foreign policy during Vietnam and later in the wider Cold War. In his discussion of Kennedy, Johnson, and other crucial advisors during the Vietnam period, Dean asserts that gender is deeply implicated in the context which made the military defense of imperial boundaries both an imperative of political legitimacy and a central part of policymakers’ conceptions of themselves as powerful and credible men.2 He also analyzes how republican ideals, such as civic virtue, service, and sacrifice, were instilled into policymakers through institutions that promoted traditionally masculine ideals, and how these ideals bled over into foreign policy and action. In relation to the previously discussed topic of strength, Dean echoes an assertion made by a member of the Johnson administration, stating that the public, and more broadly, members of the global community, would “forgive anything but being weak”, highlighting the importance of

1 E. Anthony Rotundo, American Manhood: Transformations in Masculinity from the Revolution to the Modern Era (New York, NY: BasicBooks, 2001).

2 Robert D. Dean, Imperial Brotherhood: Gender and the Making of Cold War Foreign Policy (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010).

appearing strong for both personal credibility and the credibility of the country.1 The arguments and considerations made by Dean can easily be applied to the Bush administration in Iraq, especially as Bush participated in many of the same institutions as those discussed in his work, arguably belonging to the imperial brotherhood. Additionally, Dean’s analysis of Johnson’s background and personality, which addresses his masculine Texas “cowboy” attitudes, can be applied at least partially to Bush, as he was perceived similarly by the public, as noted by journalist Kathryn Westcott.2

Concerning the study of the war in Iraq itself, little scholarship has emerged concerning gendered politics, but the investigation into this area lends itself to greater historiographical debates. Namely, it aims to address why the Bush administration made the decisions it did, especially as those policy decisions come under harsh criticism for their ultimate ineffectiveness in ending the war and preventing further conflict. Modern scholars, such as Thomas Ricks, Ivo Daalder, and James Lindsay have attempted to explain the actions taken by the administration, primarily through the analysis of official documents, interviews, and other primary sources related to the war, from both a tactical and strategic perspective as well as a diplomatic and foreign policy perspective.3 While these works of scholarship are crucial in helping to source the failures of the Bush administration, namely in ineffective cooperation between policymakers and advisors and failures to recognize and prioritize specific objectives, they lack perspective on some factors, including the influence of gender. While the general idea of the country’s strength and credibility, as well as Bush’s own, are logically discussed within these works, there is no specific discussion on how conceptions of gender may have impacted the administration’s reactions to situations, especially based on ideas of weakness and dominance. By conducting research through this lens of gender, similar to Dean, the objective is to identify the extent to which ideas of American masculinity affected the decisions made in Iraq, adding a further layer of complexity to the already offered explanations, one which provides a more nuanced and holistic view to historians’ understanding of the war.

The Iraq War was an extended armed conflict that occurred in Iraq from 2003 to 2011, beginning with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition of forces on March 20, 2003, ordered by President George W. Bush. The initial invasion overthrew the Ba’athist government of Saddam Hussein, resulting in the capture of Baghdad, and the eventual arrest of Hussein on December 13, 2003, during Operation Red Dawn, ending the first phase of the conflict.4 The first phase of the war is seen as a short, successful campaign, one which was met with little opposition from the Iraqi public, as they were largely unwilling to engage in the war, even in the face of their “liberation”.5 These characteristics can be contrasted with the drawnout fighting and insurgency that occurred during the remainder of the conflict, marking each period as distinct from one another.

Past the dates of the initial invasion, the second phase of the conflict continued for over a decade, marked by consistent conflict against insurgency forces. The power vacuum left by Hussein’s capture, and later, execution, along with mismanagement by the Coalition Provisional Authority, led to widespread civil war between the Shia and Sunni Muslims in Iraq from 2006 to 2008, as well as an increase in insurgency against coalition forces. These

1 Robert D. Dean, Imperial Brotherhood: Gender and the Making of Cold War Foreign Policy (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010).

2 Kathryn Westcott, “Bush Revels in Cowboy Speak,” BBC News, June 6, 2003, http://news. bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2968176.stm#:~:text="The%20cowboy%20sees%20complex%20 issues,been%20adopted%20by%20past%20politicians

3 Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay, America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2005). Thomas E. Ricks, Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (London: Penguin, 2007).

4 John Keegan, The Iraq War. (London: Pimlico, 2005), 1-4.

5 Keegan, 5-8.

insurgents included members of al-Qaeda in Iraq, an Iraqi Sunni jihadist organization that was affiliated with the wider al-Qaeda organization, further connecting the conflict to the greater War on Terror.6 The Iraq War officially ended on December 15, 2011, with the withdrawal of US troops from the region by President Obama after failure to defeat Iraqi insurgents 7definitively, though withdrawal efforts began under President Bush. Armed conflict in Iraq continued after the withdrawal, and many dimensions of the conflict are still ongoing, even if classified as low-intensity hostility.

The justification for invasion came as a result of both immediate and historical factors regarding the United States’ relationship with regions and leaders in the Middle East. Opposition to the Saddam Hussein regime began following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, which launched the Gulf War, a conflict fought by a United States-led coalition to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait under the order of President George H.W. Bush. Following the events of the Gulf War, the US and its allies within the international community attempted to limit Hussein’s power with a policy of containment, involving numerous economic sanctions, nofly zones, ongoing inspections for weapons of mass destruction, and other measures to ensure Iraq’s compliance with United Nations resolutions. The removal of the Iraqi government became official US foreign policy in 1998, with the enactment of the Iraq Liberation Act, which provided funding for democratic opposition organizations to establish support for a transition to democracy in Iraq.8 When George W. Bush was elected in 2000, the US moved towards a more aggressive Iraq policy, with the Republican Party’s platform calling for a full implementation of the previous act in a plan to eventually remove Hussein.9

Formal movement towards an invasion of Iraq faltered until the September 11, 2002, attacks on the United States by the terrorist group al-Qaeda, which kickstarted what would become known as the War on Terror. Following 9/11, the Bush administration debated the invasion of Iraq, deciding if they should attempt to hit Hussein and Osama bin Laden at the same time, but eventually greenlit the operation. The United States based most of its rationale for the invasion on claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, as they tried to prove in the years after the Gulf War, as well as the accusation that Hussein was harboring and supporting al-Qaeda, who had physically attacked the country.10 However, as investigations into Iraq continued throughout the war, commissions found no evidence of connections between Hussein and al-Qaeda, nor any stockpiles of nuclear weaponry, rendering these justifications insufficient. The actions taken by the Bush administration, both to invade and those taken during the invasion itself, have fallen under heavy scrutiny both domestically and internationally, leaving historians and other experts to further analyze the factors behind these decisions.

A relevant connection to the decision to invade Iraq, as well as the later decisions to escalate the conflict, is the United States’ actions during the Vietnam War. The lessons learned from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s years in office are particularly relevant, as they similarly touch on justifications for the escalation of a conflict abroad and are set within a difficult context of immediate and historical pressures. Johnson’s coup of Ngo Dinh Diem, the leader of South Vietnam, as well as his decision to escalate the war in 1965, can be attributed to the perceived need to contain communism.11 This is similar to the George W. Bush administration’s goal to remove Hussein, and their perceived need to invade Iraq in an attempt to contain

6 Bob Woodward, The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008. (New York: Simon & Schuster. 2009).

7 Keegan, 2.

8 Library of Congress, Iraq Liberation Act of 1998. (1998).

9 “Republican Platform 2000”, CNN, http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/conventions/ republican/features/platform.00/.

10 Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), 9-23.

11 Robert Dean, Assertion of Manhood.

terrorism and prevent further attacks. However, as historian Robert Dean notes, the decisions made regarding Vietnam were not simply attributed to a fear of communism but rather were influenced by concepts of credibility and masculinity, especially as these were expressed both personally and to the international community. The investigation of the actions of the Bush administration can be aided by the understanding of Johnson’s complex situation and mix of factors, marking it as a key point of context to the later conflict in Iraq.

To begin the discussion of gender dynamics as they are tied to the Bush administration, there are first some base concepts that must be defined. For the purposes of this paper, gender is defined in a sociological fashion as the totality of meanings that are attached to the sexes within a particular social system, with the gender system being one of meaning and differentiation linked to the sexes through social arrangements.12 Essentially, this means that gender is a constructed concept, in which the meanings, characteristics, roles, and worth of each gender are assigned by society, not biology, and exist in an ever-changing state. While the construction of femininity is relevant in contrast to this argument, defining the concept of masculinity itself as part of this wider gender system is the most important. Masculinity, especially in Western cultures, is traditionally defined by the expression of a few key traits, including courage, strength, ambition, independence, assertiveness, initiative, rationality, and emotional control.13 The presence of these traits as central to ideas of masculinity can be seen within historical representations of warfare, especially through the notions of strength and the definition of “real men”, as well as within the wider construction of specifically American manhood, and those relevancies will be further discussed below.

Lastly, there must be the assertion that men often feel a need to prove their masculinity to themselves and others. This desire to prove themselves can be attributed to a range of sociological and psychological concepts, including the concepts of precarious manhood and fragile masculinity. Psychological research demonstrates that manhood is a “precarious” status, in which males are expected to actively achieve and defend their high-value status as men. If they fail to convincingly demonstrate their manhood, men risk losing their status as “real men”, creating pressure upon men to continuously prove their masculinity, and triggering related anxieties.14 The concept of fragile masculinity is entwined with this, stemming from the anxiety associated with manhood’s precarious nature and the behavioral consequences of that anxiety. Notably, fragile masculinity is associated with the fear that one will be punished for failing to conform to gendered expectations, including ostracism, a loss of esteem in the eyes of peers, and most severely, the revocation of membership from the high-status “man” category.15 Threats to manhood are often produced by suggesting that an individual is high in femininity, creating a behavioral reaction to act in an exaggeratedly masculine manner. As this concept applies to politics, masculine policies are those that convey toughness, aggression, use of force, and risk tolerance, with the support of such policies contributing to the demonstration of an individual’s masculinity.16 Thus, it can be seen that there is a link between masculinity and support for aggressive political policies, such as in the engagement of war, like the war in Iraq. Supplementing the link provided by recent psychological research, there is also a wide variety of evidence that highlights how the waging of war has been a gendered concept for

12 Laura Kramer and Ann Beutel, The Sociology of Gender: A Brief Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 2.

13 R. Murray Thomas, Recent Theories of Human Development (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2001), 248.

14 Sarah Helweg Dimuccio, “The Correlates and Consequences of Precarious Manhood in Political Attitudes, Decision-Making, and Voting Behavior,” ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (dissertation, 2021), https://cnu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/ correlates-consequences-precarious-manhood/docview/2566243327/se-2?accountid=10100, 3.

15 Dimuccio, 4.

16 Dimuccio, 7.

thousands of years, with contrasting concepts of masculine and feminine traits being woven into much of the literature and thinking surrounding warfare, especially in the valuation and description of “good” soldiers and their enemies. The following overview is intentionally brief, simply serving to contextualize modern applications of masculinity in war to patterns within military tradition. In warfare, masculine perceived traits are associated with qualities that make good warriors, such as physical courage, strength, discipline, endurance, skill, and honor. The stress of these traits, especially those of courage and self-discipline, are prominent within the U.S. military, as well as in other forces, in which taboo is placed upon tenderness and crying. These actions are seen as feminine and weak, a connection forged to contrast the condition of being masculine and therefore strong, highlighting an important aspect of gendered language in war, which is the feminization and sexualization of the enemy. In using language that feminizes enemy soldiers or territory, the reputation of the enemy is damaged, painting them as weak, incapable, and perhaps most importantly, submissive to the conquering power.17 This debasing symbolic domination, in which heroes are symbolically gendered as males and enemies are female, serves to strengthen the idea that a soldier and country must be perceived as masculine to protect their reputation and credibility. For those men who fail tests of manhood, such as physical tests, emotional composure, and more, shame is utilized as a punishment mechanism, leading to public humiliation for their compromised personal honor and the distancing of these from their comrades.18

In terms of historical evidence, from the hoplites of Ancient Greece to the soldiers of the Prussian Wars and beyond, examples of militarized masculinity can be seen in the historical construction and promotion of the image of the heroic citizen-soldier. These citizen-soldiers represent the epitome of the construction of what it means to be a man, tying civic virtue and service, individual sacrifice, and heroic traits with physical strength and ability.19 This image acted historically as a model for men to emulate to prove their masculinity, even if they had to be forced into service, and such standards continued affecting concepts of manhood into the modern era, though they have ebbed within the last few decades.

While generally representative of the above standards of masculinity, the concept of American manhood has also developed uniquely through the country’s history, with the development of American standards of manliness being traced from the Revolutionary period to the present. This period of transformation created a few identifiable American stereotypes, such as the cowboy and members of the so-called Imperial Brotherhood, both of which had a bearing on George W. Bush’s values, identity, and perceptions of masculinity. As discussed previously, Dean’s conception of the Imperial Brotherhood involves the examination of republican ideals and American institutions, such as military and Ivy League colleges, in their roles as contributors to the construction of American masculinity, especially as it applies to policymakers. One relevant aspect of masculinity that he asserts is the idea that gender is deeply implicated in the need for military success, marking it as imperative for both political legitimacy and a policymaker’s conception of themselves as powerful and credible men.20 In line with this, Dean builds upon the concepts of fragile masculinity, establishing that the expression of male heroism, strength, and power is a compulsory part of decision-making, showcasing the effects of masculinity on policy decisions. Bush, as a participant in many of the described institutions throughout his life, including serving in the military and attending Yale, is similarly haunted by the same need for credibility, strength, and power as Johnson and Kennedy, as is evident in the evaluation of his actions.

17 Elisabeth Prugl, “Gender and War: Causes, Constructions, and Critique,” Perspective on Politics 1, no. 02 (2003): 335–42, https://doi.org/10.1017/s1537592703000252, 336.

18 Prugl, 335.

19 Robert A. Nye, “Western Masculinities in War and Peace,” The American Historical Review 112, no. 2 (2007): 417–38, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.112.2.417, 438.

20 Robert Dean, Assertion of Manhood.

Though Bush was certainly influenced by the ideas of the Imperial Brotherhood, he is seemingly even more compelled by the image of the American cowboy. The patterns that define the cowboy myth are highly fictionalized, with little connection to actual life in the Old West. Rather, the conception of the cowboy is tied within media and popular culture, centralized around ideas of a morally good and heroic figure standing against a foreign villain, often problematically idealizing the violence and dominance of a white hero over a non-white adversary.21 The cowboy is traditionally masculine in the ways that have already been defined, showcasing bravery, physical capability, and integrity in the face of danger. The expression of masculine ideas through the American cowboy myth and persona, especially those concerning power and the use of force, is utilized heavily by Bush within his rhetoric surrounding the Iraq war, as will be discussed further in this paper for its influence on decisions made by the administration.

In applying all these concepts to the Iraq War, the narrative begins before the actual invasion of Iraq with the legacy of George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush’s father. The legacy left by the elder Bush is a complicated one, especially as it concerns the American relationship with Iraq and the wider Middle East. While the Persian Gulf War is seen as being widely successful in its goals, a point of contention remains in the failure of the elder Bush to capture and deal with Saddam Hussein. While the younger Bush has never explicitly stated that his motivations for capturing Hussein were related to sentiments of unfinished business, the evidence of his administration’s desire to capture the Iraqi leader is clear. As mentioned within the historical context, George W. Bush was elected on an aggressive policy toward Iraq, with the expressed goal being the removal of Hussein from power.22 This shows that he felt a need to deal with Hussein specifically, rather than general issues in the Middle East, suggesting that he had a personal goal to see him brought to justice.

Additionally, the younger Bush’s aides have often spoken about what they see as his father’s failure to take out Hussein during the Gulf War, criticizing the prioritization of stability over democracy within his father’s approach.23 This criticism from members of the administration, taken alongside their support of Bush’s pursuit of Hussein, strengthens the idea that the pursuit of Hussein was seen as the correction of George H.W. Bush’s failures. While such criticisms of his father should not be taken as a direct reflection of Bush’s own feelings, there is evidence to support that he similarly disapproved of such actions. When asked about seeking his father’s advice before going to war, Bush stated that he “is the wrong father to appeal to in terms of strength”, suggesting that he viewed his father’s decisions as weak.24 It is this assertion by Bush, paired with the other evidence, that suggests that the pursuit of Hussein, and thus, the greater conflict in Iraq, are influenced by ideas of masculinity.

After all, the weakness shown by his father in his decision to not pursue more aggressive policies during the Gulf War reflects on Bush as well, putting both of their reputations and statuses as “real men” at risk and generating anxieties associated with precarious masculinity. Within this mindset, it is reasonable to claim that Bush felt compelled to rectify his father’s mistake in order to preserve his own credibility and reaffirm his masculinity. By pursuing war with Iraq, Bush would demonstrate force and aggression on a global scale, proving his masculine strength and ability to finish what his father could not. In this view, a successful war would rectify any charge of weakness or loss of esteem for Bush, allowing him to convincingly retain

21 Karen Dodwell, “From the Center: The Cowboy Myth, George W. Bush, and The War with Iraq,” Politics in American Popular Culture, March 2004, https://americanpopularculture.com/archive/ politics/cowboy_myth.htm.

22 “Republican Platform 2000”, CNN, http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/conventions/ republican/features/platform.00/.

23 Jim Rutenberg, “Bush Offers a Rare Look at Relations with Father,” The New York Times, February 14, 2007, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/14/washington/14bush.html.

24 Woodward, Plan of Attack.

his status as a “real man”. This contributed to his convictions in pursuing the war, affecting the decision to invade and further decisions made by the administration in the pursuit of Hussein.

This idea of personal and gendered motivations surrounding the war in Iraq and the capture of Hussein is additionally aided by Bush’s reaction to the assassination attempt on his father on April 13, 1993. The attempt occurred during a visit to Kuwait to commemorate the victory of Iraq in the Persian Gulf, wherein George H.W. Bush was targeted by conspirators who plotted to kill the former president with a car bomb.25 In response to this incident, George W. Bush is quoted as referring to Hussein as “the guy who tried to kill my dad” when discussing the threat posed by Hussein, suggesting an understandably personal motivation against him alongside the suspicions of WMDs.26 Similar to the criticisms of the senior Bush for his policies, the attack on George H.W. Bush made him seem vulnerable and weak, and such perceptions carried over to the younger Bush as well. The masculine need to not appear weak, alongside Bush’s likely desire for revenge, made him more motivated to pursue aggressive policies that would both prove his strength and masculinity, but also to bring his father’s assassins to justice, proving the dominance of their family over the machinations of Hussein once and for all.

Once at war, President George W. Bush expressed gender dynamics through a crafted heroic “cowboy” persona, fitting into traditional American ideas of masculinity, faith, and strength. In many cases, the persona dictated his actions and affected the public’s perceptions of his capabilities and values, showing him exhibiting masculine traits of strength, moral fortitude, and independence. This persona was both physical, in that Bush was often photographed in ranch clothes and a cowboy hat, and rhetorical, with western sayings making their way into Bush’s speeches, resulting in an effect that made Bush seem like the epitome of a “real man” to American audiences. In statements to the press, Bush branded Saddam Hussein as an “outlaw”, asserted that the United States must “wrangle” its enemies, and stated his intention to appoint a coordinator to “ride herd” Middle Eastern leaders along the trail of peace.27 Additionally, during his 2002 State of the Union Address, Bush evoked images of terrorist leaders “running for their lives” from the long arm of American justice, presenting threats in the Middle East as members of an “axis of evil”.28 This statement, among others of a similar ilk, narratively vilified the actors in the Middle East in the public’s view, all the while reinforcing the idea of Bush and his administration as a positive force.

The language used by Bush consistently projects the idea of American strength and determination against terrorist threats, painting the country as a protector of freedom and peace across the world. This rhetoric and heroic imagery are intended to portray the United States, and the president by extension, as an infallible hero against the forces of evil, playing into the masculine concept of the physically strong savior relentlessly pursuing the enemy, with the end goal being the admittance of their weakness and inferiority through submission and obedience. Bush’s approach to the threats in Iraq is reflective of this idea of submission, as he repeatedly speaks positively about nations, including the United States, acting “forcefully” in response to terrorism.29 This approach aligns with the previously discussed concept of militarized masculinity and the arguments of Dean, highlighting the importance of manhood in the decision-making process, especially in the decision of how to persuade the public.

25 “The Bush Assassination Attempt.” USDOJ/OIG FBI Labs Report. Accessed December 5, 2023. https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/archive/special/9704a/05bush2.htm.

26 John King, “Bush Calls Saddam ‘the Guy Who Tried to Kill My Dad,’” CNN, accessed December 4, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/09/27/bush.war.talk/.

27 Wescott, “Bush Revels in Cowboy Speak”.

28 George W. Bush, “State of the Union Address.” National Archives and Records Administration, January 9, 2002. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/ releases/2002/01/20020129-11.html

29 George W. Bush, “State of the Union Address.”

The public’s response to Bush’s cowboy persona was mixed, with polling data showing some Americans favoring the masculine bravado, while others believed it to be distasteful and as one political scientist notes, “embarrassing”.30 According to polls conducted by the Pew Research Center between 2002 and 2004, where the public was asked for one-word descriptions to describe the president, positive responses included descriptors such as “confident”, “courageous”, “determined”, and “decisive”, all traits associated with the cultivated cowboy persona.31 These responses indicate that Bush’s masculine rhetoric was effective and appealing to a portion of the public in the face of war, likely by those comforted by the appearance of a strong and stereotypically American leader. Though appealing among the wider population, it is important to note that such rhetoric and behavior was more effective among men, as supported by a sociological study that found an increase in male support for Bush and the Iraq war following perceived crises of manhood.32 This is reflective of the concept of precarious manhood, with the male population reacting positively to Bush’s representation of toughness and moral aggression as part of their individual demonstration of masculinity. Such a connection crucially ties these ideas of gender to the wider examination of public opinion, providing deeper insight into the reaction of citizens to Bush’s rhetoric and decisions during the war period.

Within the same polls, some of Bush’s most common detractors included “arrogant”, “idiot”, and “cowboy”, reflecting the polarizing nature of his chosen persona.33 Such responses indicate that the overly masculine rhetoric was not effective among all demographics, including women, who are more likely to be opposed to traditional ideas of masculinity due to the misogynistic views of women they typically perpetuate. This opposition by women and other members of the public is especially relevant as part of the greater third-wave feminism movement, which began in the early 1990s and was in full swing during the Bush presidency. Due to the interconnected nature of Bush’s persona and his justifications for war in Iraq, the dislike of his rhetoric can be connected to a loss of support for the war among select populations, though this did not result in an immediate change of policy by the administration.

Finally, Bush’s rhetoric and actions during the Iraq war relied on ideas about the strength of the country, but equally as importantly, on ideas about credibility through the fulfillment of promises made concerning Iraq, Saddam Hussein, and the greater War on Terror. Promises made by Bush included the famous statement to “finish the work of the fallen”, in which he reasserted America’s commitment to fighting terrorism and securing freedom in Iraq, claiming that such a commitment was consistent with American ideals and interests.34 He continues within the same speech to boldly claim that the United States will send additional forces and resources as needed, allowing the future of American commitment to be tied to the situation on the ground.35 In another speech during the early stages of the war, Bush promised the removal of Hussein, all the while asserting that the country had “no ambition in Iraq” outside of the removal of the leader and the restoration of control to the Iraqi people.36 While these policy positions and decisions are all admirable in their intention, the boldness and confidence

30 Wescott, “Bush Revels in Cowboy Speak”.

31 “Bush and Public Opinion,” Pew Research Center - U.S. Politics & Policy, December 18, 2008, https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2008/12/18/bush-and-public-opinion/.

32 Dimuccio, 7.

33 Pew Research Center, “Bush and Public Opinion”.

34 "Transcript of Bush's Remarks on Iraq: 'We Will Finish the Work of the Fallen': President Bush." New York Times (1923-), Apr 14, 2004. 2, https://cnu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https:// www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/transcript-bushs-remarks-on-iraq-we-will-finish/ docview/92733920/se-2.

35 "Transcript of Bush's Remarks on Iraq: 'We Will Finish the Work of the Fallen': President Bush”, New York Times.

36 George W. Bush, "Address to the Nation on Iraq - March 17, 2003," Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States 2003 (2003): 277-280.

behind Bush’s claims may have had unintended consequences. In making these promises, Bush placed his credibility, and that of his country on the line, both reliant on his ability to follow through. As situations began to worsen and change unexpectedly in Iraq, especially in the dragging on of the war, Bush found himself in a similar, though not identical situation to Johnson in the Vietnam War, wherein he was pressured into sustaining certain policies and objectives under the guise of maintaining credibility. If Bush were to go back on one of his promises, the president and the country would be perceived poorly, and viewed as weak and incapable, threatening his political legitimacy and masculine status. The desire to avoid any blow to his reputation and masculinity made Bush commit to sustaining military actions in Iraq, even as they began to fail, postponing the end of the war and incurring more unpopular losses.

This fear of appearing weak, tied into credibility, undoubtedly affected one aspect of the situation, which was the United States’ decisions regarding de-escalation and troop reduction in Iraq, dictating how and when soldiers returned home once victory was deemed impossible. Most important to this discussion is the acknowledgment that troop reduction did not occur under Bush’s presidency, though he made some efforts towards it, as he was ultimately unwilling to admit defeat and take a blow to his credibility. When discussing the situation in 2007, Bush answered growing opposition in Washington and among the public to the unpopular war, all the while trying to save face and argue that changes in war strategy did not amount to failure. To evidence this, Bush stated that the United States would only withdraw troops from Iraq “from a position of strength and success, not from a position of fear and failure”, as the alternative would embolden the country’s enemies.37 Such a statement displays the gendered concepts of strength and weakness in their application to later actions taken, or in this case, not taken, in Iraq. Bush’s adamant stance on withdrawing from a place of strength may be tactically sound but is also reflective of the fear of losing his credibility, and therefore status as a man, as a withdrawal of troops would be seen as an admittance of surrender and failure to the domestic and international community. Drawing back to Dean’s work and the applicable comparisons from the Vietnam War, this situation echoes the problems faced by Johnson and Nixon during the Vietnam War, in which each president struggled to absolve an unpopular conflict, withdraw troops, and achieve the coveted peace with honor. Ultimately, Bush’s fear of appearing weak and unmasculine to the international community, both on an individual and country level, prevented the early withdrawal of troops from Iraq, allowing the unpopular and increasingly costly conflict to drag on. The war would not end until December 2011, resulting in the loss of more lives and resources due to Bush’s unwillingness to set definitive plans to withdraw.

In the end, the aim of this work is not to assert that gender dynamics and the pressures of masculinity were entirely responsible for the decisions made by the Bush administration during the Iraq war. There have been countless works of scholarship about the complex geopolitical factors that influenced the creation of policies and the pursuit of war, all of which add key contributions to historians’ understandings of the conflict. Rather, the goal of this paper is to provide new, interdisciplinary perspectives on the situation, allowing the investigation of gender dynamics to enhance the narrative of the war in Iraq, leading to a more nuanced and holistic view of the situation.

With this in mind, the actions taken by the Bush administration were influenced by American ideas about gender and sexuality, especially through the concepts of precarious manhood, fragile masculinity, and credibility as tied to perceptions of masculinity. The need to constantly reaffirm this masculine identity and his status as a “real man” impacted the 37 David Cloud and Steven Myers, “Bush, in Iraq, Says Troop Reduction Is Possible: Setting the Tone Before a Fight in Congress.” New York Times, September 4, 2007. https://www.proquest. com/historical-newspapers/bush-iraq-says-troop-reduction-is-possible/docview/848066290/se2?accountid=10100

decisions of President George W. Bush and his administration, leading to the construction of a masculine cowboy persona, crises of credibility and strength, and motivations for the war being derived from the complicated legacy of George H.W. Bush. The situation in Iraq, especially viewed from this gendered lens, can be viewed as a key part of the examination of the United States’ position as a world power. Specifically, this discussion helps to address large questions regarding the rationale behind political decision-making, as well as the effects of a president’s beliefs upon the expression of power abroad. While present in some discussions of the United States’ actions as a world power, many examinations lack the crucial perspective of gender dynamics and politics as a component to the imposition of will and power, which will hopefully be addressed more in the future as interdisciplinary studies continue.

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About the Author

Katarina Demcheshen is a member of the Spring 2024 graduate class of Christopher Newport University, where she majored in History and received a double minor in Leadership Studies and Political Science. She is dedicated to academics and service as a member of the President’s Leadership Program and additionally serves as a member of multiple honor societies, including Alpha Chi, Eta Sigma Phi, and Phi Alpha Theta. During her undergraduate program, Katarina passionately pursued diverse opportunities to expand her knowledge, such as studying abroad in Greece and participating in the 2024 Paideia research conference. Katarina will be returning to CNU in the fall to pursue a master’s degree in education and plans to teach history at the secondary grade level abroad.

The Tiger King’s Plot: Ethical Failure in the Big Cat World Summer Duba

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Brent Cusher, Department of Leadership & American Studies

Abstract

The Netflix true crime documentary Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness (2020) highlighted America’s big cat industry. One of the most prominent figures in this scene is Joe Exotic, currently imprisoned for a murder-for-hire attempt. His core values of freedom and social recognition and his situationist ethical perspective explain his behavior through the lens of self-preservation in response to a perceived threat from his rival, Carole Baskin. His leadership style can be examined in many different ways, with the traditional Great Man Theory exemplifying his personal view of being destined to rule as the self-proclaimed ‘Tiger King’ (Carlyle, 1995). As a transactional and incompetent leader, Joe Exotic demonstrates his narcissism, using followers for personal gain and ignoring their emotional and physiological needs (Kellerman, 2004; Wren & Burns, 2013). His strong self-confidence and outgoing personality also make him a charismatic leader, illustrating his appeal to the American public and his employees at the zoo (Riggio, 2004). Many of these employees felt indebted to him, tied to the zoo personally and financially, and finally fulfilled their moral responsibility to take action against his wrongdoings at his criminal trial (Chaleff, 2009). Rather than allowing a leadership system such as Joe Exotic’s to spiral out of control, we can utilize servant leadership and right moral action to be the best possible stewards of our wild animals.

(Smith et al., 2020)

Introduction

“I’m Joe Exotic, otherwise known as the Tiger King, the gay, gun-carrying redneck with a mullet,” declares the most infamous zookeeper of our time, Joseph Maldonado-Passage, who goes by the moniker Joe Exotic (Smith et al., 2020). Maldonado-Passage, the former owner of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, is notorious for his exploits in the pursuit of public notoriety and fame. Apart from operating the GW Zoo, Maldonado-Passage performed as the star of his own traveling exotic cat shows, released numerous country albums, ran for president and governor multiple times, and hosted an online talk show, among other endeavors (Smith et al., 2020). The Netflix series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness (2020) examines the rise and fall of Joe Exotic, following the failures in ethical leadership that have led to his imprisonment. Joe Exotic’s values and perspectives on ethics and leadership illuminate his need for control and attention, ultimately turning his zoo’s focus away from the animals and leading to its demise.

Joe Exotic

The limited series Tiger King (2020) centers around the conflict between Joseph Maldonado-Passage and Carole Baskin. Mrs. Baskin is the CEO of Big Cat Rescue, which works to shelter big cats such as tigers and lions in Florida; she advocates on Capitol Hill to end public cub petting and private ownership of big cats. As these practices are the primary source of income for the GW Zoo, Maldonado-Passage feels personally targeted by her, becoming increasingly paranoid throughout the course of the series. He shoots and blows up effigies he has constructed of Mrs. Baskin, threatens her on his web show, and sends her packages of snakes through the mail (Smith et al., 2020). The show culminates in Joe Exotic’s indictment in a murder-for-hire plot in which he paid an employee to kill Mrs. Baskin, along with being found guilty of violating the Endangered Species Act. We see Maldonado-Passage lose sight of his initial desire to protect the big cats he works with and become hyper fixated on destroying Big Cat Rescue; he feeds his animals expired meat from Walmart, abandons maintenance of their enclosures, sells them to fund his murder plot, and even shoots five tigers in the head, the skulls of which were uncovered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department (Smith et al., 2020). He is accused of setting fire to a building to destroy evidence, incinerating seven crocodiles and one alligator in the process, stealing $88,000 from the zoo to fund his presidential campaign, and forging checks after selling the zoo to another owner.

Maldonado-Passage frequently takes advantage of his followers, including his employees and romantic partners (Smith et al., 2020). The head zookeeper at the GW Zoo, Eric Cowie, disclosed that employees were paid only $150 per week, and frequently consumed the same expired meat fed to the animals (Smith et al., 2020). Maldonado-Passage also married much younger partners, and often multiple at once. His ex-husband John Finlay disclosed that some of these male partners did not identify as gay, and were lured by Joe’s provision of meth, marijuana, guns, and cars (Smith et al., 2020). One of these husbands, Travis Maldonado, pointed one of the guns Joe had purchased at his head and pulled the trigger, tragically not realizing that the gun was loaded and resulting in Travis’ death. This was just one of many violent accidents to occur on the zoo’s property, including a tiger ripping off the arm of an employee, ‘Saff’ Saffery. Throughout it all, Joe maintains an extremely narrow focus on himself, neglecting his employees, his animals, and his partners in the process.

Values & Ethical Perspectives

As Carole Baskin’s husband laments: “I don’t think Joe considers lying to be a question of ethics; I think he considers it an art form” (Smith et al., 2020). Much of Joseph MaldonadoPassage’s behavior can be explained by his core values and skewed ethical perspectives. His main values are freedom and social recognition (Rokeach & Halgren, 1967). Individuals act

in accordance with the values that they prioritize, so their behavior aligns with the values that they aim to fulfill in their lives (Rokeach, 1979). Freedom is an end value, and represents a terminal state of being; social recognition is a means value, and more connected to behaviors in the process of achieving more terminal goals (Rokeach, 1979). The value of freedom aligns with Maldonado-Passage’s emphasis on his agency, as he demands that things be done his own way and that he has total control over the operation of the GW Zoo. He is very opposed to governance and has an intense hatred for the institution of the American government, particularly federal agents (Smith et al., 2020). Social recognition, Maldonado-Passage’s other core value, is heavily connected to his need for respect and admiration and can be tied back to his upbringing (Williams, 1979). After coming out to his parents as gay, Maldonado-Passage’s parents kicked him out of the house, with his father instructing Joseph not to attend his funeral. Based upon this early social rejection, we see the Joe Exotic persona emerge as an attempt to fulfill this need for social acceptance, which has spiraled into a quest for notoriety and fame. These two values inform upon his behavior, as we see Maldonado-Passage acting in alignment with his values system in the pursuit of his version of freedom and social recognition.

Joe Exotic’s ethical perspectives most closely align with Thomas Hobbes’ contractarianism and moral situationism as described by Terry Price (2012). Contractarian ethical theory describes the morality and responsibilities between individuals as the result of an agreement in which bargaining power is assigned based on one’s capacity to contribute to the community, with some sacrifices being made in exchange for protection (Price, 2012, p. 119-141). We see this exemplified in Joe’s treatment of his employees, with those that he perceives to be more knowledgeable or capable receiving housing on the zoo’s property and special treatment, while others are often screamed at or fired at a whim (Smith et al., 2020). In this sense, MaldonadoPassage only views his employees in terms of their bargaining power and treats them according to how much influence they have upon him. Moral situationism is dictated by the premise that the right, ethical action to take is dependent upon the situation at hand rather than a set of universal rules (Price, 2012, p. 142-164). We see Joe follow this as well when he condemns other zoo owners, such as Doc Antle at Myrtle Beach Safari, for behaviors that he himself has engaged in, such as drug use or being married to multiple partners at once (Smith et al., 2020). From Joe’s perspective, overcoming challenges that he has faced throughout his life has granted him permission to behave in this manner, while others do not have the same degree of leniency. His view of morality is applied with a great degree of discretion depending upon the situation and his opinion of the individual in question, whether it be himself or others.

Leadership Perspectives

Joseph Maldonado-Passage’s greatest leadership failures lie in his focus on his personal gain rather than the best interest of those he is working with, whether it be his employees, the public, his animals, or his political allies. He shows a consistent lack of respect for others and loses his ultimate goals, vision, and mission for the future. By examining Great Man Theory, Transactional Leadership Theory, Incompetent Leadership, Charismatic Leadership, and Followership, we can develop a greater understanding of Maldonado-Passage’s leadership.

Great Man Theory

The Great Man Theory most closely aligns with Joe Exotic’s perspective on the world and its leaders. This theory dictates that leaders are born, not made; they possess innate characteristics that make them good leaders, rather than learning the traits and skills to become leaders (Northouse, 2018, p. 63-89). We can understand this view in a historical context, as kings and queens, notorious leaders of the past, inherit their titles and followers (Carlyle, 1995). These leaders take very little input from their followers, as they are assumed to be the wisest and most noble individuals in their communities. This paternalistic leadership style mirrors Maldonado-Passage’s perspective of himself, as he required complete control over the

zoo and refused to listen to his employee’s complaints, insisting that only he knew what was best for the zoo. By labeling himself the ‘Tiger King’, we see a direct connection to his idea of being the ruler of the zoo. As Joe Exotic says himself, “...this is my own little town; I’m the mayor, the cop, and the executioner” (Smith et al., 2020). This theory implies that the leader deserves reverence from followers as a result of their position. We see this in MaldonadoPassage’s various presidential campaigns, as he takes himself seriously as a candidate but often fails to justify precisely why he would be a good president (Smith et al., 2020). Joe Exotic’s unwavering belief that he is the best person for the job without considering his strengths and weaknesses, along with his inflexibility when confronted with genuine concerns from his followers, exemplifies his personal philosophy on leadership.

Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership occurs when “one person takes the initiative in making contact with others for the purpose of an exchange of valued things” (Wren & Burns, 2013, pp. 100-101). These types of leaders value order and structure and are extremely results-focused, prioritizing tasks to be completed over their relationships with followers. Maldonado-Passage exhibits this by placing preference for his vision of how the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park should be run over the well-being of his employees, with one of his employees even losing an arm during the time of their employment. Transactional leaders also use the rewardpenalty system of making rewards contingent on performance and managing by exception, identifying when followers make mistakes or act incorrectly while ignoring those who perform well, which reflects the leadership style of Maldonado-Passage (Wren & Burns, 2013). This is in stark contrast to transformational leadership, in which leaders cultivate relationships with their followers to elevate them to higher levels of intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, idealized influence, and inspirational motivation (Wren & Burns, 2013). Maldonado-Passage is an example of a transactional leader rather than a transformational leader because of his intense focus on profits for the zoo and his own personal image, rather than the well-being of his employees or animals. An example of this is his deal with a local Walmart to receive their expired meat products at a very reduced price. Not only did he feed this material to the animals he was responsible for, but his employees also knowingly consumed this meat and Maldonado-Passage had no concern whatsoever for their wellbeing as a result of this action, despite being fully aware that it was occurring. Instead, he was focused on the costs he was saving from purchasing this expired meat rather than fresh, more expensive products.

Incompetent Leadership

Incompetent leaders cannot “sustain effective action” because they do not have the skills or motivation to create positive change (Kellerman, 2004, p. 51). They also frequently fail to act to address challenges or adapt to change (Kellerman, 2004). This is relevant to MaldonadoPassage because he lacks both the skill and will to improve his leadership and the outcomes for his followers. His attempts at improving the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park are misguided and often end in failure. The employees at the park, Maldonado-Passage’s followers, have the will to improve their conditions but are unable to because they lack the skill and guidance to effect change. As the zoo faces challenges such as low ticket sales or sickness, Maldonado-Passage refuses to change its practices, insisting on keeping everything the same as it was (Smith et al., 2020). Another explanation for Maldonado-Passage’s incompetence is his narcissism. We see this tangibly in the GW Zoo’s gift shop, where Joe sells everything from barbeque sauce to underwear to skin cream with his image on it, rather than that of the lions, tigers, and leopards kept at the zoo (Smith et al., 2020). Narcissists are often motivated to get ahead and to attain leadership positions due to their grandiose view of themselves (Gauglitz et al., 2023). Once they enter these positions, they may show abusive supervision to retain

superiority over their followers. A characteristic of this type of leadership is engaging in morally unacceptable actions like lying or deceiving followers to preserve themselves, which we see extensively in Maldonado-Passage (Gauglitz et al., 2023). For example, it is heavily implied in the documentary that Maldonado-Passage burnt down his own production studio to eliminate evidence that could be used against him in a court proceeding. Rather than admit to this, he turned the arson into a publicity event, appealing to the public for donations and support against his rivals. Rivalry is another tenant of narcissistic leaders, and Maldonado-Passage’s rivalry with fellow big cat owner Carole Baskin is a clear instance of this, as he went so far as to pay to have her killed to reduce his competition (Gauglitz et al., 2023). Due to his intense focus on himself and his vendettas, Joe Exotic was extremely incompetent at running the GW Zoo.

Charismatic Leadership

Charisma can be defined as “the special quality some people possess that allows them to relate to and inspire others at a deep emotional level” (Riggio, 2004, p. 158). This theory may help to explain why Maldonado-Passage has retained an almost cult-like following despite being imprisoned and having his crimes exposed. We see charismatic leadership associated with self-confidence, masculinity, and dominance, which are very closely connected to the follower’s perception of a leader. Charismatic leaders often utilize this, engaging in impression management to dictate the traits that their followers perceive in them to attain their power (Northouse, 2001, p. 63–99). When maintaining power, self-confidence and determination are essential to ensure that followers view the leader as capable. This information illuminates precisely how Maldonado-Passage retained ownership of the zoo for as long as he did, as he engaged in extensive impression management to come across as masculine and dominant, often filming videos of himself firing guns or blowing up debris. The self-confidence he displayed toward his followers may have prevented them from questioning him or from leaving the organization when they did question him but were shot down. Riggio (2004) describes charismatic leaders as confident individuals with passion and charm. Due to these characteristics, they often have close relationships with their followers, and their followers may feel indebted to the leader with a high degree of trust and power. This is reflective of Joseph Maldonado-Passage as he is extremely confident and appeals culturally to his followers. Many of his employees at the zoo had nowhere else to go and viewed Joe as a savior for employing them and providing many of them with housing. While he did help his employees in that regard, emerging as a leader in their times of personal crisis, he tied them to the zoo by housing them on the grounds and choosing people with no other options. The audience of Tiger King on Netflix may also be drawn into the extremely outgoing, in-control persona he has created as a kind of cultural icon, turning his crimes into a viral phenomenon. Charisma is Joe Exotic’s greatest strength, and it explains why he has maintained such a widespread following to this day.

Followership

The leadership process cannot occur without the participation and engagement of the followers (Chaleff, 2009). Maldonado-Passage had numerous close followers, including the zoo’s manager John Reinke, head zookeeper Eric Cowie, and keeper ‘Saff’ Saffery, to name a few. These followers quite literally gave life and limb to the zoo, with Saffery losing an arm to a tiger and Reinke losing both of his legs due to work-related strain (Smith et al., 2020). Even though Maldonado-Passage was extremely self-centered and often refused to listen to the input of his followers, they still had an obligation to take moral action when his behaviors did not align with their values. All of his followers participated in the zoo’s conduct, and any one of them could have challenged his vision for the future of the zoo. Numerous employees

also indicated that they had knowledge of Maldonado-Passage’s intent to hire someone to kill Carole Baskin, and yet did nothing (Smith et al., 2020). However, since many of these employees relied on the zoo for food and housing, their actions were limited, as they also had to consider their own self-interest. Thus, while they retained responsibility for their own actions, they may have been bound by preserving themselves first before challenging the moral behavior of their leader (Chaleff, 2009). A few courageous followers like Saffery and Cowie eventually made their voices heard during Maldonado-Passage’s trial, playing a key role in his sentencing and fulfilling their moral responsibility to speak out against wrongdoing, although it was much later in time (Smith et al., 2020). A common theme among those who testified was their love for the animals as the force that tied them to the GW Zoo. Even with the abuses they suffered from Maldonado-Passage, they stayed to work with the big cats and attempted to protect them from the treatment that they witnessed firsthand. While they could have done more for these animals by challenging Joe Exotic, they did what they believed was morally correct at the time given their situations, exemplifying moral situationism as followers (Price, 2012).

Potential Solutions

Today, all the animals once present at the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park have been either sold to other parks or seized by the federal government. Carole Baskin obtained ownership of the land during a federal suit and has since sold it off with a ban on housing animals on the property for 100 years (Smith et al. 2020). Maldonado-Passage was sentenced to 21 years in prison in 2020 and will be 80 years old by the time he is released. The Big Cat Safety Act championed by Big Cat Rescue was passed by Congress in 2022 and ended public contact with and private ownership of big cats (USFWS, 2022). The major infrastructural problems that led to the Tiger King’s behavior have since been addressed, but could this situation have been avoided in the first place? Joseph Maldonado-Passage’s leadership would have needed to change drastically to cultivate respect for his friends and his rivals, for his employees and his guests. Implementing a style of servant leadership would have allowed Joe Exotic to retain his original mission for the zoo: to help animals. In servant leadership, a leader prioritizes the needs of their followers, acting in their collective best interest and putting others first (Northouse, 2001; Wren & Greenleaf, 2013). This behavior change would address the core issue at the root of Joe Exotic’s problems. His inability to empathize with others and narcissistic self-importance prevented him from ethically leading the GW Zoo and taking the best possible care of his animals. As a servant leader, Joe Exotic could have furthered the zoo’s mission of conservation, cultivating love and respect for the animals among employees and visitors alike, and being a steward of the big cat industry.

Conclusion

An estimated 20,000 big cats are kept in private ownership in the United States, although many of those species number far fewer in the wild (Big Cat Public Safety Act, 2024). The big cat industry has exploded, and zoo owners like Joe Exotic use these animals for their own personal gain, resorting to extreme measures such as murder-for-hire in an attempt to eliminate potential threats to their zoos and ownership of big cats. Major ethical failures in leadership have occurred, and the focus on the animals has been lost in favor of personal gain and notoriety. While his story may have ended, understanding Joe Exotic’s values, ethics system, and leadership, allows us to learn from his mistakes and cultivate better methods of conservation, awareness, and stewardship of wild animals through servant leadership.

References

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About the Author

Summer Duba ’25 is majoring in Biology with a minor in Leadership Studies. She is a Presidential Scholar in the President’s Leadership and Honors Programs, and a student-athlete on the Varsity Sailing team. When she’s not in working on her research the lab, Summer can be found reading a good fantasy novel, hanging out with her Club Swim teammates, or training for her next triathlon.

Cowboys Drink Coors: Product Placement in Yellowstone

Aidan O’Malley, Matthew Thompson, Tracy Johnson

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Michaela Meyer, Department of Communication

Abstract

The highly popular television show Yellowstone offers numerous examples of product placement throughout the series, showcasing how brands are seamlessly integrated into the storyline and setting. As one of the most-watched cable dramas, Yellowstone has captured attention not only for its intriguing narrative but also for its exceedingly authentic feel and deep character development. Drawing on Foss’s framework, this study employs an ideological critique of Yellowstone to examine how product placements operate ideologically to build the show and characters’ identities. Our analysis finds that product placements in Yellowstone primarily align with traditional Western values of rugged individualism and tradition, making those the privileged ideologies. Beyond advertising opportunities and authenticity, these products help establish the identities and ideologies represented within the show, allowing the audience to align with them. This study provides a case study of extensive product placement within a fictional, Western television show, illustrating the potential power and influence held by capitalism in modern television.

Keywords: Yellowstone, Western, product placement, ideological critique

According to BuzzFeed News, in 2022, Yellowstone was America’s most-watched television show (Abdelmahmoud, 2022). In recent years, the Western television genre has made a comeback in American television culture. Recently, Yellowstone has been awarded a Golden Globe for Kevin Costner’s portrayal of John Dutton (Golden Globes). Because of the genre’s recent popularity, and Yellowstone leading the charge, the show has influenced ideologies that many viewers associate with. As of recently, Yellowstone has become a source of influence on lifestyle trends. Recently, a new spinoff coming out called Yellowstone 2024 was announced. It will chronologically pick up where the main series left off. This paper will delve into topics regarding the Western TV genre, product placement, and the television show Yellowstone, to illustrate how certain brands and narratives are represented. Through the examination of product placement strategies within Yellowstone, this paper aims to develop the ideas the show shapes and to understand how consumer perceptions and ideologies change throughout.

There have been many studies on television shows using product placement in the past due to the phenomenon’s rise in popularity with major brand advertisers. Product placement has increased to over “8.78 billion dollars as of 2017,” according to research (Demirel, 2020, p. 340). According to Williams et. al. (2011), nearly “75% of U.S. prime-time network shows use product placements” (p. 4). Scholars have previously argued product placement in television shows can “boost sales” (Paluck et. al., 2015) because they allow viewers to be accessed more directly with fewer advertisements. Nitins (2006) also suspects product placement on television “has the added benefit of targeting consumers when they are perhaps at their most susceptible” (p. 11). Scholars have found that product placement within media texts has been successful since 1982. Gold (2005) argues “that the practice of integrating products into movies really took off” (p. 2) with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The article mentions the sales for Reese’s pieces rose nearly 60% following the product placement in the film. Throughout this paper, we will be analyzing how Paramount has been able to make Yellowstone a hit series by embedding product placements into the show.

The purpose of this study is to explore how the products placed in Yellowstone ideologically function in a way that builds the identity of the show. The show also builds credibility and likeability by allowing viewers to align with the values of the brands within the storyline. We utilize an ideological critique to examine product placement within Yellowstone, leveraging interpellation and controlling image theories to support our analysis.

Literature Review

Western Genre and Television

The early success of the Western genre can be attributed to the moralistic undertones in its storylines. In the mid-to-late 50s, the shift away from sitcoms toward Westerns was prominent, and at any given time of the day, you could find a Western on television (Foley, 2013; Tredy, 2022). This genre had such an impact on Hollywood that it comprised 30% of the films produced between 1947 and 1950, only declining in 1958 when television started to increase the number of Western shows (Foley, 2013). Western television shows and movies were highly rated and popular among audiences, primarily because they were representative of the values that America held at the time. An expression of this familiarity occurs through the themes that directly contrast within the text, such as civilization and savagery, culture and nature, east and west, settlement and wilderness, and cowboys and Indians (Budd, 1976). These thematic oppositions serve as frames, where the audience’s perspectives are forced to look at the deeper meanings of these oppositions and how they may relate to society outside of this genre. All of these symbols come together in the social, economic, and political landscapes at the present time (Foley, 2013; Johnson, 2012).

As the state of the nation began to change, the straightforward nature of the Western genre

lost attraction with the American audience. The continuous episodic nature of presenting a male, often white, character fighting against whatever was threatening his values and beliefs was not as engaging to audiences as it once had been (Stewart, 2021). Plot lines with simple, clear-cut villains over which the main character triumphs become too simple for the times (Foley, 2013). People could no longer connect with the simple black-and-white narrative of what was right and wrong in Western narratives (Stewart, 2021). The cultural impact that Westerns had on societal norms no longer had the same influence on its audience, there was no longer a shared cultural viewing experience.

Westerns emerged again in more modern television of the 21st century after a brief hiatus, incorporating nostalgia from the older, familiar shows while embracing new American values. Writers were now finding more ways for the audience to relate and engage with more aspects of Western television. One of these aspects was to create more serial narrative structures where the audience could form ties to the plot (Stewart, 2021). Another shift was how there was more representation and complexity within the characters. Female characters received more diverse roles, while also having more complexity in their representation to the audience (Johnson, 2012; Stewart, 2021). Male characters were also becoming more complex in their values, how they presented their identity, and how they interacted with masculinity politics (Gibson, 2016; Hellum, 2007; Stewart, 2021). The settings in which the plot was taking place also accommodated more to better engage with more modern cultural themes related to diverse audiences (Foley, 2013; Johnson, 2012; Stewart, 2021). Not only was the space more open for these themes, but the political and cultural controversies that were being addressed within the plot lines were becoming more complex as well (Foley, 2013). This adaptability of modern Westerns partly stems from incorporating elements from various other genres, which made it possible to keep a foundation of simple values while beginning to explore new topics to gain a more diverse audience (Johnson, 2012).

Cowboy Identity

The creation and portrayal of the cowboy identity is a fundamental part of the Western genre. Within this identity, multiple cultural discourses are present due to the historical nature of the character (Drake, 2023; Fishwick, 1952; Gibson, 2016). Masculinity is the most obvious feature related to cowboy identity, but there are also conversations about American values such as individualism that are represented within the cowboy character. Hellum (2007) described cowboy identity as: “His independence and ruggedness evoke a feeling of something solid, something true and pure, belonging to a bygone era, something rooted in history” (p. 2). These values of independence and individualism are the foundation of the nation’s history. However, contemporary challenges faced by new cowboy characters introduce modern discourses that intersect with these fundamental values. The identity of a cowboy is not tied to any singular actor; instead, it is clearly recognizable from the visible embodiment of the traits and physical characteristics that define the archetype (Fishwick, 1952; Savage, 1979). It is a hero who is outside of the law, but yet sticks to their moral beliefs and values when dealing with a space such as the Wild West, which has gotten out of control. (Drake, 2023; Fishwick, 1952; Hellum, 2007; Savage, 1979). From this, he becomes a symbol of integrity, while also displaying his freedom (Fishwick, 1952). This individuality, while remaining committed to a moral code, exemplifies the values that America has cultivated in attempts to address complex societal issues, as reflected in this form of popular entertainment.

The visual and material aspects that are closely associated with the cowboy identity facilitated an effortless commodification of this brand, compared to other brands that lack recognizable visual traits. The cowboy identity is displayed comprehensively, whether that is what he wears, the job he does, or how he lives his life (Drake, 2023; Gibson, 2016; Hellum, 2007; Savage, 1979). Material embodiments, however, are what have helped visually sell this

identity. Western snap shirts, chaps, blue jeans, boots, hats, etc. are identity trappings nearly every cowboy wears (Gibson, 2016; Hellum, 2007; Savage, 1979). The cowboy is a staple, recognizable character marked through postcards, cigar boxes, and children’s toys and stories (Gibson, 2016; Hellum, 2007; Savage, 1979). As the way that people advertise their brands alters, so will the way that people commodify these identities.

Product Placement

Product placement within modern media texts has become a mainstay of the media industry, providing brand exposure to corporations and major funding sources to media outlets. Our modern media environment coupled with the capitalist system we operate within has led to advertising, particularly product placement, becoming a major economic driver in our society. To understand product placement’s influence today both on media consumers and media texts, it is important to examine scholarship discussing the early stages of its emergence and the notable stages of its development. Segrave (2004) describes how advertising has been ingrained within the media industry from its earliest stages, with slide ads appearing in silent films by the 1890s. As cinema with sound became available, corporations saw product placement as a massive advertising opportunity with significant economic potential and soon began offering filmmakers large sums of money to run short advertisement clips. Product placement as an advertising medium was also utilized during film’s beginning stages, with the earliest example reportedly occurring in the Lumiere Brothers’ 1895 silent film Partie de Cartes Especially on the radio, the use of product placement continued to grow throughout the early 1900s but slowed between the 1920s and reemerged in the 1960s/70s (Eagle & Dahl, 2018). The four or five-decade product placement lull is likely a result of cultural norms pushing the practice out of favor, with it being seen as unsavory by most. By the late 1970s, however, much of the resistance to its usage had waned (Segrave, 2004). This cleared a runway for its usage to expand in the decades that followed. Examples of its usage became more frequent, making audiences more accustomed to product placement’s presence in media.

The late 1970s and early 1980s ushered in a new wave of consumerism, with the popularity of media advertising and product placement growing as the financial incentives of the practice became more apparent. A prominent, highly influential example from the time can be found in the 1982 film E.T. The main character Elliot leaves behind a trail of what appears to be M&M’s but is actually Reese’s Pieces. Hershey’s deployed an advertisement campaign alongside the film, translating into financial success for Hershey’s by making the candy a popular household name (Bersch, 2022). Bersch continues to explain a major factor in the expansion of product placement during the 1980s was the financial security that it provided to Hollywood studios. The opportunity to secure profits and ensure production success by accepting brand placement deals was too enticing to ignore. By the late 1990s, we saw films like Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) gross $100 million (USD) before it was ever released to the public thanks to the product placement deals corporations signed with the filmmakers (Eagle & Dahl, 2018). Of all U.S.-based media, by 2006 “some three-quarters of films and TV programs include product placements” (Eagle & Dahl, 2018, p. 606). This highlights an extreme shift by both film industry insiders and audiences in the overall view of the practice. From widespread disapproval and a decades-spanning absence to product placement appearing in roughly 75% of U.S. films, there has been a stark transition for the practice to reach its current position. The exponential growth of product placement in media can be largely attributed to the financial benefits provided to both brands and production studios.

The specific products and brands placed within a media text help to shape both the text itself, as well as the audience it attracts. If implemented properly, product placement can be leveraged across industries, demographics, and genres because “individuals acquire new response tendencies through modeling and imitative behaviors, especially when products are

associated with characters with whom viewers identify” (Paluck et al., 2015, p. 2). Rajan (2015) describes how different products are targeted toward different age and gender demographics, “Women are more attracted towards branded shampoos, cosmetics etc., while the brands of mobile phones, cars, suits, shoes etc. readily call the attention of men” (p. 17). The product ranges associated with each demographic influence the genres and media channels that different brands are likely to target, as they attract different groups. Guennemann and Cho’s (2014) study focused on brand awareness impacts for automotive companies from their placement in different media types and found that placement within movies was highly influential, however, it was less significant in other media texts. As demonstrated by the above research, product placement influences the media text itself, the attracted audience, and is influenced by the media channel it is placed within.

Product placement has had a long path of development over the last century to its current point within the media field. Today, its use is widely apparent, making the consideration of its influence necessary. Williams et al. (2011) describe the commonly held philosophy of television producers that if a brand does not enhance the show, it does not get included. The goal is to make the placement memorable, but undetectable. When a media text can include products that help build the identity of the work, it positively impacts both the text itself and the depicted products. They build a mutually beneficial connection, positively influencing the consumer’s perception of the text along with the product. In today’s fictional television media, products attached to characters invoke responses from audiences, collectively shaping the identity of both the media text and the audience themselves. Different mediums react differently to product placement, which also influences their impact on the text and audience. As a result of our literature review in this case, it leads us to our research question: how does product placement function ideologically in Yellowstone?

Methodology

We used an ideological critique for our methodology, as well as applied the general ideas of controlling images and interpellation while looking at the hit series Yellowstone. According to Sonja Foss (2004), the first step to identification of our artifacts begins with identifying basic features, which may include “major arguments, types of evidence, particular terms, or metaphors. In visual artifacts, physical features such as shapes and colors constitute presented elements” (2004, p. 243). The second step in doing an ideological critique is to connect ideas. Foss (2004) explains this as “the step at which you identify the meanings suggested by the elements” (p. 244), which will help us explore and understand the core meanings and underlying variants of the artifacts that we selected. The third step of an ideological critique is uncovering the ideology based on the elements that we identified. In step two, we defined many of the artifacts, now we must explain how they relate to our overarching theme. Lastly, the final step is to report the findings to “discover how the ideology you constructed from the artifact functions for the audience who encounters it and the consequences it has in the world” (Foss, 2004, p. 248).

To complete our research and the ideological critique we took detailed notes about different themes, ideas, and subjects throughout the screening. Our notes cover the ideas of product placement seen within the show, how product placement changes throughout the show, and how Yellowstone embodies the product placement methodology. We will be analyzing the entirety of what has been published of the show thus far, seasons one through five. Also, our notes are divided into each season and subdivided into the product placement topics that we see within the show. Furthermore, we explore the evolving nature of product placement within the context of Yellowstone’s storyline progression.

Analysis

Yellowstone’s impact was great, and its popularity is no coincidence. According to Barkey and Weddell’s (2023) report, Paramount Studio’s season four filming operations along with tourism inspired by Yellowstone produced an additional $376 million in personal income and over 10,000 jobs in Montana. Specifically, those who were motivated to visit Montana by the show spent just over $730 million in 2022 (Barkey & Weddell, 2023). An economic impact of that magnitude can only be achieved by truly capturing a fanbase. The show’s plot ventures into all areas of the characters’ lives, creating a richer story. Yellowstone not only glamorizes the beautiful parts of the Western cowboy, frontier lifestyle, it equally displays the emotional strain and endless practical challenges the West presents. By displaying all areas of that life, Yellowstone’s plot provides a more holistic and real understanding of the lifestyle, along with the ideologies it brings. Numerous scenes spanning all seasons specifically depict conflicting perspectives regarding many characters’ core beliefs, providing more overt displays of the character groups’ ideological alignments. This is furthered by the inclusion of new challenges created by modern society, where environmental, political, and financial issues often become more pressing than day-to-day ranch operations. Disputing ideologies with Native Americans who originally inhabited much of Montana, including the Dutton Ranch, continue to present ideological, emotional, and practical challenges as they had for generations. This multi-dimensional plot alone, however, would not provide the authentic feeling required to garner the cult following the show has built. Cinematics and on-screen props, especially brand-name products, help to establish the authentic feel and Western, blue-collar cowboy identity. As we will present, Yellowstone builds this identity largely by hand-picking brands to display often used in the real world by groups the show wants to associate with. Not only does the use of product placement help to build the identity of many significant characters, but it also differentiates ideologies presented in different character groups by associating them with separate products. This allows audiences to align with and attach to certain ideologies portrayed, and potentially oppose others. We will analyze specific examples of how such ideologies operate through product placement throughout the show, and through interpellation and controlling images.

Identifying the Nature of Ideology

During the first episode of season one of Yellowstone, as John Dutton is preparing to board his helicopter, he says “Leverage is knowing if someone had all the money in the world…this is what they’d buy,” (Costner, et al., 2018-present, 0:15:48). John Dutton is a multi-generational rancher who inherited one of the largest ranches in Montana, as well as all of the assets (and risks) that accompany such a large property and business. The show does an excellent job illustrating all dimensions of the Dutton family’s lifestyle, and most importantly, the context and ideological reasoning behind their decisions. Across all seasons, the show is littered with beautiful aerial shots of the breathtaking ranch, and scenes of the Dutton family, their guests, and ranchhands traversing the landscape on horseback. The sheer beauty of the sprawling property alone is something that is repeatedly established as a primary reason for the Dutton’s intense protection of it, and dictation of how it is maintained. Another major component is the generational aspect of the ranch. All the Dutton family has known for hundreds of years is living on and working the land they fight to protect. Evident by both the multiple spin-off prequel series to the show and the numerous flashbacks to previous generations of Duttons, the family’s history is highly significant to the way they operate. There is a specific flashback in the season two finale that definitively illustrates the emotional gravity of this factor, depicting John Dutton bringing his 90-year-old, ailing father on his last ride around the ranch. Before they share a touching moment of vulnerability and peace, John Dutton Jr. tells John Dutton III (the main character), “Don’t let them take it away from you, son. Not a goddamn inch,”

(Costner, et al., 2018-present, 0:1:42). This emphatically defines the family-determined destiny of John Dutton III to protect his land at all cost, clearly identifying a strong motivator for his sometimes drastic action. It is both his birthright and birth duty to keep this land in the Dutton family, no matter who stands in his way. The apparent emotional and familyrelated motivations behind Dutton’s decisions allow audiences to align with or understand his perspective along with its ideological basis.

Furthermore, the extremely high level of labor required to maintain the ranch, along with the livestock, is something that aids in establishing the Dutton family’s ideology. From pounding fence posts into the ground, constantly monitoring and moving livestock, and managing the clashing personalities of the ranchhands, the day-to-day operation of the ranch is no small task. Scattered throughout the seasons are segments of B-roll footage backed by folk music showing cowboys and cowgirls at work, waking up early and working til sundown. It brings viewers, especially older ones, back to a time when hard, physical work in the hot summer and cold winter was all that paid the bills. Especially in our modern time where younger generations are often labeled as lazy, and desk/virtual jobs are plentiful, these scenes allow viewers to build the ideological basis for the type of people the Dutton family represents. Blue-collar, hard-working people can align with this lifestyle and thus are more likely to agree with the types of decisions the Duttons make or actions they carry out. Additionally, the hardworking ideological basis builds a nostalgic factor where viewers can think back to the way things used to be. Not only does this add to the ideological understanding of the Dutton family, but it also helps to create an ideological “other,” which will be discussed further below. Compounded upon itself, the hard physical labor depicted throughout the plot makes it clear to the viewer that ranching, whether through ownership or employment, is not for the faint of heart. A simple example of this is when John Dutton is forced to execute one of his horses, who breaks his leg when a young ranchhand is allowed to ride the horse for the first time. Emotional pain, along with physical pain, is part of the job, which adds to the pressure the family feels to protect the ranch at all costs.

Identifying Interests Included

The ideas of hard work, protecting Montana’s beauty, and protecting the family’s destiny are continually built upon as the show progresses. The family faces formidable adversaries and challenges as time passes. From real-estate developers like Dan Jenkins and the Beck brothers, to the governing bodies of the Native Americans in Chief Rainwater and his associates, to New Market Equities, an enormous private equity firm, those who occupy the opposing forces in the fight for their land arise in many forms. The different opposing character groups force the Duttons to do more and more extreme things to maintain their property and accomplish their goals. However, the character identities they build remain consistent, making the ideologies they represent more and more clear. Their identities build to represent an ideological structure that reveres the “old ways” and plain hard work, thus opposing modernity, the ideology of the “other”. Owning such a large property in Montana affords John Dutton a lot of power and influence, equally of which is required to protect that property. This forces him into political positions, and naturally, pits him against people with vastly different ideologies. At the show’s start, he is Livestock Commissioner, and in the latest season (season five) he is elected Governor of Montana. In the announcement of his gubernatorial campaign, during season four, episode seven, John Dutton firmly stated:

They’ll tell you that the land’s only hope is for them to be its steward. The ugly truth is they want the land, and if they get it, it will never look like our land again. That is progress in today’s terms, so if it’s progress you seek, do not vote for me. I am the opposite of progress. I’m the wall that it bashes against, and I will not be the one who breaks. (Costner, et al., 2018-present, 0:54:17 ).

