The Cupola 2016

The Cupola

Christopher Newport University

2015 – 2016

Research is the essential element of the scholar's craft. It is the means by which scholars pay forward into the fund of human knowledge the debt owed to their predecessors. At its best, research honors the past while enriching the future.

--Dr. Richard M. Summerville CNU Provost 1982-1995, 2001-2007

The title of our online undergraduate research journal references the architectural feature that tops Trible Library, thus honoring Cupola authors as the preeminent student researchers at CNU. In support of its mission, CNU's Undergraduate and Graduate Research Committee (UGRC) honors and promotes up to six outstanding student research papers by publishing them in The Cupola. Student researchers published in The Cupola receive a cash award supported by the Douglas K. Gordon Endowed Undergraduate and Graduate Research Fund.

Submissions are judged based on: • integration of research • originality / creativity • rhetorical qualities / style • advancement of liberal learning The Cupola Award is presented to students whose research papers were selected from the top papers submitted to the Undergraduate and Graduate Research Committee. Winners receive $500 and their paper published in The Cupola, CNU’s web based journal for undergraduate research. The top papers received the Douglas K. Gordon Cupola Award.

The Cupola 2015 – 2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS

"Adoption in the Post-World War II United States: How the Role of Women and the Social Stigma against Illegitimacy Affected Adoption Practices"

by Hannah Mills Douglas K Gordon Award

1 – 22

"Beyond Bruises: An Attachment and Attribution Theoretical Perspective on Psychologically Abusive Relationships"

by Sarah Wallace, Catherine Ashman, Megan Hutchinson, and Grace Zaylor Douglas K. Gordon Award

23 – 39

"Pagan Serpents in Paradise: The Emergence of Anguipedes in Italian Renaissance Art"

by Clanci Jo Conover

40 – 58

"Act like a Scientist: Science Theater as a Creative Approach to Address Gender Disparity in STEM Careers"

by Shannon Farrow

59 – 69

"America Divided: Impacts of Partisan Polarization on the Modern Political System"

by Jordan Massey

70 – 89

"Driven Psycho: An Analysis of the Result of Sexual Intimacy on the Morality, Sanity, and Well-Being of Men and Women in Alfred Hitchcock Films"

by Emma Oliver

90 – 103

Adoption in the Post-World War II United States: How the Role of Women and the Social Stigma against Illegitimacy Affected Adoption Practices

by Hannah Mills sponsored by Dr. Laura Puaca (Department of History)

Author Biography A native of Chesterfield, Virginia, Hannah Mills holds a B.A. in History from Christopher Newport University. During a semester abroad at the University of Oxford she studied Philosophy of Religion and Victorian England. As a Ferguson Fellow she wrote the curriculum for an afterschool program for elementary age children with incarcerated parents called Breaking Barriers. Her equal passions for history and education direct her towards future plans of becoming a high school history teacher. She hopes to complete her M.A. in Teaching, teach in Virginia, and implement Breaking Barriers in an elementary school.

Abstract Adoption practices in the United States after World War II were driven by the social stigma against illegitimacy. The postwar emphasis on the nuclear family increased the social stigma against unwed mothers, many of whom were forced to surrender their babies for adoption. The separatism that prevailed during the postwar period caused adopted children to be matched with adoptive parents based on race and religion. As America moved into the 1970s and stigmatization of illegitimacy decreased, it was an option for women who became pregnant out of wedlock to keep their children. This decreased the number of healthy white babies available for adoption and increased the waiting time for potential adoptive parents. Matching policies were relaxed and couples were more willing to adopt any baby that became available. Breaking down barriers to the rights and independence of women also fueled adoption reform for issues such as the release of birth records which had been sealed to protect the reputation of birth mothers from past mistakes. With the landmark decision from Roe v. Wade in 1973, the spread of birth control, and the changing role of women in society, the stigmatization of illegitimacy significantly declined toward the end of the postwar period.

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Introduction Pregnant at the age of 15, Annie was never given the option to keep the baby. “Get married or get rid of it,” she was told. In 1957 those were her choices, and her parents were not going to let her get married. They sent Annie to a facility for “girls like her” in Kansas City without asking for her input or listening to her wishes. All she could do was obey when her mother told her, “‘You’re going there and you’re going to stay there until you have the baby. Then you’re going to give your baby up for adoption and you’re going to come home and forget that this ever happened. Someday you’ll thank you me.’” Annie highly doubted that.1

Many other young, single, pregnant women in the post-World War II United States found themselves in Annie’s situation. If they could not get married, they were sent away supposedly to take care of a sick aunt for a convenient period of nine months. Then they would come home and resume school or work, childless, with an inescapable memory. Many people felt that this arrangement was best for all members of the adoption triad (birth parents, adopted child, and adoptive parents). Birth mothers maintained the possibility of marriage and having legitimate children someday, adopted children would have married parents, and sterile couples could have children. Thus American society ensured the continuation of its picture-perfect family model.

Stigmatization of unwed mothers and illegitimate pregnancies is what led to several adoption practices that were common after World War II, such as matching adoptive parents and children based on race and religion and the secrecy of birth records. As time progressed, the expansion of women’s rights led to developments in adoption reform throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s in accordance with what was perceived as socially acceptable. Overall, the major developments in adoption practices that occurred during the postwar period in America were due to the changing role and expectations of women in society, particularly the fluctuating social stigma surrounding unwed mothers and their illegitimate children.

Historiography Most scholarship on adoption can be found in broader works on social work and the foster care system in America. Only a handful of monographs have been published on the subject of adoption itself. E. Wayne Carp has arguably made the most significant contribution to this topic merely by being one of the only authors who has written multiple monographs about adoption in the postwar period.

Carp’s first book Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclosure in the History of Adoption examines the development of secrecy, its effects on members of the adoption triad, and efforts to reform secrecy laws. 2 It paints a complete picture unlike other similar works which

1

Annie quoted in Ann Fessler, The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade, (London: Penguin Books Ltd., 2006), 24-27.

2 E. Wayne Carp, Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclosure in the History of Adoption, (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1998).

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deal only with the efforts to reform sealed birth records, but not the rise of secrecy and the social practices that led to it.3 Carp’s research for his first book taught him much about Jean Paton, who is considered the mother of adoption reform. He asked her permission to publish a biography about her role in the Adoption Reform Movement. Her endless boxes of letters, memos, pamphlets, and diary entries from her decades of work served as the basis for Carp's Jean Paton and the Struggle to Reform American Adoption.4 In this account, Carp clearly identifies one of Paton’s major contributions to adoption reform: the creation of a separate identity for adult adoptees. While she advocated for many other social and legal reforms, the creation of a separate identity was an important milestone in adoption history. It promoted the idea that adoptees were a unique group with certain legal rights, emotional needs, and characteristics unique to them based on their experiences.

Carp also edited a collection of chapters titled Adoption in America: Historical Perspectives. Along with co-author Anna LeonGuerro, he claims that World War II was a watershed in the history of adoption in their article “When in Doubt, Count: World War II as a Watershed in the History of Adoption.”5 They use statistics from adoption records of the Children’s Home Society of Washington from 1895 to 1973 to analyze the larger adoption practices of the United States. Using a sample of ten percent of the case records, they found demographics of birth parents, reasons children were surrendered, and demographics of adoptive parents. The problem with their methodology is adoption statutes and practices vary so widely by state and region that a single adoption agency’s records cannot be used to represent the country as a whole. Given regional differences like the strong racism in the South, the statistics are more accurate in representing demographics of birth parents than they are in representing the number of transracial adoptions facilitated on a national scale. Despite this shortcoming Carp and Leon-Guerro successfully track major changes throughout the postwar period corresponding to cultural changes like the decreasing social stigma against illegitimacy.

Although relatively few authors have attempted to put together a complete or partial history of adoption, some important exceptions exist. Peter Conn attempts to cover the complete history of adoption from ancient civilizations to the modern world in his surprisingly short 161 page book, Adoption: A Brief Social and Cultural History.6 Taking on a much less ambitious project, Ellen Herman writes about adoption history in America from 1900 to the present day in her book, Kinship by Design: A History of Adoption in the Modern United States.7 Both writers offer insight on adoption in postwar America as well as the context surrounding it by including the events that led to change and the events that occurred as a result of progress made.

3

One such book was written by Judith S. Modell entitled A Sealed and Secret Kinship: The Culture of Policies and Practices in American Adoption (New York: Berghahn Books, 2002). It did not add much to scholarship that Carp had not already thoroughly explored.

4 E. Wayne Carp, Jean Paton and the Struggle to Reform American Adoption (Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 2014).

5 E. Wayne Carp and Anna Leon-Guerrero, “When in Doubt, Count: World War II as a Watershed in the History of Adoption,” in Adoption in America: Historical Perspectives ed. E. Wayne Carp (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press).

6 Peter Conn, Adoption: A Brief Social and Cultural History, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

7 Ellen Herman, Kinship by Design: A History of Adoption in the Modern United States, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008).

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Monographs that lend themselves best to the explanation of social and cultural practices during this time period, however, are those that explain the role of women in society and the expectations of them as single young women, wives, and mothers. Ann Fessler approaches this topic from the perspective of birth mothers who were, in many cases, forced to give up their children for adoption. In The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v.

Wade, she explains that relinquishment was mostly due to circumstances beyond the control of the mothers.8 Fessler adds a layer to adoption history that was not previously explored which more thoroughly explains the causes behind so many adoption practices during the postwar era. A collection of interviews from women who surrendered their babies for adoption due to illegitimacy during the postwar era forms the foundation for her book. She identified many of the similarities between their stories, thus forming a distinct set of shared experiences unique to unwed mothers who surrendered their children.

Sarah Potter also lends understanding to the social practices and expectations of the postwar period from the perspectives of African Americans and working class families. She examines the social constructs of family, race, and gender in Everybody Else: Adoption and the Politics of Domestic Diversity in Postwar America.9 Like Fessler, Potter adds a dimension to scholarship that did not previously exist. She argues that these social expectations of women to be wives and mothers were present among families of every race and social class, and from all aspects of the adoption triad. Illegitimacy was stigmatized throughout all segments of the population. Likewise, women had a deep desire to be mothers and regardless of race or social class, they would attempt to adopt to achieve the nuclear family status that was so important to Americans at this time.

Religion in adoption is mentioned in some books but does not usually warrant even a chapter, despite its significance. An understanding of this topic is informed mostly by primary sources. There is certainly enough material to write a lengthy book on the subject, yet research about the role of religion in adoption mostly produces opinions from religious organizations about adoption as it relates to their faith. With the exception of a few articles, scholarship is lacking about how seriously religion was taken into consideration by social workers and adoption agencies when matching children with parents.

Information about transracial adoption appears in many books about adoption regardless of the main topic. Some authors have endeavored to make this their main topic of research. Laura Briggs includes transnational adoptions in her discussion of transracial adoptions in America, which is distinctly not covered in this research paper. Her book, Somebody’s Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption, offers a greater understanding of social attitudes in the United States towards families with

8

Fessler, The Girls Who Went Away, passim.

Sarah Potter, Everybody Else: Adoption and the Politics of Domestic Diversity in Postwar America, (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2014).

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varying racial and ethnic backgrounds. It includes transnational adoption, black to white adoption in the United States, Native American adoption, and a chapter on the most current debate, adoption by gay and lesbian couples.10 To date it is the most comprehensive work on transracial adoption in America.

Contrary to some publications on adoption history, the research presented here leads to the conclusion that adoption practices and the social and legal developments that occurred throughout the postwar period are a direct result of the changing social roles and expectations for women, specifically the social stigma against unmarried women who became pregnant. This paper will explain how the many different layers of adoption during this era are connected to one another and all stem from the same source by exploring social stigma against illegitimacy, the role of religion in adoption, secrecy of birth records and other adoption reform, transracial adoption, and cultural changes throughout the postwar period. These topics are more linked than is initially apparent when doing research on adoption in postwar America. Those connections are made here by delving deep into the several topics of adoption practices and explaining the source of those issues.

Social Stigma against Illegitimacy World War II did much to reorganize the priorities of American society around the nuclear family. Many women who had taken defense jobs to support the war effort went back to their kitchens when the war was over, while others returned to more feminine jobs.

For the next couple of decades, American society embraced the idealized feminine role of wife and mother and valued women by their ability to fulfill this role. Sarah Potter writes that women, “regardless of their racial and class status, defined themselves through their obligation to care for and nurture their families.”11 If a young woman became pregnant before she was married and she could not marry the father of the child, keeping the baby would create a different kind of family that was not yet accepted in American society.

Her chances of having a normal family were ruined because no man would want to marry “used merchandise” as one woman put it.12 She would likely never become the traditional mother and housewife that, as Potter writes, every woman aspired to be. To avoid this grim future of shame and social isolation the woman could surrender her child for adoption, which was exactly what many women who became pregnant after World War II decided or were forced to do. The birth records of one Washington adoption agency reveal that the stigmatization of illegitimacy actually grew after World War II. Of all the children surrendered for adoption to this agency, the percentage of children who were given up due to illegitimacy more than doubled from 22% in the 1930s to 48% in the 1940s. In the

10

Laura Briggs, Somebody’s Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption, (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012).

11 Potter, Everybody Else, 122.

12 Fessler, The Girls Who Went Away, 26-27.

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1950s, the number grew to 62%.13 The seemingly positive value of the nuclear family in American society had the very negative outcome of forcing many women into a choice they did not want to make.14

The National Conference on Catholic Charities also realized that World War II had caused Americans to refocus on the nuclear family. While analyzing the practice of adoption after the war, they concluded that “World War II probably brought with it a deeper recognition of the true significance of family life, of the happiness, security and richness that children bring to this basic unit.” Stating that a “new value” had been placed on the family, they noted that it “made the childless family aware of their loss.”15 Adoption was a way that couples who were unable to conceive could attempt to achieve the nuclear family status. In particular, many women appealing to adoption agencies detailed their longing for children in order to feel fulfilled in their lives. Their value and self-worth was tied to their status as a mother.

The social roles for women at this time affected all members of the adoption triad. Adoption was a way to achieve a nuclear family for both adoptive parents and birth mothers. Unwed women would someday have a chance at a normal life if they surrendered their child for adoption and resumed their normal lives. Birth mothers were unfairly stigmatized as promiscuous and immoral girls. Fessler breaks the myth that these young women were sexually active with many different partners and reveals in her book that many of them became pregnant by a steady boyfriend. Many of the interviewees also admitted to being uninformed about sex and reproduction because birth control was unavailable and people simply did not talk about it. The conversation did not exist. There was no sexual education in public schools or, often times, even in the home. Parents and teachers believed that if they talked about sex they would be admitting that teenagers had sex before they were married, and that simply did not happen.16

Birth mothers were told to move on with their lives and pretend like their pregnancies had never happened, which Fessler’s book proves none of them seemed to be able to do. Prior to the sealing of birth records, which occurred at different times during the midtwentieth century depending on the state, social workers and lawyers invented ways to separate the adoptive family from the birth mother and allow the birth mother to move on with her life. One woman testified in court that adoption lawyers told her that her infant had died. She later discovered that her child had been adopted and another baby had been buried in her child’s name.17 Birth mothers were not the only people affected by the stigma against illegitimacy. The public attitude towards illegitimate children was so strong that the effects spilled over into the legal sphere. Illegitimate children were denied the right to inherit in most states if their parents

13

Carp and Leon-Guerro, “When in Doubt, Count,” 192.

Fessler, The Girls Who Went Away, passim.

15 National Conference on Catholic Charities, Adoption Practices in Catholic Agencies, (Washington D.C.: National Conference of Catholic Charities, 1957), 1.

16 Fessler, The Girls Who Went Away, passim.

17 “Adoption Tale Told by Unwed Mother,” New York Times, July 17, 1955.

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were not married. Fathers were required to formally recognize the child as their own in court for the child to inherit.18 Social and legal consequences upon illegitimate children were so severe that some adult adoptees sought damages in court for injury to their person, property, and reputation, usually against their natural father. Acknowledging the very real injury to children born out of wedlock but not wanting to set a dangerous precedent by which tens of thousands of adults could seek damages in court, judges did not award damages to a single plaintiff on the basis of being born a bastard.19 However, judges who heard these cases began to realize that a certain segment of the population was being penalized for being born into a situation over which they had absolutely no control. This understanding began to stir among legislators during the 1960s but would not be acted upon for several decades.

Place of Religion in Adoption During the postwar period separation of various groups in American society led to matching adoptive parents to children based on several different factors including religion. In Kinship by Design, Herman sums up the role of religion in postwar adoption practices when she writes, “in a country where religious freedom was a cherished value, adoption laws treated religion as a birthright, not an individual choice.”20 The idea that children are somehow born with a religion in their genetic makeup was widely believed during this time. It was very common for Catholic and Jewish couples to ask for a “Catholic baby” or a “Jewish baby,” meaning that the baby was born to a mother of that religion. Some adoption agencies existed specifically to match babies with adoptive parents of the same religion as the birth mother. It does not seem to have occurred to many people that adoptive parents could raise their child in the religion of their choosing. Perhaps they believed that would produce less desirable results.

The standards set by the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) in 1958 recognized the religion of the baby as that of the birth mother and stated that children should be placed in a home with adoptive parents who shared their religion, unless the birth mother had specifically stated otherwise. If attempting to match a child’s religion was not feasible or would significantly delay the matching process, for example a minority religion for which parents could not be found, it was acceptable to consider placing the child with parents of a different religion. A child whose religion was unknown was simply placed with the most suitable family. While no church affiliation was required to be adoptive parents, church-going couples were considered more desirable by adoption agencies. Churches counted on mothers as the primary caretakers of children to ensure the consistent church attendance and religious education of their youngsters. Certain adoption agencies had affiliations with a particular religion or denomination and required that adoptive parents be of the affiliated religion to adopt through that agency. The CWLA notes in Standards for Adoption Service the position of the Roman

18

Sanford N. Katz, “Legal Protections for the Unmarried Mother and her Child,” Children, X (March-April 1963), in Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History, vol. 3, parts 1-4, ed. Robert H. Bremner, John Barnard, Tamara K. Hareven, and Robert M. Mennel, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974), 801-802.

19 Zepeda v. Zepeda, 190 N.E. 2d 849 (Illinois, 1965) and Williams v. New York, 223 N.E. 2d 343 (1966) in Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History, vol. 3, parts 1-4, ed. Robert H. Bremner, John Barnard, Tamara K. Hareven, and Robert M. Mennel, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974), 802-805.

20 Herman, Kinship by Design, 125.

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Catholic Church as separate from the standards set for most other religions. Authority figures in the Church believed that Roman Catholic children placed up for adoption should be placed with couples who followed the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, regardless of the adoption agency.21

In the 1957 publication of Adoption Practices in Catholic Agencies, the National Conference on Catholic Charities (NCCC) stated that children born out of wedlock had “no prospects of return to or reunion with their families.”22 This belief was so thorough that one third of Catholic agencies had maternity homes attached to them, and all Catholic agencies arranged for this type of care if it was requested. One teenage girl was told by her priest in 1966 that she should not marry the father of her child, even though he was willing, because he was Protestant. In addition, the church would not baptize a baby born out of wedlock. The priest went on to say that a baby who was not baptized would spend eternity in purgatory. Leaving her with no other option, he advised the girl to give her baby to a good Catholic family.23 The NCCC also laid down the fundamental belief that the only proper placement for a Catholic child (a child born to a Catholic mother) was with a Catholic family, as noted by the CWLA. Home studies by Catholic agencies not only decided whether the child was a good match with the parents, but they confirmed the devotion of the adoptive parents to Catholic beliefs and practices.24

Louise Wise Services (LWS) was another large, well-known adoption agency with a religious affiliation. Although the agency had Jewish roots, it had paired children and parents of various ages and religions since before World War II, pioneering the movement to end “matching.” Matching was most often based on race and religion. It is difficult to say which of the two was given precedent. The answer is complicated because public attitudes about these two factors varied depending on the adoption agency and the region. Some agencies, such as LWS, simply wanted to find homes for children. Others, like most Catholic agencies, were as strict as it was possible to be when pairing children with adoptive parents. Towards the end of the postwar period unwed mothers began to have more options due to a relaxation of social rules. The option to keep their babies caused a decrease in the amount of healthy white babies available for adoption. As time went on, adoptive parents, agencies, social workers, and lawyers all realized that it was simply not possible to be as selective as they wanted to be. The decrease in social stigma against illegitimacy caused a decrease in matching based on religion in adoption practices due to the limited availability of babies. This not only increased the diversity of families but forced people to realize that children are no more born with a religion than they are with a certain language.

21

Child Welfare League of America, Standards for Adoption Service (New York: Child Welfare League of America, 1958), 24-26; The Child Welfare League of America began in 1920 and has set the precedent for adoption practices in the United States since that time. States, who have the responsibility to control adoption law, can choose whether or not follow this precedent.

22 National Conference of Catholic Charities, Adoption Practices in Catholic Agencies, 2.

23 Fessler, The Girls Who Went Away, 17-18.

24 National Conference of Catholic Charities, Adoption Practices in Catholic Agencies, 46-56.

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Adoption Reform and the Secrecy of Birth Records As early as 1951, nation-wide conferences were being held to improve adoption practices. At the time, these conferences included discussion of how to find homes for hard-to-place children, counseling birth mothers on the decision to give up their newborns, vetting couples for their suitability as adoptive parents, and the legality of charging fees for adoption services.25 Possibly the biggest issue in adoption practices at the time, which concerns all members of the adoption triad, was the secrecy of birth records. To this day, birth records are sealed in most states and people are still fighting for access to their own genetic history.

Birth records were not always sealed. Social changes after World War II intensified the social stigma against unwed mothers, forcing legislation through that would protect the reputation of birth mothers who had surrendered their children for adoption. The social stigma against unwed mothers was not as intense prior to World War II. It was certainly present, but it was easier for adoptees to obtain original birth records. Prior to 1950, only half of all states had any statutes regarding secrecy. Those that did only barred information to the general public, not members of the adoption triad.26 The postwar culture of motherhood ushered in the period of secrecy and sealed birth records. It became popular thought that unwed mothers had the right to protect their reputation and be freed from the mistake of their youth so they could go on to live a normal life. Some people also presented the fear that a birth mother’s past might come back to haunt her some day when the child she gave up would try to find her and possibly disrupt her life. Carp noted in his biography of Jean Paton that “the stigma of illegitimacy was the root evil for adult adoptees and unmarried mothers.”27 Secrecy was not only to protect birth parents, many of whom were able to go on and have normal, socially-approved lives if they were able to keep their secret. Infertility, the cause of most adoptions during this time, was a stain on the adoptive mother as well because it meant that she was inadequate and could not bear her own children.28

In 1949 the U.S. Children’s Bureau stated that all records should be available to the adoptee if he or she was of legal age. They issued a report saying, “it is very important that the child’s original birth certificates be identified so that his complete birth record will be available to him when needed.” However, this statement also says that upon the completion of adoption, birth records are to immediately be amended, meaning with the names of the adoptive parents instead of the birth parents on the birth certificate, and that all copies of birth records requested or used for any purpose should be copies of the amended record and not the original. They gave the obvious reason for this, stating that “in many cases, the original certificate will show that the child was born out of wedlock or that its parents are unknown. It is desirable, also, that the natural parents and adopting parents should remain unknown to each other.” 29

25

Dorothy Barclay, “Adoption Is Urged On National Basis: Group Here Considers System of Agency Cooperation to Solve Difficult Cases No Adoptions Guaranteed A Home for Every Child,” New York Times, May 14, 1951.

26 Carp, Family Matters, 42-43.

27 Carp, Jean Paton and the Struggle to Reform American Adoption, xiv.

28 Fessler, The Girls Who Went Away, 1.

29 The U.S. Children’s Bureau, ““The Confidential Nature of Birth Records, Including the Special Registration Problems of Children Born out of Wedlock, Children of Unknown Parentage, Legitimate Children, and Adopted Children: A Policy Recommended by 9

However, adoption legislation is the responsibility of state governments, not the federal government, so this statement is merely an opinion.30 This availability of records to adoptees did not prove to work well in practice. Revealing the truth and reuniting adoptees with their birth mothers would have been admitting to the imperfections of American society. During the postwar period restrictions on birth records were only tightened in an attempt to have all members of the adoption triad remain in the desirable nuclear family.

Jean Paton, one of the most famous names in adoption reform, can be credited with pioneering the movement for several advancements made during the twentieth century, the most notable of which are collective identity of adoptees, open birth records, and search and reunion. In both of her books, The Adopted Break Silence and Orphan Voyage, she suggested the creation of a voluntary adoption registry through which adult adoptees could reunite with their birth parents should both parties chose to open themselves up to the option.31 This served as the alternative to revealing birth records, particularly because secrecy laws vary by state. Paton started the first registry, Orphan Voyage, which still exists today.32

Other developments in adoption reform can be attributed to Jean Paton. She believed that adult adoptees should think of themselves first as adopted and draw their identity from that, before ethnicity, sex, occupation, or other identifications.33 E. Wayne Carp gives the best summary of her contribution to adoption: One courageous woman’s struggle to overcome American society’s prejudice against adult adoptees and women who gave birth out of wedlock, reverse social workers’ harmful policies and practices concerning adoption and sealed adoption records, change laws prejudicial to adult adoptees and birth mothers, and finally, to bend to her will through force of argument the many allies who opposed her ideas in the adoption reform movement.34 At the heart of all of Paton’s ideas about adoption reform was one firm but simple truth that she and others like her understood; “illegitimacy colors all adoption practice.”35 She knew that this was the reason many children were surrendered for adoption and the reason that birth records, once open, had been sealed. Public shame was too great for unwed mothers to keep their children or to survive the guilt if anyone discovered their secret. As Paton stated, this facet of American society governed all adoption practice during the postwar era, which activists like her spent decades trying to correct.

The creation of registries was an important step in the process of adoption reform, but it was not as helpful for search and reunion as actually gaining access to sealed birth records and learning the names of natural parents. Judith Modell argues that the fight for

American Association of Registration Executives, Council on Vital Records and Statistics, and Endorsed by Children's Bureau and National Office of Vital Statistics, Federal Security Agency, January 1949.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1949) Bureau publication, no. 332, 1949, excerpt, http://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/archive/UscbTCNOBR.htm.

30 Other than the 14th amendment, which mostly protects the rights of the natural parents, and the exceptions of funding, foster care, and Indian welfare, federal statutory law does not apply to adoption. https://www.loc.gov/law/help/adoption-law/unitedstates.php 31 Jean Paton, The Adopted Break Silence (Philadelphia: Life History Study Center, 1954); Jean Paton, Orphan Voyage (New York: Vantage Press, 1968).

32 Carp, Jean Paton and the Struggle to Reform American Adoption. 114-127.

33 Carp, Jean Paton and the Struggle to Reform American Adoption. xiv.

34 Carp, Jean Paton and the Struggle to Reform American Adoption, 7.

35 Jean Paton, 1966, in Carp, Jean Paton and the Struggle to Reform American Adoption, 87.

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disclosure of birth records picked up full speed in the 1970s because it was a time of bringing the personal into the political sphere.

Feminism and Civil Rights paved the way for legislation to regulate unfair social treatment of certain groups.36 Adoptees saw birth mothers arguing for reproductive rights from their perspective of the adoption triad and became more vocal about their own rights.

