Fifth World V

Letter from the Editors Dear Reader, The cover of this journal, the fifth edition of the Fifth World, is inspired by the current global pandemic and reflects the fundamental problem this journal seeks to address. One of the phrases which have been on all our minds recently is “social distancing.” While this term explicitly refers to the physical separation of individuals to prevent the spread of biological disease, it seems to possess symbolic resonances beyond this initial meaning.

We are becoming more sociologically distanced from each other, as the conditions of the pandemic deepen the inequities already painfully present in the human condition.

Our distance from reality also seems to expand daily, as the margins of our world begin to fray around the edges, as our systems and ourselves are daily put to the test of existence.

This distance from one another, as it exists variably within each of our lives, calls us to answer the question of how to close this gap in all of its forms. While we began creating these works long before any of us knew of the coming trials, we believe they bear a striking relevance to the current state of the world and the changes it so desperately requires.

The emergence of this crisis has begged all of us to alter our vision of the world as we had known it. The greatest theme of COVID-19, across the globe, has been the pain of uncertainty felt by all those who wish to return to life without this fear. However, we can no longer stake our lives on reliable versions of what we had known the world to be in the past. Instead, we must look forward to the new ways we will exist in the next version of the world to come. Our collective works have all raised questions about the various injustices of our world. Now, more than ever, is the time to ask for all of us to ask our society how we can do better.

We hope that through the reading of our works, you will find the bravery to ask the questions that lie in your heart and work to create a better world alongside us.

The Hopi creation myth which is the namesake of this journal has much to say about this state of strife we are presently enduring. Times of destruction were representative of the transformation of the present world into a shining land with the restoration of faith, a Fifth World, where once again the central “Song of Creation” was sung. We hope that our works, our own individual songs of creation, help to bring to light what matters most in the world around us, to reincorporate the margins and the marginalized into the vision of the Fifth World we hope to see take form.

Our most heartfelt thanks go out to Dr. Cantrell, whose tireless efforts and care made our work possible. Without his guidance and knowledge, Fifth World could not exist as it does today. We are also incredibly grateful to the faculty of the NCSSM Humanities Department and to Dean Moose, whose support and hard work have supported and greatly enhanced the Research in the Humanities program.

To Dr. Roberts, Dr. O’Connor, and the NCSSM Foundation, we are grateful for your hand in facilitating our access to resources that have shaped our curiosities and pursuits.

To everyone who helped to inspire us, who have looked over our manuscripts, or who have discussed new ideas with us, your contributions are integral to our success. We wish especially to thank our manuscript editor, the brilliant Taylor Nguyen, for her wonderful dedication to our journal.

Finally, to all of the family and friends who put up with our humanistic machinations, we are so thankful for your encouragement and hope that you will enjoy the results.

Sincerely, The Editorial Collective Marco Barrientos, Simran Bhatia, Katherine Bryan, Ryan Caton, Juliette M. F. Clark, Lilah Craig, Laura-Lee Crifasi, Grace Dai, Anna De La Torre, Anushka Deshmukh, Vrinda Desai, Alexa Dwomoh, Michael Guilmette, Sonali Harris, Rohit Jagga, Celie Kaplan, Rory Klink, Lily Kovasckitz, Halden Levin, Lennon Lupton, Lillian Manning, Isabella Mason, Sofia Morales-Calderon, Sidney Nesbitt, Taylor Nguyen, Aditi Shah, Evan Steele, Kayal Udaiyar, Margaret Wagner, Rose Wang, Jane Wilson, Caroline Zhang

Contents Museum Exhibition of “Primitive Art” and Euro-American Modernist Art

Caroline Zhang

Women Subjugate the Male Gaze: Exploring Female Eroticism in Art

Lilah Craig

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China’s Ratification and Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Implications for Children

Halden Levin

17

The EU at Crossroads: From Right-wing Populism to Illiberal Democracy

Marco Barrientos

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Interrogating the Analytical Modeling Processes Ingrained in Government Institutions Under a Frame of Foucauldian Biopolitics

Rohit Jagga

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The Stain of Ink: Exploring the Motivation Behind Self-Branding under Incarceration and the Discourse of the Tattoo and the Criminal

Juliette Michéle Frances Clark

41

Historical Institutional Effects of Racism and Sexism in North Carolina Psychiatric Care

Lily Kovasckitz

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The Geneology of Abortion Bans in the United States