Shortly afterward, John Dutton is elected Governor of Montana. This reinforces the notion that the beliefs the Dutton family stands for are representative of the beliefs of many other ranchers/hard-working people in Montana, and thus, hard-working viewers as a whole. Additionally, the actions John Dutton takes in these positions are clearly all in accordance with the protection of his ranch, which is stated explicitly and implicitly through his actions/ decisions. While this may seem like an undesirable trait for an elected official, his ideological basis allows him to do so because it is implied or assumed that all like-minded individuals would do the same in his position. This is evident through an interaction between John and his driver shortly after his election, where amidst an argument with his son Jamie, John Dutton says “Make no mistake, I love Montana, but I am doing this for our ranch. We measure every decision against what is good for the ranch,” (Costner, et al., 2018-present, 0:44:15). After telling the driver that all their discussions are to remain private, the driver responds by saying “I won’t say a word, Governor. Except this. If I had your ranch, I’d do the same thing,” (Costner, et al., 2018-present, 0:44:49). This external justification reinforces the self-interested ideological foundation or rationale for Dutton’s decisions presented by the series.

Another competing ideology is that of the Native Americans. With John Dutton’s daughter-in-law being a Native American and his frequent interaction with Chief Rainwater, it is a major component of the show. Numerous issues arise, including flashbacks to the previous Dutton generations’ interactions with Native Americans, where the Duttons must contend with the fact that their land was taken from the native inhabitants. This builds an obvious paradox with their protection of the land against their modern opponents and requires a level of justification that is met through the plot’s flow of events. As society has evolved to its current state, the goals of ranchers and Native Americans have become more aligned. While the tension of how ranchers acquired their land still exists and is acknowledged, the ultimate goal is preserving the land. An obvious example comes in the premiere episode of season four, where a flashback depicts an early interaction between the Duttons and Native Americans. It is soon after the ranch is deeded to the Duttons, and a Native American family travels to ask John Dutton, Sr. to bury one of their own on the land they used to live upon. While there is obvious tension, not only does Dutton, Sr. allow them to do so, he provides food for both their horses and people. This translates into the current timeline of the show, where Chief Rainwater’s right-hand-man, Mo, tells him it may not be in the reservation’s best interest that Dutton is elected governor, but it is in the best interest of the land (Costner, et al., 2018-present). While Native Americans do not align wholly with the ideologies of the Dutton family, oftentimes in practicality, they agree because their ultimate goal is the same: preserving the land.

The Cowboy/Western ideologies represented by the Dutton family become the favored ideology because the majority of Yellowstone’s main characters are in the family or work on the Dutton ranch. The show is not only shot from one perspective or person and jumps between storylines involving different, sometimes overlapping characters. However, because the majority of these perspectives are from characters aligned with Cowboy/Western ideologies, that ideology tends to become the privileged ideology. Outside of a specific character, it is never implied that Dutton’s ideology is necessarily best. However, because it is the dominant ideology portrayed on screen, it becomes the privileged one.

Identifying Strategies in Support of the Ideology

One of the strategies that is used to further Western ideologies through product placement is the theory of controlling images. Collins (2002) introduces the term controlling images as a way to make stereotypical images feel normalized within society. There are specific stereotypes that come to mind when you think about Western shows and movies, such as specific trucks, boots, and beers. While controlling images are usually used in a negative fashion to repress others, Yellowstone embraces these controlling images with their product placement in how

they choose specific brands that they think fit the stereotypical images that are recognizable when thinking about Westerns and cowboys. Due to the brands in the show being in line with audiences’ expectations, the product placement looks seamless.

The product placement promoting this dominant ideology within the show started to present itself in season two after the first season had major success. In the first season, you see brands like Carhartt or Budweiser that are well-known brands that an audience would expect to see in Westerns. However, once the show picked up, specific brands began to invest in having their products placed in the show over others. One of these brands is Coors Banquet. The first season had a variety of beers that people would drink, while the seasons to follow would only have Coors featured in scenes where people were drinking beer. This transition was seamless in how it went from any beer to one specific type of beer for certain characters who would be expected to like drinking beer. In the show, characters like Rainwater are never depicted drinking beer since it is not the type of alcohol viewers would expect him to like, if he were shown drinking alcohol at all. A prime example of having this product placement where characters that are expected to live up to this stereotype of drinking beer, casually flowing, is in the very last episode of Yellowstone, where there are multiple scenes in one episode in the bunk house and outdoors where people are drinking Coors instead of other beers (Costner, et al., 2018-present, 0:13:45; Costner, et al., 2018-present, 0:32:26).

Another strategy that is used to make the product placement successful in promoting the dominant ideology is interpellation. The core principle of interpellation is giving an identity to someone or something (Althusser, 2006). Rather than trying to stray from the identities that society has already placed on cowboys and Westerns in general, the show plays into these more modern depictions of what this now looks like through the values seen in these characters. The cowboy identity is focused on the values of being honest and trying to uphold their form of justice. This is exemplified in in season 4, episode 8 when John Dutton goes into a diner where he risks his life to save innocent people from robbers. Right before this, there is a full panel scene of him pulling up in his Ram truck with the Dutton ranch logo (Costner, et al., 2018-present, 0:42:34). This visual, along with the plot-altering implications of this scene for his Mayoral campaign, use both the stereotypes and values of characters to present products in a natural way. These scenes demonstrate that it would not be possible to follow through with these actions that uphold characters values without the products that are presented, such as the Ram that he drove to get to the diner.

Interpellation is so successful because it can showcase the different values for the variety of characters that the show has while bolstering the dominant ideology presented through the cowboy identity. The show attaches products, like Ram Trucks, Coors Banquet, Carhartt, Ariat, etc. to this ideology to build authenticity, fandom, and ease of attachment to the ideologies represented by the Dutton family. Similarly, it attaches products to the “other,” the “they” discussed in John Dutton’s campaign announcement. Whether representing real estate moguls or business tycoons, it visually reflects how the ideologies are separated by those characters representing opposing products (Range Rover, Bentley, suits, etc.) to those represented by the Dutton family. These oppositional characters, such as the Beck brothers or Market Equities, are outsiders who are trying to destroy these values of the West for capitalistic profit. An instance where this can be seen is in Season 3, Episode 5, where Roarke from Market Equities wears brands like Ray-Ban sunglasses and a Simms fishing hat as he engages in a stock market conflict with Beth (Costner, et al., 2018-present, 0:19:04; Costner, et al., 2018-present, 0:23:14). These brands are representative of modern capitalistic values that are trying to destroy places like the Yellowstone and take advantage of cowboys and ranchers like the Dutton family. Thus, Yellowstone utilizes product placement to simplify and define ideologies represented by character groups.

What is also important to highlight is the lack of product placement that is used for the

Native American characters within the show, which is very intentional. As said above, the history between Native Americans and the land is an area historically and culturally important to contend with. In the show, Native Americans and the Duttons may not have the same exact values and goals overall due to how ranchers acquired the land. However, what they can respect is their mutual love and respect for the land against oppositional forces that are trying to destroy it. Because of this, the show refrains from using product placement in a way that would take away from this narrative. This approach feels authentic, since Native American culture exists outside of modern capitalism and including product placement in their scenes would go against the values that they hold. Having these characters use big-name brands loosely associated with white people goes against their culture and values. Since this is the case, there are no brands that are distinctly recognizable as product placements when the Native American characters or the reservation are the central focus of a scene.

Conclusion

Throughout the examination of product placement in Yellowstone, it became clear that there is a strategic implementation of consumer brands within the show. It is also apparent that not only are these brands being used as symbols but they also have a greater underlying value within the viewer’s perception. Product placement within media texts cannot only enhance a media’s likeliness but, also add a sense of realness and connectability. Our research into the show changed how we now understand the implementation and importance of product placement through blending products we see and use with a false reality that entertains us.

Our findings unveil the intricacies of product placement and advertising plans within television. Product placements from brands like Ram Trucks, Coors Banquet, Carhartt, and Buffalo Trace grab viewers’ attention and keep them long enough to connect products to emotions. Once this is achieved, product placement can increase the emotional investment that viewers have in the show. These brands make the viewers feel more connected and as if they can be a part of Yellowstone (Paluck et al., 2015). The product placement of these brands serves as a dual model that specifically enhances the realism of the show and the product, as well as helps the ideologies that the characters hold to connect with everyday watchers of the show (Rajan, 2015).

Furthermore, our study found the integration of brands within media discourse can have a powerful effect on viewers of the show. When looking into the Western genre of television the appeal of the frontier lifestyle blends well with the product placement methodology in shows. By aligning characters with products, the show establishes a clear group mentality, meaning if you own the products the characters in the show, specifically in Yellowstone, must be part of the Western culture/dynamic (Fishwick, 1952). This invites the audience to become more aligned and engaged with the show, further developing a fanbase. Yellowstone presents a clash of ideas between tradition and modernity, this idea brings in viewers by taking them back to the Wild West but also relating it to how life is today in the 2000s (Fishwick, 1952). By using product placement, viewers are not only put into the shoes of the Dutton family, but they become more engaged with the general narratives of the show and the brands that are displayed throughout.

Future research could explore the different product placement strategies and the blurriness between advertising and entertainment could be further developed as we had just looked at the effects of advertising and why product placement is popular within today’s society. It would also be beneficial to look into other Western media that have a similar plot with the use of product placement.

In conclusion, Yellowstone acts as a testament to the power of product placement and how it can change audiences’ perceptions of the West and the products used within the film by employing this strategy. Yellowstone uses product placement and the influence the show has to shape the identity, values, and ideologies of the characters within the show and the viewers who partake in the compelling storyline. Our study takes a look at the intricate relationship between

film and advertising in the 21st century and has a glimpse of the frontier spirit. Yellowstone has left a deep impression that will last a lifetime on its viewers and will conclusively allow the viewers to have an appreciation for the products within the show. The legacy of the Dutton family is not only left within just the show but also in the millions of viewers’ minds and hearts through the use of the brands that we know and use every day.

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About the Authors

Aidan O’Malley, Matthew Thompson, and Tracy Johnson are graduating seniors from Christopher Newport University with majors in Communication Studies and a shared interest in media analysis. Their collaborative research project focused on unraveling the complexities of product placement within the popular television series Yellowstone. Drawing upon Foss’ methodological approach to an ideological critique, they contributed new insights into the strategic deployment of branded products within the show’s narrative. Their strong attention to detail and expertise in media analysis techniques enriched the scholarly discourse within the field of communication, their dedication to detail and proficiency in media analysis methodologies enhanced the scholarly debate within the field of communication.

“This is Our 9/11”: Connecting Al-Qaeda and Hamas Paiton Jones

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Crystal Shelton, Department of Political Science

Abstract

This research delves into the intricate dynamics of extremist factions in the Middle East, particularly focusing on Osama bin Laden’s aspirations and the objectives of groups like Hamas. By analyzing their ideologies, motives, and methodologies, one can better understand the significant role of provocation as a strategy employed by terrorist organizations. Throughout this comparative analysis of al-Qaeda’s 9/11 and Hamas’s October 7th, the profound and enduring impacts of terrorism on societies and global politics can be explored. Terrorists exploit provocation to elicit exaggerated responses, manipulate perceptions, and advance their agenda, while also impacting the psychological, socio-economic, and politics of the given country/ group of their attack. Moreover, this research understands the challenges faced by democracies in balancing security imperatives with democratic principles in countering terrorism. Through a comprehensive understanding of the driving forces of extremism and the adoption of effective counterterrorism strategies, this research advocated for a path towards fostering peace, stability, and dialogue in the Middle East and beyond.

In the tumultuous landscape of the Middle East, many extremist factions have emerged with distinct yet interconnected agendas, each striving to assert dominance and reshape the region according to their ideologies. Osama bin Laden, renowned for his role in orchestrating large acts of terror such as 9/11, harbored aspirations extending beyond mere violence. His ultimate ambition, after expelling what he saw as “western ideology”, the Judeo-Christian, and above all American threat, was to advocate for the expulsion of Israel from Palestine.1 This ideology and reason for terrorism connects with the objectives of groups such as Hamas, whose aims mirror those of bin Laden in their pursuit of an independent Islamic society, coupled with the eradication of perceived obstacles posed by American, Israeli, and Southern Lebanese forces.2 Furthermore, the modus operandi, motives, and the seemingly clandestine signs in their activities stand as distinctive hallmarks of comparison.

Against the backdrop of terrorism in the Middle East, non-state actors utilize acts of terror as a means to garner attention, recruit adherents, and coerce both states and other non-state actors. 3 Unlike traditional warfare, which may cease with the signing of treaties or other modes of peace, terrorism persists indefinitely, perpetuated by isolated individuals or small groups at their discretion.4 This perpetual threat is exacerbated by the socio-economic disparities prevalent in many Middle Eastern societies, where the allure of extremist ideologies find fertile ground among disenfranchised youths and marginalized citizens. 5 Within this complex landscape, the relationship between Hamas and Al-Qaeda emerges as a juxtaposition. While Hamas presents itself as a resistance movement engaged in a national struggle within defined borders, Al-Qaeda depicts the epitome of a ruthless terrorist organization, responsible for the loss of thousands of lives across the globe. Despite their disparate methodologies, both entities are entwined in the broader narrative of extremist violence in the Middle East, and each use a method of terrorism that aims to evoke a response: provocation. The public should care about this connection as history is doomed to repeat itself if we do not compare events of such magnitude to one another, and in this case, learn from the use of provocation by AlQaeda. This research paper will encapsulate the method of provocation used by both Hamas and Al-Qaeda as methods of terrorism, compare the events of 9/11/01 and 10/07/23, and depict the missteps and triumphs in the use of military intervention as a response to these attacks.

Provocation, a key strategy in the arsenal of terrorist organizations, is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon with far-reaching implications for both the immediate security landscape and the broader socio-political landscape. At its core, provocation operates on the principle of exploiting reactions from targeted governments and the public to further the terrorists’ goals. By orchestrating attacks designed to elicit exaggerated responses, such as drastic military intervention or enhanced homeland security measures, terrorists aim to manipulate perceptions, sow discord, and ultimately advance their agenda.6 One critical aspect often overlooked is the psychological impact of provocation. Beyond the immediate casualties and physical damage caused by an act of terror, the fear, anger, and insecurity generated by

1 Zimmerman, Ronald E. Strategic Provocation: Explaining Terrorist Attacks on America. Air University, 2002.

2 Zimmerman, Ronald E. Strategic Provocation: Explaining Terrorist Attacks on America. Air University, 2002.

3 Zimmerman, Ronald E. Strategic Provocation: Explaining Terrorist Attacks on America. Air University, 2002.

4 Mueller, John. "Harbinger or aberration? A 9/11 provocation." The National Interest 69 (2002): 45-50.

5 Mohammad, Abdullah Yousef Sahar. "Roots of terrorism in the Middle East: Internal pressures and international constraints." In Root causes of terrorism, pp. 121-136. Routledge, 2005.

6 Schlesinger, Jayme R. "Does Provocation Work?: Lessons Learned from the Success and Failure of Counterterrorism in Democracies." PhD diss., Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, School of Graduate Studies, 2023.

the attack can permeate society, eroding trust in its institutions. This psychological warfare extends beyond the immediate victims to shape public discourse, influence policy decisions, and alter the trajectory of reprisal.7 The reasons behind the use of provocation are manifold. By inciting overreactions, terrorists seek to galvanize support, recruit sympathizers, and amplify their message. Moreover, by prolonging conflicts and cycles of violence, terrorists create opportunities for marginalized citizens to exploit grievances, extort concessions, and undermine government legitimacy.

Provocation serves, therefore, as a force multiplier, enabling terrorists to achieve strategic objectives with minimal resources and risk. In democracies, where values such as freedom, tolerance, and the rule of law are cherished, the use of provocation poses unique challenges. While such societies typically favor measured, proportional responses, democracies are also much more susceptible to public pressure and scrutiny. 8 This balance between security imperatives and democratic principles underscore the importance of effective governance, robust institutions, and transparent communication in countering terrorism.

The benefits of provocation for terrorist organizations are not without their limitations. While initially effective in disrupting adversaries and garnering attention, prolonged reliance on provocative tactics can backfire. Governments may adapt by implementing countermeasures, rallying public support, and delegitimizing terrorist groups.9 If a government can outlast the need for reprisal, “terrorists lose leverage in their conflict with the government by being unable to continue their attacks in the future without inviting continually repressive government retaliations”.10

The events of September 11, 2001 stand as a somber reminder of the devastating impact terrorism can have on a society. The motivation behind the meticulously coordinated attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and what is thought to be the US Capitol (in reference to Flight 93) was deeply rooted in a complex array of historical grievances, ideological passion, and strategic calculation, including the calculated use of provocation. Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 plot and leader of the infamous terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, articulated a narrative of righteous resistance against perceived Western dominance, particularly embodied by the United States. 11 Bin Laden’s pronouncements, echoed in the post 9/11 era, framed the attacks as a response to what he viewed as decades of American imperialism and interventionism in the Muslim world. From the Gulf War to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the presence of U.S. military forces in Saudi Arabia, and support for autocratic regimes, bin Laden painted a picture of relentless aggression against Islam and its adherents.12 This narrative, infused with religious symbolism and historical analogies, resonated with disenfranchised Muslims worldwide, tapping into a deep well of resentment. Central to bin Laden’s ideology was the concept of defensive jihad, the notion that Muslims were duty-

7 Schlesinger, Jayme R. "Does Provocation Work?: Lessons Learned from the Success and Failure of Counterterrorism in Democracies." PhD diss., Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, School of Graduate Studies, 2023.

8 Schlesinger, Jayme R. "Does Provocation Work?: Lessons Learned from the Success and Failure of Counterterrorism in Democracies." PhD diss., Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, School of Graduate Studies, 2023.

9 Schlesinger, Jayme R. "Does Provocation Work?: Lessons Learned from the Success and Failure of Counterterrorism in Democracies." PhD diss., Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, School of Graduate Studies, 2023.

10 Schlesinger, Jayme R. "Does Provocation Work?: Lessons Learned from the Success and Failure of Counterterrorism in Democracies." PhD diss., Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, School of Graduate Studies, 2023.

11 Mueller, John, and Mark G. Stewart. "The terrorism delusion: America's overwrought response to September 11." International Security 37, no. 1 (2012): 81-110.

12 Mueller, John, and Mark G. Stewart. "The terrorism delusion: America's overwrought response to September 11." International Security 37, no. 1 (2012): 81-110.

bound to defend their faith and lands against external aggressors.13 In this framework, the 9/11 attacks were not merely acts of violence but strategic maneuvers aimed at destabilizing the perceived oppressor and rallying support for Al-Qaeda’s vision of a purified Islamic state. By targeting iconic symbols of American power and prestige, bin Laden sought to demonstrate the vulnerability of the world’s sole superpower and inspire a wave of anti-Western sentiment across the Muslim world.14

However, bin Laden’s calculations extended beyond mere retaliation. Recognizing the nature of the conflict, he understood that provoking a heavy-handed response from the United States would serve to validate his narrative of a Western crusade against Islam. Bin Laden was nothing short of clever, and he knew he “ needed a method of preventing the fundamentalist movement from failing and entering into a status quo situation. Collective violence, terrorism, became bin Laden’s method of provoking an American reprisal attack”.15 Moreover, by provoking the United States into costly military interventions in Muslim-majority countries, bin Laden hoped to acquire support for Al-Qaeda’s cause, recruit new adherents, and ignite a global insurgency against the West.16

The aftermath of 9/11 witnessed a huge shift in global politics and security dynamics, driven in part by the deliberate use of provocation. The U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, followed by the controversial war in Iraq, unleashed a wave of chaos and instability in the Middle East, exacerbating tensions and fueling the rise of new extremist groups. 17 The adoption of harsh counterterrorism measures, from enhanced surveillance to targeted assassinations, raised concerns about civil liberties and human rights violations in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, straining the delicate balance between security imperatives and democratic principles. The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Obstruct Terrorism Act, better known as the USA PATRIOT Act, is one of the key examples of the violation of civil liberties following the attacks on 9/11. The legislation allowed wiretapping, removed the barriers between the US intelligence agencies and law enforcement seen in the years leading up to 9/11, higher security of those of the terrorism watchlists, etc.18 Many Americans felt that this was an egregious violation of their civil liberties and right to privacy to have increased security measures on their personal devices without permission. Continually, the detention of over six hundred individuals, all of whom are considered to be “unlawful combatants’ in the eyes of the American government and the Geneva Conference, at Guantanamo Bay has been questioned due to the violation of human rights. Torture, including water boarding, was a normal and continuous method of coercion used against these individuals.19 Both the USA PATRIOT ACT and Guantanamo Bay have been perceived by the American public as a violation of civil liberties and human rights of both the American public and those who commit acts of terrorism against the United States.

13 Mueller, John, and Mark G. Stewart. "The terrorism delusion: America's overwrought response to September 11." International Security 37, no. 1 (2012): 81-110.

14 Mueller, John, and Mark G. Stewart. "The terrorism delusion: America's overwrought response to September 11." International Security 37, no. 1 (2012): 81-110.

15 Zimmerman, Ronald E. Strategic Provocation: Explaining Terrorist Attacks on America. Air University, 2002.

16 Mueller, John, and Mark G. Stewart. "The terrorism delusion: America's overwrought response to September 11." International Security 37, no. 1 (2012): 81-110.

17 Mueller, John, and Mark G. Stewart. "The terrorism delusion: America's overwrought response to September 11." International Security 37, no. 1 (2012): 81-110.

18 McCarthy, Michael T. "USA patriot act." (2002): 435.

19 Schneider, Daniella. "Human rights issues in Guantanamo Bay." The Journal of Criminal Law 68, no. 5 (2004): 423-439.

These attacks caused worry in a vast majority of Americans, leading to persistent anxieties that show the lasting psychological effects of provocative terrorist attacks.20 These attacks led “to delusional thinking on the part of the American government. Many people did not think it was over and therefore spiraled out of control regarding what we did wrong and what could happen with the development of Al-Qaeda”. 21 Yet, amidst the chaos and uncertainty, the legacy of 9/11 also sparked a renewed sense of solidarity and resilience within the American people. From grassroots movements advocating for peace and reconciliation to international initiatives promoting dialogue and understanding between cultures and religions, the tragedy of 9/11 prompted a collective soul searching and a reevaluation of priorities, something that even bin Laden did not see coming.22 As the world continues to grapple with the enduring threats of terrorism, the lessons of 9/11 serve as a sobering reminder of the fragility of peace and the imperative of cooperation in confronting shared challenges.

On October 7th, 2023, the world watched in horror as Hamas fighters carried out a meticulously planned assault on communities along Israel’s southern fence near Gaza, unleashing a wave of violence and destruction that reverberated far beyond the immediate casualties. The tragic aftermath of this attack saw more than 1,200 Israeli lives lost and thousands more injured, including vulnerable populations such as the elderly, infants, and Americans23 The sheer scale of the devastation marked it as the deadliest assaults on Jewish people since the Holocaust, leaving scars on the collective psyche of Israel and the international community. Yet, behind the scenes, the planning of this terror campaign had been underway for at least two years, shrouded in secrecy and deception to blindside Israeli defenses.24 The level of sophistication and military precision exhibited in the execution of the attack resembled the tactics of a well-trained army’s special forces, rather than those typically associated with a terrorist organization.25 This calculated approach underscored the strategic objectives driving Hama’s actions and highlighted the organization’s determination to achieve its goals through any means necessary, including acts of terror and provocation.

The motivation behind this brazen assault can be traced back to the complex history between Hamas and Israel, characterized by years of simmering tensions, sporadic violence, and many failed attempts at reconciliation. For sixteen years, Israel had adopted a cautious approach, allowing Hamas to consolidate its power and strengthen its military capabilities within the Gaza Strip.26 However, Hamas’s transformation from a militant group to a quasiregular army posed a significant challenge to Israel’s security paradigm, leading to a stalemate marked by periodic flare-ups of violence. Despite efforts by successive Israeli governments to engage Hamas through diplomatic and economic means, the organization remained entrenched in its extremist ideology, resistant to rational Western approaches and diplomatic overtures.27 The effectiveness of the October 7th attack, according to Hamas’s motivations, lies not only in its immediate impact but also in its ability to provoke a response that could further its strategic objectives, eradicating Jews from Israel. By launching a large-scale assault on Israeli communities, Hamas sought to elicit a forceful reaction that could be framed as a “Jewish” insurgency in the Gaza Strip, thereby garnering sympathy and support from sympathetic factions within the Palestinian territories and the broader international community. This

20 Mueller, John, and Mark G. Stewart. "The terrorism delusion: America's overwrought response to September 11." International Security 37, no. 1 (2012): 81-110.

21 Mueller, John, and Mark G. Stewart. "The terrorism delusion: America's overwrought response to September 11." International Security 37, no. 1 (2012): 81-110.

22 Mueller, John, and Mark G. Stewart. "The terrorism delusion: America's overwrought response to September 11." International Security 37, no. 1 (2012): 81-110.

23 Dostri, Omer. "Hamas’s October 2023 Attack on Israel." MILITARY REVIEW 1 (2023).

24 Dostri, Omer. "Hamas’s October 2023 Attack on Israel." MILITARY REVIEW 1 (2023).

25 Dostri, Omer. "Hamas’s October 2023 Attack on Israel." MILITARY REVIEW 1 (2023).

26 Dostri, Omer. "Hamas’s October 2023 Attack on Israel." MILITARY REVIEW 1 (2023).

27 Dostri, Omer. "Hamas’s October 2023 Attack on Israel." MILITARY REVIEW 1 (2023).

deliberate use of provocation as a method of terrorism underscored Hamas’s willingness to escalate tensions and undermine efforts at peaceful resolution, casting a dark shadow over the prospects for lasting peace in the region.28

In response to the attack, Israeli civilians and security forces sprang into action, mounting immediate defenses against the onslaught and mobilizing resources to counter the threat posed by Hamas militants.29 The subsequent wave of intense strikes on the Gaza Strip, targeting terrorist infrastructure, command-and-control centers, and the organization’s leadership, reflected Israel’s determination to neutralize the immediate threat posed by Hamas while sending a clear message of deterrence to other would-be aggressors.30 However, the efficacy of these responses remains a subject of debate, with some arguing for a more nuanced approach that addresses the underlying root causes of the conflict to prevent further escalation and further violence.31 This debate encompasses issues surrounding military intervention, humanitarian concerns, political and diplomatic implications, and the long-term strategy in the wake of the ongoing conflict. As the dust settles and the scars of October 7th begin to heal, the tragic events of that day and the months of violence that have followed, will serve as a stark reminder of the enduring cycle of violence and the urgent need for a comprehensive and sustainable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

International sentiment surrounding the conflict is ever-changing. Initially, following the October 7th attack, many countries sided with Israel in the wake of a terrorist attack on their land. However, sentiments have drastically switched in the seven months since the initial attack. Due to the extensive military reprisal seen against the Gaza Strip, resulting in thousands of deaths of innocent men, women, and children, many feel that there needs to be a ceasefire in the region. Some countries have even gone so far as to submit reports to the UN and other international bodies about possible war crimes in the region at the hands of Israel. Some of these reports come from the countries of South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros and Djibouti. 32 Hama’s use of provocation seems to have worked effectively in the midst of the ongoing conflict with Israel, as many of the countries that once supported the Israeli cause have begun to side with the Palestinians.

In the tumultuous and ever-changing landscape of the Middle East, the narratives woven by the extremist groups in the region, such as Al-Qaeda and Hamas, reveal a tapestry of ideologies, grievances, and strategic calculations. These organizations, though distinct in their methods and objectives, share a common tactic: provocation. By deliberately inciting exaggerated responses from targeted governments and the public, they seek to manipulate perceptions, sow discord, and further advance their fundamentalist agenda. The events of September 11, 2001, and October 7, 2023, stand as examples of the devastating and everlasting impact of terrorism on societies, leaving scars on the collective psyche and perpetuating a cycle of violence. As we grapple with the aftermath of these tragedies, it becomes imperative to recognize the underlying drivers of extremism and address them through comprehensive counterterrorism strategies.

This entails not only bolstering security measures but also addressing the root causes of radicalization, such as socio-economic disparities, political grievances, and ideological

28 Dostri, Omer. "Hamas’s October 2023 Attack on Israel." MILITARY REVIEW 1 (2023).

29 Dostri, Omer. "Hamas’s October 2023 Attack on Israel." MILITARY REVIEW 1 (2023).

30 Dostri, Omer. "Hamas’s October 2023 Attack on Israel." MILITARY REVIEW 1 (2023).

31 Knoope, Peter. “Comparing Hamas’ Attack on Israel and 9/11 - a Counterterrorism Perspective.” n.d. International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - ICCT. https://www.icct.nl/publication/ comparing-hamas-attack-israel-and-911-counterterrorism-perspective

32 Rios, Michael. “Five Countries Ask International Criminal Court to Investigate the Situation in Palestinian Territories.” CNN, November 17, 2023. https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/17/ middleeast/israel-gaza-war-crimes-icc-referral/index.html.

indoctrination.33 Moreover, effective counterterrorism efforts must strike a balance between safeguarding security and upholding democratic principles, ensuring that responses remain respectful of human rights. Ultimately, through efforts of peace and effective dialogue can we hope to break the cycle of violence and foster a more secure and stable future for the Middle East and beyond.

33 Knoope, Peter. “Comparing Hamas’ Attack on Israel and 9/11 - a Counterterrorism Perspective.” n.d. International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - ICCT. https://www.icct.nl/publication/ comparing-hamas-attack-israel-and-911-counterterrorism-perspective.

References

Dostri, Omer. “Hamas’s October 2023 Attack on Israel.” MILITARY REVIEW 1 (2023).

Knoope, Peter. “Comparing Hamas’ Attack on Israel and 9/11 - a Counterterrorism Perspective.” n.d. International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - ICCT. https://www.icct. nl/publication/comparing-hamas-attack-israel-and-911-counterterrorism-perspective.

McCarthy, Michael T. “USA patriot act.” (2002): 435.

Mohammad, Abdullah Yousef Sahar. “Roots of terrorism in the Middle East: Internal pressures and international constraints.” In Root causes of terrorism, pp. 121-136. Routledge, 2005.

Mueller, John, and Mark G. Stewart. “The terrorism delusion: America’s overwrought response to September 11.” International Security 37, no. 1 (2012): 81-110.

Mueller, John. “Harbinger or aberration? A 9/11 provocation.” The National Interest 69 (2002): 45-50.

Rios, Michael. “Five Countries Ask International Criminal Court to Investigate the Situation in Palestinian Territories.” CNN, November 17, 2023. https://www.cnn. com/2023/11/17/middleeast/israel-gaza-war-crimes-icc-referral/index.html.

Schlesinger, Jayme R. “Does Provocation Work?: Lessons Learned from the Success and Failure of Counterterrorism in Democracies.” PhD diss., Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, School of Graduate Studies, 2023.

Schneider, Daniella. “Human rights issues in Guantanamo Bay.” The Journal of Criminal Law 68, no. 5 (2004): 423-439.

Temel, Sevinç Ebru. “Terrorism in the Middle East: A comparison of al-Qaeda and Hamas.” Master’s thesis, Middle East Technical University, 2019.

Zimmerman, Ronald E. Strategic Provocation: Explaining Terrorist Attacks on America. Air University, 2002.

About the Author

Paiton Jones is a member of the CNU class of 2026, majoring in Political Science and American Studies with minors in Leadership Studies and US National Security Studies. She is a dedicated member of the Christopher Newport University community with her involvement in the Honors and Presidential Leadership Program. Paiton serves the CNU and Newport News community with her participation as a sister of Alpha Delta Pi Sorority, President of Alternative Breaks, and Executive Assistant for Parents of Special Olympics Gymnastics, acquiring over 200 service hours on the road to Service Distinction Leader. Her research endeavors include working as a Junior Fellow for the Center for American Studies and as a Summer Scholar in the 2023 cohort, where she researched the intersectionality between leadership and domestic terrorism.

Followers Under Bad Leadership: A Case Study of Warren Jeffs and the FLDS

V. G. Kegley

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Sarah Chace, Department of Leadership and American Studies

Abstract

A common question surrounding cults is how they can successfully garner loyal followers. From an outside perspective, it can be difficult to understand what people gain as followers under a bad leader. By focusing on the followers’ perspectives, one can further see how high-control groups can recruit people and maintain membership. Previous research shows the emotional and physical security cults provide despite their negative attributes. Preying on people’s needs, cult leaders often present themselves as a charismatic presence in one’s life. This integration into one’s normalcy and identity can make it difficult to recognize and leave a cult. Through the lens of Warren Jeffs’ leadership, these concepts can facilitate a deeper, more empathetic understanding of why followers remain under bad leadership.

When considering unethical leadership, one can see a clear example in the ongoing case of Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints. Known as the FLDS, this cult sect of Mormonism rose to infamy for its abusive and controlling practices. Established in 1890, the FLDS split from the rest of the Latter-Day Saints due to their stance on polygamy. Typical Mormon practice disavows polygamy, which is a foundational tenets for the FLDS. This practice was particularly favored by Warren Jeffs, who used the concept of polygamy to violate and blur sexual boundaries between himself and his followers. Warren Jeffs is specifically known for his use of arranged marriage, extremely traditional gender roles, and sexual abuse within the church. This practice was the catalyst for his conviction in 2011 since many of his victims were minors. Despite his imprisonment, Jeffs’ use of religion to gain complete control remains ongoing. While he may have officially resigned, many members of the church continue considering him the FLDS leader to this day (Lantry et al., 2023). However, some former members of the church have spoken out against Jeffs’ and the church’s abuse. In 2022, the documentary Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey covered the topic in depth.

Cults are almost universally considered a breeding ground for unethical leadership. After all, one seldom hears of a benevolent cult leader. Understanding what a cult provides its followers is crucial to recognizing how such systems survive. For instance, cults can weaponize the provision of needs to maintain control over its members (Greiser, 2019). By encompassing their lives, the cult and its leaders can form the selfhood of its members to keep them as followers. Given the continued prevalence of cults like the FLDS, this topic remains important. This creates the question of how a leader can use transforming leadership to maintain follower loyalty. Specifically, one could examine the ways a leader works with followers in accordance with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. By analyzing this question, one can begin understanding how followers can remain with a leader despite the potentially unethical, exploitative, and abusive outcomes. On a personal level, this subject is important to me due to my experience with and study of religious leadership. Specifically, I continue to care about where such leadership may sour, damaging its followers. Through the FLDS example, I wish to examine the ways in which cults function on a leadership level so I may understand how to deconstruct their mystique. In order to accomplish this task, I will analyze Warren Jeffs’ leadership of the FLDS through Weber’s theory of charismatic authority, Epitropaki et al.’s theories of implicit leadership & followership, and Graen and Ulh-Bien’s theory of leader-member exchange.

Weber’s Charismatic Authority analyzes leadership through the lens of perceived personability. By examining a leader’s pull and appeal, one can begin to recognize how said leader drew followership. This theory of leadership is especially applicable with cult leaders. When describing cult leaders, former followers often describe the leader as magnetic, charming, and alluring. By nature, the leader performs authority and appeal, regardless of whether followers’ trust is warranted. Through this lens, one can begin to understand what drew followers to Warren Jeffs. That understanding is especially crucial for someone benefiting from hindsight. Likewise, it will illuminate an aspect of what gathered and maintained Jeffs’ followership. Implicit Leadership & Followership Theories further analyze the traits of leaders and followers respectively. Taking a closer look at these personal traits, one can gain a better understanding of the leader and followers. In the case of a cult, this can be especially important due to the individualistic nature of sects. Unlike a traditional religious group, cults like the FLDS are severed from society. This creates unique and unfamiliar systems that require careful analysis.

This especially applies due to the stigma surrounding cult members. It can be easy to brush off the victims of cult abuse by cleanly labeling them as naive or brainwashed. However, to understand why members joined or stayed, one must understand the system that surrounded them. Furthermore, Leader-Member Exchange Theory provides an analysis of the relationship

between leader and followers. This analysis draws into the hierarchical dynamics within an organization. It also examines the outcomes of these dynamics. This provides a useful lens for analyzing the leader-follower relationship, which is particularly poignant when considering why someone would follow a cult leader. Considering the traditional leader-centric lean within leadership studies, emphasizing and analyzing the followers provides a new lens for understanding the outcomes of unethical leadership (Ford & Harding, 2018). Additionally, this lens will highlight the outcome of cult leadership. Together, these three theories create a foundation for further understanding the FLDS and Warren Jeff’s leadership. Each theory can analyze and emphasize the followers’ points of view, which is crucial when considering why one would remain in a cult.

When first analyzing the magnetism of a cult leader, one often leans toward the lens of charismatic leadership. This style of leadership creates a particularly powerful and personal bond between leader and follower. This can be particularly poignant and problematic in the context of religious leadership. By establishing oneself as the bridge between followers and their spiritual practices, the leader can direct toward personal goals more easily (Krishnakmuar et al., 2015). There is a distinct power imbalance in which the followers’ value systems begin blending into the will of the leader. Through this relationship, the follower experiences an internal transformation, pulled toward the magnitude of the leader (Cogner et al., 2000). In some instances, one’s self-perception becomes dependent on their relationship with the leader (Paul et al., 2001).

In the context of Warren Jeffs, he took the role of leader and prophet within the FLDS church. This made it difficult for followers to challenge his rules and direction. After all, he was the interpreter of God in their eyes, making disobedience against him essentially a rebellion against their own religion. Through this integration of Jeffs into their spiritual beliefs, his followers experienced extreme external and internal pressure to remain silent when exposed to his abusive practices. As some former followers described, they would feel it necessary to ignore their own values against their better judgement (Dretzin & McNally, 2022). This created a culture of perpetuated silence, further isolating followers and creating a sense of normalcy under Jeffs’ leadership. Once one doubted their individual judgement, Jeffs’ own values became a source of security. A guiding beacon, this ensured the difficulty of dissent through thorough integration of Jeffs’ leadership in personal identity.

Moreover, followers experienced an organized hierarchy within the FLDS church. Formal and established, the inner workings of the cult sect created another sense of stability for the followers. Additionally, hierarchies similar to this can create a culture that perpetuates a sense of justice among the followership (Erdogan et al., 2006). Perceptions of what the leader can provide for the followers are greatly influenced by the culture surrounding it. In the instance of a highly isolated culture such as the FLDS church, this perception becomes highly controlled. The context influences the followers’ senses of normalcy, making it more difficult to identify and push back against bad leadership. Since many of Jeffs’ followers were raised in a religious culture that emphasized obedience, they were more susceptible to this overtaking of personal values. As such, many feared disavowing Jeffs due to his status as prophet. In many instances, they were inclined to trust his judgement before their own. Alternatively, they were inclined to fear the consequences of publicly and openly doubting their leader and prophet.

In a similar vein, the hierarchy and organized system of the FLDS church was able to provide positive perceptions for the followers despite the reality of abuse. Jeffs created an environment where his abuse could flourish in the name of delayed gratification through a stable hierarchy and promising spiritual rewards to his followership. In workplace cultures, a positive relationship between leader and followers would result in higher satisfaction and workplace success (Erdogan et al., 2007). Given his charismatic charm and perpetuated position as perceived prophet, Jeffs was able to establish a type of positive relationship between

himself and his followership. This type of relationship can create a unification between leader and follower identity, causing followers to further trust and revere the leader’s judgement (Conger et al., 2000). This reshaping of followers’ value systems can further instill a sense of necessity and trust in the leader, even if there are unethical aspects of said leadership (Fragouli, 2018).

In the case of leader-member exchange, he provided this sense of satisfaction and success that made it more difficult for followers to leave. Connecting to transformational leadership, this type of relationship can begin influencing followers’ internal thought processes and value systems. By continuously working through the leader’s lens, the followers begin growing as individuals. While this development is often discussed in positive contexts, a leader can use this change to satisfy personal desires as well. In the case of cults, this is common practice. As one continues existing within a cult, it begins to fundamentally shape one’s identity. In the case of Jeffs and the FLDS church, this was no different. Leaving the FLDS church could feel like leaving religion entirely, making the process significantly difficult.

It is also crucial to note the ways in which a cult alters the thought process of its members. This is especially true for those born and raised in a cult environment. However, anyone can be susceptible to joining a cult. Isolation, stabilization, and the promises of rewards are three key factors that can lead one into the mindset of cult followership. At its core, this is a way to satisfy the foundational pieces to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. A cult can work as a built-in provider despite the abuse inherent to such an organization. This is not a fluke. It is a fundamental and necessary practice that ensures followers will become reliant on remaining in the cult. By extension, this necessity also begets obedience in order to ensure their status within the cult is similarly stable if not positive.

In the case of implicit leadership and followership, there is an inherent power and control a leader maintains while simultaneously upholding the importance of the followers. Even under damaging leadership, followers are motivated to remain in their positions and continue providing the role of follower when they feel they are being led toward something important (Ford & Harding, 2018). There is a leadership narrative that supports the idea of delayed gratification. If the moment yields abuse, one can internally justify it by compartmentalizing and focusing on a promised outcome. After adjusting to this mindset, followership becomes fundamental to one’s internal sense of structure. While one may be apprehensive toward certain actions the leader takes, it becomes difficult to speak out against unethical behavior when followership becomes a prioritized trait (Knoll et al., 2017).

When viewing the case of Warren Jeffs and the FLDS church, there are a myriad of ways one can imagine improving the failure of leadership. The stability of Jeffs’ leadership created a stronghold on his followers, making it so leaving the church was incredibly difficult logistically and emotionally. In order to begin analyzing potential solutions, one must first acknowledge the genuine belief involved for many within the cult. Due to this, it first seems apparent that those outside of Jeffs should have intervened. For instance, challenging his leadership instead of allowing for a complete overtaking of one’s value system would have broken the illusion of uniformity within the church.

As of December 2023, the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints are still an active church. While he may be in prison, Warren Jeffs is still functionally the current FLDS prophet as well. He continues to lead from prison, communicating with the rest of the church by letters and proxy. However, more former followers have been speaking out against Jeffs’ practices. By extension of this continued backlash, the FLDS church itself has experienced hierarchical instability as former and current members reconcile with what has transpired within the organization. As of June 2023, a former member believes that his commands are still harming those attached to the church (Lantry et al., 2023). Jeffs’ recent prophecy called for the return of former members’ children. In February of 2023, eight children of former members went

missing. With outside eyes critically analyzing its leadership, the FLDS church entered a turning point. As the years progress, it can either begin genuine reform as a church or double down on its execution of highly controlled abuse. The imprisonment of Warren Jeffs presented the opportunity to begin formalizing such a change, though it cannot legitimately take place while he still acts as their prophet in all but legality.

Many followers feared speaking out due to potential ostracization and the subsequent separation from everything they knew. This creates a culture of complacency and normalcy. The everyday evil within their lives assimilated into the status quo. Harkening toward the banality of evil, one could compartmentalize complacency by pushing value judgement down the line (Arendt, 2006). While the followers were not necessarily contributing to the abuse directly, Jeffs’ leadership shaped their means in ways that supported and perpetuated said abuse. In such cases, the only way to guarantee an end to bad leadership is for the followers to stand against it (Kellerman, 2004).

Ultimately, recognizing the context surrounding the leader-follower relationship can illuminate why followers may continue remaining with the leader. Through the lens of leadermember exchange, one can see part of what Jeffs’ followers gained through the relationship. He provided a sense of spiritual stability, making himself appear inseparable from their religious identity. Implicit leadership and followership can highlight why the traits developed in this context would perpetuate the cult hierarchy, making dissent difficult for followers who doubted the morality of Jeffs’ leadership. Furthermore, charismatic leadership can exemplify how the pull of personality can make followers place their faith in someone despite the warning signs. Together, these components of leadership simultaneously create a sense of meeting follower needs while interjecting the instability of abuse (Galanter & Forest, 2006). The FLDS church became followers’ only sense of physiological needs, security, and belonging. Meanwhile, these needs were tentative and subject to revocation, making it even more difficult to leave. These can help one understand how such a case can come to exist.

It is easy to retrospectively recognize the horrors of Jeffs’ leadership in the FLDS church. By utilizing various lenses of leadership theories, one can begin analyzing what keeps followers’ faith in a bad leader. In such circumstances, it is crucial that followers are able to communicate with each other, creating support outside of leadership. Similarly, the ability to have one’s physical, social, and spiritual needs met outside of the established hierarchy allows followers to push back without fear of losing everything (Grant, 2022). Doubt, fear, and isolation were three key factors in keeping followers in this abusive situation. By establishing support among each other, followers can stand against bad leadership and maintain their own values despite a leader’s attempt at total control. As seen with the case of Warren Jeffs and the FLDS church, one can see the inner mechanisms of bad leadership and why some remain as followers.

References

Arendt, H. (2006). Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the banality of evil. Penguin Books.

Conger, J. A., Kanungo, R. N., & Menon, S. T. (2000). Charismatic leadership and follower effects.  Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior, 21(7), 747-767.

Dretzin, R. & McNally, G. (Director). (2022). Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey. Ark Media.

Erdogan, B., Kraimer, M. L., & Liden, R. C. (2007). Work value congruence and intrinsic career success: The compensatory roles of leader-member exchange and perceived organizational support. Personnel Psychology, 57(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2004. tb02493.x

Erdogan, B., Liden, R. C., & Kraimer, M. L. (2006). Justice and leader-member exchange: The moderating role of organizational culture. Academy of Management Journal, 49(2). https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2006.20786086

Ford, J., & Harding, N. (2018). Followers in leadership theory: Fiction, fantasy and illusion. Leadership, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715015621372

Fragouli, E. (2018). The dark-side of charisma and charismatic leadership. Business and Management Review, 9(4), 298-307.

Galanter, M., & Forest, J. J. (2006). Cults, charismatic groups, and social systems: Understanding the transformation of terrorist recruits. The making of a terrorist: Recruitment, training, and root causes, 2, 51-70.

Grant, S. (2022). The cultic lifecycle: A thematic analysis of fulfilment and fear in cult membership. Dissertations Publishing

Greiser, M. M. (2019). Understanding cult membership: Beyond “drinking the Kool-Aid.” Dissertations Publishing http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12648/1381

Kellerman, B. (2004). Bad leadership: What it is, how it happens, why it matters. Harvard Business School Press.

Knoll, M., Schyns, B., & Petersen, L. E. (2017). How the influence of unethical leaders on followers is affected by their implicit followership theories. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 24(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051817705296

Krishnakumar, S., Houghton, J. D., Neck, C. P., & Ellison, C. N. (2015). The “good” and the “bad” of spiritual leadership. Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/14766086.2014.886518

Lantry, L., Drymon, V., & Morris, K. (2023). Former FLDS members fear their children’s disappearance is part of Warren Jeffs’ prophecy. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/US/ former-flds-members-fear-childrens-disappearance-part-warren/story?id=99943910

Paul, J., Costley, D. L., Howell, J. P., Dorfman, P. W., & Trafimow, D. (2001). The effects of charismatic leadership on followers’ self‐concept accessibility.  Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 31(9), 1821-1842.

About the Author

V. G. Kegley has studied leadership and communication at Christopher Newport University. During his time as an undergraduate, he has been a member of the President’s Leadership Program. Graduating in May of 2024, he continues to write about each discipline. He intends to engage both fields of study with a focus on health and data.

Acetal Formation: Modeling the Final Step of the Torreyunlignan Synthesis

William Kessler

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Jeffrey Carney, Department of Molecular Biology and Chemistry

Abstract

Phosphodiesterase (PDE) enzyme inhibitors are a potent target for drug development because PDEs modulate several types of cellular processes, so they could be used to treat a wide variety of diseases. The torreyunlignans, a novel natural product family reported in 2014, were found to have inhibitory activity against the PDE9A enzyme, and our group has been working towards the first total synthesis of torreyunlignan D. The final step of the proposed reaction sequence, an acetal formation, was expected to present several challenges and we decided to first study the reaction conditions using commercially available starting materials. After investigating the effects of catalyst and solvent loading, and evaluating several desiccation methods, we have developed a procedure that uses an excess of the aldehyde starting material combined with an azeotropic distillation to drive the equilibrium to essentially complete conversion. The product, the 1,3-butanediol acetal of 2-methoxycinnamaldehyde, is a novel compound and it was isolated in greater than 98% purity. These conditions will next be applied to another model diol, which was previously prepared in three synthetic steps, before finally applying the reaction to the torreyunlignan material.

Introduction

Phosphodiesterase (PDE) enzymes hydrolyze the common adenosine and guanosine cyclic monophosphate (cAMP and cGMP) messengers, which are DNA-derived molecules that serve as a method of intracellular communication to regulate a variety of biological processes. Consequently, PDE inhibitors can be used to treat diseases associated with cAMP and cGMP deficiency, possibly including important targets such as diabetes and Alzheimers.1 Several synthetic PDE inhibitors are currently in various stages of the drug development pipeline –including a handful that have been approved for therapeutic use. In 2014, the first example of a natural PDE inhibitor was reported when researchers isolated torreyunligans A-D, a novel natural product family, from the Chinese tree torreya yunnanensis. 2 The compounds were experimentally shown to have high affinity for the PDE9A enzyme, and our group has used computational work to support this finding as well as to show that the torryunlignans’ enzyme binding follows a different interaction mechanism than that of several known synthetic inhibitors. While the torreyunlignans are poor drug candidates due to their expected instability in acid and their relatively high lipophilicity, they could still serve as an inspiration for a new

Figure 1: The structures of torreyunlignans A-D. Both enantiomers of each compound were present in roughly racemic amounts when they were first isolated.

class of synthetic analogs that employ this novel binding framework.

Our group aims to achieve the first laboratory synthesis of the torreyunlignans, which will serve to confirm their structure and provide a route to access them for further study of their biological properties and inhibition mechanism. Only about 100 mg total of all 4 variants was isolated from 0.9 kg of crude plant tissue in the original report2 and using this natural source is unsustainable because the species is endangered,3 so a synthetic route is the best choice. Our project can also inform strategies for the synthesis of structural analogs, but we decided first to publish the total synthesis of torreyunlignan D, which is summarized in Scheme 1. Recent work has focused on investigation of the LiEt3BH and LiAlH4 reductions using a model system, since optimization is needed to ensure the highest yields when carrying forward the remaining material for torreyunlignan D. However, the last step of the sequence had not yet been investigated, so work was required to determine the conditions needed to form the acetal found in the final target molecules.

Acetal formation is a common reaction class that pairs two equivalents of an alcohol with an aldehyde or ketone to yield their acetal adduct through elimination of one equivalent of

water. The equilibria and kinetics are known to be more favorable for aldehydes than ketones, and especially so for the most electrophilic aromatic aldehydes. Our target is also an example of a cyclic acetal, where one equivalent of a 1,3-diol undergoes a facile coupling that is driven by the stability of the six-membered ring in the product. This is an equilibrium process, so high yields can only be achieved by applying Le Chatelier’s principle – generally, by using an excess of the non-limiting starting material and by removing the water that is produced. One of the most important uses of acetals is as a protecting group, where it is easy to use an excess of the non-limiting reagent that is chosen based on its low cost and ease of removal from the reaction mixture. The equilibrium is often forced by removing water during the reaction through an azeotropic distillation: with a Dean-Stark apparatus, the refluxing toluene/water azeotrope is collected and the lower aqueous layer is continuously partitioned and removed before the top toluene layer flows back into the reaction vessel.

However, our project instead uses the acetal group as a coupling reaction – this functionality is present in the final target molecule, separation of the two starting materials is not trivial, and neither coupling partner is inexpensive. For instance, it is likely that a significant excess of one starting material will be needed, but this would also require some purification method suitable to remove that reagent afterwards.

Scheme 1: Planned total synthesis of torreyunlignan D. All initial starting materials are commercially available, and the dashed arrows represent transformations that have only yet been attempted for model compounds.

Our reaction will take place on a very small scale where removing water via the Dean-Stark method is impractical, and the acetalization is reversed in aqueous acid so great care must be taken during the workup and when storing the product. Because of these expected challenges, we decided to first undergo an exhaustive method development process using commercially available starting materials, as described in this work.

Methods

The final representative procedure for the synthesis of the 1,3-butanediol acetal of 2-methoxycinnamaldehyde is presented here. Other experiments done during the method development will be mentioned in the discussion.

A simple distillation apparatus was setup with a 50 mL round-bottomed flask as the reaction vessel, a distillation head with thermometer, an ice/water condenser, a vacuum adapter, and a 25 mL round-bottomed flask as the receiving vessel. Tosylic acid monohydrate (1.7 mg, 0.01 mmol, a white crystalline solid), 1,3-butanediol (92.7 mg, 1.03 mmol, a clear liquid), and 2-methoxycinnamaldehyde (261.8 mg, 1.61 mmol, a white crystalline solid) were weighed into the reaction flask and a stir bar was added. Toluene (10.2 mL) was added with stirring, forming a colorless solution with some insoluble liquid droplets, then the system was placed under N2 pressure and an oil bath at 140 °C was added. About half of the solvent was removed over 10 to 15 minutes, observing the temperature and the distillate color to confirm collection of pure toluene. After this the reaction mixture was a light gold solution and the solvent in the collection flask was a cloudy white. The thermometer adapter was removed to quench with solid sodium bicarbonate (ca. 100 mg), then the reaction flask was removed from heating and the inert atmosphere and allowed to cool to room temperature. The crude mixture was diluted with an equal volume of diethyl ether, then anhydrous sodium sulfate was added. After sufficient drying and settling, the solution was carefully decanted and the salts were rinsed with an additional two portions of ether. The combined organics were concentrated in vacuo, yielding a lightly cloudy yellow oil (327.6 mg). Proton NMR showed 0.61 to 1 ratio of aldehyde to acetal, indicating above 97% conversion.

TLC samples were prepared by adding the reaction mixture to saturated aqueous sodium bicarbonate, then extracting and diluting with ether. TLCs were developed in 12.5% ethyl acetate / petroleum ether; the diol was not present because it stays in the aqueous layer, while the aldehyde eluted with Rf = 0.58 and the acetal with Rf = 0.66. Both spots were visible under long wave UV light, while the aldehyde fluoresced light blue under short wave UV light and the acetal appeared dark green with vanillin stain. Acetal hydrolysis was observed about 15 minutes after developing a plate, with that spot completely converting to the aldehyde’s fluorescent blue color over several hours.

An extraction funnel was filled with 3.5 mL each of saturated aqueous sodium bisulfite and saturated aqueous sodium sulfite, then 3.5 mL of ethanol was used to transfer the crude reaction mixture, immediately forming a milky white suspension with some solid clumps. After shaking for 1 minute, 15 mL of water was added to dilute, then the mixture was extracted with 3 x 15 mL of petroleum ether. Both layers were clear solutions, and the organic layers were immediately quenched by holding over solid sodium bicarbonate. The combined organics were dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and concentrated in vacuo, yielding a lightly cloudy yellow oil (227.0 mg, 1.01 mmol, 96% yield). Proton NMR showed approximately 1.5% w/w of the aldehyde, with no other significant impurities. 1H-NMR (CDCl3): 7.435 (d, J = 7.6 Hz, 1 H), 7.214 (t, J = 7.5 Hz, 1 H), 7.081 (d, J = 16.4 Hz, 1 H), 6.889 (t, J = 7.4 Hz, 1 H), 6.839 (d, J = 8 Hz, 1 H), 6.242 (dd, J = 16 Hz, 5.2 Hz, 1 H), 5.151 (d, J = 5.6 Hz, 1 H), 4.175 (dd, J = 11.3 Hz, 4.9 Hz, 1 H), 3.92-3.83 (m, 2 H), 3.819 (s, 3 H), 1.743 (qd, J = 12.8 Hz, J = 4.8 Hz, 1 H), 1.471 (dq, J = 13.2 Hz, 2.4 Hz, 1 H), 1.284 (d, J = 6 Hz, 3 H). No other characterization data was collected.

Results and Discussion

The torreyunlignan synthesis shown in Scheme 1 requires 2-methoxycinnamaldehyde as the aldehyde coupling partner; this compound is commercially available as it is itself isolated from a natural source, so it was also used for the model synthesis. 1,3-butanediol was chosen as the ideal model diol substrate because it has the same alcohol substituent pattern as the torreyunlignan diol, and because it is extremely cheap due to being an intermediate in the industrial synthesis of butadiene. However, this diol is miscible with water and sparingly soluble in nonpolar organics, so it was impossible to use TLC or NMR to judge the presence of this material. Acetal reactions are reversibly catalyzed by acid, and the literature clearly indicates that the conventional reagent is p-toluenesulfonic acid (tosylic acid or TsOH), a solid organic-soluble strong acid.

Work began with investigation of the acid-sensitivity of the substrates – other probable reaction mechanisms include dehydration of the alcohols or protonation of the alkene followed

Table 1

Formed a waxy precipitate that complicated the stirring.

Appeared lightly cloudy, with less intensity for the higher solvent loading.

by nucleophilic attack, as well as formation of polymers through several mechanisms. The aldehyde formed several other spots by TLC when exposed to a greater acid concentration over several hours, while the first attempts to form the acetal also gave a paste that was isolated as a solid insoluble in any common solvent. These experiments, summarized in Table 1, showed that a catalyst loading of 1 mol % and a starting material concentration of 0.1 M were sufficient to avoid the problems seen in the first runs, while TLC monitoring indicated that the acetal reaction reached equilibrium in less than 15 minutes even for the most dilute system. A higher concentration is preferred for a large-scale setup where the solvent volume should be minimized but we felt confident in using the lower concentration of 0.1 M, both to ensure suppression of side reactions and to provide a larger amount of solvent available to manipulate the microscale system. The effect of temperature on the reaction was not rigorously investigated, as the kinetics were already fast enough at room temperature.

Since the amount of water produced at this scale is minimal, we first chose to use in situ drying agents to sequester water without having to remove it from the system. Molecular sieves are prized due to their reusability, but they offered no improvement to the acetal equilibrium in comparison to TLCs of the control system with no drying agent. A run with an excessive amount of sieves even saw lesser conversion, prompting us to conclude that the known alkalinity of the sieves4 could buffer the system and prevent the acid catalysis from moving the equilibrium in either direction. The drying action of molecular sieves is also reported to take up to several days,5 so they may be poorly suited for the timescale desired for our procedure.

There is literature precedent for using molecular sieves with other reactions, such as imine and enamine formation procedures,6,7 but those transformations are compatible with basic conditions and it now is clear why few references were found regarding their application for small-scale acetal synthesis. A run was also attempted using anhydrous magnesium sulfate as a desiccant,8 which showed a noticeable improvement over the control on TLC, but no further work was done with this method because the azeotropic distillation was more promising.

Toluene forms a minimum-boiling azeotrope with water, so the first few distillate fractions that are collected will be enriched with all the water contained in the reaction system. A vacuum distillation was first attempted, both using a 0.1 torr vacuum pump and a rotary evaporator, but the highest conversion was seen with a simple distillation at atmospheric pressure. This was likely because it was possible to easily quench that system by adding solid sodium bicarbonate without stopping the reflux; however, in a vacuum distillation additional water may be introduced due to poor seals, when repressurizing the system, or when removing the septum to add a solid. NMR showed no evidence of side products at the higher temperature, while conducting the distillation at atmospheric pressure allowed observation of the collection temperature to confirm when all water was removed. Previous runs with no desiccation had been conducted with 1.1 to 1.2 equivalents of aldehyde and giving less than 50% conversion, demonstrating the importance of efficient drying.

With this result, we were next able to adjust the equilibrium to complete conversion by also using an excess of the aldehyde starting material, as seen in the first two runs summarized in Table 2. 1.5 equivalents was chosen for the final procedure, to balance the need to maximize the conversion while minimizing the amount of aldehyde present in the crude product sample. However, that run also gave a slightly lower conversion; this disagreement is likely due to a sloppy quench or a measurement error when weighing reagents.

Table 2

TLC comparison was difficult because the aldehyde and acetal have noticeably different molar absorptivities, so the relative intensities of their spots only matched their NMR ratio after allowing the product to completely degrade over a few hours. This is because the acetal reaction is reversible and the product will hydrolyze in aqueous acid: silica gel is known to be slightly acidic and the lab atmosphere contains plenty of water. Separating the acetal and aldehyde by column chromatography would likely have not been possible because they eluted very closely on TLC; the product’s instability to silica gel also complicates the procedure as a buffered solvent system would be needed if the retention time is longer than a few minutes. The long-term stability of the acetal is also suspect, as the torreyunlignans saw noticeable degradation when held as NMR samples for several days;2 however, we did not reproduce that result for the 1,3-butanediol acetal, which saw no change in the spectrum after holding at 10 °C for 10 days. This improved result is likely due to having stored our NMR solvent over molecular sieves, which cuts down on the water and acidity; each product-containing sample was also brought into contact with a bicarbonate buffer before drying and concentrating for storage.

The crude reaction mixtures were purified by a bisulfite extraction procedure9 which quickly converts aromatic aldehydes into a charged adduct species that partitions into the aqueous layer, giving purified product samples containing less than 2% aldehyde by mass and with solvents as the only other significant impurities. The instability of the product during this workup was also demonstrated: TLC showed significant degradation of the acetal in comparison to an internal standard of benzophenone over several hours under the slightly acidic extraction conditions from the reference procedure. Because of this, we investigated conducting the bisulfite adduct formation under basic conditions, both by quenching the reagent with solid sodium bicarbonate and by mixing it with an equal volume of saturated aqueous sodium sulfite. The bisulfite adduct reaction is fastest at lower pH,10 while its equilibrium significantly reverses only at a much higher pH than the buffers used. This acetal reaction also seems to be fastest at lower pH, with the literature suggesting that specific or general acid catalysis may be followed depending on the substrate;11 this presents an opposing reason to instead keep the pH above neutral. It is likely that the strategy for synthesis of the torreyunlignan acetal will require slightly alkaline conditions to ensure that none of the product degrades, but this may offer lesser aldehyde removal than would be possible under acidic conditions.

Conclusion

The 1,3-butanediol acetal of 2-methoxycinnamaldehyde, a novel compound, was synthesized in 96% yield from commercially available starting materials. The acetal formation reaction was successfully applied on a one mmol scale through a simple azeotropic distillation. The product was obtained with above 98% purity by using a bisulfite extraction procedure to remove excess aldehyde, with no chromatographic separation necessary and no identifiable side reactions. These results will be applied to our group’s total synthesis of torreyunlignan D, a biologically active natural product, where a high-yielding and small-scale acetalization is required for the final transformation of the planned sequence. Further work will first be done using another model diol that more closely matches the torreyunlignan structure, which was prepared in our lab while investigating previous reactions.

References

Jansen, C.; et. al. PDEStrIAn: A Phosphodiesterase Structure and Ligand Interaction Annotated Database As a Tool for Structure-Based Drug Design. J. Med. Chem. 2016, 59, 15, 7029-7065. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5b01813

Cheng, Z.; et. al. (±)-Torreyunlignans A−D, Rare 8−9′ Linked Neolignan Enantiomers as Phosphodiesterase-9A Inhibitors from Torreya yunnanensis. J. Nat. Prod. 2014, 77, 12, 2651-2657. https://doi.org/10.1021/np500528u

Threatened Conifers of the World. International Conifer Conservation Programme. https:// threatenedconifers.rbge.org.uk/conifers/torreya-fargesii-var.-yunnanensis (accessed 202402-03).

Sigma Aldrich, Technical Documents. Molecular Sieves. Millipore Sigma. https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/US/en/technical-documents/technical-article/chemistry-and-synthesis/ reaction-design-and-optimization/molecular-sieves (accessed 2021-01-20).

Williams, D.; Lawton, M. Drying of Organic Solvents: Quantitative Evaluation of the Efficiency of Several Desiccants. J. Org. Chem. 2010, 75, 24, 8351-8354. https://doi. org/10.1021/jo101589h

Yasukawa, T.; et. al. Effect of Activation Methods of Molecular Sieves on Ketimine Synthesis. J. Org. Chem. 2022, 87, 21, 13750-13756. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.joc.2c01411

Westheimer, F.; Taguchi, K. Catalysis by molecular sieves in the preparation of ketimines and enamines. J. Org. Chem. 1971, 36, 11, 1570-1572. https://doi.org/10.1021/ jo00810a033

Lu, T.; Yang, J.; Sheu, L. An Efficient Method for the Acetalization of , -Unsaturated Aldehydes. J. Org. Chem. 1995, 60, 2931-2934. https://doi.org/10.1021/jo00114a055.

Boucher, M.; et. al. Liquid–Liquid Extraction Protocol for the Removal of Aldehydes and Highly Reactive Ketones from Mixtures. Org. Process Res. Dev. 2017, 21, 9, 1394-1403. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.oprd.7b00231

Olson, T.; Boyce, S.; Hoffmann, M. Kinetics, Thermodynamics, and Mechanism of the Formation of Benzaldehyde-S(IV) Adducts. J. Phys. Chem. 1986, 90, 2482-2488. https:// doi.org/10.1021/j100402a043.

Cordes, E.; Bull, H. Mechanism and catalysis for hydrolysis of acetals, ketals, and ortho esters. Chem. Rev. 1974, 74, 5, 581-603. https://doi.org/10.1021/cr60291a004.

About the Author

William Kessler is a fifth-year student at Christoper Newport University, with a double major in Chemistry and Music Composition and participation in the Honors program. He specializes in organic chemistry, with over 700 hours spent in the lab on a total synthesis project, and he has presented this work several times at CNU as well as at the regional American Chemical Society conference, SERMACS. His research interests in music include avant-garde composition, Catholic church music, and open-source copyright; he plays flute and sings bass and has served in numerous music department ensembles. William will pursue a career as a chemist in central Virginia after graduation in May 2024.