This fight is not over for adoptees and birth parents who seek to reunite or merely know their genetic past. Today less than twenty states provide full or partial access to adoptees. Access to records in the present centers around the adoptee’s right to information, after the age of eighteen or twenty-one depending on the state. In non-access states, a public service is provided whereby if both parties (birth parent and adoptee) have given voluntary consent for the release of information, records are released to the interested parties.

Some partial access states release information based on the date the adoption was finalized. Interestingly, records are severely more restricted to those adopted during the postwar period while access for those born after the postwar period have practically unlimited access.37 Social expectations are certainly much less limiting in the United States today but people born during the postwar period are still suffering legal consequences of being born a bastard, showing that the stain of illegitimacy has still not been wiped clean.

In addition to right to information, members of the adoption community continue to debate the right of adoptees to know they were adopted. Several agencies and adoptive parents published materials giving their opinions and experiences. Louise Wise Services was one such adoption agency that was aware of the importance of telling and the psychological damage that could be done if it was done at the wrong time.38 Some parents advocated for not telling children they were adopted. Others told their children about the adoption but lied about the birth parents, claiming they were dead and that they had been married to avoid the shame of illegitimacy. Using the lie of dead parents was an attempt to avoid the feelings of abandonment that come along with being put up for adoption by parents who are very much alive. In 1963 Joan Lawrence wrote about her adopted daughter’s struggle to understand why anyone would want to give her up. Recognizing in the article that many agencies advocate for complete honesty, she wrote that it is acceptable to lie to protect the child’s emotions and that “adoptive parents need to take cues from their children, just any other parent does.”39 One study done during the postwar period showed that adoptees who were distinctly curious about their birth parents had more difficulty adjusting to their adoption status than children who were less curious, despite the timing and manner in which parents chose to reveal the information.40

36

Modell, A Sealed and Secret Kinship, 24-40.

American Adoption Congress, “State Legislation,” 2016, http://www.americanadoptioncongress.org/state.php.

38 Louise Wise Services, “Agency Philosophy on the Telling of Adoption,” Minutes of the Child Adoption Committee, May 4, 1966, excerpt, Viola W. Bernard Papers, Box 155, Folder 4, Archives and Special Collections, Augustus C. Long Library, Columbia University, http://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/archive/CACAPPRTA.htm.

39 Joan Lawrence, “The Truth Hurt Our Adopted Daughter,” Parents' Magazine and Better Homemaking, January 1963, 105.

40 Benson Jaffee and David Fanshel, How They Fared in Adoption: A Follow-Up Study (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970), 311-313.

37

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Other pieces were published with opinions and advice about how to handle a variety of other issues that only come up in the unique circumstance of adoption. In Essentials of Adoption Law and Procedure, the U.S. Children’s Bureau outlined some things they believed should be observed in standard adoption practices. One law which was meant to protect the child ended up badly hurting both the child and parents. In order to ensure a good placement, a period of one year was suggested for observation by a social worker who would then report to the court whether the family was a good fit for the adopted child. The problem was that at the time there was no law preventing the birth mother from changing her mind. She could do so until the legal adoption decree was issued, meaning it could be longer than a year.41

In 1971, New York Assemblyman Joseph R. Pasani proposed a 30 day limit for the birth mother to change her mind in an adoption case. The article reporting on this potential change in legislation cites cases of children being ripped away from the only parents they had ever known, screaming for the woman they call “mommy” while their natural mother hauls them away by the arm.42 This article also mentions the case of “Baby Lenore” which received national attention for the decision by judges to give virtually unlimited rights to the natural mother while ignoring the rights of not only the adopted parents but the child, who had long ago acclimated to her new home. The New York Court of Appeals said that even when a better environment and loving home is provided by the adoptive parents, a natural mother’s right to her child outweighs the overqualified adoptive couple.43 Recognizing that children were being treated like animals for sale, the people cried out to their legislators for a change in the law. What had been intended as a period of time for home study to make sure the adoption was a sound placement had turned into an opportunity for the natural mother to change her mind and completely uproot the child’s life.

While this example comes from New York, birth mothers changed their minds in several other states. These incidents occurred towards the end of the postwar period, indicating that it was the early 1970s when birth mothers understood that they could possibly keep their children and still survive as respected members of society. In response to these changes of heart, representatives like Pasani were answering the call of adoption reform advocates. The grace period today depends on the state but it is commonly less than a week, only two or three days in many places. The Uniform Adoption Act passed in 1994 suggests 192 hours (eight days) during which time the natural mother has the right to change her mind without reason.44 Uniform Acts are model laws that the federal government

41

U.S. Children’s Bureau, Essentials of Adoption Law and Procedure, Pub. No. 331 (Washington D.C., 1949) in Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History, vol. 3, parts 1-4, ed. Robert H. Bremner, John Barnard, Tamara K. Hareven, and Robert M. Mennel, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974), 748-749.

42 Leslie Oelsner, “Action to Reform Adoption Law is Promised by Assembly Leaders,” New York Times, February 10, 1971.

43 Sanford N. Katz, “The Adoption of Baby Lenore: Problems of Consent and the Role of Lawyers,” Family Law Quarterly, V (December 1971), 405-416.

44 The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, “Uniform Adoption Act,” 1994; Two previous versions of the Uniform Adoption Act were adopted in 1953 and 1969, neither of which were widely followed by states. To date, only Vermont has enacted the Uniform Adoption Act in toto.

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passes which states can chose to adopt wholly, partially, or not at all. To date only Vermont has adopted the most recent version of the Uniform Adoption Act and adoption law still varies widely among states.

Transracial Adoption “Transracial adoption” refers to the adoption of a child with a different skin color than that of the adoptive parents. In adoption scholarship it typically refers to white parents adopting black children but is also used when referring to the adoption of Native American children by white parents.45 The first transracial adoption, a black child placed with white parents, took place in Minnesota in 1948 and the practice slowly grew throughout the postwar period.46 More than anything else, there is one factor that contributed to the growth of this practice. As the availability of healthy white babies began to decline people were more willing to adopt non-white children.47 This decrease in availability directly corresponded with the decrease in social stigma against illegitimacy. Towards the end of the postwar period it became an option for unmarried women to keep their babies, which many of them chose to do. By 1970 the Supervisor for Child Placement in the Minnesota Department of Public Welfare reported that sixty percent of unwed mothers in the state chose to keep their children.48 This choice by unwed mothers led to a decrease in the availability of white babies, forcing couples to consider other possibilities.

It is worth noting that the adoption of a black child by white parents was potentially the least socially acceptable form of transracial adoption. In The Family Nobody Wanted, Helen Doss details her journey along with her husband to adopt twelve children of several different ethnicities, but when they tried to adopt a black child, their community would not allow it. Even if all of the other children were merely tolerated by the community, an African American child in their home was apparently unacceptable, even to Mr. Doss’s own mother who said she would never allow a black child to call her “grandma.”49

The CWLA’s Standards for Adoption Service addressed things such as age of the adoptive parents, religion, and, of course, race.50 The first sentence under the section of Race is, “Racial background in itself should not determine the selection of the home for a child.”

45

This can also refer to international adoptions in which the child is of a different color than the parents. This paper only deals with adoption where the child and parents are both from the United States. For more information on international transracial adoption see Laura Briggs, Somebody’s Children.

46 University of Oregon, “Transracial Adoption,” http://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/topics/transracialadoption.htm 47 This also likely increased the problem of black market adoption which is the illegal sale of children or falsification of birth records.

This is not be confused with gray market meaning private adoptions without the regulation of a state agency which were legal everywhere except Connecticut and Delaware. The Children’s Bureau held a conference in 1955 discussing black market adoption and recommended that it be regulated on the state level rather than by federal legislation. For further reading see “Congressional hearings on black market adoptions, 1955” and “Proposals to control black market adoptions” in Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History, vol. 3, parts 1-4, ed. Robert H. Bremner, John Barnard, Tamara K. Hareven, and Robert M. Mennel, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974), 752-761.

48 Wayne King, “Adoption Agencies Report Shortage of White Infants: Sharp Drop Reported in Number of Healthy White Infants Available for Adoption,” New York Times, December 7, 1970.

49 Helen Doss, The Family Nobody Wanted,(Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1954), 188.

50 Child Welfare League of America, Standards for Adoption Service.

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Upon reading these words, relief hits that not everyone living during this decade had on blinders to the ills of society. However, disappointment is almost as immediate upon reading the several paragraphs that follow that statement. The CWLA wrote that children are more easily able to become part of the family if they are placed with adoptive parents of the same race. It went on to say that in the case of children with an interracial background, they should be placed with parents they look the most like. This decision was so crucial that the CWLA advised consulting experts such as geneticists and anthropologists to decide where a child would be best placed. Attitudes of neighbors and even the larger community were also taken into consideration when making these placements.51

By CWLA standards, even if a white couple was willing to adopt a black child, the adoption would not have been approved unless the community would support it. The idea was that the child would suffer maladjustment if neighbors criticized the family for having members of different races. While their reasoning was not outrageous, trying to protect black children from racism in 1950s America because they were adopted by white parents is like trying to protect them from racism in 1950s America. Black children were likely to be victims of senseless racism regardless of their parentage. Admittedly, transracial adoption added fuel to the fire. However society would never have changed if adoption agencies had continued to protect the misguided racial attitudes of neighbors to prevent upsetting the balance of a community, all the while depriving a child of a loving home.

The need to find homes for black children forced agencies to widen the criteria for adoptive parents. Single women were first allowed to adopt children, specifically black children, through an adoption agency in Los Angeles County in 1965. Previously this was only allowed for extended biological relatives of children. At the time of the law’s passing, there was no other agency in the country that allowed this. Commenting on this peculiarity Walter Heath, the director of adoptions for the county, said that “‘one parent is better than none.’” He confirmed that the policy was an attempt to promote the adoption of hard-to-place children, specifically black children. In an article reporting on this new law, the author wrote that support from the Child Welfare League of America would have caused the idea to spread rapidly. However, during the mid-1960s, the CWLA did not support adoption by unmarried individuals.52

In a press release searching for white couples to adopt black babies, Louise Wise Service stated prior to all other information that this was an attempt to supplement the search for black parents to adopt black children, not to replace it.53 Knowing the concerns of some African Americans, they addressed that transracial adoptions may cause certain issues. However, they concluded that it was better for a black child to have a home with white parents than to have no home at all. LWS also realized that this would not work well in every

51

Child Welfare League of America, Standards for Adoption Service, 24-26.

Charles Brown, “Law Allows Single Women to Adopt Negro Babies: Agency Seeks Home for Negro Kids, Agency May Adopt,” Jet, March 10, 1966.

53 In some Southern states, black unwed mothers were losing the rights to raise their own children, who were being taken away by the state to foster homes. See Briggs, Somebody’s Children, 41-48.

52

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region of the country and believed that “a city like New York, with its varied cultures and cosmopolitan neighborhoods, ought to be able to welcome interracial families.”54

By 1970, the U.S. Children’s Bureau reported these findings on the attitudes of transracial adoption.

Those who speak from direct experience or observation (usually agency people or adoptive parents) come out two to one in favor of transracial adoptions. Those who base their views on hearsay or on principle - chiefly the community representatives - are a little more likely to oppose than to favor them. Black respondents divide evenly for and against this kind of placement, while whites are a little more likely to favor than to oppose it.55 The most common reason people gave for being in support of transracial adoption was that it had become socially acceptable, not necessarily that they personally believed in it. The most common reason people gave for opposing transracial adoption was the identity crisis that it would cause for the child. At this time, many people believed that a black child could never be well adjusted in a home with white parents because they could never teach their child how to “be black,” as if people are required to have certain characteristics or live a certain type of life based on the color of their skin. One respondent to the U.S. Children’s Bureau survey of attitudes about transracial adoption got to the true root of the matter: “Rearing a child, black or white, will turn out some good and some bad.”56

Despite these developments in public approval, there was one major organization against transracial adoption with a very powerful voice. In 1972 the National Association of Black Social Workers published a statement in stringent opposition to the recent efforts of adoption agencies to recruit white parents for black children. The following quote seems to express genuine concern for black identity, despite the strong language.

The National Association of Black Social Workers has taken a vehement stand against the placement of black children in white homes for any reason. We affirm the inviolable position of black children in black families where they belong physically, psychologically and culturally in order that they receive the total sense of themselves and develop a sound projection of their future.

However, a clear distaste for white parents raising black children is revealed in another section of the statement; “We fully recognize the phenomenon of transracial adoption as an expedient for white folk, not as an altruistic humane concern for black children.” They, like others, recognized that the decline in the number of healthy white babies contributed to the increase in transracial adoptions.

While this is not incorrect, it is unfair to describe transracial adoption as an “expedient for white folk.” Many testimonies from both parents and children of transracial adoptions exist simply to tell the world that it can be done. Not only that, but their physical

54

Louise Wise Services, “Press Release Announcing the Recruitment of White Parents for Black Children,” November 12, 1963, excerpt, Viola W. Bernard Papers, Box 162, Folder 7, Archives and Special Collections, Augustus C. Long Library, Columbia University, http://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/archive/LWSPRARWPBC.htm.

55 U.S. Children’s Bureau, Families for Black Children: The Search for Adoptive Parents, (Washington, D.C., 1970) in Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History, vol. 3, parts 1-4, ed. Robert H. Bremner, John Barnard, Tamara K. Hareven, Robert M. Mennel, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974), 774-775.

56 U.S. Children’s Bureau, Families for Black Children, 775.

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appearances were not a barrier to normal parent-child relationships. That is not to say that there were no problems. Many faced the judgement of their extended family and community members, but their family atmosphere was one of love and acceptance.57

Despite these successes, the root of the argument made by the NABSW is a valid one. Black parents taught their children coping mechanisms for racism from an early age, something that white parents had not experienced first-hand. The NABSW also accused white parents of superficial attempts to make black friends because of the transracial adoption. White parents had to prepare their neighbors for the child who would look different from everyone else. The NABSW even cited everyday tasks as different in a transracial home. They argued that white parents had to learn what comes naturally for black parents such as doing hair and teaching their child how to “become black.” The fact remains that even if white parents had to prepare their friends and family, and learn how to fix their child’s hair, it does not automatically follow that the parents are unfit to raise the child or that a normal and loving parentchild relationship cannot develop. To conclude the statement the NABSW encouraged adoption agencies to find black parents for black children by looking within the biological family for extended relatives and expanding the definition of a suitable family, such as income requirements and educational achievement, to accommodate black parents.58

In 1970 the number of transracial adoptions of black children to white parents had steadily climbed to 2284. After the statement by the NABSW in 1972, that number fell to 1091 transracial adoptions in 1973. By the following year, it was down to 747.59 Randall Kennedy and other authors credit the NABSW statement with the sharp drop in transracial adoptions over the following decade.60 On the opposite end of the spectrum Laura Briggs, who attempts to deny the statistics, defends the statement in Somebody’s Children arguing that the NABSW was truly attempting to keep black families together.61

Louise Wise Services was a pioneer in promoting transracial adoption in America. They sympathized with the low number of resources available to unwed Native American mothers who may want to surrender their children for adoption. In 1960 at a meeting reflecting on successes of the past and goals for the future, they discussed the Native American children they had already placed. The goal made at this meeting was to facilitate the adoption of fifty Native American children in the next three years. They hoped that this

57

National Association of Black Social Workers, “Position Statement on Transracial Adoption,” September 1972, in Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History, vol. 3, parts 1-4, ed. Robert H. Bremner, John Barnard, Tamara K. Hareven, and Robert M. Mennel, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974), 777-780.

58 Ibid.

59 Randall Kennedy, Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption, (New York: Pantheon Books, 2003), 396.

60 Similar arguments are made by Elizabeth Bartholet, Family Bonds: Adoption, Infertility, and the New World of Parent Production, and Jacqueline Macaulay and Stewart Macaulay, “Adoption for Black Children: A Case Study of Expert Discretion.”

61 Potter, Everybody Else, 27-58.

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would encourage other local agencies to do the same but recognized that the lack of Native American adoptions to date was likely due to prejudice which they were trying to help eliminate.62

The Indian Adoption Project, sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League of America, was an effort to place Native American children away from their reservation specifically with white families. From 1958 to 1967, 395 Native American children were placed for adoption in 26 states and Puerto Rico. At the time of its completion, it was referenced as a success in social integration and the overall welfare of Native American children.63 In 1972 David Fanshel attempted to follow up with these families and assess through interviews how well the children were adjusting to life with their new parents in his book Far From the Reservation. He concluded that the placements seemed to have produced positive results overall, but stated his personal belief that “only the Indian people have the right to determine whether their children can be placed in white homes.”64

Tribe leaders on several reservations spoke out against the Indian Adoption Project as a form of cultural genocide. This reaction led to the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978, one of the few pieces of federal adoption legislation. It seeks to place Native American children only with Native American parents, usually extended family. This law made it very difficult for Native American children to be adopted by people of any other ethnicity. The reasoning behind this was more the preservation of tribes than the interest of the children themselves. Congress wrote in the law, “there is no resource that is more vital to the continued existence and integrity of Indian tribes than their children.”65 Echoing Fanshel’s call to leave the decisions up to tribal leaders, the Act also placed Native American children under the jurisdiction of their tribes.

Ultimately all forms of transracial adoption were spurred by the decrease in healthy white babies available for adoption towards the late 1960s and early 1970s. The decrease in stigmatization of illegitimacy allowed unwed mothers the option of keeping their babies.

With less of these young women surrendering their children for adoption and more of them choosing to raise their children alone, matching based on racial background became more difficult to do for adoptive families. White parents who had never pictured the scenario were asked to consider adopting a black child. Those who agreed drastically changed the image of the nuclear family.

Adoption was an aspect of society that became integrated during the mid-twentieth century, nudging America along the path to equal rights, social integration, and acceptance.

62

Louise Wise Services. “Our Indian Program,” Minutes of the Child Adoption Committee, (January 12, 1960). excerpt, Viola W. Bernard Papers, Box 161, Folder 11, Archives and Special Collections, Augustus C. Long Library, Columbia University, http://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/archive/LWSOIP.htm.

63 Child Welfare League of America, “The Indian Adoption Project—1958 through 1967—Report of Its Accomplishments, Evaluation and Recommendations for Adoption Services to Indian Children,” excerpt, Child Welfare League of America Papers, Box 16, Folder 2, Social Welfare History Archives, University of Minnesota, http://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/archive/LysloIAP.htm.

64 David Fanshel, Far From the Reservation: The Transracial Adoption of American Indian Children (Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1972), 339-342.

65 Indian Child Welfare Act, 1978, United States Code, Title 25, 95th United States Congress.

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Changing Culture The 1970s saw the beginning of several important developments that led to the decrease in the number of children surrendered for adoption due to illegitimacy. Children surrendered for this reason had made up the majority of adoptable babies for the past three decades. The decrease in availability put a serious dent in the total number of children available for adoption in America. Birth control was available and it was becoming a part of whispered conversations between women.66 No longer were women pretending that sex before marriage did not exist. Sexual education in schools was still practically nonexistent and many mothers would have shuddered at the thought of having this conversation with their teenage daughters, but it was beginning to be accepted by the upcoming generations.

The landmark decision in the 1973 court case Roe v. Wade also changed things for women. Although it did allow for government regulation in the second and third trimesters, justices ruled that in the first trimester, the decision to terminate a pregnancy should be left to the pregnant woman and her physician.67 Even more important than both of these changes was the significant decrease in social stigma against illegitimacy. In correlation with the increased discussion and availability of birth control, sex before marriage was becoming an accepted fact of life. If an unmarried woman got pregnant, it was an option to keep the baby. Though many people still thought it was an uncomfortable topic of conversation, they recognized that it happened. Along with feminism and the Civil Rights Movement, American society was changing. The white, Christian, heterosexual, suburban family with a housewife and working father was no longer a mold that everyone was expected to fit into. The traditional American family was being challenged from all angles, including that of the two-parent household.

The effects of this major social change on adoption could be observed across the country. From the late 1960s to the early 1970s, in the years leading up to the Roe v. Wade ruling, several states legalized abortion at early stages of pregnancy and record numbers of women flocked to states that would allow them to terminate their pregnancies. A 1970 New York Times article reported the severe drop in healthy white babies available for adoption. When asked, adoption officials cited “eased abortion laws, improved contraception and changing attitudes that allow an unwed mother to keep her child.”68 In another article three years later about the same issue, it was reported that many couples seeking to adopt were turning to private agencies and paying thousands of dollars for the chance at getting a baby. Even in the 1970s, New York Times journalists knew that it was not just the liberalization of abortion laws and increased availability of contraception that caused this decline. The “lessening of the stigma once attached to unwed motherhood” was also responsible. Babies became so scarce that one couple looking to adopt reported an unexpected telephone call from a lawyer. In something like a twisted biology experiment, he offered to send them “photographs of some handsome single young men and some beautiful single young women” so they could chose the couple they wanted to make a baby for them. Other lawyers

66

Even in 1970, some teenagers believed that the “pill” was to prevent venereal disease. Reuben Pannor, “The Forgotten Man,” Nursing Outlook (November 1970), in Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History, vol. 3, parts 1-4, ed. Robert H. Bremner, John Barnard, Tamara K. Hareven, and Robert M. Mennel, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974), 834-836.

67 Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 1973.

68 King, “Adoption Agencies Report Shortage of White Infants.”

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sent scouts to college campuses, maternity homes, and hospitals to search for young single pregnant women, even paying off doctors and abortion counselors for names.69

These social changes had other unexpected consequences that in the long run would increase the diversity of the adoption community.

The number of annual adoptions had steadily increased throughout the postwar period until they reached 175,000 in 1970. The possibility of a single mother keeping her baby or getting an abortion decreased the amount of babies up for adoption, thus increasing the willingness of parents to adopt children of a different race, religion, and older age.70 Reflecting the changing culture and the ability of unmarried women to keep their baby if they got pregnant, numbers declined from the early to mid-1970s until they reached 125,000 in 1992.71

Conclusion In various sources, legislators and social workers of the postwar period, as well as current adoption scholars, cite the decrease in social stigma as the primary reason for the change in adoption practices. Not only that, but many of the adoption practices of the postwar period that needed reform were initially put in place by the rise in social shaming of illegitimacy. The focus on the nuclear family after World War II caused an increase in the stigma against unwed mothers and their children. In the late 1940s and through the 1950s, keeping the child was simply not an option. If an unwed mother was going to have any chance at a normal life, she had to surrender her baby for adoption and carry the weight of that burden on her shoulders for the rest of her life. Many birth mothers and adoptees never received the closure that others have said was brought to them by search and reunion. Today, many search and reunion registries exist in part to rectify the mistakes of social and legal adoption practices during the postwar period.

Although members of the adoption triad are a small segment of the population, their reform efforts, some from circumstance and some from hard labor, helped move society in the direction of acceptance and diversity. As the availability of healthy white babies decreased, couples looking to adopt were more willing to be paired with a child of a different race or religion. The clear differences in physical appearance of some families opened the conversation to talk about adoption. The decrease in social stigma against illegitimacy also lightened the burden on adoptive parents and adoptees. It became compassionate to adopt instead of a reproductive deficiency on the part of the adopted mother. Adoptees could focus on the emotional distress many had to work through just at the knowledge of being adopted without having to face criticism from the outside for being a “bastard.” The postwar period is undeniably the era in American history of the most radical social reforms in adoption practices. The social changes that occurred ultimately led to adoption reform which increased the rights of all members of the adoption triad, the ability for natural mothers to make their own

69

Judy Klemesrud, “Adoption Costs Soar as Births Decline: Private Adoption Costs Soar as Unwanted Pregnancies Diminish,” New York Times, February 20, 1973.

70 The adoption of older and hard to place children included children who were not white, over the age of 2, or had disabilities.

71 Conn, Adoption, 88-89.

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decision, emotional health that follows the freedom from social shame, an increase in acceptance of diversity in families and communities, the institution of search and reunion, and the acceptance of adoption as a perfectly viable way to create a family.

20

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------. Orphan Voyage. New York: Vantage Press, 1968.

Roe v. Wade. 410 U.S. 113. 1973.

U.S. Children’s Bureau. Families for Black Children: The Search for Adoptive Parents. Washington, D.C., 1970. In Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History, vol. 3, parts 1-4, edited by Robert H. Bremner, John Barnard, Tamara K. Hareven, Robert M. Mennel, 774-777. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974.

U.S. Children’s Bureau. “The Confidential Nature of Birth Records, Including the Special Registration Problems of Children Born out of Wedlock, Children of Unknown Parentage, Legitimate Children, and Adopted Children: A Policy Recommended by American Association of Registration Executives, Council on Vital Records and Statistics, and Endorsed by Children's Bureau and National Office of Vital Statistics, Federal Security Agency, January 1949.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1949) Bureau publication, no. 332. Excerpt. http://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/archive/UscbTCNOBR.htm.

U.S. Children’s Bureau. Essentials of Adoption Law and Procedure, Pub. No. 331. Washington D.C., 1949. In Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History, vol. 3, parts 1-4, edited by Robert H. Bremner, John Barnard, Tamara K. Hareven, and Robert M. Mennel, 748-749. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974.

Secondary Sources Briggs, Laura. Somebody’s Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption. Durham: Duke University Press, 2012.

Carp, E. Wayne. Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclosure in the History of Adoption. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1998.

Carp, E. Wayne. Jean Paton and the Struggle to Reform American Adoption. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 2014.

Carp, E. Wayne, and Leon-Guerrero, Anna. “When in Doubt, Count: World War II as a Watershed in the History of Adoption.” In Adoption in America: Historical Perspectives, edited by E. Wayne Carp. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

Conn, Peter. Adoption: A Brief Social and Cultural History. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Fessler, Ann. The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 2006.

Herman, Ellen. Kinship by Design: A History of Adoption in the Modern United States. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008.

Kennedy, Randall. Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003. http://0solomon.bltc.alexanderstreet.com.read.cnu.edu/cgi-bin/asp/philo/bltc/getvolume.pl?S16336#TON1350 Modell, Judith S. A Sealed and Secret Kinship: The Culture of Policies and Practices in American Adoption. New York: Berghahn Books, 2002.

Potter, Sarah. Everybody Else: Adoption and the Politics of Domestic Diversity in Postwar America. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2014.

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Beyond Bruises: An Attachment and Attribution Theoretical Perspective on Psychologically Abusive Relationships

by Sarah Wallace, Catherine Ashman, Megan Hutchinson, and Grace Zaylor sponsored by Dr. Alice Veksler (Department of Communication) Abstract Psychological abuse is a prevalent, yet commonly overlooked matter that occurs within romantic relationships. These “overt acts of dominance and control� (Marshall, 1996) such as criticism, jealousy, or ridiculing are severely detrimental to recipients of these behaviors. However, the topic is largely understudied in the conflict communication literature. Therefore, the present study examines this topic using attribution and attachment theories as a theoretical framework. The present study hypothesized that (H1) victims of psychological abuse will engage in a high amount of relationship enhancing attributions. It was also hypothesized that (H2) individuals engaged in committed psychologically abusive relationships will experience traumatic bonding, and (H2a) there will be a positive relationship between traumatic bonding and relationship length in psychologically abusive relationships. All three hypotheses were supported. A research question was also proposed to investigate which attachment styles may predispose individuals toward becoming entrapped in a relationship plagued by psychological abuse. A sample of 446 adults ages 18-69 participated in an anonymous online survey in order to collect information for the present study. A discussion of the results and the implications of the findings are presented.