Lennon Lupton

55

50 Shades of Mixed

Sonali Harris

61

Strength in Weakness: The Silent Rise of the Asian American through Art and Film

Grace Dai

68

The Effects of Standardized Education and Generational Shift on Immigrated Language Vitality

Taylor Nguyen

75

The Balance Between Desire and Disdain: The White Appropriation of Black Culture in America

Rose Wang

82

Rock’s Real Rebels: Women and the Misogynistic Machine of Rock and Roll

Jane Wilson

90

Impacts of Sex Segregation in Athletics: Revealing the Discrimination of Modern Sports Regulations Against Transgender and Intersex Athletes

Michael Guilmette

96

The Myth of the Golden Door: Racist Foundations in American Immigration Law

Celie Kaplan

103

At Radha’s Hips: The Exploration of Erotica, Sexualization, and Seductionism in Indian Dance Forms

Vrinda Desai

111

Environmental Injustice and Class Disparity in Amazonian Deforestation

Margaret Wagner

116

Good and Evil: An Analysis of the Seven Deadly Sins and Human Nature

Anna De la Torre

124

A Post-colonial Study of Queer India

Anushka Deshmukh

129

Monuments of Identity: An Analysis of Historic Preservation through Social Constructivism

Katherine Bryan

134

Sexualization of Women in Media: Examples, Effects, and Resolutions

Aditi Shah

140

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An Investigation into the Psychological Uses of Feminine Pleasure

Isabella Mason

146

Segregated Taste

Rory Klink

152

Justified Brutality: The History of Governing Warfare

Ryan Caton

157

Our Silencing of Male Victims of Sexual Violence

Sidney Nesbitt

163

Identity Dysphoria in El Salvador: A Transgenerational Analysis

Sofia I. MoralesCalderon

168

Living in A Man’s World: The Portrayal of Women in Greek Mythology

Kayal Udaiyar

172

White Liberalism: How White Politicians Play with Identity Politics to Gain Minority Support

Evan Steele

178

Public Interpretation of Dinesh D’Souza’s Movies

Lilian Manning

184

The Reparenting of Abused Children

Laura-Lee Crifasi

188

Anti-Blackness, Culture Appropriation, Colorism, and Racism in Japan and South Korea

Alexa Dwomoh

193

Racial Disparities in Disciplinary Procedures at American Public Schools

Simran Bhatia

203

An Afterword to Volume Five

David Cantrell

209

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Museum Exhibitions of "Primitive Art" and Euro-American Modernist Art Caroline Zhang

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n the 1950s, Aubrey Williams, a Guyanese artist who helped pioneer black abstractionism and African modernism, was introduced to Pablo Picasso during a visit to Paris. Given the influence of both artists’ cubist styles, the meeting between the two could have been a first step in reconciling the troubled relationship between African art and the Euro-American avant-garde. Yet, for Williams, this meeting was none other than a “big disappointment”.

Williams recounts: I remember the first comment he made when we met. He said that I had a very fine African head and he would like me to pose for him. I felt terrible. In spite of the fact that I was introduced to him as an artist, he did not think of me as another artist. He thought of me only as something he could use for his own work. (Araeen) Although both artists were well-established as leaders in developing the cubist style, Picasso still viewed Williams as an object of art, not as an artist or person. Such an attitude from Picasso is blatantly prejudiced and objectifying, and it is indeed disappointing: from 1906 onwards, Picasso’s work had clearly been influenced by a variety of African aesthetics, and so he was expected to have an intimate appreciation for the African cultures and people who produced the art which shaped his own — for how else could he have made such breakthroughs in art? Yet, as Williams discovered in this encounter, Picasso insisted upon the separation of artwork from those people and cultures who created them.

This separation, and the beliefs that lie within it, serve as the mechanism by which the “modernist” art created by Euro-American artists, as well as the “primitive” art through which they achieved their new art styles, were “cleansed” of the danger implicit in their “otherness” and thus allowed into the world of Western modernism. Within this process lie important questions surrounding the true importance of the art of the “primitive” in shaping Western modernism.

Why is it still argued that it is the discovery of “primitive” art which enabled Euro-American artists to carry out their representational “revolution”, while also claiming that those very artworks, artists, and cultures which were deemed “primitive” were not the fundamental influence in shaping Modernism? This discussion will begin with a closer examination of historical discourses surrounding the term “primitive” and their implications within the

museum space. From then, this essay will focus on EuroAmerican modernists’ entanglement with African art and how the art historian and museum’s entanglement with this entanglement has both maintained and haunted the discourse surrounding the art of the “primitive”.