Academics, Area, and Association:

The Effect of Life Experiences on Awareness of Mental Health Court Dockets

Erin McCarthy

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Andrew Baird, Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology

Abstract

Mental health court dockets are alternatives to traditional courts that focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment. This study asks: Do various life experiences affect an individual’s awareness of mental health court dockets? Participants responded to an online survey asking their collegiate field of study, where they were from in Virginia, if they had any family involvement in criminal court, and their awareness of mental health court dockets and their purpose. This study aims to address the research gap in awareness of behavioral health court dockets, especially among the college-aged population. Previous literature led to hypotheses that students studying social sciences, those from an area with a behavioral health docket, and those who had previous family involvement in criminal court would have higher levels of awareness. Results indicated those who were studying social sciences and who had previous family involvement in criminal court had significantly higher awareness of behavioral health dockets, while the location that a student was from in Virginia had no significant influence. Future research should aim to address the limitations of the small convenience sample size and account for how long the dockets had been established in certain Virginia counties, as newer dockets may be less known to their geographic inhabitants.

Keywords: Behavioral health court dockets, mental health court dockets, college students, social sciences, awareness, criminal court, civic engagement

This study explores the relationship between life experiences and awareness of mental health court dockets. Each of the independent variables analyzed in this study are presumed to influence social awareness and engagement in an individual’s community. Although there is limited research on social awareness specific to mental health court dockets, there has been demonstrated support that engagement in the community increases awareness of social programs (Levasseur et al., 2015). This study focuses on how life experiences, such as collegiate field of study, location of which one is from, and previous experiences with criminal court, impact the awareness levels of mental health court dockets. All of these factors are related to engagement in the community, as awareness is a necessary precursor to engagement.

Mental health dockets are a new alternative approach to criminal justice, providing rehabilitation instead of punitive measures. These diversion dockets often result in lower levels of re-offending and higher rates of recovery and treatment from various substance use and mental health disorders, which not only improves the lives of the defendant but the larger community as well. There are many stipulations that limit participation in these dockets, in terms of mental health status and type of offense. In addition, because these dockets are a new avenue to rehabilitation, they often do not have enough funding to allow a large number of participants. However, based on the current trend of their effectiveness, they are likely to continue to be implemented and succeed in diverting individuals with serious mental illness from traditional court proceedings into more supportive channels.

This topic is vitally important to the justice system, as improvements in the structure of the social justice system in Virginia and the country as a whole cannot be addressed unless citizens are aware of the programs currently available. Awareness levels will directly impact how citizens engage in their community and local government and policy decisions, significantly impacting the wellbeing of their community. In order to gain insight on how awareness levels vary, specific factors that influence awareness levels should be analyzed. Collegiate field of study, living in an area with an established behavioral health docket, and previous exposure to criminal court may influence overall awareness of social proceedings, in turn impacting docket awareness. This study aims to explore the relationship between these factors and address the gap in literature of awareness of behavioral health court dockets.

Literature Review

Mental Health Court Dockets

Mental health court dockets, also known as behavioral health dockets, are court dockets developed within the criminal justice and legal systems to help individuals dealing with serious mental illness (SMI) that have gotten involved with the criminal justice system (Lurigio & Snowden, 2009). These programs were developed because of the overrepresentation of individuals with serious mental illness in the criminal justice system (Virginia’s Judicial System, 2023). This overrepresentation is because people with mental illness and substance use disorders are disproportionately likely to have encounters with the criminal justice system. In the typical legal process, this would lead to individuals who are struggling with behavioral health disorders to be arrested and sentenced as punishment, which usually only exacerbates issues. Mental health court dockets are able to address the psychological and criminological issues of their participants, improving lives and community wellness with no discernable downsides, aside from initial costs associated with investment in new court infrastructure.

Behavioral health court dockets are a relatively new development, only starting to be established in the early 2000s and undergoing a lot of changes up until current years. The first mental health court docket in Virginia was established in 2016 due to grant funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (Virginia’s Judicial System, 2023). Since then, behavioral health dockets have gained some traction in the state. In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly enacted the Behavioral Health Docket Act and the Behavioral Health Docket Advisory

Committee, which established administrative oversight and support for all dockets in Virginia (Virginia’s Judicial System, 2023). There are currently 17 mental health court dockets across Virginia. These dockets must follow Virginia’s Standards for Behavioral Health Dockets: help with planning and implementation of new Behavioral Health dockets, inform training efforts for key team members and other collaborators, establish a method to ensure accountability, provide a structure that ensures continuity for dockets navigating transitions in judicial or administrative leadership, demonstrate dockets’ effectiveness at meeting their stated goals, provide dockets with a framework for internal monitoring (e.g., performance measures), and ensure that dockets adhere to a model based on research and evidence-based best practice (Virginia’s Judicial System, 2023). Although mental health court dockets in Virginia have only gained traction within the last decade, the governmental support and establishment of regulations has proven to establish a solid foundation for these programs, paving the way for new additions and necessitating research into awareness of the dockets.

Eligibility for Docket

Due to the purpose of these dockets being alternative proceedings for those with serious mental illness (SMI), defendants seeking to enter this specialized docket must have an identifiable mental illness (Lurigio & Snowden, 2009). Some courts require that defendants must have already been diagnosed with a mental illness before entering the docket to qualify, while others must display symptoms and seek a diagnosis as part of their court proceedings. In addition, these courts vary in what type of offenses are eligible to participate. The majority only allow misdemeanor defendants, although some allow nonviolent misdemeanor and felony chargers, and a select few allow all types of charges (Snowden & Lirigio, 2009). The various charges allowed for these dockets are often based on the support from local law enforcement and policy makers and how long alternative solutions have been established in the local community. These differences are indicative of larger community support for alternative programs for various levels of offenses and often only involve support for low-level crime. As effectiveness of diversion strategies is continued to be proven and funding increases, it is likely that offense eligibility will continue to expand.

Process and Functioning

Although there is much variation on the specific parameters of these dockets based on locality, they largely function in similar ways. These dockets are unique from typical court dockets in a number of ways: an overall rehabilitative focus, collaboration with a variety of social services, direct interaction between defendants and judges, inclusive team approach to decisions, and community outreach (Virginia’s Judicial System, 2023). This differs from traditional court in which there is only focus on sentencing, little to no inclusion of various social services, and judges only interact with a defant’s legal representation (Virginia’s Judicial System, 2008). Mental health court dockets take an alternative approach to criminal justice, which is present in all aspects of the functioning of these dockets and makes them worthwhile subjects of academic study.

Once an individual has been accepted to be on the docket, there are several steps the defendant must complete. The defendants must complete stages of the docket with varying degrees of treatment and oversight (Frailing, 2010). Beginning stages may require the defendants to become sober if they are using any substances, attend multiple therapy sessions a week, and have twice-weekly check-ins with mental health providers, such as social workers or psychiatrists, working on the docket (D’Emic, 2015). Later stages might require them to secure a job, housing, and attend occasional therapy sessions. As the stages progress and the defendant becomes more stable and independent, the oversight from the docket lessens. Eventually, if the defendant completes all stages of the docket, they are able to graduate and their charges

are often reduced or expunged from their record (McNiel & Binder, 2007). In typical court proceedings, defendants are only present for their set court date and receive sentencing or other future court proceedings upon which they must immediately act. The extensive involvement and interaction between the defendant and the court in mental health dockets is structured to keep them accountable, often meeting in-person at the court and checking in with various social workers and mental health providers.

Effectiveness

Although these dockets are new, they are proving to be extremely effective based on research conducted so far. The overall goal of these courts is to reduce re-offending, help defendants connect to psychological resources, and enhance public safety. These dockets help the individuals who complete them and the larger community in numerous ways. Those that complete these dockets have lower rates of criminal activity and increased likelihood to seek continuous treatment that those in the traditional court system (Virginia’s Judicial System, 2023). Additionally, participants in these programs often have lower numbers of new arrests as well as lowered severity of such re-arrests (Moore & Hiday, 2006). Dockets have also been shown to reduce violence of defendants, connecting them to anger management and other resources that can improve their overall demeanor (McNeil & Binder, 2007). Mental health courts can improve circumstances beyond mental health as well such as decreasing rates and substance use and homelessness (D’Emic, 2015). These results, in turn, lower the crime rates in the area with behavioral health dockets and betters the overall community. Mental health dockets are recent additions to the criminal justice system, but have proven to be effective in changing the goal of court proceedings to focus on rehabilitation and improving wellbeing, a worthwhile investment for all communities.

Impact of College Major

It has been widely demonstrated that higher education significantly impacts civic and social engagement (Campbell, 2006). Those with higher levels of education are significantly more involved in their communities, including higher rates of political attentiveness, voter turnout, and more. In fact, there is a significant increase in civic engagement between those with a high school diploma, associate’s degree, and bachelor’s degree (Newell, 2014). Although it has long been shown that civic engagement increases with education level, there is very little research on what specific educational factors increase civic engagement, especially at the collegiate level.

There are many fields of study that students can study in college, ranging from sociology to business to engineering to musical theater. Due to this wide array of topics, it is reasonable to predict that an individual’s field of study impacts the way they view the world around them. Presumably, students choose a field of study based on the academic area they are most interested in and likely most engaged in their personal lives and their greater community. For instance, it is logical to assume that students studying musical theater will have a higher awareness of Broadway musicals, while students studying business would have higher awareness of current stock market trends.

Along this same line of thought, it is logical to reason that students studying social sciences will have higher awareness of social programs in their communities. This is supported by research which demonstrated that those who have studied the social sciences have higher levels of civic engagement and awareness of civic happenings in their communities (Semercioglu & Öztürk, 2004). Students who take courses that cover social phenomena, including the disciplines of Criminology, Psychology, Social Work, and Sociology, gain a wide array of knowledge, understanding, attitudes, and behavior linked to responsible citizenship. This enables them to be active in their communities, participating in societal progress within legal and political spheres.

Location in Virginia

Where someone is from often impacts resources they have been exposed to during their lives. For example, those from large urban cities have likely experienced a wider variety of life events than those from small rural areas due to the higher density of infrastructure, people, and events. This concept can be specifically applied to awareness of social and civic programs in certain areas. Research has shown that proximity to resources impact awareness and engagement levels in these resources (Levasseur et al., 2015). Therefore, living in close proximity to services influences how often an individual is exposed to these services, in turn impacting their overall awareness of the existence of these services. Proximity changes perspective, as those who live in areas with social problems, such as homelessness, are more likely to be aware of these social problems not only in their community but in greater society (Warren, 2017). Proximity is also closely related to accessibility, as those who live in an area with resources such as substance use and mental health services have more ability to access them. Thus, both proximity and accessibility influence social awareness and civic engagement and support of various programs within communities.

This can be applied to criminal justice and social justice programs. If an individual lives in an area with rehabilitation services, they are more likely to have awareness of these services due to exposure to them. However, there is a gap in research analyzing if living in an area with a behavioral health court dockets impacts overall awareness of these dockets in a specific locality. Based on existing research on proximity and awareness of social and civic programs, it is plausible that location impacts levels of awareness of mental health court dockets, but there is no previous literature to support this claim.

Involvement in Criminal Court

Legal literacy is uncommon among the average citizen, because it is often not taught in any setting other than education specific to entering the legal system. Legal literacy does not have a comprehensive definition, but refers to the degree of competence in the structure and meaning of legal discourse and principles, both in understanding and application (White, 1983). Although it is relatively well-known in research that average citizens have low legal literacy, there is little research on what it is about legalese (legal jargon) that is particularly difficult to understand (Salyzyn et al., 2019). However, it has been found that legal literacy is higher among individuals who have been previously involved in legal proceedings, such as being involved in court (White, 1983).

Legal literacy is also connected to the greater concept of civic engagement. If legal literacy was increased among the average citizen, they would be better equipped to understand policies and have a better foundation to become involved in positive action in their local community (Zanouzani Azad, 2012). This increase in legal literacy would increase awareness and engagement in local civic happenings. In connection to the criminal justice system, research demonstrates that those who have had prior exposure to the criminal justice system through family or close friends have higher levels of knowledge about the criminal justice system and its proceedings (Pickett et al., 2015). Exposure to certain proceedings in the criminal justice system, such as trials in court, allow citizens to become more familiar with the process and are exposed to aspects of the process they might otherwise not have known about. However, this research only included knowledge about the criminal justice system as a whole, and not specific components like mental health court dockets. This literature implies that the combination of legal literacy from prior legal proceedings and criminal justice knowledge from previous exposure to the criminal justice system may increase the likelihood of being aware of mental health court dockets, but there is no current empirical evidence of this connection.

Theoretical Perspective

The variables in this study are specifically centered around the criminal justice system, but they deal largely with social engagement and how individuals interact with the environment around them. One sociological perspective that helps to explain these phenomena is social learning theory. Social learning theory was developed by Albert Bandura in the 1970s, expanding on the realm of traditional learning theories from the 1960s. These traditional learning theories approached learning from a purely behaviorism perspective, whereas social learning theory incorporates cognitive factors as well, combining pure observation of actions with mental processes reinforcing these actions. The overall idea of the theory is that people learn by observing and imitating others (Bandura, 1977). In particular, social learning theory explains that humans learn through gathering information from others, including knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs, in order to understand their environment. Consequently, people absorb information and replicate it in their own thoughts and behaviors.

There are four stages of social learning theory: attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation (Bandura, 1977). Attention refers to the need for individuals to pay attention to others, focusing and concentrating on other’s behavior through observation of both the behavior itself and the consequences of the behavior. Then, individuals must retain this information and remember the behaviors that they have observed through cognitive processing. The next stage involved individuals reproducing the behaviors they observed and retained, often needing to practice the behavior before being able to reproduce it properly. Finally, one must have motivation to reproduce the behavior, which can include reinforcement, punishment, social approval or disapproval, vicarious reinforcement, and other motivation sources. All of these stages must be completed in order for an individual to fully demonstrate social learning theory.

This theory demonstrates the importance of social context and interaction in learning, establishing the significance of one’s community on behavior. This can be directly applied to the content of this study which analyzes how collegiate field of study, location someone is from, and previous court involvement influences awareness of mental health court dockets. Social learning theory suggests that if someone is learning about sociological topics in their studies, they are likely to absorb and replicate their sociological understanding in their community. This means that those studying social sciences would have the background knowledge of sociological theory, making them more likely to be involved in their community and aware of mental health court dockets. Additionally, social learning posits that those from a location with a behavioral health docket are more likely to have awareness of the docket and what they do to help the community because of exposure to similar programs due to proximity over time. Finally, those who have been exposed to criminal court from family or close friends in the past may have observed and learned about mental health court dockets and their purpose through the experience of their family or fiends, thus increasing the likelihood they are aware of mental health court dockets. Overall, social learning theory explains how exposure and observation to certain processes increase awareness, understanding, and replication. Therefore, those who study the social sciences, live in a city with a behavioral health docket, and have experienced the criminal court system previously, are predicted to all have higher awareness of behavioral health dockets based on the tenets of social learning theory.

Research Questions

This study aims to analyze how collegiate field of study, location where an individual is from, and previous experience with criminal court impact awareness of mental health court dockets and their purpose. The goal of this research is to explore how social buy-in impacts the awareness of social programs, specifically behavioral health court dockets. Social learning theory suggests that those who have studied social sciences, live in areas with social programs, and have been exposed to legal literacy from legal proceedings in the past are more likely to

have higher awareness of these programs. This suggests that those that are more involved in their community with progressive programs are more likely to have higher awareness and understanding levels of what these programs have to offer the community.

This particular research topic will fill multiple gaps in the literature. First, there is very limited research on awareness of behavioral health court dockets and their purpose. As they are a new approach to court in social justice, there has been little time and attention focused on how awareness is being spread about these dockets. Additionally, this study will specifically address awareness among college students. This is particularly important because college students are the next generation of voters in their communities, and can highly influence the political, legal, and social choices of their areas in their communities. This study will discover what impacts awareness of this population, and can perhaps gain insight on how to increase awareness among this population to help improve civic engagement among young adults.

It is hypothesized that students studying a social sciences field (consisting of Criminology, Psychology, Social Work, or Sociology) will be more likely to have awareness of behavioral health court dockets. This hypothesis is based on previous research stating that social science students have higher levels of civic awareness and engagement. Secondly, it is hypothesized that students from an area with a behavioral health court docket will be more likely to have awareness of behavioral health court dockets. It is shown that proximity to resources increase levels of awareness, so people from an area with a docket will likely have higher awareness than those without. Finally, it is hypothesized that students who have had a family member or close friend involved in criminal court will be more likely to have awareness of behavioral health court dockets. This is theorized due to legal literacy being higher among those who have been previously involved in legal proceedings.

Methodology

Population and Distribution

The population for this study was college students at a small liberal arts college in Virginia. A convenience sample was utilized to distribute an online survey to participants, resulting in 125 responses. Participants were reached through various on-campus organizations, and snowball sampling was also utilized to gain a larger and more diverse population of respondents among students. A link to the survey was distributed digitally among multiple on-campus organization communication platforms.

Conceptualization and Operationalizaton

Collegiate Field of Study

Participants were asked to select all the fields of study they were planning on pursuing in college (including as a major, minor, or concentration) among a list of all fields of study offered at the university. An option for “undecided” was also included in the list. A simple summation was used to calculate this variable, assessing whether participants were studying Criminology, Psychology, Social Work, or Sociology (1) or not studying Criminology, Psychology, Social Work, or Sociology (0).

Location in Virginia

Participants were asked to select where in Virginia they were from among a list of locations with current behavioral health docket(s): Arlington, Augusta, Albemarle, Chesapeake, Fairfax, Hampton, Loudon, Montgomery, Newport News, Norfolk, Richmond, Roanoke, Spotsylvania, Suffolk, or Winchester. If participants selected any of these items, their response was coded as being from a location with current behavioral health docket(s) (2). The reason for the specific listing of these options as the locations with current behavioral health dockets

was unknown to participants. There were additional options in the question for “Other city/ county in Virginia” (1) and “Not from Virginia” (0) to ensure all options were covered. A simple summation was used to calculate this variable.

Court Involvement

Participants were asked to respond with “yes” (1) or “no” (0) if a family member or close friend that they know has been involved in criminal court. A simple summation was used to calculate this variable.

Awareness of Dockets

Participants were asked to identify their level of awareness of mental health court dockets. The specific phrasing of the question included both “behavioral health dockets” and the alternative name of “mental health court dockets” to ensure those who have heard of either phrase were represented. This study was meant to analyze general knowledge of the awareness of these dockets, so both terms were utilized to ensure awareness because “behavioral health” and “mental health” may have different levels of public recognition. Response options to this question included “Never heard of them,” (0) “Heard of them but do not know their purpose,” (1) and “Heard of them and know their purpose” (2). A simple summation was used to calculate this variable.

Descriptives

The target population for this study was college students at a small liberal arts college in Virginia. The total sample size was 125 students. Ages ranged from 18 to 27, with the average age being 20.54 years. There were two outliers of ages 26 and 27, with the remaining ages being 23 and lower. The majority of respondents were female (58.06%) with the remaining respondents being male (40.32%) and nonbinary or gender-queer (1.61%).

As seen in Figure 1, participants had a wide range of fields of study, with 71.2% studying social sciences. Most students were from Virginia (94.4%) with the majority being from a location with a behavioral health docket (67.2%). Almost a quarter of participants (24%) had a family member or close friend previously be involved in criminal court. This sample was representative of the target population, although it was a small sample size in comparison to the size of the undergraduate population of the school.

Figure 1

Descriptive Statistics of Awareness, Field of Study, Location in Virginia, and Court Involvement

Analysis and Results

It was hypothesized that students studying a social sciences field (consisting of Criminology, Psychology, Social Work, or Sociology) will be more likely to have heard of behavioral health court dockets. A Chi2 test was performed to analyze students’ field of study and awareness of mental health dockets. The relationship between these variables was significant x2 (2, N = 125) = 9.156, p = .010. The null hypothesis was rejected, as students with a social science field of study are significantly more likely to have heard of behavioral health dockets. This result is consistent with previous literature demonstrating that those who study the social sciences are more invested and aware of the social programs in their community.

Secondly, it was hypothesized that students from an area with a behavioral health court docket will be more likely to have heard of behavioral health court dockets. A Chi2 test was performed to analyze where students were from and their awareness of mental health dockets. The relationship between these variables was significant x2 (4, N = 125) = 2.480, p = .648. The hypothesis was not supported, as students from an area with a behavioral health docket were not significantly more likely to have heard of behavioral health dockets. This result is not consistent with previous literature which suggests that those who live in an area with a mental health court docket have higher awareness of the dockets. This could be because these dockets are relatively new, and they could have been implemented recently enough that students have been at college since they were created, thus limiting their ability to be aware of them.

Finally, it was hypothesized that students who have had a family member or close friend involved in criminal court will be more likely to have heard of behavioral health court dockets. A Chi2 test was performed to analyze students’ knowledge of someone involved in criminal court and awareness of mental health dockets. The relationship between these variables was significant x2 (2, N = 125) = 7.203, p = .027. The null hypothesis was rejected, as students who have been or have had someone they know been involved in criminal court were significantly more likely to have heard of behavioral health dockets. This result is consistent with previous literature suggesting that individuals who have personal experience with the legal system have higher levels of awareness and understanding of legal and social proceedings.

Figure 2

Bivariate Analysis of Field of Study, Location in Virginia, and Court Involvement on Awareness

Discussion

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between life experiences and awareness of mental health court dockets. Variables influencing awareness of mental health dockets were collegiate field of study, location of which one is from in Virginia, and whether or not a participant had a family member or close friend previously involved in criminal court. Based on this study, there was a significant relationship between field of study and awareness of mental health court dockets, as well as family or close friend court involvement and awareness of mental health court dockets. There was not a significant relationship between where someone was from in Virginia and awareness of mental health court dockets.

The results of collegiate field of study and previous family or close friend involvement in criminal court having an influence on awareness of mental health court dockets was supported by previous research. It has been demonstrated that students with a degree in the social sciences have higher levels of civic engagement, implying they would be more likely to have heard of behavioral health court dockets (Semercioglu & Öztürk, 2004). Additionally, previous research has shown that those who have had a family member or close friend involved in criminal court have higher levels of legal literacy, thus would be more likely to have heard of mental health court dockets (White, 1983). Social learning theory also explains that those who have learned about social proceedings in their classes and have observed court proceedings are more likely to have retained that information and utilized it to become more involved in the awareness of social programs in their area. These results suggest that a focus on social sciences during education and previous exposure to legal proceedings or the criminal justice system increases awareness of legal and social programs, specifically behavioral health court dockets. This is important to understand because it can inform future inclusion of education on mental health court dockets in universities in pursuit of a more knowledgeable population. Additionally, this suggests that previous experience with criminal court increases awareness of alternative programs, which should continue to be encouraged in the court system.

However, the result that where someone was from in Virginia had no influence on their awareness of mental health court dockets was not supported by previous research. Previous literature suggests that those that are from an area with a mental health court docket already established would be more likely to have heard of the program and its purpose, as overall

awareness levels are higher in areas with an established docket (Virginia’s Judicial System, 2023). Additionally, although social learning theory suggests that exposure to programs and behaviors increased retention and awareness, the results did not reflect this conclusion. This could be because this study did not account for how long those behavioral health dockets had been established, which could impact awareness levels. For example, if a docket had only been established in the last four years, it would be reasonable for a college student who spends most of their time away from their hometown to not have heard of the recent docket development. The non-significant relationship between location someone is from and awareness of mental health court dockets demonstrates that future work needs to be done to understand the impact of proximity on the issue of these dockets in particular.

Awareness of mental health court dockets is extremely important in order to make change in the criminal justice system. If citizens are unaware that these progressive programs exist, they cannot support them and help to move change forward. Based on previous research in combination with this study, social science students having higher awareness of these dockets demonstrates engagement not only academically, but also in their community. Additionally, those with previous exposure to criminal court having awareness of mental health dockets implies that these programs are becoming more of a staple in the legal world, which is essential for their more widespread support.

Limitations and Future Research

It is important to discuss the various limitations of this study, as they may have impacted the findings. First, this study had a relatively small sample size in comparison to the undergraduate population of the school in which participants were accessed. This smaller sample size limits the statistical validity of the study because of the limitations on the study showing the true impact of variables being tested, increasing the likelihood of inaccurate statistical findings. The sample was also gained through convenience and snowball sampling, which could affect the external validity of the results. Due to participants being selected due to availability, the results cannot be generalized to a greater population because the participants were not randomly selected and were only gained from a singular small liberal arts college in Virginia. Additionally, this study asked questions that some would consider to be personal information, such as where someone was from and if they ever had family or close friends involved in criminal court. Although the study was confidential, some participants may have skewed their responses or omitted information due to being uncomfortable with the implications of their responses or attempting to have socially desirable responses. This attempt to change responses could have altered the results of the study and affected the true statistical significance of results.

Future research should aim to address the limitations of the current study as well as address some possible confounding variables. A larger sample size of randomly selected students at multiple colleges would increase the generalizability of the study. Additionally, future research should include possible confounding variables such as the length of time behavioral health courts had been established in different locations in Virginia, which could certainly affect the results of likelihood of awareness based where participants are from in Virginia. This research could also be taken a step further in future studies, striving to address not only the awareness of behavioral health dockets, but what factors influence the support of these dockets as well. This would help contribute to the essential mission of providing greater support for individuals with serious mental illnesses who are involved in the criminal justice system.

Conclusion

This study aimed to analyze the relationship between life experiences, including collegiate field of study, locality an individual is from in Virginia, and previous exposure to criminal court, and awareness of mental health court dockets. The findings of this study support previous literature as well as social learning theory because students studying social sciences and with previous exposure to criminal court had increased awareness of mental health court dockets. Individuals from a location with an established behavioral health court docket were not significantly more likely to be aware of the dockets, contradictory to previous work and suggesting a need for further research including the relationship between proximity and duration of docket establishment. These findings help fill the gap in research, although future research should address limitations such as small sample size and convenience sampling, as well as additional factors that impact awareness of social programs. Understanding how these factors impact awareness is vital to enhance the capacity of the courts to offer rehabilitation, particularly for individuals with serious mental illness. This will in turn motivate future policy, bettering the entirety of the criminal justice system through increased availability of alternative approaches.

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About the Author

Erin McCarthy is a member of the Christopher Newport University Class of 2024. She is receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Criminology with a minor in Leadership Studies. She is a member of the Honors and President’s Leadership Programs, Alpha Chi National Honor Fraternity, Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity, Psi Chi International Honor Society in Psychology and Alpha Phi Sigma Criminal Justice Honor Society. She is also involved in undergraduate research and various clubs and sports on campus. After graduating, Erin plans to pursue a doctorate degree to become a forensic psychologist and continue to dedicate herself to bettering her community.

The Complexity of Women and Gender Roles: An Analysis of Contemporary Feminist Discourse in Queen Charlotte

Caroline Chmelko, Kenna McCarthy, and Kelsey Priestaf

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Michaela Meyer, Department of Communication Studies

Abstract

This essay presents a feminist critique of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, exploring how Shonda Rhimes illustrates women and gender roles in a post-feminist environment through a historical fiction television show. We offer a detailed analysis of how the series is portrayed to audiences by referencing past studies on historical fiction television, feminism, and Shonda Rhimes’ previous productions. Through our study, we identified three major themes: the fate of a woman, the dichotomy of sex, and race and power dynamics. Queen Charlotte presents female characters who represent the ideals of modern feminism but these women are in roles where they are objectified and their fates are determined by men. Through seeking to understand the power dynamics, agency, representation, and historical context in connection with contemporary times, we found the intricate ways in which historical fiction television can both contest and perpetuate contemporary gender norms. Ultimately, our analysis reveals Queen Charlotte’s complex portrayal of womanhood.

Keywords: feminism, historical fiction, gender roles, sex, women

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story has captured audiences’ attention from the start, reaching 22 million views in the first week following its May 4, 2023 release date (Netflix, 2023). Winning audiences over with its wit, charm, and humor, the show’s popularity has continued to grow to over 80 million views on Netflix (Bell, 2023). A spin-off of the awardwinning series, Bridgerton (written by Shonda Rhimes), Queen Charlotte follows the love story of Queen Charlotte and King George III. Throughout the season, the couple navigates the complications of an arranged marriage, mental health issues, and the pressure of being royals. Through the portrayal of traditional British society, including balls, arranged marriages, and scandal, the intricacies of women’s lives and struggles to challenge traditional gender roles are highlighted.

This study offers a significant contribution to understanding contemporary portrayals of women and gender roles in historical fiction television. Media has long been fascinated with the “historical fiction” genre. Shows ranging from Downton Abbey to The Crown and even Gentleman Jack have captured audiences with their ability to provide a sense of nostalgia and escapism to their current realities. At the same time, these shows face scrutiny for their potential ignorance of historical accuracy by subtly reinforcing adherence to existing ideological structures. Despite apparent challenges to traditional norms, many series ultimately emphasize tradition, order, and class, suggesting a return to old societal hierarchies. Previous historical fiction shows often focus on class and social struggles. Thus, this study is significant in providing greater insight into how conversations surrounding feminism and gender roles in a historical fiction television setting challenge society’s current narrative.

The evolution of gender roles, power dynamics, and sex are often studied in relation to the historical fiction television genre, as scholars critique the genre’s ability to create an alternate history that reflects current societal norms (Bryne, 2021; Saxton, 2020). However, outside of just the historical fiction television genre, Dajches et al. (2021), Ryalls (2016), and Szekeres et al. (2023), argue that television as a whole plays a large role in creating the expectations, whether they be pertaining to sex or motherhood, that women of all ages feel the need to meet. While feminist movements have countered some of these expectations, others are reinforced through stereotypes and hegemonic ideologies. Shonda Rhimes, the producer of Queen Charlotte, is often known for creating the ideal Black woman lead and breaking stereotypes (Siebler, 2019; Washington & Harris, 2018). However, through her color-conscious casting, as well as seen through her writing of Bridgerton, her work often reinforces more stereotypes and ideologies than it challenges (Warner, 2015).

To understand the portrayal of gender roles and contemporary feminist issues, this study utilizes a traditional textual analysis, which uses a media text to find “the underlying ideological and cultural assumptions of the text” (Fursich, 2009, p. 240). We aim to find how Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story portrays women and gender roles through a fictional historical setting to draw attention to contemporary feminist issues. By employing a feminist critique, our research unravels the layers of gender representation in the fictional work and assesses its relevance to current feminist discourse. Through observing power dynamics, agency and representation alongside the historical context with contemporary relevance, we found the series to embody the complexity of what it means to be a woman throughout the course of time.

Historical Fiction and Television

Although a smaller genre, historical fiction television shows draw audiences in with their ability to provide a sense of escapism, comfort, and hope. They transport audiences away from their current reality to an often romanticized past. Downton Abbey, one of the more famous historical fiction shows, exemplifies the genre by acting “as an idealized version of reassurance” for its audience (Byrne, 2014, p. 324). Despite the economic, political, and social struggles

faced throughout the show, all issues in Regency England were “overcome with togetherness, loyalty, and love” (Byrne, 2014, p. 324). Great Britain was experiencing similar social struggles during the release of Downton Abbey, and thus the show provided hope that everything in present times would also be okay. Potzsch (2021) argues that the appeal of Downton Abbey is the ability to watch people from history navigate a constantly changing world, which provides a sense of comradeship, nostalgia, and a belief that everything will work out in the end. While the plot draws audiences in, Downton Abbey retains its audience through the relatability of its characters who experience similar worries, desires, and values (Potzsch, 2021). Yet, working below the surface of a comforting storyline and reliable characters is the fantasy presented that social stability can guard against the potential dangers of change and thus society’s current ideologies should be trusted (Robison, 2020). Therefore, for Downton Abbey and other historical fiction shows, their appeal is embedded in an idealized past supporting an everchanging present.

Despite the appeal of historical fiction shows, they are often met with skepticism and ridicule for the degree to which they truthfully represent history. Saxton (2020) argues that understanding the truth behind a historical fiction show requires looking at both accuracy and authenticity. Accuracy is the word most commonly thought of when discussing truth, as “an accurate text reflects the accepted facts about a period, individual, or event” (p. 128). Authenticity, on the other hand, is more subjective trying to understand whether the audience believes that a given text “captures the past, even if this is at odds with available evidence” (pp. 128-129). Essentially, authenticity argues that all people, from historians to the audience, bring in their own knowledge, experiences, and emotions which then impact how they understand a text. The same can be said for historical figures, as thoughts, emotions, and intimate moments are often lost in history, leading to the creation of different narrative versions of the same moment, period, or event (Bryne, 2021; Saxton, 2020). Ng (2021) explains that determining the authenticity of a specific version of history is based on “the extent to which a text seriously critiques problematic sociopolitical conditions” (p. 2409). Therefore, historical fiction shows must be able to balance both current events and represent history in a manner that allows the audience a suspension of disbelief.

The complications that arise from trying to balance the past and present are often seen through a historical fiction television show’s representation of political, economic, and social issues. The Crown, which follows the life of Queen Elizabeth of England after her coronation, chooses to use politics as smaller pieces of the plot which are viewed in relation to the royal family’s scandals. Jenner (2021) argues that “topics like poverty and unemployment in 1980s Britain, the conflict in Northern Ireland, the Falklands War or apartheid in South Africa are dealt with, but only as they pertain to the Royal family” (p. 303). In this sense, The Crown was able to revise and rearrange history in such a way that encouraged nostalgia, while minimizing the effects and prevalence of politics (Abbiss, 2024; Jenner, 2021). Similarly, Downton Abbey’s adaptations were created during the Brexit campaign, the worldwide recession, and Margaret Thatcher’s reign (Bryne, 2014; Layne, 2019). Since the show focused on the character’s struggles with the changing economic and political climate, audiences felt more connected to the series, as they saw their own political and economic issues reflected on the screen. While seemingly innocent, the show’s language subconsciously persuades the audience to have hope in the current ideological structures despite their faults, foregoing the need to resist them or advocate for change (Layne, 2019; Robison, 2020). Thus, although reflecting the present, historical fiction shows have a tendency to keep their audiences wedded to the past.

The ability of historical fiction shows to perpetuate ideological norms is further illustrated by the personalities and interactions of various characters. When Gentleman Jack premiered in 2019, it was considered to be groundbreaking for having a queer protagonist, Anne Lister, in a historical fiction setting (Ng, 2021). Yet, just having a main queer character does not mean any

stereotypes or ideologies were challenged. Ng (2021) argues that Gentleman Jack is tied to class status and identity “in ways that both downplay the problematic elements of such privilege and reinforce the associations of queerness with classed privileges” (p. 2904). Thus, although Anne was a queer character, through the show’s minimizing of social issues and equating queerness with social status, there was no real change in ideological norms surrounding queerness. However, a show does not have to be considered groundbreaking to reinforce ideological norms. Robison (2020) explains that the entire plot in Upstairs, Downstairs is based on the characters trying to find their place in society, yet ultimately, they always end up where they were originally in the given social structure. As the characters navigate their questions regarding purpose, they ultimately “enforce ideological demands upon one another” (p. 228). The reinforcement of ideologies through character relationships emphasizes the struggle of historical fiction shows to balance accuracy, authenticity, and appeal to an audience.

Feminism and Television

Over the decades, feminist movements have challenged traditional gender roles and stereotypes, fighting for equality and rights in every sphere of life. Looft (2017) explains that society is currently in the fourth wave of feminism, which builds off of the first three movements of feminism by working towards equality and redefining the way society views sexuality, beauty, and mental health. Media has turned feminism into a more abstract idea that transcends agency and focuses on the empowerment of women. Banet-Weiser (2018) calls this popular feminism, a kind of feminism that can be liked and admired by all. The post-feminist movement pushed back against these previous feminist waves, undermining communal aspects of feminism in favor of individual concerns (McRobbie, 2007). The tension between these different versions of feminism is controlled by what the current hegemonic ideology is, which looks specifically at which group is holding the power in society (Lull, 2014). Amid these various feminist movements, women are still facing pressure to have their entire lives figured out, from the perfect marriage to a strong career, all while fitting into ideal beauty standards. Television is one medium through which hegemonic ideologies are often conveyed, specifically communicating to females how their relationships and sex lives are supposed to look. The onset of puberty and hormonal changes sparks curiosity about sex among adolescents, yet a lack of understanding and firsthand experience can lead to uncertainty regarding expectations in romantic and sexual encounters (Dajches et al., 2021). Turning to television for help, the portrayals of romantic and sexual relationships in shows involving teenage and young adult characters can act as adolescents’ guides in shaping their sexual identities (Dajches et al., 2021). Watching these television shows can create a sense of pressure on females to look and act like their favorite television characters. From a young age, when girls see sex on television shows, Dajches et al. (2021) explain that they can feel pressure to have that experience earlier than they may want to. Sex can be depicted as a casual thing or also something that every adolescent does in their teenage years, which creates a double standard for women to adhere to. As much as sex becomes an expectation, a woman’s value is also tied to her sexual purity (Ryalls, 2016). As women age, the pressure shifts towards having children. Szekeres et al. (2023) argue that women are expected to allocate their time, effort, and a significant portion of their lives to fulfilling the roles of being a wife and a mother. The pressure on women to have and raise children is a theme that stems from history but continues to be portrayed through television shows. From a young age to their adult lives, women are tied to the pressure and the double standard of sex.

As standards for women are articulated on television, feminist voices play a crucial role in shaping television content, including images related to traditional notions of masculinity and femininity. Shonda Rhimes, a television producer, is known for her strong feminist agenda that leads audiences to see equality regardless of gender, race, class, religious belief, or sexual

orientation (Rocchi & Farinacci, 2020). Warner (2015) explains that Rhimes uses blind casting, which is the process of not writing race into the script, which is often considered a progressive step toward equality. For most audiences, Rhimes achieves equality through having an extremely diverse cast, which is most commonly recognized in her series Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder (Siebler, 2019; Washington & Harris, 2018). Each series displays strong Black female characters, including Olivia Pope and Annalise Keating, who on the surface appear to defy gender roles. Rocchi and Farinacci (2020) argue that through Olivia, Annalise, and her other female characters, Rhimes has created numerous strong, independent, and complex female characters that embody post-feminism. Having strong female leads of color gives the appearance that Rhimes is reflecting the current social climate, a post-racial, post-feminist utopia where women can thrive.

Although female characters are numerous throughout Rhimes’ various shows, her ignorance to racial issues hurts the feminist movement for women of color and marginalized groups. Warner (2015) suggests that blind casting is one of the leading issues reinforcing racial stereotypes. In Scandal specifically, Olivia Pope, the lead female, is presented as a powerful Black woman who exists separately from the other characters (Siebler, 2019). For audiences, seeing a powerful Black woman is enough to believe that diversity is encouraged and equality is being achieved, which can be seen through Scandal’s commercial success. Yet, throughout the entire series, race, class, and gender are barely considered, creating only the “narrative of Black womanhood that white audiences want to see” (Siebler, 2019, p. 161). Washington and Harris (2018) continue by arguing that Rhimes “attempts to merely present race and usher in a colorblind and postracial utopia” that strengthens colorblind and postracial discourses (p. 169). In other words, real social issues regarding race are discarded, and the focus on diversity is lauded (Rocchi & Farinacci, 2020). Ultimately, if the women of color’s characters are not challenging traditional female stereotypes or contributing to the conversation surrounding race, then hegemonic ideologies will continue to be reinforced.

Previous Bridgerton Research

Rhimes’ most recent work, Bridgerton, proves to be even more complex from a feminist perspective, as it draws on both race and history. Besides having a diverse cast, Bridgerton first grabbed the audience’s attention with its graphic sex scenes, which was new for Rhimes because the streaming service, Netflix, is not subject to traditional broadcast television laws (Wayne, 2022). The initial idea for Bridgerton came from a desire to depict sex through the “female gaze” in an attempt to cater to the female audience (Davisson & Hunting, 2023). Davisson and Hunting (2023) explain that the female gaze manifested itself through the series by taking the focus off intercourse and placing it on characters’ fantasies, desires, pleasures, and even foreplay. Instead of all of the sexual decisions being made by men, women are the ones in control of their own pleasure, which shifts the gender narrative surrounding intercourse. Although Bridgerton takes place during the Regency Era, Spigel (2013) argues that through nostalgia for the past, television represents the audience’s desires for the present. Thus, by creating a female-driven plot surrounded by the patriarchy of the Regency Era, Bridgerton shows women freeing themselves from the patriarchy, which is something that viewers can then translate to their current situations.

While Bridgerton presents a progressive portrayal of gender roles in many aspects, it also perpetuates certain tropes and limitations, reminding audiences of the ongoing complexities and contradictions inherent in media representations of gender. The Bridgerton series casts actors and actresses of color into the Regency era, a time period embedded with racism (Posti, 2024). Although this casting increases general diversity, no real change is made, as the lead family in the series is white, there are a few Asian and Latinx characters, and the show is not historically accurate with the characters (Gruber & Schrader, 2023). Furthermore, the

roles that the actors and actresses of color play often have a power dynamic that reinforces hegemonic ideologies and stereotypes. Posti (2024) argues that by casting Simon, the main love interest, as a Black actor who plays “a rakish duke in Regency romance, the Black male is inevitably reinscribed on the negative side of the familiar dichotomy of light and darkness according to the logic of the romance script” (p. 126). Simon is represented as arrogant, rude, and condescending, reinscribing negative stereotypes about Black men. Furthermore, the relationships characters of color are placed in can have power dynamics that further reinforce negative stereotypes. Hanus (2023) also examines Simon by explaining that the presence of Daphne and Simon’s interracial relationship in the first season “unintentionally reinforces beliefs that there is no longer work to be done, while also naturalizing oppressions depicted in the portrayed utopia” (p. 11). In the second season, Simon is rarely shown, portraying the idea that he is no longer needed. For Simon and other actors and actresses of color, the power dynamics of their characters play an essential role in determining how an audience might view certain stereotypes.

Looking specifically at the women of color cast in Bridgerton, the first season ends where only the Black men end up in a loving and romantic relationship (Hanus, 2023). While the show provides Black women with an escape, it perpetuates the masculine gender stereotype while ignoring the genuine nature of race. More than just the relationships, the language used in Bridgerton is often sexist, further reinforcing traditional gender roles across all races (Kaur et al., 2023). Whether it be more subtle, such as indirect humor, or overt sexism, such as name-calling, Kaur et al. (2023) argue that Bridgerton is still reinforcing a misogynistic view of the world. While it can be argued that since the series is set during the Regency Era, the language used does not have an impact on present times, Spigel (2013) continues with the claim that “nostalgia can also express our failure to cope with the present’’ (p. 278). The fight for true equality and rights, which includes the way women are represented and spoken of on television, gets lost in the recreation of an idealized history through television.

As these stereotypes are reinforced subconsciously, historical fiction series are also creating alternative histories. Throughout the two seasons of Bridgerton, race is rarely mentioned or discussed, as class becomes the main point of tension for characters (Hanus, 2023). Thus, Bridgerton creates “a Regency world without racism” (Gruber & Schrader, 2023; Posti, 2024, p. 124). Geraghty (2020) argues that race cannot be ignored when writing and casting historical fiction. Whether color-blind or color-conscious casting is used, the roles that actors or actresses of color are placed in can hurt and reinforce contemporary stereotypes (Geraghty, 2020; Gruber & Schrader, 2023; Posti, 2024). Therefore, these alternative histories are essentially idealizing history, hurting society’s current understanding of representation and ideology. Through reviewing previous literature on historical fiction, feminism, and Bridgerton, it has led to our research question:

How does Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story portray feminist issues through a fictional historical setting?

Methods

This study utilized a feminist critique to analyze how historical fiction television shows reflect current women and gender roles through a historical setting. Foss (2009) defines a feminist critique as “the analysis of rhetoric to discover how the rhetorical construction of gender is used as a means for oppression and how that process can be challenged and resisted” (p. 168). Since gender is based on what society believes is normal or desirable for women and men, our feminist critique will dig deeper into the way rhetoric in a historical fiction television series reinforces and also challenges the social construct related to gender roles (Foss, 2009).

The chosen material for this study is Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, which is an

historical fiction television series streamed on Netflix. The series itself is a prequel spin-off as part of the larger Bridgerton series, which currently has two seasons out and a third season will be released between May and June of 2024. Released in 2023, Queen Charlotte has six episodes ranging from 50 to 90 minutes with a total runtime of 5 hours and 47 minutes (IMDb, n.d.).

We analyzed all six episodes.

Feminist critique as designed by Foss (2009) incorporates three steps, which are an analysis of gender, a contribution to understanding patriarchy, and a contribution to the transformation of patriarchy. We applied these steps to Queen Charlotte by rewatching each episode and taking copious notes on each, including both quotes and descriptions of scenes. From there, we looked at how interactions, dialogue, and underlying messages contributed to analyzing gender, as well as understanding and transforming patriarchy.

Analysis

Through the use of a feminist critique, we identified three themes that were the focus of the season. These themes were 1) the fate of a woman, 2) the dichotomy of sex, and 3) race and power dynamics.

The Fate of a Woman

Before meeting her future husband, King George III, Queen Charlotte is introduced to Princess Augusta and told “You have good hips. You will make lots of babies. That is good. That is your job” (Episode 1, 15:28-15:42). In those four short sentences, Princess Augusta foreshadows the rest of Queen Charlotte’s life, emphasizing the idea that Charlotte’s purpose is to have children. Weeks later, Charlotte is pregnant. While she should be happy, she is lonely and desperate to escape her husband and England, but her brother echoes Princess Augusta in telling Charlotte that her body and the child she is growing are not her own (Episode 5, 34:26). Despite being able to think and reason for herself, within the palace walls, her agency is limited. In the confines of her marriage to King George III, Queen Charlotte is recognized only for the babies she can provide.

With Queen Charlotte’s limited agency, her marriage to King George III resigns her to a life of isolation. Feelings of loneliness and isolation are furthered as King George’s mental health prevents him from always being present with Charlotte. However, as the King’s wife, the rules she must follow restrict her ability to live the independent and free life she often desires. If Charlotte is wandering the palace gardens, she cannot pick her own oranges (Episode 3). While it is such a small action, it is representative of the countless ways Charlotte’s freedom is limited as the Queen. After weeks of being avoided and treated like nothing by the King, Charlotte exclaims this very frustration to him by saying, I cannot do whatever I like. The queen is not allowed to go to the modiste, or the galleries, or the ice shops. I cannot make friends. I must hold myself apart. I don’t know a single soul here except for you. I am completely alone and you prefer the sky to me. (Episode 4, 16:17-16:34)

Because of King George’s emotional unavailability and the restrictions that come with her title, Charlotte’s actions are limited by her and her husband’s title. Although she chooses to love the King, Charlotte’s fate is loneliness and isolation. As Violet Bridgerton observes, the “queen must be the loneliest woman in all of England” (Episode 5, 1:33).

While some may argue that Queen Charlotte’s fate is decided because she is the Queen of England, the other women of the Ton experience similar constraints of men and marriage. In the beginning episodes, young Lady Danbury is seen in her miserable marriage to Lord Danbury, an elderly man who frequently uses Lady Danbury for his own pleasure. When he dies, she takes to wandering the hills and eventually meets Lord Ledger. The two form a flirtatious relationship and begin a conversation surrounding marriage and freedom. Lord

Ledger makes the assumption that being a widow means freedom (Episode 5, 37:27). Lady Danbury counters that statement by explaining that she is “saddled with the burden of what it means to be a woman not tied to a man” (Episode 5, 37:39). In a conversation with her lady’s maid, Lady Danbury elaborates on her statement, explaining that since the age of three, she was promised to be Lord Danbury’s wife and thus her entire life was spent preparing for that role. Her favorite color was gold because it was his favorite color, she liked the foods he liked, read the books he read, learned the songs he wanted, and drank port wine because it was his favorite. While it was a dreadful task, she explains that she does “not even know how to breathe air he does not exhale” (7:41-9:09). Lady Danbury’s fate is tied to the personality she was forced to create to make her husband happy.

In these different situations with men, a majority of these women’s fate is based on endurance. Queen Charlotte had to endure the loneliness of being Queen and Lady Danbury had to endure a miserable marriage because that was their role. For Princess Augusta, she had to endure abuse. In a conversation with Lady Danbury, she explains, When my dear husband died, I had to throw myself on the mercy of his father, the king. A cruel, evil man… I had bruises as well. There were no other options. So I endured. And over the years I learnt I need not to be content to surrender to the uselessness of female pursuits. Instead, I secured my son as king. I found a way to control my own fate. (Episode 6, 42:06-43:24)

Princess Augusta was rendered powerless as a woman, forced to sit and take the abuse of the current king because of her place in the palace as a woman. While she explains that she eventually learned how to control her own fate, that fate is inextricably tied to a male figure, her son. To Princess Augusta, acting as a woman in the context of the Royal Family and the British Parliament would only lead to more hurt, so she had to rely on using her son to secure a better future for herself.

For each of these women, their fates are tied to the men in their lives. Lady Danbury sums it up by telling Queen Charlotte “We are women. And the men who hold our fates hardly conceive we have desires, dreams of our own. If we are to ever live the lives we want, we have to make them conceive it. Our bravery. Our force of will will be their proof” (Episode 5, 1:01:54-1:02:19). Men determine their fates and thus in order to change their fates, they have to change the minds of the men. Although set in the late eighteenth century, Lady Danbury’s words reflect modern feminist thought, as she argues that with enough determination and hard work, they can change their fates and create their ideal life. This is reflective of the notions of popular feminism that argue women can be anything they want to be (Banet-Weiser, 2018). However, this idealized version of feminism presented through Lady Danbury’s words is the romanticized version of history that is the norm for historical fiction television shows like Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. The late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century was a sexist time in England and thus even for each of these women, a sheer force of will would not be enough to change their fates. The same is true in the context of popular feminism, as just believing and trying will not change patriarchy or the current hegemonic ideologies.

The Dichotomy of Sex

Sex is largely an unspoken word throughout Queen Charlotte, yet it is a frequent topic of discussion. Beginning at a young age, sex is a taboo topic that is avoided, leaving women unprepared for their future. When Queen Charlotte married King George III, she did not know what ‘consummating the marriage’ meant and was completely oblivious until Lady Danbury explained with drawings weeks into her marriage (Episode 2). Charlotte’s obliviousness to sex reflects the purity she is expected to have as a young woman in eighteenth-century England. However, the expectation for women to hold their virginity until marriage is also seen in

traditional Westernized media where women often are judged by their sexual purity. Ryalls (2016) explains that media often equates a woman’s worth and morality to how sexually pure they are. Essentially, a woman’s ability to remain a virgin is what determines how she is viewed sexually and morally. Thus, the strong focus on Charlotte’s virginity reinforces the notion that society determines a woman’s worth by her sexual purity.

When discussing sex itself, as Lady Danbury is explaining it to Queen Charlotte, the question is raised of whether sex is something to enjoy, to which Lady Danbury answers “I do not believe I have ever thought of it as something to enjoy. More of a chore” (Episode 2, 29:01-29:18). Lady Danbury’s view of sex is confirmed within her own relationship to Lord Danbury, as her husband has the freedom to beckon her at any moment of the day to have sex with him. The sex is painful and Lady Danbury describes it as something that must be “endured,” often requesting that her lady’s maid gives a warning before Lord Danbury calls for sex (Episode 1, 23:30). In a heterosexual context, sex is not typically viewed as something pleasurable for a woman, but as something that men desire and consistently crave. While women can sometimes have power in determining whether or not they have sex, within the confines of marriage, sex can be construed as a duty, something that must be done to make the husband happy and yet brings women little fulfillment.

Viewing sex as a duty is furthered by the pressure placed on women to have children. Following Queen Charlotte and King George’s wedding, both Princess Augusta and the members of Parliament pester King George, Queen Charlotte, and Lady Danbury about whether or not the newly married couple has consummated their marriage, desperately waiting for a baby (Episode 2, 38:02). The pressure George and Charlotte are facing from the outside is reflected within their own marriage. When they begin to have sex, the focus is on the expectation aspect of it, as Queen Charlotte tells King George that “all anyone cares about is her making a baby” (Episode 3, 17:08). They have sex on every even day in an effort to increase their chance of getting pregnant and hopefully soon being able to stop seeing each other (Episode 3, 9:40). After the baby is conceived, Princess Augusta tells Queen Charlotte, “You have done your duty. You have conceived an heir. You are free. As for my son, you never have to see him again unless you want to. At least until we need another heir” (Episode 5, 43:10-43:59). Queen Charlotte has fulfilled her duty and thus the expectation to have sex is done for now.

While women in Western society perhaps do not need to secure their family legacy through an heir, the expectation and duty of motherhood is still very present. As Szekeres et al. (2023) explain, “according to current social norms, women may become whatever they wish, a president, a pilot, a CEO - as long as they also have children” (p. 1894). A woman can be extremely successful in her career or considered famous, but she societally does not have full value until she becomes a mother. Women are actually more likely to experience prejudice and discrimination for not wanting children or not having children (Szekeres et al., 2023). Through the pressure Queen Charlotte faces to have children and the dialogue surrounding sex in marriage, Queen Charlotte reinforces the stereotype that a woman’s value is based on her ability to be a mother and thus it is her duty to have sex.

Lady Danbury is objectified by her husband, called on at any time in the day for sex. Queen Charlotte is used for her body with her worth being determined by the number of children she can produce. In this way, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story reinforces hegemonic masculinity and gender roles, as it places men as the superior ones in society who get to make all of the decisions (McRobbie, 2007). Women are reduced to child-bearers who are only given worth if they have children. Thus, while it appears that Queen Charlotte is showing the unfolding love story between King George and Queen Charlotte in an innocent manner, having these underlying dynamics play out in the discussion of sex reinforces traditional stereotypes that are harmful to both women and girls.

The conversation surrounding sex changes when it is no longer limited to the confines of marriage. As a recent widow, Violet Bridgerton is learning how to navigate life separated from a husband she so desperately loved. She begins to ask Lady Danbury more questions surrounding the Queen’s love life, which culminates when Lady Danbury and Violet are visiting an exhibition with several erotic paintings. Lady Bridgerton begins fanning herself talking about how her “garden is in bloom” and saying she is a “danger to society” (Episode 5, 27:38). For these older women, sex is referred to under the analogy of the garden, as if saying the word is too much. Violet feels ashamed to even admit that she has thoughts about wanting to be with someone other than her husband. However, Lady Danbury assures her that it is okay to want more and gives Violet enough courage to say that she is “contemplating starting anew” (Episode 6, 2:04). For the Regency Era, considering sex outside of marriage, much less as an older adult was frowned upon. However, Violet Bridgerton challenges the narrative introducing the possibility of wanting a relationship for pleasure. This is a jarring idea for many, as sex when one is older is either avoided or viewed with a negative connotation in both eighteenth century England and twenty-first century Western society. Violet Bridgerton brings older women back into the current conversation surrounding sex, arguing that they have desires that need to be fulfilled as well, pushing back against traditional ageist stereotypes that eliminate adult women from the conversation. Furthermore, the focus is on the female gaze, as Violet is portraying a female’s desires and fantasies, making her in control of her own sexual desires, which pushes back against patriarchal ideals and traditional gender roles that require a man to be in control (Davisson & Hunting, 2023).

Lady Danbury faces a similar decision after the death of her husband. In her mourning period, she meets Lord Ledger and the two form a flirtatious relationship. While he is married, there is a strong mutual attraction, which eventually leads to Lord Ledger bringing Lady Danbury a birthday gift. One thing leads to another and the two end up having sex, which is shown explicitly (Episode 5, 1:12:04). Over the course of this scene, the evolution of Lady Danbury’s experience with sex is evident. There is passion, Lord Ledger lets her be in control, and it is done completely out of desire. This reemphasizes the female gaze, as the entire episode has been foreplay to this moment of the two finally giving into their passion. As Davisson and Hunting (2023) argue, it is a scene and a relationship that appeal to the female audience. It also challenges the idea that happiness is marriage, as Lady Danbury found her passion for sex outside of marriage which contrasts her previous relationship entirely.

Race and Power Dynamics

As Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Series has gained momentum, one of the more controversial aspects of the show is how it has created an alternate history, casting characters of color in the Regency Era when racism was rampant and people of color would not have existed within these social circles. While Queen Charlotte touches on race more than the previous series, Bridgerton, the power dynamics of the relationships perpetuate many of the same stereotypes and harmful ideologies. Violet Bridgerton, the primary white female throughout the series, is the only character to have a happy marriage that was filled with love and passion. Her main struggle throughout this series is learning how to move on from her husband to a new man. Yet, she is never shown to be objectified or used exclusively for her body. However, the same cannot be said for Lady Danbury and Queen Charlotte.

On one hand, Lady Danbury and Queen Charlotte exemplify the typical female characters of color that are traditional for a Shonda Rhimes production, as they are strong, independent, and complex (Rocchi & Farinacci, 2020). They fight for what they believe, are willing to stand up for themselves, and can thrive independently. On the other hand, their relationships are complicated. Queen Charlotte must live with the burden and secret of King George being mentally ill. Although she chooses to love him through it, the relationship is not one filled

with ease. Lady Danbury was married to a miserable old man and was never able to find love again because she liked her freedom too much. Furthermore, within their relationships, they are the two females who are shown primarily as being objectified and used for their bodies. Queen Charlotte is relied on solely to produce an heir to the crown, as her sex life became a public spectacle until a baby was on the way. Lady Danbury was at her husband’s every call for sex and only learned how to enjoy it when she was outside of marriage.

Yet, for Lady Danbury, enjoying sex outside of marriage was not without its own complications. Throughout history, Black women have been objectified and hypersexualized through the media, often seen being used by white males for sex (Gordon, 2008; Levy, 2021).

Levy (2021) argues that “perpetuating the sexualized Black woman’s body in American cultural images has cemented the perception of Black women’s sexual subjectivity as stripped of individual desire and as driven by the desires of (mostly white male) others” (p. 1210). While the sex scenes in Queen Charlotte may have a stronger focus on the female gaze, the relationships between Black women and white males further the objectification of Black women’s bodies by white males. In the beginning of their relationship, Queen Charlotte is used by King George for the creation of his heir to further his legacy (Episode 3). While that relationship has been discussed more in depth, the relationship between Lady Danbury and Lord Ledger also reinforces the idea of Black women being used by white males. Lord Ledger is a full married man and thus cannot realistically offer Lady Danbury anything, except maybe a passionate moment. Furthermore, if the Ton were to learn about Lady Danbury and Lord Ledger having an affair, it is more likely her name would be tarnished. Thus, although he goes to have a brief affair with her, it is to fulfill his desire, as he cannot offer her anything, besides brief happiness and potential damage to her reputation. Ultimately, while feelings may be present, both King George and Lord Ledger use Queen Charlotte and Lady Danbury for their own purposes.

Ultimately, these ladies are shown to be restricted and in relationships where the current ideologies restrict them from becoming anything more, even though they have strong and independent personalities. Thus, while their characters may be feminist in nature, the power dynamics that exist around them reinforces traditional hegemonic gender and race roles.

Conclusion

As a historical fiction television series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story both reinforces and challenges traditional gender roles and stereotypes. On the surface, women of color are strong, independent, models of modern feminism. Furthermore, through the use of the female gaze, certain sexual relationships are designed with a focus on the female, moving towards a more counter-hegemonic ideal where females are the ones deriving pleasure and enjoyment from a relationship and sex. However, the female characters are still placed in positions where their fates are controlled by men, reinforcing the patriarchy. They are objectified for their bodies, their worth is based on the number of children they produce, and unless they are outside of a marriage, they cannot be free. Therefore, while it appears that the female characters are defying norms with their personalities, the constraints they are placed under and the relationships they are in, reinforce traditional gender roles.

During our study, we discussed historical fiction and television alongside gender roles. As with most television shows, historical fiction shows offer a form of escapism from presentday challenges, heightened by their depiction of settings removed from current circumstances (Byrne, 2014). This research allowed us to expose the present-day challenges that were displayed in Queen Charlotte through the lens of television as a whole. Looking specifically at the historical fiction genre, there is tension between accuracy and authenticity, as scholars have argued that the historical fiction genre reinforces harmful stereotypes, especially with casting (Gruber & Schrader, 2023, Posti, 2024). The Bridgerton series is often viewed as harmful in

its casting of actors and actresses of color, whether it be the lead love interest or queen living normally in the Regency Era, which was historically an era filled with racism (Posti, 2024).

Scholars have debated media casting practices for years, and our study exposes how harmful stereotypes and images of Black women can still be embedded in complex female characters that continue to develop throughout the entire series (Rocchi, 2020).

For a study like this to continue there would need to be a longer timeline because we were limited to only having one semester to work on our research. If we had more time, there could have been a variety of ways to analyze Queen Charlotte because of how influential this season was. We also identified other themes, including the objectification of women’s bodies and mental health, which could have been developed with more time. Furthermore, the series is currently incomplete, and future narratives may develop different images and ideologies.

Despite the progress that feminist movements have made, there are still stereotypes and hegemonic ideologies in Western society that reinforce traditional gender roles. Thus, using a feminist critique, we were able to analyze how Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story portrays women and gender roles through a fictional historical setting to draw attention to contemporary feminist issues. Through observations and analysis, we were able to observe the issues of power and representation through the complexity of being a woman during this time. The gender dynamics and women’s roles that were presented through our analysis created a narrative that continued to place a woman’s fate in the hands of men, as well as her worth in her sexual purity and ability to have children. Yet, through various discussions of pleasure and several sex scenes, Queen Charlotte is pushing back against traditional narratives, bringing the female gaze to the forefront of television. While there is still work to be done, Queen Charlotte embodies the complexity of gender roles both in the eighteenth century and the twenty-first century.

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About the Authors

Kenna McCarthy is a graduating senior at Christopher Newport University (CNU) who grew up in Richmond, VA. Her major is Communication with a double minor in digital humanities and leadership. During her time at CNU, she was a varsity athlete on the women’s soccer team and the president of the CNU chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Her Communication degree focused on media and allowed her to explore different texts and research through a media lens. Through the media focus, she got involved in the athletic communications department on campus and found a passion for sports communication. Kenna plans to attend graduate school at the University of North Florida to get her masters in Communication Management and work as a graduate assistant in the athletic department in assisting with athletic communications.

Caroline Chmelko is a graduating senior from Christopher Newport University and grew up in Manassas, Virginia. She has a major in Communication and a minor in digital humanities. During her time at Christopher Newport, she acquired 3 internships in marketing and communications which led her to the career path to evolve into the corporate realm. In her free time, she enjoys going to the beach, staying active, and spending time with her friends and family. Caroline has aspirations of pursuing a career in Charlestown, South Carolina after graduation.

Kelsey Priestaf is a graduating senior from Christopher Newport University where she double majored in Mathematics and Communication Studies with a minor in Leadership Studies. Throughout her time at CNU, she has worked as the Communications and Administration Intern for the Center for Career Planning and a University Events Intern for the Office of University Events. Outside of work, she was a member of the President’s Leadership Program and the Honors Program, as well as a member of Phi Mu Fraternity where she served as Sisterhood Chair, Reference Assistant, and Treasurer. Between academics, professional development, and her extracurriculars, Kelsey has fostered her love of relationships, media, numbers, and working for the greater good. Following graduation, Kelsey will be moving to Boston, Massachusetts to work as an Analyst at Peloton Consulting Group.

Levirate Marriage: Biblical, Historical, and Legal Perspectives

Grace N. McGonagle

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. David A. Salomon, Honors Program

Abstract

Levirate marriage is one of the Hebrew legal traditions outlined in the Bible, particularly in Deuteronomy 25. Derived from surrounding cultures in Western Asia and the modern-day Middle East, it describes the obligation of a man to his brother’s widow to marry her if the couple had no male children. The defining feature of Levirate law is its effort to preserve the deceased’s name and keep property within the family. It discusses the property rights associated with a man marrying his sister-in-law as well as the alternatives to the practice, particularly the halitzah, the formal ceremony releasing a man from his marital obligations to his brother’s widow. Throughout the Bible and the Talmud, several stories examine the complexities of Levirate law, the most prominent in the Bible being the story of Ruth and Boaz. In more recent history, the late 20th and early 21st centuries have seen renewed efforts to reestablish Levirate marriage in certain Orthodox Jewish communities, reflecting the ongoing global debate on religious legal issues. This study synthesizes historical research, biblical exegesis, Talmudic interpretation, and cultural analysis to understand Levirate marriage and inheritance law comprehensively. Tracing its legal, social, and ethical dimensions through the centuries to the modern era creates more nuance in understanding religious law and the impact of ancient Hebrew tradition on contemporary religious practice.

Levirate marriage is one of the Hebrew legal traditions outlined in the Bible. It describes the obligation of a man to his brother’s widow, which is to marry her should his brother have died without siring male children. Beyond marriage, Levirate law also discusses the property rights associated with marrying a sister-in-law. The rules surrounding Levirate marriage and the transfer of property are outlined in Deuteronomy 25. Several Biblical examples examine the complexities of Levirate marriage law, with the relationship of Ruth and Boaz in Ruth serving as a particularly demonstrative case study. Their story aberrates from Levirate law, yet it is considered an example of Levirate marriage. Similarly, the story of Tamar and Judah in Genesis also demonstrates how the Levirate commandment may be fulfilled inadvertently. Through an investigation of the cultural context surrounding the history of Levirate law, a study of the specific rules for marriage and inheritance throughout the Bible and the Talmud, and a close examination of the story of Ruth and Boaz, a better understanding of what Levirate law in the Biblical era looked like can be reached.

Levirate marriage tradition is thought to be derived from cultures in Western Asia surrounding the Israelite civilization at the time, including the Arabian Peninsula, the Sinai Peninsula, Mesopotamia, Iran, Cyprus, the Levant, and Armenia. Particularly, arguments have been made suggesting that the Canaanites practiced similar laws to Levirate traditions. The Canaanites hailed from the Southern Levant, which is now distinguished as Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and parts of Syria. The Israelites may have adopted their marital practices after occupying Palestine. However, analysis of the Canaanite civilization indicates that the tradition of marrying widows to the brothers or other close relatives of the deceased husband was not localized to their people’s settlements but was a common legal tradition in Western Asia in 2 B.C. (Burrows 25-27). There is no direct evidence connecting Israelite Levirate marriage to the Canaanites specifically, but rather that the Canaanites represent a broader cultural tradition in the part of the world shared with the Israelites.