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Psychological abuse is defined by Marshall (1996) as “overt acts of dominance and control” (p. 381). Psychological abuse can take a variety of forms, spanning from criticism of behavior, ignoring, jealousy, and control to more severe forms such as ridiculing of traits (Sackett & Saunders, 1999). “Bruises, cuts, etc. heal within a short time. When you listen to someone tell you how rotten you are and how nobody wants you day after day, you begin to believe it. Verbal abuse takes years to heal but before that happens, it can ruin every part of your life” (Herbert, Silver, & Ellard, 1991, p. 322). Psychological aggression is a prevalent occurrence within intimate romantic relationships (Lawrence, Yoon, Langer, & Ro, 2009). However, compared to other forms of abuse, such as physical abuse, it is considerably overlooked by scholars as well as society as a whole (Bretz, 2009). When most people think of domestic abuse and relational violence, they picture acts of physical aggression that leave victims with tangible, visible wounds.

However, in concurrence with the testimony depicted above from an abuse victim interviewed Herbert et al.’s (1991) study, when abuse takes the form of emotional or psychological harm to the victim, considerable damage is also likely to occur. According to one study, more than three-quarters of college women reported having been a victim of psychological abuse at some point during a romantic relationship (Gormley & Lopez, 2010). Psychological abuse may be considered overt and easily identifiable, or subtle and difficult to identify due to the caring or joking tone used by the abuser (Bretz, 2009). Once patterns of psychological abuse begin to surface within a relationship, it becomes very difficult to change or reverse those patterns (Bretz, 2009). The broad scope of effect that psychological abuse has on society, coupled with the severe impact such abuse has on victims’ lives, illustrates why psychological abuse should be further studied and discussed within the field of interpersonal communication.

Contrary to popular belief, psychological abuse is more harmful to victims than physical abuse. Psychological abuse frequently takes place in relationships that are already plagued by physical abuse as well as within relationships that are not physically abusive (Lawrence et al., 2009). Without the visible evidence of physical violence, the latter of these abusive relationships can be difficult to identify. Psychological abuse affects victims in a personal way, enacting feelings of high dependency and fear within the individual (Murphy & Hoover, 1999). This type of abuse affects every aspect of victims’ lives, whether directly or indirectly, by inflicting feelings including self-anger, fabricating a mask of fictitious happiness, experiencing a change in or a loss of personal identity, or inflicting extreme emotional highs and lows (Streker, 2012). High receipt of psychologically abusive behaviors has also been linked to more frequent trips to healthcare professionals for either serious or chronic illnesses (Marshall, 1996). Psychological abuse also has a stronger association with psychosocial problems among its victims compared to physical abuse (Sackett & Saunders, 1999).

Psychological abuse has been linked to symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (Marshall, 1996) as well as high levels of anxiety and depression (Streker, 2012). Seventy-two percent of women self-reported in two studies that, as victims of multiple forms of relational abuse, they judged psychological abuse as more detrimental and severe than physical abuse (Capezza & Arriaga, 2008; Sackett & Saunders, 1999). Psychological abuse has also been found to be a precursor to physical abuse within romantic relationships (Sackett & Saunders, 1999). With many detrimental consequences linked to psychological abuse, it is surprising that

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society lacks mindfulness about the issue and that there is a considerable lack of existing research on psychological abuse compared to research on sexual and physical abuse in romantic relationships.

Relevant Theories Attribution Theory Abuse occurs when abusers manipulate victims’ perceptions of reality and lead them to believe they have negative characteristics (Andrews & Brewin, 1990). When looking at attributions within emotionally abusive relationships, it has been found that appraisals regarding psychological violence and abusive events are key to influencing attributions made by victims (O'Neill & Kerig, 2000).

Attributions take place internally, with the internal perception of events guiding the way individuals evaluate the causes and/or outcomes of those events. Those perceptions, often involving self-blame and control, help moderate the adjustment of victims to traumatic events (O'Neill & Kerig, 2000). The greater one’s feelings of self-blame, the greater the belief that future psychologically abusive events may be avoided (O'Neill & Kerig, 2000). The need for attribution is higher when individuals are faced with uncontrollable events, such as psychological abuse by a romantic partner. This supports why self-blame attributions are common in victims of psychologically abusive relationships. Engaging in self-blame provides a perception of greater control in victims, despite the fact that the event may be uncontrollable (O'Neill & Kerig, 2000). In a study by Quas, Goodman, and Jones (2003), abused victims recalled attempting to mentally disregard the abuse. Despite these attempts, victims reported that self-blame continued to persist even after the abuse no longer continued to take place. Attributions of self-blame may lead to two potential outcomes. The increased perceived control may empower a victim of psychological abuse to leave the relationship, or it may simply increase the victim’s belief that they have the control needed to lessen the amount of abuse within the relationship (O'Neill & Kerig, 2000).

Attributions for abuse within psychologically abusive romantic relationships are relevant because the nature of the causal attribution made by the victim has a strong effect on whether or not the victim will terminate the relationship (Herbert et al., 1991). Victims that engage in self- blame will likely fail to leave the relationship, leading to decreased levels of self-esteem, increased depression, and increased helplessness. In combination, these lead to a reaction of feeling trapped within the relationship (Herbert et al., 1991).

Furthermore, the longer the duration of abuse and self-blame, the more trapped a victim may feel and the less likely they may be to leave the relationship (Herbert et al., 1991). Understanding attributions in these cases is vital for beginning to grasp why individuals remain with psychologically abusive partners. A shift in attribution for abuse takes place in those who are able to flee psychologically abusive relationships. One study found that a considerable number of married victims of psychological abuse reported attributions of self-blame for their abuse, while former victims of psychological abuse reported a shift in attribution of blame away from the self and toward the abusive ex- spouse (Andrews & Brewin, 1990). Self-blame is an example of a relationship enhancing attribution according to the definition of these attributions by Heider (1958). When negative actions occur, victims tend 25

to partake in self-blame in order to maintain positive feelings toward the relationship and the abuser and therefore enhance the relationship via attributions. Despite the fact that there is a link between attributions such as self-blame and abusive relationships, there is a considerable gap in current research regarding relationship enhancing attributions as a whole and how they relate to psychologically abusive relationships. It is imperative that further research should be performed in order to assist in closing this gap.

Therefore, the current study proposes the following hypothesis: H1: Victims of psychological abuse will engage in a high amount of relationship enhancing attributions.

Attachment Theory A few studies have already linked psychological abuse to existing theories within the context of interpersonal communication.

Attachment theory affirms that attachment style, whether secure or insecure, guides behavior and determines how adults function and communicate within intimate romantic relationships (Brennan & Shaver, 1995). Previous research has found a connection between insecure attachment styles and prevalence of psychological abuse. Attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance are two major dimensions identified by Gormley and Lopez (2010) under attachment insecurity. Insecurely attached individuals were found in one study to be moderately to notably associated with dominance and intimidation behaviors (Murphy & Hoover, 1999).

Anxious and insecurely attached individuals often perpetrate psychological abuse, including attempts to control or manipulate their partner while maintaining high levels of dependency on the relationship (Murphy & Hoover, 1999). Previous research has also claimed that threat of abandonment during relational conflicts may cause negative reactions, and furthermore psychologically abusive behaviors, in perpetrators that have insecure attachment styles (Bretz, 2009). Avoidant individuals are more prone to withdrawal during situations of stress and are likely to become critical and act in a defensive manner toward their partners (Gormley & Lopez, 2010). Riggs and Kaminski (2010) found a connection between romantic attachment style and psychologically abusive relationships. Another study discovered that evidence of anxious attachment styles may be a precursor to abusive behavior (Rodriguez, DiBello, Overup, & Neighbors, 2015). Attempts to manipulate and control individuals with this attachment style are likely due to the fact that inability to trust is a common characteristic in anxiously attached individuals (Rodriguez et al., 2015).

Though research is limited, there have been several studies that have examined attachment style in relation to perpetrators of psychological abuse within relationships. Attachment theory not only plays a role in the perpetrator but also the victim of abuse.

Alexander (1992) explains that a person with an insecure attachment style may have a diminished capacity to assess the situation and prevent or stop sexual abuse. It is clear from the existing literature that attachment style impacts perpetration of psychological abuse. However, there is a lack of existing literature surrounding the attachment styles of victims of psychological abuse and how

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that may influence their risk of becoming entrapped in a psychologically abusive relationship. Therefore, the following research question is proposed: RQ1: Which attachment styles of individuals are most inclined toward becoming entrapped in a psychologically abusive relationship?

Traumatic Bonding Theory There is evidence to suggest that higher awareness of psychological abuse can help victims become more likely to leave an abusive relationship. Psychological abuse is perceived as a large cost associated with relationships (Rhatigan & Axsom, 2006). This is likely due to the intense and personally degrading nature of psychological abuse. Psychological abuse has been found to have a greater impact on victim’s decisions to terminate their relationship than physical abuse (Rhatigan & Axsom, 2006). One study discovered that, even in cases where victims of abuse within a relationship suffer from both physical and psychological abuse, individuals chose to end their relationship due specifically to acts of psychological abuse. It was suggested in another study that this is due to the degrading, distressing, and upsetting nature of such abuse (Edwards et al., 2012). In another study, psychological abuse was found to be negatively correlated with commitment level within relationships (Potthoff, 2013). However, some traits of victims may create increased likelihood of tolerance for psychological abuse. Negative internal working models of self within psychological abuse victims have been found to be linked to a stronger likelihood of enduring psychological abuse from one’s partner (Bretz, 2009). Additionally, women who are victims of psychological abuse usually knowingly or unknowingly perceive their relationships in a positive light (Herbert et al., 1991). In these cases, it is particularly important to consider both subtle and severe forms of psychological abuse. Cases should also be considered where the victim may not be aware that he or she is being abused (Bretz, 2009). Victims may not be aware of abuse within certain instances, such as when the abuse is subtle, with perpetrators using certain characteristics of their partner against them in a seemingly loving way (Marshall, 1996).

Unawareness of psychologically abusive acts within romantic relationships may stem from either failure to understand the severity of subtle, seemingly harmless behaviors or may come from the fact that some individuals are too emotionally invested in their relationship to consciously acknowledge that abuse is taking place. Victims often fall into a vicious circle of events, with the abuse perpetrators instilling feelings of self-doubt, confusion, depression, and even loss of identity in their victims in order to make them more dependent on the relationship (Sackett & Saunders, 1999). This lack of realization may be coupled with traumatic bonding, “the notion that strong attachments are formed by intermittent abuse” (Dutton & Painter, 1993a, p. 105), a combination that fuels the circle. Dutton and Painter (1993b) describe traumatic bonding in terms of an elastic band. A victim of abuse is attached to his or her abuser via an elastic band that stretches as the victim attempts to escape the perpetrator.

Pressure on the band builds until the victim cannot pull any tighter and the band snaps him or her back into place. According to Dutton and Painter (1993b), traumatic bonding instills symptoms of anxiety, depression, dissociation, and sleep disturbances. This 27

furthermore hinders individuals from identifying themselves as victims of psychological abuse. Traumatic bonding theory lies on the basis of two specific occurrences of events within emotionally abusive relationships: power imbalances and intermittent good/poor treatment of the victim (Dutton & Painter, 1993a). In one study, some participants that had been victims of psychological abuse reported dissatisfaction within their relationship. However, they also reported commitment and steadfast investment to the relationship (Follingstad, Rogers, & Duvall, 2012). Individuals experiencing traumatic bonding within a romantic relationship shift their focus away from escaping the relationship and rather toward survival (Herman, 1992). Victims of emotionally abusive relationships that feel somewhat satisfied, hold low perceptions of alternatives, and have invested a considerable amount of resources into their relationship will frequently choose to remain with their abusive partner (Rhatigan & Axsom, 2006). These ideas suggest a cyclical pattern within abusive relationships that traps victims and begs the question of whether or not this pattern perceptively blinds some of its victims from realizing that they are experiencing abuse. In order to reach the population of ‘blinded’ victims, it is important to first understand what maintains the ‘wall’ between awareness and lack of awareness of psychological abuse perpetration within relationships. Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H2: Individuals engaged in committed psychologically abusive relationships will experience traumatic bonding.

H2a: There will be a positive relationship between traumatic bonding and relationship length in psychologically abusive relationships.

Method Sample Participants were invited to take part in an online survey through Qualtrics. Participants were required to be over the age of 18 and in a romantic relationship for a minimum of one month. A total sample size of 446 participants was recruited. Of those participants who identified their sex, 5.7% were male and 93.9% were female. The remaining participants, 0.4%, preferred not to identify their sex.

Participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 69 (M = 23.35, SD = 6.99). Participants’ ethnicities were 93.1% Caucasian, 1.9% Hispanic, 1.5% other, <1% African American, <1% American Indian or Alaskan Native, and <1% Asian or Pacific Islander. The remaining participants, 1.5%, preferred not to identify their ethnicity. The length of participants’ romantic relationships ranged from 1 month to 600 months (M = 40.11, SD = 59.16).

Procedure The study was conducted in the form of a survey distributed via email, social media sites, and word of mouth. Participants were instructed to allow ample time for the survey to be completed (an estimated twenty minutes). Participants were then instructed to complete the rest of the survey in terms of thoughts regarding their current romantic relationship. This study received IRB approval

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before data collection began. The incentive for participating in the study was an opportunity to be entered into a raffle for a $20 Amazon gift card.

Instrumentation Variables observed and analyzed within this study included attachment style, psychologically abusive behaviors within the romantic relationship, relationship-enhancing attributions within the romantic relationship, commitment level, and presence of traumatic bonding within the romantic relationship.

Psychological maltreatment of women inventory (PMWI) – The purpose of the PMWI scale was to measure the presence of psychological abuse within a romantic relationship. Adapted from Tolman’s (1999) study, this measure consisted of 14 items with response options ranging from 5 = always, 1 = never. A sixth response option, “not applicable” was also available to participants. Anyone who responded “not applicable” was coded as missing data for the purposes of data analysis. A sample question for this measure was, “my partner swore at me.” Previous research found a Cronbach’s Alpha of .88 and the present study yielded a Cronbach’s Alpha of .89. Given that the original focus of this measure was on psychological maltreatment of women, the scale’s language was modified for the current study in order to make questions gender neutral. For example, the term “husband” was changed to “partner.”

Stockholm syndrome scale (SS) – This scale was used in order to measure the level of attachment victims of psychologically abusive relationships had to their abusive partner. The Stockholm Syndrome scale (O’Leary & Maiuro, 2001) consisted of 50 items, with five response options for items 1-26 ranging from “I always or almost always feel this way” to “I never or almost never feel this way; this does not apply to me.” Items 27-50 are five-item response scales ranging from “always or almost always” to “almost never or never.” A sample item from this scale was, “without my partner, I would not know who I am.” The previous Cronbach’s Alpha was .94, and the current study’s Cronbach’s Alpha was .95.

Multiple determinants of relationship commitment inventory (MDRCI) – The MDRCI was used in order to measure commitment level of survey participants to their romantic partner. This was a 24-item survey with a five-item response scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” (Kurdek, 1995). A sample question from the MDRCI was, “I put a lot of energy and effort into my relationship.” For this measure, there were six subscales with four questions in each subscale. Previous studies have found Cronbach’s Alpha values for the subscales rewards, costs, match to ideal comparison level, alternatives, investments, and barriers. Cronbach’s Alpha values for the subscales in previous studies

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were .80, .77, .85, .80, .82, .67,respectively. The present study found Cronbach’s Alpha variables of .75, .82, .85, .77, .32, and .56, respectively.

Relationship attribution measure (RAM) – This measure was used in order to gather information regarding participant’s attributions for their romantic partner’s behaviors. This measure was comprised of four subscales with six questions within each subscale (Bradbury & Fincham, 1992). Subscale one measured criticism by partner, subscale two measured time spent together, subscale three measured partner’s attention to the participant, and subscale four measured cool and distant behavior by the participant’s partner. Each subscale was measured using the same seven options on a response scale, ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.” One sample question within the RAM scale was, “my partner’s behavior was motivated by selfish rather than unselfish concerns.” In previous studies, all RAM subscales have found a Cronbach’s Alpha that is >.70. The present study found Cronbach’s Alpha values for each of the four subscales, RAM Criticism, RAM Time, RAM Attention, and RAM Cool and Distant. The Cronbach’s Alpha values for these subscales were .72, .82, .83, and .82, respectively. Terms such as “husband” were replaced with gender-neutral terms such as “partner” in order to be more inclusive of participants and relationships. The response scale was altered from its original six-item scale ranging from “disagree strongly” to “agree strongly” to a modified seven-item scale that includes options “strongly agree,” “agree,” “somewhat agree,” “neither agree or disagree,” “somewhat disagree,” “disagree,” and “strongly disagree.”

After 36 participants responded to the survey, several participants notified the research team of severe confusion when answering the particular set of questions. The research team made several minor modifications to questions within the RAM questionnaire in order to facilitate higher comprehension for survey respondents. For example, a modification included changing the original wording of the RAM introduction from, “This questionnaire describes several things that your partner might do. Imagine each behavior and then read the statements that follow. Answer as to how much you agree or disagree with the following statements,” to “Many situations arise throughout the duration of a romantic relationship. The following statements describe behaviors that your partner may or may not have expressed in the past.

Imagine that these behaviors have occurred in your relationship and answer as to how much you agree or disagree with each statement.”

Hazan and Shaver’s attachment style measure – This measure was used in order to determine the attachment style of participants. This was a one-question measure originally reported from Hazan and Shaver’s (1987) study that asked participants to identify which of three statement best describes his or her feelings. A sample answer choice for the measure

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was, “I am somewhat uncomfortable being close to others; I find it difficult to trust them, difficult to allow myself to depend on them. I am nervous when anyone gets too close, and often, love partners want me to be more intimate than I feel comfortable being.”

Results Due to the nature of the present study’s hypotheses and research question, a median split took place in order to study only participants with scores that fell equal to the median (Mdn = 1.18) or higher than the median for psychological abuse on the PMWI scale. Each hypothesis or research question pertained to psychologically abusive relationships exclusively, so the data studied excluded individuals whose romantic relationship was determined to have low or zero present psychologically abusive behaviors.

The first hypothesis (H1) predicted that victims of psychological abuse will engage in a high amount of relationship-enhancing attributions. Pearson’s correlations indicated that victims of psychological abuse (n = 238) engaged in a high amount of relationshipenhancing attributions for the first subscale (criticism) for this sample (r = .33, p < .001) which is an effect of 11%. Pearson’s correlations indicated that victims of psychological abuse (n = 117) engaged in a high amount of relationship-enhancing attributions for the second subscale (time) for this sample (r = .18, p = .03), which is an effect of 3%. Pearson’s correlations indicated that victims of psychological abuse (n = 118) engaged in a high amount of relationship-enhancing attributions for the third subscale (attention) for this sample (r = .17, p = .03), which is a 3% effect. Pearson’s correlations indicated that victims of psychological abuse (n = 118) engaged in a high amount of relationship-enhancing attributions for the fourth subscale (cool and distant) for this sample (r = .26, p < .001) which is a 7% effect. Hypothesis 1 was supported.

The present study’s first research question (RQ1) asked, “which attachment styles of individuals are most inclined towards becoming entrapped in a psychologically abusive relationship?” The research question was examined using an ANOVA test on attachment and PMWI. The ANOVA was not significant, F(2, 116) = 2.93, p = .06. The results indicated that, according to the measure used, there was no distinction between each attachment style and the likelihood that they would become entrapped in a psychologically abusive relationship. The research question was found to be unresolved.

The present study’s second hypothesis (H2) predicted that participants engaged in committed psychologically abusive relationships will experience traumatic bonding. Pearson’s correlations indicated that victims of psychological abuse (n = 111) who experience high levels of commitment had increased levels of traumatic bonding for the first subscale (rewards) for this sample (r = .19, p = .02), which is an effect of 4%. Pearson’s correlations indicated that victims of psychological abuse (n = 111) who experience high levels of commitment had decreased levels of traumatic bonding for the second subscale (costs) for this sample (r = -.42, p < .001) 31

which is an effect of 18%. Pearson’s correlations indicated that victims of psychological abuse (n = 110) who experience high levels of commitment had increased levels of traumatic bonding for the third subscale (match to ideal comparison) for this sample (r = .43, p < .001), which is an effect of 18%. Pearson’s correlations indicated that victims of psychological abuse (n = 110) who experience high levels of commitment had decreased levels of traumatic bonding for the fourth subscale (alternatives) for this sample (r = -.33, p < .001), which is an effect of 11%. Hypothesis 2 was supported.

Hypothesis 2a (H2a) predicted that there will be a positive relationship between traumatic bonding and relationship length in psychologically abusive relationships. Pearson’s correlations indicated that for this sample (n = 111), as length of romantic relationship duration increased, traumatic bonding increased (r = .18, p < .05) which is a 3% effect. Hypothesis 2a was supported.

Discussion The present study hypothesized a positive correlation between psychological abuse in relationships and the amount of relationshipenhancing attributions. The hypothesis was supported, showing that victims of psychological abuse engage in high amounts of relationship-enhancing attributions. This finding is likely due to the fact that individuals trapped in psychologically abusive relationships are often manipulated and have low levels of self-esteem. Jezl, Molidor, and Wright (1996) found a negative correlation between victims’ self-esteem and levels of psychological maltreatment within an abusive romantic relationship.

According to this study, the more maltreatment that occurs, the lower the self-esteem of the victim. Other researchers have illustrated the link between low self-esteem and partaking in self-blame, a relationship-enhancing attribution. Low self-esteem and internal attributions for negative outcomes coupled with external attributions for positive outcomes within a relationship have been shown to be positively correlated as well (Crocker & Major, 1989). This pattern of attributions for behaviors are forms of relationshipenhancing attributions. Due to the present study’s concluded correlation between relationship-enhancing attributions and psychologically abusive relationships, the link found in previous research between abuse victims and low self- esteem, and the link found in previous research between relationship-enhancing attributions and low self-esteem, it may be suggested that self-esteem plays a role in forming relationship- enhancing attributions within psychologically abusive relationships.

Next, the present study posed a question that asked which attachment styles are more likely than others to lead an individual to become entrapped in a psychologically abusive relationship. The data was insignificant for the proposed research question.

According to the measure used within the present study, there is not one attachment style that is more likely than others to incline victims to become a victim of a psychologically abusive relationship. Although the present study did not yield a direct answer to the research question at hand, previous studies have outlined differences between attachment styles and different forms of abuse within relationships. Wekerle and Wolfe (1998) found that, in adolescent females, an insecure attachment style was a substantial predictor of becoming a victim of physical, verbal, or sexual abuse. Given that insecure attachment is a predictor for becoming entrapped in an

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abusive relationship, there may still be an undiscovered link between attachment styles and the likelihood of becoming a victim of psychological abuse. However, the present study did not conclude a significant distinction between attachment styles, leaving the research question unresolved.

The present study hypothesized a positive correlation between commitment level in psychologically abusive relationships and traumatic bonding. According to the scale used to measure commitment, there was a negative correlation between traumatic bonding and unfavorable aspects of commitment, such as costs. There was also a positive correlation between traumatic bonding and favorable aspects of commitment, such as rewards. The findings were significant and the hypothesis was supported. The research supported the hypothesis, finding that participants engaged in committed psychologically abusive relationships will experience traumatic bonding. Further research into the subject yielded possible reasoning as to why this occurs. Manipulation that leads to feelings of dependency and low self-esteem is often subtle, but is a large part of psychological abuse (Andersen, Boulette, & Schwartz, 1991). In committed relationships, low self-esteem and dependency lead to bonding to the abuser. Andersen et al. (1991) explained that individuals often make significant efforts to stay in abusive relationships in order to prove their commitment to their partner. When a victim is in a committed abusive relationship, they experience traumatic bonding to the abuser as well as feelings of learned helplessness, guilt, self-blame, and low self-esteem (Andersen et al., 1991). Participants in committed psychologically abusive relationships experience traumatic bonding due to these aspects of commitment, which also offers a potential explanation as to why participants reported low levels of alternatives and high levels of rewards in the present study.

The present study examined the hypothesized connection between relationship length and traumatic bonding. The findings were significant and the hypothesis was supported, illustrating a positive relationship between traumatic bonding and relationship length in psychologically abusive relationships. The previous hypothesis was also supported, stating that traumatic bonding occurs within committed psychologically abusive relationships. Due to these supported hypotheses, the present study indicated that the longer an abused victim is in a committed relationship with his or her abuser, the more traumatic bonding occurs. Although no conclusions can be drawn from the present studyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s investment subscale, previous studies have shown that, in situations where a lot has been invested, individuals will find themselves trapped in order to prevent loss of investments (Strube, 1988). In the case of psychologically abusive relationships, this investment is often in the form of time. In abusive situations, costs oftentimes enhance as time passes throughout the duration of the relationship. Furthermore, investment levels increase and investments begin to outweigh and increase denial of costs (Strube, 1988). The more time spent in a committed psychologically abusive relationship, the more investment develops. This development entices the victim to stay entrapped within the abusive relationship and experience more traumatic bonding, strengthening the vicious circle of commitment and abuse.

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Limitations While a number of findings arose throughout the duration of the present study, there are still several limitations to be addressed.

One limitation was an unequal distribution of males and females who participated in the survey. There were 446 participants in the study, 5.7% were male, 93.9% were female, and .4% preferred not to respond. In addition, some subjects within the survey may have led to participant discomfort due to the nature of the questions asked. This discomfort, along with participant fatigue due to the length of the survey, are two explanations that may have led to attrition.

The measure used to determine attachment style by Hazan and Shaver (1987) was another limitation to the present study.

Although this measure was convenient for participants with it’s single-question style, it is difficult to determine attachment with one survey question alone. This is a potential explanation for the outcome of the research question and its non- significant findings.

In previous studies, the Cronbach’s Alpha for the investment subscale for the MDRCI (Kurdek, 1995) was reliable at .82.

However, the present study found investment unreliable at .32. Due to the unreliability of this subscale, conclusions were unable to be drawn regarding investments. In addition, the Cronbach’s Alpha for the subscale barriers under MDRCI was unreliable at .67 in previous studies. The subscale was also found unreliable at .56 in the present study. Therefore, no conclusions could be drawn from the data for this subscale, offering additional limitations to the present study.

In order to study the present study’s hypotheses and research question, which looked only at psychologically abusive relationships, a median split was used on the PMWI scale. Participants who scored at the median or above were considered involved in a psychologically abusive relationships according to this scale and were used in the data analysis to answer the study’s hypotheses and research question. While a median split was not the ideal method to accomplish this task, for the purpose of this study it was applied for clarity and reporting of the results.

Future Research The present study’s results provided a gateway to several different directions for future research regarding psychologically abusive relationships. When looking at the relationship between commitment level and traumatic bonding, participants reported a high level of match to ideal comparison. This may lead to further research regarding why victims of psychological abuse reported high levels in this commitment subscale. Future research may take a closer look into why exactly they think their partner is close to, if not exactly, their ideal partner despite the fact that abuse is taking place within the relationship.

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Another commitment subscale that raised questions from was the rewards subscale. Victims of psychologically abusive relationships reported high levels of rewards for their relationship. This surprising finding suggests a need for future research regarding why victims of these abusive relationships believe they are in a rewarding relationship. Furthermore, future research may also focus on what exactly leads victims of psychological abuse to find their relationship rewarding. Looking into this matter could answer more thoroughly why victims stay with their abusers as well as other unknowns about the dynamics of psychologically abusive relationships.