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t has long been recognized that the category of “primitive art” was problematic as an analytic frame. Substitutes for the categorization have been sought many times — “nonwestern art”, “tribal art”, and “the art of smallscale societies” are among the many terms employed by art historians and anthropologists to displace the term “primitive”. Nonetheless, the term has persisted, even as debates surrounding it expand.

Within the study of art history, the term “primitive” first described artwork of painters before the Italian Renaissance. By the 1920s, however, the term had become more generalized — referring to “tribal” art (Torgovnick).

The ambiguity of the term was shaped by ethnographers and art historians of Euro-America, and despite the growing enigma of what precisely characterized the “primitive”, the term itself drew clear, unmistakable lines between Western “civilization” and non-Western societies. It is important to realize that the ambiguity of the precise traits that categorize an artwork, artist, culture, and region as “primitive” is not a shortcoming of the term; rather, its vagueness has rendered the term so powerful, and as I will argue, so destructive of the importance, and truth, of the history and influence of non-Euro-American art and culture and those people who produced it.

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useums are organized institutions that acquire, preserve, interpret, and exhibit various objects on a regular basis. They are exercises in classification — museums collect some objects and not others, they describe and label objects in one way or another, they display objects in one way or another, they construct narratives and contexts in one way or another. In one way or another, museums establish their sense of authority. Indeed, the very history of museums is entangled in the quest of authority over the natural and social orders-- from the 16th and 17th century collections of non-European objects taken by wealthy European travelers to the early 20th century World Fairs, Fifth World

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museums have legitimized the pursuit of power, the creation of an empire abroad.

The types of orders museums construct and impose create and contribute to the larger narratives of history. By making judgements of the historical, artistic, and monetary value of artworks, and by curating exhibitions according to those judgements, museums place a fixed construction upon history. Museum exhibitions are constructed through an initial disorder of objects, labels, images, and recreated scenes which are then reorganized according to specific domains of knowledge. The ways in which these various items are placed together and juxtaposed against each other impose a sense of order, coherence, and ultimately, truth, onto their audiences, even though they are themselves in disorder. The meaning of art exhibitions is created through the ways in which the artworks and their labels have been brought together to create an artificial context based on the logic the curators and directors have imposed upon it.

The objects are arranged into a system of signification, and the objects and their labels are declared to be signifiers. A work that is incorporated into an exhibition is immediately rendered an element of the narrative the exhibition aims to tell. The exhibition, in turn, becomes an active member of the discourse it seeks to either join or challenge.

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mong the first African art exhibitions in the US was “African Negro Art” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) in 1935, which consisted of over 600 African artworks primarily from French Sudan, the Ivory Coast, British Nigeria, the French Congo, and the British Congo. Immediately clear in this exhibition is the sheer volume of work as well as the lack of context and specificity in their very descriptions: “figure, headdress, and mask” are the most frequent names of the works. attributed solely to the European collections from which they came, The works are placed together based on aesthetic qualities alone — headdresses on one display, masks on another, etc. — without any importance being given to the cultures from which the objects came, or the (exploitative) ways in which the art was acquired in the first place. The museum’s insistence on organizing the art based on aesthetic qualities alone, however, did not result from a sheer ignorance of the historical contexts of the works; rather, it was based on the desire to show how the various aesthetic qualities of African artworks were similar to the work being created in Europe at the time. What is distinctly important about the insistence of the museum in showing these aesthetic similarities is that the museum then goes on to demand for the separation of European art and African art. The director of the exhibition, James Johnson Sweeney, writes in his catalogue essay that: But these, like the adoption of characteristically negroid form-motifs by Modigliani [...] appear today as having been more in the nature of attempts at interpretation, or expressions of critical appreciation, than true assimilations. (Sweeney) North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

Sweeney is claiming that the work of eminent European modernists merely conveyed an intellectually, artisticallydriven “appreciation” of African art, and that the work of European artists and African artists should not be viewed as something belonging to the same category because the European art arising from the influence of African art was one of intellect and revolution, while the history of African art was not much of a history at all. Most of Sweeney’s introductory catalogue essay is also spent detailing the ways in which European artists first encountered African art — he writes that European artists discovered the art of Africa through the adventures and explorations of European travellers, traders, and soldiers, rendering the influence of African art as something only made possible by Europeans, rather than the African artists who created the artworks the European artists “discovered”. Sweeney uses his Eurocentric narrative of the “discovery” of African art to assert that African art is “an art of the past”, because to him, African art exists only after it has been used by Europeans, and it is understood only as it is used by Europeans. By rendering African art as “an art of the past,” Sweeney strips African art of the intellectual, cultural, and artistic evolutions that occurred for the art to be created, which immediately contrasts with the artistic revolution European Modernism was viewed to represent.