The basis of the practice is summarized as a broader “conception of marriage as a form of ownership: the widow was simply inherited as a part of her husband’s estate” (Burrows 27). This indicates that marriage, on the part of the man, was much like acquiring new property in the form of a wife, who was then subject to general inheritance laws should her husband die. What distinguishes the Hebrew version of marriage law from other surrounding cultures during this time is that inheriting a widow goes beyond the natural transfer of property following the owner’s death. Burrows summarizes it as “an obligation to preserve the name of the dead…it is this which the Hebrew law gives as the purpose of levirate marriage” (Burrows 28).

In Deuteronomy, Levirate marriage law is explicitly summarized. “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside the family to a stranger; her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her” (The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Deut. 25.5). This sort of law is common in the Bible, as it protects a disadvantaged class of people. This class generally consists of orphans, strangers, and widows. Levirate marriage law protected a childless widow, who would be left with no one to protect and provide for her after her husband’s death. It guaranteed her protection, maintained her social status, allowed her a second chance to create a family, and provided her with financial and material support.

There are several examples of allusions to Levirate marriage in the Bible, one of the most famous being the story of Tamar and Judah (Gen. 38.1-26). Tamar married two of Judah’s sons, each dying after displeasing the Lord. Within Levirate tradition, Judah must offer his third son, Shelah, to Tamar, but fearing that he will lose this son too, Judah attempts to prevent her from marrying him. Tamar ends up seducing her widowed father-in-law and becomes pregnant. Thus, Judah inadvertently fulfills the Levirate commandment. Another famous example of Levirate marriage in the Bible is Ruth and Boaz. Ruth becomes widowed, with no children or other available male relations to marry. Left with no other options, Ruth meets and

falls in love with Boaz, a kinsman of her family, who marries her and buys the property of her deceased husband’s family (Ruth 4).

Two primary motives in Levirate marriage were retaining property and providing a son to the deceased man. Levirate marriage occurred when no male children were born to the couple before the man’s death, leaving the widow to the husband’s male relations. It was still considered her duty to provide a son in her husband’s name, even after his death. There are a few primary duties of the male next-of-kin: blood revenge, raising an heir to the dead, buying the property in danger of being lost in the absence of any other familial claims, and marrying the widow of a family member if there are no other closer family members such as a brotherin-law to perform the task (Rowley 84-85). If a man were to die without a son, his family line would also die. It would then be considered a duty of the clansmen to provide the man’s widow with a son in the stead of the dead man (Burrows 32). In this way, there was still a continuation of a family inheritance from father to son.

While any male next-of-kin to the deceased man could be a candidate for marrying the man’s widow, the man’s brother was typically expected to be the one to perform the task. Regarding the lack of discussion in Deuteronomy on the relevance of next-of-kin to the issue of Levirate marriage duty, Rowley suggests that “…it may well be that Deuteronomy’s failure to prescribe any alternative to a brother-in-law who should decline the duty was but a simple recognition of the fact that in practice few more distant next-of-kin would accept the duty” (Rowley 86). However, there is no specific hierarchy to who among the deceased’s relatives will marry his widow and, if necessary, provide him with a son.

In the case of a son being present and of age when his father died, there is no textual evidence to support the idea that sons inherited their father’s wives in Israel, including their mothers. However, some cultures at the time did marry other wives of their fathers. Inheritance of a mother in Israel would mean that the son would become head of the family and receive authority over his mother. However, that authority would differ from what her husband had over her (Burrows 29). Deuteronomy 25 does not explicitly state that the brother-in-law is the default heir when a Levirate marriage will not occur, though he was usually the first choice to perform the duty as he is the deceased’s closest male relative. If he refuses to marry the widow, the property is not said to be forfeited or otherwise disposed of. Inference suggests that the property would thus remain with the widow if no one else is stated to have a claim to it.

If a man died and only had daughters, her husband could inherit his property if she was already married. While Numbers 27 discusses specific succession laws and does not discuss the possibility of a son-in-law inheriting a man’s property, a case study in Tobit suggests that this was an accepted practice, at least in Tobias’s situation. When Sarah’s parents died, she could not inherit their property; her husband Tobias inherited it (Tob. 14.12-13). This adds another layer of nuance to Levirate inheritance law, indicating that Levirate marriage may only be required if a man dies without a son or with an unmarried daughter. This idea is explored further in Numbers 36, which states that “…every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the people of Israel shall be wife to one of the family of the tribe of her father, so that every one of the people of Israel may possess the inheritance of his fathers” (Num. 36.8). This law is consistent with the general aim of Levirate law, which focuses intensely on keeping any inheritance, including property, widows, and future offspring, firmly confined to the original tribe of the deceased.

The second primary issue Levirate marriage law seeks to rectify involves property, acting as a formal way to “assure retention of ancestral property within the family or clan” (Hiers 121). Despite the emphasis on male retention of that property, there is evidence in the Bible to suggest that a woman could inherit property. In Numbers 27, a deceased man’s daughters petition Moses to allow them to retain an inheritance, as their father had no sons. In answering this issue, the Lord tells Moses to say, “If a man dies, and has no son, then you shall cause his

inheritance to pass to his daughter” (Num. 27.8). While Numbers 27 allows for the inheritance of property by women generally, it does not discuss inheritance as it pertained to widows, only daughters. In Judith 8, Manasseh leaves his wife Judith his entire estate: “…her husband Manasseh had left her gold and silver, and men and women slaves, and cattle, and fields…” (Jdt. 8.7). This establishes that women can inherit property, but only at her husband’s specific bequest and not by default in the case of her husband’s death.

In Ruth, there is not such an explicit bequest by her husband that his wife should inherit his property and the associated rights. However, Boaz tells the city elders, “…Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land which belonged to our kinsman Elimelech” (Ruth 4.3). Without any apparent bequest by Elimelech, his widow Naomi can sell the land, presuming that she is its current owner if she can sell it. If there was such a bequeathing, it is not explicitly stated in the text. The situation is further influenced by the fact that Naomi has no living sons who could take on the property, leaving it only to her. If the sons had been alive, presumably, the property would have transferred to them, bypassing Naomi.

As outlined in Deuteronomy, a man’s obligation to marry his brother’s widow was not absolute. A way of escaping the marriage is added after the initial description of the duty: “And if the man does not wish to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me’” (Deut. 25.7). Such a situation called for the use of a special ritual that nullified the legal obligations of Levirate marriage law. On the brother-in-law’s part, it was a way of acknowledging that he was relinquishing his right to marry his brother’s widow and intentionally breaching Levirate law. The brother had to come before the elders and confirm that he did not wish to marry the widow. The widow had then to “…go up to him in the presence of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot, and spit in his face…And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, The house of him that had his sandal pulled off” (Deut. 25.9-10). This ritual is known as the halitzah.

The halitzah is unique in Deuteronomy, indeed in the greater Pentateuch, as it is the only law that involves public disgrace as a penalty. It stands out as an odd consequence, as there is no immediate apparent significance to removing the sandal. Research ties shoes’ significance to the Nuzi people’s legal material, an ancient city in modern-day northeast Iraq. In Nuzi culture, shoes represent a payment that validates a significant transaction, such as relinquishing the duty of a Levirate marriage (Carmichael 322). In Arabic culture, divorce sometimes involves the man removing his shoe and stating, “She was my slipper; I have cast her off” (Carmichael 323). Carmichael also summarizes research on Bedouin divorce ceremonies by Ludwig Levy, stating, “On the basis of almost universal folk usage, Levy pointed out the erotic significance of the foot as a male symbol and the sandal as a female symbol. The man’s renunciation of the woman causes her to withdraw symbolically from him by removing his shoe” (Carmichael 323).

In the context of Levirate marriage tradition, it is most likely that the shoe was a symbol of authority, and its removal represented the removal of that authority in a man’s right to his brother’s widow. Later, Jewish tradition connects the removal of a sandal as a mourning gesture involving a man and his brother. “…when the dead man’s brother refused to raise up seed for him his death was even more final and the widow’s gesture of removing the levir’s [brother’s] sandal signified this sad fact” (Carmichael 322). Paralleling this in Levirate marriage, a man removes his sandal when refusing his brother’s widow, leaving her without the security he intended to provide her following her loss.

While the Bible, or Torah, approves Levirate marriage and condemns halitzah as a shameful choice, the Talmud prefers that halitzah be chosen due to the extremely high standards set for what was considered sincere Levirate marriage, in which the brother only agreed out of a desire

to fulfill his religious commandment to marry his brother’s widow, and not for any financial or sexual motivation (The William Davidson Talmud, Yeb. 39b). The rabbis recognized that it would be difficult to achieve such complete purity of thought, so they did not condemn men for choosing halitzah, believing that it would be better for him to refuse the widow rather than sin by accepting out of a desire for his brother’s wealth or for lust for his sister-in-law.

There are other circumstances in which Levirate marriage may not occur as outlined by the Talmud. If the brother-in-law is under 13 years of age and is thus not considered old enough to perform the marriage ceremony, the widow must wait for him to reach adulthood. Additionally, if the brother-in-law is not mentally competent due to insanity or due to being both deaf and mute, he cannot legally marry. In that case, the widow may not marry him but is also not allowed to marry anyone else since he cannot perform the halitzah to release her. She must live the rest of her life unwed. Finally, if the whereabouts of the brother-in-law are unknown, or if he refuses to marry the widow based on contempt for Jewish law or personal malice towards the widow, the woman is also unable to remarry (Yeb. 39b).

Such a woman who is not freed by the halitzah and remains tied to her brother-inlaw out of his refusal or inability to participate in the ceremony is known as an agunah or a chained woman. Her only other option exists if other brothers are present besides the brother she intends to marry, traditionally the eldest brother of the remaining siblings. The Talmud requires any of the other brothers to be present and mentally capable of granting the widow freedom by performing the halitzah with her (Yeb. 39b). However, the brother himself may not be able to assist the woman, as having a sibling who has converted from Judaism or is insane or a wanderer makes him seem unfit to arrange a good marriage for his sister-in-law. In the case of insanity, the brother cannot be considered fit to agree to the marriage, and the idea of a ‘wanderer’ ties into general Talmudic law surrounding what is considered insanity. If a woman sought a divorce from a man who wandered or traveled often yet could not prove his death with witnesses, she was forced to maintain her status as a wife to him by Jewish law as an agunah (Baker 99). Further, she could not remarry. In the case of a halitzah, there is proof that her husband has died, but there is no proof that his brother is alive if he is a wanderer, and she must remain tied to him until his return.

If a male next-of-kin could formally renounce his rights to her and no other family members were in line to claim her, the woman was free to marry as she chose. Ruth’s story provides an explicit example of this occurrence. The elders tell Boaz he must get formal relinquishment by the next-of-kin before he can claim Ruth and her associated property. It is not until the entire line of men who are Ruth’s next-of-kin refuse to purchase the property that Boaz can formally override Levirate law and marry Ruth even though he is not directly related to her. The kinsman who speaks to Boaz in Ruth 4 says to him, “I cannot redeem it [the inheritance] for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it” (Ruth 4.6). It is unclear why redeeming his right to purchase the property would jeopardize his inheritance. There is no discussion of a great price being asked for it, and aside from the financial cost associated with buying property, the only other burden would have been maintaining the associated wife and perhaps children. While not explicitly confirmed, the issue of having a son with Ruth would have likely been the deciding factor. “If the go’el [kinsman] so far had no sons, he might have feared that any levirate son he might have would be his first born, and as such be entitled to the ‘birthright’…That eventuality would have impaired the inheritance of any future sons of his own” (Hiers 136). That firstborn son would still be considered the son of the widow’s husband who died yet would take precedence over any additional children coming from the marriage. This would leave the kinsman in a position where the sons that were considered his own do not have the same property rights as the eldest boy that is his by blood, but not by Levirate law.

Ruth 4 briefly prefaces the relinquishment of the next-of-kin’s rights to Ruth and the

property by a description of the haltizah’s significance in redeeming and exchange practices in Israel: “…to confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was the matter of attesting in Israel” (Ruth 4.7). Ruth’s next-of-kin then removes his sandal. Boaz proclaims to the people that he has thus bought from Naomi the land formerly belonging to Elimelech, including Ruth: “Also Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren and from the gate of his native place…” (Ruth 4.10). Thus, though the marriage was not strictly Levirate when considering that Boaz was not her relation and that other members of her next of-kin-would not marry her (Ruth 4.6), formal Levirate tradition was carried out by proper execution of the halitzah, allowing their marriage to be considered legal.

The halitzah, though voluntary on the part of the male next-of-kin, was a rare occurrence, as it was generally a shameful experience for the man refusing to perform his duty to his kinsman. This is underscored by the widow’s spitting in his face, marking him as a man who would not perform his Biblical duties. Despite the shame associated with refusing to fulfill Levirate marriage duty, the events of Ruth do not involve the full halitzah, without any spitting or public shaming. Considering that, for a next-of-kin, the weight of their obligation in Levirate marriage seems much lesser than that of a brother-in-law’s, there is a direct correlation with the stigma associated with refusing the widow. Ruth is not even present for her halitzah, and the transaction takes place peacefully and without argument between Boaz and the kinsman. Were the issue have been between Boaz and Ruth’s brother-in-law, perhaps it may have been more dramatically depicted: “…long before the Deuteronomic age, the dishonor incurred by a more distant relation would be much less, and its lesser nature would be reflected in the modification of the ignominy of the ceremony” (Rowley 86).

The great nuance surrounding the rights of women in Levirate law, particularly in terms of marriage and inheritance of property and other assets, creates a complex legal network that appears based on a variety of cultural ideas that the ancient Israelites blended. This is not to say that Levirate law is extinct; in fact, it is practiced in very rare instances in modern society in strict Orthodox Jewish communities when a woman becomes widowed, though the halitzah is a supported method of avoiding marriage. The Sephardic and Ashkenazi sects of Judaism have particularly defined rules for Levirate marriage, with the Sephardic community originally limiting Levirate marriages to specific situations, only allowed when the brotherin-law was not already married (Westreich 764). Ashkenazi communities rejected Levirate marriage entirely around the 12th century but still required the halitzah ceremony as a formal acknowledgment of the relinquishing of marital rights by the brother-in-law. In 1950, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate stipulated that the Ashkenazi’s ban on Levirate marriage become mandatory for all sects of Judaism, with the halitzah remaining a requirement. In the late 20th and early 21st century, Rabbi Ovadya Yosef attempted to renew Levirate marriage in Sephardic and Eastern Jewish communities to repeal, at least in part, the mandate of the Chief Rabbinate. He was unsuccessful in his attempts, and the halitzah remains the standard practice, though it is most often only utilized in stricter Orthodox Jewish communities.

Though the story of Boaz and Ruth demonstrates breaks from a strict interpretation of Levirate law, particularly as it is outlined in Numbers and Deuteronomy, it represents situational nuances in the execution of Levirate marriage and inheritance law. These nuances enhance the picture of how it may have been practiced in natural, historical settings. Using context from research on Israelite communities, referencing the Biblical and Talmudic texts for specific legislative language, and reading Ruth and Boaz’s story, a more complete picture of Levirate law, in practice, can be formed.

Works Cited

Baker, Mark. “The Voice of the Deserted Jewish Woman, 1867-1870.” Jewish Social Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 1995, pp. 98–123. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4467462. Accessed 22 Nov. 2023.

Burrows, Millar. “Levirate Marriage in Israel.” Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 59, no. 1, 1940, pp. 23–33. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3262301. Accessed 22 Nov. 2023.

Carmichael, Calum M. “A Ceremonial Crux: Removing a Man’s Sandal as a Female Gesture of Contempt.” Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 96, no. 3, 1977, pp. 321–36. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3266188. Accessed 22 Nov. 2023.

Hiers, Richard H. “Transfer of Property by Inheritance and Bequest in Biblical Law and Tradition.” Journal of Law and Religion, vol. 10, no. 1, 1993, pp. 121–55. JSTOR, https:// doi.org/10.2307/1051171. Accessed 22 Nov. 2023.

Rowley, H. H. “The Marriage of Ruth.” The Harvard Theological Review, vol. 40, no. 2, 1947, pp. 77–99. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1508036. Accessed 22 Nov. 2023.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha. Revised standard edition. New York: Oxford UP, 1965. Print.

The William Davidson Talmud. William Davidson English edition. Sefaria, www.sefaria.org/ william-davidson-talmud. Accessed 27 Nov. 2023.

Westreich, A. “Present-day posthumous reproduction and traditional levirate marriage: two types of interactions.” Journal of Law and the Biosciences, vol. 5, no. 3, 2018, pp. 759–785. Oxford Academic, https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsy026. Accessed 22 Nov. 2023.

About the Author

Grace McGonagle is a student in the Class of 2026 on the pre-medicine track pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience with minors in Chemistry and Leadership Studies. She is a member of the President’s Leadership Program (PLP), the Honors Program, the Pre-Med Scholars Program, and the Student Honor Council. Within PLP, she is a Presidential Scholar and a Student Ambassador, and is on track to receive Service Distinction Honors, as she has logged 100+ service hours with the Virginia Living Museum’s Herpetology Department. She is engaged in independent research on the topic of ancient Israelite history and legislature, particularly regarding marital and property law. In addition to her academic pursuits, Grace works as an Emergency Medical Technician serving the greater Hampton Roads area. After graduating from Christopher Newport University, Grace will attend medical school in pursuit of a career in Orthopedic Trauma Surgery as an officer in the United States Air Force.

Adolescent Identity Formation in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Emma Murphy and Malcolm King

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Michaela Meyer, Department of Communication

Abstract

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, is a coming of age/superhero film that follows teen Spider-Man Miles Morales as he navigates the Multiverse. Throughout the film, Miles faces challenges that ultimately force him to reconsider his identity and his role in the world. Prior research suggests that in coming of age stories, authority figures tend to serve as catalysts for teen self-discovery and that superhero films usually follow the Good vs. Evil trope. Analyzing these concepts in relation to the film, this qualitative ideological critique sets out to answer the question: how does Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse serve as a symbolic portrayal of the social and emotional dimensions of identity formation in adolescence? This analysis ultimately found four major themes in Miles’ identity formation: adolescent self-concept, adolescent selfefficacy, internal conflict, and searching for acceptance/rejecting authority. Key Words: Spider-Man, Miles Morales, Multiverse, adolescence, identity, identity formation, superhero, emotional dimensions, social dimensions, self-concept, self-efficacy, internal conflict, acceptance.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is part of the animated Spider-Verse film series that follows teen Spider-Man, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore). Miles Morales is a student at Brooklyn Visions Academy who assumes the role of Spider-Man after he was bitten by a radioactive spider. After the death of Peter Parker, Miles is forced to put on the mask and take over the heroic role. By the end of the first film, Miles becomes the ultimate Spider-Man, protector of Brooklyn. Set shortly after the first installment, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, this second film started with Miles struggling to connect with his family while missing his Spider-Man friends. Miles grapples with his heroic duty and his familial expectations, with his parents urging him to take his school work more seriously and start applying to colleges. However, Miles gets caught within the problems of the Multiverse once again, resulting in more conflict between him and his parents.

Towards the beginning of the film, Miles encounters The Spot, a portal infused entity who can create rips throughout the Multiverse. Miles learns from The Spider-Society, led by Miguel O-Hara (Oscar Isaac), or Spider-Man 2099, that these time rips in the Multiverse allow villains to travel through universes. Miles, along with Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), Hobie Brown/Spider Punk (Daniel Kaluuya), and Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) team up to take down Spot and fix the Multiverse rips. Throughout the film Miles learns about his identity as Spider-Man and his role in the Multiverse. Struggling with his conflicting values, Miles has to make major decisions about his family and identity as Spider-Man as the plot develops.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse swept the 2024 Annie Awards show with seven categories won, including the “top prize of best feature” (Lewis, 2024, para. 2). This film, part of the Oscar winning Spider-Verse series, became “the sixth highest-grossing film of 2023 at the worldwide box office with $690 million” (Fenn, 2024, para. 1), which was almost double the total of the first installment. The film also won the 2024 Saturn Award’s Best Animated Film, the 2024 Critics Choice Award, the 2024 OFCS Award for Best Animated Feature, and the AFI Award for Movie of the Year (Lewis, 2024).

In regards to the film itself, Fenn (2024) wrote it provided a “refreshing take on the superhero genre…[and] received similar critical praise, having garnered critical acclaim” (para. 1). Tallerico (2023) found Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse to be “like the work of a young artist who refuses to be restrained by the borders of the frame, Across the Spider-Verse is loaded with incredible imagery and fascinating ideas” (para 2). Further, Tallerico (2023) found the story to be grounded in the refusal of young people to submit to what the hero’s arc has to be. Kain (2023) described the film as “honestly one of the best superhero movies I’ve ever seen” (para. 10), and found that it brought elements that were “not only fresh and new to a genre that feels rather stale, but also [had] superbly crafted storytelling” (para. 10).

Drawing on scholarly literature, this analysis will explore the evolution of the discourse surrounding authority figures in teen media and its impact on the portrayal of teenage characters. This analysis will delve into the concept of hero identity in popular culture and the unique characteristics of Spider-Man as a relatable and responsible hero. We will examine the genre of coming-of-age films, their portrayal of youth and authority dynamics, and provide a comprehensive analysis of the interconnected themes within the Spider-Verse series. Furthermore, we discuss the concept of the canon in relation to the Spider-Verse universe and the potential for reimagining traditional superhero narratives. This paper sets out to answer the question: how does SpiderMan: Across the Spider-Verse serve as a symbolic portrayal of the social and emotional dimensions of identity formation in adolescence? Throughout our research, we found four themes of social and emotional dimensions of identity formation in adolescence: self-concept, self-efficacy, internal conflict, and rejection of authority. We explored the discourse surrounding teen media and the portrayal of identity formation, and found the film to highlight adolescent internal conflict and growth, self-efficacy, and self-concept as the characters navigate their beliefs and values within societal systems, highlighting the tension between youthful independence and adult expectations.

Coming-of-Age Stories

In modern media, coming-of-age films embody the essence of contemporary adolescence and have evolved into a popular genre. Coming-of-age narratives have broad appeal, targeting both adult and teenage audiences. Grigsby (2007) states that teen narratives, including historical texts, can provide valuable insights into the contemporary understanding of adolescence as they reveal cultural norms, illuminate societal structures, and reflect cultural theories and philosophies of the particular time period in which they were created.

Coming-of-age films form a distinct genre within teen cinema, exploring the personal struggles faced by teenagers as they navigate through adolescence. These films delve deep into themes of identity, rebellion, and the transition from childhood to adulthood. They introduce us to teenage characters grappling with questions about their identity and aspirations, who ultimately allow their characters to emerge as the protagonists of their own lives (Nelson, 2017). Teen films are widely regarded as valuable representations of youth culture, providing insight into popular entertainment (Smith, 2013). Despite their conventional nature, these films have the potential to achieve high-quality storytelling, akin to the Classical Hollywood era.

The concept of teen films is unique within formulaic genre studies, as it is defined not by narrative characteristics but by the population they depict and target (Shary, 1997). However, this does not mean there are no generic similarities among teen films. As Southcott (2021) states, “The genre’s success often lies in the recycling of archetypal conventions, creating a sense of familiarity and enjoyment for audiences.” Many of these films focus on the fidelity stage (13-19 years) in adolescence, representing the transition from childhood to adulthood. Fidelity is marked by significant changes, including puberty and a more developed capacity for self-analysis (Wesonga, 2017). Themes such as peer relationships, coming-of-age plots, and the role of institutions are common conventions in these films. The label “teen” as a genre signifies a historical period of social dependence that acknowledges the liminality of youth (Driscoll, 2011).

In analyzing the literature concerning teen films, it becomes crucial to recognize scholarly works that show the dynamics between youth and authority, as foundational in the genre. Speed (1998) makes an intriguing observation about nostalgic teen films. Nostalgic teen films stand out within the genre by blending themes of rebellion and anti-authoritarianism with an adult perspective. While most teen films emphasize the adolescent point of view, nostalgic teen films highlight the tensions between youth and adulthood in their narratives (Speed, 1998). These films frequently highlight independence and a desire to separate from one’s family, often painting the home as a place of conflict. They tend to present negative portrayals of autonomy and the changing relationships between parents and adolescents and, in doing so, overlook the crucial support that families provide to adolescents and their role in shaping positive values (Hosley et al., 2019). Films such as The Last Picture Show and Rebel Without a Cause often depict the family as a combination of undesirable parents and authoritative figures, constantly lingering in the background (Woloski, 2008). These ideas can be applied to the character development of the main Spider-People in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Miles and Gwen, as both their stories are heavily influenced by their turbulent relationships with authority figures.

According to Grigsby (2007), the discourse surrounding teen films has evolved over time. Nostalgic teen films have influenced the portrayal of teenage and young adult characters in various works. Within nostalgic teen media, narratives mainly center around authority figures frequently imposing stringent norms upon children, coercing them to adopt identities that align with societal approval rather than their own authentic selves (Wesonga, 2017). In his

analysis, Wesonga (2017) sheds light on the Kenyan television drama Tahidi High, where the character Banjo is compelled to relinquish his tennis scholarship to fulfill his mother’s desires. This body of literature suggests that teen media often depict authority as a catalyst for identity crises, resulting in feelings of confusion and role ambiguity. (Wesonga, 2017).

Wesonga (2017) further suggests that affiliation and belonging are crucial factors in teenagers’ search for identity. Teenagers seek connections with peers or individuals outside their age group (Wesonga, 2017). This is evident not only in the Spider-Verse series but also in recent iterations of Spider-Man, including Tom Holland’s portrayal, where the character’s development in films like Infinity War reflects his desperate desire to be part of the Avengers.

When exploring the notion of adolescents in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, it becomes crucial to also delve into the concept of hero identity. Hero identity in coming-of-age stories are strongly connected as both explore the themes of identity, self-discovery, and the struggle with responsibility. The hero’s journey often mirrors the journey of adolescence, with both narratives delving into the personal trials and tribulations individuals face as they navigate life’s complexities. Furthermore, the exploration of hero archetypes and the struggle between ordinary life and the burden of responsibility in superhero stories can reflect the challenges teenagers face as they transition from childhood to adulthood. These interconnected themes provide a rich tapestry for understanding the complexities of identity and personal growth in both coming-of-age stories and hero narratives.

Identity in Popular Culture

Though the superhero genre is popular within the Hollywood industry, the ‘hero’ narrative has hardly changed its formula regarding the story. Due to repetition, these narratives can be constrained by “story-internal configurations” (Fetzer & Klumm, 2023, p. 24) including the number of characters and plot-focus. Furthermore, narratives rely heavily on success stories, which “act invisibly to structure and define our lives” and limit characters due to their “canonical tendencies” (Alexander, 2011, pp. 610-611).

Historically, the superhero genre heavily focuses on themes of Good versus Evil. Typically, a hero is someone brave, selfless, and serves to bring ‘good’ to humanity (Abednego, 2017; Brown, 2016a). Marvel’s ‘first Avenger’ Captain America serves as an example of a traditional hero, as he is “incorruptible” (Breznican, 2016, p. 38), representing “simple moral heroism” (MacKendrick, 2015, p. 21), and his “whole life has been dedicated to that triumph of good over evil” (Dubose, 2007, p. 928). Carl Jung outlines six archetypes, or types of characters in the superhero genre (Abednego, 2017). The hero, the shadow or villain, the fool who inevitably puts the characters in undesirable situations, the anima or the female counterpart, the mentor, and the trickster who can be found on either side of good versus evil. From these archetypes, Jung categorizes the hero as someone “brave, selfless, and willing to help others no matter what the cost” (p. 972).

Many scholars notice that Good always prevails with this trope of Good versus Evil (Abednego, 2017; Brown, 2016a). For example, at the end of Avengers: Infinity War (Russo & Russo, 2018), audiences were left dissatisfied at the end of the film because the heroes did not ‘win.’ Dittmer (2005) writes “a literary genre that is almost universally about the conservation of the status quo. Superheroes are about the protection of life and property and almost never seek to fundamentally revolutionize the system” (p. 642). In fact, those who go against this philosophy are labeled as the villain in the story, trying to upset the status quo. The superhero genre is defined by, “the defeat of Evil (as we imagine it) by the Good (as we have learned)” (Rollin, 1970, p. 432). For example, Rollin (1970) finds that those heroes who fail to bring honor to their family are not worthy of the ‘hero’ title. Instead, they are deemed as villains. However, Polk (2022) finds that identity is a construct and is “constantly in flux” (p. 2) so heroes who are at a moral crossroads are not given mercy.

Herein lies a seventh archetype, the anti-hero; who is not quite the hero, but also not a villain. The anti-hero has a lack of traditional heroism, exemplifying hesitation and introspection while staying humanized instead of villainized (Neimneh, 2013; Siemon, 1972). Contrasting with traditional heroes and defeating the troubles of their time-period, the antihero is capable of unexpected resilience whilst combating weakness and failure (Neimneh, 2013; Palfy, 2016). Heroes are expected to do the right thing for humanity no matter what, whereas anti-heroes struggle with that responsibility. An example of anti-heroic traits can be found in the character Wolverine. Kahler (n.d.), describes an anti-hero “as someone who leaves behind the pure concepts of right and wrong” (para. 10). Wolverine is a “socially rejected” underdog who “comes from a broken home” (Picón del Campo, 2018, p. 34). He suffers tragedy and trauma, yet he never succumbs to the darkness and instead, demonstrates resilience (Kahler, N.D.; Picón del Campo, 2018). Wolverine is depicted as a human character with vulnerability instead of conforming to the flawless hero archetype who embodies unwavering goodness.

Audiences tend to be drawn to characters that reflect their own stories. Abednego (2017) found that superheroes demonstrate certain characteristics in their stories, one being the struggle between their ordinary life as a human and the burden of responsibility as a hero. Williams (2007) found that viewers situate themselves in relation “to the identities they see portrayed in popular culture” (p. 685). Audiences like superheroes who “sometimes make mistakes like an ordinary human” because they can relate to them (Abednego, 2017, p. 977). Further, these types of films provide escapism, or a “temporary psychological and intellectual disengagement from the tensions and problems of real life” (Rollin, 1970, p. 432).

Identity in Spider-Man

The character of Spider-Man is a fan-favorite due to two features of his identity: his relatability and his struggle with responsibility (Stevenson, 2019). His real-world problems of being a high school student struggling to make ends meet whilst navigating love provides relatability (Abednego 2017; Stevenson, 2019). Peter Parker is an awkward teen who, over time, transforms into a hero with the first part of his narration being, “Who am I,” and later identifying as Spider-Man (Brown, 2016b; Raimi, 2002).

Spider-Man holds his actions to a high standard, following the proverb used many times within the Spider-Man narrative; “with great power there must also come great responsibility.” Spider-Man is set apart from other heroes, as he “understands the nature of power itself” (Stevenson, 2019, p. 103). In the majority of Spider-Man films, Peter Parker serves as the main character. However, in the case of Miles Morales, the roles are switched. Jeffries (2023) finds that the theme of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is “anyone can wear the mask” (p. 192). Further, Jeffries (2023) asserts that this theme functions to delegitimize Miles as a true SpiderMan. However, Stevenson (2019) writes, “it is not the motto itself…that defines the character of Spider-Man, but rather how Peter Parker defines and implements that motto” (p. 105106). For example, in The Amazing Spider-Man #698-700, Spider-Man’s long term nemesis Doctor Octopus, or Otto Octavius, becomes Spider-Man. In a violent exchange between the two, Octavius used technology to swap his and Spider-Man’s consciousnesses before his death, resulting in them switching bodies. Octavius promises Parker, who is now on his deathbed, that he will take over the Spider-Man duties but does no’t know how. In response, Parker shares his motto. Octavius takes Parker’s words to heart, but enacts them differently stating that because of his ambition and nonacceptance of mortality, he will be The Superior Spider-Man (Stevenson, 2019). This upholds the idea that it is not the name ‘Spider-Man’ that is inherently good, but the person behind the mask’s true values.

These interconnected themes provide a strong foundation for understanding identity and personal growth in both coming-of-age stories and hero narratives. This analysis aims to uncover how Across the Spider-Verse symbolizes the social and emotional dimensions of identity formation in adolescence.

Method

This study conducts an ideological critique to examine the film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse for the themes of adolescence identity formation. The researchers would like to gain an understanding of how social and emotional factors contribute to adolescent identity formation, using the discourse around this film “to gain insight about [it’s] role in society or communities” (Atkinson, 2017, p. 84). An ideology is “a pattern or set of ideas, assumptions, beliefs, values, or interpretations of the world by which a culture or group operates” (Foss, 2008, p. 291). Additionally, Friesen (2009) writes, “an ideology, then, is a set of ideas or a kind of knowledge that is used to justify actions of social and political consequence and that is considered so obviously commonsensical or natural that it is placed beyond criticism” (p. 175). Structural ideologies show “the ways in which ideas contribute to or embed arrangements of power” (Ewick & Silbey, 1999, p. 1026), whether the characters realize or not.

We chose to examine the film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), an American animated superhero film that showcases the Marvel Comics character Miles Morales/SpiderMan. Produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, this film serves as the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, set within the interconnected Multiverse known as the Spider-Verse. Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, with a screenplay by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham, the voice cast includes Shameik Moore as Miles, alongside Hailee Steinfeld (Gwen Stacy), Brian Tyree Henry (Jeff Morales), Lauren Vélez (Rio Morales), Oscar Isaac (Miguel O’Hara) and Jason Schwartzman (The Spot). The storyline follows Miles as he embarks on a journey with Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman through the Multiverse, encountering a group of Spider-People led by Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099, known as the Spider-Society.

In preparation for our film analysis, we viewed the film on Netflix and documented our observations, resulting in ten pages of in-depth notes. During the viewing, we focused on the dialogue, character reactions, expressions, and interactions in search of themes, symbols, and metaphors that we felt directly pertained to our research question. This comprehensive approach allowed us to thoroughly analyze the film and extract valuable insights contributing to our research. Ultimately, we used Foss’ (2008) three-step technique of first, identifying the nature of the dominant ideology, second, identifying strategies in support of the dominant ideology, and third, identifying the challenges of dominant ideologies.

Analysis

Adolescent Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy refers to an individual’s belief and confidence in their capacity to accomplish necessary tasks. One of the biggest plot-points of the film is Miles discovering the SpiderSociety, a vast number of Spider-Men from different universes who work together to uphold the ‘canon.’ The ‘canon’ refers to events that inevitably happen in a specific universe/series that are true and unchanged. Spider-Man 2099, a.k.a. Miguel O’Hara, leads the Spider-Society in its efforts to preserve the canon. As he encounters different versions of Spider-Man from alternate universes, Miles questions his own abilities and struggles to find his place among them. We see this pan out multiple times in the film as the Spider-Society did not want Miles to be involved, and this disappoints him as he is desperate for approval.

Early on in the film when Gwen visits Miles, she lets it slip that she’s a part of the SpiderSociety. Miles exhibits jealousy, asking when they invited her and how long she has been a part of the group. He then states he should go with her, as he did “save the Multiverse” (53:07). In this scene, Miles points out he can turn invisible and possesses electric powers, asserting that he should be able to join. Gwen uneasily replies, “it’s a really small elite strike force…there aren’t a lot of slots” (53:10), leaving him disappointed. After that conversation, Miles feels inadequate

in his abilities which are further cemented when he follows Gwen to another universe. There, she states he was not supposed to follow her and that she should not have visited him. This supports an ideology of adolescents longing to belong to social peer groups.

Miles, feeling unwanted by Gwen, lashes out at Spider-Punk, a.k.a. Hobie Brown, saying, “Hi. I’ve never heard of you because Gwen barely ever mentions you” (1:10:24). His feelings of jealousy further implicate that he feels inadequate, especially after Hobie gives him advice about his powers and makes fun of his suit. Throughout this whole scene, Miles makes sarcastic comments about Hobie, demonstrating his feelings of jealousy.

Initially enthusiastic when he is called to headquarters, Miles soon finds out they are, in fact, not a small elite strike team, but in fact, “so many spider-people it will make your fucking head spin…a full-on inter-dimentinal spider-base” (Lord, P. et al., 2023, p. 102). When Miles first meets Miguel, he thinks he has officially joined the team:

MILES: Listen, I--I’m really excited to get going and–

MIGUEL: Oh great

MILES: I have some fresh new ideas on how to catch The Spot–

MIGUEL: Oh wow.

MILES: He just wants to be taken seriously, y’know? Like as we all do–

MIGUEL: Uh huh uh huh (1:24:17).

Miguel’s continuous sarcastic comments further evoke feelings of inadequacy within Miles. Earlier in the story Miles disrupts a canon event on Earth-50101, home to Pavitr Prabhakar, Spider-Man India. During an attack from The Spot, Miles saves a child and Inspector Singh, father of Pavitr’s girlfriend. Following this event, Miguel explains the canon to Miles, saying they are “chapters that are a part of every spider’s story, every time” (1:27:35). Miles then understands that the canonical Event ASM90 in every Spider-Man narrative, a police captain close to Spider-Man passing away, will happen to him and his father.

The members of the Spider-Society believe in preserving the canon at all costs, with Miguel telling Miles “being Spider-Man is a sacrifice. That’s the job. That’s what you signed up for” (1:33:13). However, Miles does not agree with this and after understanding the cost, he is disgusted:

MILES: So we’re just supposed to let people die because some algorithm–

LYLA: Whoa, whoa.

MILES: Says that that’s supposed to happen? You realize how messed up that sounds right?

MIGUEL: You have a choice between saving one person and saving an entire world. Every world (1:32:37).

At this moment, Miles understands the extent of his abilities and asserts, “I can do both” (1: 32:56). In the previously mentioned scene of Miles and Miguel atop a train, Miles states “everyone keeps telling me how my story is supposed to go. Nah I’m gonna do my own thing” (1:44:30), and escapes. Through this scene, we see Miles overcoming self-doubt and reaffirming his belief in himself as Spider-Man. Dominant ideologies often uphold the status quo, and through these experiences and interactions with other Spider-Men, Miles challenges the dominant ideology of the narrative and emerges as a more confident and self-assured hero.

Adolescent Self-Concept

Self-Concept refers to an individual’s idea of the self through traits, goals, and values. Throughout the film, Miles’ narrative dives deeper into personal growth as he navigates the Multiverse. Like most Spider-Men, Miles tries to live with his contrasting identities in harmony. He tries to be present in his parents’ lives, but his ‘hero-duty’ results in him missing out. We see this present throughout the film, with the titular moment being when Miles is late to his father Jeff Morales’ promotion to police captain celebration. After a fight with The

Spot, Miles realizes he’s late. When he finally arrives, his mother Rio Morales exclaimes, “You disrespected your dad! Missed his beautiful toast!” (1:38:20). Although he loves his family and wants to be there for his parents, he also believes he has a duty as Spider-Man to constantly be vigilant. While Miles seems confident in his ability to balance his identities, we soon find out that may not be attainable.

During a conversation with Miguel, Miles discovers that Miguel had once violated the canon, leading to the destruction of his universe. In a reflective moment, Miguel shares his past, expressing, “I don’t always like what I have to do. But I know I have to be the one to do it. And I’ve given up too much to stop now…” (1:22:08). Learning about his father’s fate, Miles hesitates in his Spider-Society mission. Sensing this, Miguel acknowledges, “we all want to live the life we wish we had. Believe me, I have tried. And the harder I tried the more damage I did. You can’t have it all, kid” (1:33:02). Further, Miguel states,“that’s how the story is supposed to go. Canon events are the connections that bind our lives together” (1:28:52), making the point that because Miles is Spider-Man, the Spider-Society’s mission is his mission. However, Miles grapples with this duty, portraying him as an anti-hero.

This scene emphasizes how Miles’ engagements with others shapes his self-perception and his place within the multiverse. Although imperceptible to the other characters, Miles’ hesitation and reflection define his character. To Miles, doing the right thing is following his instincts to save people. Miguel and the Spider-Society instead, believe in altruism at any cost, aiming to eliminate anomalies described by Lyla, a futuristic hologram in charge of gathering information for the Spider-Society, as “folks who wound up in the wrong dimension” (1:20:15). After disrupting the canon, Miguel judges Miles as unworthy of belonging to the Spider-Society.

We see his peak realization of self-concept towards the end of the film. Miguel and the rest of the Spider-Society are trying to stop Miles from going home in a visually striking action sequence which concludes with Miles and Miguel atop a train heading straight up. In this scene, Miles learns the truth about his identity:

MIGUEL: You don’t get it! You’re an anomaly!

MILES: Not if you let me go home!

MIGUEL: Everywhere you go you’re an anomaly! You’re the original anomaly!!!

MIGUEL: The spider that gave you your powers wasn’t from your dimension! It was never supposed to bite you!

MIGUEL: You’re not supposed to be Spider-Man!

MILES: No! You’re lying! I’m Spider-Man!

MIGUEL: You’re a mistake! (1:24:09).

Instead of staying and assisting in the Spider-Societies efforts, Miles outsmarts the SpiderSociety and leaves with the determination to save his father. In this scene, Miguel has further shaped Miles’ understanding of himself and his role as a hero. Miles now understands he is capable, resilient, and deserving of the Spider-Man title, finding pride in adhering to his personal values and crafting his unique narrative. Ideologically, the Spider-Society wants to valorize canon, while Miles provides a distinct challenge to it.

Later on, Miles expresses to his mother, “they didn’t want me. But I kept thinking about what you said. I let ‘em have it, mom. I beat ‘em all. I know how strong I am now” (1:59:06). He demonstrates resilience and self-acceptance by staying true to himself in the face of adversity. In these sequences, we witness Miles’ self-perception evolve from uncertainty about his identity to a clear understanding of his true self. In the Spider-Verse universe, Mills (2022) cites that Miles Morales as Spider-Man “has a story of his own” (p. 42) rather than portraying the traditional “Amazing Spider-Man’s origin story” (p. 42). In addition, Mills finds, “writers could experiment without adhering to the long, convoluted timelines and backstories of Marvel’s major characters” (p. 41). Similarly, Worlds and Miller (2019) found

that other Spider-Man stories, like Miles Morales: Spider-Man can “be part of a larger effort to reimagine the canon” (p. 43).

Internal Conflict and Creating One’s Identity

The teenage experience is marred not just by the fear of being rejected by the people you care about but also by the systems you live within. As a teenager, one must grapple with the development of their identity within their immediate environment while also preparing to face the larger world they will inhabit. This can often lead to inner conflict as teenagers navigate their surroundings, with each person responding differently. This theme is portrayed in SpiderMan: Across the Spider-Verse through its two main characters.

In Gwen’s case, her father’s rejection is met with avoidance. After being rejected by her father, the Spider-Society was there to accept Gwen and give her a sense of purpose. More importantly, they provided her with a space to escape her discomfort. However, Miles actively seeks out this group, thinking it is a place that shares his goals and values and understands who he is and the struggles he faces.

Where Miles and Gwen differ is in their response to their internal conflict. While Miles actively rejects the system, forcing him to go against what he believes is right, Gwen initially accepts that system even though it makes her uneasy. The Spider-Society accepted her, or at least acted like it did, while her father did not. This ultimately allowed her to escape the discomfort of feeling rejected and unheard. During the climax of the film, her conversation with Miles serves as further proof of her beliefs. She insists, “Miles, it’s for your own good!” (1:43:52) as he struggles against Miguel. However, this can be seen as a reflection of her own anxieties and belief that conforming is the only solution. It is not until she sees Miles reject the very system, a system that valorizes ideological structures for passed narratives, that Gwen starts to question the hegemony of the system.

Like Miles, Gwen’s journey in the film highlights the internal conflict and growth adolescents often experience as they navigate their beliefs and values within societal systems. While Gwen willingly joins the Spider-Society, the film subtly hints that she is not fully committed to their mission. For one, Gwen actively lies to Miles about what the group is to try and get him to lose interest in it because she knows the truth about who they are and what they do. When Miles confronts her about her knowledge of the group’s true intentions, she is visibly ashamed about her involvement. This mirrors contemporary problematic behavior in predominantly white women, who uphold and perpetuate patriarchal ideologies because they structurally benefit from maintaining the status quo. While Miles openly opposes the principles of the Spider-Society, Gwen embraces them despite the apparent discrepancy with her own beliefs. Gwen’s willingness to conform to the system she perceives as accepting her despite feeling uneasy about it also reflects the common adolescent struggle to fit in and seek validation, even if it means compromising personal beliefs.

Searching for Acceptance and Rejecting Authority

Gwen and Miles grapple with the fear that their families will not accept their true selves. In their attempts to maintain control of their teenager’s behavior, the adults in their lives inadvertently stifle their individual stories. This struggle is vividly portrayed through Gwen’s narrative. Initially oblivious to her alter ego as Spider-Woman, her father reacts with hostility towards the hero, implying to Gwen that her true identity is flawed and will not be tolerated. This is demonstrated in several conversations in the film where they discuss the hero, including a scene at the beginning of the film where Captain Stacy, Gwen’s father, feels he is close to catching the hero.

GEORGE: It’ll be good for us.

GWEN: Don’t be so sure…

GEORGE: She killed your friend.

GWEN: You don’t know that!

GEORGE: I do know that. I was there. She ran from the scene! (6:41)

This fear of rejection leads Gwen to hide her true self, and when circumstances force her to reveal the truth, her father’s rejection becomes a painful reality. With this, Gwen seeks acceptance from the Spider-Society, a group she knows little about, a decision born out of her deep-seated fear of rejection. Gwen’s identity as Spider-Woman can symbolize the teenage sense of self that evokes anxiety about being misunderstood or rejected. This could include seemingly insignificant traits or behaviors that are seen as embarrassing or more significant factors, such as a teenager’s sexual orientation. The fear of not being accepted within this framework reflects larger societal and cultural ideologies surrounding acceptance of one’s identity, such as a teenager’s family not accepting their sexuality.

Miles’ battle is less about his identity as Spider-Man but rather the pressures imposed by his family in his personal life. His parents have high expectations for his academic future and personal conduct, stemming from their worries about his future in a world that may not value him as much as they do. This is evident in his mother’s words: For years, I’ve been taking care of this little boy, making sure he’s loved and that he feels like he belongs. No, he wants to go out into the world and do great big things. And what I worry about most is they won’t look out for you like us. They won’t root for you like us (56:43).

This fear of not being understood or accepted by his parents, despite their good intentions, drives Miles to seek acceptance elsewhere. He yearns to find people who understand and accept him for who he is, not for what they expect him to be. Miles’ parents’ response contrasts with Gwen’s, as it reflects a deeply ingrained ideology of multicultural parenting. While Miles’s relationship with his parents is imperfect, it demonstrates a more accepting view of teenage identity exploration. However, the same can not be said about Miles’s relationship with the Spider-Society.

Miles views the Spider-Society as a chosen family in the film, evidenced by his eagerness to join the group when Gwen mentions them. However, to his dismay, the Spider-Society treats Miles from the moment they meet like an inferior and treats his resistance to their mission as nothing more than inexperience. To the Spider-Society, Miles is naive and too young to understand why this is how things should be. When they meet for the first time, Miguel hurls a trash can at him. When Miles expresses that he has ideas about how to deal with Spot, Miguel scoffs at him, saying, “He’s worried about Spot..I’ll worry about Spot!” (1:24:28). One notable pattern is the frequent use of the nickname ‘kid’ to refer to Miles, often used by both Miguel and Peter. Miles takes particular offense to this label throughout his time with the group. Not only is it dismissive, but it also diminishes his skills and his identity as a hero. Phrases like “the kid wasn’t thinking” (1:26:23) and “you can’t have it all, kid” (1:33:14) demonstrate this belittling behavior. Even in moments of apology, the nickname is still used, as seen when Miguel refuses to let Miles leave the Spider-Society headquarters and states, “sorry it had to end like this, kid” (1:34:18). This lack of respect only leads to Miles becoming more defiant. These chosen relationships, fraught with conflict and misunderstanding, ultimately mirror ideologies that uphold structural logic at the expense of personal exploration and growth.

Conclusion

Throughout our research, we found that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse portrayed four themes of social and emotional dimensions of identity formation in adolescence: self-concept, self-efficacy, internal conflict, and rejection of authority. Miles’ character development involves a journey of self-discovery and empowerment. Developing a self-conceptual identity suggests

that Miles is exploring who he truly is as an individual, influenced by his interactions with other characters and the challenges he faces. This process of introspection and interaction with others helps him understand his own values, desires, and identity. Miles develops self-efficacy by not conforming to traditional expectations or societal pressures, such as adhering to ‘heroic duty.’ He instead follows his own path and fulfills his personal sense of purpose. This suggests that Miles gains confidence in his abilities and beliefs, recognizing that true fulfillment comes from following his own aspirations rather than fulfilling external expectations. Furthermore, the conflict present in this film highlighted different ways teenagers react to high-stake situations. Miles’ realization of how the Spider-Society operates led him to decide what type of hero he is going to be. This demonstrates his growth of self-awareness that defines him rather than conforming to societal norms. Gwen, on the other hand, does not agree with the SpiderSociety values, but conforms anyway. It is not until she sees Miles reject the system that she starts her self-introspection and growth.

In determining viable identity formation concepts, we looked to past research on adolescent representations in film, specifically the coming of age genre. Coming of age films tend to present the relationship between parents and adolescents in a negative, tense light (Hosley et al., 2019; Speed, 1998). In addition to family, affiliation and belonging are crucial to the development of adolescent identity (Wesonga, 2017). Though families have a significant role in shaping values, this literature suggests authority can be a stimulant for identity crises. Throughout the film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Miles interacts with authority figures like his parents and Miguel, leading him to contemplate his identity. Though prior research shows authority/teen relationships as negative, Miles comes to an understanding with his parents while his relationship with Miguel is backed by this literature.

We also add to the literature on superhero narratives that focus on themes of Good versus Evil, with the hero being the prevailing Good (Abednego, 2017; Brown, 2016a). As found by both Neimneh (2013) and Siemon (1972), the anti-hero is someone who lacks traditional heroism and exemplifies hesitation and introspection. In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, part of Miles’ identity formation was understanding that heroes do not have to be selfless in order to do good. Thus, he is reconceptualized through the film as more of an anti-hero.

The biggest limitation we faced when analyzing Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is that it is part one of a two-part film. Being only the first part of a series serves as a limitation when it comes to conducting research and writing analysis because, as viewers, we are only presented with half of the story. We are left with many unanswered questions and unresolved plot points. This makes it harder for researchers to draw concrete conclusions about the themes, symbolism, and character motivations in the narrative as it has not concluded. Future research should examine the second installment and how it expands on the current narrative.

In conclusion, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse provides a unique exploration of adolescent identity formation, emphasizing the importance of self-discovery, empowerment, and the rejection of societal expectations. The film’s portrayal of the characters’ struggles and growth is a powerful reflection of the adolescent experience, highlighting the complexities of identity formation and the journey toward autonomy. Ultimately, the film encourages audiences to embrace their authentic selves and challenge societal norms, promoting the idea that true power comes from within and that one’s uniqueness should be celebrated rather than suppressed.

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About the Authors

Emma Murphy is a senior at Christopher Newport University, earning her Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies on May 11, 2024. Her research focuses on media and its implications on society, with a specific focus on television. Outside of research, Emma enjoys landscape photography and playing rugby for CNU.

Malcolm King is a Senior at Christopher Newport University, set to receive his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies on May 11, 2024. His research centers on utilizing media, particularly social media, to establish connections between individuals. When he’s not conducting research, Malcolm can be found indulging in his passions for film and basketball.

Double Dog Deviance: An Investigation of Criminal Motivation in Film Noir

Kennedy Ross

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. John Nichols, Department of English

Abstract

This genre study compares the depiction of crime in American film noir from the post-WWII classic era with the post-Vietnam neo-noir era. Billy Wilder’s classic noir, Double Indemnity (1944), starring Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck, represents the post-WWII era, while Sidney Lumet’s neo-noir, Dog Day Afternoon (1975), starring Al Pacino and John Cazale, represents the post-Vietnam era. Central to the analysis is the argument that crime in film noir reflects responses to morally corrupt systems of authority, with classic noir framing crime as a symptom of oppressive systems and neo-noir suggesting it as a tactic to defy such systems. In Double Indemnity, protagonist Walter Neff’s criminal actions stem from a morally aimless post-WWII society, characterized by his fatal attraction to femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson. Neff’s lack of moral autonomy mirrors societal disillusionment with American ideals postWWII. Conversely, Dog Day Afternoon, loosely based on true events, portrays crime as a means of challenging corrupt institutions, exemplified by protagonists Sonny and Sal’s bizarre bank heist in post-Vietnam New York. Sonny’s rebellion reflects a broader distrust in governmental authority and the erosion of traditional patriotic values. By analyzing these two films, the study reveals how the portrayal of crime in film noir reflects changing societal attitudes towards authority and morality across different historical contexts.

Reflecting the grim realities of their time, film noirs brazenly accentuate issues pervading post-WWII America such as alienation, inequality, and most notably crime. Crime, as it is depicted in film noir, becomes more of a response to the moral corruption of America’s established systems of social control from the post-WWII classic noir era to the post-Vietnam neo-noir era. Conceptualizing how the function of crime in American society transformed between these eras, Double Indemnity (1944) primarily frames crime as a symptom of barely redeemable, oppressive and morally corrupt systems of authority, while Dog Day Afternoon (1975) extends Double Indemnity’s brief focus on crime as a way to break free from the same oppressive systems. The difference in how each film treats crime––either as a symptom of or a liberating tactic from immoral authority––is determined by how the post-WWII or postVietnam experience merely disoriented or entirely disillusioned ordinary citizens’ beliefs in American ideals and norms during those periods, respectively.

In Double Indemnity, Walter Neff’s fatal, uninhibited attraction to Phyllis Dietrichson, which motivates him to commit insurance fraud and murder, is a product of the atmosphere of moral aimlessness and restricted autonomy that pervaded post-WWII American society. Such constricting forces fostered a sense of “claustrophobia” and “paranoia” that were embodied in the sexual allure of the film’s femme fatale, Phyllis Dietrichson (Chinen Biesen 35). Entrapping Neff, her allure motivates him to cross the ever-thinning boundary separating citizenry from criminality present in post-WWII America. The visual construction of the scene in which Phyllis is introduced substantiates her character as a tempting, domineering force that commands Neff’s submission and passivity. In terms of misè-en-scene, Phyllis is placed atop the staircase, peering down at Neff; in contrast, Neff must look up to her, as though he is a supplicant.

Figure 1. Phyllis Dietrichson atop the staircase from Double Indemnity, 1944

The cinematographic components of Neff and Phyllis’s initial encounter underscore the cursed power imbalance of their relationship. Phyllis’s sexuality—as she appears in only a towel—commands Neff’s deference, and the camera supports this skewed power dynamic through the low angle shot casting upwards at Phyllis. On the other hand, Neff’s impotence in relation to Phyllis is signaled by a high angle shot—the camera looks down on him from Phyllis’s position on the staircase. Hence, the misé-en-scene’s implications of disproportionate authority foreshadows how Phyllis’s attractiveness will coerce Neff into executing transgressive acts. Phyllis Dietrichson’s seductiveness derives not only from her first appearance on the staircase in merely a towel but also through her wearing an anklet engraved with her name that Neff finds irresistibly appealing. The camera helps visualize Neff’s attraction as it maintains strict focus on her ankles in a close-up tracking shot as she descends the staircase to see him. As the scene commences, the anklet becomes Neff’s focal point as he continually makes remarks about it during his conversation with Phyllis. Neff’s fetishistic attraction to Phyllis’s anklet is potent, as though almost controlled by a magnetic force. Even the audience becomes subject to the strength of this force as the camera dictates their view, making them fixate on Phyllis and her anklet when she walks downstairs. Just as the camera serves as a visual guide, compelling the audience to notice only Phyllis and her anklet in the descending staircase shot, Neff’s criminal actions are guided by forces of desire. As these interactions occur within the confines of the Dietrichson residence, it suggests Neff’s conscience has become ensnared by his lust for Phyllis. As a result, she deprives him of his moral compass.

Under the influence of seductive forces, Neff’s ability to act on the basis of moral principle is constrained, and his state resembles that of the moral misguidance Americans experienced post-WWII. This condition of moral aimlessness is supported by the Kantian perspective of autonomy that involves the ability to make decisions that align with moral grounds as opposed to “aesthetic judgements” or superficial influences (Kelly). With restricted moral discretion and normative guidance, Neff becomes a morally passive drifter whose motivations for acting

Figure 2. Walter Neff looking up at Phyllis from Double Indemnity, 1944

are rooted in his lethal affinity for Phyllis, who is morally amiss herself, rather than objective moral law. Suddenly becoming aware of his moral passivity and its consequences on the way to the drugstore after murdering Mr. Dietrichson, Neff confesses to his coworker and close friend, Barton Keyes, in a voiceover narration: “I couldn’t hear my own footsteps. It was the walk of a dead man,” (59:58-1:00:06). In this moment, his guilty conscience divulges not only his immorality, but his consequent mortality, as he identifies himself as “a dead man.” What’s more, his confession exposes the cause of his criminality. Responsible for his morally misinformed actions are Phyllis and her allure, representative of the oppressive systems of legal-rational authority post-WWII that subjugated Americans to perform daily routines nonautonomously. More specifically, Phyllis’s sexuality symbolizes the political forces that––for the sake of democracy’s perseverance and communism’s demise––sought to suppress seemingly non-democratic ideologies and values, thus establishing a “preponderance of power” over “the European and world imagination,” (Sobchack 132). The imposition of democratic defenses such as a national security state and the military industrial complex limited Americans’ autonomy regarding their political and ideological affiliations through federal surveillance and threats of federal punishment. Subsequently, for those whose personal moral codes informed their communist affiliation, America’s political establishment stripped them of much of their moral jurisdiction. Likewise, Phyllis’s imposition of her sexuality upon Neff limits his moral discretion for the sake of her economic gain. Thus, Neff’s perpetration of a deviant act––an affair with Phyllis Dietrichson––and a criminal act––the murder of Mr. Dietrichson—are understood in the film as being motivated by external forces.

Dually, Phyllis’s characterization, representative of the nation’s internal authoritative threats to American moral autonomy and freedom, also reflects men’s burgeoning fears of undermined patriarchal norms and notions of masculinity post-WWII. Unwilling to surrender the financial and occupational independence conferred upon them while men fought overseas during the war, the postwar period saw a power struggle between women admitted into the wartime workforce and returning veterans who sought to reassert their masculinity (Krutnik 64). Speaking to the sense of masculine insecurity during the era, the femme fatale archetype developed as a “scapegoat” for men to project their failure attempts to regain control of “cultural order” within classic noir (64). Abiding by the film noir chronotope in which the femme fatale serves as a “scapegoat” for the disoriented male identity, Phyllis Dietrichson and her sexuality are held accountable for Neff’s participation in legal infringements. Neff’s admission, “I did it for money and I did it for a woman. I didn’t get the money and I didn’t get the woman,” testifies to the influence of both his noir-typical infatuation with Phyllis (the idea of her, rather than her herself), and his attempts to redefine his masculinity through financial means on his criminality. With Neff’s moral discretion and manhood held firmly in Phyllis’s grasp, he can only regain control over them through another criminal, morally deviant act: murdering Phyllis. Successful in his second act of murder, Neff recovers his moral autonomy, allowing him to practice the virtue of honesty by confessing his criminality to Keyes. Despite his ability to exercise his moral autonomy through his confession, his final act of murder fails to recover his masculine identity in the socially constructed sense. Pronouncing himself “a dead man” after murdering Mr. Dietrichson, Neff reaffirms his identity as a man physically, yet acknowledges himself as being void of any other qualifier of masculinity or even humanity that transcends the physical. Murdering Phyllis fails to spawn any sense of gendered self or redeemed humanity––in fact, by the end of the film he is literally dying from a sustained bullet wound. Prescriptively, Neff’s criminality––between his killing both Mr. Dietrichson and Phyllis––implies that in classic noir, crime is a futile tactic for reestablishing one’s manhood, yet, it is effective as a way to liberate oneself from “a Phyllis” (a repressive American institution post-WWII). Liberation, according to noir logic, can only be achieved through death, thus, Neff’s success derives from his approaching imminent death either by the bullet or gas chamber

by the end of the film. While this predictive equation for the feasibility of obtaining freedom or a renewed sense of self through crime upholds for classical noir, Dog Day Afternoon exemplifies how the formula ceases to produce the same outcomes given the same inputs in neo-noir. The collective conclusion that American society was governed by systems broken beyond repair and, resultingly, many citizens’ rejection of American ideals post-Vietnam is responsible for the infeasibility of classic noir’s crime model when applied to crime in neo-noir.

As opposed to the corrupt institutions governing post-Vietnam American society, the same institutions post-WWII revealed themselves to be immoral, yet capable of being so justifiably. The United States’ exploit of nuclear warfare on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end WWII demonstrated the immorality of the nation’s political institutions. Although the government explicitly perpetrated a crime against humanity, their inhumanity is contentiously justified by the fact that it resulted in the end of a global war in which another nation, Germany, committed heinous crimes at an even greater magnitude. Having to ruminate on the implications of the nation’s actions among the other atrocities committed during WWII, many citizens experienced confusion in their beliefs in the legitimacy of American principles such as life, liberty, and justice (Fluck 381). Protecting their confusion from becoming complete disbelief in these values was the sentiment conferred by those with political power that the nation’s actions were on life, liberty, and justice, and therefore justified. Generally, this discord between liberal ideals and institutional actions contributed to senses of anxiety that stood alongside the paranoia and entrapment felt by many due to the nation’s increasing state of internal surveillance and male veteran’s ill-adjustment to postwar society (Sobchack 134). Indicative of life under the oppressive influence of morally corrupt yet debatably justified American systems of social control, fictional noir characters, such as Neff from Double Indemnity, take to immoral, transgressive avenues to reaffirm gender norms, reclaim masculinity, and attain freedom––all of which in question during the post-WWII period. Moreover, classic noir portrays crime as an inexorable symptom of an era where moral systems and patriotic norms are terminally afflicted. By the post-Vietnam era, however, neo-noir films like Dog Day Afternoon explore the viability of legal infractions as a way to separate oneself from immoral American institutions––a notion briefly suggested by Neff’s murdering Phyllis as an act of redemption, however misguided, in Double Indemnity

Picking up where Double Indemnity left off, Dog Day Afternoon explores how legal transgressions can facilitate attempts to defy or emancipate oneself from the clutches of repressive systems of American surveillance. In Lumet’s film, the media and law enforcement are targeted as notably corrupt systems that Sonny and Sal aim to subvert while simultaneously trying to make it out of their stand-off with the police alive. Depicted with a frightening sense of realism, the lawmen deployed to de-escalate the already comedically unsuccessful bank heist and hostage situation represent that same oppressive force that Phyllis Dietrichson embodies in Double Indemnity. The scene where Sonny, complying with Sgt. Moretti’s orders, steps out of the bank to observe the 250 cops among a sniper unit and S.W.A.T. team that anticipate his next move visualizes their overwhelming command. Through a sequence of tracking shots which are made to represent him surveying the police, the scene establishes a power imbalance between Sonny and the members of law enforcement. This imbalance of power comes as the officers are all armed and aiming at Sonny, despite Sonny himself being unarmed. Like that of Phyllis’s introductory scene in Double Indemnity, the high angle shots of snipers atop various buildings in the sequence reinforce Sonny’s impotence in their presence.

However, unlike Neff in Wilder’s film, Sonny and Sal refuse to succumb to these domineering, depraved forces. Their rebellion against legal-rational authority coincides with the uprisings and riots against establishments prevalent during and after the Vietnam War. For example, Sonny even goes so far as to directly reference the Attica Prison Uprising. He repeatedly shouts “Attica,” exciting the crowd of spectators surrounding the stand-off after confronting a group of armed officers encroaching upon him, ready to use unlawful force as he is still unarmed and negotiating a deal with Moretti. During the post-WWII period in which classic noir circulated, responses to the nation’s surveillance state produced limited and

Figure 3. Snipers armed against Sonny and Sal from Dog Day Afternoon, 1975

Figure 4. Sonny surveying snipers from Dog Day Afternoon, 1975

relatively restrained violations of law and order, such as those committed by Neff and Phyllis’. Contrastingly, the Vietnam era posited criminality as considerably anti-establishment, or a counter to governmental corruption––an effort not possible in post-WWII America.

Whereas Phyllis (as a stand-in for oppressive political forces post-WWII) bars Neff from exercising his moral conscience, Sonny and Sal take advantage of their own autonomy, albeit, to act immorally. Partly for money, partly for love, and partly for the sake of defying American systems that have continually betrayed and emasculated him, Sonny, in particular, pursues the bank heist. Although the heist is an immoral route to obtaining money to pay for his wife’s gender-affirming surgery and their escape to Algeria, it seems to be the only viable way of fulfilling his wants in a post-Vietnam world overseen by ethically depraved institutions in America (such as the collusion between Nixon’s administration and federal law enforcement) that only grow more powerful by the second. In such a world, these institutions were sworn to enforce and protect the fundamental American values of life, liberty, and justice abandoned those values. The penultimate scene of Dog Day Afternoon exemplifies how law enforcement, as an institution, fails America’s long-established ideals. In the scene, an FBI agent drives Sal, Sonny, and the remaining hostages to the airport where they are promised a non-interfering escape to Algeria. Yet, upon their arrival, the agent shoots and kills Sal. Even though the plan for their escape was negotiated on peaceful terms with Sonny agreeing to release two other hostages in exchange for his request for a bus and a flight out of the country, the corrupt forces of the establishment prevail and violate the nation’s morally agreed upon principles. Just as both Sonny and Sal resolve to retire their hostility and belligerence, they––perhaps more accurately, Sonny is––reminded of why the pair felt the need to exercise their moral jurisdiction through immoral practices to secure their ostensible unalienable right to liberty in the first place. Devastated by the former events and their implications, as officers restrain him, Sonny’s countenance in the film’s final shots suggests his lamentation for not only the loss of his friend but the complete degradation of justice and morality among the powers of the state. The latter of Sonny’s realizations corresponds to citizens’ disillusionment in national values and the resulting prominence of anti-establishment sentiments after the Vietnam War.