The present study’s hypotheses and research questions studied individuals in psychologically abusive relationships exclusively.

Further research should be conducted in order to look at the patterns found in this study of psychologically abusive relationships and how they compare to people in healthy, non-abusive relationships. The present study looked at the relationship between commitment level and bonding within abusive relationships. Future research may compare commitment and bonding levels for individuals in healthy relationships in relation to commitment and bonding levels for individuals in psychologically abusive relationships.

Furthermore, the level of rewards individuals in healthy versus abusive relationships identify may be compared and examined. The present study found that victims of psychologically abusive relationships engage in high amounts of relationship-enhancing attributions. Future research should look into how attributions may change within conflict situations in particular and how attribution patterns of psychological abuse victims compare to partners in healthy relationships.

Lastly, the present study did not take social support and friends into account during data collection. Future research should look into whether or not individuals with large social support groups are more or less likely to become entrapped in a psychologically abusive relationship. Furthermore, the effect of psychological abuse on one’s social support system may be studied in order to examine how receiving psychological abuse may affect a victim’s other relationships.

Implications The implications for this study apply to the field of therapy, including not only patients seeking relational healing but more importantly the therapists that are tasked with treating those patients. The present study’s findings provide therapists with new information regarding psychologically abusive relationships, and those working with psychologically abused individuals may reach further understandings through the use of this research. O’Leary (1999) found evidence that the effect psychological abuse has on relationships is as great as the effect physical abuse has on relationships. In addition, psychological abuse often precedes physical abuse. It may be inferred that the more information therapists learn regarding psychological abuse, the more likely they will be more successful in the treatment of victims of these abuse victims.

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Hawkins and Fackrell (2009) reported results of a national survey which asked individuals what was the reasoning behind their divorce; of those who took the survey, 73% reasoned their divorce was due to a lack of commitment, and 29% reported their divorce was due to some form of abuse (most participants gave more than one reason, yielding higher than 100% percent). A divorce can cost each spouse anywhere from $3,000 to over $10,000, but 80% of couples showed an improvement after visiting marriage counseling (Hawkins & Fackrell, 2009). While this shows the effectiveness of therapy, sessions can be lessened using the extensive knowledge found through the present study. By utilizing the present studyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s results about psychological abuse, a therapist can help to more adequately assist clients. This will ideally lead to less time spent in therapy and counseling, allowing for therapists to service more clients.

Coker, Smith, Bethea, King, and McKeown (2000) found that women who experience psychological maltreatment from their partner were likely to suffer from poor physical and mental health. Symptoms may include migraines, stomach ulcers, and chronic pain. If these symptoms go untreated, more severe health consequences, missed days from work, and a general unhappiness may occur as a result of the psychological abuse. If therapists use the results of the present study to formulate treatment strategies, they will likely be more informed regarding psychological abuse and therefore more competent in assisting victims.

Psychological abuse is a prevalent issue that is often overlooked. Jezl, Molidor, and Wright (1996) found that 96% of adolescents had experienced some form of psychological maltreatment in one of their dating experiences. As previously stated, three-quarters of college- aged women reported having experienced acts of psychological abuse within a romantic relationship (Gormley & Lopez, 2010) which suggests implications of effect on a massive scale on society by this type of abuse. The results and further research suggested by this study offer the foundation from which to further investigate psychological abuse and furthermore aid its victims in a concrete manner.

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Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 757-767. doi:10.2307/352940 Bradbury, T. N., & Fincham, F. D. (1992). Assessing attributions in marriage: The relationship attribution measure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 457-468.

Brennan, K. A., & Shaver, P. R. (1995). Dimensions of adult attachment, affect regulation, and romantic relationship functioning. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 267- 283. doi:10.1177/0146167295213008 Bretz, K. (2009). An actor-partner interdependence model of attachment processes, conflict resolution, and psychological abuse on relationship quality in a community sample of heterosexual couples (Doctoral dissertation). University of North Texas, Denton, TX. Capezza, N. M., & Arriaga, X. B. (2008). You can degrade but you can't hit: Differences in perceptions of psychological versus physical aggression. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 25, 225-245. doi:10.1177/0265407507087957 Coker, A. L., Smith, P. H., Bethea, L., King, M. R., & McKeown, R. E. (2000). Physical health consequences of physical and psychological intimate partner violence. Archives of family medicine, 9(5), 451.

Crocker, J., & Major, B. (1989). Social stigma and self-esteem: The self-protective properties of stigma. Psychological Review, 96(4), 608-630. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.96.4.608 Dutton, D. G., & Painter, S. (1993a). Emotional attachments in abusive relationships: A test of traumatic bonding theory.

Violence and Victims, 8, 105-120.

Dutton, D. G., & Painter, S. (1993b). The battered woman syndrome: Effects of severity and intermittency of abuse. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 63, 614-622.

Edwards, K. M., Murphy, M. J., Tansill, E. C., Myrick, C., Probst, D. R., Corsa, R., & Gidycz, C. A. (2012). A qualitative analysis of college women's leaving processes in abusive relationships. Journal of American College Health, 60, 204-210.

Follingstad, D. R., Rogers, J. M., & Duvall, J. L. (2012). Factors predicting relationship satisfaction, investment, and commitment when women report high prevalence of psychological abuse. Journal of Family Violence, 27, 257-273. doi:10.1007/s10896-012- 9422-8 Gormley, B., & Lopez, F. G. (2010). Psychological abuse perpetration in college dating relationships contributions of gender, stress, and adult attachment orientations. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25, 204-218. doi:10.1177/0886260509334404

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Hawkins, A. J., & Fackrell, T. A. (2009). Should I keep trying to work it out?: A guidebook for individuals and couples at the crossroads of divorce (and before). Salt Lake City, UT: Produced on behalf of the Utah Commission on Marriage.

Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of personality and social psychology, 52, 511-524.

Heider, F. (1958). The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York: Wiley.

Herbert, T. B., Silver, R. C., & Ellard, J. H. (1991). Coping with an abusive relationship: I. How and why do women stay? Journal of Marriage and the Family, 53, 311-325. doi:10.2307/352901 Herman, J. L. (1992). Complex PTSD: A syndrome in survivors of prolonged and repeated trauma. Journal of traumatic stress, 5, 377-391.

Jezl, D. R., Molidor, C. E., & Wright, T. L. (1996). Physical, sexual and psychological abuse in high school dating relationships: Prevalence rates and self-esteem issues. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 13(1), 69-87.

Kurdek, L. (1995). Assessing multiple determinants of relationship commitment in cohabiting gay, cohabiting lesbian, dating heterosexual, and married heterosexual couples. Family Relations, 44, 261-266.

Lawrence, E., Yoon, J., Langer, A., & Ro, E. (2009). Is psychological aggression as detrimental as physical aggression? The independent effects of psychological aggression on depression and anxiety symptoms. Violence and Victims, 24, 20-35. doi:10.1891/0886- 6708.24.1.20 Marshall, L. L. (1996). Psychological abuse of women: Six distinct clusters. Journal of Family Violence, 11, 379-409.

Murphy, C. M., & Hoover, S. A. (1999). Measuring emotional abuse in dating relationships as a multifactorial construct. Violence and Victims, 14, 39-53.

O'Leary, K. D. (1999). Psychological abuse: A variable deserving critical attention in domestic violence. Violence and victims, 14(1), 3-23.

Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Leary, K. D., & Maiuro, R. D. (2001). Psychological abuse in violent domestic relations. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.

O'Neill, M. L., & Kerig, P. K. (2000). Attributions of self-blame and perceived control as moderators of adjustment in battered women. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 15, 1036-1049. doi:10.1177/088626000015010002 Potthoff, A. L. (2013). Factors mediating and moderating the relation between abuse and commitment (Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thesis).

University of Houston, Houston, TX. Rhatigan, D. L., & Axsom, D. K. (2006). Using the investment model to understand battered women's commitment to abusive relationships. Journal of Family Violence, 21, 153-162. doi:10.1007/s10896-005-9013-z

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Riggs, S. A., & Kaminski, P. (2010). Childhood emotional abuse, adult attachment, and depression as predictors of relational adjustment and psychological aggression. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 19, 75-104. doi:10.1080/10926770903475976 Rodriguez, L. M., DiBello, A. M., Overup, C. S., & Neighbors, C. (2015). The price of distrust: Trust, anxious attachment, jealousy, and partner abuse. Partner Abuse, 6, 298-319.

Sackett, L. A., & Saunders, D. G. (1999). The impact of different forms of psychological abuse on battered women. Violence and Victims, 14, 105-117.

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Psychological Bulletin, 104(2), 236-250. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.104.2.236 Tolman, R. M. (1999). The validation of the psychological maltreatment of women inventory. Violence and Victims, 14, 25-37.

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Development and psychopathology, 10, 571-586. doi: 10.17/S0954579498001758

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Pagan Serpents in Paradise: The Emergence of Anguipedes in Italian Renaissance Art

by Clanci Jo Conover sponsored by Dr. Michelle Erhardt (Department of Fine Arts and Art History)

Author Biography

Clanci Jo Conover is a graduating art history major, with minors in communication studies and Medieval Renaissance studies. The Italian Renaissance is her period of academic focus, and she is considering pursuing my PhD so that she can teach on this subject at the college level. She has been the recipient of the Helen Alexick Fecher Fine Arts Endowed Scholarship, Alumni Society Betty Lockhart Anglin Endowed Art Scholarship, and the Minnie Lee Hayes & William P. Hayes, Jr. Fine & Visual Arts Endowed Scholarship. She attained her bachelor’s degree in three years and will be graduating with distinction from the Honors program, as well as cum laude.

Abstract The purpose of this paper was to explore the figure of the anguipede (a snake-human hybrid) in Italian Renaissance art. Little research has been done on this figure despite the fact that it is included in infamous artistic works, including Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel and Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise on the Florence Baptistery. This paper focuses on the Classical origins of the anguipede, its exclusion from art in the Medieval period, and its resurfacing in Christian art in Florence during the early years of the Renaissance.

The anguipede was subsequently adopted by artists across Italy, exemplifying the cultural acceptance of non-Christian subjects in a highly Christian world that characterizes the Renaissance. This essay hopes to prove that anguipedes emerged in Christian images of the Italian Renaissance as a result of Florentine humanists’ progressive ideals and fascination with antiquity in combination with the circulation of newly translated Classical texts. Evidence in support of this thesis is derived from primary documents, analyses of artworks, and an array of scholarly publications. This paper found that the ancient mythical figure of the anguipede became an acceptable means of portraying the serpent in the Garden of Eden because of the influence of Byzantine scholar Manuel Chrysoloras, and the open-mindedness of Florentine humanists. These findings help to broaden our understanding of how deeply Classicism influenced the Italian Renaissance.

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The Italian Renaissance is arguably one of the most impactful periods of art, and has consequently warranted scholars’ attention for hundreds of years. Little research has been done on the figure of the anguipede, despite the fact that it is depicted in infamous artistic works, including Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel and Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise on the Florence Baptistery. This paper seeks to prove that anguipedes emerged in Christian images of the Italian Renaissance (1300-1600) as a result of Florentine humanists’ progressive ideals and fascination with antiquity in combination with the circulation of newly translated Classical texts.

The word ‘anguipede’ is a term originally used in ancient Persian mythology to refer to a creature with the head of a rooster and the body of a snake, but has since evolved to include figures portrayed with human features and snake bodies. These figures are slightly difficult to define because anguipedes can assume many different humanoid characteristics. Some anguipedes, for instance, are described as having two tails and the upper body of a man, while others appear as simple snakes with human faces.

Evidence in support of this thesis is drawn from various artworks and Classical literature. Contextual background will be presented in relation to the figure of the snake in art and to relevant circumstances of the time period. Hesiod’s Theogony (ca. 8th century BCE), Apollodorus’ Biblioteca (ca. 1st-2nd centuries CE), and the apocryphal Acts of Philip (ca. 5th century CE) are the primary texts that constitute the literature section of this paper, which will be discussed after an analysis of key images by artists including Ghiberti and Michelangelo that depict Adam, Eve, and the serpent in the Garden of Eden. This theme is inspired by the Book of Genesis, wherein the devil appears to Eve in the form of a snake and tempts her to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Snake Symbolism and the Contemporary Mindset In Ancient Greece, snakes held a considerable amount of symbolism and were often associated with various deities. In mythology, snakes play many roles and are commonly associated with mystical pagan figures. The significance and symbolism assigned to serpents, along with their mythology, by the Greeks were adopted by the Romans.

Snakes were given various meanings in civilizations of antiquity - they were associated with fire and water in the context of the four elements, served as symbols of feminine fertility, and frequently represented opposite poles of constant alternations, like that of day to night or life and death.72 Serpentine figures frequently appeared on vases in Greek art, sometimes as simple snakes, sometimes as anguipedes, dragons, or monsters (Figure 1). Snakes were notably associated with trees in Greco-Roman mythology; in art, this association would typically be represented by a snake wrapped around a tree trunk, because both symbols referenced fertility and were

72

Juan Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols (London: Routledge, 1971), 37, 183, 286.

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closely tied to the earth.73 The Serpent is also portrayed as protector of the tree in literature - narratives like Heracles’ 11th Labor: Apples of the Hesperides tell of a dragon guarding a tree, a motif that was assumed as the model for later Christian art.74

Disdain for Classical mythology and culture was widespread in Europe during the Middle Ages, which resulted in a serious shift in artistic compositions. Christian subjects were deemed acceptable scenes for art, whereas Classical narratives and figures were seen as idolatrous and evil.75 Snakes are most commonly associated with the devil in the Christian tradition, specifically in reference to his appearance in the Garden of Eden as a serpent.76 In Medieval art, the snake is often depicted coiled around a tree with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, likely drawing inspiration from pre-Christian images of the dragon guarding the tree of Hesperides.77 Another popular scene portraying ophidians was the last judgement, drawing from the apocalyptic book of Revelation. In scenes from the Garden of Eden, snakes represent opposites in constant motion, like the concepts of life and death.78 Additionally, other serpentine figures in Christian art include dragons associated with religious figures like St. George or St. Philip, each falling under a different context. The symbolism of the snake varies widely depending on location and context, but many of these attributes can be transferred and applied to anguipedes.

While Western European society declined in what is appropriately termed the Dark Ages, the Byzantine Empire was flourishing, especially in the arts. Deeply influenced by the Roman Empire, and Ancient Greece by extent and proximity, Byzantium’s classicalesque style was readily adopted in Italy as early as the sixth century, when the rest of Western Europe had spiraled into disorder and conservatism. The spread of this Eastern style into Italy can be attributed to the work of Greeks and Levantines in Southern Italy, who later relocated to Rome in order to escape the Saracens and the Iconoclasts, thus bringing their Byzantine backgrounds to the ancient capital.79 As Byzantium was a Christian empire, the subject matter in artistic works was similar to that of contemporary Western Europe, depicting both Old and New Testament scenes. In Italy, Medieval Byzantine mosaics can be found from Sicily to Venice, some of which depict the temptation of Adam and Eve.

It is fair to assume that Italian temptation mosaics were the precursors to Adam and Eve scenes of the Renaissance, as paintings and frescoes of this period were generally more concerned with depicting scenes from the life of Christ. Examples of the temptation scene can be found in the 12th century mosaics at the Cappella Palatina in Palermo, as well as in the 13th century mosaics at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. The most notable Italian mosaics in the Byzantine style, however, date to the late 13th century and can be found in

73

James Hall, Dictionary of Subjects & Symbols in Art (Boulder: Westview Press, 2008), 294-295.

Ibid.

75 Karl Kilinski, Greek Myth and Western Art: The Presence of the Past (New York City: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 636.

76 Hall, Subjects & Symbols, 294.

77 Ibid., 5.

78 Cirlot, Dictionary of Symbols, 286.

79 Andre Grabar, The Great Centuries of Painting: Byzantine Painting (New York City: Skira, 1953), 77.

74

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the Baptistery of St. John the Baptist in Florence (Figure 2). This is what a typical temptation scene would have looked like prior to the Renaissance in Italy. As this mosaic was located in the Baptistery, a public religious building directly across from the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main cathedral, the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, numerous people of all classes and occupations would have been able to see it, subsequently reinforcing the traditional composition as an archetype for temptation scenes.

Some of the first public images of anguipedes can be found in the city of Florence in the early Renaissance, specifically on the doors to the Baptistery. In contrast with many European cities and regions of the 15th century, there was a common belief in Florence that any man could be great and honorable, regardless of his background.80 A middle class was just beginning to emerge in Europe during this time, as the majority of people were very poor while an elite few controlled most of the wealth.81 In Western Europe, it was generally accepted that those of privilege and wealth deserved it, while the peasantry were unable to advance in society. In Florence, however, attitudes were different - Florentines saw all men as equal, defined by personal value and honor rather than status, possessing the ability to better oneself if so desired.82 These beliefs were highly championed by powerful Italian families like the Medicis.83

The idea that any man could achieve greatness accompanied the emergence of a group of Florentine humanists who subscribed to the notion of the individual as we understand it today.84 These humanists worked towards understanding how their Christian values could exist in their ever-changing world, exalted Roman ideals of improving oneself as a statesman, and supported a renewed interest in Classical texts, philosophies, and artworks.85 Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444) was one of the most prominent humanists of Florence and was known for his histories and biographies, patriotism to the city of Florence, rhetoric, and interest in Classical philosophers and documents. 86 In Western Europe during the Middle Ages, it would have been considered inappropriate for the serpent of Eden to be depicted as an anguipede because it was a mythological figure. As early as the 1400s, Florentine ideals and progressive thought allowed for its citizens to accept the depiction of the anguipede in a religious scene.

Although there were temptation scenes that included anguipedes with male or gender-neutral features, most of these figures were portrayed as feminine. The serpent of the Garden became feminine when depicted as an anguipede, which can be attributed to standard misogynistic beliefs that women were to blame for the downfall of humanity. As already noted, snakes have been symbolically

80

Frederick Antal, Florentine Painting and its Social Background (London: Kegan Paul, 1948), 53-55.

George Holmes, Florence, Rome and the Origins of the Renaissance (New York City: Oxford University Press, 1986), 72-74.

82 Hans Baron, In Search of Florentine Civic Humanism, vol. 1 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), 32-33.

83 Antal, Florentine Painting, 29-30.

84 Ibid., 55-56.

85 Ernest DeWald, Italian Painting, 1200-1600 (New York City: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston Inc., 1961), 180-181.

86 Antal, Florentine Painting, 55-56.

81

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associated with fertility and the feminine. Snakes are almost always portrayed with a tree in Christian temptation scenes - when paired with a tree, a unitary symbol associated with the masculine, the snake is a clear reference to the feminine and feminine fertility.87

The Renaissance - Anguipedes in Florence and Rome Snake symbolism did not see any major changes from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, the period of transition between the two taking place in the late 12th and early 13th centuries in Italy. Christian scenes of the Renaissance that featured ophidian figures typically followed Medieval models, with the Fall of Man and the Last Judgement remaining choice subjects for serpentine representation. Although the snakeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s meaning in Italian art did not change with the Renaissance, its form did. In 15th-century Italy, serpents were no longer portrayed exclusively as simple creatures of the natural world; some depictions of the snake in the Garden of Eden evolved to be represented by anguipedes.

In the early 15th century, Lorenzo Ghiberti (1375-1455) won the commission for the doors of the Baptistery in a city-sponsored competition against renowned architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), and later received another commission for a second set of doors for the Baptistery, known as the Gates of Paradise (Figure 3).88 The doors are adorned with ten bronze panels - the themes for these panels were selected by Leonardo Bruni, with each theme coming from narratives within the Old Testament.89 Working with Bruni brought Ghiberti into direct contact with humanist worldviews, reflected by the use of an anguipede in a Christian scene. The pertinent of the ten panels is the Creation panel (Figure 4), which depicts four major scenes in simultaneous narrative. These scenes are the creation of Adam, the creation of Eve, the temptation, and the expulsion from the garden. The temptation portion of this sculptural work includes an anguipede (Figure 5), the first time this figure is depicted in public art in Florence. The serpent of Eden is depicted here with the head of a human, facing towards Eve as she reaches into the tree to pick the fruit for Adam. The temptation scene is in lower relief than the other scenes, making the presence of the anguipede subtle in the composition.

Within the two years following Ghibertiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s initial work on the Gates of Paradise, from 1425-1427, artists Masolino da Panicale (13831440s) and Masaccio (1401-1428) would paint their timeless frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine, just across the Arno River (Figure 6). Paintings in this chapel were commissioned by the Brancacci family, featuring scenes from the life of the St. Peter, as well as the temptation and expulsion of Adam and Eve.90 During this time period, it was common for prominent Italians to have family chapels within churches - families would buy chapels and pay to have them decorated as a way to demonstrate their

87

Cirlot, Dictionary of Symbols, 288.

Frederick Hartt and David Wilkins, History of Italian Renaissance Art, 6th ed. (Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006), 177.

89 John Paoletti and Gary Radke, Art in Renaissance Italy, 3rd ed. (Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005), 246.

90 Hartt and Wilkins, Italian Renaissance Art, 207.

88

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religious piety and power.91 The chapel frescoes were started by Masolino, but were taken over shortly thereafter by his student Masaccio. 92

An outlying scene from the Brancacci Chapel’s main theme of St. Peter’s life, Masolino’s Temptation features a snake with a human head (Figure 7). This was another occurrence of artwork with an anguipede that would have been seen by multiple people; visitors of the church of Santa Maria del Carmine would have had access to the Brancacci chapel, and, by default, the anguipede in Masolino’s temptation scene.

The figure of the anguipede was not only incorporated into creation images, but also into compositions including the Virgin Mary.

Two examples of this come from Andrea Mantenga’s (1431-1506) Madonna of Victory (Figure 8) and Lorenzo di Credi’s (14591537) Annunciation. Both works depict a small temptation scene in grisailles; in Mantenga’s work, this scene is painted underneath Mary’s feet as part of her throne, while di Credi’s work incorporates the temptation in the predella underneath the main annunciation scene, flanked on each side of the banner by the creation of Eve and the expulsion from the garden. This imagery was likely depicted as a minor scene in these compositions as a reference to verses in Genesis: Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’

So the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals!

You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’

This verse states that the woman’s offspring will crush the head of the serpent, commonly interpreted as a prophecy of Christ’s victory over the devil written about in the Christian Gospel. It was generally accepted in this time that the devil had been defeated before Christ died on the cross, either at the time Mary became pregnant or at the time the Christ child was born. This constitutes the incorporation of the temptation scene below the feet of the Madonna, where Mantenga and di Credi chose to depict the serpent as anguipedes.

Nearly nine decades after Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise and Masolino’s Temptation were begun, the anguipede of the Garden made its way to Rome. The Sistine Chapel, located in the Vatican, is regarded as one of the most renowned artistic undertakings in the Italian Renaissance, featuring frescoes by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), and other prestigious artists of the time.93 Michelangelo is the most infamous name associated with this chapel, as he was responsible for the series of paintings on the ceiling and, later, the Last Judgement mural.94 Michelangelo was invited into Lorenzo de Medici’s court in his early career as an

91

Paoletti and Radke, Renaissance Italy, 16.

Ibid., 227.

93 DeWald, Italian Painting, 325.

94 Ibid., 378, 391.

92

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artist, where he stayed until Lorenzo’s death in 1492, gaining him exposure to ancient sculpture, cameos, and coins.95 One instance confirming Michelangelo’s familiarity and involvement with Classical iconography can be found in his sculptural relief Battle of Lapiths and Centaurs , commissioned by the Medicis. Prior to his involvement with the Medici family, Michelangelo apprenticed as a painter for a short time under Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494), during which time he developed an affinity for the works of his forefather Masaccio.96 As he lived in Florence for so many years, Michelangelo would have seen the anguipede in Masolino’s Temptation in the Brancacci Chapel when he was studying Masaccio’s work. It is confirmed that Michelangelo saw Ghiberti’s bronze doors of the Baptistery, as it was he who gave them their nickname, when he said something along the lines of ‘these are truly worthy to be the gates of paradise.’97 Upon viewing these doors, Michelangelo’s keen eye undoubtedly would have noticed the anguipede Ghiberti covertly portrayed in the creation panel.

When Michelangelo was called to Rome by Pope Julius II (1443-1513) to paint the Sistine ceiling in 1508,98 he brought an anguipede with him. One of the central images on the ceiling depicts the fall of man and the expulsion from the Garden of Eden (Figure 9). The painting is composed of two halves - one half depicting the expulsion, while the other depicts the temptation, wherein the serpent is portrayed as an anguipede. The pope originally wanted the lives of the twelve apostles to be the main theme for the Sistine ceiling, but Michelangelo objected to this and was ultimately allowed to determine the subject matter himself, 99 warranting the representation of an anguipede. By studying his predecessors, Michelangelo was introduced to the portrayal of the anguipede as the serpent in temptation imagery; it is likely that he drew on these images when depicting his Sistine ophidian. As this scene was one of the central images on the chapel’s ceiling, it consequently brought the figure of the anguipede to the public’s attention in a much different way than Masolino or Ghiberti had. Here the anguipede ceases to be portrayed solely as a snake with a human face, and instead evolves into a serpent with the upper body of a woman, assuming more human-like attributes.

Although Michelangelo’s Temptation scene bears many differences from Masolino’s Temptation, the expulsion on the other half of his image reminds of Masaccio’s Expulsion in the Brancacci Chapel (Figure 10), attributing to the theory that Michelangelo drew inspiration from these frescoes. Masaccio’s Expulsion scene is highly emotive, with Adam and Eve appearing distraught and weak upon being forced out of the Garden. This same transformation can be seen in Michelangelo’s Fall fresco, with the juxtaposition of Adam and Eve before and after the fall depicted side by side. This supports the theory that Michelangelo drew inspiration from the Brancacci frescoes, and, by extent, Masolino’s anguipede.

95

Hartt and Wilkins, Italian Renaissance Art, 470-471.

DeWald, Italian Painting, 375.

97 Hartt and Wilkins, Italian Renaissance Art, 250.

98 Paoletti and Radke, Renaissance Italy, 402.

99 Ibid., 505.

96

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A contemporary to Michelangelo, Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520) painted an anguipede in one of his frescoes for the Palazzi Pontifici of the Vatican. “Born in Urbino, Raphael was brought up in its extraordinary atmosphere of literary, philosophical, and artistic culture and cosmopolitan elegance...and had access to the Montefeltro court and to the Palazzo Ducale, where the young Raphael could have seen works by Piero della Francesca, Botticelli, Uccello, etc..”100 On top of his progressive upbringing, Raphael spent about four years from 1504-1508 working as an artist in Florence,101 giving him the opportunity to see an anguipede in compositions like those of Ghiberti and Masolino’s ophidian works.

In his temptation fresco for the Palazzo Pontifici (Figure 11), Raphael depicts the a snake-human hybrid alongside Adam and Eve, another prime example of an anguipede being used to represent the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Like Michelangelo’s Sistine anguipede, Raphael’s anguipede has the upper body of a human woman. As this Adam and Eve scene is located in the Stanza della Segnatura, the same room where Raphael’s infamous Athens School of Philosophy is painted, the image warranted considerable exposure. The close proximity of Raphael’s Adam and Eve to his large murals portraying classical philosophers and deities hints at the association of Biblical figures with classical figures.