Figure 1. Exhibition view of “African Negro Art” at the Museum of Modern Art. 1935.

In this exhibition, Sweeney claims to be progressive in his interpretation and curation of African art. He criticizes the discourse surrounding African art that predated the exhibition, specifically refuting Leo Frobenius’s work in analyzing the aesthetics of African art. Sweeney’s specific criticism of Frobenius’s work on African art is that he places too much importance on the aesthetic qualities of African art. Sweeney, instead, argues for reducing the importance of the “African aesthetic”, claiming that it arose merely from the environmental situations in which African societies found themselves. Sweeney claims that the production and development of African art was limited to the environmental circumstances of expediency as well as

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the supposed constraints of African religions. Simply put, Sweeney aims to convey his idea that African aesthetics arose not out of a conscious intellectual and creative pursuit, but out of chance, out of migration. Yet Sweeney again goes on to assert the only reason why African art is important is precisely because of its aesthetics; that the “simple, intuitive, form of African are is of the most interest”, concluding his essay with the statement that “the art of Negro Africa is a sculptor’s art. As a sculptural tradition in the last century it has had no rival. It is as sculpture we should approach it” (Sweeney). African art, in this exhibition, and through the perspective of Sweeney, exists to be used.

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n 1952, seventeen years after “African Negro Art”, the MoMA held its second exhibition focusing on African art: “Understanding African Negro Sculpture”. The exhibition consisted of 7 original African sculptures and 32 photographs of African sculptures taken by Eliot Elisofon, an American photojournalist. In his photographs, Elisofon aimed to analyze the form of the sculptures by taking pictures of them up close and in different lighting. His photos appear on a blank wall, with no historicization of the sculptures they aimed to capture. The quantity of the photographs when compared to the quantity of sculptures, as well as the scale of the photographs compared to the scale of the sculptures, makes the exhibition more about Elisofon’s photography than about the sculptures. Elisofon’s photos capture the sculptures isolated from any context: the sculptures appear against a blank, white, wall, with no indication of the people that created them. The way that Elisofon justifies this choice is through the sculpture’s relation to European art. He intended for his photos to highlight the sheer difference of African sculpture compared to Western art: ...Thus Western Art usually renders the human figure with head one-to-eight in proportion to the body. The motivations which produced African Negro sculptures are usually unlike those which produced our own....Within the confines of certain traditions and local customs, the artist still produces a highly personal work. Although the various styles are so highly developed that a student can recognize without any difficulty the group from which a sculpture comes.... To help explain the plastic qualities of this sculpture I began in 1951 to photograph it in such a manner that only one narrow aspect of the object came under critical observation. (Elisofon) So, the understanding of these African sculptures is only achieved through its difference to European sculpture, through the perspective of a Westerner. Indeed, the idea of European intellectual superiority is further perpetuated in this exhibition. The photos are viewed as a cultural achievement, worthy of being featured in the MoMA because it learns from the “primitive”. The museum highlighted the sensibility of Elisofon in being able to understand the “primitive”. The sense of the “Other” in the

African sculptures is neutralized, made safe for the viewer, because it is being seen, captured, through the perspective of an American.

Figure 2. Exhibition view of “Understanding African Negro Sculpture” at the Museum of Modern Art. 1952.

The mechanism by which Elisofon achieves his “neutralization” of the “Other” is by photographing the African sculptures against a blank background. In doing so, he effectively removes the sculpture from any particular context, stripping away from them the environment from which they came. These photos, when placed into the authoritative space of the museum exhibition, then imply that there is no environment in which these African sculptures belong — or if there is such an environment, that environment can be removed from the sculpture, and that sculpture can be removed from its environment.

The removal of the context from these African sculptures in Elisofon’s photos is a demonstration of power, and the museum’s exhibition of these photos is an endorsement, a perpetuation, for this type of power. The removal of the environment — perhaps the most basic contextualization of an artwork — allows the viewer of the work to imagine what the context could be. Again, like the isolation of objects in “African Negro Art,” the blank backgrounds in the photographs gives the viewers the intellectually demanding role of interpreting, and contextualizing, the artwork.