The nation’s collective sense of disillusionment in fundamental American principles and institutions during the post-Watergate and post-Vietnam period is largely responsible for the impression conferred through Dog Day Afternoon that legal infractions are necessary in order to exercise one’s governmentally protected right to liberty and autonomy. The Watergate scandal and the government’s neglect of its veterans after facilitating an unjust war unveiled to citizens what film critic David Thomson coined, “‘the moral bankruptcy of the established order,’” (Keathley 296). Such collapse of a morally-driven establishment generated mass distrust in traditional systems of order and American ideals and values (Keathley 296). For veterans especially, this dissolution of trust in the government emerged as a result of their being “manipulated, exploited, and left paralyzed by the realisation of their powerlessness in the face of a corrupt system,” (Keathley 296). Influenced by these demoralizing realizations, Sonny and Sal adopt the conviction that disturbing authority through legal violations is the only way to protect their autonomy. Their resolution and its rationale are consistent with that of protagonists of other post-Vietnam noir works. Robin Wood describes this phenomenon as the “post-traumatic cycle” through which “‘The protagonist embarks on an undertaking he is confident he can control; the sense of control is progressively revealed as illusory; the protagonist is trapped in a course of events that culminate in disaster (frequently death),’” (297). The final scene of Dog Day Afternoon exemplifies the protagonists’adherance to this paradigm. As he is placed under arrest and handcuffed by multiple officers in the final sequence of Dog Day Afternoon, Sonny must observe the remaining hostages rejoice in their release, celebrating with tears of joy while Sal’s body is wheeled away on a stretcher. Between these juxtaposing images of life and death, Sonny is both physically and cinematographically restrained, deprived of his

sense of control or autonomy. Through violating close-up shots of Sonny trying to reconcile with his fate, characterized by expressions that muddy the lines between stupor and despair, Sonny is revealed to be the least free character. Consequently, the ending of Dog Day Afternoon demonstrates how the prescriptive noir crime model concluded from Double Indemnity fails to produce the same outcome for characters in neo-noir.

In revealing Sonny to be the least free character, the film suggests Sal, like Neff, obtains freedom through death. Correspondingly, their deaths also imply criminality is an effective means of breaking free of oppressive and morally corrupt governing forces. Introduced and supported by Double Indemnity, this logic entails that through transgressive, morally dubious means, death is promised, and in the context of noir, freedom is only promised in death. Also consistent with classic noir’s predictive equation for the feasibility of crime as a way to validate one’s masculinity, Sonny’s fate proves crime to be ineffective in this light. Due to his homosexuality and the external hostility he receives for it—exhibited by the way the public harasses him after the media exposes his sexuality—both Leon and Sonny’s first wife testify and express their concern for his tendency to act on perilous impulse to prove his machismo. Thus, his wives cite his insecurity in his masculinity as partly responsible for his decision to commit the heist. At any rate, his arrest and the public’s condemnation of his sexuality divulge Sonny’s failure to evince his manhood. Dog Day Afternoon strays from its compliance with classic noir’s crime model as it portrays Sonny’s inability to utilize crime to liberate himself from oppressive powers. In his double failure—able to secure neither his masculine identity nor freedom through crime—the film introduces Sonny as a new, neo-noir hero—different from Sal and Neff who fit into classic noir hero characterizations by achieving freedom through death. Sonny and Sal’s experiencing disparate outcomes despite taking similar courses of action signifies how acting immorally and unlawfully becomes less distinguishable in terms of right and wrong in neo-noir. Informing this sense of moral ambiguity in neo-noir were the corrupt political systems post-Vietnam that permitted their military to commit human rights violations in Vietnam (like the My Lai Massacre) and incited the Watergate scandal (Cook 174). As a result of the government’s irredeemable state of depravity, disaffected criminals like Sonny and Sal appear to have the most moral integrity, therefore confusing the notion of objective morality within noir. Furthermore, these changes in the genre of noir correspond to the degree of unjustifiable corruption within America’s establishment. The immorality of American institutions influenced post-Vietnam noir heroes’ need to escape such authorities unlawfully while post-WWII noir heroes blamed those sources for their unlawfulness.

The shifting depiction of crime from the classic noir period to the neo-noir period draws inspiration from the shifts in Americans’ responses to morally corrupt systems of social control. In post-WWII America, the government—characterized by their authorization of a national surveillance state and crimes against humanity during the war—caused citizens to question the legitimacy of the nation’s democratic ideals. Double Indemnity’s protagonist Walter Neff’s transgressions are indicative of Americans’ disorientation surrounding democratic values. While the end of Wilder’s film hints at the idea of crime as a liberating tactic from a repressive force, Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon explicitly focuses on this idea through Sonny and Sal’s bizarre, ineffectual bank heist. Following the government’s perpetration of a massive political scandal and atrocities in Vietnam, citizens of the post-Vietnam era found themselves disillusioned by the same democratic ideals they began to question after WWII. In the film’s final scene, during his arrest, Sonny’s stunned expression conveys a sense of disillusionment in the patriotic principles of freedom and justice similar to that felt by Americans post-Vietnam.

As identified by both Double Indemnity and Dog Day Afternoon, the noir genre continues to effectively speak to a period’s cultural climate. Despite its continued cultural relevance, the genre fails to offer the audience fictive avenues of successfully resolving the social challenges noir films address. Exemplifying this notion of unconstructive, fictive solutions are the

fatalistic themes routinely employed by the genre, present in both Double Indemnity and Dog Day Afternoon. The fatalism within Double Indemnity critiques the limitations society poses on individual freedom, suggesting that the protagonist deserved death for attempting to emancipate himself from oppressive American institutions through crime. Alternatively, Dog Day Afternoon presents fatalism as a way to more directly confront the same institutions that authorize death for trying to free oneself. Ultimately, the noir style allows the audience to only conceive unsuccessful means of alleviating social pressures (like crime in the films discussed). The genre enlarges the wound for better assessment of internal damage and infection but fails to provide constructive suggestions for how to treat it. What remains is an untreated wound, inflamed and susceptible to further infection; healing will have to wait for another day, beyond the dog days of August and the heated nights of Los Angeles.

Works Cited

Chinen Biesen, Sheri Lynn. Film Noir and World War II: Wartime Production, Censorship, and the “Red Meat” Crime Cycle. 1998. University of Texas at Austin, PhD dissertation. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global; ProQuest One Academic, cnu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https:// www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/film-noir-world-war-ii-wartime-production/ docview/304459730/se-2?accountid=10100.

Cook, David. Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam, 19701979. United Kingdom, University of California Press, 2002.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Lost_Illusions/HVygqYMVP2wC?hl=en&gbpv=0

Fluck, Winfried. “Crime, Guilt, and Subjectivity in ‘Film Noir.’” American Studies, vol. 46, no. 3, 2001, pp. 379–408. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41157665.

Keathley, Christian. “Trapped in the Affection Image: Hollywood’s Post-Traumatic Cycle (1970-1976).” The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s, ed. Thomas Elsaesser et al., Amsterdam University Press, 2004, pp. 293–308. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46mxhc.

Kelly, Michael. “Autonomy.” Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, 2008, Oxford Reference. https:// www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195113075.001.0001/acref9780195113075-e-0053

Krutnik, Frank. In A Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity, Routledge, 1991, pp. 56-65, 86-91.

Sobchack, Vivian. “‘Lounge Time’: Post-War Crises and the Chronotope of Film Noir.” Refiguring American Film Genres: History and Theory, ed. Nick Browne, University of California Press, 1998, pp. 129–170.

About the Author

Kennedy Ross is a member of the class of 2026, majoring in Sociology with minors in Film Studies and Leadership Studies. She is involved with the university’s chapter of the Student Basic Needs Coalition, serving as Director of Membership. While immensely interested in exploring how the consequences of human social organization and social interactions manifest themselves in nearly every facet of modern daily life, she also enjoys learning about the arts’ communion with society and culture. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career that integrates both interests.

Standing on Holy Ground: Exploring Taylor Swift Fan Culture as a Modern Religion

Phoebe Salomon

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Jay Paul, Honors Program

Abstract:

Through the growing prominence of popular culture in the late twentieth and early twentyfirst centuries and the rise of social media, there are more fandoms than ever before. The devotion fans have to a television show, a movie franchise, or a specific celebrity has led some scholars to draw connections between fandom and religion. While others take issue with this comparison, largely due to the complexity of religion, several key components in religion can be identified in fan culture—everything from rituals and symbols to spiritual experiences. As younger generations find less satisfaction with organized religion, many have found their faith in fandom. Music superstar Taylor Swift and her prominent fanbase the Swifties exemplify this. Swift’s Eras Tour drew fans from all over the globe, taking part in an unforgettable spiritual journey not unlike religious pilgrimage. Swift’s songs, music videos, and public appearances are embedded with symbols, creating a special language between her and her fans. People of the same religion will always be connected to each other through that religion. Members of the same fandom will also always share that connection. After leaving a religious service, regardless of whether everyone will be back next week or never see each other again, there is a shared sense of community after this kind of group experience. While many Swifties like to joke about the Eras Tour being like church or that Taylor Swift is God, at the heart of this is the beautiful worldwide community that Taylor Swift has created.

In today’s world, there are fan groups for almost anything one can think of. Trekkies, fans of the Star Trek franchise, are often considered the first media fandom. Potterheads and Whovians, fans of Harry Potter and Doctor Who, respectively, are two other famous examples. Through the growing prominence of popular culture in the late twentieth and early twentyfirst centuries and the rise of social media, there are more fandoms than ever before. The devotion fans have to a television show, a movie franchise, or a specific celebrity has led some scholars to draw connections between fandom and religion. While others take issue with this comparison, largely due to the complexity of religion, several key components in religion can be identified in fan culture—everything from rituals and symbols to spiritual experiences. As younger generations find less satisfaction with organized religion, many have found their faith in fandom. Music superstar Taylor Swift and her prominent fanbase the Swifties exemplify this. As Swift’s Eras Tour drew fans from all over the globe–both to the in-person concerts and the concert film released in late 2023–they took part in an unforgettable spiritual journey together.

Many have viewed the emergence of fan culture as a reaction to the rise of media, technology, and popular culture beginning in the twentieth century. However, people were fans of things long before terms like “fan” and “fandom” existed. While the exact origins of the slang term “fan” are largely unknown, it is typically connected to one of two terms: “fanatic” and “fancy.” According to American Studies scholar Daniel Cavicchi, “fanatic” comes from the Latin fanaticus which means “a religious and later a political zealot” (54). Alternatively, in the 1890s, American sports writers used the term “fancy” to refer to “those who shared a preference for a competitor” (Cavicchi 54). In the twentieth century, this usage was further applied to devoted music and film lovers. Fandoms began to take off in the late 1960s as Star Trek fans, or Trekkies, bonded over critical discussion of the show and created creative responses in the form of fan art. By the late 1990s, thanks to the growing popularity of the World Wide Web, the fandom world exploded. People could join and create communities all over the world, planting the seed for fandoms to be created for a wide variety of books, movies, TV shows, and celebrities.

As the importance of fandoms in our society has grown, scholars have started to make connections between fan communities and religion. Much of the criticism of this comparison comes from the ambiguity of what religion is. Michael A. Elliott, a sociology professor at Towson University, explains that definitions of religion tend to fall into one of two categories: substantive and functional. Substantive definitions “emphasize the content or substance of a religion” whereas functional definitions “emphasize the effects that religion has on groups and their members” (3-4). Using these definitions, fandoms could be understood as religion under the functional definition. Jennifer Porter, a religious studies professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, describes fandom as an implicit religion. She writes that fandoms are “a place that embodies a person’s and/or a community’s expression of the essence of all meaning [. . .] As a result, pop culture fandoms are implicitly religious” (277). While there may not be a higher power to believe in or a sacred text to follow, the same could be said about certain recognized organized religions. What is relevant is that religion and fandom are centered around devotion and that devotion results in the building of a dedicated community.

While fandom as a religion is an interesting concept all by itself, it becomes more interesting when coupled with the phenomenon of younger generations leaving organized religion and the fact that they predominantly make up the major fandoms in society. According to Daniel A. Cox, the director of the Survey Center on American Life, one-third of Generation Z (born 1995-2012) is religiously unaffiliated, followed by Millennials (born 1980-1994) with twentynine percent. Additionally, while Generation Z may be growing up without choosing religion, more Millennials are leaving religion and not choosing to return, resulting in a large amount of the younger population being religiously unaffiliated. (Cox and Thomson-DeVeaux). When

this is compared to what generations make up many of the larger fandoms, a trend emerges. According to Saleah Blancaflor, a data reporter at Morning Consult, a business intelligence company that provides survey research, fifty-two percent of Harry Potter fans are millennials and fifteen percent are Gen Z adults. Similarly, according to Marisa Dellatto, an entertainment business reporter for Forbes, forty-five percent of Swifties are millennials and eleven percent are Gen Z adults. While there is no one-to-one correspondence between leaving religion and joining a fandom, and many are devoted to both spheres, the growing dissatisfaction of younger people with mainstream religion and their turning to another source of faith is intriguing.

Pilgrimage:

The idea of visiting a sacred place can be seen throughout religion and fandom. For many individuals, religious pilgrimage is not only an important part of their faith as a whole but also an important way they show their devotion and connection to their faith. According to Daniel H. Olsen, a professor of geography at Brigham Young University, “Pilgrimage sites [. . .] draw religious people for a variety of reasons, including curiosity, worship, initiatory and/or cleansing rituals, healing, to be educated, and to maintain religious identities” (94). Although not all religions practice pilgrimage, it can be found throughout many of the major organized religions. The Hajj is one of the most famous examples of religious pilgrimage. An annual pilgrimage to what is considered the holiest place in the Islamic religion due to its connection to the Prophet Muhammad, two million Muslims made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 2023 (Baratz). Muslims make this journey not only because it is a requirement of their faith, all Muslims who are physically and financially able are required to do it at least once in their life, but because it brings them closer to other followers and to God.

Like a Muslim feels a connection to Mecca, a fan can also feel a connection to a location significant to their fandom. Popular culture tourism is traveling to a location featured in a book, TV show, or movie. People travel from all around the world to visit the locations featured in their favorite fictional worlds. Some of the most famous examples are related to the Harry Potter franchise as people travel to Alnwick Castle, Leadenhall Market, and the Millennium Bridge just due to their appearances in the films. If fans want to join in with others, they can take Outlander tours of Edinburgh, Friends tours of New York City, and Sherlock tours of London. Although most of the existing literature focuses on television and film-induced tourism, there is also a strong connection between popular culture tourism and locations associated with celebrities. According to Mark Duffett, an Associate Professor in Media at the University of Chester, UK, people began traveling to William Shakespeare’s birthplace in the eighteenth century. Fictional or real, people want to feel close to those who impact our lives. A desire that, for many, can be accomplished by existing in the same space even if it is at different moments in time.

When connecting the idea of religious pilgrimage to the experiences and actions of Swifties, an interesting situation emerges. Fans of Harry Potter are eager to visit locations like King’s Cross Station and Christ Church because they have seen them on the screen as a part of that world. However, when it comes to fandom pilgrimage related to Taylor Swift, people are traveling to specific locations just due to their mention in a song. Lover especially, Swift’s seventh studio album, is filled with location mentions that span the globe, and, like should be expected of the Swiftie fandom, has resulted in them traveling the globe to see these locations. “Cornelia Street,” from the album Lover, references not only the street in New York City but specifically 23 Cornelia Street, where Swift lived for a few months in 2016. In my own trip to New York City in December of 2022, a stop at Cornelia Street to get a picture of the street sign and in front of Swift’s previous residence was on the itinerary. The construction going on along the street didn’t stop me or the other fans who were there for the same reason.

While traveling to sites connected to Swift can be viewed as a type of pilgrimage, stories

of fans traveling to attend her concerts bear even more similarities to religious pilgrimage. On November 1, 2022, Swift announced The Eras Tour, her sixth concert tour and second stadium tour. Beginning in March 2023, she traveled across the United States, playing a total of fifty-two shows. In February 2024, she kicked off the international leg, where she will travel from Asia, Australia, and Europe. She will return to the United States in October to finish up the tour. Swifties are willing to travel anywhere in the world to see their idol, with Americans traveling to Europe and Asia and vice versa. The average fan spent $1,300 to go to The Eras Tour, with some spending thousands and even tens of thousands (QuestionPro). Joseph Pisani, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, writes how Swifties don’t even need a ticket. Thousands of people have gathered outside of the stadiums where Swift was playing. While some people are quick to criticize this behavior, pilgrims traveling to Mecca from outside Saudi Arabia pay, on average, $6,000 to complete the Hajj (Nabil). Cost is not a concern when given the chance to stand on sacred ground, whether that be in a stadium or the area surrounding the Kaaba.

Symbols:

Symbolism can be found throughout all aspects of life. Some of them we use on a daily basis with little to no thought, such as a heart symbolizing love and arrows symbolizing direction. We naturally associate colors with certain emotions and actions. Yellow symbolizes happiness, whereas red can symbolize everything from love to anger. As our daily conversations have moved digitally, the use of emojis is based on our association of certain pictures with words and concepts. While symbols serve as a shorthand for communication, especially in texts and social media posts, it can also serve as a critical literary device. Authors fill their stories with symbols for the reader to find and interpret, allowing them to give their characters and stories more complexity if their audience is able to decode them. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth imagines blood on her hands, symbolic of her guilt. In the Hunger Games franchise, the mockingjay serves as a symbol of rebellion. As some of the oldest examples of literature, religious texts are filled with symbols. As some of the most current examples of popular culture, fandoms are constantly creating new symbols. Both play a key role in understanding the stories being told in fiction and in society.

The fascinating power of a symbol is that it says something without using words. However, another interesting thing about symbols is that meaning can change over time. The ichthys, or the Christian fish, is one such example of this. A simple symbol created using two intersecting lines, it dates back to the second century when it first appeared in Christian art and literature.

According to Garth S. Jowett, a professor of communications at the University of Houston, and Victoria O’Donnell, a professor of communications at Montana State UniversityBozeman, the word ichthys is derived from a Greek acronym that translates to “Jesus Christ, Son of God, savior” (58). The symbol grew in popularity in the late second century as a secret form of communication. As Christians faced persecution in the Roman Empire, they used the fish to both leave the mark of their presence and to mark safe spaces of worship. “It was found scrawled on walls, trees, in the dust, and any place where Christians wished to leave their mark to communicate their increasing numbers and strength to others” (Jowett & O’Donnell 58). What was once a symbol of strength and perseverance is now a popular bumper sticker, used by both Christians and non-Christians to make their views clear.

Today, we see fewer Christian fish on walls and trees, and more on the back of minivans. Adorning the back of your car with an ichthys may symbolize your affiliation with the Christian religion, but other groups have co-opted the symbol and made it their own. The Darwin fish is a simple adaptation of the Christian symbol, quickly changing it from a symbol of one’s relationship with Jesus to a symbol of “evolutionists, liberals and wiseacres” (Nussbaum). It is a statement of belief in evolution and overall disbelief in everything Christians stand for. According to David Nash, a lecturer of history at Oxford Brookes University, “This symbol signifies the freethinker’s penchant for the presentation of an alternative belief system alongside

subtle (and often not so subtle) parody as a form of cultural criticism” (290). While some Christians take extreme offense at this parody, and it is important to not go too far, either way, it communicates an important message to society. Regardless of what the symbol represents, it is interesting to consider the fluidity of meaning. The fish meant one thing for millennia until it dramatically changed over the course of a century. No symbol is truly anchored in its meaning, allowing the way we communicate through them to evolve and change.

Over the years, Taylor Swift has used symbols to create a unique relationship with her fans. While she has created opportunities for fans to interact with her in person, Swift largely communicates with her fans through symbols or Easter eggs. Beginning in the lyric booklets for her CDs, Swift would capitalize random letters that spelled out a secret message. These Easter eggs are now found in her music videos, tour outfits, and Instagram posts. Her music video for “Look What You Made Me Do” is filled with snakes, a direct attack on Kim Kardashian, who called Swift a snake on Twitter. In an interview for Entertainment Weekly, Swift said, “I love that they like the cryptic hint-dropping. Because as long as they like it, I’ll keep doing it. It’s fun. It feels mischievous and playful.” Today, decoding these messages is just part of being a Swiftie. These Easter eggs can range from references to old boyfriends to hinting at future album drops, but Swift especially loves number symbolism. Not only does 1989, the year she was born, appear as a common symbol but thirteen, Swift’s lucky number, is famous for having significance whenever it appears.

Swift loves to play around with the traditionally unlucky number thirteen. When explaining her love for the number, she said, “‘I was born on the 13th, I turned 13 on Friday the 13th, my first album went gold in 13 weeks. Also, my first song that ever went number 1, it had a 13 second intro, I didn’t even do that on purpose! And every time I’ve ever won an award at an award show, I’ve either been seated in the 13th row, or row M, which is the 13th letter.’” She often releases albums on dates that add up to thirteen. For example, Lover was released on August 23, 8+2+3=13. Her album folklore was released on July 24, 7+2+4=13. Over the years, the use of the number thirteen has become more and more purposeful. Not only does Swift connect just about anything she can to the number, but Swifties will try to relate anything she does to the number. The ten-minute version of “All Too Well” is not just ten minutes, but ten minutes and thirteen seconds. In the music video for “Bejeweled,” a shot of an elevator panel shows thirteen floors. What was once purely coincidental is now a way for Swift to connect with her fans through a not-so-secret but special code. Language as symbols

What brings many people to Taylor Swift’s music are her lyrics. Regardless of one’s personal feelings regarding the singer, Swift is acknowledged as a very talented musician and lyricist. It is these lyrics that make her both relatable and inspirational and bring the community of Swifites together. These lyrics have become so powerful and impactful for her fans, that for some it has become part of their daily speech, not unlike the way a Christian may weave Bible verses into their everyday speech. Cynthia Gordon, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, has spent years studying “familects,” or family dialects. Her study of Swifties has led her to coin a new term, “fanilect,” or fan dialect. She uses this to describe the way Swifites, as well as other fandoms, talk with each other. “They speak a language all their own. When fans weave her lyrics into conversations, they’re doing it with the context—Swift’s metaphors and double entendres, the situations and relationships the singer may be referencing—intact” (Ceres). But it is the ways her fans receive and respond to her music that reveals her iconic role. Although Swift is responsible for writing the lyrics, it is the Swifties who take it to the next level and infuse them with meaning and significance. Over the years, they have had various ways of doing this, but following the release of Midnights in October 2022, Swifities have found a new way to symbolize their love for Swift’s work: through friendship bracelets. In the song “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” Swift said “make the friendship bracelets” and Swifites

listened. In preparation for the Eras Tour, Swifties began making friendship bracelets by the hundreds to trade with fellow Swifties at the concert. To the non-Swiftie, these bracelets would look like a toddler strung a bunch of random letters together. But believe it or not, LWYMMD, DBATC, and IKYWT all stand for something–they are acronyms for Taylor Swift songs. The symbolism doesn’t end there. While partially impacted by the color of the vinyl that Swift released, Swifties have given each album or era a color. The acronym LWYMMD, or “Look What You Made Me Do,” would make no sense with blue beads as it is from Reputation, an album that Swifties have color-coded as black.

The acronyms on Swiftie friendship bracelets are reminiscent of the popularity among Christian youth groups in the 1990s of wearing wristbands with the acronym WWJD?, or “What Would Jesus Do?” The phrase itself dates back to 1896, when Kansas Congregational minister Charles Sheldon published a book titled In His Steps: What would Jesus do? Almost a century later, youth leader Janie Tinklenberg read the book and brought it to her youth group, who decided to print the slogan on friendship bracelets. The bracelets served as a reminder to live one’s daily life as Jesus would–to stay on the right path. However, it wasn’t just about mindfulness but also connection. In a BBC article, Sarah Wynter, the editor of Youthwork, is quoted as saying, “Teenagers are looking for a way to demonstrate they belong to something . . . They might not feel comfortable talking about what they believe, they might still be working some of it out. But wearing a wristband is something they feel they can do to make some kind of a stand.” This is a perfect example of fandom and religion overlapping–whether it is song lyrics or a question about Christ, these bracelets serve to unite a group and help them identify each other in a crowd.

Rituals:

Many Swifties are quick to compare going to a Taylor Swift concert with a religious experience. Regardless of the truth in that statement, the similarities between one of Swift’s concerts and Mass are hard to ignore. The preparation for Mass begins before one sets foot into the Church. While it is not as much the case today as it once was, going to Church typically involved dressing up. The same could be said for Swifties preparing for a concert. Many have spent months, if not longer, on the outfit they are wearing to the show. For many, their outfit is carefully chosen and created, often based on a specific Taylor song, album, or era. The environment inside the spaces is not too different either. Whether you are a newcomer or have been going for years, Mass typically begins with socializing. You enter the building and as you are finding your place you greet the people you see along the way. As you enter the stadium for a Taylor Swift concert you are instantly surrounded by tens of thousands of people, the majority of whom you don’t know, yet it instantly feels like a safe space, you feel welcome. Like a pastor has the attention of their congregation when they step out to give a sermon, Taylor Swift has the attention of over fifty thousand people when she steps out onto the stage. Few people have the power to capture the attention of that many people at one time. Like a devout Christian could recite the whole Bible, for three and a half hours, Swifties recite every word to every song that Swift sings. Throughout the concert, there are moments that are comparable to the call-and-response sections of a Mass. These are moments that are not part of the original text, or the song in this instance, but have become part of how it is experienced live within the community. These chants and rituals span all ten acts of the show. During “Delicate” in the Reputation era, fans chant “1, 2, 3, let’s go bitch” before the first verse. After the bridge in “Bad Blood” in the 1989 era, fans chant “you forgive, you forget, but you never let go.” These chants are not Swifties simply being susceptible to peer pressure, but a way to create community among the fans and to connect themselves to Swift’s original words.

Conclusion:

Because of the vast fanbase that follows Taylor Swift, it is important to recognize the farreaching effects that group of people has, both positive and negative. Swift started publicly dating Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce at the start of the 2023 football season, and the NFL was quick to capitalize on the sudden attention they received from Swifties. In an article for Forbes, Dr. Marcus Collins, a professor of marketing at the University of Michigan, called it the Taylor Swift Effect. Her appearance at Kelce’s games resulted in a 400% spike in Kelce’s jersey sales and the number of female viewers between the ages of 12-49 tuning in to Kansas City Chiefs games was higher than ever before. Unfortunately, like with any fanbase, not all of their actions are positive. According to freelance writer Tomi Obaro, “Popular fan bases can be malicious in defense of their idols.” Swifties’ defense of Taylor Swift not only stretches to chastising people who are not fans of Swift and her work, but also to people who they believe have wronged her, mainly the singer’s ex-boyfriends. This has led to cyberbullying, trolling, and even doxxing. The good that Swift and her fanbase have accomplished loses some of its shine when some take their devotion too far—and it is often the negatives that people remember.

While Swift may have started as a country singer in Nashville, over the last twenty years she has achieved international fame, and this popularity has come with international implications. Next to the United States, the Philippines host the most Swifties in the world (Bywater). However, when Swift announced the international dates for The Eras Tour, the Philippines were noticeably missing from the list, with Singapore being her only stop in Southeast Asia. In early 2024, Joey Salceda, a member of the Philippines House of Representatives, accused Singapore of negotiating a deal with Swift that prevented her from taking her tour to other countries in Southeast Asia. Although Singaporean authorities have not released official numbers, according to Salceda, Swift was offered three million dollars per show in return for its exclusivity to Singapore (Crosbie). This hasn’t stopped Filipino fans from attending the show, traveling thousands of miles to see Swift in Japan, Singapore, and Australia, but the country is hurt by the actions of the neighboring country who they otherwise have a friendly relationship with. It is unlikely that Filipino Swifties will do anything extreme to protest what Singapore did, but it is not unheard of for two groups who follow the same religion to fight and even start wars over their faith.

People of the same religion will always be connected to each other through that religion. Members of the same fandom will also always share that connection. After leaving a religious service, regardless of whether everyone will be back next week or never see each other again, there is a shared sense of community after this kind of group experience. While many Swifties like to joke about the Eras Tour being like church or that Taylor Swift is God, at the heart of this is the beautiful worldwide community that Taylor Swift has created. The world is changing. Generation Z is growing up in a world of school shootings, pandemics, and laws controlling our rights to exist as human beings. But at the end of the day, beyond all of the horrible in the world, is a woman writing music that billions of people can relate to. Previous generations have looked to scripture to find hope and comfort. Many people still do. But more and more people, especially young people, are looking beyond the traditional and finding optimism and promise with a woman who was born in 1989, on a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania, and who at twelve years old was gifted a guitar and started writing songs that one day the whole world would hear–her name is Taylor Swift.

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About the Author

Phoebe Salomon is an alumna of the class of 2024 at Christopher Newport University. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a major in Anthropology and a minor in Museum Studies. Phoebe participated in the Honors Program and is a member of the Alpha Chi Honors Society and the Lambda Alpha National Anthropology Honor Society. She was the recipient of the 2024 Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Scholarship in the Liberal Arts sponsored by the CNU Phi Beta Kappa faculty. Throughout her time at Christopher Newport University, she served as a research apprentice, presented at NURVa (January 2023, November 2023) and Paideia (2022, 2023, 2024), and has been published in The Cupola (2023). She also was a member of the CNU Dance Company, serving as the Events Manager from 2023-2024 and participated in CNU’s Annual Dance Concert as both a dancer and a choreographer. In the fall she will be attending George Mason University to get her Masters in Anthropology and hopes to pursue a career in the museum world.

From Deficit to Difference: Media Representations of Autism

Mackenzie Schwalenberg

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Joanna Eleftheriou, Department of English

Abstract

This paper explores Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) by contrasting the stereotypical representations of ASC in popular media with the lived experiences of autistic individuals as documented in biographies and autobiographies, including The Boy Who Felt Too Much and Odd Girl Out. These works challenge ASC stereotypes by humanizing the condition and providing a language to describe autistic differences rather than deficits. The Boy Who Felt Too Much explores neuroscience research to understand the cognitive processes underlying autistic traits, offering insights into the intensity of sensations, fear, and need for structure in the lives of autistic individuals. This understanding shifts focus from extreme manifestations as shown in media to the nuanced aspects of the condition. Odd Girl Out subverts stereotypes by foregrounding the lifelong experiences of autistic traits, broadening interpretations of DSM criteria and highlighting the emotional depth of autistic people. Through these works, a more inclusive understanding of autism emerges, transcending mainstream media’s stereotypical portrayals. By comparing the two, this paper illuminates the diverse experiences and complexities of autism, fostering greater recognition of its struggles and strengths.

The rise in Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) by 657 percent in the past decade is a trend often sensationalized as evidence of an autism “epidemic,” with negative connotations rooted in outdated connections to schizophrenia, cold maternal behavior, psychosis, and vaccines (Wagner, Back Cover). Such explanations have understandably fueled concerns regarding the rising prevalence of ASC, but these concerns largely stem from antiquated information and the misrepresentation of autistic individuals in mainstream media. Representations of autistic people in popular media are ingrained in the original research of the 1940s and reflect the common misconception that autistic people face a Theory of Mind deficit, a deficit in empathizing with the thoughts and feelings of others. This understanding, paired with an over-representation of savant skills, has created a cultural understanding of autistic people as unfeeling geniuses through interactions with such works as Rain Man, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, and The Big Big Theory. Most critically, the initial research on autism and the subsequent representations of autistic people in media consistently privilege white men and exclude marginalized communities from receiving diagnosis and community. Recent writing by people with autism or their family members has helped generate a more accurate and inclusive public understanding of autism. In this paper, I will examine how The Boy Who Felt Too Much: How a Renowned Neuroscientist and His Son Changed Our View of Autism Forever and Odd Girl Out: My Extraordinary Autistic Life challenge the unfeeling stereotype of autism as shown in popular media by highlighting the lived experiences of deeply-feeling autistic people. Specifically, Wagner’s exploration of Henry Markram’s “Intense World Theory” delves into neuroscience research, which offers nuanced perspectives that oppose the prevailing perception of autism as a mere deficiency. Disability literature provides society with narratives that humanize the autistic experience, offering insights into the challenges, triumphs, and cognitive complexities that shape the lives of autistic individuals. Through these works, we are invited into the multifaceted reality of autism beyond the confines of stereotypical portrayals perpetuated by mainstream media.

To begin, let us first look at some of the most popular representations of autism in the media: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Rain Man, and The Big Big Theory. It is not a coincidence that these stories are at the forefront of autism representation. They each reinforce the cultural understanding of the condition: the autistic characters are white, male, and are uniquely gifted with special talents or knowledge. In “Stereotypes of Autism,” Dr. Douwe Draaisma, an awarded historical psychologist, discusses how the original case studies done by Kanner and Asperger have created many of the popular stereotypes of the condition. Draaisma begins by examining the case studies of Hans Asperger, a Gestalt psychologist, who observed three young, Austrian boys between the ages of six and eight. Asperger believed that to understand a patient, it is necessary to examine the “Gestalt of the child- his voice, face, body language, intonation, gestures, gaze, expression and diction” (1475). This way of understanding divergence “precluded the descriptions of syndromes,” such as the DSM, so his research failed to determine defining traits of Asperger’s syndrome, rather an archetypal image built around his case studies. Each boy had similar traits, including clumsiness, aggression, mood swings, adult-like speech, lack of eye contact, and the ability to do high-level math (Draaisma 1475). Around the same time, Leo Kanner wrote an article describing “11 children in his clinic without the social instinct to orient towards other people, who were mostly focused or even obsessed with objects, and who had a ‘need for sameness’ or a ‘resistance to (unexpected) change’” (Baron-Cohen, “Discovery” 1329). Draaisma asserts that these two sets of case studies, despite psychiatric practice shifting to protocol and distinct criteria, guide the diagnostician’s understanding of the condition, and have led to the proliferation of autism stereotypes (1477). The stereotypes that arose from Kanner and Asperger’s work not only influence modern diagnostic practices but also contribute to a broader societal discourse surrounding the deficits of autistic individuals, rather than a nuanced understanding of various autistic presentations.

Henry Markram, a neuroscientist and the subject of the biography The Boy Who Felt Too Much, noticed a pattern while reviewing the patents for autism medications: “All 625 existing patents were geared toward improving neural capacity, toward stimulating the brain. And they were all derived from research that focused on the deficits of autistic people,” namely a lack of empathy and socio-emotional reciprocation (Wagner 72). Author Lorenz Wagner discusses Henry’s work on the Blue Brain Project, a goal to build a supercomputer model of the brain, and delves into the research that informs his revolutionary theory of the Intense World Syndrome. His muse for this work is his autistic son, Kai. Henry discusses the initial signs that Kai was different in early childhood: when Kai was born, he kept trying to lift his head and his eyes darted around the room with precision, even though newborns can see very little (3). His speech was stunted, he covered his ears in movie theaters, and had poor motor skills (25). He reached out to touch others, often without precision, and if he hurt himself or others hurt him, he was not good at “sharing his suffering” (6). He took stories seriously and literally, and both Goldilocks and Bambi sent him into his room, crying: “To Kai, this wasn’t just a story — it was real” (6). He constantly engaged with others, asking neighbors “Want to come in and have coffee with my mom?” and even giving a college student with a broken down car the keys to his parents’ car so that he could make it to class on time (7). By preschool, however, he had been diagnosed with ADHD, and his constant attempts to engage with others had made him a social outcast: “he courted them [peers] more intensely, offering them toys, talking at them. But it was no use. Eventually, the tears started to run, and he withdrew to his room, stranded between two worlds of friendship” (32). Henry had a hard time accepting the diagnosis of ADHD. He saw Kai becoming more particular about food, struggling to respond appropriately to noise, throwing tantrums, talking to every stranger who would engage with him, and taking everything literally (33). Henry wondered if Kai could be autistic, but the research said that autistic people did not have empathy, did not socialize, and did not make eye contact, but Kai “looked you straight in the eye” and “Henry didn’t know anyone who sought social contact as much as his son” (36). This dichotomy between the public perception of autism versus the lived experiences of autistic people and their caregivers reflects Draaisma’s assertion that the “act of labelling initiates a complex interaction between the label and the perception and understanding of the person so labelled” (1476). Without cultural productions that offer the underlying cognitive processes and complexities of autism, the label falls short of accurately describing the person so labeled, and misdiagnosis occurs.

Henry’s perception of his son’s differences was muddled by societal perceptions of autism which enforce a bimodal framing of autism as either an extreme disability or superability, with the latter prevailing as the primary representation in media. Comparing traits of the autistic characters in popular media to the case studies of Asperger and Kanner illustrates how “the general understanding of Asperger syndrome and autism have come to be distributed over persons and institutions, literature and film, education and media” and lead to a distorted image of the autism condition (Draisma 1476). Christopher Boone in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Raymond Babbitt in Rain Man, and Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory possess what are known as savant skills which usually present as prodigious talent in “art, music, maths, calendar calculation, and memory recall of facts, events, numbers etc” (Hughes et. al 1). The aforementioned examples of autistic characters are each characterized by mathematical savant skills, heightened memory recall, and stereotypically poor social skills. Additionally, all three characters are white men, and present the trait of ‘poor social skills’ as an impaired sense of empathy and compassion. These three ‘case studies’ of autistic representations in media align themselves with the phenotypes of Asperger’s male subjects and point to the wide-scale misunderstanding of autism that Henry struggled with in finding a correct diagnosis for his son. Mainstream media often uses savantism as a signpost of autism, a way to avoid detailed description of the condition but signify its existence in a given

story, despite the trait’s statistical prevalence being much lower. The problem with this overrepresentation, Draaisma points out, is that it creates an almost non-human model of the condition, focusing on computer-like knowledge, and reinforcing the stereotype that those with autism are unfeeling and robotic and that their worth comes from their genius (1478). This functions in larger society to situate the perception of autism to one of heightened ability and no feelings, pigeonholing the archetypal image as the crux of understanding the condition. Kai, without savant skills or deficits in social motivations, did not fit into the stereotypical mold of ASC and was denied an accurate diagnosis in his most formative years. By revealing the complexities of diagnosis and the nuance of autistic traits, The Boy Who Felt Too Much subverts the societal construction of autism as visibly evident, and stereotyped, emphasizing the need for a more accurate discourse. For Henry, neither the label of ADHD nor autism felt like a proper fit for his son based on existing research and representations, so he began his own research and revolutionized the understanding of the autistic brain.

After many trials and tribulations, proposals and grants, Henry’s team finally discovered something new about autism. As previously discussed, the already existing research and medications sought to stimulate the brain, but Henry’s team discovered that the autistic brain was overstimulated, to a remarkable degree. By creating ‘autistic rats’ in the lab, the team was able to test the excitatory cells, the cells that agitate the brain, in the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that activates higher-level processes like language, decision-making, and learning. They discovered that the excitatory cells “perceived the stimuli as twice as strong” in the autistic rats than the non-autistic rats (Wagner 120). Their conclusion: “Everyone spoke about a deficit, but they had found an excess, a strength not a weakness. [...] Everything the rats saw, heard, or smelled was amplified: their brain amplified it. They didn’t have a deficit of feelings; they had a surplus” (121). Henry’s second wife, Kamila, a biopsychologist, and her team worked to discover if the same was true in the amygdala, the part of the brain that stores fear and memory. The results concluded that autistic rats defied expectations yet again: “Not only did they learn more quickly, they also had greater fear and were better at remembering it” (123). This research defied what was conventionally known about autism, but described exactly what was going on with Kai: his hatred of loud noises, food peculiarities, remarkable memory, and shift from hyper-social to withdrawn. With this new information, the couple determined that Kai “didn’t feel too little. He felt too much. His withdrawal was not the disorder — it was a reaction to it” (124). Henry and Kamila focused their efforts on understanding how Kai perceives the world: “The sensitivity of autistic people was well known. However, it was consistently treated as a marginal aspect, a moving parenthetical, like the high-functioning savantism popularized by the film Rain Man. But this sensitivity was not trivial; it was the key” (124). By learning about the cognitive processes underlying autism, Henry and Kamila challenged the stereotypes that ruled the world of autism research and promoted a new understanding: the Intense World Theory.

The summarized theory purports:

Autism is multifaceted and ranges from disability to superability, with the latter being the exception. Most autistic people are considered stunted. Building on that assumption, established medical treatments have attempted to stimulate the brain. We believe the opposite is true. The autistic brain is not stunted— it is too powerful. It is excessively interconnected and stores too much information. Autistic people experience the world as hostile and painfully intense (Wagner 139).

As the theory states, autism ranges from disability to superability, but autism representation in media largely relies on superability. Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen, the director of Cambridge’s Autism Research Center, has studied various aspects of autism. He is the leading researcher on Mindblindness, the idea that autistic people lack a Theory of Mind, or the ability to explain and interpret other people’s behavior and emotions. He also studied the link between autism and

prodigious talent and has summarized his findings in “Talent in Autism: Hyper-Systemizing, Hyper-Attention to Detail and Sensory Hypersensitivity.” He reports that savantism is “found more commonly in autism spectrum conditions (ASC) than in any other neurological group,” but, as the Markrams point out, it is the exception (1377). The occurrence of the trait, however, is not the most important subject to examine. To understand ASC beyond the stereotype of genius, it is important to look at what cognitive processes underlie the trait of savantism. Baron-Cohen and his associates argue that “the origins of the association between autism and talent begin at the sensory level, include excellent attention to detail and end with hyper-systemizing” (1377). Works cited in this article “revealed sensory abnormalities in over 90 per cent of children with ASC,” which “may be affecting information processing at an early stage (in terms of both sensation/cognition and development) in ways that could both cause distress but also predispose to unusual talent” (1381). In terms of media representations of sensory distress, there are many to choose from. Raymond Babbitt (Rain Man) and Sheldon Cooper (Big Bang Theory) have intense tactile sensitivities, both characters rely on the same ‘safe’ clothing, and despise physical contact with others. Christopher Boone (Curious Incident) describes a myriad of heightened sensory input, describing lights, sounds, and smells that hurt or make him feel sick. The Boy Who Felt Too Much explores Kai’s sensory sensitivities by dissecting the build up to a particularly intense meltdown in a coffee shop: “Your friendly neighborhood coffee shop is an autistic child’s private hell. The people speak loudly, laugh loudly, slurp loudly; the ice crunches and cracks, and the coffee spits while it brews. Everything is spinning, including the threatening fan on the ceiling, until the child throws itself on the floor and covers its head, as Kai did [...] He only had one wish: calm” (135). Baron-Cohen’s article and the Intense World Theory came out before the DSM-5 added sensory sensitivity to the diagnostic criteria for autism which highlights how important accurate labels are to the perception of the labeled person. In previous versions of the DSM, sensory differences were described as bizarre responses to the environment, which subsequently influenced popular media to feature exaggerated responses to ordinary stimuli as a core trait of ASC. However, through an understanding of the underlying sensitivity of autism, as demonstrated in The Boy Who Felt Too Much, the responses become entirely reasonable.

To understand the connection between talent and autism further, as well as its representations, let us look closely at how The Boy Who Felt Too Much represents the practice of “stimming.” Many autistic people use stimming, repetitive somatic behaviors, to regulate their emotions. For Kai, this usually involved full-body movements, like running, jumping, and climbing (26). These behaviors align with the restless energy of ADHD and likely contributed to Kai’s misdiagnosis, but the motivation behind the behavior is key to understanding the difference. What about stimming provides relief? Baron-Cohen purports that this behavior begins in the realm of sensory input. For example, an autistic person facing too much or too little sensory stimuli may engage in vestibular stimming, such as rocking back and forth, or vocal stimming, such as repeating the lyrics of a song or a quote from a movie. Raymond Babbitt does both, he manages his anxiety by rocking and repeating the dialogue from an old Abbott and Costello skit. The repetition is the key factor in understanding the behavior. The article links the repetition to “a sign that the individual ‘understands’ the physics (i.e. recognizes the patterns)” underlying the activity. The individual rocking back and forth or humming the same tune recognizes and replicates the vestibular or auditory pattern, and the pattern of relief that accompanies the activity and “get[s] some pleasure from the confirmation that the sequence is the same every time” (1380). Popular media, in large part, does not take the time to explain why these behaviors are comforting but instead relies on the ‘bizarre responses to the environment’ trope. A more inclusive approach, as demonstrated in The Boy Who Felt Too Much, would be to understand that stimming is a heightened, physiological response to an overwhelming world.

Finally, to extend this analysis further, the article links the pleasure found in the repetition of stimming to hyper-systemizing, a process of “noting regularities (or structure) and rules” (Baron-Cohen 1378). For autistic savants, hyper-systemizing results in prodigious talents in highly systemizable fields, such as mathematics, music, drawing, and memory, as seen in each of the aforementioned media representations (1378). The trope of autistic genius heavily relies on stereotyped stimming, prodigious talent, and social inadequacy. The article asserts that hyper-systemizing creates comfort by controlling and replicating results. Social interaction, simultaneously bound and unbound by structure and rules, prevents the autistic person from systemizing and can result in non-social behaviors, like Kai’s withdrawal. To summarize, savantism is present in many autistic individuals, but not to the degree that would justify its prevalence in literature and film. The stereotype of autistic genius takes into account the most extreme result of a group of traits, rather than understanding the minutiae of the condition that would characterize a larger population of autistic people. For Kai, and autistic people without savant skills, hyper-systemizing typically results in a need for routines and rituals.

Kai had plenty of rituals: as a young boy he fought Henry over which socks and underwear he was willing to wear, he required the same sandwich every night before bed, and only slept if his pillow was correctly placed (Wagner 68). When he felt overstimulated or his routines were disrupted, “Kai spat, punched, bit and scratched” (85). Henry recalls that year and describes Kamila as “covered in green and blue bruises [...] And she didn’t even know why—not the first time he did it, nor the hundredth” (85). Through their work with autistic rats, the Markrams discovered that rituals grow out of their heightened fear and memory: “The rituals represent something they do well, something they understand. When you take that away from them, they panic. According to our theory, you should let your child indulge in its rituals, play along with them. Accept their world; delve into it. If you do, they will come to you” (101). Thankfully, the Markrams did just that with Kai and moved him to a school for children with special needs in Israel where his meltdowns became less frequent and his relationship with Kamila improved (110).

Despite his family’s allowance of Kai’s need for structure and routine in their home lives, the outside world is relentlessly changing and challenging. Kai, by the age of fourteen, lived primarily with his mother in Israel, but often visited his father and Kamila in Switzerland. This travel was made possible by strict travel routines and schedules. After a trip to Henry’s childhood home in South Africa, Henry’s work called him back to Switzerland a day earlier than Kai expected, and Kai was forced to face the challenges of flying with a different airline on a different day, and to make matters worse, his flight was delayed, which he hated. Wagner narrates: “He always flew El Al, always got his preordered meal, always flew on the day he was supposed to and not a day earlier because his father’s dumb office had called” but “Kai tried to keep his rage in check. Dad was always so proud when Kai flew alone. Kai didn’t want to disappoint him” (147). Despite these challenges, Kai persisted, and made it onto the flight, but was presented with one final disruption to his routine: he did not have a window seat, like he always did, and he could no longer cope with his intense feelings.

The signals that had been tormenting his neocortex started to run hot in his amygdala.

The rage that had been simmering for the past day quietly boiled over, bursting out of all his extremities. No way! You can’t do this to me! Fucking phone call! Fucking father! Fucking airline! Fucking menu! Fucking seat! Fucking stewardess! (148). To return to media representations, Kai’s emotional experience leading up to and following a meltdown subvert the stereotypes that autistic people are not emotionally aware. A similar scene occurs in Rain Man, when Raymond’s brother, Charlie, attempts to get Raymond to fly. Raymond refuses, citing famous plane crashes from every major airline and when Charlie continues to pressure him, Raymond screams and hits his head (Levinson). In both instances, the autistic brain’s overactive amygdala results in extreme fear and behavioral outbursts. The

difference, though, is that Rain Man explains none of the underlying extremity or rationale. The film does not connect the disruption to Raymond’s routine to his emotional state, nor the overactive fear guiding his resistance to flying, or the emotional response before and after his meltdown. Kai’s meltdown resulted in a lifelong flight ban, but to Henry, the most important consequence was Kai’s renewed shame: “He always cried after he had one of his attacks and said how sorry he was. “That wasn’t me,” he would say. “I’m not sure who it was. I’m so sorry. I don’t want to be a bad boy.” It breaks your heart” (148). Kai’s self-reflection and guilt showcase just how emotionally aware autistic people can be. He knew he was being challenged, tried his best to manage his emotional reaction to make others comfortable, failed, and felt shame, as do all human beings. The difference lies in the intensity of the autistic brain.

Popular media representations consistently favor depictions of the extreme results of autistic traits, like the intense need for routine and structure, and ignore the myriad of cognitive processes underlying these behaviors. Rain Man does not divulge why Raymond needs to watch The People’s Court every day at the same time, Big Bang Theory does not explain why Sheldon must sit in the same place on the couch, and Curious Incident does not lay out why Christopher counts cars. Instead, these representations use savantism to signify the condition and disregard the underlying cognitive complexities, resulting in stereotyped representations and a false cultural understanding of what it means to be autistic. In conclusion, The Boy Who Felt Too Much challenges the stereotype of the unfeeling autistic genius perpetuated in popular media, emphasizing instead the deeply felt reality of an autistic individual, navigating through friendship, family, and the difficulties of living in an Intense World. To use the Markrams’ words: “Instead of dwelling on the supposed mind-blindness of autistic people, we should be discussing our blindness to their needs [...] We say autistic people lack empathy. No, we lack empathy. For them” (138). By emphasizing the neuroscience underlying the Intense World Theory, along with the lived experiences of Kai, the Markrams’ story offers a language that fosters empathy both for autistic individuals and their caretakers, enriching our comprehension of autism and its complexities.

As discussed in reference to Kai, the road to receiving a correct diagnosis is often challenged by the public’s perception of said diagnosis, including medical professionals. For girls and women, like Laura James, this process is made harder by gender biases that perpetuate the stereotypically male phenotype. Laura describes her journey to acquiring an autism diagnosis in her memoir, Odd Girl Out: “For much of my adult life I have been searching for answers to why I’m not like other people. Why I struggle with everyday life, why my body behaves differently, why my mind is never still. Having been endlessly misdiagnosed with everything from generalized anxiety to [...] bad luck” (11). Autistic males are far more often diagnosed than females, at a ratio “ranging from 2:1 to 16:1” (147). “Autism, Thy Name is Man” examines the gender stereotypes that affect access to diagnoses. For example, “the general view that women display more heightened emotional expressions, alongside greater motivation to communicate for social reasons than men, directly contrasts characteristics associated with autism” and results in women, like Laura, receiving incorrect diagnoses of depression and anxiety, which have higher female ratios (Brickhill et. al 2). To return to the sensationalism of the autism “epidemic,” the rising statistics do not necessarily indicate a surge in the overall autistic population, but rather a heightened awareness and acknowledgment of the needs of non-savant autistics like Henry, and for women and girls like Laura. Part of this new recognition derives from a new mode of discourse moving away from stereotyped, deficitbased understandings, and emphasizing the autistic person’s experience of the world. In “How We Have Been Learning to Talk About Autism: A Role for Stories,” Ian Hacking purports that there is “little ready-made language to describe this inside [experience of autistic people], and that the autobiographies, the blogs, the novels, the movies are creating it right now” (506). Whereas media representations of autism by neurotypical individuals give little language to the

interior lives of the autistic characters, focusing primarily on their behavior, biography and memoir can reconstruct the language surrounding autism by describing personal, anecdotal evidence of how autism guides one’s emotional and behavioral states.

When Laura was finally diagnosed with autism in 2015, as a forty-five year old journalist, wife, and mother, she felt an overwhelming need to learn more about it. Reliant on facts and words as a source of safety, Laura describes “not knowing everything about it – absolutely everything – gnaws in my head. It is red, like danger” (James 8). Her diagnostic report included 2,432 words on her autism, but these words, even for Laura are, at best, muddled jargonic descriptions that attempt to define a lifetime of perceiving the world differently (10). As she describes the report, she provides both the DSM’s criteria and her interpretation of how each trait shows up in her life. First, she settles on “deficits in non-verbal communication,” to which she recounts: “I find eye contact uncomfortable and have to remember to do it. My body language and facial expressions are often off. Often I feel I have to arrange my features into what I believe is the correct expression” (13). The diagnostician said that, for Laura, “It’s very subtle. A look or an expression or a twitch or something that was slightly different” (13). In popular media representations, the autistic characters are “visibly” autistic, to use that term loosely. Characters like Raymond, Christopher, and Sheldon each present their “deficits in non-verbal communication” as exaggerated, reclusive tendencies that favor the stereotypical phenotype. Autistic girls and women, however, are far more likely to mask, camouflage, or engage in compensatory behaviors to minimize the visibility of their autism during social situations, which leads to a more subtle presentation. Laura initially struggled to recognize this tendency to mask within herself. However, as her memoir unfolds and she reflects on her interpersonal experiences, it becomes evident that she, too, relied on hiding her true self to navigate social settings.

Masking presents itself in a myriad of ways that defy the stereotyped behaviors that characterize popular media representations. These coping strategies include but are not limited to: “engaging in eye contact, adjusting your face to appear relaxed, using scripts in social situations, or repeating others’ tone of voice” (Leaf et al. 283). Females more commonly report engaging in compensatory behaviors, which impact their access to diagnoses because their symptoms are less visible. For example, Laura, as a teenager “carefully picked the people [she] would copy” at school, landing on a beautiful, older girl with Elvis written on her shoes (32). She recalls: “When school became too much [...] or when I was alone in a room with a boy and knew he was about to kiss me, I would imagine I was her and do what I calculated she would have done” (32). Again, the language of Laura’s personal experience provides insight into what the formal, scientific language attempts to describe. Laura did not arrive with premeditated scripts for social interactions, but she did try to adopt a more neurotypical persona to manage her social uncertainty. Despite being occasionally invited to social events, Laura felt like she was “always getting it slightly wrong, never quite feeling part of things” (59). The DSM describes this liminal status as “deficits in social emotional reciprocity” and “deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships,” both of which she experiences as not knowing “how to be involved with the minutiae of other people’s lives” (14). When she did make a consistent and reliable friend, Laura felt “subsumed by her, drowned out and confused by the intensity of what she wanted from me” (61). In her marriage, Laura describes needing her own space, a separate bedroom from her husband, which others distort into judgments about their relationship (27). Additionally, when asked if she loves her husband, she replies “I think so. I am used to him and his presence often helps me find my emotional neutral. I like to know he is there [...] How do we know if we all feel it the same way?” (92). Through Laura’s narration of her life experiences and conversations, she provides a new perspective to the stereotyped “deficits.” Popular media presents these traits as stereotypes, like the way Sheldon Cooper doesn’t understand sarcasm, but reframing these deficits as feelings of uncertainty

undermines the stereotyped presentation, and educates the reader on the more subtle, nuanced presentations of ASC that often go unnoticed.

For girls and women, there are higher levels of risk and suffering associated with not understanding the boundaries of social relationships or the motivations of others. As previously discussed, autism is characterized by pattern recognition skills, which help autistic females like Laura learn what patterns of behavior exist in the social realm, and contribute to the development of interpersonal relationships. This can be beneficial, as masking social uncertainty is rewarded by social communities and institutions, but it can also have serious repercussions. It often leads to “feeling drained, loneliness, depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation” and can lead the autistic person into unsafe scenarios (Leaf et al. 294). In a conversation with psychologist Tony Attwood, Laura wondered if because autistic people “don’t quite understand what love should feel like, [we] confuse it with other things, such as drama” (68). His response confirms this idea: “People with Asperger’s [...] are often not very good at character judgment. They don’t spot predators. My concern is the high level of date-rape Aspie women experience and abusive relationships” (68). The high levels of risk factors for things like abuse and suicidal ideation point to the desperate need for females to be diagnosed earlier. Odd Girl Out, by centering the feelings and experiences of Laura, grants access to a new language for humanizing the public perception of autism, understanding both the diagnostic criteria for ASC and the way it presents in opposition to the stereotypes, ultimately shaping how autistic women can access diagnosis.

As discussed in The Boy Who Felt Too Much, the autistic brain’s primary emotion is fear. Laura describes living with “an all-pervading fear of the future. Of what the next five minutes hold. The next five hours, five days, five years” and feeling like “I cannot carry on doing this. I have to fight back. It’s me against my autism and I have to win” (20). Like Kai, part of this “fight” includes delving into the rituals and special interests that create a sense of calm. The DSM describes this as “restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities,” and “insistence on sameness” to which Laura describes her reliance on the same food, clothing, sleeping arrangements, and routines every day. In such an incredibly intense world, autistic individuals seek out comfort in the repeated, mundane variables of daily life. Laura remarks “There are so many. These things make me feel safe. Usually, I love them, but occasionally they imprison me” (14). All of the “deficits” and restrictions come at a cost to the autistic individual, but there is one trait that provides certain benefits: “highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus” (14). For young, undiagnosed girls, it often “isn’t the subject that’s unusual, it’s the fervour with which the interest is pursued” (64). For example, Laura read the same books as other girls, but “read the same one twenty times over, beginning again as soon as they finished” (64). This intense interest in other people’s lives, as well as a lifelong love of factual information, allowed Laura to understand other people and led to a successful career interviewing “actors, authors, celebrity chefs and models, amongst others” (35). Additionally, it led to a heightened sense of compassion, or empathy. Though abstract concepts like empathy “confuse” Laura, she recognizes that she is “probably one of the most compassionate people you are likely to meet” (98). After an interaction with a woman asking for spare change, Laura describes how she feels “utterly overwhelmed by the world [...] The best phrase I have found to describe it is humanity depression. It descends when I see just exactly what we are capable of doing to each other” (98). When talking about this with Tony Attwood, he responds with “absolutely autistic people feel empathy. Too much. More than neurotypicals [...] It’s as if people with Asperger’s have a sixth sense for despair, anguish, irritation, negativity in other people [...] and take them on board (99). While many neurotypicals feel similar notions of hopelessness at the evil and chaos in the world, the autistic brain, as previously explored, intensifies these signals and results in a more painful experience. Opposing the popular theory of mind-blindness, Laura’s narration of friendship, marriage, and humanity depression rejects

the stereotypical notion of autistic empathy and suggests an alternative mode of discourse valuing the autistic person’s experience of the world, rather than society’s reaction to their experience.

Laura describes her humanity depression as feeling “unsure of the world and unsure of [her] place within it” (99). Laura felt this most acutely in 2016 as the Brexit decision was being made. Her “insistence on sameness” made her unable to cope with the thought of Britain leaving the EU, and she reports “I am scared. Properly scared” (128). This fear caused an intense reaction, resulting in a new special interest: the state of the EU. She describes her experience leading up to the decision “researching every aspect of it. Scouring obscure political websites, checking the polling statistics several times a day, joining Facebook groups for each side. While no one seems prepared even to consider the possibility that Britain may vote to leave, I am convinced – to the core of my very being – that we will. No one will listen to my fears” (126). Throughout this process, Laura struggled to eat, sleep, or do anything other than consume news. Her husband struggled to cope with her intense fear, shouting “it’s driving me fucking crazy. You’re driving me mad with your endless insistence that you’re right – that you know better than the experts,” but days later, Laura was proven correct, and the decision to leave was officially announced. This is important because it refers back to the hyper-attention to detail and hyper-systemizing that informs the trait of savantism.

Laura summarizes that despite the exaggerated characterizations in popular media misrepresenting the prevalence of savantism, “a sort of lower-level savant ability is actually pretty common. Like autistic people being able to quote long passages of dialogue [...] or perfect pitch” (130). For Laura, hyper-systemizing created not only her routines and rituals but also a unique ability to spot patterns: “I can take a few pieces of information and build the whole picture. And I can tell when something will become popular or a trend. I have never been wrong” (131). Understanding the criteria for ASC, and identifying its variations is powerful because it challenges the language surrounding autism as a collection of deficits. A more accurate understanding that autism affects the ways in which an individual perceives the world opens up the possibility for those perceptions to become assets to social and political life. Laura’s passion, intense focus, and pattern recognition skills allowed her to predict the way the vote would turn out. In “Quirky Citizens,” Kristin Bumiller asserts that “If the overpowering influence of social conventions, bureaucracy, and compulsion toward conformity are seen as a threat to the vibrancy of democracy, then groups who possess tendencies to resist the pull of the social realm are well positioned to enliven citizenship” (980). Disability literature advances a new language for autism discourse by centering the autistic experience as different, rather than deficient, drawing attention to the unique gifts and skills of autistic individuals without reducing them to stereotypes. Through this emerging language, disability literature has the potential to foster community, acceptance, and political participation for autistic individuals. For Laura, the emotional weight of being diagnosed, the Brexit decision, and her oldest son leaving for college resulted in a period of burnout. She describes this period of feeling “spent, unhappy and terrified of the future,” and needing “space and time to get my head around everything that has happened. More than that, though, I need a path forward. I am halfway through my life. The rest of it has to be different. I cannot go on like this (189). Though the emotional weight of her diagnosis originally led her to “fight” her autism, it also allowed her to put language to experiences she could not accurately identify, like burnout. After a year of fighting, Laura was finally able to accept her diagnosis: “Perhaps now is the time I need to embrace my differences and stop trying to hide them” (195). Thanks to social media, Laura was able to connect with other autistic individuals who provided understanding and support, as well as coping mechanisms and strategies that Laura and Tim employed in their life together. The two worked together to create a “new life plan” which included budgeting, meal plans, daily walks, and carefully selected social engagement (214). Additionally, Tim

began researching autism, and Laura reports that “his understanding of me – and my weird ways – seems to be growing every day” (215). After a lifetime of feeling different and disconnected, Laura acknowledges: “I do now feel understood, accepted, and slightly more secure” (225). By meticulously examining the diagnostic criteria, and outlining how these symptoms show up in Laura’s life, Odd Girl Out subverts the stereotypes of the unfeeling, socially inept genius and highlights the need for more inclusive language and representation. The representations of autistic traits in media grossly distort the prevalence of savantism, and the ways in which deficits and restrictions present themselves, denying the autistic character the appropriate subjectivity by reducing them to stereotyped depictions. Autistic people, like their neurotypical counterparts, each possess different strengths and weaknesses. Through biographical and autobiographical works, research, and community, the perception of autism can shift away from stereotypes and into a more accurate and inclusive understanding of the minutiae of autistic lives.

The examination of ASC in this paper reveals a nuanced understanding that counters the sensationalized narrative of an autism “epidemic.” Despite the negative associations rooted in outdated research, theories, and representations, ASC is emerging in a new light thanks to the rising popularity of autistic biography and autobiography. Works like The Boy Who Felt Too Much and Odd Girl Out challenge the stereotypes of ASC and its negative connotations by humanizing the condition, and providing a new language to describe the differences of autistic individuals, rather than the deficits. By delving into neuroscience research, The Boy Who Felt Too Much examines the cognitive processes that underlie autistic traits and explains the intensity of the sensations, fear, and structure that guide an autistic individual’s life. Understanding these cognitive processes leads to a greater understanding of the stereotypes associated with autism, like savantism, but provides language for the minutiae of the condition rather than its most popular, extreme manifestations. Odd Girl Out subverts the stereotypical discourse by foregrounding Laura’s experience of autistic traits throughout her lifetime. Doing so in reference to the DSM criteria allows for a broader interpretation of that criteria, and emphasizes the emotional depth and complexities of ASC. Autistic stories find their most authentic voice when told by autistic individuals. Likewise, autistic people find greater understanding and empowerment when engaging with stories written by and for them, rather than representations of them. Through analyzing these works, we gain a more accurate and inclusive understanding of autism, one that transcends the stereotyped portrayals found in mainstream media. By comparing the two, we can better understand the multifaceted reality of autism, and recognize the diversity of the struggles and gifts that come with it. The new language surrounding the diversity of autistic presentations can shape future perceptions of autistic individuals and foster accurate representations, community, and meaningful societal engagement. Autistic stories need autistic people. Autistic people need autistic stories.

Works Cited

Baron-Cohen, Simon. “Leo Kanner, Hans Asperger, and the Discovery of Autism - the Lancet.” The Lancet, vol. 386, no.10001, pp. 1329-1330, ScienceDirect, 2015, doi.org/10.1016/ S0140-6736(15)00337-2.

Baron-Cohen, Simon, et al. “Talent in Autism: Hyper-Systemizing, Hyper-Attention to Detail and Sensory Hypersensitivity.” Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, vol. 364, no. 1522, 2009, pp. 1377–83. JSTOR

Brickhill, Rae, et al. “Autism, Thy Name is Man: Exploring Implicit and Explicit Gender Bias in Autism Perceptions.” PLoS One, vol. 18, no. 8, 2023. ProQuest, doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0284013.

Bumiller, Kristin. “Quirky Citizens: Autism, Gender, and Reimagining Disability.” Signs, vol. 33, no. 4, 2008, pp. 967–91. JSTOR, doi.org/10.1086/528848.

Draaisma, Douwe. “Stereotypes of Autism.” Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, vol. 364, no. 1522, 2009, pp. 1475–80. JSTOR.

Hacking, Ian. “How We Have Been Learning to Talk About Autism: A Role for Stories.” Metaphilosophy, vol. 40, no. 3/4, 2009, pp. 499–516. JSTOR.

Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Doubleday, 2003.

Hughes, J.E.A., et al. “Savant Syndrome Has a Distinct Psychological Profile in Autism.” Molecular Autism, vol. 9, no. 53, SpringerNature, 2018. doi.org/10.1186/ s13229-018-0237-1.

James, Laura. Odd Girl Out. Bluebird, 2018.

Leaf, Justin, et al. “On the Status and Knowledge of Camouflaging, Masking, and Compensatory Behaviors in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 283–298.

Levinson, Barry, director. Rain Man. MGM/UA Communications Co., 1988.