The Florentine notion of individualism and the subsequent rise in humanism explains why Florence, and, later, the rest of Italy, accepted a mythological being as representation of a Christian figure in the form of the anguipede as the serpent of the garden.

However, it does not explain how the image of the anguipede itself resurfaced in the Renaissance. It could be argued that the depiction of the serpent as an anguipede was simply thought up by artists of the time under the context of relating the ophidian to the viewer, but this is unlikely. Italian Renaissance artists often drew inspiration from antiquity and relied heavily on symbolism, implying that they would not have added human characteristics to the snake without reason.

Analysis of Literature Widely disregarded in the Middle Ages, Classical literature garnered more attention towards the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy.

Ancient Greek literature was of marginal concern or prevalence in Western Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire until the early years of the Renaissance, resulting in little circulation of texts.102 This was not the case for Constantinople and the Near East of Byzantium, however - throughout the Dark Ages of Europe, Constantinople remained a center of learning and housed a library where classical texts would have been compiled.103 Manuel Chrysoloras (1350-1415), a scholar from Constantinople, deserves a fair amount of credit in re-introducing literature from antiquity to Italy. Chrysoloras was the first Byzantine with any real philosophical culture to

100

Hartt and Wilkins, Italian Renaissance Art, 479.

DeWald, Italian Painting, 400.

102 Kilinski, Greek Myth, 57-58.

103 Ibid., 37-38.

101

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settle in Italy, and was asked to teach Greek literature at the University of Florence by the city’s chancellor.104 Prior to Chrysoloras’ tutelage, Greek mythology had scarcely been taught in Italy for over 500 years; Chrysoloras introduced the humanists of Florence to Classical literature like Hesiod’s Theogony, and was instrumental in making Florence a center for translation.105 One of Chrysoloras’ pupils was none other than Leonardo Bruni, who, as previously mentioned, was responsible for selecting the panel scenes for Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise. Chrysoloras would have taught Bruni about Greek mythology that had been preserved in ancient literature from Constantinople, influencing the incorporation of an anguipede in Ghiberti’s work. Works like the Theogony and Apollodorus’ Biblioteca were circulated in Italy during the Renaissance, and eventually were translated. It is through classical literature such as this that the anguipede was brought into the lense of the Renaissance artist.

Hesiod’s Theogony Hesiod’s Theogony is arguably one of the oldest surviving examples of written Greek poetry, widely believed to have been written in the 8th century BCE.106 The Theogony was not translated into Latin until 1474, but Chrysoloras is known to have taught Hesiod’s writings to his students in Florence, including Leonardo Bruni. This classical text provides scholars with insight into Greek mythology, and includes a “genealogy of dragons” that describes the great monsters Typhon and Echidna, known to be anguipedes.

There is little information on Echidna in surviving manuscripts, which is what makes the Theogony such a valuable source.

As told in the Theogony, Echidna is often referred to as the ‘mother of monsters,’ - she and Typhon parented ophidian terrors like the Chimera and the Lernean Hydra (mythological beasts with snake-like characteristics). This text describes Echidna as an immortal half nymph, half snake - the term ‘nymph’ denoting humanoid characteristics, confirming Echidna as an anguipede.

Typhon is described in the Theogony as being larger than mountains, with the muscular upper body of a man and an ophidian tail below the waist. Snakes often symbolized Earth, so it is fitting that this monster took on snake-like features, as Typhon was created by the Earth to defeat the Olympian gods.107 Congruently, Echidna was said to dwell underneath the earth, attributing to her ophidian characteristics.108

104

Antal, Florentine Painting, 105.

Ibid.

106 Stephanie Nelson and Richard Caldwell, Hesiod Theogony and Works and Days (Newburyport: Focus Publishing, 2009), 7.

107 Daniel Ogden, Dragons, Serpents, and Slayers in the Classical and Early Christian Worlds (New York City: Oxford University Press, 2013), 21.

108 Ibid., 14.

105

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Apollodorus’ Biblioteca The Biblioteca, or Library, is a collection of Greek myths and heroic legends, likely written between the first century BCE and the first or second centuries CE.109 Some scholars argue that the Biblioteca was written later because the first recorded mention of it comes from the 9th century CE.110 This, however, is unlikely, as there is no reference to or indication of Roman culture, which undoubtedly would have been recognized in Greece far before the 9th century.

Typhon and Echidna both appear within Apollodorus’ collection of myths. Surviving passages of the Biblioteca supply a description of Typhon’s appearance and the narrative of his origin, whereas Echidna is only briefly mentioned as no more than a vague name throughout the text. The birth of Typhon is recorded within this text: When the gods had overcome the giants, Earth, still more enraged, had intercourse with Tartarus and brought forth Typhon in Cilicia, a hybrid between man and beast. In size and strength he surpassed all of the offspring of Earth.

As far as the thighs he was of human shape and of such prodigious bulk that he out-topped all the mountains, and his head often brushed the stars...from the thighs downward he had a huge coil of vipers, which when drawn out, reached to his very head and emitted a loud hissing.

Although this description paints Typhon as being far more complex than a snake with a human face, it serves as an early record of the anguipede. The figure of Typhon in both the Theogony and the Biblioteca lends itself to the Renaissance conceptualization of the anguipede, providing artists with a model of inspiration that lead to the serpent of Eden being depicted with human features. The Biblioteca is composed of approximately two dozen incomplete manuscripts - 15th century copies and fragments of these manuscripts were located in the Vatican, Naples, Turin, and, most notably, in the Laurentian Library in Florence.111 The presence of the Biblioteca in Italy confirms that scholars of the day would have had access to the mythologies recorded within the text.

Ancient pagan texts like the Theogony were not the only literary sources that would have inspired the depiction of an anguipede in Christian art. With the dawn of the Renaissance and the development of grand, rich artistic commissions came the need for a shift in subject matter. Narratives from the Gospel were no longer satisfactory in the context of Renaissance art, so artists turned to the Apocrypha.112 Many Christian saints were foretold to have vanquished monsters like dragons and, in the case of St. Philip, Echidna.

The Acts of Philip are Greek apocryphal acts written circa 400 CE, prior to the fall of the Roman Empire, that recount narratives of the Apostle Philip’s evangelical conquests after Christ’s crucifixion.113 Soon after it was written, the book was omitted from official recognition by the Catholic Church. These acts are composed of numbered parts, and although there are parts lost to time, the majority

109

Keith Aldrich, The Library of Greek Mythology (Lawrence: Coronado Press, 1975), 1.

Ibid.

111 James Frazer, Apollodorus: The Library, v. 1 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1921), xxxiv-xxxv.

112 Antal, Florentine Painting, 139.

113 Ogden, Dragons, Serpents, and Slayers, 207.

110

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of what composes the Acts of Philip today was recently discovered in Greece at the Xenophatos Monastery in 1974.114 A shorter version that contains parts 1-9 was copied in the 11th century and preserved in the Vatican, under the title Vaticanus Graecus 824.115 In part 8 of Philip’s Acts, the apostle and his companions venture into a land ruled by “dragons” to the cities of Hierapolis and Opheorhymos in order to drive them away and to convert the people of the region to Christianity. Opheorhymos literally translates to ‘city of snakes,’ where, according to the text, the inhabitants worshipped Echidna.

Unlike the Theogony and the Biblioteca, Echidna is not the most important figure in relation to the depiction of anguipedes in Italian Renaissance art, as there is no evidence supporting whether or not she took the form of an anguipede, dragon, or something similar.

The significance of the Acts of Philip comes from the beginning of part eight, when Jesus addresses Philip’s companion and sister, Mariamne: And you yourself, Mariamne, change your dress and your look. Put off all appearance of being a woman, including the summer dress you are wearing. Do not let its fringe trail on the ground. Do not fold it up, but cut it off, and go with your brother Philip to the city called Opheorhymos, which signifies ‘Road of the Snakes.’ For the people of that city worship the mother of the snakes, the Echidna. Whenever you enter that city, if there is nothing female about your form, the snakes will see that you have nothing to do with the form of Eve. For the form of Eve is a woman, and Eve is of this same form. But the form of Adam is a man, and you know that a hatred of Eve arose for Adam from the beginning. This was the beginning of the snake’s war with man. The snake formed a friendship with the woman, and Adam was deceived by his wife, Eve. This passage directly links Eve to Echidna, giving reason for the serpent to appear as an anguipede in the Garden of Eden. This section states that if one assumes the form of a female, the snakes will know that they came from Eve; and that the snake formed a friendship with the woman. The context suggests that Mariamne’s female form is a liability that stems from the snake of Eden’s seduction of Eve.116 By putting Eve and Echidna in the same narrative, the author connects a Christian figure with a mythological monster. Anyone reading the Acts of Philip already familiar with the Theogony or Biblioteca would have made the association between Echidna as the human-like ophidian of mythology, and Echidna as the vaguely described dragon of Opheorhymos. This gives justification to the incorporation of anguipedes into Christian temptation scenes of the Italian Renaissance.

Conclusion Florence’s progressive attitudes towards individualism and humanism allowed for the depiction of an anguipede in the Garden of Eden to be an acceptable portrayal of the serpent. As was previously discussed, Medieval conventions likely would have had reservations about the depiction of a mythological figure in art, let alone in a Christian scene as a Biblical figure. In Florence, however, schools of thinking typically seen as new to the Renaissance were commonplace prior to the 15th century, providing the footing needed to move away from the representation of standard Christian figures and toward the creative inclusion of mythological beings.

114

Sheila McGinn, “Actes de l’apotre Philippe (review).” Journal of Early Christian Studies 7, no. 4 (1999): 620.

Ibid..

116 Ogden, Dragons, Serpents, and Slayers, 216.

115

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In bringing Classical knowledge to the city of Florence, Manuel Chrysoloras was able to teach Leonardo Bruni to celebrate antiquity, evident by the incorporation of an anguipede in the Gates of Paradise. Bruni’s education under Chrysoloras undoubtedly influenced his decisions when selecting scenes for these illustrious bronze doors. Without Bruni’s direction, the anguipede may have never made its way into the Gates of Paradise, an iconic Florentine work.

Access to Classical literature gave artists a completely untapped pool of mystical figures to draw inspiration from, demonstrated by representation of the anguipede and its inspiration from the mythological figures of Typhon and Echidna. It is no coincidence that artists like Botticelli painted figures from mythology in the same century that Masolino and Ghiberti portrayed an anguipede in the Garden. The Medici family played a large role in the advancement of artistic composition in Florence, seen in works like Botticelli’s Birth of Venus or Verrochio’s Putto, fostering the talent of young artists in coherence with the development of Florence’s progressive views. The use of mythological figures in Medici-commissioned art serves as additional evidence that Classical texts were used as references for artistic material, brought into the mainstream by the Medici after the rise of the humanists.

The Acts of Philip supply a text wherein Eve and Echidna are directly connected, explaining the typically feminine anguipede’s place as tempter of Man. Although the acts of Philip were not considered scripture by the Catholic church, the narratives in the text served as inspiration for the depiction of the snake of Eden as an anguipede.

Gaps in research stem from a lack of previous studies on the depiction of the human serpent in art. Some Italian images including anguipedes collected for this research were omitted from this paper due to stark amounts of information on the pieces and artists.

Future studies may attempt to find out more about these works and expand upon the topic of anguipedes in temptation scenes. Further evidence may be found by studying the circulation of Roman coins - some of which depict anguipedes - and examining the potential role of mystery plays in the evolution of the anguipede.

The Renaissance brought about a shift in thought, interest in studying Classical works, an improved idea of self, and was a milestone for the history of art. The emergence of anguipedes in art of the Italian Renaissance testifies to the revival of Classicism that began in Florence with the humanists. Anguipedes serve as a reflection of the revolution of thought that defined the Renaissance, providing insight into just how deeply Classicism influenced this period.

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Figure 1. The Winged Anguipede Typhon, ca. 620-590 BCE, Corinthian Black Figure Alabastron, Private Collection.

Figure 2. Adam & Eve, Late 13th century, Mosaic, Florence Baptistery, Florence.

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Figure 3. Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, 1425-1452, gilt bronze, Florence.

Figure 4. Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise - Creation Panel, 1425-1452, gilt bronze, Florence.

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Figure 5. Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise - Creation Panel (Detail), 1425-1452, gilt bronze, Florence.

Figure 6. Masolino da Panicale and Masacio, Frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel, fresco, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence.

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Figure 7. Masolino da Panicale, The Temptation, 1426-1427, fresco, Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence.

Figure 8. Andrea Mantenga, Madonna of Victory, 1496, Tempera on Canvas, the Louvre, Paris

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Figure 9. Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Fall, 1508-1512, fresco, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome.

Figure 10. Masaccio, Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, 1426-1427, fresco, Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence.

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Figure 11. Raphael Sanzio, Adam and Eve, 1509-1511, fresco, Stanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican, Rome.

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Bibliography Aldrich, Keith. The Library of Greek Mythology. Lawrence: Coronado Press, 1975.

Antal, Frederick. Florentine Painting and its Social Background. London: Kegan Paul, 1948.

Baron, Hans. In Search of Florentine Civic Humanism, vol. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988.

Cirlot, Juan. A Dictionary of Symbols. London: Routledge, 1971.

DeWald, Ernest. Italian Painting, 1200-1600. New York City: Holt, Rinehart, and Wilson Inc., 1961.

Frazer, James. Apollodorus: The Library, v. 1. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1921.

Grabar, Andre. The Great Centuries of Painting: Byzantine Painting. New York City: Skira, 1953.

Hall, James. Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. Boulder: Westview Press, 2008.

Hartt, Frederick and David Wilkinis. History of Italian Renaissance Art, 6th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006 Holmes, George. Florence, Rome and the Origins of the Renaissance. New York City: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Kilinski, Karl. Greek Myth and Western Art: The Presence of the Past. New York City: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

McGinn, Sheila. “Actes de l’apotre Philippe (review).” Journal of Early Christian Studies 7, no. 4 (1999).

Nelson, Stephanie and Richard Caldwell, Hesiod Theogony and Works and Days. Newburyport: Focus Publishing, 2009.

Ogden, Daniel. Dragons, Serpents, and Slayers in the Classical and Early Christian Worlds New York City: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Paoletti, John and Gary Radke. Art in Renaissance Italy, 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005.

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Act like a Scientist: Science Theater as a Creative Approach to Address Gender Disparity in STEM Careers

by Shannon Farrow sponsored by Professor Denise Gillman (Department of Theater and Dance)

Author Biography Shannon Farrow is a Fredericksburg native and a 2016 graduate of Christopher Newport, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Fine and Performing Arts with a concentration in Theater Performance and minored in Leadership Studies. She is currently earning her Master’s of Arts in Teaching for elementary education. Shannon proudly served three years as a Student Assistant Director for the Honors Program and enjoys recruiting and welcoming new Captains. As a student, artist, and future educator, she is interested in using the arts as a medium to teach across the curriculum and give voice to minority students. She is indebted to Denise Gillman, who introduced her to science plays and has facilitated her growth both as an actor and a scholar.

Abstract As science and technology drive the twenty-first century, it is imperative that women are not left running behind the train. Research shows that more than equality of opportunity is needed to encourage women to train for and work in STEM careers, especially those in physics, math, computer science, and engineering. Charol Shakeshaft reports that interest in science and science careers is equal between the sexes in elementary school, but by the time they graduate high school, boys are twice as likely to anticipate a career in science. Many approaches are being explored to address the dropoff in girls’ identification of themselves as future scientists, and this research recommends science theater as a creative approach to target girls. Plays written about female scientists present a dramatic problem and solution, show real science in abstract and literal ways, and provide female role models. This research explores how exposure to plays written about female scientists of the 20th century can benefit middle and high school girls’ STEM education using the examples of plays written about Henrietta Leavitt, Rosalind Franklin, and Lise Mietner. Leavitt, Franklin, and Mietner all made influential discoveries which were in some way obscured in history, and the reclamation of their place in science history presents a special challenge and model for twenty-first century girls. This collaboration between the arts and sciences is mutually beneficial for the disciplines, as well as for the sexes.

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In the summer of 2015, the hashtag #distractinglysexy went viral on Twitter after Nobel Laureate Tim Hunt told an audience of scientists about “[his] trouble with girls: three things happen when they are in the lab—you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them they cry" (qtd. in Shaw n.pag.). This caused a surge of public interest for the problem of sex disparity in careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Two conflicting opinions plague this discussion.

First, there is now reasonable gender equity in the workforce. If you are worried about current parity or pay, just look at the record rate of women graduating from college and assuage your fears. The second, more insidious opinion offends on initial contact, but has been widely ingested. Women are less capable, less interested, and less well-suited for careers in STEM.

In truth, the workforce has been significantly transformed by women, but disparity persists between men and women in STEM careers in the United States. By 2018, 9 out of 10 of the fastest growing jobs will be in STEM fields, and STEM careers are some of the highest paying (Cooper & Heaverlo 27). Women have overtaken men in the percentage of bachelor’s degrees they earn, yet they earn 20% of the Bachelor’s degrees awarded in STEM (Hill, Corbet, & St. Rose xiv). Further, great disparity persists between fields. 70% of psychologists are female, as compared with 6% of mechanical engineers (Landivar n.p.). Liana Christin Landivar, using 2011 U.S. Census Data, reports the following: • • •

Women’s representation in STEM occupations has increased since the 1970s, but they remain significantly underrepresented in engineering and computer occupations, occupations that make up more than 80 percent of all STEM employment.

Women’s representation in computer occupations has declined since the 1990s.

Among science and engineering graduates, men are employed in a STEM occupation at twice the rate of women.

(Landivar n.p.)

Beyond the numbers, women continue to battle a “boys’ club” mentality, losing their work to men with the same or lesser qualifications, and having to accomplish more to get the same recognition (Hill, Corbett, & Rose 24). Dr. Anna DeJong, planetary physicist and professor at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia, reports that among her female colleagues, everyone has an anecdote about being treated differently than men in their profession. She shared a personal story from early in her career when she took work to a supervisor and was told as he gently slid it out of her hands, “Don’t worry your pretty head, and just let the big boys handle it.”

Both men and women hold explicit and implicit biases about women’s ability, interest, and place in STEM careers. Popular belief says girls are not wired for logic, spatial reasoning, and quantitative analysis to the extent that boys are (Hill, Corbett, & Rose 31). It works both ways—boys are stereotypically labelled less inherently gifted in language or social skills. Such stereotypes determine what parents, teachers, and guidance counselors expect of girls; and expectations predict achievement. Research on gender and achievement in STEM shows that the differences are sociological and contextual, not biological (Shakeshaft 75). According to Linn and Hyde, girls earn equitable grades in classes, but lower scores on science tests, often because of anxiety and implicit test bias (Shakeshaft 75).

Cooper and Heaverlo cite research which calls even these test score differences statistically insignificant (27). The tempting argument 60

that girls are less interested in math and science also proves to be largely sociologically constructed. We know that elementary school boys and girls are just as likely to say they are going to be scientists when they grow up, and by the time they graduate high school, boys are twice as likely as girls to report the same (Shakeshaft 74). Something happens throughout middle and high school to discourage girls from pursuing careers in STEM, and that process continues in university. Carol Shakeshaft, in “Reforming Science Education to Include Girls,” reviews the literature to discuss some of the factors which contribute to this phenomenon. Guidance counselors are more likely to dissuade girls from taking advanced science and math courses, and teachers often “teach helplessness” in labs by assuming that girls will be grossed out or need help from the instructor or boys in the class (Shakeshaft 76). Girls self-report acting less capable or more disgusted by science than they feel in order to appear more feminine (Shakeshaft 76). If, as some argue, women are less well-suited for careers in STEM, that can be remedied by changes in the workplace, and is in fact a function of a system set up by and for men. The fear of conflict between work and family discourages many women from continuing into STEM careers, and women are more likely to pursue them if they either know female scientists with children or are personally willing to wait into their thirties to have children (Shakeshaft 76). Women are more likely to choose careers in which they will work for social good, and the more that girls make the connection between social good and the work of scientists and engineers, the more likely they are to imagine themselves in such a career (Cooper & Heaverlo 35).

Issues and Solutions in Girls’ STEM Education Women have the ability and work ethic to succeed in the most competitive, innovative STEM careers, but they are still not represented equally with men. There are many ways to encourage girls throughout their education—both formal and social—and help them to envision themselves as scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. We need non-traditional methods to help girls view themselves as “science insiders” for whom there is unity between their concepts of themselves and scientists. In other words, we need to think outside the box to bust the “white man in a lab coat” image (Shakeshaft 76). First, studies show that the skills on which girls normally score lower than boys, such as mathematical reasoning and spatial skills, can be taught successfully with relative ease (Hill, Corbett, & Rose 54). Second, Cooper and Heaverlo found a significant positive correlation between confidence in problem-solving skills with interest in STEM. Collaborative, authentic problem-solving exercises engage girls and expand their grasp of what scientists and engineers do in the “real world.” This supports girls’ tendency to choose careers which make positive social change and serves as a reminder that all types of people and perspectives are necessary to tackle our world’s complex problems. The collaborative nature of problem-solving helps girls who are more emotionally intelligent thrive. For many, competition is an uncomfortable part of school and colors their understanding of success in math and science. Third, girls need role models that reflect their own dreams and plans. For many, that means their role models are involved in a STEM career while also having positive family relationships. Role models can be people girls know such as family members, friends, and community members, celebrities and even fictional characters.

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The process of viewing themselves as science insiders must begin early for girls. The pipeline for women scientists first clogs when girls are in middle school and tightens through high school and college. Thus, educators, parents, writers, media, and everyone who influences culture can share responsibility with scientists to broadcast messages which positively impact girls’ perceptions. I come to the problem of gender disparity in STEM careers not as a scientist, but as an actor, to advocate using theater as a stage for women scientists to be recognized and then influence young women. Theater possesses unique potential for transmitting complex messages to the public, and for theater to find its footing as a relevant art form in the digital age, it should do as it has always done: address social problems and offer both hope and an impetus to change. Artists were never meant to passively reflect a culture they do not condone, but rather to point out problems, stage ideals, and participate in solutions. If non-traditional methods are needed to empower girls because the status quo is unacceptable, then I propose science theater to artists, scientists, parents and educators as one step in changing what girls see. Science theater is not a solution; it is a positive change. It is one change to help break down imagined barriers between the arts and sciences and pave the way for gender equality in the American workforce.

Science Theater Science theater is an increasingly popular sub-genre in which plays often combine history and biography, science and metaphor, drama and comedy. Many practitioners seek to define science theater narrowly for artistic purposes, but for utilitarian purposes, the two essential criteria are whether the play is engaging and whether it clearly communicates the intended message. Carl Djerassi-poet, playwright, and Nobel Prize-winning scientist--has four criteria for a science play: Firstly, impeccable accuracy of the science described, or at least high probability of its existence, which clearly demarcates the borderline to science fiction; secondly, realistic depiction of the tribal community of scientists; thirdly, the science constitutes the narrative heart and bone of the play, dominates and determines the action, and fourthly, the play serves a didactic function by "teaching a lesson" of science to the audience.

(Zehelein 551) In this paper, science theater refers to plays which have as their subject scientists (real or invented), scientific discoveries or principles, or the scientific process. Plays from Bertolt Brecht’s Galileo to Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia to David Auburn’s Proof fit this broad definition.

The past decade has seen not only an increase in science plays, but in plays by female playwrights which explore and reclaim women scientists’ contributions to history. Recasting women from the past as science insiders and depicting the rich history of their struggle to gain education and access to satisfy their curiosity sends a powerful message to girls about their own potential to engage in the driving questions of our day. Here, I explore three strong examples of plays featuring women scientists of the twentieth-century— Silent Sky, a recent play by Lauren Gunderson; Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51, set to arrive on Broadway in the next year; and Robert Marc Friedman’s one-act tribute Remembering Miss Meitner—and we examine the ways in which biographical science plays about women can be used to enrich girls’ STEM education. Within the context of these three plays, the merits of science plays for providing

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context by their narrative, growing confidence by creating role models, and highlighting the importance of cooperation all come into focus.

Silent Sky Lauren Gunderson’s Silent Sky, which premiered at South Coast Repertory in 2011, tells the story of female computers working at the Harvard Observatory at the turn of the twentieth century, and centrally Henrietta Leavitt, who discovered the period-luminosity relation which enabled Edwin Hubble to measure the universe and settle the debate over whether the universe ends at the Milky Way. The play revolves around the relationship between Henrietta, a fiercely curious and focused scientist, and her fictional sister Margaret, a compassionate and loyal pianist and composer, and the things which connect and divide them—science and religion, math and music, work and home. It explicitly references Einstein’s 1905 theory of relativity and metaphorically depicts it with the motif of hearts which are “afar but not apart” through space and time. Gunderson writes, “The best scientific characters do all the things that make us human, not just the things that make us brilliant. So it is not enough for me to show you scientists doing science; I need to show you why they do it” (n.pag.). Leavitt undergoes the challenging search for fulfillment in her work and personal life, facing triumphs and failures that make her a strong role model for adolescent girls.

Silent Sky correlates to anchored instruction, a STEM education approach pioneered by John Bransford which engages girls by connecting content to application (Cooper & Heaverlo 27). This method is “anchored” in real-life situations for which students seek creative solutions by applying the facts and theories they have learned, thus integrating what have traditionally been taught as discrete facts with analysis and decision-making processes (Bransford et al. 119). Bransford, encouraging teachers to use audiovisual resources in anchored instruction, writes that, “Often, the ability to perceive moving, dynamic events facilitates comprehension” (Bransford et al. 124). Silent Sky dramatizes a complete anchored instruction process because it explores the story of a woman who must use her limited resources to find the solution to a complex question—the extent of the universe. The story does not end until her contemporaries have applied the period luminosity relation to solve the problem of how to measure the universe, so instead of being a discrete and forgettable discovery, her work is an integral part of the process of scientific progress. The abstract script of Sky calls for the use of modern technology such as slides, projections, and involved lighting as well as the astronomical tools used in the early 1900s to steep the audience in the ongoing event of discovery, as well as the Harvard observatory a century ago. Like the anchored instruction that Cooper and Heaverlo recommend, Silent Sky is “grounded in a story illustrated through visually-rich environments using technology” and in “a realistic event” in which “students take on different perspectives or roles to identify solutions” (28).

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Photograph 51 Anna Ziegler’s 2011 play Photograph 51 tells the story of the race to discover the structure of DNA which enables replication. Its protagonist is Rosalind Franklin, the chemist whose team first photographed the double helix structure and whose work was commandeered by Watson and Crick, her vital contribution largely unrecognized for the majority of the twentieth century. Franklin is a stark, severe character who finds it difficult to get respect or collaborate. Inversely from Leavitt in Silent Sky, which has only one male character, Franklin is the one woman surrounded by five men who form the rest of the cast. Ziegler’s major themes include competition in discovery and theory versus evidence. Photograph 51 is currently running in the West End and set to move to Broadway, with Nicole Kidman starring as Franklin.

A foundational argument for the role of science plays in STEM education is that female role models help girls to identify themselves as potential scientists. Yet by the playwright’s own admission, Rosalind Franklin is a prickly role model, and actors like Nicole Kidman may seem strange candidates to inspire girls toward science. To discover the benefit of seeing women scientists on stage, it is necessary to understand the complications with real-life role modelling. Many girls report that they are not interested in and do not consider themselves capable of the work required for STEM careers, and in these cases, female scientists can unintentionally “scare off” girls with their intelligence or the difficulty of their jobs. Yael Bamberger studied the effect of visiting a major technology and development company and attending presentations from female scientists on Israeli secondary schoolgirls (Bamberger 554). Those in the program actually reported more doubt afterward about their own ability to have a STEM career than did the control group.

Students reported that they were not smart enough or lacked the ability to have the type of career that the women they were introduced to had (Bamberger 557). This study does not prove that role modelling hurts girls’ chances of having STEM careers, but it does introduce two important considerations for how role modelling should be handled. First, Bamberger addresses the “whoa” factor which distances schoolgirls from female scientists and engineers—the familiar intimidation that results from being around someone much more intelligent and accomplished than yourself, and then trying to compare yourself to them. Second, Bamberger examines the critical role that teachers play in bridging the gap between professionals and students.

Girls in Bamberger’s study felt alienated and intimidated by the women role models they met and were unable to put themselves in these women’s place. Theater, however, invites participants to imagine themselves in the character’s shoes. The construct of a “play” gives freedom, as participants are detached from the need to impress. The seemingly passive role of an audience member actually gives each member the safety to imagine alongside the actors from their own seats. An actor does not have to be a brilliant scientist in order to learn and do science on stage. This is an in-between step for students watching, since likewise they do not need to be brilliant to follow the scientific plot. Even if they cannot imagine themselves solving the world’s energy crisis or hear themselves anywhere in a lecture on dark matter, they can “play along” with actors who are getting their hands dirty with science and, in many cases,

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explaining it as they do so. When girls hear from scientist role models, they hear the results of these scientists’ work, but when they watch science theater, they see the process. In the case of Photograph 51, audience members are invited to see the scientists try methods that do and do not yield answers as they watch Franklin’s crystallography and Watson and Crick’s modelling.

Simultaneously, they watch functional and dysfunctional teams interacting, thus viewing science as an interactive, connected experience, rather than a pursuit undertaken by a lone, odd man in a laboratory.

In the Baumberger study, the second major factor that caused girls to be cowed by the presentations of female engineers was the discreet nature of the experience. The girls were not prepared before the presentations, nor did they discuss the content afterward or have their questions answered. The presentations were not embedded in a lesson from their teachers, supported before the trip, or referenced after it (Bamberger 554). A more effective pedagogical approach is to build or call up background knowledge, “frontload” the new vocabulary that students will encounter, check for comprehension after the presentation, and give students the opportunity to ask and research their questions. Students were impressed and intimidated, but not inspired to find out more. A play holds part of the solution to this problem in its very structure, with historical science plays being an especially good example of this. Effective storytelling is clear and affecting, so for a science play to be successful the audience must be able to follow and connect to the plot. A historical science play includes exposition, context for the work or major discovery, and a three-dimensional understanding of the major players in history. Additionally, and no less critically, the Bamberger study should provide impetus to teachers to make learning meaningful for their students whether that is in science lessons, field trips, or science plays. Providing context for STEM instruction is crucial to make it meaningful for all students, particularly girls who benefit from relational patterns of thought. For example, Photograph 51 would provide excellent context for addressing VA SOL LS.12: The student will investigate and understand that organisms reproduce and transmit genetic information to new generations. Key concepts include a) the structure and role of DNA; e) genetic engineering and its applications; and f) historical contributions and significance of discoveries related to genetics” (“Science Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools”).

Remembering Miss Meitner Remembering Miss Meitner, a one-act play which premiered in Sweden in 2003, reclaims a place in history for Lise Meitner, a Jewish physicist who worked on nuclear fission alongside Otto Hahn in the 1930s. Its author, Robert Marc Friedman, is a renowned science historian and author of The Politics of Excellence: Behind the Nobel Prize in Science. In this, his first play, Meitner, Hahn—winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the discovery of nuclear fission— , and Manne Siegbahn—a member of the Nobel committee—look back at the events leading up to the discovery and the awarding of the prize, and Meitner sheds light on the injustices she faced as a Jewish woman. Meitner headed the lab that was researching nuclear fission at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute before she was forced to flee Germany, at which point Hahn took over the lab. The two continued to communicate for some time, but the length and extent of

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Meitner’s involvement in Hahn’s process is unclear. Hahn received sole credit for fission and by extension fission became a triumph of chemistry, not physics. The slight is now seen as one of the clearest in Nobel history, but the truth is complicated by many factors including an incomplete knowledge of the historical events even by Hahn, whose claims about what happened changed drastically over the course of his life and often run contrary to other accounts. The story is examined and debated by the three characters as though they are looking back from the grave at historians revising their narrative. This small play, using a minimal set and three actors, provides key insight into how science theater can help students explore cooperation and competition.

Cooperative activity, rather than competition, is effective for motivating and engaging many girls (Shakeshaft 78). This is not to say that girls’ competitive natures should be discouraged.. Competition among scientists is a major theme of many science plays, including Remembering Miss Meitner, and children need to learn to compete healthily. However, we know that many women have proficiency in conflict management and team formation, which are increasingly important skills in the connected twenty-first century science landscape where scientists are expected to collaborate closely with scientists in various disciplines, businesspeople, politicians, and the average citizen. Teachers should help students cultivate both the competitive and cooperative parts of their nature by facilitating opportunities to use and explore them, such as exposure to plays like Friedman’s.

Remembering Miss Meitner deals with competition, politics, and even corruption in the Nobel Prize organization after the fact, analyzing the situation from three valid points of view. The backwards-looking structure which one might expect from a historian helps audience members to look back on competition, showing the pros and cons, and begging the question “What should these characters have done instead?” Instead of avoiding competition, the play helps girls analyze it. In Meitner’s journey, she speaks up about how slighted she was, counters the men’s excuses, and in talking about her work, reclaims the joy she had in the original discoveries. It is hard to deny her role in fission’s discovery when she gives a soliloquy on the feeling of figuring out, on a snowy slope with Hahn’s letter in hand, just why barium molecules would come to exist from a uranium molecule. Joy overtakes her as she describes to a captive audience that not only are two lighter elements made when uranium is divided, but tremendous energy is released. Equally important to reclaiming Meitner’s credit for fission is reclaiming her relationship with Hahn, which was a productive partnership for many years between a physicist and a chemist. Friedman depicts the partnership between two scientists of different disciplines, as well as how they collaborate with Manne Siegbahn, here serving his public role as a member of the Nobel committee.

The play thus explores complex power dynamics between intellectual equals. Children often hear about cooperation but learn competition in classrooms, and both boys and girls need these two skills taught and practiced.

Beyond the form of Remembering Miss Meitner, the content is critical because history and science are on the chopping block in public schools. With a school’s success riding on math and reading test scores, science and social studies instruction are not much safer in

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our schools than the arts. When theater practitioners dramatize both scientists and science itself, they help fill the gaps in our education system. These gaps are especially pronounced in inner city schools, and thus a less broad, diverse, and preparatory curriculum is offered to many of our minority students. Teachers now need to embrace alternate forms of science education, especially one that, as demonstrated by Silent Sky, parallels good science instruction and can help surround students in the scientific process.

Friedman shows how this education extends beyond science to teach humanities: “Theatrical convention can be drawn upon to explore the complexity of a scientist’s emotional, intellectual, and moral makeup. Drama may well reside in scientists’ social, ethical, and professional dilemmas; in how they struggle for recognition, for resources, for arriving at new findings, and for gaining acceptance for these” (Friedman 202).

Production and Education Armed with the benefits, I propose some practical ways science theater can be integrated into STEM education. The target audience for this research includes educators, artists, and scientists. All are necessary and equal partners in our society, and the work of all would be required to revise the narrative told to America’s young women and men about scientists, reform STEM education, and ultimately resolve the gender disparity in STEM careers, using science theater and other approaches.

Educators are empowered to make many adjustments to give girls context, confidence, and cooperative learning experiences in their classrooms. However, they can also expand outside of the classroom by taking students to see science plays. With little time and high stakes for teachers, their instruction and experiences need to be highly focused to meet state standards. The Virginia Department of Education’s science standards of learning are based on nine goals, five of which science theater specifically supports: • • • • • •

Develop and use an experimental design in scientific inquiry.

Use the language of science to communicate understanding.

Experience the excitement of scientific discovery of the natural world through the collaborative quest for knowledge.

Make informed decisions regarding contemporary issues, taking into account the history of scientific discovery.

Develop scientific dispositions and habits of mind including curiosity, demand for verification, respect for logic and rational thinking, consideration of premises and consequences, respect for historical contributions, attention to accuracy and precision, and patience and persistence.

Explore science-related careers and interests.

(DOE Science Standards)

Teachers can use science plays as literary texts in class, secondary source documents for history lessons, inspiration for discussion on STEM careers, and active hooks for science content. They should partner with theaters and communicate about the resources that would be most useful for their students. Many theaters have staff that can focus on educational resources and create lessons around their shows, in order to equip and lift the burden off of teachers. Administrators should also reach out to theater groups that could bring shows, excerpts, or actors into their school building.

Inside the artistic community, playwrights now have a call to write excellent science plays. Photograph 51 is Broadway-bound because it is a masterfully written play, regardless of its content. Lauren Gunderson is expanding into science theater for youth, with

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plays such as A Short History of Nearly Everything, adapted from Bill Bryson’s bestselling book. Producers and directors should select science plays for the diverse and new audiences that they may target and the opportunity for social change. Arts administrators and dramaturgs serve a pivotal role here. Creating proactive connections between audiences and the material fills the gap that Bamberger identified between the scientists and girls’ current understanding and provides the context that all audiences need to convert their experience into meaning. At TheaterCNU, director Denise Gillman and Dr. Grace Godwin provide context and expand the educational opportunities through Salon Series accompanying science plays such as Karen Zacarias’ Legacy of Light and Gunderson’s Silent Sky. Salon talks are 30-40 minute lectures preceding each show that are free and advertised to the public, and which explore one element of the play in depth. Silent Sky salons were presented by professors in astronomy and physics, history, English, and art, an astronomy curator at the Virginia Living Museum, and the STEM education specialist at the Virginia Air and Space Center. Dr. Anna DeJong, a planetary physicist (and professor, wife, and mother), presented specifically on the need for female role models in science, and Dr. Laura Puaca lectured on the history of “women’s work” in science. Good arts administration can make the themes and purposes of the play more transparent as well as create a public forum. That invitation for public discourse is the next step in turning plays into educationally engaging events. Cast talk-backs and expert lectures could combine to create interdisciplinary roundtable discussions roundtable discussions taking place after matinees, in which the actors, scientists, and others, dialogue with the public about the issues in the show.

When actors participate in science plays, they have an opportunity to embrace a role beyond the one on the cast list, that of a science educator. Having the privilege of participating in the CNU production of Silent Sky, I studied Henrietta Leavitt’s life as I would for any historical role, but also the state of scientific knowledge before and after her time, the atmosphere in research environments like the Harvard Observatory, and I asked Dr. DeJong for connections between the big questions in astronomy for Leavitt and for modern day astrophysicists, in order to understand the role that Leavitt played in her society. Actors who embrace science learn and engage themselves so that they are able to accept the challenge to become role models and educators for those who see the play. What is more, by choosing this narrative, they promise to commit all of their craft to telling the story of science in a truthful and unified way, thus doing a huge service to a discipline that they should see themselves as integrally connected to, rather than in competition with.

Scientists are indispensable to this equation. Whether they are writing plays on their subject, advising artists on scientific accuracy and communication, or delivering lectures and participating in forum discussions, their work gives legitimacy to the art. Many artists are wary of those who invalidate their work or think of it as less important. However, many scientists and science teachers are searching for solutions to what they view as the problem of gender disparity in STEM. They are likely to embrace creative options, and artists need their help to build a body of evidence for the effectiveness of science theater.

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Many of us are defined not by one label, but by the unique way that we combine passions and roles to make our impact. Friedman, (a historian turned playwright) and Djerassi (scientist, poet, and playwright) are clear examples, but many of us combine disciplines in our daily lives. In our highly connected society, innovation requires interdisciplinarity. Scientists, artists, and educators break down barriers about what kind of person you have to be to engage in certain activities and careers when they are active partners working toward common goals, instead of competitors who devalue each other’s work. This is a vital paradigm shift that may result from the outward-focused pursuit of improving STEM education for girls. As disciplines and communities share their gifts toward a common goal, they are likely to discover the values and processes that make them effective collaborators, as well as effective agents for social change.

Sources Bamberger, Yael M. “Encouraging Girls into Science and Technology Using Feminine Role Models: Does this Work?” Journal of Science, Education, and Technology 23 (2014): pp. 549-61. Web. 3 Jan. 2016.

Bransford, John D., Robert D. Sherwood, Ted S. Hasselbring, Charles K. Kinzer, & Susan M. Williams. “Anchored Instruction: Why We Need it and How Technology Can Help.” Cognition, Education, and Multimedia: Ideas in High Technology. Eds. Don Nix & Rand J. Spiro. New York: Routledge (1990). 115-139. Print.

Cooper, Robyn, & Carol Heaverlo. “Problem Solving and Creativity and Design: What Influence Do They Have on Girls’ Interest in STEM Subject Areas?” American Journal of Engineering Education 4.1 (2013): pp. 27-38. JSTOR. 3 Jan. 2016.

DeJong, Anna. Personal interview. 26 Oct. 2015.

Friedman, Robert Marc. “‘Remembering Miss Meitner’: An attempt to forge history into drama.” Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 27.3 (2002): pp 202-10. JSTOR. 1 Aug. 2015.

Gunderson, Lauren. “Science Plays Come of Age.” The Scientist (2006), n.pag. Web. 1 Aug. 2015.

Hill, Catherine, Christianne Corbett, Andresse St. Rose. Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

Washington D.C.: AAUW, 2010. Print.

Landivar, Liana Christin. “Disparities in STEM Employment by Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin.” September 2013. Web. 1 Aug. 2015.

Shakeshaft, Charol. “Reforming Science Education to Include Girls.” Theory into Practice 34.1 (1995): pp 74-9. Web. 1 Aug. 2015.

Shaw, Claire. “#Distractinglysexy Twitter campaign mocks Tim Hunt's sexist comments.” The Guardian (11 Jun 2015). Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

“Science Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools.” Virginia Department of Education. VDOE, 2010. Web. 19 Apr 2016.

Zehelein, Eva-Sabine. “Staging Science with Albert Einstein.” DQR Studies in Literature 47 (2011): 551-66. JSTOR.

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America Divided: Impacts of Partisan Polarization on the Modern Political System

by Jordan Massey sponsored by Dr. John Camobreco (Department of Government)

Author Biography Jordan Massey graduated Cum Laude from Christopher Newport University in May of 2016. She is a graduate of the Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Leadership Program and also successfully completed the Service Distinction Program. During her time at CNU, Jordan was president of Pi Sigma Alpha the National Political Science Honor Society, Nu Kappa Epsilon, and also Club Italia. Massey hails from Spotsylvania, Virginia and plans on attending graduate school to complete a Ph.D in Political Science.

Abstract This paper examines the impact of partisan polarization on our modern political landscapes and questions the extent to which the mass public has been polarized. Through research of partisan voting behavior, as well as separating the general electorate from the more invested and involved political class. I determined that the American electorate has not become increasingly polarized along with political elites. The prevalence of asymmetric polarization by the Republican party, the erosion of policy constraining norms, as well as the perception of polarization by the American public has had a substantial impact on the modern system; slowing down the democratic process and creating more hostility between the two major parties. Factors such as media bias, party sorting, and decreased voter turnout have contributed to the appearance of a polarized electorate, but have no real bearing on an increasing ideological divide among the American public. This paper concludes that increasing partisan polarization has negatively impacted the political process but has not caused the public to polarize as well. In addition, I offer possible solutions to the problem of partisan polarization, such as the re-establishment of policy constraining norms, the institution of meaningful re-districting reform, and the reforming of Congressional primaries.

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I.

Introduction and significance of polarization

The level of polarization in our modern political system is profound and undeniable. Since the 1960s, both the Democratic and Republican parties have become deeply divided on major issues, both social and economic. Although it is generally accepted that the parties, along with party elites, have become increasingly polarized, there is debate over whether or not the American public has done the same. This paper seeks to analyze the impact that the polarized political environment has had upon the ideological views of the American public and determine whether or not the American public is exhibiting evidence of ideological polarization. The research finds that although politically active Americans have become more polarized the American public at large has remained ideologically moderate and largely centrist on most major issues. Instead, partisan polarization of political elites, party activists, and strong partisan voters has created the appearance of a deeply divided electorate through party sorting, media perception, and voter turnout. Increased visibility of the political class and media attention paid to the engaged public have led to the perception of a public which is hopelessly divided along ideological lines.

II.

Literature Review

Much of the literature on political polarization comes from two prolific scholars: Morris Fiorina and Alan Abramowitz. Both authors have written extensively on the problem of polarization and have addressed the question of a growing ideologically-based political divide in the American public. While Fiorina acknowledges polarization in political elites and party activists his research finds that the public has remained as centrist as theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever been, However, Abramowitz offers a bottom-up theory of polarization which begins at the level of voters and works its way up to the elites.

In Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America (2009) Fiorina argues that the American public has maintained stable vote choices and moderate ideology despite the rise of polarization among political elites. In his work, he introduces the idea of a so-called political class made up political activists, lobbyists, party supporters, and the very engaged public. Fiorina claims that this section of the electorate, although a minority, receives a disproportionate amount of attention from the media and from elected officials because of their level of engagement. Fiorina concedes that these voters may, in fact, be increasingly polarized but that they are not representative of the American public as a whole. The average American voter is less engaged in the political process, and less educated about major issues and themes occurring in the political system to be as directly affected by polarization as the political class.

Taking an opposing view, in The Disappearing Center Abramowitz (2009) finds evidence of ideological polarization in average Americans. Abramowitz argues that the political class is highly responsive to engaged political groups and would only adopt extreme issue positions if they are being pressured to by voters. Rather than seeing the political class as a fixed group of voters who are

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predisposed to be more involved in the political process, Abramowitz claims that the size and makeup of this group can fluctuate over time and depending on the context of the election. A more expansive view of the political class which includes regular voters allows Abramowitz to find evidence of ideological polarization at the mass level.

In their publication, Political Behavior of the American Electorate, William Flanigan and Nancy Zingale (2015) provide evidence to show that the increasing levels of choice in the media has changed the way in which Americans interact with the media. More choice means that more people have access to media sources which echo and reinforce their worldview. When non-biased broadcast media was all that was available to the public it reinforced moderate views and ideology within the public. Decreasing viewership of these types of media prove that the American public is less interested in these types of reporting. Increased choice also means that those who are uninterested in politics have the ability to opt-out. This is leading to a significant knowledge gap within the American electorate which only furthers the appearance of polarization in the public.

In his book, Bowling Alone, published in 2000, Robert Putnam argues for a declining level of social capital, or the networks and relationships of people living and working in the same area, brought about by increasing levels of technology and reduced levels of interaction between people. Putnam (2000) also discusses the issue of increasing media choice which allows those who are not interested in politics to effectively opt-out of gaining political knowledge. Because a good section of the population can remain separate from the process, this means that the gap between the politically engaged and the non-politically engaged is ever-growing and is leading to decreasing social capital. Putnam’s work is extremely useful in examining the prevalence of ideological media and also in providing counterarguments. Putnam points to a theory called the “redistricting hypothesis” in which people sort themselves into increasingly ideological districts. This theory supports Abramowitz’s (2010) claim that polarization moves in a bottom-up fashion which begins with a polarized public. However, despite Putnam’s claim that the creation of ideological districts is fueled by the choices of individuals, the continuing problem of gerrymandering is an elite-driven rebuttal. Gerrymandering has also led to the creation of these ideological homogenous, or “landslide” districts, in a more direct and obvious way.

Suggestions for possible reforms in order to limit the effects of polarization were chronicled in Solutions to Political Polarization, edited by Nathaniel Persily (2015), which thoroughly compiled the research of other political scientists also studying the effects of polarization. The re-introduction of policy constraining norms, meaningful redistricting reform, and the reformation of congressional primaries all represent popular theories put forth by other political scientists studying polarization. Persily claims that each of these solutions could help to significantly reduce the negative impacts of polarization on our modern system.

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Since there is still a significant amount of disagreement within the field over the effect of polarization on the mass public, it is crucial to understand what ideological changes, if any, are happening in the public. By examining arguments and evidence used by both sides of the debate, this research seeks to reconcile the differences and add to the existing literature on the study of polarization. It is important to more conclusively determine the changes occurring the American public so that we can analyze the effect it has on our democracy as a whole.

III.

Research Methods

In order to conduct this research, I sought to examine the levels of party sorting over time, the rise in popularity and availability of ideological media in recent decades, and the levels of voter turnout in both congressional and presidential elections.

Party sorting has been well researched, and a tremendous amount of data exists to support the claims of theorists like Fiorina. The Pew Research Center has conducted multiple studies in which they analyze the levels of party sorting over time and document the increasing movement of the American public into one of the two camps. In 2014, their study â&#x20AC;&#x153;Political Polarization and the American Public,â&#x20AC;? provided numerous data sets on party sorting, which are used in this paper as evidence that the phenomenon of party sorting exists, and is creating the appearance of polarization by affecting the partisan and policy preferences of voters. Party sorting is one of the strongest factors in creating the appearance of polarization, and plays a vital role in disproving the argument that Americans have become more polarized.

The rise in popularity of ideological media coverage has resulted from a number of factors, including the development of new technology. The Pew Research Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s study on media in 2011 showed the decreasing viewership of non-biased broadcast media over the last decade. Simultaneously, the amount and popularity of channels like FOX News and MSNBC have shown that the public has flocked to more ideological forms of media coverage. One reason for this movement towards these types of channels is increased level of choice for the American public. By examining the sheer number and variety of media sources, it becomes evident that the American public are faced with more options than ever before.

Finally, levels of voter turnout are easily accessible by using data collected from both exit polls and from individual surveys. Over time, turnout in presidential elections has been decreasing, while turnout levels for second-order elections have become abysmal. With so few people participating in the political process, it raises the question of whether or not these exit polls and surveys provide researchers with an accurate representation of the feelings of the electorate as a whole. This research found that those who consistently turn out to vote represent a small minority of the population who are very politically engaged, and that their political leanings do not

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necessarily reflect the feelings of the public. Because of their increased political engagement, these voters have been more affected by polarization in the modern system and their views and opinions reflect that.

IV.

Findings

Through an examination of the effects of party sorting, the prevalence of ideological media coverage, and voter turnout rates I have concluded that the American public has remained largely ideologically moderate. Although the aforementioned factors cause the appearance of a polarized public, they do not lend to an actual ideological divide. As evidenced by a study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2014, polarization is much more distinct among the politically engaged and has had relatively minor effects among the less engaged over time. Because the majority of the American electorate are classified as less politically engaged, this study shows evidence that the American public, as a whole, has not seen polarization proportional to that of the political elites.

Figure 1. Pew Research Center, Political Polarization in the American Public 2014

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Perceptions of polarization in the public are commonplace and are propagated by several different factors which influence our view of public ideology. Although the American public has remained largely centrist on most major issues, this is not reflected in the media or in vote choices. This has mainly to do with the rampant misrepresentation of the American public in both the national media and in voter surveys. A distinction must be made between the American public and what Fiorina calls the “political class”. Activists, along with officeholders, interest group leaders, and political infotainers are all a part of what Fiorina terms a “political class”. By replacing the term “elite” and making the definition more expansive, he is able to capture the sections of population which are nonrepresentative of the American public as a whole. He claims that there is no doubt that the political class is polarized and genuinely so.

However, he does claim that some polarization among typical party elites and candidates is strictly strategic in order to gain votes.

Because this entire class of politically engaged individuals is not considered “normal” as far as their engagement in the political process, they skew our perception of the public as whole. In a 2004 survey of both Democrats and Republicans, both party identifiers and party delegates were asked questions about their issue positions. The difference between the answers was then calculated to determine the difference between Republican and Democratic answers. This study found that the delegate differences were significantly higher than the identifier differences on every issue. On the issue of whether the government should do more to solve problems, delegates rated 72 percentage points apart whereas the identifiers were only 13 percentage points apart. This stark divide between party identifiers and the political class demonstrates the importance of distinguishing the majority of the American population from the highly politically engaged. As Fiorina writes, “it is a mistake to assume that what is true for a fraction of Americans who are politically active also holds true for the great preponderance of us” (Fiorina 2005).

Several different factors promote the appearance of public polarization, but all are non-representative of the American public as a whole. Firstly, the phenomenon of party sorting creates the appearance of polarization because it strengthens the link between party affiliation and issue preferences. However, that alone does not prove that the American public has become more ideologically distinct, only that those who identify with a particular party are more likely to choose the “correct” positions to take on certain issues which align with that party’s beliefs. Secondly, there is media perception which places a great amount of attention on the political class and does not account for the increased amount of choice Americans have in their media preferences. Finally, even voter turnout can create the appearance of public polarization by showing the public is more entrenched in their vote choices. But only a small proportion of the population even turns out to vote in the majority of elections, so the sample is not representative of the public as whole.

V.

Party Sorting

Party sorting plays a distinct role in creating the appearance of political polarization. This term refers to process by which people who identify with a particular ideology align with the political party which best represents and matches their world view. Today, there is a stronger link between party affiliation and ideology than in the past, and it is this link that Fiorina points to in order to explain what 75

appears to be polarization. In our modern system, individuals who identify as “Liberal” have sorted mainly into the Democratic Party, while those who identify as “Conservative” have sorted into the Republican party. However, this has not always been the case.

The Civil Rights realignment, beginning in the 1960s, was a major change from the New Deal System which had dominated American politics since the 1930s. During this time period, the American public was largely disillusioned with the political system and voter turnout dropped dramatically. The voting populous was younger, unmarried, and had more access to education than ever before, but they simply stopped showing up to the polls. People became more independent and Civil Rights issues rose to the forefront of political discourse. One of the most prominent issues in this time period was the Vietnam War, which was highly unpopular among most Americans. As a result of the outcry against this war, Democrats shifted away from their militaristic approach and became known as a party of pacifists and negotiators. This was an important shift for the Democrats because it also caused them to shift away from Marxist viewpoints in favor of a more multiculturalist approach. Multiculturalism is the idea that people of all cultures, societies, and backgrounds should be treated with equal respect in society. Similarly, the Republican Party also underwent dramatic changes. The signing of the Civil Rights act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 caused tension among Republicans, especially in the South where racist attitudes were common. This shift created an increasingly homogenous ideology which aligned closely with conservatism. The Civil Rights realignment is largely responsible for the increase in partisanship, and the beginnings of a larger divide between the parties based solely on ideology. This clearer ideological divide between the positions of the two parties opened the door for individuals to sort themselves based on their own personal ideologies.

According to Fiorina, Americans aren’t becoming more polarized, but are simply better sorted than ever before (Fiorina 2005). This statement is also supported by data released by the Pew Research Center in 2014 which showed that those who identify as either Republicans or Democrats are also very likely to hold beliefs and positions which closely align with the ideology of that party.

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Figure 2. Pew Research Center, Political Polarization in the American Public 2014

Since 1994, partisans have become more and more likely to hold the ideology of the party they identify with. However, this does not necessarily mean that the American public as a whole is polarized. Fiorina claims that the polarization of party elites can give the appearance of a polarized public even if vote choices remain stable (Fiorina 2005). Studies done by the Pew Research Center show that from 1968 to 2008, the standard deviation or spread of public ideology did not change significantly. The only noticeable difference were the scores for both parties, which had moved significantly away from the center. Voters remain centrist, as they have always been, but the parties continue to polarize away from the ideological center.