Lorre, Chuck, and Bill Prady. The Big Bang Theory. CBS, 2007.

Wagner, Lorenz. The Boy Who Felt Too Much: How a Renowned Neuroscientist and His Son Changed Our Image of Autism Forever. Translated by Leon Dische Becker, Arcade Publishing, 2021.

About the Author

Mackenzie Schwalenberg, a CNU transfer student, loves both the written and spoken word. Graduating with honors in May 2024, she will hold a Bachelor of Arts in English and a minor in Theater. Throughout her academic journey as an English major, Mackenzie has focused on unraveling the intricacies of the discourse and social constructs that shape identities, motivations, and behaviors. Her pursuits have led her to explore autism research in depth, culminating in this paper and “The Liminality of Autism in Stargirl,” which she presented at PAIDEIA. Beyond academia, Mackenzie hopes to continue her creative endeavors, pursuing avenues in writing and directing, while remaining committed to understanding the interplay between the individual and the world around them.

A Comparison of Culture in Regards to Alcohol: The United States and the Netherlands

Jaime Steigerwald

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Qingyan Tian, Department of Leadership and American Studies

Abstract

The United States and the Netherlands are two comparable cultures in most aspects, however, when it comes to the culture regarding alcohol these countries differ greatly. This paper aims to compare the two nation’s mindsets and practices towards alcohol while acknowledging differences and similarities. The following research elaborates on the historical context of alcohol culture as well as the current culture surrounding alcohol based on research and firsthand accounts. This research was conducted by applying the Hofstede Cultural Dimension model to first-hand accounts in relation to Limermore’s book, Leading with Cultural Intelligence. In addition, this paper analyzes how alcohol advertising strategies contribute to the current mindsets surrounding alcohol in each nation. Particularly focusing on the dimensions of long and short-term orientation as well as masculinity and femininity this study uses the Hofstede Cultural Dimension model to uncover the deep cultural differences contributing to this study. This research also analyzes the impacts of globalization which is a phenomenon of rising importance in the field of Cross-Cultural Leadership acknowledging the importance of considering globalization when conducting a cultural based study. The findings show drastic statistical differences in each culture surrounding alcohol. For example, 15.4% more adult men struggle with alcoholism in the United States as opposed to the Netherlands. Additionally, due to the difference in drinking ages studies show, 29% of young adults partake in underage drinking as opposed to a much smaller amount in the Netherlands. The results along with historical context may argue that the Netherlands has a more relaxed mentality regarding alcohol and treats it as a cultural artifact. As a result, in the Netherlands, alcohol is introduced at a younger age emphasizing the importance of drinking responsibly and in moderation whereas in the United States alcohol is stigmatized and more commonly abused throughout the nation. The origin of these habits dates back decades forming the culture surrounding drinking habits as an engrained aspect of each country’s culture. The impact of these findings can be seen throughout the two nations concerning their rate of binge drinking alcohol, and underage consumption, as well as the overall attitude surrounding alcoholic beverages.

Introduction

When studying Cross-Cultural leadership there are several important factors to take into consideration, especially before embarking on travel across several different countries. Developing one’s CQ (Cultural Quotient) score takes time to gain knowledge in a variety of different areas. CQ Knowledge, the second step of the four-step process of developing one’s CQ means developing one’s understanding of culture and cultural differences. (Livermore, 2015) One of the best ways to grow in this category is to not only get to know individuals of different cultures but also to have a meal with them and get to know the cultural norms that go into dining together. (Livermore, 2015) By sharing food and drink you can learn a great deal about someone’s cultural background based on how the meal is served, the topic of conversation, how long the meal is, as well as how much and what they choose to drink with their meal. Throughout our travels, I became growingly fascinated with how cultural differences could potentially affect a country’s attitude and actions specifically when dealing with alcoholic beverages.

Based on experience, I developed a strong foundation to understand the cultural significance of alcohol within the Dutch culture and began to study the differences compared to the alcohol culture in the United States. I analyzed the historical context of both alcohol cultures and applied that to uncover its impact on current mindsets towards alcohol. After my comparisons, I searched to find where these differences come from by applying them to Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory as well as analyzing aspects of globalization. Additionally, I analyzed the alcohol advertising strategies in each country and applied my findings to further explain cultural differences. While the United States and the Netherlands are very similar culturally, I found concerning alcohol culture their mindsets and practices vary greatly.

Historical Context in American Alcohol Culture

The cultural significance of alcohol in the United States is one which is very complex. In the colonial ages, settlers brought brewing and distilling habits over from Europe making beer very prominent among all of the colonies (Aaron & Musto, 2022). However, starting in the eighteenth century the temperance movement became prominent throughout the states. Due to the masculine culture of the United States, excess drinking often led to several social and economic problems and temperance seemed to be the only answer. In the United States, women led the temperance movement due to the rise in domestic violence following the Revolutionary War (Aaron & Musto, 2022). However, despite all their efforts the Civil War put almost an immediate stop to any temperance movements as states needed to tax revenue alcohol brought in. Once the war was over the push for temperance grew yet again.

The biggest part of US history that impacts the Alcohol Culture is the prohibition era of the 1920s. The 18th Amendment was passed to completely ban the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. However, the plan was not completely foolproof. With prohibition came the rise of illegal production of alcohol, also known as “bootlegging.” With this led to a rise in gang violence making prohibition cause more problems than it solved. In addition, prohibition led to the rise of speakeasies which were secret establishments used to sell alcohol. This only highlighted the societal demand for alcohol in the United States (Aaron & Musto, 2022). Ever since the 18th Amendment was appealed, the production of alcohol has been at an all time high. A nationwide ban on alcohol created a fascination throughout the United States with the idea of rebellion and the illicit nature of alcohol consumption. The long term effects of prohibition help to explain the more risque mindset towards alcohol in the United States today.

Historical Context in Dutch Alcohol Culture

When analyzing the cultural significance of alcohol in the Netherlands it is important to acknowledge the country’s deep history surrounding alcohol which helped to shape the current culture and mindset towards the substance today. The Netherlands has a long tradition of brewing and distilling, specifically making beer culture very large to this day. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Dutch established Brown Cafés within their homes as an extra source of income. In the Netherlands, almost everyone was able to legally own and manage their own pub, until 1881 when one needed a permit to hold a Brown Café. Historically, these cafés have a very intimate atmosphere and a sense of security. It is said the wallpaper and curtains are turned brown due to the smoke coining the term, “Brown Café” (Dutch Review, 2021). These cafes are known for their intimacy and sense of security which go along with them. Brown Cafés help to explain the significance of beer in Dutch culture. They signify comradery and togetherness which is the prime objective of beer culture in the Netherlands (Dutch Review, 2021).

Another large historical piece that still impacts Dutch alcohol culture is the strong tradition of brewing in the monasteries. In the Middle Ages, several monasteries began massproducing beer due to the lack of drinkable water. Additionally, the Beer produced by the Monks was typically some of the best beer as they were some of the only people in the Middle Ages to be able to read and keep track of recipes. (Brewing Beer with the Monks: Staatliche Schlösser Und Gärten Baden-Württemberg, n.d.). These beers were readily available throughout the Netherlands and were considered some of the highest quality. During our travels, our group decided to experience this tradition by biking to the Val-Dieu Abbey, the only Belgian Abbey to survive the French Revolution (Brewing Beer with the Monks: Staatliche Schlösser Und Gärten Baden-Württemberg, n.d.). The beers served at the brewery are still made with the same recipe as the original brews. The practice of this shows the long-term orientation of the Netherlands as the locals appreciate the skill and tradition behind the beers. Beers served at the monasteries are meant to be romanticized and enjoyed leisurely to fully appreciate the beverage. Understanding the historical context behind Dutch alcohol culture can help to explain some of the key differences in the current laissez-faire mindset towards alcohol in the Netherlands.

Current American Alcohol Culture

In the United States, the current mindset is still heavily influenced by the regulations put in place after the prohibition era. While the 21st Amendment reversed the impacts of prohibition, alcohol in the United States is still highly regulated. In the United States, the “age of adulthood” in 47 out of 50 states is 18, but the legal drinking age nationwide is 21. This causes several issues in the alcohol culture specifically for young adults in the United States. Throughout the nation, 136 presidents of colleges and universities have signed a pledge stating that the drinking age of 21 is “not working,” citing binge drinking, fake IDs, and the fact that adults aged 18-20 are able to vote, serve on juries, and enlist in the military (Pro and Con: Lowering the Drinking Age | Britannica, 2019). Due to the thrill of rebellion, it is very common to see higher underage drinking rates in the United States as opposed to most other countries. According to the Center for Disease Control, 29% of adults between 18-20 participate in underage drinking and 14% of those adults binge drink. (Center For Disease Control, 2022) In the United States Alcohol is almost considered some sort of “forbidden fruit” making it feel more rebellious to consume underage. Fake IDs are one of the most common phenomena in the US, as 32.2% of college students have confessed to owning one to participate in underage drinking (Pro and Con: Lowering the Drinking Age | Britannica, 2019). Several studies have been done analyzing the benefits of lowering the drinking age as in several cultures it is 18 opposed to 21. It is assumed that lowering the drinking age would

completely alter the mindset of drinking in the United States. First of all, the thrill of breaking the law would diminish overall lowering the amount of unsafe drinking activities. Additionally, lowering the drinking age would lower the number of people hurt by alcohol due to the fear of legal consequences if they sought medical attention (Pro and Con: Lowering the Drinking Age | Britannica, 2019).

Drinking large amounts in a short amount of time, also referred to as Binge Drinking is very common in the United States. It has been recorded that 17.4% of adult men in the US struggle with alcoholism and 10.4% of adult women struggle with alcoholism. Overall, the United States is ranked 38th in the world for its amount of alcohol consumption but has the highest percentage of women alcoholics throughout the world (Alcohol Consumption in the United States, by Gender 2020, n.d.). The United States is known to include alcohol in almost every aspect of its life. Alcohol is culturally accepted as one of the most common ways to cope with stress in the US. Another drinking phenomenon is “day drinking”. Especially throughout young adulthood, the weekends are reserved to forget the struggles of their everyday lives and “drink the pain away.” Restaurants have adjusted to this with the concept of bottomless brunch referring to starting the day with an excess amount of alcohol to get one’s weekend started. Another concept that leans into the idea of binge drinking is, pregaming. Many people are known to “pregame” an event by drinking hours before so they will attend the event intoxicated and continue to drink there. This leads to a higher tolerance to alcohol making people feel the need to drink more over time. Both of these phenomena encourage excessive drinking which is very common throughout the nation.

Current Dutch Alcohol Culture

In the Netherlands, individuals are exposed to alcohol at a very young age. It is very common for families to allow their children to enjoy a glass of wine or beer over dinner once they reach young adulthood. This practice teaches children to appreciate drinking in moderation and enjoy the taste and tradition of the beverage they are consuming. These practices lead to lower alcoholism statistics throughout the Netherlands. Only 2% of males and 0.9% of females struggle with alcoholism throughout the nation. Another aspect to consider is the legal drinking age is 18 as opposed to 21 (Alcohol Consumption in the Netherlands, by Gender 2020, n.d.). This almost eliminates the phenomenon of fake IDs in the Netherlands as only 428 of teenagers under 18 admitted to possessing a fake ID. In the Netherlands, alcohol is mostly used for purposes of celebrations and leisure. Over time, Dutch societies have emphasized the importance of responsible drinking and drinking in moderation. This reflects the fact that alcohol is a much less taboo topic in the Netherlands and how casual the typical Dutch mindset is towards alcohol.

Another large aspect of Dutch drinking culture is the longstanding idea of tolerance in the Netherlands, especially in Amsterdam. A large reason Amsterdam is a popular tourist destination is the fact that people can easily indulge themselves in things that may be considered illegal in their home countries. Commonly known as the “City of Tolerance” alcohol, drugs, and prostitution are incredibly normalized in Amsterdam due to the city’s liberal ideas (Nijman, 1999). A quick visit to the Red Light District in Amsterdam can prove these liberal ideals as the area is popularly known for legal prostitution in the city. On almost every corner there is a bar or a “coffee shop” more commonly known as a marijuana distillery (Nijman, 1999). While global tourism has turned Amsterdam into a must-see location, the tourists tend to be drawn to the larger commercialized bars, whereas the smaller “Brown Cafés” were filled with locals more casually drinking and savoring beverages and fostering a sense of community.

It it incredibly interesting how even while these indulgences are so readily available, it seems as if locals do not participate in them as much. Amsterdam is referred to as an amusement park for sex and drugs which draws in several tourists creating a large revenue for

the country (Nijman, 1999). When it comes to the everyday culture surrounding alcohol, the Dutch are much more relaxed and do not excessively indulge as they were raised in a culture of moderation and tolerance.

Comparison of both Alcohol Cultures

When looking at both the American and Dutch Cultural Attitudes toward alcohol, there are several similarities and differences. After researching both cultures I realized how several statistics in both countries could be impacted by the differences in attitudes in consuming alcoholic beverages. Firstly by looking at the rates of alcoholism in both countries. An American is statistically much more likely to develop alcoholism than someone from the Netherlands. This correlates directly to the mindset towards alcohol in both countries. In the Netherlands, it is common to introduce alcohol at a young age and teach children responsible drinking and how to drink in moderation. The Dutch culture emphasizes savoring the flavors of alcohol and respecting the tradition of alcoholic beverages (Mancall-Bitel, 2018). Whereas in the United States, it is culturally acceptable to completely abstain from alcohol until you are of legal drinking age, and historically, the US has put more of an intense emphasis on the negative effects of alcohol, making it almost more respectable to abstain from consuming the beverage (Mancall-Bitel, 2018).

Another major difference between the two cultures is the primary use of alcoholic beverages. In Dutch culture, alcohol is used primarily for celebrations and leisure. Typically, alcohol signifies comradery and togetherness, especially in a time of celebration. Opposed to the United States, alcohol has grown to have a stigma of drinking to relieve the stressors of everyday life. This mindset is also commonly linked to the idea of binge drinking which can be seen through the phenomena of “day drinking” and “pregaming.” In many cases, alcohol in the United States also is linked to violence (Aaron & Musto, 2022). Women who headed the temperance movements in the 20th century did so because they noticed alcohol consumption was often linked to domestic violence at home. These differences in mindsets also tend to lead to a greater amount of alcohol-related issues and health issues in the United States.

The final major difference between alcohol cultures is the legal drinking age in both countries. The United States drinking age of 21 has several implications as does the legal drinking age of 18 in the Netherlands. Due to the higher drinking age, alcohol is more taboo and risky in the United States which leads to almost 30% of adults under 21 consuming alcohol underage. While underage drinking is still an issue in the Netherlands it is much less common due to how alcohol is incorporated into one’s everyday life (Mancall-Bitel, 2018). Generally, the Dutch have a very accepting and open view when it comes to alcohol whereas, in the United States, it is more stigmatized especially when it comes to underage drinking or problems often associated with drinking. Alcohol contributes to the culture of these two countries in two very different ways, making it equally important to understand where these cultural differences and mindsets come from by analyzing advertising and cultural dimensions.

Advertising Strategies for Alcohol in the US vs. The Netherlands

When understanding where these cultural differences come from, one of the first things to analyze is the differences in how alcohol is portrayed in each country. Advertising and marketing strategies can heavily contribute to people’s mindsets especially when it comes to the consumption of alcohol. After analyzing how alcohol is advertised in both countries I was shocked by the results and differences in the amount of advertising pushed out in each country. Aside from reading articles and statistics, I furthered my research by watching several alcohol advertisements from both countries further proving what I found in my initial research. I focused on three main components of the advertisements; regulations on advertising, themes within the advertisements, and the influence they had on people.

Firstly, when researching regulations on alcohol advertising in the United States and the Netherlands I was especially shocked. In the United States, there are no regulations on when or how alcohol advertisements can be aired the only regulation is that, “advertisements must be truthful and without deception” (Morgenstern et al., 2015). Without any regulations, it is common to see alcohol advertisements at any time of the day, especially on sports, entertainment, and home improvement television channels. Alcohol advertising is especially common with the airing of large sporting events in the United States, most famously the National Football League’s “Super Bowl.” 40% of American households tune in to the event every year and the 2023 Superbowl currently holds the record for the largest average viewership of any live single network in the US (Morgenstern et al., 2015). In 2023, 41.7% of Super Bowl Advertisements were alcohol-related (Morgenstern et al., 2015). These advertisements expose demographics of all kinds to alcohol brands including underage young adults who are most susceptible to underage drinking. Due to the nature of marketing, these advertisements often glamorize their brands making partaking in drinking seem more appealing.

In the Netherlands, a much better picture is painted when it comes to the advertising of alcoholic beverages. As of 2009, The Media Act in the Netherlands placed a legal ban on Dutch broadcasters on Alcohol advertisements on television and radio broadcasts between the hours of 6 AM and 9 PM (Alcohol Marketing, n.d.). Additionally, the Media Act laid out strict rules on product placement and handling sponsorships. When used with commercial broadcasting sponsors must abide by the time lock of 6 AM and 9 PM, with the exception of mentioning the sponsor for no more than five seconds (Alcohol Marketing, n.d.). When practicing product placement, meaning an alcoholic beverage is specifically placed in a program for advertising there are also strict rules in place. Most notably, programs that have any target audience under the age of twelve should never include an alcoholic beverage (Alcohol Marketing, n.d.). These regulations on alcohol advertising in the Netherlands greatly regulate the exposure to alcohol outside of family settings to underaged youth.

Another interesting comparison of alcohol advertisements is the underlying themes within them. In the United States, a study was done analyzing 581 alcohol advertisements in order to depict the purpose of the ad as well as the impact it had on underaged youth (Morgenstern et al., 2015). In recent years alcohol advertisements were found to be divided into five themes which were; partying, quality time, manliness, sports, and relaxation. The most popular theme was partying, contributing to 42% of the advertisements. These party advertisements were known to elude to; financial success, sexual success, as well as people who were portrayed to fit extreme beauty standards. Out of all five categories, partying specifically appeals to an underaged demographic (Morgenstern et al., 2015). This study proved that exposure to alcohol advertising is in fact an independent risk factor for initiating early drinking as well as increasing teenage alcohol-related problems.

Alcohol advertisements that pass the restrictions in the Netherlands have many different themes than those portrayed in the United States. The themes portrayed in advertisements varied with the different types of alcohol being advertised. When beer is advertised the common themes are quenching thirst and having fun with loved ones. When spirits are advertised they typically signify relaxation, and when wine is advertised it is usually promoted as something to pair with dinner (Alcohol Marketing, n.d.). These themes are very general and relate closely to the historical alcohol culture within the Netherlands empathizing with the taste and tradition of the beverage as opposed to the effects. In addition to the restrictions in place, 40% of alcohol related advertisements have an educational slogan attached to them (Alcohol Marketing, n.d.). The advertising strategies for alcohol in the Netherlands further emphasize the point of drinking responsibly and in moderation which is a large part of alcohol culture. Additionally, the restrictions and themes of alcohol advertisements allow Dutch families to educate their children on the purpose of alcohol first before they are exposed to it in the media.

How Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Link to Alcohol Culture

Several of these cultural differences in regard to alcohol culture can in part be explained by Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory, especially the dimensions; of masculinity-feminity, short-long term orientation, and indulgence. The differences and similarities in the scores of these dimensions help someone gain perspective on why individuals from each country have varying mindsets when it comes to alcohol. Long-short Term orientation depicts how each culture deals with the issue of time, especially in regard to long-term goals and changing circumstances (Thomas & Peterson, 2018). Masculinity and Femininity refer to differences in fluidity in gender roles and how they generally impact a culture (Thomas & Peterson, 2018). Finally, indulgence vs. restraint refers to the importance of happiness and leisure in one’s culture (Thomas & Peterson, 2018). When referencing alcohol specifically, these are the three main dimensions that contribute to the conversation of cultural differences.

The Netherlands is a very long-term oriented country scoring a 67 in the dimension, meaning they value tradition and work to preserve tradition in the long term. This dimension can be applicable when studying the alcohol culture in the Netherlands. Traditions in brewing beer date back to the 16th century and have been sustained over time. Traditions such as monastery brewing and Brown Cafés may not be the most cost-efficient versions of brewing but due to the romanticism of the traditions they are valued greatly throughout the Netherlands. Long-term orientation also makes it more difficult for new competitors to enter the brewing market. Throughout my experience, I learned that, throughout the Netherlands, it is very rare to find distilleries selling new or flavored brews such as IPAs due to the value of traditional brews. Additionally, due to this advertising for alcohol is not needed as people are more likely to stick to traditional beverages as opposed to trying something new from an advertisement.

In the United States, the opposite is true, as the US is a very short-term oriented country with a score of 74 in the short term. This short-term mentality is greatly related to the alcohol culture throughout the United States. It is very rare and unpopular to find a historical brewery with original recipes in the US. Instead, the United States greatly values keeping up with trends and modifying its brews to be innovative and new things. Distilleries often come out with new brews infused with different flavors and implement new brewing techniques to stay ahead of trends. The same can be seen with the spirit industry. In the Netherlands, very few people enjoy drinking craft cocktails whereas in the United States, this industry is ever-growing. There are television shows dedicated to who can create the most innovative cocktail, as US customers are always looking for something new. Traditions within the alcohol industry are not preserved in the United States as they are in the Netherlands showing how short-term oriented the US is.

Another important dimension to consider when analyzing alcohol culture is the one of Masculinity vs. Femininity. This dimension is especially important to help understand the different mindsets people have toward alcohol in the United States versus the Netherlands. The Netherlands is an extremely feminine culture scoring an 86 in femininity on Hofstede’s insights. This greatly impacts the question of why people partake in enjoying alcoholic beverages in the country. Feminine cultures value a more slow-paced lifestyle and seek romanticism and high quality of life (Thomas & Peterson, 2018). This can be portrayed in the mindset an average Dutch citizen has towards alcohol. In the Netherlands, it is common for people to enjoy a dinner out for a total of two to three hours in order to especially enjoy their company and the food and drink served at the meal. Commonly, individuals will leisurely enjoy a few glasses of wine over a meal in order to appreciate the taste and the partnership the beverage has with the food (Thomas & Peterson, 2018). Due to its femininity, most people in the Netherlands drink for the enjoyment and the romanticism of the beverage, not for the effects drinking the beverage brings. Another large aspect of this is the component of work-life balance in the Netherlands. It is commonly stated throughout the Netherlands that most individuals only work to support a quality lifestyle. Citizens of the Netherlands separate their work and personal lives and set

aside work after their designated work hours (Thomas & Peterson, 2018). This lifestyle also greatly impacts the alcohol culture. Due to this mindset, people in the Netherlands do not often drink to cope with work-life struggles, but instead, drink leisurely with their family to enjoy a relaxing evening after working hours.

In the United States, again the opposite proves to be true as the US scores a 62 in favor of masculinity making the US a more masculine culture. Due to this, there is a great shift in the average individual’s mindset towards alcohol. Masculine cultures are hyperfocused on achievement and assertiveness as opposed to quality of life and leisure (Thomas & Peterson, 2018). These factors statistically cause more individuals to binge drink in order to quickly receive the effects of drinking alcohol. The typical mindset toward alcohol of a working individual in the United States is drinking to cope with the stressors and struggles of one’s everyday life Alcohol is often used as a quick fix to an individual’s issues causing the individual to more quickly grow a dependence on the substance. Oftentimes, when individuals in masculine cultures are ashamed or feel as if they have failed one of their first resorts is to alcohol often creating the negative stigma surrounding the substance in the United States (Alcohol Consumption in the United States, by Gender 2020, n.d.).

The final cultural dimension which is important to look into when analyzing alcohol culture is indulgence vs. Restraint. This dimension is different than the others I analyzed as the United States and the Netherlands received the same score of 68 in indulgence. More indulgent cultures are typically very happy overall and understand the importance of leisure which greatly contributes to the culture of alcohol in both the United States and the Netherlands (Thomas & Peterson, 2018). One of the main purposes of alcohol in both nations is for celebrations, indulging oneself in alcoholic beverages is a staple to several forms of celebrations in each nation. This was very apparent in my experiences in the Netherlands as well as in the United States (Livermore, 2015). Additionally, both nations value using alcohol to seek leisure in their lives whether it be in a Brown Cafe in the Netherlands or a Club in the United States both of these activities result in a more leisurely lifestyle.

It is important to note that Hofstede’s dimensions while mostly accurate, do greatly generalize both nations. It is important to acknowledge the theme of the convergence of cultures as each culture has slowly begun to shapeshift with increased interaction with one another (Thomas & Peterson, 2018). A country’s culture is never static and continues to develop over time due to increased education, diversity, and increased communication due to technology (Thomas & Peterson, 2018). While values and beliefs are heavily engrained in one’s culture new ideas and perspectives can bring change and further globalize different ideas in the culture (Thomas & Peterson, 2018). Globalization is seen everywhere and the culture surrounding alcohol is no different. The transfer of ideas, mindsets, and traditions is important to keep in mind with studying this topic.

Globalization’s Impact on Alcohol

Like any industry, the alcohol industry has experienced great change due to the rise of globalization. Robertson describes Globalization as “The Crystallization of the world as a single place” (Thomas & Peterson, 2018). Increased global trade and communication have allowed for immense growth in the exchange of alcohol products as well as the traditions which come with them. Now, due to Globalization, anyone can experience traditional alcoholic beverages from cultures around the world. In fact, David Livermore author of Leading With Cultural Intelligence describes being able to understand the cultural norms of food and drink as one of the most important aspects when meeting with people of a different culture. (Livermore,2015) However, it is important to consider, the globalized industry of alcohol is highly concentrated causing monopolistic tendencies. There are roughly 46 main companies worldwide that dominate the alcohol industry. This could cause a large disadvantage to the

alcohol produced in the Netherlands on a global scale as it is traditionally dominated by small family-owned breweries which could struggle to sustain in international trade (Wilson, 2004). However, while in the Netherlands I noticed globalization at work firsthand, for example, there were several pubs filled with brews traditionally from the Irish culture. Additionally, we even experienced an American-owned club with several of the spirits one would traditionally find in the US. Without the transfer of ideas and products across cultures these different establishments would not be common in the Netherlands. Each nation has its own unique style of alcohol culture and it is important to be respectful and understand the values of each group in order to effectively interact with each other. Globalization, however, makes it much easier to do so as products are more readily available to trade across cultures.

Conclusions

The United States and the Netherlands in most ways are very comparable, often making the transition between countries seamless in many ways. However, there are a few distinct differences in Hofstede’s Dimensions which make some areas more difficult to adapt to. Due to these differences along with the historical context behind it, the alcohol culture is much different in the Netherlands than it is in the United States. In the Netherlands, alcohol has sustained the same brewing and drinking traditions over time making alcohol engrained in their culture. Additionally, the mindset towards alcohol is much more relaxed in the Netherlands due to commonly introducing alcohol throughout one’s youth. These practices allow children to learn how to drink in moderation and more responsibly as they grow up. Whereas in the United States, the culture surrounding alcohol is much more stigmatized due to the historical context making it a taboo topic even today. Advertising for alcohol in the Netherlands also greatly contributes to the more relaxed alcohol culture as there are strict regulations on how alcohol is to be advertised in order to limit underage drinking. On the other hand, alcohol advertising in the United States is not regulated and often is targeted toward younger generations fostering underage drinking. These cultural differences are heavily determined by the variations in femininity and long-term orientation as well as the similarities in indulgence within each culture. However, It would be ignorant to deny the impacts of globalization on this topic as it has impacted almost every industry worldwide making the exchange of cultural ideas more readily available across nationalities. The study of alcohol culture is extremely relevant to enhancing one’s CQ knowledge before traveling across cultures as well as extremely fascinating to understand how one can adapt their personal mindset towards alcohol culture.

References

Aaron, P., & Musto , D. (2022). Temperance and Prohibition in America: A Historical Overview. Europepmc.org. https://europepmc.org/books/n/nap114/ ddd00065/?extid=25032319&src=med

Alcohol consumption in the Netherlands, by gender 2020. (n.d.). Statista. https://www.statista. com/statistics/460970/alcohol-consumption-by-gender-netherlands/

Alcohol marketing. (n.d.). Www.stap.nl. Retrieved July 17, 2023, from https://www.stap.nl/en/ home/alcohol-marketing.html#:~:text=As%20of%202009%20the%20Netherlands

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Brewing beer with the monks: Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg. (n.d.). Www.kloster-Alpirsbach.de. https://www.kloster-alpirsbach.de/en/interesting-amusing/ collection/brewing-beer-with-the-monks

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About the Author

Jaime Steigerwald is a member of the class of 2025 majoring in Global Commerce and Culture with minors in Leadership Studies and History. She is an active member of the President’s Leadership Program, the National History Honors Society; Phi Alpha Theta, The Greek Honors Society; Order of Omega, and she currently serves on the Panhellenic Council as the Vice President of Signature Events. She also is a Student Ambassador in the Office of Admission where she serves as Training Manager, overseeing initiatives for new hires. Jaime has always been extremely fascinated by culture and its role in our everyday lives, which is evident through her research. Upon her graduation in the spring, she hopes to combine her passions for culture studies and business working in the international business sector.

Threaded Allegiancies:

Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries as Agents of Diplomacy and Devotion

Gillian Stolz

Faculty Sponsor: Department Rebecca Woolf, Department of Fine Art and Art History

Abstract:

This paper explores the role of art as diplomacy through an examination of Catherine de Medici’s commissioning of the Valois Tapestries during the Renaissance. Amidst political and cultural exchange in 16th-century France, Catherine used these tapestries as agents of devotion and admiration for her children, their Valois heritage, and her own Medici lineage. My study investigates the context surrounding Catherine’s patronage, her motivations, and the thematic elements embedded within the tapestries. Methodologically, this research combines contextual analysis with art historical inquiry to dissect the composition, symbolism, and stylistic influences of the Valois Tapestries. By contextualizing Catherine’s commission within the broader framework of Renaissance diplomacy, this paper sheds light on the intersection of politics, art, and identity. It addresses gaps in existing scholarship by providing a nuanced understanding of Catherine’s strategic use of artistic patronage to foster dynastic unity and promote her family’s legitimacy. The thesis argues that the Valois Tapestries served as powerful tools for reinforcing loyalty and allegiance, while also facilitating the synthesis of Italian Renaissance and French artistic values. Ultimately, this study contributes to our understanding of the multifaceted role of art in shaping diplomatic relations and cultural identities during the Renaissance period.

Catherine de Medici (1519-1589), a member of the powerful Medici family of Florence, Italy, played a significant role in French history as the wife of King Henri II of France and later as queen mother and regent for her sons, three of whom became kings of France. She was a key figure in the cultural life of the French Renaissance known for her patronage of the arts, which she used to secure her and her children’s place in the French court. Catherine de Medici’s use of art as a diplomatic tool is exemplified by the Valois Tapestries, a series of eight tapestries she commissioned in 1576, which not only showcased her influence and taste but also served as a tool to navigate the intricate web of courtly politics and secure her position within the French court. Produced in Brussels, Catherine intended these tapestries to serve as propaganda, showing her children in a positive light to secure their reign for future generations.1 Through the use of art as diplomacy, Catherine de Medici commissioned the Valois Tapestries as agents of devotion and admiration for her children, their Valois heritage, and her own Medici heritage, uniting the two dynasties and blending Renaissance and French artistic values.

Catherine de Medici was born on April 13, 1519 to Lorenzo De Medici and Madeleine De La Tour d’Auvergne in Florence, Italy.2 Her father was the ruler of Florence from 1516-19 and also was the Duke of Urbino, while her mother was countess of Boulogne, France. Due to her father’s Medici heritage, Catherine was perceived as a noblewoman. The Medici family was important and influential in Florence due to their wealth, political power, and patronage of the arts, which helped foster the Renaissance in Florence.3 Most of the Medici family members had political marriages, and Catherine’s father was no different. Lorenzo and Madeleine’s marriage had been a political union just a year before Catherine’s birth. The political union had been between King Francis I of France and Lorenzo’s uncle, Pope Leo X, against their mutual rival Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. Catherine was an only child and was orphaned shortly after her birth. Her mother died of either an infection from birth or the plague only a few days after Catherine’s birth on April 28th 1519, and her father died on May 4th 1519 possibly from syphilis.4

After the death of her parents, Catherine spent her childhood passing between various prominent relations, first her paternal grandmother Alfonsina Orsini. After she died in 1520 she lived with her aunt Clarice de Medici, where she was raised along with her cousins.5 She was raised Roman Catholic, receiving an education befitting a noblewoman from nuns in Florence and Rome. From not long after her birth, plans were already in the making for her future marriage. Her Medici background gave her the opportunity to have a very advantageous marriage. King Francis I of France had wanted her to be raised at the French court, in order to see her married to a French aristocrat or possibly one of his sons.6 However, her uncle Pope Leo X did not like this plan, he wanted her to marry Ippolito De Medici, lord of Florence. 7 In 1530, Pope Clement VI called 14 year old Catherine to Rome to find her a husband. She had many suitors, but ended up marrying future king Henri II, part of the Valois dynasty, which had ruled France since the 14th century. The two were married October 28, 1533.8

Catherine’s intelligence, wit, and want to please made good impressions on the ladies of

1 Thomas P. Campbell, Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010), 201.

2 The People Profiles, “Catherine de Medici- The Black Queen of France Documentary,” Youtube, October 7, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USVPTJ1SkCU. Reputable source as it is a documentary from a respected and scholarly channel.

3 John Eernst Neale, The Age of Catherine De Medici (London: Jonathan Cape, 1945), 5.

4 Cleveland Museum of Art, “Exploring Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries Exhibit,” Youtube, January 2, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzuCXua2yGk. Reputable source as it is directly from the museum itself.

5 The People Profiles, “Catherine de Medici- The Black Queen of France Documentary.”

6 Neale, The Age of Catherine De Medici, 28.

7 Ibid., 29.

8 The People Profiles, “Catherine de Medici- The Black Queen of France Documentary.”

the French court, further solidifying her marriage with Henri II. However, the death of her uncle Pope Clement in 1534 undermined Catherine’s position and influence at the court.9 As well as her position becoming tenuous, she had pressure to produce an heir and spare, both of which had to be male, to the Valois dynasty to ensure its survival. Catherine finally gave birth to her first child and son, Francis, on January 19, 1544.10 She then went on to have eight more children, seven of whom survived infancy, successfully providing the dynasty with five sons who could inherit the throne.

After the death of King Francis I on March 31, 1547, Henri II officially became King Henri II, making Catherine Queen Consort of France. 11 After being on the throne for twelve years, King Henri II died in 1559 in a jousting accident. From that day, Catherine adopted the broken lance as her emblem. She wore mourning black for the rest of her life, in memory of her husband and to show wealth, as black dye was very expensive.12 Catherine recognized that image cultivation was an important part of successful kingship and worked to display and promote an image of herself as a faithful widow and devoted mother. She also became known as Queen Mother and regent, important titles to the French court, placing her as the key viceroy to her son on the throne. In many ways, she had even more influence than before in these new roles.13

Catherine de Medici, while physically distant from her art loving family in Florence, maintained a strong connection to its cultural and artistic heritage. Upon her marriage to King Henri II of France, she introduced her appreciation for the arts to the French court, establishing herself as a significant patron.14 Despite the challenges she faced as a foreign queen, Catherine’s love for art persisted, earning her a reputation for discernment and sophistication. Among her most notable artistic endeavors was the commissioning of the Valois Tapestries in 1576. They were commissioned at a time when Catherine’s youngest son was the only heir left on the throne. Her older sons had all died, and her daughters were ineligible due to gender.15 This was a period of uncertainty for the Valois dynasty, with a possible threat of its end looming near. Fortunately, one of her daughters produced a son, leaving a new heir to a different throne, ensuring the continued dominance of the Valois dynasty.16 This event sparked Catherine’s commissioning of the tapestries. She aimed to show the visual assertion of the continued dominance of her children and the Valois dynasty, offering a powerful narrative of continuity and stability during a period of uncertainty for the royal family.

These tapestries were not mere adornments but instruments of diplomacy, designed to enhance the prestige of her children as future monarchs and to forge closer bonds between the Valois and Medici families.17 Her commissioning of the tapestries illustrates her strategic use of art to further her political goals and to ensure the enduring legacy of her family in the French court.18 Further, Catherine de Medici’s strategic use of art as a diplomatic tool was in keeping with a common practice in the Renaissance, where the patronage of artists and the commissioning of works were often employed by rulers and nobles to enhance their prestige, promote political agendas, and strengthen alliances.19

9 Thomas P Campbell, “European Tapestry Production and Patronage,” The Met 11, (October 2002), https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/taps/hd_taps.htm.

10 Cleveland Museum of Art, “Exploring Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries Exhibit.”

11 Neale, The Age of Catherine De Medici, 31.

12 Campbell, “European Tapestry Production and Patronage.”

13 The People Profiles, “Catherine de Medici- The Black Queen of France Documentary.”

14 Neale, The Age of Catherine De Medici, 40.

15 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 15.

16 Neale, The Age of Catherine De Medici, 51.

17 The People Profiles, “Catherine de Medici- The Black Queen of France Documentary.”

18 Ibid.

19 Elizabeth Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries (Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2019), 21.

Deciding to commission a glorious, massive celebration of her children and her sons’ reigns, the medium Catherine chose was tapestry. Tapestry is a medium of art, specifically textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom, consisting of intricate designs or images. Materials included silk, wool, and precious metal wrapped threads.20 They would typically be hung on the walls of castles. Most tapestries are significantly large, ranging from sizes such as ten feet by twelve feet, like the Valois Tapestries, to up to 20 feet by 30 feet. Further, tapestry as a medium provided insulation and warmth inside of castles and palaces in the colder months, adding to their appeal.21 Since these tapestries would be hung in large spaces and viewed by many, they were not mere adornments but instruments of diplomacy, designed to enhance the prestige of her children as future monarchs and to forge closer bonds between the Valois and Medici families. Her commissioning of the tapestries illustrates her strategic use of art to further her political goals and to ensure the enduring legacy of her family in the French court.

At the time of their commissioning, tapestry showed financial stability, a symbol of the kingdom’s power and wealth.22 They showed that there was disposable money to make such elaborate pieces. In the minds of foreigners and subjects, if a monarch could afford such massive expenses for a mere residence, party, or decoration, then that kingdom must be very rich. Further, Renaissance palaces were decorated from top to bottom with tapestry.23 Nothing proclaimed splendor quite like the monumental tapestries hanging on the walls of the ruling elite’s palaces, castles, and cathedrals. This made tapestry the perfect medium, as Catherine not only wanted to commemorate her children and their Valois heritage, but also diplomatically wanted to increase the status of the Valois family in the eyes of foreigners.24

The Valois Tapestries were crafted using exquisite materials that reflected the wealth and opulence of the French court. These tapestries were woven with luxurious silk threads, which added a richness and luster to the intricate designs.25 Additionally, precious metal-wrapped threads, such as silver and gold, were used to embellish the tapestries, adding a shimmering quality to the scenes depicted.26 The inclusion of these precious materials not only enhanced the visual appeal of the tapestries but also served as a testament to the wealth and power of the Valois dynasty.

The tapestries were woven by a team of weavers in the Burgundian Netherlands in Brussels, shortly after 1580.27 However, the exact designers and weavers are unknown, as they retained anonymity following their creation. Due to the size of the tapestries, all around 12 feet by 10 feet, were made in Brussels. Smaller tapestries were made in England, and larger tapestries in Brussels. This was due to the limitations of the English looms, which were smaller and less technologically advanced compared to those in continental Europe. Brussels, however, was renowned for its skilled weavers and larger looms capable of producing grand, monumental tapestries.28

The Valois Tapestries are remarkable for their exclusivity with only one, or possibly two, editions ever woven, likely due to the series’ specific subject matter.29 The tapestries feature elegant borders adorned with fanciful style decorations, creating the illusion that they are flush with the wall. The scenes within the tapestries are meticulously crafted, with the space

20 Campbell, “European Tapestry Production and Patronage.”

21 Ibid.

22 Anna Ingram, “Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries” Daily Art Magazine, June 3, 2022,https:// www.dailyartmagazine.com/valois-tapestries/.

23 Ibid., 13.

24 Ibid., 23.

25 Thomas P. Campbell, “How Medieval and Renaissance Tapestries Were Made.”

26 Campbell, “European Tapestry Production and Patronage.”

27 Ingram, Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 13.

28 Madeline Jerry, “15th Century Tapestry,” Encyclopedia Britannica, March 1, 2022, https://www. britannica.com/art/tapestry/15th-century.

29 Ingram, Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 33.

appearing to recede into the distance while full-length portraits of royalty stand prominently in the foreground. Most of the scenes depicted in the tapestries recall events from the reigns of Catherine’s sons, particularly in the 1560s, providing a historical narrative of the era.30 Additionally, while the background scenes in many of the tapestries depict the extravagances of the past, the full-length portraits of current Valois rulers bring the tapestries into the contemporary context of the 1570s during the reign of Henri III, adding a sense of immediacy and relevance to the artwork.31

Three main themes can be seen in these tapestries; diplomacy, unity, and admiration. These themes highlight Catherine’s goals of promoting the Valois dynasty and her children. The theme of diplomacy is best seen in the series is the tapestry Polish Ambassadors (Figure 1) created in 1576.32 This tapestry is a representation of the Valois dynasty and its allies working together and spending time together. This specific scene is of a diplomatic mission from the Kingdom of Poland to the court of King Henri III of France in the 1570s.33 Two envoys were sent by King Stephen Báthory of Poland to the court of King Henri III of France. The primary goal of the mission was to strengthen the political and military alliance between Poland and France against the Habsburg Empire, a common adversary.34 Additionally, the ambassadors aimed to negotiate a marriage alliance between the French king and a Polish noblewoman, Anna Jagiellon, to further solidify the alliance.35 The outcome of the mission was largely successful. The ambassadors presented lavish gifts, including the renowned Persian carpet and ostrich eggs, which impressed the French court. The negotiations for the marriage alliance were also promising, although the marriage did not ultimately materialize due to various political complexities.36 Nonetheless, the mission contributed to the deepening of political and cultural ties between Poland and France during this period.

The composition of Polish Ambassadors is rich in detail and symbolism, reflecting the artistry and craftsmanship of the 16th-century tapestry workshops. The central scene depicts the ambassadors from Poland presenting their gifts to the French court, with meticulous attention to detail in their attire and the objects they are offering.37 The Polish are interacting with the French in a cordial way, some are sitting and talking while others are walking around together. The ambassador’s outfits make them stand out in the tapestry, showing how the French court interacted with various groups and peoples. On the far right of the tapestry there are musicians performing music for the attendants. Further, Catherine de Medici herself is depicted in this tapestry. She is seated in the center of the scene, wearing all black to symbolize her continued mourning over her husband’s death, while also showing the wealth of the Valois dynasty, as black dye was very expensive.38 Her black outfit also helps her to stand out from the colorful scene, immediately catching the viewer’s eye. She is seated in a fancy chair, listening to the music being played. There is another fancy chair next to her for her son, but this chair is empty as he is in the foreground of the composition, engaging with other subjects rather than sitting next to his mother and watching the scene unfold.

The background features a lush, garden-like setting, typical of tapestries from this period, symbolizing fertility and abundance.39 The garden setting contains various statues and a fountain, among which figures are walking. A large castle can be seen in the distance, the home

30 Campbell, “How Medieval and Renaissance Tapestries Were Made.”

31 Neale, The Age of Catherine De Medici, 51.

32 Ingram, Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 72.

33 Ibid. 72.

34 Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, “Henry III,” Encyclopedia Britannica, April 1, 2022, https:// www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-III-king-of-France-and-Poland.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.

37 Ingram, Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 74.

38 Neale, The Age of Catherine De Medici, 51.

39 Ingram, Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 72.

of the Valois family.40 The setting depicted in the background shows the wealth and status of the Valois family, as they live in a large house surrounded by large gardens, big enough to host close to 100 people.

This tapestry employs a technique known as reverse perspective to create a sense of depth and immersion in the scene.41 Unlike traditional linear perspective, where parallel lines converge at a vanishing point, reverse perspective has the lines diverge, making the background appear smaller and the scene stretch out towards the viewer.42 This technique gives the impression that the viewer is stepping into the tapestry, experiencing the scene firsthand. The use of reverse perspective in the tapestry enhances its immersive quality, drawing the viewer into the lavish world of the French court and the diplomatic mission from Poland.

The foreground of the tapestry features King Henri III, the only figure breaking the fourth wall and looking directly at the viewer.43 All of the other figures are either facing into the tapestry or engaging in conversation with other figures, yet his figure appears in a commanding stance, peering out of the tapestry.44 His figure is the largest and most prominent in the scene, emphasizing his status and importance. Henri III’s gaze creates a sense of connection with the viewer, drawing them into the tapestry’s narrative, and simultaneously suggests his focus on all of the people in his kingdom, from visiting ambassadors to viewers of the tapestry. This connection is crucial as it not only engages the viewer in the artwork but also reflects Henri III’s desire to be seen as a ruler who is attentive and accessible to his subjects, even in a visual representation of his court. Viewers of the tapestries would have included aristocratic French people and court members who supported the Valois rule.45 Therefore Henri’s connection with the viewer is all the more important because he needs the support of the court, as without their support, the Valois line would be in trouble.

Flanking Henri III are the two Polish ambassadors, who are visibly shorter in stature. Their figures are turned inward, facing into the tapestry and towards the central scene of the diplomatic exchange. This positioning and use of hierarchy of scale not only highlights Henri III’s dominance in the composition but also symbolizes his role as the central figure in the diplomatic interaction between France and Poland.46

As mentioned earlier, the throne next to Catherine de Medici is empty. This symbolizes the diplomatic status and priorities of the Valois dynasty.47 The absence of Henri III from the throne signifies his active engagement in diplomatic affairs, particularly his interaction with the Polish ambassadors in this scene. This gesture highlights the importance of diplomacy in the political strategy of the Valois dynasty, emphasizing their commitment to maintaining and strengthening international alliances.48 The empty throne serves as a visual cue to the viewer, indicating that Henri III’s role as a diplomat and statesman is paramount, even in the ceremonial setting of the court. This highlights his active engagement with and strengthening of alliances, portraying him as an active monarch rather than a passive ruler.

Another notable aspect of the composition is the intricate border that surrounds the central scene. The border is adorned with elaborate patterns and motifs, including floral designs, mythological creatures, and heraldic symbols.49 These decorative elements serve to frame the central scene and enhance its visual impact. The use of vibrant colors and intricate 40 Ibid., 74.

41 Peter Ablinger, “Inverted Perspective,” Baroque Architecture, October 20, 2015, https://ablinger. mur.at/txt_inverted-perspective.html.

42 Ablinger, “Inverted Perspective”

43 Ingram, Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 75.

44 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 30.

45 Ibid.

46 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 31.

47 Ingram, Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 74.

48 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 32.

49 Ibid., 17.

patterns in the border reflects the tapestry’s function as a luxury object, meant to adorn the walls of a noble residence and impress viewers with its beauty and sophistication.50 The detail and color of the border compliments the main scene while not taking away from the focus of the tapestry.

Polish Ambassadors not only showcases the status and prestige of the Valois dynasty and the French court but also aims to portray them in a favorable light to the public, serving as a statement of their grandeur and influence.51 The tapestry’s elaborate depiction of the diplomatic mission and the exchange of gifts serves to glorify the French monarchy, presenting it as a powerful and sophisticated patron of the arts and diplomacy.52 By highlighting the opulence and grandeur of the court, the tapestry seeks to impress and awe its viewers, reinforcing the perception of the Valois dynasty as a noble and virtuous ruling family. The tapestry’s portrayal of the French court as a center of culture, diplomacy, and luxury would have reinforced the image of the Valois dynasty as a beacon of civilization and magnificence in the eyes of the public.53 Polish Ambassadors stands as a testament to Catherine de Medici’s strategic use of art as a tool for diplomacy to showcase the strength and status of the Valois dynasty, reflecting her deep devotion to her French family and her desire to uphold and enhance their legacy through artistic and cultural endeavors.54

Along with the theme of diplomacy, another prevalent theme in the tapestries is unity between the Valois and Medici dynasties. Though Catherine physically united these two dynasties through her marriage to King Henri II, she wanted to further represent this unity in the tapestries themselves.55 Through emphasizing the union of the Valois and Medici families, Catherine sought to establish a sense of continuity and legitimacy for her children’s reign. Part of her commissioning of the Valois Tapestries was to promote this message of unity and to reinforce the idea of a strong and stable dynasty, blending the heritage and traditions of both families.56 The theme of unity is most prominent in the tapestry Elephant (Figure 2), 1576. There are various symbols depicted in the tapestry showing this theme, such as an elephant, castles, flags, and the arms of both France and Italy.57

Defying the norm for tapestries, there is no apparent narrative or story in this specific piece. The scene depicted in Elephant primarily focuses on an elephant carrying a castle on its back, adorned with the arms of the Valois, the Medici, and Tuscany.58 Surrounding the elephant are various figures engaged in activities, but there is no clear indication of a specific narrative or event taking place. Although there is no storyline in this tapestry, the theme of unity is clear. The tapestry is more symbolic in nature, representing themes of strength, power, and dynastic heritage rather than depicting a specific scene or story.59

The most direct symbol of the unity of the two dynasties is seen in the featuring of both the arms of the Medici family and the Valois family on the castle carried on the elephant. On the back of the elephant is a small castle carrying multiple people. Two sides of this small castle can be seen, each decorated by either the arms of the Medici family or the arms of the Valois family. The inclusion of the arms of both families symbolizes their unity and the consolidation of their power through Catherine and Henri II’s marriage.60 The presence of both sets of arms on the castle carried by the elephant signifies not only the marital bond between Catherine

50 Ingram, Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 61.

51 The People Profiles, “Catherine de Medici- The Black Queen of France Documentary.”

52 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 29.

53 Cleveland Museum of Art, “Exploring Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries Exhibit.”

54 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 34.

55 Ingram, Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 44.

56 The People Profiles, “Catherine de Medici- The Black Queen of France Documentary.”

57 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 46.

58 Ingram, Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 60.

59 Ibid., 60.

60 Neale, The Age of Catherine De Medici, 51.

and Henri but also the blending of their respective family legacies. This visual representation of unity served to strengthen the legitimacy of Catherine’s children as heirs to the combined heritage of both the Valois and Medici dynasties, thereby reinforcing their claim to the throne of France.61

Along with the Medici and Valois arms being depicted on the castle, the Tuscan arms are also featured, depicted on a banner on the side of the elephant. The inclusion of the Tuscan arms in addition to the Medici and Valois arms in the Elephant tapestry reflects Catherine de Medici’s goal of using the tapestries to show her devotion to her own heritage and lineage. Catherine was born into the powerful Medici family of Florence, which ruled over Tuscany.62 By featuring the Tuscan arms alongside those of the Valois and Medici, the tapestry emphasizes Catherine’s connection to both families and her role in uniting them through her marriage to Henry II of France. It also serves to highlight the significance of Catherine’s Florentine background and the influence it had on her position and power within the French court. Thus, the inclusion of the Tuscan arms underscores the multi-faceted nature of Catherine’s identity and the complex web of alliances and relationships that shaped her political influence in Renaissance Europe.

Further, the arms being carried by an elephant is another symbol of the unity of the two dynasties. The elephant symbolizes the unity and strength of the Valois and Medici families, two powerful dynasties in the Renaissance. The elephant was a rare and exotic animal in Europe at the time, often associated with qualities such as wisdom, strength, and nobility.63 Its inclusion in the tapestry likely served to convey the idea of the families’ grandeur and magnificence. The tapestry portrays the elephant adorned with intricate and lavish decorations, such as ornamental coverings and decorative trappings.64 These embellishments not only highlight the wealth and opulence of the Valois and Medici families but also symbolize the union of their interests and ambitions. The elephant’s regal appearance suggests a merging of the two families’ identities, emphasizing their shared goals and values. By both of them being associated with the elephant they are depicted as two strong and powerful families working together.

The background scene in Elephant features two castles, one in the upper left corner and one in the upper right.65 These two castles can also be seen as a symbolization of the unity between the Valois and Medici dynasties. The castle on the upper left is traditionally associated with the Valois dynasty, as it features the arms of the Valois family. The castle on the upper right represents the Medici family. The two castles are positioned symmetrically, suggesting a harmonious blending of the two lineages. They are around the same size, showing their shared status as well. Both are also holding numerous guests, who can be seen peering out of the windows and entering and exiting the castle doors.

In Renaissance art and symbolism, castles often carried complex meanings that extended beyond their architectural significance. Castles were not only symbols of power and authority but also represented the idea of the fortified stronghold, suggesting protection, security, and stability.66 In the context of the tapestry Elephant, the two castles depicted in the background can be seen as symbols of the Valois and Medici families’ desire to fortify their alliance and ensure the security and stability of their union. Catherine de Medici, known for her patronage

61 The People Profiles, “Catherine de Medici- The Black Queen of France Documentary.”

62 John Gallaher, “Medici Family,” Encyclopedia Britannica, February 16, 2024, https://www. britannica.com/topic/Medici-family.

63 Laura Orsi, “The Emblematic Elephant: A Preliminary Approach to the Elephant in Renaissance Thought and Art,” Academia, March 16, 2017, https://www.academia.edu/31889305/THE_ EMBLEMATIC_ELEPHANT_A_PRELIMINARY_APPROACH_TO_THE_ELEPHANT_IN_ RENAISSANCE_THOUGHT_AND_ART. .

64 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 33.

65 Ibid., 33.

66 Johanna Woods-Marsden, “Images of Castles in the Renaissance,” Art Journal, August 2, 2014, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00043249.1989.10792600.

of the arts and her interest in Renaissance culture, was deeply involved in not only the commissioning but also the production of the Valois Tapestries 67 She sought to incorporate Renaissance elements and motifs into these tapestries as a way to promote the cultural and artistic ideals of the Renaissance, blending them with existing French artistic trends such as depictions of courtly life.68 The inclusion of the castles in the tapestry can be viewed as part of Catherine’s larger efforts to infuse these works with symbolic meaning and allegorical significance, aligning them with the artistic and intellectual trends of the time.

Furthermore, the symmetrical placement of the castles in the background of the tapestry reflects the Renaissance fascination with symmetry and balance, both in art and in the natural world.69 This symmetrical composition not only enhances the visual appeal of the tapestry but also reinforces the idea of harmony and unity between the Valois and Medici families, highlighting their shared vision and goals.70 Overall, the inclusion of the castles in Elephant can be seen as a deliberate choice to incorporate an at the time common symbol and motif into the artwork. This reflects Catherine de Medici’s desire to promote the cultural ideals of the Renaissance and French art, as castles were common symbols in both, while also emphasizing the unity and strength of the Valois and Medici families.

Along with the theme of unity, the tapestry Elephant (Figure 2) also ties into Catherine’s theme of devotion, specifically through the inclusion of the elephant in the tapestry. As well as being symbols of unity and strength, elephants are also an age-old symbol of wisdom and longevity, representing Catherine’s devotion to her children and their dynastic heritage, as well as her efforts to secure the future of the Valois dynasty.71 The choice of the elephant as a symbol in the tapestry is significant. Elephants are known for their strong familial bonds and protective instincts, mirroring Catherine’s own dedication to her children. Additionally, elephants were often associated with wisdom and strength in Renaissance symbolism, qualities that Catherine wished to instill in her offspring as they navigated the complexities of courtly life and political intrigue.72

Moreover, the elephant’s presence in the tapestry can be viewed as a statement of Catherine’s commitment to the Valois dynasty. Despite being a member of the Medici family, Catherine fully embraced her role as a Valois queen and sought to strengthen the dynasty’s hold on the French throne.73 The elaborate decorations adorning the elephant in the tapestry further emphasize Catherine’s desire to showcase the grandeur and prestige of the Valois lineage. In essence, the elephant in the Valois Tapestry Elephant serves a double meaning, symbolizing the unity between the two families while also symbolizing Catherine de Medici’s unwavering devotion to her children and their Valois heritage.74 It stands as a testament to her role as a central figure in the history of the Valois dynasty, highlighting her efforts to ensure its continuation and prosperity.

Depicted in the tapestry are again prominent members of the Valois family. The foreground of Elephant features large portraits of King Henri III, Margaret of Valois, and Duke Francis.75 King Henri III of France, who reigned from 1574 to 1589, is the most prominently featured figure in the tapestry.76 He is depicted in regal attire, symbolizing his royal status and authority. Henri III’s presence in the tapestry underscores his role as the central figure in the Valois

67 The People Profiles, “Catherine de Medici- The Black Queen of France Documentary.”

68 Ingram, Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 50.

69 Woods-Marsden, “Images of Castles in the Renaissance.”

70 Neale, The Age of Catherine De Medici, 47.

71 Orsi, “The Emblematic Elephant: A Preliminary Approach to the Elephant in Renaissance Thought and Art.”

72 Neale, The Age of Catherine De Medici, 55.

73 Ibid., 25.

74 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 33.

75 Ibid., 33.

76 Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, “Henry III.”

dynasty and highlights his connection to the Medici family through his mother, Catherine de Medici. Margaret of Valois, Catherine’s daughter, is also depicted in the tapestry. She is depicted in elegant attire, reflecting her status as a princess of France. Duke Francis, Catherine’s son is another figure depicted in the tapestry. Francis was a prominent figure in French politics and was considered a potential suitor for Queen Elizabeth I of England.77 His inclusion in the tapestry, along with the other Valois family members, highlights the importance of the Valois dynasty’s male heirs and suggests the tapestry’s role in celebrating and legitimizing their rule. Elephant stands as a powerful symbol of unity and devotion within the Valois and Medici families.78 Through its depiction of the arms of the families, the elephant, symbolizing strength and wisdom, and the two castles, representing the fortified alliance between the two families, the tapestry reinforces the idea of a cohesive and formidable union. Catherine de Medici’s devotion to her children and their Valois heritage is evident in the tapestry’s imagery, emphasizing her role as a central figure in ensuring the continuity and prosperity of the Valois dynasty.79 Overall, the tapestry serves as a testament to the enduring bonds of family and the importance of alliances in Renaissance politics, encapsulating the ideals of unity that defined the era.

Along with the theme of diplomacy, another prevalent theme in the tapestries is devotion to Catherine’s children and their dynastic heritage. Catherine chose to portray the theme of devotion to her children and their dynastic heritage in the Valois Tapestries as a means of legitimizing her family’s rule and securing their future for generations to come.80 She understood the importance of visual propaganda and used the tapestries to convey her commitment to the Valois dynasty. Thus, this theme served as a strategic tool for Catherine to assert and perpetuate her family’s legacy in the annals of French history. The theme of devotion can best be seen in the tapestry Whale (Figure 3).81 This tapestry depicts a banquet given in celebration of the marriage of Catherine’s daughter Margaret Valois to Henry of Navarre, held by Catherine in 1565, on an island on the Adour river.82 Catherine chose to include this event in the Valois Tapestries as it was a significant moment in the Valois court, as the marriage of Margaret to Henry was a strategic move aimed at reconciling the Catholic and Protestant factions in France, which were deeply divided by religious conflict at the time.83 Further, by including this scene Catherine could truly show her devotion to her children and their heritage.

In the center of the scene is a large, artificial whale. The whale appears to almost attack the boats carrying the visitors, but just in time King Henri III, one of Catherine’s sons and the current king of France at the time, defeats the whale, saving the visitors.84 The depiction of her son attacking and defeating the artificial whale in the center of the tapestry exemplifies Catherine’s high regard for him and her goal of portraying him in a positive light to the public. The whale, symbolizing the unpredictability and challenges of life, is a formidable foe in the tapestry.85 Henri III’s triumph over the whale symbolizes his strength, courage, and leadership, qualities that Catherine wanted to highlight to bolster his image as a capable and powerful monarch. By showcasing Henri’s victory over such a symbolic creature, Catherine aimed to garner admiration and respect for her son, reinforcing his position as a strong and effective

77 Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, “Francis II,” Encyclopedia Britannica, March 4, 2024, https:// www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-II-king-of-France.

78 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 33.

79 Neale, The Age of Catherine De Medici, 62.

80 The People Profiles, “Catherine de Medici- The Black Queen of France Documentary.”

81 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 35.

82 Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, “Margaret of Valois.”

83 Ibid.

84 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 35.

85 Barbra Boehm and Melanie Holcomb, “Animals in Medieval Art,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Heilbrunn TImeline of Art History, October 1, 2021,https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ best/hd_best.htm.

ruler in the eyes of the public.86

Further, the sea god Neptune is depicted in this scene, aiding Henri III. He is in the upper center of the tapestry, depicted as approaching Henri III in the water. The inclusion of the god Neptune accompanying him serves to elevate Henri’s image by associating him with the powerful and authoritative figure of Neptune, the god of the sea in Roman mythology.87 Neptune is often seen as a symbol of strength, control, and mastery, reflecting qualities that Catherine de Medici wished to emphasize in her portrayal of her son.88 This association would have helped to further foster Catherine’s goals of portraying Henri III in a positive light, reinforcing his image as a strong and respected monarch. As Neptune is an admirable figure in Roman mythology, tying her son to this powerful figure showcases her own admiration for him, while increasing his status in the eyes of the public.

Along with Neptune, there are many other mythological creatures in or near the water. Neptune is accompanied by two mermaids.89 Parallel to Neptune and the accompanying mermaids are five other mermaids, sitting on a rock and blowing into horns. These figures are placed to evoke a sense of wonder and enchantment.90 These mythical elements were commonly used in Renaissance art to add a sense of fantastical beauty and allegorical depth to the artwork.91 In the context of the tapestry, the inclusion of mermaids and other mythical creatures serves to enhance the scene’s visual appeal and to create a rich and vibrant tapestry of symbols and imagery.92 They serve not necessarily to add to the theme of devotion, but rather to draw viewers in and captivate them, causing them to look further into the tapestry and look at the entire scene.

This ties back into Catherine using these tapestries to blend Renaissance and French artistic values. As patron of the arts with a deep appreciation for Renaissance culture, she sought to elevate the artistic quality of the tapestries by incorporating elements of classical mythology and Renaissance symbolism.93 French tapestries at the time contained elements more related to religion than mythology, but Catherine wanted direct references to mythology in the Valois Tapestries,directly incorporating Renaissance elements.94 By including mythological figures, Catherine aimed to infuse the tapestries with a sense of classical beauty and sophistication, aligning them with the artistic ideals of the Renaissance. These mythological elements served to elevate the tapestries from mere decorative objects to works of art that conveyed deeper symbolic and allegorical meanings.95

Furthermore, the inclusion of Renaissance motifs in the Valois Tapestries reflected Catherine’s desire to promote a sense of cultural refinement and sophistication at the French court.96 By blending Renaissance and French artistic values, Catherine sought to create a visual language that was both elegant and intellectually stimulating, embodying the ideals

86 Neale, The Age of Catherine De Medici, 60.

87 Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, “Neptune,” Encyclopedia Britannica, March 14, 2024, https:// www.britannica.com/topic/Neptune-Roman-god.

88 Ibid.

89 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 35.

90 Neale, The Age of Catherine De Medici, 60.

91 Luba Freedman, “Classical Myths in Italian Renaissance Painting,” Cambridge University Press Online, March 14, 2019, https://assets.cambridge.org/97811070/01190/excerpt/9781107001190_ excerpt.htm#:~:text=During%20the%20Renaissance%2C%20and%20primarily,defeating%20 the%20Giants%2C%20the%20abduction.

92 Ibid.

93 Ibid.

94 Campbell, “How Medieval and Renaissance Tapestries Were Made.”

95 Freedman, “Classical Myths in Italian Renaissance Painting.”

96 The People Profiles, “Catherine de Medici- The Black Queen of France Documentary.”

of Renaissance humanism.97 Overall, the incorporation of Renaissance motifs, such as mythological figures, in the Valois Tapestries exemplifies Catherine de Medici’s efforts to blend artistic traditions and create a cultural synthesis that reflected the intellectual and artistic spirit of the Renaissance.

The foreground of the scene features a boat full of spectators, including Catherine de Medici herself. She is again portrayed in all black, and even though she is facing into the scene and the viewer cannot see her face, her clothing makes it apparent that it is her.98 This again shows Catherine’s desire to display and promote an image of herself as a faithful widow and devoted mother.99 The boat full of spectators in the tapestry further demonstrates Catherine’s goal of admiration for her children, in this case Henri III, by portraying the onlookers in a state of awe. The spectators are depicted talking amongst themselves, pointing, and watching the scene with rapt attention, clearly impressed by Henri’s defeat of the whale.100 Their gestures and expressions suggest a sense of wonder and adoration for Henri’s strength and skill, reinforcing the idea that he is a powerful and respected ruler. This depiction would have served to enhance Henri III’s image in the eyes of the public, highlighting his bravery and prowess in a way that would have garnered admiration and respect for him as a monarch. Even the people on the riverbank are drawn in and captivated, looking at the scene unfolding in the water.101

In this tapestry, all of the figures are depicted as actively engaged in and captivated by the scene, either participating in the activities or observing them with reverence. This depiction creates a sense of unity and shared admiration among the characters, reinforcing the idea of a strong and respected dynasty. Additionally, by showing her family members as active participants in the scenes, Catherine highlights their importance and relevance, further enhancing their image and legacy in the eyes of the viewers.102

The scene depicted in the upper right of the Whale tapestry, where shepherds are dancing to French horns on the riverbank, serves as a metaphor for the provinces of France and ties into the themes promoted by Catherine de Medici.103 The shepherds, representing the people of France, are shown joyfully celebrating, which can be interpreted as their praise and loyalty to the monarchy. The French horns, traditional symbols of French culture and identity, further emphasize the patriotic sentiment of the scene.104 This portrayal of unity and celebration among the provinces of France reinforces Catherine’s message of devotion to the Valois dynasty and suggests that the people of France are united in their admiration and support for Henri III, strengthening the image of a stable and harmonious kingdom under his rule.