Party sorting is a real and significant phenomenon which could play a role in the electing of our representatives, but is not definitive proof of ideological polarization. Partisans and members of the political class have become more distinct, and the numbers of conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans have dwindled, but this is not because moderates are disappearing. It is simply that those who identify with a party today are more likely to identify with, as Fiorina puts it, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;correctâ&#x20AC;? ideology of that party (Fiorina 2005).

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VI.

Media perception

The media has come to play an increasingly important role in the political process over time, and with the development of new technology, people can keep up with the news more than ever before. Voters today have more access to media coverage of important events, candidate races, and elected officials than ever before, and this has had a distinct impact on the way in which Americans view the political process as a whole. The importance of the media in influencing voters and providing information cannot be overlooked when analyzing the impacts of polarization.

Media has the ability to create the perception of polarization in a number of ways. Firstly, major outlets, which cover the national agenda, are specifically targeting the political class and creating a biased perception of the public. When interviewing about political issues, journalists tend to focus on elected officials, career politicians, and other members of the political class (Fiorina 2005). Even when covering grassroots movements outside of the confines of the political jungle, journalists tend to come into contact with political activists and strong party identifiers. Fiorina claims that this biased exposure causes the media to portray the American public in a way that is unrepresentative of the population as a whole. By giving undue attention to extremists on either side of the spectrum, the media has created a false perception of the American public as a deeply divided and polarized constituency.

Development of new technology in the modern era has changed the way that Americans interact with the media as a whole. Today, the average viewer has more choices than ever before. Most Americans now rely on the internet for their main source of news information. This is consistent with the drop in viewership of major news channels in recent years (Flanigan & Zingale 2008).

Figure 3. Pew Research Center, Media Study 2011 78

Another significant change is the decline in non-ideological broadcast reporting. In the past, when there were only one or two major news networks, reporting tended to remain non-biased, moderate, and objective. This was the best way to appeal to the largest number of viewers. However, in the modern media, ideological news reporting is much more commonplace and more popular among those who choose to watch the news.

Increased levels of choice also mean that it is easier for those who enjoy watching the news to find the information they want, but it also easier for people who do not enjoy watching the news to opt out. During the 1950s and 1960s, when there were only a few channels available to the average American, even those who were not interested in politics, but watched television gained knowledge through by-product learning. Exposure to this moderate reporting style led to more moderate public opinions and a generally centrist electorate (Flanigan & Zingale 2008). The increased popularity of channels such as FOX News and MSNBC means that people who are interested in politics can easily find a news network which aligns with their ideological preferences. These types of Red versus Blue media can perpetuate a more deeply divided and polarized public, but in actuality it is simply a product of increased media choice by the already politically engaged.

VII.

Voter turnout

The issue with polarization, as Fiorina points out, is that as the elites become more polarized, it turns off the more centrist and moderate sections of population, which makes them even less likely to become engaged in the political process. With party elites and the political class already catering to base voters, it encourages a positive feedback loop in which the political class continues to polarize, while the rest of the American electorate becomes separated from the process. Most Americans are not well educated about politics, and remain uninformed on a majority of public issues. This general disinterest in the political process is a driving factor for low voter-turnout rates, and a reason that their views are not as strongly held. 40-60% of Americans on average simply do not participate in elections, and remain separate from the political process. Of the 200 million Americans who are eligible to vote, nearly 80 million of them simply do not show up to the polls in any given election.

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Figure 4. Pew Research Center, Voter Turnout Report 2012

However, the voters that do consistently turn out on Election Day are the same strong identifiers and members of the political class who receive undue attention in the media, and who shift our view of public polarization. Since these voters are reliable, they are the ones who receive attention from representatives. It is this section of the population who plays a large role in determining whether or not a candidate remains in office, and so candidates and elected officials show special attention to their interests. This means that even election polling data misrepresents the American people in terms of vote choice. Elections are a popular time for political scientists to gather data on party affiliation and vote choice on the candidates and issues of the time. However, if only members of the political class and strong party identifiers come to the polls on Election Day, then only their data can be collected which can create the appearance of a divided electorate.

Party affiliation plays a large role in determining polarization among the American public. One of the most reliable sources of information about party affiliation is self-identification. In a survey, people were asked to identify as either Democrat, Republican, or Independent. Data released by the Pew Research Center in 2014 shows that nearly 40% of people polled identified as Independents, more than at any other time in history.

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Figure 5. Pew Research Center, Political Polarization in the American Public 2014

This change is important because the term “Independent” is representative of people choosing to identify outside of the current party system. Independent identifiers can be broken down into one of three groups. Firstly, there are those who know very little about politics and do not care. Secondly, there are those who dislike the current political system, and avoid party membership. Finally, the last group of Independents are “leaners”. Leaners refer to those identifiers who classify themselves as independents, but who usually lean towards a particular party during elections. Each group shares the commonality of purposefully selecting out of the current party system either because of general distaste, or because they feel their views are not represented by either party.

In addition to this rise in Independents, the number of Democratic and Republican identifiers has been on a steady downward trend over the last five years. The Pew Research center shows that the number of individuals who self-identify as members of either party

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has been steadily decreasing. In Culture War, Morris Fiorina claims that the electorate, “refuse to make firm commitments to parties, politicians, and policies” (Fiorina 2005). This general trend of the American public to actively identify outside of the political system is a symptom of frustration with the actions of the two major parties.

However, it is impossible to make sense of what is fueling modern day polarization and in which direction it is flowing. Fiorina suggests the theory of elite polarization, which claims that as the elites become more polarized, so do the voting members of their party. This approach is based on a top-down movement of influence with political elites being the ones who caused polarization among the public.

Some political scientists have pointed to the flaws in this theory. Firstly, it does not take into account the basic social and economic changes in American society. The decline in traditional values, increasing diversity, and economic inequality all represent major changes to the American public as a whole, which could have led to the increase in polarization (Abramowitz 2008). Some, like Abramowitz, theorize a bottom-up approach in which voters have become more polarized and, in turn, elect representatives who best reflect this. However, it seems that neither one of these models truly reflects the causes of ideology. In unpublished research, Dr. Rachel Bitecofer claims that the movement of influence when it comes to the causes of polarization is impossible to single out.

Pressure is coming from all sides, causing the parties to shift further apart, and causing the public to do the same (Bitecofer 2015).

VIII.

Counter Arguments

There are those who claim that the public has become increasingly polarized along with parties and party elites. Alan Abramowitz is a well-known political scientist who has written extensively on the issue of polarization in the American public. In his book, The Disappearing Center, Abramowitz also discusses the importance of the political class in understanding political polarization.

However, he calls this group the “engaged public,” and says that this group is crucial to American politics, because they represent the segment of the public who cares about politics and the actions of politicians. Abramowitz also claims that the engaged public can fluctuate, increasing during presidential elections and decreasing during congressional midterms. Candidates and elected officials do pay disproportionate attention to this section of the electorate because of their engagement in the political process, but Abramowitz says there is no disconnect between the political elites and the public.

The importance of party identification is another piece of evidence that Abramowitz points to in order to prove that the public has become more polarized. There is a significant amount of evidence which points to the fact that simply by knowing a person’s party affiliation, one can accurately predict their vote choice in an election. Due to the increasing connection between party affiliation and ideology, this measure has become more significant. People today are more likely to vote along party lines than ever before (Passal 82

and Cohn 2014). He claims that party sorting has a good deal to do with this as well. However, his view of party sorting is as a necessary condition for polarization and is closely tied to the idea of the public becoming more ideologically extreme. By separating themselves firmly into the two major parties, people are becoming more ideological based on the preferences and worldviews of the party they identify with. However, there is little evidence to support the theory that party sorting necessarily leads to polarization.

Additionally, the importance of party identification in vote choice is most prominent amongst the engaged sections of the public. An increasingly large section of the American public simply does not vote in most elections, and so their personal affiliation with either party is not relevant.

Another piece of evidence Abramowitz uses to prove public polarization is known as the “Re-districting hypothesis.” Developed by Robert Putnam, in his book Bowling Alone, this theory claims that the American public has begun to group themselves into increasingly ideological geographic areas. Grouping people of a homogenous ideology in one area has the effect of creating uncompetitive districts in which one party would have a distinct advantage (Putnam 2000). These types of districts are not uncommon, and can be seen clearly in congressional electoral maps. Abramowitz claims that “younger, unmarried individuals who tend to have liberal political attitudes generally cluster in larger cities and their inner suburbs while married couples with children who tend to have more conservative political attitudes generally cluster in the outer suburbs” (Abramowitz 2010). These districts are examples of a bottom-up theory, in which the voters themselves are polarized, and then elect representatives who must cater to their ideology, thus creating a more polarized Congress. This effect is amplified in Republican districts because the party is already so socially and ethnically homogenous. The website GovTrack rates representatives in Congress based on ideology and then places them on a liberalconservative spectrum. From this data, it is clear to see that representatives who come from uncompetitive, clear majority party districts rate as more ideologically extreme than those whose districts have voters from both parties (Tauberer 2012).

However, re-districting may not be the only cause of uncompetitive majority districts. Gerrymandering continues to be a source of problems for voters who live in these unfairly drawn districts. The act of gerrymandering is the process by which district lines are drawn to single out certain types of voters or to purposefully benefit a particular party. In districts like these, candidates of a certain party have an unfair advantage when it comes to the types of voters in that district. In cases such as these, polarization is moving topdown and is not representative of all the people living in a particular area. Districts which are misrepresented in this way can appear to be polarized because of voter choice, but could be unfairly represented by their own district. Gerrymandering continues to be a problem for many districts in the U.S. and is another example of how partisan polarization has had a negative impact on our modern political system.

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Representatives who come from divided districts with large amounts of voters from both parties must try and be more ideologically centrist and support bi-partisan legislation. However, the effect is slightly dulled by the issue of voter turnout as previously discussed.

If only the ideologically extreme turn up to the polls, then those are the voters that the representative will be most likely to respond to.

Putnam also addresses the problem of voter turnout in his work by pointing to an American society which is becoming increasingly individualistic, and less reliant on communities. He claims that in the 1950s and 1960s people were highly connected to their neighbors and their communities, but with the advancement of modern technology keeping people indoors, we have become less defined by our connections (Putnam 2000). This lack of connection to oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s community is a well-known and popularly accepted cause of low voter turnout (Flanigan and Zingale 2008). If one does not feel invested as a member of their community and has low levels of trust for both the government and other people, they will be less likely to vote.

IX.

Significance of polarization

The significance of polarization of the American political system lies in its negative impact on the political process as a whole. Firstly, asymmetric polarization has been shown by numerous political scientists and researchers including Dr. Henry Brady, a prominent statistician in the field of political science. Dr. Brady presented his research on the divides between the Democratic and Republican party at UC Berkeley in 2012 and used statistical analysis to prove the existence of asymmetric polarization. By analyzing the membership of both parties, Brady claims that the Republicans represent a much more homogenous grouping of supporters than do the Democrats (Brady 2012). Because the Democrat party represents a much more diverse set of demographic groups ranging in both education and income, the party must remain closer to ideological center in order to appeal to the median voter. This is not to say that the Democratic party has not polarized over time, but that their movement away from center has been more modest (Brady 2012).

In the table below, Dr. Rachel Bitecofer presents the ideological distribution of both the 113th House and Senate using DW-Nominate scores (Bitecofer 2015). It is clear to see that the average distribution of the Republican party is further from the ideological center than the Democratic party. This distinct difference in the average ideological score is clear evidence of an unequally polarized system.

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Figure 6. Bitecofer 2015

Secondly, the erosion of policy constraining norms within the political system can be exemplified by the actions of legislators in our governing bodies. The rise of incivility is a by-product of this modern era wherein there are few social norms still limiting the actions and remarks of legislators. Fiorina claims that in the past, electoral pressures constrained elected officials from expressing their own extreme preferences, but this has changed over time. The erosion of policy-constraining norms which limit what is acceptable rhetoric within the political process has a lot to do with this as well (Persily 2015). Effects include incivility, a rise in recall elections, middecade redistricting, and voter suppressions tactics. This erosion has increased over time and left very little in the way of constraint of parties and politicians. Lack of constraint, coupled with a lack of punishment for extreme ideologies, has led to a large increase in the amount of polarization. Voters are less willing to punish politicians for moving away from the center if it is perceived that the opposition is doing the same in equal amounts (Persily 2015).

The gridlock which exists in Congress today is largely a by-product of hyperpartisanship wherein each party lacks internal divisions but are sharply divided against those in the opposition. Under our electoral system, this hyperpartisanship means that a party in Congress can prevent an opposing president from completing his or her agenda and enact legislative roadblocks in order to slow down the process. Parties need not be in the majority in order to affect the passage of legislation. If a party has enough seats in either house they can block motions made by the majority party through congressional veto powers such as filibustering. Legislators are so fiercely loyal to their party, and to the ideological preferences of that party, that compromise is viewed as outside of the norm. This gridlock has led to decreasing approval ratings for Congress as an institution as evidenced by the research gathered by GALLUP.

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Figure 7. GALLUP Congressional Approval Poll 2016

However, the more profound impact of polarization on our current system is the effect that it has on voter turnout rates. Perceptions of polarization as perpetuated by the media with the heightened visibility of the political class paint a picture which is unrepresentative of moderate America. In the United States, voter turnout rates are already extremely low compared to other industrialized democracies, and in recent years they have continued to fall. These lower rates of voter turnout can be attributed to decreasing trust and low levels of voter satisfaction with the government (McCarty 2008). Polarization in our current system is alienating a majority of moderate Americans, and is hindering our legislative process in its ability to be effective. A lack of connection, coupled with dissatisfaction with Congressâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to pass legislation means less and less people will turn up to cast their ballots.

X.

Solutions to Polarization

Political scientists generally agree that increasing partisan polarization poses a threat to the political process. The alienation of moderate voters, increased gridlock in the legislative process, and the prominence of gerrymandered, non-representative districts causes concern that this divide is hindering our democracy. Some possible solutions to partisan polarization include, the reestablishment of policy constraining norms, the institution of redistricting reform, and the reformation of congressional primaries.

As previously stated, the erosion of policy constraining norms between the political parties has led to increased amounts of incivility and gridlock within Congress. The reestablishment of policy constraining norms is crucial to being able to engage in civil discourse within the legislature. Moderate representatives who work toward compromise should be rewarded by their party and voters in order to encourage such behavior. By incentivizing moderate behavior and ideology, the reestablishment of these norms becomes possible.

This would be especially helpful for the Republican Party where polarization is most extreme and where more extreme conservative

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groups, like the Tea Party, have gained prominence. However, in order for such norms to be reinstated, the American public must engage in the political process in order to make their voices heard.

Gerrymandering continues to be a major source of partisan polarization affecting the general public. The most obvious reform that could be made to help ease the problem of gerrymandering would be to take the districting power away from the partisan legislature and place it in the hands of non-partisan commissions. By eliminating an obvious source of bias, districts have the opportunity to be drawn more fairly. Some states already employ this model, but it is not widely used.

Congressional primaries are notorious for the low amounts of voter turnout that they draw, especially in off-year elections. During offyears, turnout rates hover somewhere around 38% nationwide. One possible reform for our primary system would be the abolishment of closed primaries. Closed primaries require that a person be a registered member of the party for the primary they wish to participate in, and are utilized in 30 out of the 50 states currently. This lowers voter turnout because a majority of Americans are not registered members of the party they prefer. Additionally, the rising number of independents participating in the political process can feel isolated by registration requirements and lead to even lower voter turnouts for moderate voters. By requiring open primaries, wherein voters do not have to register with either party in order to request to participate in their primary, voter turnout could be increased and more people would become involved in the process.

XI.

Analysis and Conclusion

In conclusion, although the American public has remained ideologically moderate and largely centrist on most major issues, partisan polarization has created the appearance of a deeply divided American electorate through media perception, party sorting, and voter turnout. Partisan polarization, beginning in the 1960s and 1970s has led to an increasing ideological divide between the two major parties in the United States and caused many problems in the modern political system. The erosion of policy constraining norms has led to incivility and gridlock within the legislative process. This gridlock along with the hostility between the parties has led to frustration within the American electorate and has caused them to become disillusioned with the political process as a whole. As moderate Americans become less engaged with politics, voter turnout rates drop and only the voices of the ideologically extreme minorities are heard. Since this minority are those most likely to vote consistently, political elites are more likely to respond to their views. All of these factors play into the appearance of polarization in the public but do not truly reflect the views or ideology of the public as whole. It is important to understand that all the factors which cause the appearance of public polarization also drive partisan polarization to a large extent. Each one of these factors influences the others and enhances their effect on the political process.

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Overall, partisan polarization has had major effects on our modern political system and has created the appearance of a divided electorate as well. However, the American public has remained largely moderate and centrist in their political positions, as well as becoming more disconnected from the political process as a whole. In order to combat the negative effects of polarization constraining norms must be reestablished, redistricting reform must be enacted, and reforms to congressional primaries must promote voter turnout.

By encouraging involvement in the political system, the American public can be more effectively represented and the effects of partisan polarization can be limited.

Works Cited Abramowitz, Alan. 2010. The Disappearing Center: Engages Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Abramowitz, Alan and Saunders, Kyle. 2008. “Is Polarization a Myth?” The Journal of Politics 70 (April): 542-555.

Bitecofer, Rachel. 2015. “Polarization in U.S Presidential Nomination Campaigns.” Ph.D diss. University of Georgia.

Bitecofer, R., Figure 6. 2015. Ideological Distribution of the 113th House and Senate. Polarization in U.S Presidential Nomination Campaigns.

Brady, Henry. 2012. Elections and Governing in an Age of Political Polarization, presented at the International House, UC Berkeley, November 2012.

Bush, Vanessa. 2005. “The United States of America: Polarization, fracturing, and our future.” The Booklist 8 (October) 288-95.

Flanigan, William and Zingale, Nancy. 2015. Political Behavior of the American Electorate. Los Angeles: Sage.

Fiorina, Morris, Abrams, Samuel, and Pope, Jeremy. 2008. Culture War? Myth of a Polarized America. New York: Pearson.

Fiorina, Morris, Abrams, Samuel, and Pope, Jeremy. 2008. “Polarization in the American Public: Misconceptions and misreadings.”

The Journal of Politics 70 (April) 556-560.

Gallup, Figure 7. 2016. Do You Approve or Dissapprove of How Congress is Handling it’s Job? Congressional Approval Poll 2016.

Gallup, Washington, D.C. McCarty, Nolan, 2008. Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Passal, Jeffrey, Cohn, D’Vera. 2015. “A Deep Dive into Party Affiliation.” Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. http://www.people-press.org/2015/04/07/a-deep-dive-into-party-affiliation/ (September 29, 2015).

Persily, Nathaniel, ed. 2015. Solutions to Political Polarization in America. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Pew Research Center, Figure 1. 2014. Democrats and Republicans Are More Ideologically Divided Than in the Past. Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. Pew Research Center, Figure 2. 2014. More Democrats take Liberal Positions; More Republicans take Conservative Positions.

Political Polarization in the American Public. Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C.

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Pew Research Center, Figure 3. 2011. Evening News Audience Continues a 30-year Decline. Media Study. Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. Pew Research Center, Figure 4. 2012. When the Presidencyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Not at Stake, Fewer Voters Turn Out Report. Voter Study. Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. Pew Research Center, Figure 5. 2014. Share of Political Independents Continues to Increase. Political Polarization in the American Public. Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. Putnam, Robert. 2000. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of the American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Tauberer, Joshua. 2012. Observing the Unobservables in the U.S Congress, presented at Law Via the Internet 2012, Cornell Law School, October 2012.

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Driven Psycho: An Analysis of the Result of Sexual Intimacy on the Morality, Sanity, and Well-Being of Men and Women in Alfred Hitchcock Films

by Emma Oliver sponsored by Dr. Jean Filetti (Department of English)

Author Biography Emma Oliver is a 2016 graduate of Christopher Newport University with Bachelors of Arts in English and Spanish and a minor in Leadership Studies. While at CNU, she was awarded English Major with Distinction, Spanish Major with Departmental Honors, and the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Student Writing. She has previously been selected for publication in Kennesaw Tower Undergraduate Foreign Language Research Journal, Currents Literary Magazine, and Icarus Down. Along with writing, Emma loves to sing and can be found on iTunes with her a cappella group, The Newport Pearls. Following graduation, she looks forward to pursuing publication with her works of fiction and working at Walt Disney World as part of their college program.

Abstract All of Alfred Hitchcock’s leading ladies, apart from their matching blonde hair, share one thing: their weakness for and control over men. Through their mystery, allure, and sexuality, these women often exert an influence over men that drives them to insanity and subsequent violence, such as the murder of Marion Crane in Psycho. In submitting themselves to sexual intimacy to calm the wrath of their male counterparts, the women in Hitchcock’s films often part with their identity, their morality, and sometimes their lives, as in the case of Judy in Vertigo. In using Hegel’s master-slave dialectic to analyze the sexual relationships within Vertigo, Psycho, and Marnie, we see that sexual intimacy is a relationship that peaks with a life and death struggle for mastery. In this struggle, men often take the upper-hand, becoming the master within the power dynamic, as Mark Rutland in Marnie. This act reinforces the gender inequality within our society and poses the question of the intrinsic quality of disparity within sexually intimate relationships.

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Chosen Literature and Theoretical Lens Films To examine the nature of relationships between men and women, this essay will analyze three of Hitchcock’s later films: Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), and Marnie (1964).

Vertigo. Having retired from police detective work after witnessing the death of his partner, “Scottie” Ferguson agrees to take on a case for a friend in Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Charged with tailing Madeleine Elster, his client’s wife who is believed to be insane, Scottie develops affections for her through their interactions. Scottie is devastated when, convinced she is possessed by a deceased ancestor, Madeleine commits suicide, jumping from a tower. Believing his vertigo kept him from saving her, Scottie holds himself responsible for her death and suffers from intense depression before meeting a woman named Judy, who is Madeleine’s spitting image. Determined to bring back the woman he fell in love with, Scottie begins to dress Judy in the fashions Madeleine had worn, falling into obsession. Upon discovering Judy possesses a one-of-a-kind necklace that Madeleine had worn, Scottie realizes he has been duped and that Gavin Elster killed his wife and staged the suicide as an alibi with Scottie and Judy as accessories. Driven mad with anger, Scottie takes Judy to the tower Madeleine had supposedly thrown herself off of and drags her upstairs. Wracked with guilt, when a nun in black comes up behind Scottie, Judy jumps in fear and falls to her death.

Psycho. Marion Crane robs a client of her employer with the intent of running away with her lover, Sam Loomis, and makes a break for it down back roads in the famous masterpiece. Falling asleep at the wheel she pulls over at Bates Motel for the evening and meets Norman Bates, the polite but intense owner who offers her dinner and describes his tense relationship with his mother. Turning in for the night, Marion undresses in her room as Norman watches from a peep hole and enters her shower, where she is brutally stabbed to death minutes later. Discovering the body, Norman Bates places Marion and her belongings in the trunk of her own car and pushes it into the nearby swamp.

In the search for her sister, Lila Crane visits Sam for answers, and the two meet Arbogast, a private detective charged with finding Marion and the money. Upon discovering the Bates Motel and being denied a conversation with Norma Bates or “Mother” as Norman refers to her, Arbogast begins to search for her, resulting in his murder. When they do not receive an update from the detective, Lila and Sam visit the police and find out Norma Bates was killed in a murder-suicide with her lover ten years ago and take matters into their own hands, visiting the motel where Norman has now hidden his mother’s corpse. After a scuffle between Sam and Norman, Lila discovers the remains of Mother in the cellar and barely escapes murder at the hands of Norman dressed as his mother and wielding a butcher knife. The audience is informed that Norman killed his mother and her lover out of jealous and guiltily kept her remains, pretending she was still alive. In doing so he

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internalized her personality, which he took on any time he became sexually attracted to a woman, leading him to murder the offending women. Marion was the third woman.

Marnie. Finally, in the psychological thriller Marnie, the audience watches the title female move between clerical positions, changing her appearance and identity to rob her employers. With this money, she desperately seeks parental approval by financially supporting and lavishing gifts on her disabled mother who, having injured her leg after an “accident,” now takes care of her neighbor’s daughter, stirring jealousy in Marnie. After carelessly visiting her prized horse, Forio, in between jobs, Marnie is caught by her most recent victim, Mark Rutland, a widower and employer she had social relations with and as a result acquired his affections. Realizing the position that she is in, Mark blackmails her into marrying him, and the two take a honeymoon cruise. As their relations progress, it is revealed that Marnie has the same recurring nightmare involving her mother, has a phobia of thunder and the color red, and cannot stand to be touched by men. Angered by her continued decline of his advances on their honeymoon, Mark rapes Marnie, and she attempts to drown herself in the ship’s pool, thwarted by Rutland.

Upon their return home, Mark’s jealous former sister-in-law attempts to expose Marnie’s thefts, inviting one of her previous employers, Mr. Strutt, to dinner. Threatening to no longer give Mr. Strutt his business unless the man agrees not to expose Marnie, Mark offers to pay off each of Marnie’s victims. At his wit’s end with Marnie’s phobias and kleptomania, Rutland takes Marnie to her mother, Bernice, and convinces her to tell Marnie the truth about their past. Bernice admits to having been a prostitute and explains that, during a thunderstorm, one of her clients attempted to comfort a crying Marnie.

Convinced the sailor was attempting to molest her daughter, Bernice attacked the man, injuring her leg, and to defend her mother, Marnie knocked the sailor over the head with a fireplace poker, killing him. The fear of the color red came from the blood of the man she had accidentally killed. Marnie and Bernice mend their relationship, and suddenly cured, Marnie submits herself to Mark as his wife.

Master-slave dialectic In examining the relationship between men and women within these three Hitchcock films, this paper will utilize Hegel’s master-slave dialectic. In this dialectic, Hegel claims that, in order to establish identity beyond self-existence, human beings must look to their relationships with others, specifically, relationships with imbalanced power dynamics (Ogilvy 202). In such relationships, interdependency is created through the master’s need “for economic conquest and for recognition of his mastery” (Morgan 40). Sartre takes this a step further by using the master-slave dialectic to analyze sexual relationships, saying such conflict as arises in the oppressive power dynamic is inherent and irreconcilable from intimate relations (Morgan 43). For the final theoretical facet, Hegel

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also declares that, for full development of human consciousness, an individual must experience a life and death struggle for mastery (Ogilvy 202). Due to the abundance of male-female relationships and the occurrence of multiple life and death struggles experienced by masculine and feminine characters within the chosen films, this dialectic is more than appropriate in analysis of these works.

Hitchcock sexually marginalizes his leading ladies, generally blonde and curvy, with revealing costumes, the actions of his male characters, and the use of well-crafted shots. Examples of this objectification are Marion Crane’s infamous lingerie in Psycho, Mark Rutland’s rape of the title female in Marnie, and the frame of Judy basked in green light as she exits the powder room in Vertigo. In objectifying women so, Hitchcock builds a literary wall between his male and female characters, othering the Hollywood damsels who star in his films and cinematically communicating their enslavement to his male protagonists. However, it is the features for which these women are objectified that grant them much of their power. Though these female characters submit themselves to often unhealthy relationships with the men they encounter, thereby surrendering their power, women exert influence over men by tantalizing their male counterparts with the incentive of intimacy. Through this power dynamic, the interdependency discussed by Hegel becomes apparent.

Using the master-slave dialectic, this essay will scrutinize several different relationships within each film. In Vertigo, the relations of Scottie Ferguson with Madeleine/Judy and Judy with Gavin Elster will be analyzed. In regards to Psycho, this paper will evaluate the patterns of influence between Norman Bates and Mother and Norman and Marion as a representation of each of his victims. Lastly, in Marnie, the relationship of Mark and Marnie will be appraised. In analyzing each of these sexually intimate relationships using the master-slave dialectic, though women evidently hold a powerful influence over men, there also exists an interdependency between sexes that encourages women to sacrifice their morals, identity, and eventually their lives as a result of their relationships. This overdramatization emphasizes the inequality between men and women that leads to the oppression of the gentler sex.

Analysis The magic of women Hitchcock adored his female characters. Though he put them through the wringer in terms of plot, he also artistically coddled them, often selecting their costumes and editing their shots himself in an effort to make them seem superhuman, almost goddess-like (Paglia 52). In order to instill a reverence to match his own within the audience, Hitchcock often allied viewers with the male perspective with well-positioned camera shots, a method that worked both in favor of these feminine characters, and against them. Camille Paglia specifically commends Hitchcock’s ability to record “the agonised complexity of men’s relationship to women—a roiling mass of admiration, longing, neediness and desperation” with shots such as these, introducing the claim that “[h]eterosexual men instinctively

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know that women have magic” (52). This idolization is reflected in the power these women possess over their male counterparts, influencing their actions, decisions, and sanity.

Madeleine/Judy. In each of the three films, one woman—usually one of two female characters who have decently-sized roles—radiates a sexual aura that plays with the emotions of the featured male character and brings to the surface men’s “fear of emotional dependency and . . . worship of women’s beauty” (Paglia 52). In her article, “The Right Women,” Paglia explains the inescapable impact of these beautiful, curvy blondes, saying, their splendor “floods the eye and enforces an erotic response over which a man has ethical but not conceptual control” (52). No Hitchcock woman embodies this statement more than Vertigo’s Madeleine. Though Madeleine is the wife of an acquaintance who has merely asked Scottie to follow her, Madeleine’s “treacherous sexuality” and mystery draw Scottie to her (Leitch 357), until he finds himself closer to the target than is kosher for a retired detective. As a result, Scottie Ferguson’s fear of falling contradicts his intense desire to fall for his troubled subject (Leitch 357), despite this yearning’s similarly fatal consequences.

When Madeleine leaves his apartment after having dropped off a thank you letter for saving her, Scottie, unwilling to part ways, chases after her and asks where she is going. Latching onto her reply stating she had planned to wander, he claims, “That’s what I was going to do . . .. Don’t you think it’s sort of a waste for the two of us . . .?” to which she flirtatiously responds, “Wander separately? Ah, but only one is a wanderer. Two, together, are always going somewhere” (Vertigo).

Madeleine’s logic proves valid as her allure, which Paglia refers to as a “hypnotic bubble of seductive abstraction” (55), leads her and Ferguson toward a moral and psychological gray area the shade of her trademark suit, the two coming dangerously close to a sexual affair and bringing Scottie toward fetishism. Even as she contemplates death and moves closer to repeating her great-grandmother’s suicidal destiny, Scottie continues to overstep his bounds, a detective-turned-therapist.

Following Madeleine’s death, the introduction of Judy—the woman who played the part of Elster’s wife and therefore the exact likeness of his Scottie’s lost love—further underscores his deviation from healthy norms, her beauty serving as a canvas on which he paints a second chance. Even confronted with the real woman, the influence of the deceased Madeleine keeps Ferguson from happiness, bringing him to constantly re-sculpt Judy until she matches his memory of Elster’s wife, made more perfect in his recollection. Just as Madeleine was possessed by her great-grandmother Carlotta, Scottie is possessed by the disturbed woman he simply could not save. Through this possession, the blonde vixen’s unhealthy impact on the victim of her influence manifests.

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Marion. The relationship between Marion and Norman in Psycho differs from that depicted in Vertigo due to the much shorter period of their acquaintance. In contrast to the seductive abstraction that Madeleine possesses, Marion seems to hold most of her wits about her; in her first and only interaction with Norman Bates, her expression communicates her instantaneous recognition that not all lights are on upstairs for the boyish motel manager. However, she does share Madeleine’s mystery, which seems to have the same effect on Norman as it does Scottie, luring him in. When Marion dodges his questions asking about her destination and what she is running from, Norman eagerly leans in, his body language communicating his interest. In an attempt to keep the conversation off herself and the secrets she is hiding, Marion brings up the argument she heard between Norman and whom she believes to be his mother. When Norman responds, mentioning his mother is ill, Marion goes on to suggest that Mother may be better off if he “put her someplace” (Psycho). To this, Norman angrily reacts, accusing Marion of being uncaring and shaming people who claim they “mean well.” Despite this dispute, when the two part ways for the evening, Norman further exhibits his attraction to Marion by choosing to watch her undress through the peephole that connects the living space to her room.

Imprisoned in a motel off an abandoned interstate with an improbability of human interaction, much less interaction that rattles him, it is apparent that the conflict Marion offers arouses Norman. The highly plausible lack of tension in his life is supported by his statement that when Mother scolds him, he would “like to go up there and curse her and leave her forever, or at least defy her” (Psycho). Such attention as Marion shows him, much more compassionate than that he receives from his “mother,” entices him as well, bringing a smile to his face and softening his composure. For however brief it lasts, Norman’s initial reaction to Marion’s unintentional seduction is much less detrimental to Norman’s health and sanity than the seduction depicted in Vertigo.

Marnie. Similar to Marion, in Marnie, the title female exhibits her magic over Mark Rutland within the first twenty minutes of the film. Interviewing for a secretarial position after a highly qualified candidate, the self-proclaimed inexperienced Marnie—or Mary Taylor as she identifies herself—does not seem to stand a chance; however, within moments, the false brunette confesses a tall tale about losing her husband, bringing out all the stops to feign a simple woman’s honesty. As Rutland becomes aware of her previous exploits, the spectacle she produces and mystery she provides win over the handsome widower and win her the position because, as Mark states, he is “an interested spectator of the passing parade” (Marnie). In the subsequent scenes it becomes apparent Marnie’s mystery is not the only thing about her that intrigues Mark. As they work together in the same office, Rutland cannot take his eyes off of Marnie, and when she expresses terror at a thunderstorm, he comforts her with an embrace and a kiss, her intrigue and beauty roping him in. Even when she robs his company, rather than lose any affection for the kleptomaniac, he blackmails her into marrying him. Her protests also do

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nothing to abate his fondness for her, despite their vehemence. As their relationship progresses, he strives to cure her kleptomania and compulsive lying disorder, among her other psychoses. Evidently, the power she unwittingly wields holds greater sway than her objection to him, both only provoking his attraction. Through these interactions the viewer sees Marnie’s unassuming magic and the fervor with which this enchantment takes over Rutland’s decisions and actions.

The madness The eroticism of these three women eventually drives their men to madness. In Vertigo, Scottie Ferguson becomes obsessed with Madeleine, so much so that, before he and Judy can live out their happily ever after, he practices what Hitchcock calls a brand of necrophilia and dresses Judy like Madeleine, whom Scottie believes had committed suicide (qtd. in WatersStillRunDeep). Later, Judy’s death, which cures both Ferguson’s romantic obsession with Madeleine and his acrophobia, serves to liken love to a mental illness (Davis 94); this metaphor emphasizes men’s loss of mental stability when confronted with sexual intimacy.

In Psycho, each time Norman Bates feels sexual attraction towards a woman, his dissociative identity disorder kicks in, and he takes on the murderous persona of his mother, compelled to literal insanity. Here, the label “psycho” could refer to both psychopathic and psychotic (Davis 94). This duality and that of Norman’s personality are visually represented in the doubling of his likeness in the window when he and Marion talk outside of her cabin.

Finally, Mark Rutland in Marnie is also motivated to reckless violence in satiation of his sexual passion, holding Marnie against her will and raping her when she refuses him. The unlikelihood that he receives much pleasure from her rigid body—again, symbolic of necrophilia—reinforces the idea that his actions stem from a sort of madness. Due to the irrational reactions of men to the “magic” of women in each of these scenarios, the women who wield power wind up with a rather unfortunate end of the bargain. In this loss of control, women fall to enslavement, making their influence through sexuality merely a subject of objectification.

The objectification and enslavement of women In illustrating his female characters as goddess-like idols, Alfred Hitchcock also objectifies his leading ladies, displaying the darker consequences of their powers of enchantment. Having lured in the men they influence and progressed toward sexual intimacy, the women in Hitchcock films surrender their control and, in turn, their morality and identity. With calculated shots, costumes, and the treatment women receive from their male counterparts, Hitchcock’s ladies are sexually marginalized and depicted as the subordinate sex. The manner in which they are illustrated on screen via each medium reflects the females’ loss of modesty and forfeiture of sense of self within Vertigo, Psycho, and Marnie.

The shots. The shots chosen and crafted by Hitchcock do much to sexualize women and rob them of their identity and individuality. Within the first thirty seconds of Vertigo, Hitchcock reduces the first on-screen female into a mere collection of 96

features, showing first the lower left half of her face, followed by her mouth, her nose, and her eyes, zooming into her iris for the start of one of Hitchcock’s graphic designers’, Saul Bass’s, unmistakable illustrated title sequence. Unable to see her face as a whole, the audience does not gain the woman’s full image, keeping her anonymous to viewers. Saul Bass himself furthers this interpretation of the loss of feminine identity: in connecting the title sequence to the film he states, “Here is a woman made into what a man wants her to be . . .. She is put together piece by piece” (qtd. in Poyner 119). He also links this division of features to “the fragmentation of the mind of Judy” (qtd. in Poyner 119), a fragmentation that occurs due to her participation in the murder of a fellow female and her portrayal of Madeleine, which required the forfeiture of her identity.

Some could even argue that, following a series of hypnotic pinwheel-like images, the shapes portrayed toward the end of the sequence resemble a female vagina: two horizontal lips and slim “O” in the middle. This unapologetic exposure of female anatomy objectifies women, not only removing the body part from the context of the female body, but also placing it on blatant display. The music and movement of the shapes contribute to a hypnotic feel, the way Madeleine later captures Scottie’s attention with her beauty and sexuality.

Again, in Psycho, the marginalization of women starts as the movie opens on Marion Crane and her lover Sam Loomis in bed, assumedly having just had intercourse. In his review of the film, Callenbach cites this scene as the first example of Marion’s immorality (47). In addition to invading her privacy, the superimposed time at the start of the film, “Two fortythree p.m.”—the only time this is done—seems to mock the female lead, hinting that proper women would not spend their lunch break so in the middle of a work day. Charles Barr supports the claim that depictions of the sex lives of Hitchcock’s feminine characters are meant to taint them, saying, “sexual liaisons [within Hitchcock films] are almost never presented as wholesome, ranging instead from surreptitious or taboo (out of wedlock, adulterous) to violent and violating (rape, connections to death)” (qtd. in Botting 110). Furthering Marion’s sexualization, at Bates Motel when Marion undresses for her last shower, the audience follows Norman’s gaze as he eyes her through the peephole that opens into the bathroom. By allying the audience with the male perspective, Hitchcock transforms Marion, a female, into an object of desire. Once in the shower, similar to the depiction of the woman at the beginning of Vertigo, Marion is split into a series of body parts. The audience watches the movement of her shoulders as she turns on the water and then the length of her legs as she steps into the tub. When she is stabbed to death moments later, she is further fragmented, the montage of shots just as violent as the act.

The audience sees pieces of her chest, her feet, her back, her bottom, and her abdomen, repeatedly penetrated by the phallic butcher knife (Callenbach 47). By showing only individual parts of Marion prior to and during her murder, Hitchcock distances the audience from her, lessening her identity. In making her a victim of such a masculine weapon, Marion, the one prominent female character in the film up to this point, is grotesquely subordinated to the men she has encountered.

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In Marnie, a similar effect to that of Vertigo’s title sequence is produced at the opening. Following the credits, the camera opens on a close-up of Marnie’s purse, important for its alleged stolen monetary contents but also the shape it takes. Like the shapes in Saul Bass’s sequence, Marnie’s handbag appears suspiciously vaginal. The fact that by nature a purse holds other objects likens it to the female reproductive organ as well. The money inside emphasizes the bag’s worth, and the camera’s focus upon it hints that Marnie’s feminine sexuality is the source of her true worth. However, the scene of Marnie’s rape at the hands of her new husband most aptly portrays the subordination of women. Prior to the violation, the two are seen arguing in multiple stand-off shots. This sense of combat continues throughout the scene, with the height difference and Marnie’s nakedness emphasizing their inequality. Josephine Botting also draws attention to the shot of Marnie’s legs “clamped tightly shut” (110), her posture demonstrating a final desperate grasp for control of the situation. Like in Psycho, in this scene the audience is allied with the male gaze. The viewer is shown a close up of Mark’s eyes before transitioning to what he likely sees of Marnie: her immobile face as she stares at the ceiling, allowing him to touch her though he knows she cannot bear it. The camera then pans from her expression to the porthole of the ship, revealing a calm sea that hints at the lack of passion within Marnie (Botting 110). In sexually submitting herself to Mark, Marnie gives up her value of chastity, in turn, losing part of her identity.

The costumes. The costumes chosen for the leading ladies also play a large role in the sexualization and identity theft of the female characters. At the beginning of Vertigo, when Scottie first lays eyes on Madeleine, she is set apart from everyone else in the room by the color she wears. While the men surrounding her make up a sea of black and navy, Madeleine is featured in a bright green gown. In the second half of the film, when Scottie sees Judy, the color she wears, emerald green, is the very same hue as that first dress, blending the two women’s identities and subtly hinting that, though Judy had portrayed another female, one woman is much like the next. Even between films, Hitchcock’s women are dressed and groomed alike. The outfit characteristic of Madeleine—the gray suit with hair pulled back, teased up in the front—matches that of Marnie at her clerical job. Both women also share the same hair color, making them nearly indistinguishable from one another and likening the leads in identity. On this point, Dan Callahan claims that “Hitch took a fetishist’s delight in dressing up his blonde leading ladies over the years so that they started to seem like different versions of each other” (46). Moving to more obviously marginalizing costumes, in Vertigo, after her rescue from the San Francisco Bay, Madeleine is shown waking; her bare shoulders communicate that Scottie has undressed her. Later in the scene, rather than dressing, she wears a red robe. The provocative color contributes to Scottie’s sexualization of Madeleine. Finally, though it was never worn, while Midge, Ferguson’s female friend, could have any profession, especially in fashion, her character designs lingerie, and the audience see Scottie examining a female brazier with interest and contempt.

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Continuing with the theme of scantily clad women, the extensive use of lingerie in the brief stint in Psycho before Marion’s death serves to objectify the female lead. The audience catches Marion in her underwear no less than three times within the first half hour of the movie: first, as the film opens on her and Sam Loomis in bed; next, as she packs to leave with the stolen money; and finally, as she undresses to shower before her murder. The first film to show such exposure of the female body, Hitchcock went over the top, and this excess repeatedly characterizes Marion as a mere sexual object.

In Marnie, during a fight on their honeymoon—a scene that results in similar nudity—Marnie has her hair down and is wearing the only costume in the entire film without a high neck: a mint nightgown. With her hair down and neck exposed, Marnie takes on a very feminine appearance, drawing a stark contrast with her husband’s toned and tan, masculine physique, even as she scolds Mark and tells him she wishes he would leave her alone. Ignoring her requests, Rutland violently undresses Marnie, leaving her naked on camera. Though little is exposed to viewers, Marnie’s lack of clothing accentuates her social status beneath Mark, making her more vulnerable to the voyeurism of viewers and her husband. In this way, female costumes marginalize their wearers, submitting them, without their consent, to the male sex.

The treatment. The disrespectful treatment of the females at the hands of their male counterparts is the final piece in pushing women beneath men within Hitchcock’s films. In Vertigo, though Midge and Scottie have been through a lot together, Scottie quickly casts her aside when she refuses to take Madeleine and her psychosis seriously, despite her devotion to him as a friend, even returning to care for Ferguson when he falls into depression following Madeleine’s death. Additionally, Gavin Elster, Scottie Ferguson’s colleague, first shows his contempt for the female gender when he practices infidelity. Following up this wrong, rather than divorcing his wife, he murders her and convinces Judy to be an accomplice in keeping his name clear. Betraying her fellow female, Judy abandons her identity for the sake of her and Gavin’s relationship, taking on Madeline Elster’s identity. The similarities between Madeleine and Judy and the resulting loss of identity, previously emphasized by the similar costuming, are furthered by Scottie’s treatment of Judy. Rather than treat her as an individual, he insists on dressing her and grooming her like Madeleine, robbing her of her distinctiveness and forcing her to play the role of Elster’s wife once more. Finally, at the end of the film, when Ferguson discovers that Elster used him as a witness to Madeleine’s “suicide” and that Judy was an accomplice, rather than seek out the male colleague who betrayed him, Scottie takes out his anger on the woman, brutally dragging Judy to that same tower, pushing her against the wall, and manhandling her by her neck. Though Scottie is not directly at fault, this encounter ends in Judy’s death.

In Psycho, Marion is forced to give up much of her identity for her relationship with Sam Loomis. With her lover and their future together leaving her no choice, Marion is forced to abandon her morals, rob her employer’s client, and go on the run.

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Looking at male-female power dynamics outside of relationships, nearly all of Norman’s victims are women, taking the violence that Scottie shows Judy to the extreme. Jealous of having to share her with other men, Norman’s first victim is his mother, who, in death, cannot leave her son, therefore giving Norman all the attention he desires. In furthering the victimization and subordination of Mother, after killing her, Norman then begins to speak for her, taking on her personality.

Following this incident, four more murders occur, three of them women. Upon feeling sexual attraction toward female guests of the motel, Norman murders them as a kind of revenge for the influence they seem to hold on him. The way in which he commits the murders is also extremely violent, stabbing requiring much more contact and persistence than merely shooting a victim.

Finally, in Marnie, Rutland treats his wife as little more than an animal. With an interest in zoology, he studies her like a specimen. When Marnie notices the framed picture of a jaguarondi on his desk while working overtime, Mark mentions he trained the animal to trust him, foreshadowing the way in which he will domesticate the woman before him. He goes on to inform her he studies instinctual behavior. Upon being asked if his study includes females, Rutland explains the paper he has asked her to copy focuses on “predators, what you might call the criminal class of the animal world. Lady animals figure very largely as predators” (Marnie). To reinforce the idea of Marnie as one of his case studies, throughout the scene, Rutland rarely takes his eyes off of her, analyzing her every move with curiosity. In addition to disrespecting her so, ignoring her wishes, and holding her phobias in contempt throughout the film, Mark Rutland treats Marnie with violence both physically and verbally. In the encounter described above, when a lightning storm causes Marnie distress, Mark takes advantage of her, kissing her when she cowers in fear of a thunderstorm. In a subsequent encounter, rather than mutually establishing relations, Mark blackmails Marnie into marrying him. In both interactions, Rutland demonstrates complete disregard for her feelings and opinions. Finally, the last straw is Mark’s rape of Marnie on their honeymoon, after she has told him that she cannot bear to be touched by a man. In ignoring the sentiments of their female counterparts, handling them violently, and forcing them to give up their morals and identities, the men of Hitchcock subordinate and marginalize women.

The melee of mastery Shortly after giving up their power as a consequence of sexual intimacy, things turn dark for the young blondes. It is in this turn for the worst that Hegel’s proposed life and death struggle for mastery reveals itself, accompanied by one of Hitchcock’s characteristic staircases. Leitch describes these staircases as “[representing] a frontier . . . between the world of everyday reality and that of fantasies, desires, and nightmares” (316). He continues to say “they reveal the nightmarish costs behind any attempt at psychological integration between public and private, external and internal, action and desire” (316). Before men and women mount these stairs, their relationships move from discreet and public to sexual and private. Their intimate desires become actions, and the women do

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indeed suffer “nightmarish consequences.” One of these consequences manifests itself as a second theme that film scholar Frank Beaver identifies as “murder as a correlative for sex” (130). In driving men mad, the unfortunate women of Hitchcock also often drive men to murder.

In Vertigo, Judy, like each of the other women, surrenders her morality and identity to the men with whom she enters into sexual relationships. By aiding Gavin Elster in adultery as well as the murder of his wife, Judy forfeits her values. She loses her sense of self by pretending to be Madeleine and then allowing Ferguson to drag her back to that identity in hopes that he will love her for it.

Finally, by allowing Scottie to dress her up as Madeleine, the woman who never was, Judy physically gives herself to Ferguson, a metaphor for their physical intimacy that, due to censorship, could not be shown on screen. This transition documents what Saul Bass refers to as “the fragmentation of the mind of Judy” (qtd. in Poynor 118). Immediately following Judy’s transformation back into Madeleine and the resulting forfeiture of her power, Ferguson takes her to the Mission where Madeleine’s suicide was staged.

Physically dragging her to the top of the tower by mounting the staircase that symbolizes their mutual struggle for mastery, Scottie demonstrates power that was dormant for much of the film due to Madeleine’s influence. After Scottie proves his supremacy, overcoming his acrophobia and realizing the folly in his romantic obsession, Judy’s realization of what she has done and the ensuing guilt finish her off, marking her male counterpart as the victor in their fight for mastery. A nun climbing the stairs in the darkness— likely appearing as the angel of death or even Madeleine Elster to the guilt-ridden Judy—leads the goddess, once worshipped, to leap from the tower, falling to her death.

In Psycho, Marion’s fall from grace occurs much faster. With only forty-five minutes of film before her death, Marion’s loss of morality begins with her sexual intimacy with Sam Loomis, depicted in the opening scene, and continues with her theft from her employer, committed so she and Sam may run away. In hiding from law enforcement, Marion literally gives up her identity, leaving the name “Marie Samuels” in the Bates Motel ledger. Though Marion and Norman never have intercourse, due to his immaturity and his habit of killing women to which he becomes sexually attracted, watching Marion undress before her shower is likely the closest thing to sexual intimacy that Norman has experienced. Though unwittingly, Marion surrenders her power, and as Norman mounts the stairs to allegedly head to bed, the audience is subliminally informed of the succeeding contest for supremacy. Visually subordinate to Norman due to her lack of clothes and defenseless in the face of the unexpected and inescapable butcher knife, Marion’s death crowns Norman master, and the shot of her dead, unseeing eye—an empty window to a now-absent soul—reiterates her loss of identity.

Finally, in Marnie, the title character’s constant use of feminine charm as a tool in the robbery of men calls for her initial surrender of identity, utilizing various names including Mary, Martha, Marion, and Margaret. Like Marion, Marnie also gives up her morals by stealing, but more importantly, by unwillingly allowing her husband to have his way with her. The rape of the bride at the hands of

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Mark Rutland is one of the only explicitly sexual relationships within the three films. Having been tainted by the touch of a man, Marnie’s struggle for mastery ironically takes the form of a suicide attempt. Climbing to the deck of the ship using Hitchcock’s cleverly-exploited stairs, Marnie tries to drown herself in the pool. In not throwing herself over the side of the ship, Marnie demonstrates a weakness in willpower and the accompanying loss of feminine authority. Realizing her absence, Mark ascends to the ship deck as well and pulls her from the pool, thwarting her fight for supremacy, and death. Mark’s position as master is solidified when, at the end of the film, he cures Marnie of her psychosis, and she turns to her husband, admitting, “I don’t want to go to jail; I’d rather stay with you” (Marnie). By winning Hegel’s proposed life and death fight for mastery, the men of the three films succeed in obtaining and maintaining the role of master in Hitchcock’s illustrated sexually intimate relationships.

Conclusion Though women do possess a power over men that initially places both sexes on an even playing field, the introduction of sexual intercourse into a relationship often results in the tipping of scales and the shifting of power dynamics. Accompanied by an absence of sanity in the actions of men, sexual intimacy robs Hitchcock’s women of their values, sense of self, and control of their own bodies, leaving their original source of power a mere source of objectification. Little by little, Hitchcock’s shots, costumes, and writing chip away at the former goddesses, and the women, who once elicited worship, blend together, different facets of the same woman, like a Bond girl or a Disney princess. Having surrendered their influence and ultimately their tool for survival, poorly confronted struggles for mastery make up the final blow that knocks these blonde bombshells from their position of power, wrapping them in chains of enslavement and marginalization beside their male counterparts and trapping them in the cage of the Other.

The deaths of Alfred Hitchcock’s female characters symbolize the submission of women to men in realistic sexual relationships. The almost eager surrender of the blondes in these films reflects the oppression of the gentler sex and the resulting inequality within global society today. Women burdened with prejudice in their youth, in turn, become the jealous mothers Hitchcock depicts in old age, such as Marnie’s mother, Bernice, and Norma Bates. Robbed of their sexuality by time, these powerless women once more turn to sexual intimacy: Norma and the lovers who angered her son and Bernice and her clients. From cradle to coffin, heterosexual women suffer from an incurable desire to seek out the beds of men, leaving their power at the bedroom door. Through this cycle of power and surrender through sexual relations—both genders playing into the master-slave relationship—inequality between genders has survived to the 21st century.

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Works Cited Beaver, Frank. Dictionary of Film Terms: The Aesthetic Companion to Film Analysis. Fourth ed. New York: Peter Lang, 2009. Print.

Botting, Josephine. “The Trouble with Sex.’ BFI 39 Steps to the Genius of Hitchcock. Ed. James Bell. London: British Film Institute, 2012. 110-111. Print.

Callenbach, Ernest. “Psycho.” Film Quarterly 14.1 (1960): 47-9. JSTOR. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

Davis, Rhidian. “Psychosis.” BFI 39 Steps to the Genius of Hitchcock. Ed. James Bell. London: British Film Institute, 2012. 94-95.

Print.

Leitch, Thomas M. The Encyclopedia of Alfred Hitchcock. New York, NY: Facts on File, 2002. Print.

Marnie. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Perf. Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery. Universal Studios, 1964. Film.

Morgan, Anne. “Simone de Beauvoir’s Ethics, the Master/Slave Dialectic, and Eichmann as a Sub-Man.” Hypatia 24.2 (2009): 39-53.

JSTOR. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

Ogilvy, James. “Mastery and Sexuality: Hegel’s Dialectic in Sartre and Post-Freudian Psychology.” Human Studies 3.3 (1980): 201219. JSTOR. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

Paglia, Camille. “The Right Women.” BFI 39 Steps to the Genius of Hitchcock. Ed. James Bell. London: British Film Institute, 2012.

52-55. Print.

Poynor, Rick. “Graphic Images.” BFI 39 Steps to the Genius of Hitchcock. Ed. James Bell. London: British Film Institute, 2012. 118121. Print.

Psycho. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Perf. Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, and Marion Leigh. Universal Studios, 1960. Film.

Vertigo. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Perf. Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. Paramount Pictures, 1958. Film.

WatersStillRunDeep. “The Shocking Hidden Meaning of VERTIGO According to Hitchcock.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 5 Apr. 2011. Web. 4 Dec. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc2s9uSXWKM&list=UUCPM1K7iohoSoCYR29nMHZg&index=24>

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