Along with herself, many other prominent members of the Valois family are depicted in the foreground of the composition, including again King Henry III, King Henry IV, Margaret of Valois, and Charles III, Duke of Lorraine, to showcase her devotion to her family and their dynastic legacy.105 Henri III is depicted twice to show his role in protecting his people while also being an active regent. These prominent figures depicted were not only Catherine’s relatives but also key figures in the Valois dynasty and the history of France, especially Charles the III, who was a key member of the Valois court, responsible for the political and cultural landscape of Renaissance France.106 By featuring them prominently in the tapestries, Catherine

97 Mark Cartwright, “Renaissance Humanism,” World History Encyclopedia, November 4, 2020, https://www.worldhistory.org/Renaissance_Humanism/.

98 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 35.

99 Ingram, Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 33.

100 Neale, The Age of Catherine De Medici, 64.

101 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 35.

102 Ingram, Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 30.

103 Jerry, “15th Century Tapestry.”

104 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 30.

105 Ibid., 35.

106 Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, “Charles III,” Encyclopedia Britannica, February 21, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-III-king-of-France.

emphasizes the importance of her family’s lineage and their contributions to the kingdom. This portrayal serves to honor their memory and legacy, as well as to strengthen the ties between the different branches of the Valois family. It also reinforces Catherine’s own position within the dynasty and her role as a protector and preserver of her family’s heritage.107 These figures are all the largest in the composition, again to show Catherine’s love for them and to further the public’s admiration for them as well. This specific tapestry has the most of Catherine’s children depicted out of the entire Valois Tapestry series, further making this tapestry the perfect representation of Catherine’s love for them.

Whale, with its detailed scenes and symbolic imagery, stands as a prime example of Catherine de Medici’s theme of admiration for her family and the Valois dynasty. The scene depicted not only celebrates Henri III’s strength and prowess but also highlights the unity and devotion of the French people for their monarch.108 This theme of admiration is crucial in the Whale tapestry, as it helps to reinforce Henri III’s image as a strong and capable ruler, worthy of respect and loyalty. Through this tapestry, Catherine sought to strengthen the legitimacy of her family’s rule and secure their position within the French court, ensuring the continued success and prosperity of the Valois dynasty.109

This tapestry not only exemplifies the theme of admiration but also ties into the theme of devotion, particularly Catherine de Medici’s loyalty to her son and current king of France, Henri III, along with the Valois dynasty. The tapestry’s depiction of Henri III’s victory over the whale can be seen as a metaphor for his triumph over adversity and challenges to his rule.110 Catherine’s commissioning of this tapestry and its inclusion in the series of Valois Tapestries reflects her deep devotion to her son and her desire to portray him in a positive light. Additionally, the tapestry’s depiction of spectators in awe can be interpreted as a representation of the loyalty of the French people to their monarch. Overall, the Whale tapestry serves as a testament to Catherine de Medici’s unwavering allegiance to her family and their dynasty, as well as to the enduring devotion of the French people to their king.

The Valois Tapestries are remarkable not only for their historical significance but also for their artistic value, blending Renaissance and French artistic traditions. The tapestries reflect the Renaissance interest in classical motifs, symbolism, and intricate details, characteristic of the artistic style of the period.111 This is evident in the meticulous depiction of figures, landscapes, and objects, as well as the use of rich colors and luxurious materials. It can also be seen clearly in the mythological elements, as these were themes commonly depicted in Renaissance art, especially painting.112

At the same time, the Valois Tapestries also incorporate elements of French artistic traditions and French culture, particularly in their portrayal of French courtly life and ceremonies. The tapestries depict scenes of royal banquets, diplomatic missions, and other courtly activities, capturing the grandeur and opulence of the French court.113 This blending of Renaissance and French artistic values not only showcases Catherine de Medici’s appreciation for both traditions but also serves as a visual representation of the cultural and artistic richness of the French Renaissance.

The Valois Tapestries serve as magnificent reflections of the intricate political, cultural, and familial dynamics of Renaissance France. These tapestries, crafted with meticulous detail and rich symbolism, not only depict diplomatic exchanges and courtly scenes but also convey deeper themes of unity, devotion, and admiration within the Valois and Medici families. Through her

107 Ingram, Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 50.

108 Cleland, Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 35.

109 Ingram, Catherine de Medici’s Valois Tapestries, 36.

110 Neale, The Age of Catherine De Medici, 57. .

111 Cartwright, “Renaissance Humanism.”

112 Freedman, “Classical Myths in Italian Renaissance Painting.”

113 The People Profiles, “Catherine de Medici- The Black Queen of France Documentary.”

strategic patronage of these artworks, Catherine de Medici aimed to showcase the prestige and power of the Valois dynasty while reinforcing its connections to the broader European political landscape. The tapestries stand as enduring testaments to Catherine’s mastery of art as a tool for diplomacy and propaganda, as well as her dedication to preserving and enhancing her family’s legacy for future generations.

List of Illustrations

Figure 1. Polish Ambassadors, 1576, 12x10 ft, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence.

Figure 2. Elephant, 1576, 12x10 ft, Gallerie degli Uffizi Florence.

Figure 3. Whale, 1576, 12x10 ft, Gallerie degli Uffizi Florence

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

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About the Author

Gillian Stolz is a junior at Christopher Newport University, majoring in Art History with minors in Museum Studies and Medieval and Renaissance Studies. She is active on campus as a member of Kappa Pi Art Honors Society, Eta Sigma Phi Classics Honors Society and will be interning for the Torggler Fine Arts Center in the fall semester. After graduating in December of 2024, Gillian plans to pursue a PhD in Art History to become a professor.

State Level Abortion Policy: Protecting a Woman’s Access to Healthcare

Irene Thornton

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Michelle Barnello, Department of Political Science

Abstract

The public policy debate on abortion regulation has become one of the most important topics in contemporary American politics. When the Supreme Court of the United States decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), the debate was sent directly to state legislatures to determine the future of abortion policy in their respective states. This paper seeks to propose public policy solutions regarding abortion regulation on the state level with a focus on protecting a woman’s access to healthcare. Beginning with a review of the relevant legal history, this paper will analyze the political importance of abortion policy as well as ongoing challenges as a result of the Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v. Wade (1973). An overview of alterative policies to direct regulation of abortion will follow. Finally, this paper will conclude with a series of state level public policy solutions to regulate abortion whilst protecting a woman’s access to healthcare.

Introduction

Abortion regulation is one of the nation’s most highly debated and controversial policy topics of the contemporary era. Across the country, politicians and voters are debating in state houses and at their kitchen tables how to address what can be a sensitive subject for many. As the debate circulates through the states, the question has arisen: What is the most effective and comprehensive policy solution that regulates abortion and protects a woman’s access to healthcare? Given the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) to return full control of abortion regulation back to the states, state governments must pass and sign into law policies that guarantee access for safe medical and surgical abortion, protect providers and patients from prosecution, eliminate medically unnecessary restrictions, provide insurance coverage, and promote the removal of economic and social barriers to care.

On the political left and right, lawmakers are debating aspects all the way down to the point of where life begins: conception, implantation, heartbeat, viability, etc. Additionally, Conservatives often argue that abortion procedures are more dangerous for a woman’s mental and physical health than carrying a child to term. However, scientific evidence has proven that morbidity risks are 14 times higher in childbirth than abortion (Raymond and Grimes 2012).  Regardless of which side of the political spectrum one aligns with, they will find inflammatory rhetoric that adds strife to the controversy. Conservatives often use language such as pro- or anti-life and liberals will use the terms pro- or anti-choice to describe their own perceived moralities and views of the opposition. Yet generally, 85% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal to some degree with 34% believing it should be legal in any circumstance and 51% in certain circumstances (Gallup 2023).

Crucial to note, not everyone in need of an abortion identifies as female. In this essay, the term woman is used to reflect a history of misogyny and problems typically faced by women trying to receive care. Issues faced by trans and non-binary people is an area for further research and analysis.

Background

Legal History

In American jurisprudence, the established legal right to an abortion is a relatively new concept. The right to an abortion, not explicitly guaranteed in the Constitution, has been derived from the implied right to privacy. This right was first decided in the landmark Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). Griswold was a test case to challenge the constitutionality of a 19th century Connecticut statute that banned contraceptive care. C. Lee Buxton, a gynecologist at the Yale School of Medicine, and Estelle Griswold, head of Connecticut’s Planned Parenthood, founded a clinic that would openly distribute contraceptives. Buxton and Griswold had initially sought to argue the case on the 14th Amendment’s due process clause (Griswold v. Conneticut 1965). In a 7-2 decision, Justice William Douglas wrote the majority opinion for the court and argued that the Constitution has an implied right to privacy which can be found in the First, Third, Fourth, and Ninth Amendments (Griswold v. Conneticut 1965). Justice Douglas writes in his majority opinion,

“the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance…The present case, then, concerns a relationship lying within the zone of privacy created by several fundamental constitutional guarantees…Would we allow the police to search the sacred precincts of marital bedrooms for telltale signs of the use of contraceptives? The very idea is repulsive to the notions of privacy surrounding the marriage relationship,” (Griswold v. Conneticut 1965).

The dissenting justices believed that finding an unwritten right to privacy was too broad a reading of the Constitution (Quimbee 2015). Nonetheless, this right to privacy became the basis upon which subsequent cases were based.

Less than a decade later, the Supreme Court decided another landmark case, Roe v. Wade (1973) in another 7-2 decision. The case stemmed from a Texas law that made it a crime to receive or perform an abortion with exceptions to save the woman’s life. Jane Roe, a pseudonym for the plaintiff, sued on the grounds that the Texas law was unconstitutionally vague and infringed upon her right to privacy that had been established in Griswold (Roe v. Wade 1973). In the majority opinion, written by Justice Harry Blackmun, the Court found, based on precedent established in Griswold and other cases, that a woman does have a right to privacy and that the state also has a legitimate interest in regulating abortion practices (Roe v. Wade 1973). Justice Blackmun’s opinion of the court determined three standards of regulation corresponding to each trimester of pregnancy. In the first trimester, the state is not allowed to regulate abortion; in the second, the state may establish regulations that are reasonably related to maternal health; and in the third, the state has the right to prohibit abortions with exceptions for threat to the mother’s life (Roe v. Wade 1973).

This became the standard rule by which state abortion policies were judged. States went in varying directions after the decision with some repealing their restrictive abortion policies and others continuing to establish more restrictions. Pennsylvania amended their abortion laws in the late 1980’s with adoptions that mandated informed consent from parents for minors and from husbands for married women, a 24-hour waiting period, reporting requirement for facilities performing abortions, and requirements that physicians disseminate stateprovided information to patients, among other restrictions (Planned Parenthood v. Casey 1992). Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania challenged these restrictions in court seeking a declaratory judgment that would render these laws unconstitutional along with injunctive relief (Planned Parenthood v. Casey 1992). A highly divided court ruled in a 5-4 decision that upheld the constitutional right to an abortion but created a new standard by which states could regulate the procedure.

Instead of strict scrutiny, the courts would use the undue burden standard to strike down invalid laws, “if its purpose or effect is to place substantial obstacles in the path of a woman seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability,” (Planned Parenthood v. Casey 1992). Through this decision, SCOTUS rejected the trimester framework, further emphasized that the state has a legitimate interest in protecting the potential life of a fetus, and allowed states to prohibit abortion after the point of fetal viability. Under this new standard, all of the Pennsylvania laws were upheld except for the requirement of married women to obtain informed consent from their husbands.

In 2022, SCOTUS ruled on Dobbs which ascended through the judiciary to determine the constitutionality of Mississippi’s law banning abortion after 15 weeks of gestation. The Dobbs decision overturned the precedential framework for constitutionally protected abortion that had been established during the latter half of the 20th century. In the courts 5-4 ruling, Justice Samuel Alito argued in the majority opinion that there is no right to an abortion as it is not explicitly enumerated in the Constitution nor is it implicitly guaranteed by the 14th Amendment due process clause (Dobbs v. JWHO 2022). The opinion returned full control of

abortion regulation back to the states on 10th Amendment grounds.

Political Importance

The Dobbs decision added a new wave of intensity to the abortion debate. While the opinion was delivered after most states had conducted their primary elections, there was plenty of time for candidates on both sides of the aisle to shift their campaign focus for the 2022 midterm elections. During a midterm election, the party of the president tends to lose seats. One theory for this is that voters will support the out-party as a means to balance policy (Bafumi, Erikson, and Wlezien 2010). However, in the 2022 midterms the Democratic party had a net gain of +1 seat in spite of the predicted red wave (Tumulty 2022). Given that 25% of voters said the overturning of Roe was the most important factor in their vote (Kirzinger, et al. 2022), it is reasonable to believe that the American electorate used the 2022 midterms as a means to balance policy from the Court’s conservative decision.

In 2023, the Virginia General Assembly held elections for all 140 seats in the House of Delegates and the Senate. The GOP candidates largely ran on a platform of restricting abortion with a 15-week gestational ban—a proposal from Governor Glenn Youngkin (R). Albeit by a slim margin, Democrats were able to maintain control of the Senate and regain control of the House of Delegates. By some measures, this election was viewed as a test case to see how voters would respond to locally elected officials running on conservative abortion policies—particularly given that Virginia’s gubernatorial election is often seen as a response to the presidential election due to taking place in an off year.

Other political tests for state abortion policy were shaped by referendums. Since Dobbs, six states across the country, conservative and liberal, voted on ballot initiatives that sought to either protect or restrict abortion. In every election, citizens voted favorably for policies protecting abortion and failed those which aimed to restrict it. All six of the ballot measures were addressing amendments to the respective state constitutions and two were citizen initiated—with more states expected to follow suit in 2024 (Felix, Sobel, and Salganicoff 2024). The 2024 presidential election has already begun to demonstrate the significance of the abortion debate in the national political arena. On the 51st anniversary of the Roe decision, President Biden held a rally to demonstrate his commitment to protecting the right to abortion. On the Republican side, Donald Trump posted to Truth Social in May 2023 that he, “was able to kill Roe v. Wade,” and more recently he has stated that he would support a national 15-week abortion ban (@realDonaldTrump 2023) (Astor 2024). Although neither the Democratic National Committee nor the Republican National Committee has selected their nominee for November’s general election, both front-runners have already campaigned heavily on their abortion stances. Recent polling shows that 1 in 8 voters named abortion as the number one most important issue in their vote and just under two thirds of people oppose a national 16-week abortion ban (KKF 2024). Presidential elections are rarely decided on one issue, but the debate surrounding abortion policy in a post-Dobbs society will continue to grow in its political importance.

Ongoing Challenges

As the court overturned Roe, the effects of the Dobbs decision were felt almost immediately. Pro-life groups began celebrating outside of the Supreme Court as Pro-Choice groups could be seen mourning. Politically, states had prepared and were waiting for this moment to happen. Within months of the Roe decision, South Dakota and Idaho passed trigger laws to ban most abortions (Berns 2009), and in the subsequent decades many other states had followed suit. A trigger law is a statute that contains substantive provisions that would be challenged under current judicial standards but do not go into effect until there is a change in constitutional law or other legislative developments (Harvard Law Review 2018). Many of these laws specifically cited the overturning of Roe as their trigger point. At the time that Dobbs was decided, more

than half of the states had some sort of trigger law on their books.

When Roe was initially decided in 1973, abortion restriction laws that did not comply with the new standard were ruled void and could not be enforced, but some states kept these laws on the books anyway. During the Roe era, several states passed laws that implemented a near ban on abortions with the understanding that they would be immediately blocked by the courts until there was a change in jurisprudence, but they did not contain specific trigger provisions. The Texas State Legislature passed a trigger law in 2021 banning all abortions except in cases of threat to the mother’s life that would go into effect 30 days after a SCOTUS decision overturning Roe either in whole or in part, any other SCOTUS decision that would allow states to prohibit abortion, or an amendment to the United States Constitution allowing states to prohibit abortion (HB 1280). Texas’ trigger law reflects many of the bans that states have attempted to or successfully passed in the post-Roe and pre-Dobbs era.

HB 1280 is one of the laws cited in the court case Cox v. Texas (2023). Kate Cox is a young woman in her early 30’s from the Dallas area of Texas. She became pregnant with her third child in the early fall of 2023, and in late November of that year her baby was diagnosed with trisomy 18—an often-fatal fetal condition (Cox v. Texas 2023). Most pregnancies that have received a trisomy 18 diagnosis do not make it to term and when they do the baby often dies within days if not minutes (Cleveland Clinic 2021). Cox’s doctors informed her that her condition was severe and that carrying to term would substantially increase the risk of future pregnancies making it unlikely that she would carry a third child to term later on (Cox v. Texas 2023). Due to Texas’ abortion ban from HB 1280 and SB 8, which banned abortions after detection of a fetal heartbeat, Cox was unable to obtain an abortion in her home state. Cox sued the state of Texas for injunctive relief and a temporary restraining order in district court which was later overturned by the Texas Supreme Court (Cox v. Texas 2023). Cox eventually traveled out of state for her abortion, but not until after a grueling court process that essentially determined her condition was not threatening enough to her health to warrant a medically necessary abortion.

Current Bans

The Texas ban, although not one of a kind, is among the most restrictive in the country. There are currently 14 states with total bans on abortion services and criminalization of the procedure, two states that ban abortions after 6 weeks, two states that ban abortions after 12 weeks (or the first trimester), and three states that ban between 15 and 18 weeks (NYT n.d.). These states are predominantly in the deep south and western plains regions of the United States. Several of these states have enacted heartbeat bills, many of which were enacted then blocked during the Roe era but became enforceable when the Dobbs decision was handed down.

Heartbeat bills prohibit abortion at the first sign of a fetal heartbeat, which can be detected as early as 6 weeks of gestation. After total bans, heartbeat bans are considered the most restrictive abortion policies given that most women do not even realize they are pregnant at this point. The obstructive nature of heartbeat bills has drawn widespread criticism. Some argue that these bills are simply covers for total bans. Other arguments focus on the biological ambiguity of what can be considered a true fetal heartbeat. Dr. Joshua Shaw, professor of philosophy and bioethics at Pennsylvania State University at Erie, asserts that the “heartbeat” detected at 6 weeks is a flickering of cells that will one day, but have not yet, become a heart, and it is not until about 20 weeks’ gestation that scans can pick up organized heart muscle tissue—when a fetal heartbeat is much more reliable (Shaw 2022, 862). However, since the Dobbs decision states have begun to opt for total bans or constitutional amendments rather than heartbeat bills.

Additional Restrictions and Effects

There is no official federal legislation that directly prohibits abortion, but Congress has addressed the issue numerous times. In 1977, just four years after the Roe decision, Republican Congressman Henry Hyde introduced what would become known as the Hyde Amendment to prevent federal funds from being used to cover abortion costs. The Hyde Amendment, named for its primary sponsor, was first attached as a rider to a spending bill for the Department of Labor and Department of Health and Human Services. Because of its impermanent status as a rider, it must be renewed during each congressional term to remain in effect and every president since its passing has signed off on legislation that includes it—including Democratic presidents who identify as pro-choice (Rovner 2009). Over the decades, the language of the Amendment has changed slightly, but exceptions have been made for cases of rape or incest and when the mother’s life is in at risk. Although the Hyde Amendment is attached to all sorts of legislative funding bills, it is primarily associated with Medicaid.

Other effects of the Dobbs decision include the closing of dozens of abortion clinics, including those who are no longer offering abortion services and those who have closed their doors entirely. The Turnaway Study, a ten-year longitudinal study published in 2020 that followed 1000 women who were either denied or granted wanted abortions, found that 23% of participants seeking first trimester abortions and 30% of women seeking second trimester abortions had to travel 100 miles to the nearest clinic (Foster 2020, 71). Since Dobbs was decided, 66 clinics in the deep south and Midwest have ceased providing abortion services and 26 have shut down entirely (Kirstein et al. 2022). With the number of clinics that have closed post-Dobbs, the percentage of women and the distance traveled has likely increased which places substantial time and cost burdens on women seeking necessary care.

Although many states have exceptions for rape or incest and threats to the mother’s life, one reason for the closure of abortion clinics is that doctors are less willing to provide care to their patients. Many obstetrician-gynecologists (OB-GYNs) have ceased their practices or moved to states with less restrictions. A recent study of 2000 medical professionals including current medical students, residents and fellows, and practicing physicians found that 80% would prefer to study or train in states with established abortion protections (Bernstein et al. 2023). Another study of OB-GYNs found that 93% of respondents were put into positions in which they could not follow clinical standards of care due to the state’s legal constraints (Sabbath et al. 2024). Two years after the Dobbs decision has already been enough time to show the adverse effects of such a ruling.

Alternative Policies

Contraceptive Care

Many people who oppose abortion do so on moral grounds. They believe in rights to personhood for the fetus and thus equate abortion with murder. Oftentimes, the goals of abortion opponents are to reduce the number of abortions, which can be a positive goal when approached with legitimate means. Global and public health researchers have conducted studies of abortion rates in countries where the healthcare procedure is legal and where it is illegal. The data showed that abortion occurs at relatively similar levels implying that restrictions to ban abortion do not actually reduce the number of procedures (Bearak et al. 2020). However, there are a number of policies that can reduce the number of unwanted or unintended pregnancies that would result in the desired or needed abortion procedures.

As aforementioned, the Supreme Court case, Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), guaranteed the freedom to access contraceptive care for married couples based on the right to privacy. In a 6-1 decision, SCOTUS ruled in Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972) that unmarried couples have the same right to access contraception as married couples. The decades since have proven the importance of contraception especially when considering the incredibly high rates of efficacy

when used correctly. The most common forms of contraception including the pill, IUDs, contraceptive patches, and vaginal rings are more than 99% effective at preventing pregnancies (Cleveland Clinic 2022). It is acknowledged that the only way to prevent pregnancy with 100% assurance is to remain abstinent. However, research trials have shown that providing no cost contraception to women and adolescents results in lower abortion rates and lower rates of teenage births (Peipert et al. 2012). The teenage birth rate for trial participants was nearly five times lower than that of the national rate with 6.3 per 1,000 for trial participants compared to the national rate of 34.1 per 1,000; additionally, the number of abortions performed declined by 20% in the local area in which the study was conducted compared to the broader state region (Peipert et al. 2012). When a woman decides to obtain an abortion, whatever the reason may be, it ultimately comes down to her deciding she cannot or does not want to be pregnant. If she can avoid becoming pregnant in the first place, the decision to obtain an abortion will become null.

However, there are several barriers to contraceptive care—among them, costs. In a society where healthcare costs are rising overall, many women cannot afford to use their preferred or any method of contraception at all. Data from the 2015–2019 National Surveys of Family Growth show that one quarter of women would use a different method of contraception and just under 40% of women not currently using contraception would start using a method if cost were not a barrier (Kavanaugh, Pliskin, and Hussain 2022). Widespread and affordable access to contraception for low-income women would not only limit abortion procedures, but it would also provide an important sense of reproductive autonomy to an often-marginalized group.

Currently, Medicare and Medicaid are required to cover 18 different methods of contraceptives approved by the FDA. State and private insurance plans are able to make their own decisions on if they choose to cover contraceptive care and which kinds. While Medicaid enrollment has increased over the years, there are still millions of Americans who are not covered. The Census Bureau estimates that in 2022 there were 26 million people who were uninsured (Keisler-Starkey, Bunch, and Lindstrom 2023). A study of California’s family planning program to provide effective contraceptive methods to low-income women “averted an estimated 205,000 unintended pregnancies, averting nearly 94,000 live births and 79,000 abortions,” and demonstrated that “the program saved federal, state, and local governments over $1.1 billion within 2 years after a pregnancy and $2.2 billion up to 5 years after,” (Amaral et al. 2007, 1977). Whether by increasing enrollment in Medicare and Medicaid, expanding contraceptive coverage within other public and private insurance programs, or providing contraceptives through social outreach programs, expanding access to low or no cost contraceptive care is a positive investment.

Comprehensive Sex Education

Several international and national organizations have endorsed comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) including the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The World Health Organization (2023) states that CSE,  “Gives young people accurate, age-appropriate information about sexuality and their sexual and reproductive health, which is critical for their health and survival…these programmes should be based on an established curriculum; scientifically accurate; tailored for different ages; and comprehensive, meaning they cover a range of topics on sexuality and sexual and reproductive health, throughout childhood and adolescence.”

Although widely supported, opponents of CSE programs in the U.S. argue that it interferes with the rights of parents and can be damaging to the child’s physical and emotional

well-being. However, research suggests that CSE is associated with lower levels of teen birth rates (Mark and Wu 2022). In many CSE programs, students will learn about anatomy, consent, abstinence, reproductive health, sexually transmitted infections (STI), as well as sexual orientation and gender identity.

Some school districts in the U.S. opt to have their CSE classes focus on general health for younger students and abstinence only education for older adolescents. Despite some misguided beliefs, abstinence only education does not actually limit teen births. An analysis of state sex education policies and teen pregnancy rates found that the states with abstinence only education had higher rates of teen pregnancy compared to states with comprehensive sex and STI education that included abstinence (Stanger-Hall and Hall 2011). Providing youth with comprehensive sex education has been understood to prevent risky behaviors that would lead to unintended pregnancies that result in wanted abortions.

Federal Policy

In the decades since Roe was first decided, many on the political left have advocated for the decision to be codified into federal law to guarantee abortion protections. Similarly, those on the political right have advocated for federal legislation that would prohibit access to abortions. Judy Chu, a Democrat from California, introduced the Women’s Health Protection Act into Congress in 2013, and it has been reintroduced in each subsequent session of Congress. This bill would prohibit “governmental restrictions on the provision of, and access to, abortion services,” (H.R. 12). Republicans currently hold the majority in the House of Representatives and Democrats hold the Senate—with a slim majority in each. Even if Democrats held the majority in the House, Senate, and Executive, it is unlikely that any legislation would survive a court challenge given the 6-3 conservative lean in the Judiciary. The establishment of Dobbs as the new precedent for abortion policy in the U.S. has effectively barred any federal abortion protections until SCOTUS has a 5-4 liberal lean. This drives the importance of states passing abortion protections in their respective legislatures.

Policy Solutions

State Case Studies

After the Dobbs decision gave full control to determine abortion policy to each individual state, there have been hundreds of proposed policies to restrict or protect abortion access. Many of these policies fall along partisan lines and fit into regional sub-groups. States in the deep south and Midwest have among the harshest policies to restrict abortion whereas New England and the west coast have stronger protections. Three states can be examined as case study examples for policies that cover the political spectrum with California on the left, Virginia in the center, and Texas on the right.

California in the late 1960’s was one of the first states to grant a fundamental right to abortion. More than half a century later, they remain one of the most protective states for abortion care. Led by Democrats in the State Assembly and the Office of the Governor, California protects abortion until viability, constitutionally protects the right to abortion, uses state funds to cover abortion and abortion related costs, and provides protections for patients seeking and physicians providing abortions (Guttmacher Institute, n.d.). Researchers from University of California, Los Angeles predicted in 2022 that California would see an increase of well over tens of thousands of out-of-state patients seeking abortions if Roe was overturned (Sears, Cohen, and Stemple 2022). Data collected from the Society of Family Planning (2023) shows an average monthly increase of more than 450 abortions in the post-Dobbs months as compared to April of 2022. For decades, Californians have shown strong support for policies that favor abortion protections.

In the political center, Virginia has seen legislation in the General Assembly for both abortion restrictions and protections—state law currently protects abortion through the second trimester. Virginia provides state funding for abortion procedures for cases of rape or incest, fatal fetal abnormality, or risk to the mother’s life (VDH, n.d.). Virginia code has a Conscience Clause which provides that no hospital, medical facility, or physician can be required to admit a patient for the purpose of performing an abortion and no individual can be required to participate in an abortion if they’ve submitted a written objection based on moral, ethical, personal, or religious grounds (§ 18.2-75).

During the 2023 General Assembly election, conservative candidates largely ran on a 15-week abortion ban and subsequently faced losses in the House of Delegates. Currently, Virginia is facing a divided government with Republicans in control of the Executive and Democrats in control of the Senate and House of Delegates. A House subcommittee voted in a bipartisan 8-0 vote to reject a near-total abortion ban during the most recent legislative session (AP 2024). Senate Democrats successfully entered the beginning stages of what will be a long process to amend the Virginia Constitution to enshrine abortion protections. The 2025 gubernatorial and General Assembly elections will be a determining factor of abortion legislation moving forward.

Texas, representing the political right, infamously has some of the strictest abortion policies in the country and has served as a model for other conservative state policies. As aforementioned, abortion is completely banned except in cases of risk to the mother’s health or to save her life. Prior to Roe, the Lone Star State had policies that banned abortion and passed trigger laws that would go into effect following changes in federal legislation or judicial precedent. One of the current policies that separates Texas from its conservative counterparts is a provision in S.B. 8, a bill passed in 2021 and cited in Kate Cox’s court case, that allows any person to file a civil suit against anyone who provides or knowingly assists in the provision of an abortion. S.B. 8 also provides that if the Claimant is successful in their suit, the court will award them $10,000. This law has effectively deputized private citizens into abortion bounty hunters (Feuer 2021). Although the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state of Texas upon its passage of this law, the Dobbs decision rendered it valid under the new precedent. In many ways, this law along with other Texas restrictions has placed a chilling effect on abortion providers who fear civil suits and the loss of their medical license. The case of Kate Cox is one of several that demonstrate the painful reality created by harsh restrictions.

Preferred Policies

The most effective way to guarantee a woman’s access to safe medical and surgical abortion is for states to codify the right to an abortion into their constitutions—this is why it has been so heavily advocated to codify Roe on the federal level. Several states have already established a precedent for doing so, and many more states are expected to have constitutional amendments regarding abortion protections on their state ballots during the 2024 election. While the process of finalizing a constitutional amendment differs from state to state, in the states where abortion protections have been on the ballot, it has received overwhelming public support.

Next, states need to ensure that doctors, physicians, and other healthcare personnel who are qualified to provide abortion services will be protected when practicing within state borders. Although many states with rigorous abortion restrictions have exceptions for rape or incest and threat to the life or physical health of the mother, the result of such bans has been a chilling effect on providers. Doctors, physicians, and other healthcare personnel may exercise their reasonable medical judgment to determine if a woman’s life is more at risk by carrying a pregnancy to term than by receiving abortion; however, a different doctor or physician could raise a claim that the abortion was not medically necessary and lobby for civil or criminal litigation. Further, it is critical that states protect providers from prosecution by other states

should a patient travel across state lines for a procedure. In 2023, the California State Assembly passed S.B. 345, California’s Shield Law, which states that California law enforcement and government officials and contractors are prohibited from, “cooperating with out-of-state prosecutions related to abortion,” and that patient data will not be shared in criminal or civil investigations originating in states where abortion is not protected (Birnbaum 2023). These kinds of protections ensure that out of state patients are protected and that qualified medical and healthcare personnel remain in states to provide needed abortion services.

Third, because the Hyde Amendment prevents the use of federal dollars to fund abortions, states should allocate their own resources to offset the costs of abortion services.  Medical procedures are expensive, and abortion is no exception—particularly the farther along in her pregnancy a woman seeks care. Finances often present barriers to women seeking abortions and not being financially prepared to raise one or another child is often the primary reason why women seek abortions in the first place (Foster 2020). Moreover, half of all women seeking abortion care in the U.S. are living below the federal poverty line (Foster 2020). Most states prohibit the use of public funds to cover abortion services, and 11 states go as far as to prohibit private insurance companies from covering abortion. A common objection to public funding of abortion is that taxpayers should not be required to support procedures they do not agree with, especially considering moral and religious objections. However, state Medicaid funds are largely covered through provider taxes which are paid for by hospitals and other health care services, so individual tax dollars would not contribute.

There are currently 17 states that use their own Medicaid funds to pay for all or some medically necessary abortions (Guttmacher Institute 2023). Nonetheless, women elect to obtain an abortion for numerous reasons. Not all are medically necessary, but a woman should not be forced to carry a pregnancy to term when she does not want to just because she cannot afford an abortion. Research from the Turnaway Study found that women who were denied abortions were significantly more likely to be financially worse off than women who received an abortion (Foster 2020). To protect the financial and economic well-being of women, states should enact policies that include abortion coverage through Medicaid and remove bans on private insurance coverage of abortion.

Further, states should implement policies that broaden access to telehealth medicine for medical abortion care. Medical abortion is a nonsurgical way of terminating a pregnancy in which the most common method is taking two prescription medications, mifepristone and misoprostol (Cleveland Clinic n.d.). Some opponents of telemedicine argue that it can be impersonal and overall inferior to in-person visits. Research published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that in an analysis of 8,765 telemedicine and 10,405 in-person medical abortions, telemedicine patients were less likely to experience clinically significant adverse events and more likely to have higher satisfaction than in-person patients (Grossman & Grindlay 2017). This demonstrates that telemedicine medical abortion is not inferior to in-person provision as previously described.

Presently, only a few states ban telemedicine for abortion, but these laws are in states that already heavily strict abortions. State legislatures and Attorneys General who oppose abortion have attempted to prohibit mailing abortion pills and require in-person visits, but so far, they have not been successful in legal challenges (Belluck 2024). Because medical abortions can be conducted via telemedicine, women, particularly in rural areas, are able to save time and money that would be required to take off work in order to travel in person to a clinic for multiple days at a time.

Lastly, states should implement legislation that eliminates all medically unnecessary restrictions. Unnecessary medical regulations are commonly known as TRAP laws (Targeted Restriction on Abortion Providers) and their intention is to create undue burdens for clinics providing abortions forcing them to shut down. These laws can cover a range of areas including,

but not limited to, mandated dissemination of certain information, building specifications, admitting privileges for doctors, and required sonograms & ultrasounds. Before Dobbs, TRAP laws were used as a means to bypass standards set by Roe and Casey. Proponents of TRAP laws will assert that these policies are out of concern for and meant to protect the physical safety and emotional and mental well-being of the mother.

The Turnaway Study analyzed different kinds of TRAP laws during their research process. Data showed that state mandated information laws did not improve the abortion experience for women and when shown a viewing of the fetus there is no relationship between what the woman views (in terms of gestational age) and her feelings regarding the image (Foster 2020). In 2019 the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association publicly came out against a Louisiana law that required doctors providing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital (McCammon 2019). TRAP laws on regulations such as admitting privileges and hallway building specifications are often preceded by the implication that abortions are as dangerous as they were in the early 20th century and are advocated for as a means of making abortion safer. However, as aforementioned, the risk of abortion is drastically lower than that of pregnancy (Raymond and Grimes 2012). Rather than improve the experience and standard of care for women seeking abortions, TRAP laws instead introduce unnecessary burdens that force women to wait longer or travel farther to obtain the care they need. States should immediate repeal any existing TRAP laws.

Conclusion

Given the current political climate and subsequent effects of the Dobbs decision, legislative action to protect a woman’s access to abortion care is urgently needed. While the policy debates are often heated and laden with controversy, protecting access to abortion receives broad support across the country. Before SCOTUS decided Dobbs, the constitutional right to abortion was held as precedent for nearly half a century. As a consequence, the constitutional right to privacy now stands on shaky ground itself. Along with staunch support for legalized abortion, 85% of Americans in favor of it (Gallup 2023), more than half of Americans disapprove of the Supreme Court overturning Roe (Pew Research Center 2022). The 2024 election will stand as a test to public support for abortion protections as citizens all over the country will have the opportunity to vote on ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments in their respective states. Furthermore, voters will have the chance to elect a president that has campaigned on protecting a woman’s right to choose or a president who has advocated for a national ban on abortion.

Because federal abortion protections are unlikely in such a highly polarized environment, the onus to protect women’s access to reproductive healthcare now rests on state legislatures. The three case studies represent how state policies affect women’s access to care as well as partisan makeup of state legislatures. Texas clearly demonstrates the harm that is done to women when forced to carry a pregnancy because of restrictive abortion measures. Virginia highlights the political importance of advocating for protective legislation. Lastly, California indicates the feasibility of implementing state level policy that protects access to abortion services.

The presented policy solutions, if enacted by state legislatures, will guarantee women the right to make their own healthcare decisions when faced with an unwanted or medically harmful pregnancy. Further, these policies provide needed protections for providers and patients and ensure that care is accessible and affordable for all women. States have the responsibility to ensure that a woman’s access to care and her right to choose are protected within their borders.

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About the Author

Irene Thornton is a native of Farmville, Virginia and a 2024 graduate of Christopher Newport University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and minors in Leadership Studies and Spanish. During her time at CNU, Irene served as the Communications Fellow for the Wason Center for Civic Leadership. She was a member of the President’s Leadership Program and served on the Student Advisory Board as the Diversity and Inclusion Chair and Health and Well-being Chair. Additionally, Irene was a sister of Alpha Phi and a member of the CNU Dance Company. Currently, Irene is working in a one-year fellowship with CNU’s President’s Leadership Program after which she plans to attend law school.

“At Their Wit’s End” but “In It Together”: Reentry Practitioners on How the Pandemic Impacted Post-Incarceration

Reentry

Rachel Thornton

Faculty Sponsor: Dr.

Steven Keener, Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology

Abstract

Reentry is the process by which formerly incarcerated individuals prepare to leave jail or prison and reintegrate with society as a whole. In the United States, there are few mandates as to what reentry must entail, so services and opportunities vary by state and locality. Many available reentry options are provided by nonprofits or other non-governmental organizations, although this too varies. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the process of reentry was forced to adapt to accommodate the rapid release of individuals from jails due to distance requirements and health concerns. In addition, many reentry practitioners were suddenly barred from meeting with individuals in person, which provided extra challenges due to the nature of services offered and the limited digital literacy of some returning citizens. This study asks: How did the COVID-19 pandemic change the world of post-incarceration reentry? To answer this question, semi-structured interviews are being conducted with reentry practitioners from different geographical areas within the state of Virginia. While interviews are still ongoing, the preliminary interviews (N=8) provide meaningful insight into the shortand long-term impacts of the pandemic on post-incarceration reentry. Meaningful themes that have emerged include the higher rates and severity of mental health and substance abuse concerns among reentering citizens, challenges due to an unexpected increase in reliance on technology within jails, prisons, and reentry organizations, isolation from family members due to lasting visitation restrictions, and complications with reentry funding. Limitations of this study such as the small sample size and lack of governmental perspective on reentry are addressed.

Introduction

Within the field of criminal justice, there are a variety of interconnected systems that carry justice-involved people from the moment of their first encounter with police up through their return to the community following incarceration. The final element of these systems is reentry, which refers to the ongoing process of reintegrating an individual with their community when their time in jail or prison is concluded. Reentry can begin with preparation classes while the citizen is still incarcerated, although this is not standardized and may not be available in certain locales. When such classes are offered, they may be provided by the institution in which the individual is incarcerated, or they may be entirely designed and given by external organizations or volunteers. These external groups consist of practitioners who work in the reentry landscape to ease the transition from jails and prisons back to the community. Due to the direct interaction that these practitioners have with returning citizens and with jails and prisons, reentry practitioners are uniquely positioned to assess and articulate how the reentry process has changed over the years from a variety of perspectives.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020 in the United States, the criminal justice system faced a unique challenge. One of the prevailing safety guidelines provided by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States during this time was to practice “physical distancing” from other people (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024). However, this was a difficult policy to follow in jails and prisons where individuals are typically packed together in cells and interact not only with one another but also with correctional officers. Due to this, the decision was made in many localities to release certain nonviolent offenders early to reduce the number of people inside jails and prisons, leading to about an 11% decrease in the population of incarcerated people during the height of the pandemic (Franco-Paredes et al., 2020). While this alleviated the overcrowding problems and made physical distancing easier, it also meant that a large group of people who had not undergone any reentry preparation were released with little warning. This put a heavy strain on the reentry system and forced organizations and practitioners to adapt rapidly to help returning citizens find housing, jobs, and food in a world that was already limited due to other pandemic impacts.

Understanding the immediate and lasting impacts of the pandemic on reentry will help illuminate the challenges faced within the reentry system. In addition, it will fill a gap in the literature by addressing what changes need to be made going forward to the system as a whole, as there are many lessons to be learned from the time of change brought on by the pandemic.

From the implementation of visitation restrictions in jails and prisons to the switch to Zoom and other virtual platforms for meetings, reentry faced a major transformation over the past four years. This study serves as important foundational work to answer big questions about reentry and the pandemic.

Literature Review

An Increasing Need for Reentry Services

The past sixty years in the United States have seen an introduction of more punitive approaches to crime, characterized by the “War on Crime” movement (Hinton, 2015; Raphael, 2011). This movement contributed to such a steep rise in incarceration rates that the United States now incarcerates the greatest number of citizens in the world, with over 1.7 million incarcerated people (Fair & Walmsley, 2024). Around the time when the pandemic hit, the United States had the highest rate of incarceration per capita worldwide, with an average of 639 citizens per 100,000 incarcerated (Fair & Walmsley, 2021). Today, the United States is fifth in per capita incarceration, behind El Salvador, Cuba, Rwanda, Turkmenistan, and the American Samoa (Fair & Walmsley, 2024). While it is promising that the United States is no longer the leader in per capita incarceration, the fact remains that the U.S. has the most people incarcerated of any nation in the world, showing the critical nature of this issue.

Within the United States, the Commonwealth of Virginia has a high rate of incarceration, with more people incarcerated per capita than the national average (Prison Policy Initiative, 2023). One analysis found that Virginia incarcerates 85 more citizens per 100,000 than the national U.S. average, which is already alarmingly high when compared with international rates (Prison Policy Initiative, 2023). In addition, there were approximately 60,000 Virginians on probation last year (Prison Policy Initiative, 2023). Probation is a form of community supervision wherein individuals are not incarcerated within a facility, but they are required to meet certain requirements to avoid being sent back to serve time. In Virginia, requirements of citizens on probation vary based on their offenses but could include being confined to their homes, having their location tracked, and needing to check in periodically with probation officers (Virginia Department of Corrections, 2024). These restrictions often preclude daily life from proceeding as normal, providing challenges for individuals on probation and their family members.

With these high rates of incarceration throughout the nation and within Virginia in particular, many individuals are facing the challenges associated with returning to society after serving time in prison or jail. These challenges are called collateral consequences and can include difficulty finding housing and employment, weakened social support from family and friends, strict requirements for those on probation or parole, and even forfeiture of children in some cases for parents who were incarcerated (Raphael, 2011; Mahmood, 2004). In addition, those who have been incarcerated in the past are more likely to be sentenced to serve time in jail or prison again in the future (Durose & Antenangeli, 2021). Furthermore, jails and prisons have a unique structure and their own set of norms that do not match that of society at large, so reentering society after serving time also requires adapting to a new set of invisible rules (Mitchell et al., 2020). This can be especially difficult for those who have been incarcerated for longer periods, as they are more likely to have assimilated into the structure and norms of the institution they were in and may have missed out on cultural shifts from the outside world (Mitchell et al., 2020). Thus, returning to society after incarceration is no easy feat and requires navigating additional demands.

Over half a million people are released from jail or prison in the United States each year, so a large proportion of the population is negatively impacted by these collateral consequences (Jonson & Cullen, 2015). Additionally, Virginia has a slightly higher release rate than the national average by state, with over 12,500 Virginians released from jail or prison annually (Sawyer, 2022). Therefore, there is a clear need for support to best navigate the return of formerly incarcerated individuals to society throughout the United States and in Virginia. This need is why reentry services exist and why they have been expanding in their geographic scope and types of offerings in recent years (Goger et al., 2021). As reentry grows, it is vital to understand its trends to inform best practices moving forward in Virginia and around the nation.

The State of Reentry Before the Pandemic

The idea of reentry is implicitly rooted in the concept of rehabilitation, which posits that people can be changed for the better. In particular, criminal rehabilitation is a theory that says that proper support and guidance will decrease the likelihood of returning citizens committing crimes, which is referred to as recidivism (Jonson & Cullen, 2015; Forsberg & Douglas, 2022). In pursuance of this goal of decreasing recidivism, institutions and non-governmental organizations offer classes to incarcerated people on basic life skills, vocational training, financial assistance, and digital literacy, among other topics (Office of Justice Programs, 2020). In addition, organizations work with returning citizens once they leave jail or prison, providing them with increased access to technology, food, mental health care, housing, and job prospects (Raphael, 2011). Each institution and organization offers slightly different services and opportunities, perhaps due to the decentralized nature of incarceration and especially post-incarceration systems.

Within Virginia, certain reentry programs are supported by state appropriation funds as administered by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) through the Prerelease and Post Incarceration Services (PAPIS) programs (Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, 2024). In addition to providing funding, PAPIS serves as an infrastructure for certain reentry organizations in Virginia, connecting practitioners with one another and with government officials. However, not all reentry programs have access to the funding or support given by the PAPIS programs, and in fact, only nine reentry service providers are currently involved in the programs (Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, 2024). Therefore, many other organizations do not have access to this formal infrastructure and are forced to make their own way in terms of funding and regulatory guidelines.

The Impacts of the Pandemic on Reentry

Panic swept the nation when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in March of 2020. While vaccines and treatment methods exist today, there was initially no known cure for the disease which brought a major threat of respiratory failure or even death (Amon, 2020). Due to this concern, all systems were impacted by the pandemic, including the criminal justice system. In particular, the pandemic was noted to disproportionately infect and kill incarcerated individuals due to their close living proximity, limited healthcare options, and lack of information and knowledge about the severity of the disease (Berk et al., 2020). In response to the soaring rates of COVID-19 in jails, many localities began to release individuals who were being held pre-trial or had been incarcerated for low-level, nonviolent crimes (FrancoParedes et al., 2020). This was intended to decrease the spread of the disease and protect incarcerated individuals. However, with this sudden release, the reentry system found itself responsible for a massive influx of people needing help at the same time it was facing its own limitations due to the pandemic, such as the switch to remote work and increased difficulties connecting returning citizens with jobs and housing opportunities (Abrams et al., 2023). This created a chaotic time where practitioners had their day-to-day experiences entirely altered.

Although this influx of returning citizens in 2020 and its strain on the reentry system has been documented, no work has been done examining the long-term effects of this change. In addition, questions remain about whether reentry needs to return to its pre-2020 state of normalcy, if overhauls to the system must be made, or if certain changes that occurred over the past few years should be maintained. The decarceration of individuals during the pandemic serves as an important case study for the potential of criminal justice reform, necessitating further investigation into what worked, what did not work, and what could work in the future (Flanders & Galoob, 2020). Furthermore, no research specific to the changes in reentry in Virginia has been published, revealing another gap in the literature that ought to be filled.

Theoretical Perspectives on Reentry

Although reentry is fundamentally based on the idea of rehabilitation, approaches to reentry services have their roots in varying models of punishment. First and foremost, the riskneed-responsivity (RNR) model serves as a foundation for many reentry programs, even though it was originally designed by Canadian scholars as a method of determining the best avenue of treatment for individuals who are currently in jail or prison (Bonta & Andrews, 2007; Jonson & Cullen, 2015). The RNR model posits that rehabilitation is most effective when it focuses on matching services to fill the needs that may lead someone to re-offend (Jonson & Cullen, 2015). Additionally, with similar guiding principles to the RNR model, the harm reduction model suggests that all individuals should be helped regardless of any illicit or harmful actions they are taking (MacMaster, 2004). The harm reduction perspective has its roots in public health and the HIV/AIDS crisis in particular, but it has been expanded in recent years to apply to other fields such as reentry (Shannon, 2017). In general, harm reduction programs

focus on minimizing the fallout from high-risk behaviors without ostracizing individuals who partake in those behaviors (MacMaster, 2004). In reentry, these perspectives could involve providing services that fit areas of need to returning citizens even if they are not abstaining from substance abuse or are still committing criminal offenses.

The other model that often appears in reentry is the punitive model, which aligns with the “tough on crime” ideology that has dominated the criminal justice system in the United States in recent decades (Skoler, 1971). The punitive model suggests that harsh punishments are more likely to have positive outcomes in criminal justice, as people will be forced to step back in line when they realize how much criminality harms them (Morris, 1974). In reentry, this could mean cutting off all services for individuals who test positive for taking drugs or refusing to help those convicted of serious violent or sexual crimes as a deterrent to such behavior. Of the models discussed, the punitive model has the least evidence of its effectiveness within the criminal justice system and is noted to be more harmful than beneficial, although specific work on punitive models of reentry has not been conducted (Wakefield et al., 2016). Despite this, the model persists in its application and exists in the public consciousness in reentry as well as other avenues of the criminal justice system.

Methodology

The objective of this study is to fill the gap in the literature regarding the impacts of the pandemic on the reentry space and ascertain what path should be taken in the future to improve reentry as a whole. To achieve this, the research question asks: How did the COVID-19 pandemic change the world of post-incarceration reentry?

The geographic location of the Commonwealth of Virginia was selected to investigate this question. This is due to the unique context of Virginia, which has rural, suburban, and urban areas, a roughly representative racial make-up when compared with national demographics, and a higher-than-average incarceration rate that necessitates reentry services (Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, 2024; Statistical Atlas, 2018; Prison Policy Initiative, 2023). Hence, Virginia serves as a practical case study for the nation as a whole.

Qualitative research was selected for this study to allow for a holistic approach to understanding the complex transformations of reentry. Following approval by a university Institutional Review Board, semi-structured interviews were performed with reentry practitioners from across Virginia. Due to the limited population of reentry practitioners based in Virginia, a non-probability sampling technique was implemented. Initial outreach to practitioners involved an email message to directors of reentry organizations. To date, 8 practitioners have been interviewed, with the process of interviewing ongoing and relying on snowball sampling. Of these practitioners, all but one are directors of their respective organizations. Informed consent was obtained from all participants before they were interviewed, and each participant had the option of whether they would consent to the interview being recorded for the sake of transcription.

The initial questions asked in the interviews included topics such as the participant’s background, what they wished the general public would understand about reentry, and what additional support they wished they had from lawmakers for reentry work, if any. From here, the interview delved into the pandemic, with questions about general changes in work, if services and classes were shut down temporarily or to this day, and what regulations or governing bodies they turned to for guidance in dealing with pandemic restrictions. Specific topics such as visitation guidelines, technology access, mental health, substance abuse, familial impacts, and practitioner attitudes were explored as well. A directed content analysis approach was applied to analyze the interviews.

Results

In the interviews, the practitioners discussed their experiences in reentry from the onset

of the pandemic up until the present. They represented organizations from all around the state who approached reentry during the pandemic in different ways. The results that emerged from analyzing these interviews can be best understood in the following categories: immediate impacts of COVID-19, mental health and substance abuse, technology, family visitation, funding, and attitudes toward the future.

Immediate Impacts of COVID-19

All of the practitioners agreed that the onset of the pandemic harmed their ability to carry out reentry work. Most summarized this immediate impact of the pandemic on their work in simple terms: “It sent us all home”; “Everything just kind of halted”; “It made it extremely difficult”; “We had to change almost everything”; and “It stopped very suddenly” were among the responses to the question of how the pandemic changed their day-to-day work.

Some practitioners also discussed their unpreparedness for the onslaught of new releases from the local jails and prisons, which was done in the name of public health to decrease the spread of COVID-19, but which happened with little warning for all involved parties.

“A lot of people, unfortunately, were released without any preparation for getting out. And so they weren’t going through any kind of reentry program prerelease, had no idea what they were coming home to. And we’ve still seen some of that happening where it’s like ‘Surprise, you’re getting out.’ And there’s been no prep.”

In combination with the sudden distancing guidelines that were instituted to prevent the spread of COVID-19, this rapid decarceration caused a major problem of increased need for services but decreased ability to offer them. However, practitioners did agree for the most part that they were able to quickly adapt to the new requirements of safety by instituting new measures such as virtual meetings, masks, and social distancing.

“We installed some things in our office, such as we have a machine that- you come in, and you sanitize your hands, or when you go out, you sanitize your hands. If we feel like there’s somebody coming in that may have had access to someone that had COVID-19, we mask up.”

Many of the practitioners provide classes and other programs to currently incarcerated individuals as part of their role. Some of these practitioners who work with the prerelease side of reentry commented on the dire situation of COVID-19 spreading inside jails and prisons, which is what led to such a rapid release of returning citizens. One practitioner pointed out how solitary confinement, which is often used as a punishment due to its negative social and mental health effects, was suddenly being used to isolate sick individuals.

“And some of these guys had been in solitary confinement for COVID, which was a major issue for a lot of these folks. There was a case where two guys were cellmates. One guy got COVID and they put both of them in the same cell for solitary confinement because they figured that if one guy had COVID, the other guy was gonna get it or had it. So, people would tell us those stories of the fact that individuals were treated separately and they stayed in solitary confinement for 21 to 30 days.”

While many practitioners seemed similarly dissatisfied with the responses of local jail officials to the pandemic, one practitioner praised their local sheriff for working hard to keep people incarcerated in the jail safe.

“I work with a lot of the sheriffs and one sheriff told me some of the things that they did... They put a lot of people in pods. So you sleep in the pod, you’re in there. And they were very mindful of making sure they social distance and did lots of other things.”

This reflects the diversity of responses across the state and highlights how much of the decision-making was left up to individual facilities or organizations rather than being directed

by a governing body. When asked who they turned to for guidance, many practitioners said other reentry organizations just like theirs were the only ones who helped them brainstorm how to adapt to the new challenges.

“I reached out to the other PAPIS agencies… I contacted all of them because collaboration is huge. And the people in the helping field, they love it, like there’s a reason why they’re helpers. And so everybody was so helpful, you know, reaching out for resources, because I didn’t know what was still available.”

One practitioner agreed that other organizations helped them cope with the fallout of the pandemic but made their frustration with the situation more clear, saying “I think everybody was just kind of at their wit’s end… But really, I mean, no, there was no guidance. We were all in it together.” Despite this, the organizations continued to provide reentry services in every way they could.

Regardless of their attitude toward the situation, the consensus among practitioners was that the reentry space was in no way prepared to deal with a pandemic and lacked guidance from any governing or regulating bodies. Organizations adapted and worked together to overcome the challenges as best they could even with this limitation, but it was certainly not easy.

Mental Health and Substance Abuse

The issues of mental health concerns and substance abuse have been intertwined with the reentry space since its inception. However, most practitioners agreed that the pandemic exacerbated the negative impacts of mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders, perhaps due to increased isolation, solitary confinement being used for medical isolation within jails and prisons, and greater access to drugs.

“My caseload, because I do carry a reentry caseload, they are so complex, and all of them have some type of cognitive or mental health challenge. And I think that during COVID, a lot of them slipped through the cracks. You know, places weren’t open and people weren’t checking in on them. Drinking and drugs were rampant, which only ramped up some of the mental health or exacerbated it. And then, you know, with marijuana becoming legalized, which is great for some and not great for others, a lot of people don’t realize that you can’t combine that with certain psychotropic medications. And so you get that together, and that’s a whole other situation. So I would say that a huge majority of our clients are [struggling with] mental health. And that it is significantly more complex than what I remember it being pre-COVID.”

In addition to increased rates of substance abuse, practitioners noted that the severity of substance abuse worsened with the pandemic, with more overdoses (ODs) appearing in recent years than ever before. This shift was also discussed in connection with the fentanyl epidemic, however, suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic may not be the only cause.

“I don’t know if it’s a function of COVID or not. But you know, now we have to deal with the fentanyl issue. We see more death now. We see more ODs now. And, in this area, I see a little bit more meth use than we’ve ever had… I don’t know that it’s more, I just think it’s more serious because of the fentanyl.”

While many of the practitioners agreed that the rates of people dealing with substance abuse had not changed, and rather only the severity was altered, a practitioner from a rural region of Virginia had a different perspective.

“There’s definitely been an increase. Here in southwest Virginia, we have an extremely high rate of individuals whose incarceration is drug-related. And then the pandemic led us to a lot of individuals who, when they got out, went back to those drugs because, I’m gonna tell you right now, the drug dealers didn’t care about the pandemic. You know, they were still going to meet people on the street corners. And

so you had a lot of people that turned to self-medicating, at a much higher rate than what we had experienced before. However, we do, you know, the largest percentage of individuals that we deal with have a drug issue in their history. And it has either been part of their incarceration or something that they picked up to cope with their release once they got out.”

This practitioner went on to share how incarceration for drug offenses is not a deterrent from continuing to abuse substances from their perspective. They also discussed in detail the ability of individuals to obtain and partake in substances that have been smuggled into jails and prisons, and how this is a major issue that needs to be addressed in the criminal justice system.

“So it’s a very big problem and it’s growing and, you know, locking individuals up on drug crimes, I know we don’t have an alternative, but locking them up on drug crimes does not remove them from the drugs. Drugs are very accessible in our institutions. And it’s unfortunate, but even the Department of Corrections will tell you the same thing. It’s, you know, that’s a reality. And so we can control the legal distribution of medication and drugs, we cannot control the illegal distribution of it any more than we can control the number of black market guns that exist.”

As part of the discussion around substance abuse, many practitioners shared their organization’s specific policies surrounding drug use among returning citizens they work with. This led to conversations about the difference between more deterrent-based or rehabilitativebased models of reentry.

“We operate from a harm reduction model so we don’t turn anyone away. If they’re still actively using, we try to help them find safety, we create safety plans with them. We’d love to see a reduction in use but they’re not turned away for using. That’s not how other reentry programs in the area operate. So we’re different. There are a lot of punitive programs where if you show up and you’re under the influence, you’re out. I don’t find that to be best practice for us. I think we are able to build a lot more rapport with folks, and they know they can trust us.”

Regardless of their specific approach or perspective, all of the practitioners agreed that mental health concerns and substance abuse were problems in the reentry space that needed to be addressed. They also all agreed that the pandemic had negative impacts on mental health and substance abuse among incarcerated and returning citizens.

Technology

With the increased need for social distancing and isolation, much of the world switched to virtual platforms for work, school, social lives, and more. The reentry space was no exception, with many of the practitioners moving to virtual meetings with returning citizens using video conferencing or phone calls. Some organizations even had the capacity to provide returning citizens with the technology devices necessary to connect in this way.

“Technology has been instrumental for [our organization], to be able to support people coming home. We have folks who were afraid to leave their home, were afraid to leave that property because of COVID, which makes total sense. And so the virtual element of us being able to purchase laptops for people or give people smartphones with data and minutes on it so that they can Zoom with us, that made a huge difference for people. And we shifted into that pretty quickly into the pandemic.”

In addition to the shift of the post-incarceration reentry space to virtual services, the practitioners discussed how reentry preparation classes that were previously offered by their organizations in person in jails and prisons were switched to virtual formats.

“All the jails that we serve shut down letting us in. And so thankfully it pushed some of them to get tablets and ways for us to electronically communicate with the residents. So for the first year, we were solely virtual with all our jails, dependent

upon their technology access.”

This persisted beyond the first year of the pandemic, continuing to this day in some localities. One practitioner discussed how they had changed their prerelease approach to be entirely digital due to lasting restrictions by jails and prisons.

“Some of the pandemic guidelines that they put in place, they have maintained so that our contact may be less direct with the individuals, it may be more electronic, but at least we are able to work with them, develop prerelease case plans, and help them with the transition when they do come out.”

Most of the practitioners discussed how this shift to virtual work, whether short- or long-term, served as a major roadblock in their prerelease operations. This was because many institutions were not able or willing to invest in additional staffing or the digital infrastructure needed to carry on with reentry classes in a virtual format.

“One of the things I would like to promote in our office, and I have not been able to convince the jail of this, for staffing issues, is the use of technology where we can interface. A practitioner could be in their office and interface with a person who’s incarcerated in the [local jail] and have those discussions without having to travel. I have not been able to convince the superintendent that, you know, that would benefit him much.”

In addition, practitioners discussed how formerly incarcerated individuals often had lower digital literacy skills than the average American, as they had been serving sentences in institutions that did not allow for access to cell phones or even computers in some cases. This created further barriers to virtual reentry work with returning citizens.

“For our staff across the state, the difficulty was connecting our returning citizens with technology, available technology that they could learn or use in public places. And then you have the learning curve… the whole electronic technology thing is mind-boggling to a lot of the individuals we receive, both based on the fact that they are lower-income in a lot of instances and have had less training on technology to start with, and then older populations when they come out, just by virtue of the length of time they’ve been in. It made it difficult as far as trying to connect with our returning citizens during that period.”

Even returning citizens who had a high enough digital literacy to utilize video conferencing might not have had access to any devices or the Internet necessary to do so. Not all of the organizations could afford to provide devices to every returning citizen they worked with, so a disconnect occurred.

“A lot of our returning citizens have no access to technology. And so for them to be able to be somewhere where they could be on a computer and we could Zoom or be able to talk to them and do the work with them… There was a period of time of six to eight months, I would say roughly, that there was a gap in services, being able to provide them.”

Furthermore, rural communities faced additional challenges in connecting virtually due to less technological infrastructure such as Internet access and personal devices. One practitioner described this problem and shared how the only way to provide services to the entire population who needed help was to physically drive to the homes of returning citizens and meet with them outside.

“Because of the population we serve, a lot of them don’t have access to technology. So we switched to a lot of outdoor service provision in our rural communities and instead of home visits, we did porch visits. We’d set up some lawn chairs in the garage or on the porch and bundle up and have our session there… We couldn’t serve our population by just relying on technology, especially because almost all the other agencies had to switch to that model. So then, who was falling through the gaps?”

On the whole, the use of technology in reentry in the wake of the pandemic was both praised for its ability to connect people from afar and criticized for its lack of equitable access and limitations. Regardless of these perspectives, all of the practitioners described increasing their reliance on technology in some way due to the pandemic.

Family Visitation

As the pandemic swept the nation and infection and casualty rates began to climb, incarcerated individuals and their families faced uncertainty about one another’s health status due to limited communication avenues. One practitioner discussed how that affected their work, as they were asked by family members about the status of incarcerated individuals and had no answers to give.

“But more the concerns, undue concerns, I think sometimes that the family members face because if the jail’s phones go out, or if the internet’s down, or even if there’s not enough staff for them to come out of their cells and they’re held on a lockdown there, they can’t use the phone at all. And then people have no idea what’s going on with their family members. So sometimes in a reentry capacity, that’s one thing that I do get a lot, will be family members, concerns that they can’t get through, and I can’t give them any information, you know, other than what’s public knowledge.”

Along with other distancing and isolation requirements, several practitioners discussed how the majority of jails and prisons “shut down” completely to outside visitors, which included family members and other loved ones. Then even as most of the world began to return to in-person avenues as time went on, some of the jails maintained their restrictions on family visitation, only allowing visitation through phone calls or new digital means like tablets. Practitioners shared their distaste for this decision.

“So our facility still isn’t doing in-person visitation. They still have not returned to that, and that’s kind of the stuff that I’m talking about, where it’s like the fear. They only do it via computer… All of the phone calls to family members, all of that is funded on the tablets, and not everybody has those types of funds to be having those types of communication.”

However, in conversations with jail officials about visitation options, practitioners discussed being met with resistance in trying to change this virtual visitation restriction.

“I haven’t even heard “in-person visitation” come off of anybody’s lips, like, I don’t even think that’s on the radar. I think it would be good to start that back up again.

And that is one of the big things in reentry right now, you know, there’s always certain things that their focus is on and the family unification is one of the really big points that they’re wanting us to work on, particularly with goals and such.”

In particular, several practitioners suggested that jail officials may be using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to keep visitation from occurring even when the health concern has subsided years later.

“There’s that idea that we can isolate people to a certain extent, under the guise of health and not spreading communicable diseases that do exist in some of the prisons and jails, and it’s both for the safety of that population and the outside population, but at the same time, it does limit the rehabilitation inside prisons and jails that can occur. A lot of programs went away. Now some of your more open-minded, or more expansive thinkers who are running jails and prisons have opened them back up to classes and learning and counseling, and then some of them still have not done that.”

Additionally, even when in-person visitation was offered to some degree, a few practitioners discussed the barriers to transportation and frequent shutdowns by jails and prisons that still precluded true visitation.

“I mean, it’s terrible that they shut things down completely for individuals for one thing. So somebody’s driven, you know, I mean, I have people that go to [a Virginia

state prison], you know how far that is? And they’re on the bus because they take a bus, like once a month out and they pick people up along the way. And they’ve gotten out there, and because one inmate did something, they shut it down. And it’s ridiculous. You know, because one person did that. And, you know, if it’s contraband, it’s one thing, but you know, it’s maybe somebody didn’t act right or said the wrong thing, or crossed their eyes or whatever. It’s been difficult for them, for families.”

The issue of visitation access was also addressed in terms of incarcerated parents attempting to connect with their children. One practitioner noted that institutional restrictions on visitation were actively harming familial relationships, perhaps intentionally so.

“It’s always so important for families, for women to see their children and that sort of thing. I think that’s gotten back to where it was before [the pandemic]. But I still think that the institutions, whatever they can utilize to prevent families from, you know, seeing their loved ones, I think some days they do it.”

All in all, the issue of contact with family members and specifically visitation policies were cited as shortcomings of the criminal justice system’s response to the pandemic and additional barriers to necessary reentry work being performed by the practitioners. Particular attention was paid by practitioners to the lack of equitable access to communication with incarcerated individuals based on financials, transportation, and other factors.

Funding

Conversations around funding largely centered around the PAPIS infrastructure. Of the eight practitioners interviewed, six were working with an organization that received funding from the state-backed PAPIS programs. With this being said, two of these six practitioners described how they had worked with other non-PAPIS-funded organizations in the past. Thus, half of the practitioners interviewed had some experience working with non-PAPIS-funded organizations.

Practitioners who were part of the PAPIS network had almost exclusively positive views of the infrastructure. They discussed the unique benefits they gained from the connections, in addition to the guaranteed yearly funding provided.

“PAPIS exists as a coalition of nine agencies that do reentry services or postincarceration services in Virginia. We simply come together to apply for funding through the state. We did lead in 2015 an effort to have all of the agencies that are funded through that be evidence-based and at least having a risk and needs assessment and some basic case management skills.”

One practitioner who has worked in the reentry space for decades candidly discussed their shift in perspective based on this type of evidence-based focus and additional trainings that PAPIS provided.

“When we applied for this PAPIS funding, the reentry effort came under my bailiwick, and I’ve tried to learn since then. My focus throughout my career has been on the probation side of the fence. And to be quite honest with you, when I started in the late 80s, early 90s, we didn’t know anything about evidence-based practices, never heard the term. We did whatever we felt like needed to be done, it was reckless. And mostly we rode that law enforcement line, you know, we’re gonna tail ‘em, nail ‘em, and jail ‘em, and if they don’t change, why aren’t they changing? They’re stupid, you know, whatever. And to be quite blunt, that was just kind of the way it is. So I enjoyed, throughout my career, learning differently and learning what, what really can affect positive change in people and how very different that is than what was trained in me when I was a young person.”

However, a very different story emerges when practitioners who work in non-PAPISfunded organizations are asked about the infrastructure. These practitioners point out how no

organizations are allowed to join PAPIS unless they are one of the nine already in it and how this leaves out new perspectives and initiatives in the state.

“There is absolutely zero state funding for reentry programming outside of this one program that’s on the website, like the DCJS website, called the PAPIS program. And I’ve heard them present, but state code limits, like names, the specific organizations that are eligible to apply year after year, and it’s never ever, as long as I’ve been around, been open to competition to allow the development of new programming, new grantees anywhere else in the state… there are so many organizations out there that I think would get more involved in reentry programming that could bring new and innovative and different kinds of services, especially the peer-run organizations like ours, that could really bring innovation from their own personal experience. If there was just grant support for that, I think it would mean a world of difference.”

The majority of practitioners, whether they were part of the coalition or not, agreed that non-PAPIS funding opportunities are few and far between in the reentry space in Virginia. One practitioner said that extra money comes down through state channels outside of PAPIS “very rarely.” When funding is available from other sources, it was noted by one practitioner to be extremely specific in its requirements.

“One of the things that is prevalent in the arena of funding for reentry is that it is for new programming. You know, if we apply for something, they want us to develop a new program and while I believe in growth, we also need to have funds to expand our current programming, we need to be able to say that we need additional case managers or I would really love it if we could put a mental health navigator in each of our offices.”

This lack of funding options for reentry organizations was explained by some practitioners as a result of less attention being paid to reentry due to other causes entering the national consciousness. According to one practitioner, this was especially exacerbated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early to mid-2020, which pulled the focus toward other issues.

“We had gotten calls within March and June from donors who said, “I’m not gonna be able to commit for the next fiscal year, the donations that I’ve been making” or funders who were like, “Hey, we’re moving our focus, not to reentry, but to basic needs. And so we’re pulling the funding, we won’t be able to give you the funds that were traditionally given to you.” And we had a reduction in income from foundations, all this stuff.”

Despite all of these challenges, funding is one area that the pandemic did help with as some reentry organizations were eligible for COVID-19 emergency funding from the government. This provided a temporary influx that practitioners said helped accommodate the shift to virtual offerings by paying for devices like “laptops for our case managers” and the addition of safety items such as “sanitizers and face masks and thermometers” for reentry offices.

The funding of reentry remains a complicated subject, particularly for those who are not one of the select few organizations backed by the PAPIS infrastructure. Overall, there are both positives and negatives to the PAPIS programs and the state of reentry funding following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Attitudes Toward the Future

Each practitioner was asked near the conclusion of the interview whether they were feeling generally optimistic or pessimistic about the future of reentry. Six practitioners said they were optimistic and two said they were somewhere in the middle. None of the practitioners described themselves as feeling entirely pessimistic, demonstrating both the resiliency of the reentry space and the positive future ahead in reentry.

The reasons why practitioners said they felt optimistic included the positive change they had seen over the past few years, additional money being sent to reentry, recent political

support for reentry initiatives, increased diversion of offenders from jail into community corrections, more reentry organizations starting up, transformations they had witnessed in returning citizens they had worked with, and new forms of governmental assistance for returning citizens. The two practitioners who hesitated to describe themselves as optimistic pointed out how the trend of diversion to community corrections seems to be vanishing as time progresses, how little attention is being paid to reentry as a whole throughout the state and nation, and the ongoing structural issues with incarceration.

In addition, one of the practitioners who described themselves as not being entirely optimistic about the future of reentry also discussed their qualms about the shift toward evidence-based programming due to its exclusive nature. Despite acknowledging that many models based on academic work were effective, this practitioner suggested that continuing to only focus on this one type of approach would be a mistake.

“On the other side of things, like the reentry field has gotten so academic. I think it’s really kind of become problematic. You have these couple of core universities that are like the leading minds of reentry programming and these kind of very specific models, and everything is supposed to fit into this cookie-cutter approach… And they’ve implemented it, and it has shown to be effective. There’s just kind of overreliance on academic thought on evidence-based programming that doesn’t allow for anything else to come into that space.”

Based on the interviews conducted and the responses to this question about optimism or pessimism in particular, it seems that reentry has the potential to continue improving in its capacity to provide assistance to returning citizens to alleviate the negative effects of collateral consequences. However, for this to occur, more attention needs to be paid to reentry organizations, and larger theoretical debates about incarceration structures and diversion plans must be reckoned with.

Limitations and Future Research

Based on the small sample size of this study, the results may not be generalizable. It is difficult to say precisely how many reentry practitioners there are in Virginia at any given time due to the lack of a central governing body for reentry, the grassroots nature of many reentry organizations, and the difficulty that exists in defining what reentry includes. However, the participants that were involved in the study covered a broad geographical area within Virginia, hailing from rural areas in Southwestern Virginia to the suburban areas around Washington D.C. and urbanized areas around Richmond and Hampton Roads. Therefore, the sample size was roughly representative in terms of geography, despite being small.

In addition, the disproportionate sampling of certain types of practitioners may have biased the data when compared with the experiences of practitioners at large in the state. The majority of the practitioners interviewed currently work with PAPIS-funded organizations. Additionally, most of the practitioners interviewed so far currently serve as organizational leaders in some form rather than case managers, who may have unique perspectives and insight.

As this study unfolds, the number of participants will be increased, with an effort made to continue this diverse geographical representation and include more diverse types of reentry practitioners. This will allow for a more complete understanding of the impact of the pandemic on reentry in Virginia.

Conclusion

As a whole, the pandemic dramatically transformed reentry in Virginia in some ways and had only temporary effects in others. Lasting changes include the continued restrictions on in-person visitation, the persistence of virtual avenues for communication with incarcerated individuals, increased rates and severity of mental health concerns and substance abuse, and a new focus on finding careers and long-term housing for returning citizens instead of just jobs

and short-term accommodations. Shifts that occurred during the pandemic but have largely been reversed include the diversion of individuals from jails and prisons into community corrections, the increase in funding from the government for reentry services, and video conferencing as the primary communication between practitioners and returning citizens.

Because data collection is ongoing, no definitive conclusions may be drawn. However, this paper has laid the groundwork for further research, both within this study of Virginia reentry as interviews continue and in other geographic areas. This is an essential gap in the literature to continue to address, as reentry is a crucial but often overlooked aspect of the criminal justice system. In addition, since it is now over four years since the pandemic started, it is the perfect time to conduct retrospectives and identify lasting impacts.

All in all, the dichotomy of reentry practitioners feeling completely “at their wit’s end” but still rallying as a community and feeling as though they were “in it together” against the challenges brought on by the pandemic demonstrates the unique context and resiliency of the reentry space and invites future investigation. Therefore, this study has served its purpose thus far in starting the conversation around reentry in Virginia in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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About the Author

Rachel Thornton is a member of the Class of 2024 of Christopher Newport University. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology, and double minors in Sociology and Leadership Studies. Additionally, Rachel was a Presidential Scholar in the Honors Program and President’s Leadership Program and a finalist for the Dean’s Service Award. Around campus, Rachel served as the Vice President of Operations of the Campus Activities Board and worked as a Calculus Assistant with the Mathematics Department this past year. Throughout her time at CNU, Rachel worked on two research projects through the Office of Research and Creative Activity’s Research Apprentice Program. The first resulted in her publication as co-author in the Studies in Symbolic Interaction journal based on a study of first-generation college students. The second project resulted in a recent trip to New Orleans to present at the Southern Sociological Society Annual Meeting, as well as this research paper. Rachel wishes to thank her research mentors, Dr. Steven Keener and Dr. Linda Waldron, for fostering her love of research and providing her with incredible opportunities to grow academically, professionally, and personally.

Lasting Effects: Children of High-Conflict Divorce and Their Emerging Adulthood Friendships

Abby Tucker, Douglas Hill, and Betsy Thorne

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Alice Veksler, Department of Communication

Abstract

Divorce is an instance that often leads to levels of conflict. These conflicts can be internalized by children long after the divorce. This research analyzed how high-conflict divorces impact children as they transition into adulthood, specifically how it affects their friendships. Data was gathered from college students (n=309) through a survey of self-report measures, examining interparental conflict, attitudes toward divorce, interpersonal solidarity, and likelihood to use destructive conflict strategies. The main finding indicates that children from high-conflict divorce are more likely to employ conflict strategies as their own. The study did not find a relationship between attitudes toward divorce and the level of closeness in friendships. These results underline the significance of understanding how parental divorce influences the interactions of children, offering perspectives for mental health professionals and families to foster effective communication methods and alleviate the adverse impacts of high-conflict divorces on children’s friendships as they transition into adulthood.

Conflict is an inevitable element of communication within any relationship. According to Haddad et al. (2016), almost all marriages that end in divorce involve conflict, with 10-20% of divorces continuing to have high conflict long after the divorce is complete. High conflict in divorced families may, in turn, negatively affect the couple’s children (Haddad et al., 2016). Communication and psychology scholars have researched divorce’s influence on children for decades. Numerous studies (e.g., Strohschein, 2005; McManus & Donnovan, 2012) observe the immediate effect divorce has on children’s mental health, behavior, and communication; however, there is a lack of research studying the long-term effects of divorce on emerging adults. Emerging adulthood is defined as any person between the ages of eighteen and twentynine (Arnett, 2014). Divorce communication research primarily focuses on short-term effects on children and their behavior (Cao et al., 2022). Furthermore, there is an absence of research focused on how the conflict within a divorce influences the behavior of emerging adults when navigating their friendships.

When children witness divorce, they inevitably observe the conflict between their parents. Divorce has adverse short-term and long-term effects on children. These children learn and internalize their parents’ communication styles (Cupach et al., 2010). During this time, there are two ways in which a healthy or unhealthy divorce can be distinguished. This is called lowconflict or high-conflict divorce (Sandler et al., 2008). Children in low-conflict divorces offer a more positive outcome for future relationships. Children whose parents were cooperative and used constructive conflict behavior during their divorce are more likely to develop healthy communication practices and a more optimistic approach toward their relationships (Sandler et al., 2008).

If a family divorces while using destructive behaviors, their children can view the conflict negatively and can suffer from long-term difficulties (Afifi & Mazur, 2021). Parents vary in conflict styles during divorce; this can lead to different outcomes for the child. High-conflict situations can involve destructive behaviors associated with dissatisfaction with interpersonal communication. Children are especially vulnerable to the negative impact of conflict when it affects them directly, when it is intense and long-lasting, and when they become intertwined in it (Cupach et al., 2010).

High-conflict divorces extend beyond two years and are marked by intense animosity, resentment, and a lack of trust (Haddad & Phillips, 2016). When children are affected, custody battles are particularly fierce and ongoing, with frequent disagreements about the child’s wellbeing (Haddad & Phillips, 2016). Children who grow up in these environments have more difficulty forming healthy relationships later in life as they do not have role models for healthy communication and dispute resolution (Haddad & Phillips, 2016). According to Steinberg et al. (2006), marital conflict is positively associated with negative parent-child interactions, causing parental rejection. These feelings of rejection often adversely affect the child as they carry them into their relationships (Harold et al., 2002). When emerging adults perceive their parents’ conflict to be high, there is an association with emerging adults having poor conflict resolution skills (Weber & Haring, 1998). Children exposed to their parents’ high-conflict disputes can experience substantial lasting effects such as trauma, stress, depression, and social isolation (Haddad et al., 2016). Research has shown that exposure to such an event is associated with a higher risk of poor relational outcomes for offspring (Braithwaite et al., 2016).

Emerging adults affected by parental divorce often develop a fear of commitment, and as they develop friendships, they may feel more anxious and afraid (Wallerstein et al., 2000). Such friendships are interpersonal relationships characterized by mutual affection, trust, and companionship between individuals (Faur et al., 2024). They provide emotional support and opportunities for social interaction and personal growth. Failure to learn effective communication strategies at a young age may lead individuals to fail at forming these relationships or cause them to engage in unhealthy ones as they approach adulthood (Sillars et al., 2021).

Growing up in an environment with anger and hostility, variables of a high-conflict divorce contribute to feelings of insecurity or problems with intimacy and trust (Kirk, 2003). Young adults can form these negative attitudes about themselves and their ability to trust others because they come from a less cohesive and more conflictual family (Kirk, 2003). Children who observe their parents’ interparental conflict often experience high-stress levels that they themselves adopt. During emerging adulthood, symptoms of stress may emerge when they see conflicts within their friendships. This is often labeled as Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSS, Lange et al., 2022). Some children of divorce even exhibit antisocial behavior during the event of divorce and after, into emerging adulthood (Strohschein, 2005). Because parental role modeling experiences happen during the formative years of development, children are more likely to mimic those behaviors in their emerging adult friendships.

From the child’s perspective, Grych et al. (1992) explain how marital conflict, handled by adults, ultimately affects the child’s development. When the child’s development is affected, their emerging adulthood friendships may, in turn, suffer. Exploring the lasting effects of divorce can show how family conflict resolution patterns shape adult interactions with friends. By understanding these dynamics, we can better address the needs and concerns of individuals who have parents who have gone through divorce.

Adopted destructive communication behaviors can impact children’s mental health, behavior, and communication (Strohschein, 2005). Cupach et al. (2010) and Braithwaite et al. (2010) both find that this affects not only friendships but also, as these emerging adults begin romantic relationships, they are likely to mimic the actions and behaviors they saw from their parents. These behaviors can be used to understand if and how those children of divorce can create and maintain close friendships.

The present research could assist parents experiencing interparental conflict and help guide them through that transitional period. Furthermore, understanding how high-conflict divorce can be a traumatic event for children can help minimize adopted behaviors from past parental divorce experiences (Radetzki et al., 2022). This can aid such children in emerging adulthood as they can avoid these adopted behaviors while navigating friendships.

Therefore, we propose the following hypotheses:

H1: Children of high-conflict divorce are more likely to use destructive conflict strategies than children of low-conflict divorce.

H1a: Children of high-frequency divorce are more likely to use destructive conflict strategies than children of low-frequency divorce.

H1b: Children of high-intensity divorce are more likely to use destructive conflict strategies than children of low-intensity divorce.

H1c: Children of high-resolution divorce are more likely to use destructive conflict strategies than children of low-resolution divorce.

H1d: Children of high-conflict divorce are more likely to use stalemating destructive strategies than children of low-conflict divorce.

H1e: Children of high-conflict divorce are more likely to use verbal aggressive destructive strategies than children of low-conflict divorce.

H1f: Children of high-conflict divorce are more likely to use physical aggressive destructive strategies than children of low-conflict divorce.

H2: A person’s attitude towards divorce influences how close they are to their friends.

Method

Data was collected at a mid-size liberal arts university on the East Coast of the U.S. Prior to the initiation of data collection, the institution’s review board (IRB) approved all study procedures.

Participants

Participants (n=309) were undergraduate students at a mid-sized liberal arts university. (Children of divorce, n = 99; Not children of divorce, n = 210). Participants were recruited by sending out a survey through various social media platforms. Participants were informed that the study would take approximately 15 min, and they could choose to be entered in a drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card. Interested parties had to have been children of divorce to be eligible for the incentive. Due to the nature of the study, participants without divorced parents were prevented from taking the survey further and were excluded from the rest of the data collection.

Of the 99 remaining participants, n = 36 reported male gender, and n = 57 reported female gender, whereas n = 2 reported nonbinary/third gender, and n = 4 preferred not to say. Ages ranged from 18 to 35, with a mean of 21.53 years (SD = 2.53). Eighty-six participants were White/Caucasian, five were Hispanic, two were Asian, one Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, two were American Indian/Native American or Alaska Native, seven were Black or African American, two identified themselves as some other ethnicity, and three preferred not to say.

Procedures

Participants were recruited from a convenience sample from the researcher’s social network. The first page of the online questionnaire contained the consent form. Once they agreed to participate in the research, participants answered self-report items. Items assessed their perceived interparental conflict, attitudes toward divorce, closeness in their friendships, and the likelihood of utilizing destructive conflict.

Measures

Interparental conflict

The Children’s Perceptions of Interparental Conflict (CPIC) scale (Grych et al., 1992) was used to evaluate interparental conflict. This measure assesses several dimensions of the child’s perception of parental conflict. The original measure contained nine subcategories, but only frequency, intensity, and resolution were utilized in this study. The total items were shortened to 19 instead of the original 90. Sample items include, “I never saw my parents argue,” “When my parents argue, they yelled a lot,” and “My parents still acted mean after they have had an argument.” Participants were asked to rank each statement on a five-point Likert scale: strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree, and strongly disagree. Lower scores on the frequency scale indicate more frequent parental conflict (ɑ = .63). Lower scores on the intensity scale indicate more intense parental conflict. This measure was reliable (ɑ = .80). Lower scales on the resolution scale indicate more parental conflict. This measure was reliable (ɑ = .82). Overall reliability of the measure was ɑ = .89. All items were flipped from strongly agree to strongly disagree to reflect the importance of a lower score indicating higher intensity of conflict.

Attitudes toward divorce

The Likelihood of Divorce Scale (Braithwaite et al., 2016) was utilized to assess attitudes toward divorce. Participants were asked to assume they were married and to rate how likely they would be to divorce in different hypothetical scenarios. Answers were recorded using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (very unlikely) to 5 (very likely). High scores indicate an increased risk of divorce in the face of marital difficulties. This measure is reliable, and the overall reliability was ɑ = .88.

Interpersonal Solidarity

Twenty items adapted from Wheeless (1998) evaluated interpersonal solidarity. These items (ɑ = .89) asked participants to indicate how they relate to closeness with another person, influence of behavior, trust in the person, their ability to disclose things about themselves, whether or not they liked the person if they interact with them regularly, and if they felt close and in common with the person. Participants rated each item on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

Destructive conflict

The Conflict and Problem-Solving Scale was used to determine the likelihood of destructive conflict (Kerig, 1996). This scale is a shortened version of the original 42 items. We utilized the following subsections: stalemating, verbal aggression, and physical aggression. There were a total of 23 items. Answers were recorded using a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (very likely) to 5 (very unlikely). Lower scores on the stalemating scale indicated more destructive conflict. This measure was reliable (ɑ = .78). Lower scores on the verbal aggression scale indicated more destructive conflicts. This measure was reliable (ɑ = .95). Lower scores on the physical aggression scale indicated more destructive conflict. This measure was reliable (ɑ = .90). High scores indicated a stronger likelihood of utilizing destructive conflict strategies. The overall reliability was ɑ = .93. All items were flipped from very likely to very unlikely to reflect the importance of a lower score, indicating a higher likelihood of utilizing destructive conflict.

Results

H1 was evaluated by examining the correlation between high-conflict divorce and destructive conflict management strategies. See table 1 below. There was a high correlation with all variables except physical aggression and intensity of conflict. Thus, the hypothesis is partially supported.

Table 1

Study Variables

1. High Conflict Divorce

2. Destructive Conflict .24*

3. Frequency of Conflict .87** .24*

4. Intensity of Conflict .89** .05 .69**

5. Resolution of Conflict .82** .50** .62** .53**

6. Stalemating .18* .88**

7. Verbal Aggression

8. Physical Aggression

*p < .05. **p <.01

H2 was evaluated by examining the correlation between attitudes toward divorce and closeness in friendships. The variables showed no statistically significant relationship, r =.05, p = .64. Therefore, hypothesis two was not supported.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to examine if children of divorced parents mimic conflict behaviors exhibited by their parents and adopt those strategies as their own when navigating friendships in emerging adulthood. Further, if those conflict strategies were adopted and then utilized, they should be factors in determining closeness within friendships. In addition, we predicted that the difference between a high and low-conflict divorce affects the solidarity within friendships in the child’s life.

Regarding our research hypotheses, the first one predicts that children of high-conflict divorce will utilize destructive conflict strategies more than children of low-conflict divorce. Our results support this hypothesis, which means that children of high-conflict divorce experience more destructive conflict management skills and have adopted those as their own through observed behavior.

Hypothesis 1a states that children of high-frequency divorce are more likely to have

destructive conflict strategies than children of low-frequency divorce. High scores on the frequency scale reflect conflict that occurs often, involves higher levels of hostility and aggression, and is poorly resolved (Grych et al., 1992). This means that children’s parents were engaging in many conflicts, so they witnessed these interactions at a higher level. As the arguments happen repetitively, the children’s offspring can classify those interactions as standard, which causes them to develop that expectation in their future relationships.

Hypothesis 1b states that children of high-intensity divorce are more likely to use destructive conflict strategies than those of low-intensity divorce. A high-intensity divorce is characterized by persistent and intense conflict between the parents. This scale indicates the degree to which children feel threatened and/or able to cope when marital conflict occurs (Grych et al., 1992). These types of conflicts can include severe arguments, hostility, and even violence. This hypothesis was not supported by our results, which means that children who experienced high-intensity conflicts are not more likely to use the same intensity when navigating their conflict in the future. This is important to understand as emerging adult relationships are only viable through proper interpersonal skills. Perhaps children have learned from their parents and utilized constructive strategies with less intense conflict. If an emerging adult can solve conflict without argumentation, hostility, or violence, it may make them more desirable as a friend.

Hypothesis 1c states that children of high-resolution divorce are more likely to use destructive conflict strategies than children of low-resolution divorce. A high-resolution divorce means that the child blames themself for the arguments that took place at the time of the divorce and leading up to it. The scale assesses the frequency of child-related conflict and the degree to which children blame themselves (Grych et al., 1992). This hypothesis was supported, meaning that children who blame themselves often carry out their feelings of guilt and shame into their future relationships. This could cause the individual to fear speaking out and advocating for their side of the argument.

Hypothesis 1d states that children of high-conflict divorce are more likely to use stalemating destructive strategies than children of low-conflict divorce. Stalemating destructive strategies occur when neither side involved in the conflict can progress or reach a resolution (Kerig, 1996). The hypothesis was supported by our results, which means that there is a correlation between stalemating and high-conflict divorce. High-conflict divorce offers more opportunities where the parents could use stalemating as a destructive strategy. The child viewing this at a young age may in turn lead them to adopt the behavior as their own. Utilizing this strategy would cause them to avoid resolution, compromise, and confrontation. These factors can decrease the level of trust in friendships and weaken the stability of their relationships (Shulman et al., 2001).

Hypothesis 1e states that children of high-conflict divorce are more likely to use verbally aggressive, destructive strategies than children of low-conflict divorce. Our hypothesis was supported, which means that there is a significant correlation between verbal aggression and high-conflict divorce. There was also a correlation between verbal aggression and stalemating, supporting our hypothesis. This means that these two strategies are often used together and coincide with conflict. As a child mimics their divorced parents’ communication style of acting with verbal aggression, it can cause future strains in relationships throughout their lives. As this is a destructive and ineffective communication style, the child is unable to form deep and meaningful relationships (Faur et al., 2024). This can cause them to feel isolated and insecure in their ability to be a good friend. They can then be viewed as unpredictable and volatile, decreasing the number of friendships they could form.

Hypothesis 1f states that children of high-conflict divorce are more likely to use physically aggressive destructive strategies than children of low-conflict divorce. In past research, children whose parents were more physically aggressive during interparental conflicts perceived a higher level of threat, meaning that exposure to interparental aggression is associated with high levels

of child stress (Kerig, 1996). Our results did not support this hypothesis; however, there was a correlation between high-conflict divorce and all other variables except for physical aggression. This could mean other destructive conflict strategies were used instead of physical aggression. The use of this strategy could lead to legal consequences such as charges of assault and domestic violence. If a parent is aware of these consequences, they know not to utilize physical aggression, which could lead to loss of custody or legal penalties. Results indicate that children saw their parents utilizing stalemating and verbal aggression. These two strategies are known to be heavily detrimental to relationships and are viewed as being significantly worse than physical aggression (Sillars et al., 2021). A few of these direct and face-attacking behaviors include blame, coercive acts like disparaging or guilting each other, face-attacking acts, interrupting, and rejecting the other’s reasoning (Sillars et al., 2021). During data collection, participants may have felt the pressure of the stigma surrounding physical abuse and instead chose not to disclose information candidly.

Hypothesis 2 states that a person’s attitude towards divorce influences their closeness to friends. Our results did not support our hypothesis. This means there is no correlation between friendship closeness and one’s attitude towards divorce. Perhaps this also means that society and adults have taught their kids how to utilize constructive and healthy conflict-management skills. Children have potentially learned from their parents’ mistakes to maintain better relationships. Alternatively, our results did not support our hypothesis because our sample size was possibly too small to obtain an accurate indication for closeness.

When parents apply unhealthy communication tactics to their relationship, it can lead them to divorce. These tactics may lead to their children practicing such behaviors in their own future relationships, causing relationship dissolution (Roper et al., 2020). Prior research indicates a strong correlation between parental romantic relationships and children’s adult romantic relationships (Cui et al., 2011). Conversely, other studies suggest a weak correlation between parental relationships and the child’s romantic relationships. Previous research indicates that those from divorced homes are not at greater risk for relationship dissolution compared to those who have not witnessed parental divorce (Shulman et al., 2001). Although there was no distinct correlation, said individuals who did experience divorce reported less trust in relationships.

Limitations

It is essential to note the limitations of the current study: a female majority sample size. As a result, results may be skewed. According to Starrels (1994), women were found to have a higher emotional availability, leading them to disclose their personal traumas. However, men have been taught to reject and internalize feelings of emotion. Thus, such emotions about their divorced parents would be concealed. In the future, a more appropriate sample size could be beneficial for understanding the impacts and correlations of the aforementioned variables.

Future Directions

This study focuses on retrospective data, meaning that participants were asked to reflect on their time as adolescents, possibly leading to poor recall. Future studies could focus on longitudinal data where participants could instead be asked about future actions and their likelihood to act in a certain way. Children who experienced parental divorce at a very young age could have a hard time remembering past events accurately.

Another future contribution could examine family relationships as a whole (siblingsibling, father-daughter, father-son, mother-son, mother-daughter). Gender could play a role in parent-child interactions. Mother-daughter relationships are generally stronger, utilizing verbal open communication, whereas father-daughter relationships are less intense (Starrels, 1994). The different conflict styles between genders in familial relationships could impact

future interactions with romantic and platonic relationships. Additionally, sibling-sibling interactions and communication strategies could be adopted and emulated later in life. These familial relationships could influence how an individual communicates verbally and nonverbally in future interactions.

There is still a gap in research on emerging adult friendships. Future studies could incorporate additional measures that examine same-sex and different-sex friendships. They might also explore how behavior within friendships differs from behavior in romantic relationships.

Conclusion

This paper presents the negative implications of being a child of a high-conflict divorce family and their adopted conflict management strategies. Children of high-conflict divorce, attitudes toward divorce, interpersonal solidarity, and destructive conflict were examined in relation to behavior. The main finding of the study was that children who witnessed a highconflict divorce were more likely to engage in destructive conflict management strategies than children who witnessed a low-conflict divorce. Another finding was that there was no correlation with using those destructive conflict strategies in emerging adult friendships. The findings confirm there is a meaningful link between being a child of divorce and adopted communication strategies.

Families and mental health practitioners can benefit by understanding this link. By understanding how and why parental conflict affects children, mental health experts can learn to instill and teach constructive communication strategies to prevent future relationship dissatisfaction. Families can learn how to navigate this transitional period better by understanding that children do adopt their parent’s conflict management skills. Parents can then employ effective communication strategies that result in little to no visible conflict. This, in turn, allows their offspring to adopt healthy traits and apply them in emerging adulthood to create meaningful and long-lasting relationships.

References

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About the Authors

Abby Tucker, Elizabeth Thorne, and Douglas Hill are May 2024 graduates from Christopher Newport University, each of whom received a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies. Abby, in addition to her major, also minored in Business Administration and is pursuing a Public Relations job in the finance industry. In addition to her studies, she worked on campus as a Building Supervisor and was involved in CNU’s Gamma Phi Beta Sorority. Elizabeth, through her time at CNU, was involved with CHAARG and held positions on the executive board for two consecutive years as VP of Membership and VP of Media. Douglas also received a minor in Business Administration and was an active brother in the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. He served as its Campus Involvement Chair during the Fall 2023 semester, focusing on the communication between his organization and others on campus. He also worked as a mail attendant in the CNU mailroom for two years and is currently pursuing a sales position. Abby, Elizabeth, and Douglas dedicated their time at CNU to studying interpersonal communication in order to provide further insight for emerging adults experiencing conflict throughout various relationships.

An Analysis of Diverse Composers Represented in the Core Canon Literature for Wind Band

Reese Tunstall

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Kimberly, Ankney, Department of Music

Abstract

The core music literature canon recommended by multiple professionals in the Wind Band medium predominantly comprises deceased white-male composers. In this paper I begin by explaining the importance of diversity in programming underrepresented composers. I define overrepresented composers as people who were white/Caucasian, cisgender male, and/or deceased at the time of their work being performed. Therefore, an underrepresented composer is a person who is black, indigenous, or a person of color, non-cisgender male identifying, and/or is alive at the time of their work being performed. I will then analyze lists of what is considered to be core canon as well as concert programs that have been performed. I will also analyze suggestions given to wind band concert programing as well as initiatives suggested by professionals in the field.

The core literature canon recommended by multiple professionals in the Wind Band medium predominantly comprises deceased white-male composers. In the summer of 2020, the National Association for Music Education hosted a webinar featuring Brandi Waller-Pace as a guest speaker. In her presentation titled, “Decolonizing the Music Room”1, Waller-Pace lists the common issues facing music educators in researching music as:

• White Western European-centered training and curriculum that tokenizes, generalizes, or excludes the traditions and experiences of Black, Brown, or Indigenous People;

• Guilt/shame getting in the way of admitting mistakes;

• Lack of context and understanding of issues in song/activities;

• Being overwhelmed with the sheer number of resources that can be hard to sort through and evaluate; and

• Feelings of frustration from having to completely rethink old standbys/classic/ quintessential American music.

In this paper I will analyze lists of what are considered to be core canon as well as concert programs that have been performed. I will begin by looking at a collective aiming to make change.

Institute for Composer Diversity

The Institute for Composer Diversity (henceforth ICD) is an organization that works to encourage the discovery, study, and performance of music written by composers from historically excluded minorities.2 The ICD’s goal is to positively impact three important groups: the audiences and students who will engage with the music, the conductors, performers, and educators who serve to bring that music to those audiences and students, and composers themselves. The ICD works in three main areas: databases, analyses, and action. Their databases are resources that are aimed to encourage the musical community to discover works by composers from historically marginalized groups. Their analytical studies show where diverse programming is occurring and where it is needed. Finally, the ICD provides “action” ideas for musicians to create diverse and inclusive programs. Institute director Rob Deemer’s “Best Practices” suggests useful ideas for musicians as they work toward diversifying their programmed repertoire:3 To summarize, the eight suggestions are Distribution (Spreading works by women composers and composers of color throughout your concert season rather than only performing them on one “special” concert.), Topic (Avoid placing topical limitations on living composers when commissioning new works as well when programming your concert series.), Rationale (program works because their music resonates with you and it will resonate with your audiences as well.), Benchmarks (Intentionally set a minimum percentage before solidifying specific repertoire decisions), Audience (Program to your potential audience as well as to your usual attendees.), Locality (Always consider how composers in your region can help you connect with your community if possible), Substantial Works (too often works by women

1 “Decolonizing the Music Room,” National Association for Music Education, Brandi Waller-Pace, recorded May 5, 2020 via Webinar. Video, 1:26:00, https://vimeo.com/419122217.

2 “Institute for Composer Diversity,” Rob Deemer, last modified 2016. https://www.composerdiversity.com.

3 Deemer, ”Institute for Composer Diversity.”

composers and composers of color are shorter and serve to start off a concert while longer, more extensive works are reserved for composers from the traditional canons.), and Avoid “3-or-more” (balance should be given to ensure that other voices are heard as well.)

The ICD defines historically excluded groups into two main parts: Gender Identity/ Sexual/Romantic Orientation (Intersex, Non-binary, Third Gender, Transgender, Two Spirit, Woman, LGBTQIA2s+) and Demographic (African, Black, Latinx/Latin American, Indigenous Peoples, East Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, West Asian/North African). The ICD also considers living composers to be more historically excluded as opposed to deceased composers because living composers are performed less frequently.

The ICD’s “minimum benchmarks” chart outlines what they believe to be achievable proportions for directors to aim for as minimum goals in annual concert programming.4 This model sets 24% as a minimum goal for works by living composers and 24% for works by composers from historically excluded groups with 16% each for women composers and composers of color (8% each for women of color, men of color, and white women). In addition to these larger categories, this chart recommends minimum balances in works by living and deceased women of color, men of color, and white women as well as living white male composers.

The ICD suggests that a music director program a wind band season with twenty-five works: at least six works by living composers, at least four works by women composers (with at least two by women of color), and at least four works by composers of color (at least two by women of color). Finally, for single-concert events (such as an All-State or All-National festival for K-12 educators), the ICD suggests that at least one work by a woman composer and at least one work by a composer of color be included in each ensemble’s concert.

Composer Alex Shapiro describes herself as “a widely published advocate on topics ranging from technology, copyright, diversity, music education, and the music business…”5 Her website is full of links to programming resources for underrepresented composers. Shapiro also provides her own suggestions in the section titled “Action Points for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”6 Shapiro’s first point is Persistence and she encourages the reader to use the internet to “converse, write, and post about the need for diversity.”7 Her second point is Awareness and Intent. Shapiro believes educators should put thought into the lesson examples they select, so that concerts/classes will better reflect the diversity of their musicians, students, and audiences, and serve to inspire the next generation of composers. “This is equally the case for required passages and pieces for performance competitions, as well as selections for inclusion on state lists.”8 Shapiro encourages educators (employed by an institution) with limiting purchasing protocols to “...circumnavigate the school’s system in order to present students a broader selection of music not found on state lists, or accessed through large music retailers.”9 In order to appreciate Shapiro’s suggestions as well as the work of the ICD, it is important to examine how entrenched the wind band world was in cultivating its own set of standards for concert programming. In the following section, I examine what and whose music was featured while other repertoire was left vastly unheard.

The Core Canon

The Wind Repertory Project is a comprehensive database of wind literature, expanded

4 Deemer, ”Institute for Composer Diversity.”

5 Alex Shapiro, “300 Word Bio,” Program Bios and Photos, accessed April 28, 2023, https://www. alexshapiro.org/ASProgrambios.html#PB.

6 Alex Shapiro,“Programming Resources,” Action Points for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, accessed April 28, 2023. https://www.alexshapiro.org/ProgrammingResources.html#what.

7 Shapiro,“Action Points for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”

8 Shapiro,“Action Points for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”

9 Shapiro,“Action Points for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”

by contributions of band directors/conductors, students, and wind band enthusiasts worldwide.10 The database provides detailed information on literature for wind repertoire, including program notes, instrumentation, and errata of musical surfaces. The WRP “Music of Merit” is a list of music compiled from various “top” lists provided by three majorly regarded dissertations. The original of the three is the famed 1978 Acton Ostling Jr. dissertation11. This then was responded to by Jay Warren Gilbert in 199312, and both inspired Clifford Towner’s dissertation13 in 2011. If a composition is listed on all three dissertations, it is included on the WRP’s “Music of Merit” list. Music on this list is “of the highest quality construction and craft, is considered a serious artistic endeavor, and has stood the test of time.”14 Out of the 104 works listed, 9 of the works are by living composers (8.7%). Through my own analysis, I found that zero of the works are by non-male composers and zero of the works are composed by people of color.

Richard Miles is a professor of music and director of bands at Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Florida State University and graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Illinois and Appalachian State University. In addition to the supervision and administration of the MSU Bands, Miles teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting. Since he began teaching at MSU in 1985, the Symphony Band under his direction has received national and international recognition, having performed for conventions of the Music Educators National Conference, the College Band Directors National Association, the National Band Association, and the Kentucky Music Educators Association, as well as going on a concert tours to both China and Brazil. Miles currently serves as president of the Kentucky Music Educators Association and past president of the College Band Directors National Association, Southern Division and is in demand as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator.

In volume 8 of Teaching Music through Performance in Band, Miles wrote his suggestions in Chapter 6: titled “Concert Programming.” He believes programming for university wind bands must include five components.15

First, the ensemble must provide its members with access to significant wind works….Second, the programming must offer students the opportunity to play and perform works that are current, some of which may become significant as the years pass,…are works which are indicative of the art form at this point in their lives. A Third consideration is that the repertoire must be reflective of the growth and maturity of the ensemble and its conductor. Number four is that one must consider the strengths and weaknesses of the players and sections in the ensemble as repertoire is selected. Finally, there needs to be a consideration given for those who hear them.

10 Wind Repertory Project, accessed April 17, 2023, https://www.windrep.org/Main_Page.

11 Acton Ostling Jr., “An Evolution of Compositions for Wind Band According to Specific Criteria of Serious Artistic Merit” (PhD diss., University of Iowa, 1978).

12 Jay W. Gilbert, “An Evaluation of Compositions for Wind Band According to Specific Criteria of Serious Artistic Merit a Replication and Update” (PhD diss., Northwestern University, 1993).

13 Clifford N. Towner, “An Evaluation of Compositions for Wind Band According to Specific Criteria of Serious Artistic Merit: A Second Update.” (DMA diss., University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2011).

14 “Music of Merit,” Wind Repertory Project, accessed April 17, 2023, https://www.windrep.org/ Category:Music_of_Merit.

15 Richard Miles, “Concert Programming,” in Teaching Music through Performance in Band, ed. Richard Miles (Chicago: GIA Publications, 2011), 109-95.

University Concert Programming

Miles then provides a list of wind band repertoire that he believes should be performed by all college level ensembles. My own research shows that of those ninety-one works that Miles recommends being performed, seven of the works are by living composers (8%), one of the works is by a non-male composer (1%), and zero of the works are composed by people of color.

Frank L. Battisti is Conductor Emeritus and founder of the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble. President Gunther Schuller brought Battisti to NEC in 1969 with the goal of creating a wind ensemble program on the model of the seminal work done by Frederick Fennell at Eastman.16 During his time at NEC, Battisti cemented his reputation as one of the most respected champions of music for winds in America, and the NEC Wind Ensemble amassed a sizable portfolio of premiere performances and recordings. Battisti is past president of the College Band Directors National Association, and his articles on the wind ensemble, music education, and wind literature have been published by many national and international journals. In his book, On Becoming a Conductor, Battisti lists the fourteen composers he programmed most frequently during his time as conductor of the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble.17 My own research shows that of the fourteen, two of them (14%) were living at the time of publication. All composers listed identify as white cis-gendered men. Battisti also includes a selective list of pieces he conducted that “…stimulated and contributed to my re-creative and technical growth as a musician and conductor.” Battisti organizes the pieces into eras, those being Pre-Twentieth Century, 1900-1924, 1925-1949, 1950-1974, and 19741999. Seventy-two total compositions are included across all categories. Of those seventy-two works, seventeen (23.6%) are pieces by living composers (at the time of publication). All compositions listed were composed by white cis-gendered men.

Eugene Migliaro Corporon is the conductor of the Wind Symphony and Regents Professor of Music at the University of North Texas. As director of wind studies he guides all aspects of the program, including the masters and doctoral degrees in wind conducting. Mr. Corporon is a graduate of California State University, Long Beach, and Claremont Graduate University. His performances have drawn praise from colleagues, composers, connoisseurs, and music critics alike. Professor Corporon’s career, which spans six decades, began in 1969 as director of instrumental music at Mt. Miguel High School in Spring Valley, California. He has held collegiate positions since 1971 which include California State University, Fullerton, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Northern Colorado, Michigan State University, the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and the University of North Texas. His ensembles have performed at the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference, Southwestern Music Educators National Conference, Texas Music Educators Association Clinic/Convention, Texas Bandmasters Association Convention/Clinic, National Trumpet Competition, International Trumpet Guild Conference, International Clarinet Society Convention, North American Saxophone Alliance Conference, Percussive Arts Society International Convention, International Horn Society Conference, National Wind Ensemble Conference, College Band Directors National Association Conference, Japan Band Clinic, and the Conference for the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles. He has been honored by the American Bandmasters Association with invitations to membership.18

16 Frank L. Battisti,” New England Conservatory, accessed May 3, 2024, https://necmusic.edu/ former-faculty/frank-l-battisti.

17 Frank L. Battisti, “Study Repertoire,” in On Becoming A Conductor, (Galesville: Meredith Music Publications, 2007), 121-26.

18 “Eugene Corpron,“ Faculty and Staff, University of North Texas College of Music, accessed May 1, 2023, https://music.unt.edu/faculty-and-staff/eugene-corporon.

Corporon authors the fifth chapter of the seventh volume of Teaching Music through Performance in Band. He includes a chart that he lists as the most historically influential collegiate band programs in the United States:19

• Arizona State University;

• Baylor University;

• Bowling Green State University;

• California State University Northridge;

• Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music;

• Drake University;

• Eastman School of Music;

• Florida State University;

• Indiana University;

• Ithaca College;

• Luther College;

• Michigan State University;

• New England Conservatory of Music;

• Northwestern University;

• Oklahoma City University;

• Purdue University;

• Royal Northern College England;

• The Ohio State University;

• University of Arkansas;

• University of Calgary;

• University of California at Los Angeles;

• University of Colorado;

• University of Houston;

• University of Illinois;

• University of Iowa;

• University of Kansas;

• University of Michigan;

• University of Minnesota;

• University of North Texas;

• University of Northern Colorado;

• University of Southern California;

• University of Tennessee;

• University of Texas;

• University of Wisconsin;

• University of Wisconsin Milwaukee;

• West Texas State University; and

• West Virginia University.

Corpron is past president of the College Band Directors National Association.20 In 2005, the CBDNA defined itself as a membership who, “...are devoted to the teaching, performance, study and cultivation of music, with particular focus on the wind band medium. CBDNA is an inclusive organization whose members are engaged in continuous dialogue encompassing myriad philosophies and professional practices.

19 Corporon, Eugene Migliaro, “Historical Highlights of the Wind Band: A Heritage and Lineage, part 2: The French Revolution to the Present.” in Teaching Music Through Performance in Band edited by Richard Miles, 110-111. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2009.

20 University of North Texas College of Music, “Eugene Corpron.“

CBDNA is committed to serving as a dynamic hub connecting individuals to communities, ideas and resources.”21 The Association publishes a tri-annual report which features submissions of ensemble programs from participating Universities. CBDNA states the reason for this being “Many CBDNA members are as interested in how their fellow members program as they are in what they program.”22 I will be using three reports (Spring 1999, Spring 2009, and Spring 2019) and analyzing the representation (of gender, demographic, and living status) of the works that are performed by the universities Eugene Corpron declares as “the most historically influential.” (I will only be analyzing the repertoire that is performed by the top group of said college program)

For the Spring 1999 report, “the most historically influential” universities that did participate include:

• Indiana University;

• Michigan State University;

• New England Conservatory of Music;

• Oklahoma City University;

• Royal Northern College England;

• University of Arkansas; and

• University of Kansas.

My personal analysis shows that of the total ninety-two works programed in the spring of 1999, thirty-nine works (42.4%) were composed by living composers (at the time of 1999), zero works were composed by non-cisgendered males, and two works (2.2% ) were composed by men of color. Three of the works (3.3%) had composers that were unidentifiable.

For the Spring 2009 report, “the most historically influential” universities that did participate include:

• Indiana University; and

• University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

My personal analysis shows that of the total twenty-eight works programmed, fifteen works (53.6%) were composed by living composers (at the time of 2009), two works (7.2%) were composed by female composers, and two works (7.2%) were composed by men of color.

Lastly, for the Spring 2019 report, “the most historically influential” universities that did participate include:

• Bowling Green State University;

• Indiana University;

• University of Kansas;

• University of Southern California;

• University of Texas; and

• West Virginia University.

My personal analysis shows that of the total one-hundred-twenty-six works programmed, sixty-six works (52.4%) were composed by living composers (at the time of 2019), five works (4.0%) were composed by female composers, and five works (4.0%) were composed by men of color, and one work (0.8%) titled Homemade recipe by female Singaporean composer Emily Koh.

To compare the three seasons, programming of living composers increased by ten percent, programming of women composers increased by four percent, and the programming of BIPoC composers increased by one-point-eight percent.

21 College Band Directors National Association, last modified 2023, https://www.cbdna.org/about/ the-cbdna-report/.

22 College Band Directors National Association.

Suggested Programs for University Bands

Now that I have shown diversity suggestions as well as source analysis, I will share with you a four-concert program season for a university level ensemble. The method I will be using for creating a balanced concert program is the one suggested by Richard Miles in the eighth volume of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band. Miles tells the reader to think of it “as a chef would prepare various meals…”23 and is listed as follows:

• A Fanfare/Overture;

• A March;

• A Lyrical/Soloist/Guest Conducted piece;

• A Short, Single-Movement Work; and

• A “Finisher.”

For this experiment, I limited myself to using repertoire that Christopher Newport University owns24, as well as five-hundred dollars to purchase additional repertoire. The repertoire I selected was graded at a Virginia grade five or lower (allowing myself one VA grade six per concert). Grading of repertoire is based upon the Virginia Band Orchestra Directors Association that categorizes a level “one” as a beginner piece, and a level “five” to “six” as an advanced to professional level piece. Referring back to the ICD’s benchmark suggestions25, the percentages are adjusted for a twenty-piece season as follows:

• one-fourth (24%) of my total season’s performed pieces must be by living composers;

• three (16%) pieces by women composers;

• three works by composers of color; and

• one piece by a woman of color.

I first identified what pieces were in CNU’s library that were by non-white male composers. Composers of color found in the library included Kevin Day and Omar Thomas. The library also included three female composers: Cindy McTee, Alex Shapiro, and Julie Girouix. I was unable to find any compositions by a female person of color, so I “purchased” a work by Indian American composer Asha Srinivasan for $150. Below are my results for concert one:

• Smetana Fanfare - Karel Husa;

• Washington Post March - John Philip Sousa;

• Riften Wed - Julie Giroux;

• Xerxes - John Mackey; and

• Dancing Fire - Kevin Day.

Concert two:

• Light Cavalry Overture - Franz Von Suppe;

• The Thunderer - John Philip Sousa;

• Of Our New Day Begun - Omar Thomas;

• Abracadabra - Frank Thicheli; and

• Circuits - Cindy McTee.

Concert three:

• Slava - Leonard Bernstein;

• El Capitan - John Philip Sousa;

• Paper Cut - Alex Shapiro;

• Undertow - John Mackey; and

• Variations on America - Charles Ives.

23 Miles, “Concert Programming,” 171-72.

24 “CNUMusicLibraryJanuary2022,” Google Sheets, last modified January 31, 2022, https://docs. google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LoA9FLtNiY61YmBFwxfjxoon3yd_Wxv0/edit#gid=1975689468.

25 Deemer, ”Institute for Composer Diversity.”

Concert four:

• Fanfare and Allegro - Clifton Williams;

• The Invincible Eagle - John Philip Sousa;

• Shadja-maalika: Modal Illusions - Asha Srinivasan;

• Molly on the Shore - Percy A. Grainger; and

• Give Us This Day - David Maslanka.

Analysis of my own programing shows that of the twenty total works, nine (45%) are by living composers, four (20%) are by female composers, three (15%) are composed by people of color, and one work is by a woman of color.

After having done this exercise, I now will give my own suggestions for concert programming pertaining to representing the underrepresented. After completing this research, I have greater perspective on what can be achieved for concert programming on the university level. I suggest that concerts of five pieces should include two to three pieces by living composers, one piece should be by a composer of color, and one piece should be by a non-cisgendered male composer. I believe that by striving for this micro-benchmark, music directors can achieve diversity in their programming.

Bibliography

Battisti, Frank L. “Study Repertoire,” in On Becoming A Conductor, 121-26. Galesville: Meredith Music Publications, 2007.

Bodiford, Kenneth G.. “Evolution of Contemporary College Wind Band Repertoire and Programming in the United States: 1800-2010” DMA diss., University of Alabama, 2012. College Band Directors National Association. Last modified 2023. https://www.cbdna.org/ about/the-cbdna-report/.\

Corporon, Eugene Migliaro, “Historical Highlights of the Wind Band: A Heritage and Lineage, part 2: The French Revolution to the Present.” in Teaching Music Through Performance in Band. edited by Richard Miles, 71-122. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2009.

Deemer, Rob. “Best Practices.” Institute for Composer Diversity. Last modified 2016. https://www.composerdiversity.com/programming.

Gilbert, Jay Warren. “An Evaluation of Compositions for Wind Band According to Specific Criteria of Serious Artistic Merit a Replication and Update.” PhD diss., Northwestern University, 1993.

Google Sheets. “CNUMusicLibraryJanuary2022.” Last modified January 31, 2022. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LoA9FLtNiY61YmBFwxfjxoon3yd_Wxv0/ edit#gid=1975689468.

Jezic, Diane Peacock. “Appendix 3: An Outline of Western Music from 850 through the 1940s,” in Women Composers: The Lost Tradition Found, 229-236. New York: The Feminist Press, 1988.

Ostling Jr., Acton. “An Evolution of Compositions for Wind Band According to Specific Criteria of Serious Artistic Merit.” PhD diss., University of Iowa, 1978.

Miles, Richard. “Concert Programming,” in Teaching Music through Performance in Band, edited by Richard Miles, 109-95. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2011.

National Band Association. “Who We Are & What We Do.” Last modified 2023. https:// nationalbandassociation.org/about/.

Neidig, Kenneth L.. “Choosing Music for Performance,” in The Band Director’s Guide, edited by Kenneth L. Neidig, 109-50. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964.

New England Conservatory. “Frank L. Battisti.” Accessed May 3, 2024. https://necmusic. edu/former-faculty/frank-l-battisti.

Shapiro, Alex. “Programming Resources.” Action Points for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Accessed April 28, 2023. https://www.alexshapiro.org/ProgrammingResources. html#what.

Shapiro, Alex. “300 Word Bio.” Program Bios and Photos. Accessed April 28, 2023. https:// www.alexshapiro.org/ASProgrambios.html#PB.

Towner, Clifford N. “An Evaluation of Compositions for Wind Band According to Specific Criteria of Serious Artistic Merit: A Second Update.” DMA diss., University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2011.

University of North Texas College of Music. “Eugene Corpron.” Faculty and Staff. Accessed May 1, 2023. https://music.unt.edu/faculty-and-staff/eugene-corporon.

Waller-Pace, Brandi. “Decolonizing the Music Room.” National Association for Music Education. Recorded May 5, 2020 via Webinar. Video, 1:26:00. https://vimeo. com/419122217.

Wind Repertory Project. “Music of Merit.” Accessed April 17, 2023. https://www.windrep. org/Category:Music_of_Merit.

About the Author

Reese Tunstall is a soon to be graduate of CNU with a Bachelor of Music in Music Performance and a Precertification in Instrumental Music Education. As a Captain, Reese has held the principal saxophone chair in the CNU Wind Ensemble since his first semester, has led The Marching Captains three seasons as a Drum Major, and has served a term as the Southern Representative for the Collegiate Virginia Music Educators Association. Throughout his career, he has studied saxophone under Henning Schröder, Jason Hammers, David Fatek, Sheri Oyan, and has received coaching from Jonny Salinas, Nicki Roman, John Nickol Sr., and Jonathan Nickol Jr. Reese has also presented at Paideia with a lecture recital entitled “Programmatic Features and Extended Techniques in Ryō Noda’s Maï,” (2023). As a saxophonist, conductor, and educator, Reese stives to be a positive role model through his attitude, character, performance, scholarship, and service.

Monitoring Chiroptera Species Richness Using Thermal Imaging Application

Hope Williams, William Murray, & Michelle Guins

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Rick Sherwin, Department of Organismal & Environmental Biology

Abstract

The eastern coast of Virginia in the United States is home to various species of bats belonging to the order Chiroptera. Bats are ecologically important as they help disperse seeds and are key pollinators. All bats in Virginia are insectivorous, so they also help control insect pest populations. Despite their ecological importance, bats are notoriously difficult to study as they are nocturnal and rely on aerial means of travel. Fortunately, recent technology advancements such as thermal imaging cameras and bat call detectors, mitigate some of these challenges. The local bat community was studied using a thermal imaging drone and an acoustic bat call detector. Eight species of bats were recorded throughout the survey period, with hoary and evening bats having the most observations (26% and 28%, respectively). Greater bat activity and species richness were observed during the warmer nights of surveying. The use of a thermal imaging drone and acoustic call detector fortified the understanding of local bat activity. This was done by studying the behaviors of bats in the area and identifying specific species without having to capture or handle any animals. These methods of detection are less invasive when compared to the widely used practice of netting the bats. Because several local species of bats are protected under the Endangered Species Act, this specific technology makes it easier to understand the occurrence and timing of species in order to promote wildlife conservation.

Introduction

Bats are ecologically important as they play a crucial role in the ecosystem by serving as pollinators for plants as well as dispersing their seeds. All bats in Virginia are insectivorous (Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, 2024a), so they also help to control insect “pest” populations. However, bats are difficult to study due to being nocturnal and relying on aerial means of travel. Due to their ecological importance, researchers have focused on understanding patterns of species richness and basic ecology. The primary historical approach to studying bats includes capturing them and collecting relevant demographic data (Timm et al., 2021). Many different approaches have been used to study these bats such as netting or with radio transmitters. A commonly selected method for surveying bats is the use of a mist net, which was first successfully implemented in 1931 (Timm et al., 2021). This method was primarily used to capture birds but was discovered to also work for bats as the researcher left the net out overnight, not knowing it would trap many individual bats as well (Van Tyne, 1933). The use of mist nets has since become extremely widespread and is often a preferred method to study bats. However, the use of nets often results in increased levels of injury to the bats, and/or stress resulting from the capture and handling of the animals (Murray et al., 1999). This method can also result in sampling bias as it may not accurately represent all the species present in an area. This is because there are differing flight patterns and behaviors among species, making certain species potentially more likely to be caught than others (Kunz & Kurta, 1988). Similarly, individuals within a species (ex., juveniles) may be more susceptible to being caught than others, also resulting in sample bias. Lastly, if the nets are repeatedly deployed in the same location, bats may learn to avoid them (Marques et al., 2013).

A few methods of bat monitoring do not require the collection or physical handling of the animals, which in turn reduces the stress on the animals being studied. The advancement of technology has allowed for non-invasive methods of observing bat activity to be more readily available. These methods eliminate the disruption of the bats’ day-to-day activities and reduce inherent biases in capture probabilities. Two examples of non-invasive methods for studying bats include acoustic bat call detectors and drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras. Drones allow researchers to sample bats at varying altitudes where most bat activity has been noted to occur (Michez et al., 2021). Thermal imaging cameras detect heat signatures based on the amount of heat their bodies give off (Burke et al., 2019). Bat detectors receive and record the ultrasonic calls produced by bats via echolocation used for navigation and foraging. Sonograms developed from these calls can then be used to identify specific species of bats (Anala et al., 2024).

Bats are quite small, averaging between 3 and 6 inches in total length (Wilson, 2024); therefore, they can be difficult to visually detect on the thermal imaging camera. Bat echolocation calls also vary in amplitude (Håkansson et al., 2022); therefore, the bat call detector can pick up calls depending on the loudness of the ambient environment. As a result, spatial data collected from these methods are typically at a sub-landscape scale. Despite these limitations, the use of acoustic call detectors can be beneficial in the monitoring of these elusive species and gathers a large amount of data (Russo & Voigt, 2016). There are many practices for using acoustic detectors for bats, such as: species presence, population density, behavior, and activity patterns.

Bats produce different vocalizations for different purposes, depending on their activities. For example, a feeding call produced when a bat is actively foraging is different from a call used for socializing. The sonograms can help us infer what the bats activity was at the time of detection. Each species of bat has its own call pattern that is unique to that species, varying in both their pattern and frequency (Carrasco-Rueda, n.d.). Their laryngeal structures within their mouth give bats the ability to expand their vocal range and produce different types of calls (Håkansson et al., 2022). By listening to these calls, we can determine what species of bat

are in the area. This is something that cannot be done using thermal imaging alone. For this reason, the two methods described must be used in conjunction to get a more complete picture of bat activity in the area.

As previously mentioned, the use of this thermal imaging technology can be used to promote wildlife conservation within endangered species. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 defines an endangered species as a species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2024b). Three species of bats are listed as federally endangered under the ESA, the tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus), Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), and Virginia big eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii virginianus). The northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) is listed as federally threatened, and the Rafinesque’s big-eared bat (Corynorhinus rafinesquii), little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), and tricolored bat are listed as state endangered (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2024a). The primary threat to these bats is white-nose syndrome, which is a disease caused by a fungal pathogen affecting hibernating and severe population declines in bat species across North America (Frick et al., 2016).

Methods

This study was conducted at Lions Bridge, a narrow strip of land between Mariners Lake and the James River, located at Mariners Museum Park in Newport News, Virginia (VA) (Figure 1). The area consists of open water surrounded by grass, shrubs, and forests. Immediately surrounding the park are residential neighborhoods and commercial buildings. This habitat mosaic is sufficiently variable to support an ecologically diverse bat community. Data was collected on seven different days between October 2023 and April 2024. Each survey was conducted at the same location throughout the season, beginning at approximately 8:15 pm.

A DJI Matrice 200 V2 drone was used to which a FLIR thermal imaging camera was attached. To ensure compliance with the Federal Aviation Administration, all pilots were equipped with a certification obtained from The Academy of Model Aeronautics, -The Recreational Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Safety Test, allowing us to safely and confidently operate the drone. We deployed an Echo Meter Touch 2 Pro Bat Call Detector with a detection range of up to 192 kilohertz (kHz) (EMT2 Pro), to detect and record bat calls. We used the Echo Meter Touch software to identify species based on recorded calls.

Results

Figure 7 is an example of an image taken from the thermal imaging camera showing the heat signatures of the bats, outlined in the white boxes. Thermal images reveal the presence and number of bats within the viewable area but do not allow for species identification. However, we were able to infer some of the species’ identifications based on the time of the thermal recording with the timing of the acoustic recordings. The bat call detector identified species and presented the results by the abbreviation of their scientific name and their common name, shown in Table 1.

The greatest number of calls were recorded on April 1 and April 8, 2024. On April 1, 223 calls were detected, with hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus) being detected on 132 of those calls (approximately 56%). On April 8, 187 calls were detected, with evening bats (Nycticeius humeralis) being detected on 135 calls (approximately 72%). Figure 2 shows the distribution of species combined from all the surveys, while Figure 3 shows the distribution of calls from each survey, in relation to air temperature. Example sonograms are shown in Figure 4 for the silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans), Figure 5 for the hoary bat, and Figure 6 for the tricolored bat. The bright yellow color indicates a higher amplitude of the call, the Y-axis shows the frequency scale in kHz, and the X-axis represents time in milliseconds.

A feeding call was shown on the bat call detector during the October 18, 2024 survey by a silver-haired bat. The feeding call contains a more rapid series of echolocation to pinpoint its prey, also known as feeding buzzes (Håkansson et al., 2022). As shown in Figure 3, during the fall and winter months, there were fewer calls recorded while in the spring, the number of calls greatly increased.

Discussion

A total of 461 acoustic calls from the bat call detector were recorded. When sampling in the spring months, the number of calls as well as the number of species recorded increased dramatically (Figure 3). This could be because the bats that migrated for the winter were returning to their original habitats. The presence of the tricolored bats was an interesting discovery during the survey on October 18, 2023, as they typically are found in the western part of Virginia during the winter (Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, 2024a). However, with the increase in temperatures on April 1 and April 8, 2024, we can expect to see more tricolored bats coming out of hibernation earlier than in subsequent years. One downside to the use of an acoustic detector is the inability to distinguish between a single bat flying back and forth and multiple bats using the same area. The detector allowed for the estimation of the number of species present, determination of feeding behaviors, and use of navigational calls. One observation throughout the study was that the use of the drone caused an avoidance behavior by the bats, likely as an attempt to not collide with the drone itself. To account for this, during the last few surveys, only the acoustic detector was used to observe if there was a difference in activity. The drone was still recording thermal images but from ground level. In doing so, a large increase in bat activity (Figure 3) was observed from both the acoustic call detector and the drone. The thermal imaging camera does not produce high enough quality images for species identification, but rather for a presence/absence analysis. By combining the thermal images with the results from the acoustics detector, the species in the images were inferred to match what was recorded from their calls.

This non-invasive detection method is ideal for both the researchers and the study species, as the bats experience little, if any disruption to their behaviors, and the researchers conducting the study also can avoid physical contact with the bats. A main passage of disease transfer between bats and humans is from direct contact. This negation of human-bat contact nullifies the chance that a disease could be passed between species, thus keeping both parties safe (Allocati et al., 2016). From an animal welfare standpoint, this method emphasizes the value of remote tools in conservation research.

Conclusion

This work is important as it allows researchers and biologists to study and learn more about endangered species and wildlife conservation. Continuing to study bats is crucial as they help maintain healthy environments in which they inhabit (Piló et al., 2023). Since populations change over time, continuously studying species can provide insights into ecosystem function. It is important to understand how different species interact with their ecosystems and more importantly how they are affected by the influences of the environment and resources around them. This technology allows us to tailor conservation strategies to the bat species that reside in the area. This pinpoint approach to conservation allows the needs of specific species of bats to be met more effectively.

Figures & Tables

Figure 1: An aerial satellite view of the survey site, with the area of data collection shown in the white box

Figure 2: Distribution of acoustic calls recorded throughout the survey season by species

Figure 3: Distribution of acoustic calls throughout the survey season by survey date

4: Image of a sonogram from the Echo Meter Touch 2 Pro Bat Call Detector of a silver-haired bat

Figure 5: Image of a sonogram from the Echo Meter Touch 2 Pro Bat Call Detector of a hoary bat

Figure

Figure 6: Image of a sonogram from the Echo Meter Touch 2 Pro Bat Call Detector of a tricolored bat

7: Example thermal image showing heat signature of bats

Figure

Table 1: Species recorded from the bat call detector during all survey days

Abbreviated scientific name Common name

EPTFUS Big Brown bat

LASBOR Eastern Red bat

NYCHUM Evening bat

LASCIN Hoary bat

MYOLUC Little Brown myotis

LASNOC Silver-haired bat

CORTOW Townsend's Big-eared bat* Most likely Rafinesque’s Big-eared bat, based on location.

PERSUB Tricolored bat

Table 2: The distribution of bat species recorded on each survey day and the corresponding air temperature

10/30/2023

11/15/2023

2/15/2024

4/1/2023

4/8/2024

Works Cited

Allocati, N., Petrucci, A. G., Di Giovanni, P., Masulli, M., Di Ilio, C., & De Laurenzi, V. (2016). Batman disease transmission: Zoonotic pathogens from wildlife reservoirs to human populations. Cell Death Discovery, 2, 16048. https://doi.org/10.1038/cddiscovery.2016.48

Anala, M. R., Hemavathy, R., & Dhanush, M. (2024). Acoustic Signal Detection of Search-Phase Echolocation Bat Calls with CNN. International Journal of Intelligent Systems and Applications in Engineering, 12(11s), 78–85.

Burke, C., Rashman, M., Wich, S., Symons, A., Theron, C., & Longmore, S. (2019). Optimizing observing strategies for monitoring animals using drone‐mounted thermal infrared cameras. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 40, 439–467.

Carrasco-Rueda, F. (n.d.). Bat Sounds, Bat Songs – Biodiversity Institute. Biodiversity Institute University of Florida. https://biodiversity.research.ufl.edu/bat-sounds-bat-songs/

Frick, W. F., Puechmaille, S. J., & Willis, C. K. R. (2016). White-Nose Syndrome in Bats. In C. C. Voigt & T. Kingston (Eds.), Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of Bats in a Changing World (p. 245). Springer. 10.1007/978-3-319-25220-9

Håkansson, J., Mikkelsen, C., Jakobsen, L., & Elemans, C. P. H. (2022). Bats expand their vocal range by recruiting different laryngeal structures for echolocation and social communication. PLOS Biology, 20(11), e3001881. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001881

Kunz, T. H., & Kurta, A. (1988). Capture methods and holding devices. Ecology and Behavioral Methods for the Study of Bats, 1–30.

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About the Authors

Hope Williams is a Class of 2024 graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Organismal and Environmental Biology. She was a member of the Alpha Chi Sigma professional fraternity of the chemical sciences. Hope was a Research Apprentice for Dr. Rick Sherwin and was a member of his undergraduate research lab for almost 3 years. She is extremely appreciative of the support she has received throughout her undergraduate career from her professors, especially Dr. Sherwin, and research partners, Michelle and William. Hope plans on taking a gap year to gain exposure in the field of Wildlife Conservation and hopefully pursue a Master’s Degree in Wildlife Conservation subsequently.

William Murray is a rising junior pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Organismal and Environmental Biology. He is a member of Alpha Chi Sigma professional fraternity of the chemical sciences. Will has been a research assistant to Dr. Rick Sherwin for one semester and is grateful to both Dr. Sherwin and Hope Williams for giving him this opportunity. He hopes to pursue a career in animal conservation after graduation.

Michelle Guins is a current Masters of Science in Environmental Science student in the department of Biology, Chemistry & Environmental Sciences. She is a Certified Associate Wildlife Biologist® and an Associate Certified Military Natural Resources Professional. Michelle is completing a thesis studying haul-out behavior of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) in Virginia in relation to temporal and environmental factors. Michelle also works for the U.S. Navy Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, department of marine resources as a wildlife biologist. Michelle is extremely grateful for the support she has received from Dr. Rick Sherwin, as well as her colleague Hope Williams for allowing her to participate in this research.

Christopher Newport university