Both “Understanding African Negro Sculpture” and “African Negro Art” feature only artworks from Africa and photos of art from Africa. As the movement of European Modernism grew, museums began to pay attention to the ways in which the relationship between European art and African art could be displayed within the same exhibition space. The most notorious example of such an exhibition is the MoMA’s 1984 exhibition “Primitivism in 20th Century Art”, in which art of the “Other” was brought together either because they were known to be models for the modern European artists or because they were known to exhibit perceived affinities (Rubin’s term for “similarities”) to European works. History was thus omitted from consideration; cultural differences between the nonEuropean artworks were obliterated from the exhibiting record.

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n 1984, William Rubin, who at the time was a distinguished curator at the MoMA, provided a detailed exploration of the influence of primitive art on Picasso’s major works and still concluded tribal sculpture did not have a constitutive role in the shaping of his art. The exhibition Rubin curated, titled “Primitivism in 20th Century Art”, was held at the MoMA and aimed to juxtapose “primitive art” from African, Oceanic, and Native American cultures with the art of modern Western artists such as Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin to express the supposed “affinities” that the latter group of works had for the former. The exhibition displayed over 150 Western modernist artworks with over 200 tribal objects. Richard Oldenburg, who at the time was the director of the MoMA, claimed the exhibition was “the first ever to juxtapose modern and tribal objects in the light of informed art history”. “Primitivism in 20th Century Art” was accompanied by a 700 page catalogue edited by Rubin, containing over 1,000 illustrations and 19 essays by 15 distinguished art historians. The essays and their ideas are worked out in exquisite detail, containing not just thoroughly worked out factual information, but also an ideological aspect. Rubin frames the importance of non-Western art as merely an element of the variety of ideas and influences upon Euro-American modernists: “The changes in modern art at issue were already under way when vanguard artists first became aware of tribal art. In fact, disgust with the trappings of society and longing for an art that is more direct and essential than inherited artistic and cultural values has been part of western art, in one form or another, at least since the industrial revolution” (Rubin).

“Primitivism in 20th Century Art” received much coverage. In “Doctor Lawyer Indian Chief”, Thomas McEvilley’s highly influential review of the exhibition, McEvilley writes that the exhibition was “thrilling,” but also criticized it for illustrating “without consciously intending to, the parochial limitations of our world view and the almost autistic reflexivity of Western civilization’s modes of relating to the culturally Other” (McEvilley). McEvilley’s review sparked an extended, frequently contentious dialogue between him and the exhibition’s curators. The debate mainly surrounded the status of universal formal aesthetics and the display of non-Western art as anonymous, dehistoricized, and decontextualized. Rubin defended the exhibition as representing “the reception of tribal artists

by Western artists, the ethnocentricity of which history we ourselves described as manifest...precisely what ‘primitivism’ — as opposed to ‘the primitive’ — signifies” (McEvilley).

Rubin also defended the museum’s decision to exhibit nonWestern art in the same space, with the same methods, as Western art. Rubin’s argument, here, is characterized by contradiction. He is at once claiming non-Western “primitive” art has a universal formal aesthetic, and for that reason it is worthy of being exhibited in the same exhibition space as Western art, and refusing the non-Western art of

North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

being treated as being created by artists acting and pushing against artistic boundaries and historical contexts.

Figure 3. Exhibition view of “Primitivism in 20th Century Art” at the Museum of Modern Art. 1984.

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ven exhibitions which claimed to be revolutionary in their curation and installation of European and African art within the same spaces have still rendered African art as a passive, anonymous entity only identified by its relation to European modernism. In 2006, the exhibition “Picasso and Africa” was held in South Africa, sponsored by the Musee National Picasso in Paris, the Standard Bank and the Standard Bank Gallery in South Africa, the Iziko South African National Gallery, and the French Embassy and the French Institute of South Africa. The exhibition, which aimed to re-narrate the international, cross-cultural relations in the artistic field, consisted of over sixty pieces of Picasso’s work (mainly drawings) as well as many African sculptures from South African collections. According to the curators, Laurence Madeline (Musee National Picasso) and Marilyn Martin (Iziko), this exhibition was created because “the time had come to focus on the relationship between Africa and Picasso and to offer, for the first time, and in Africa, a dialogue between the African continent and the artist” (Madeline). The curators used the staging of the exhibition in South Africa to buttress its importance, to support their professed claim of restoring the importance of African art. Despite this clear goal, and despite the apparent collaboration and support of the two countries in allowing for this exhibition to take place in the first place, the French and South African accounts of the exhibition still often contradicted each other.

Most of the South African accounts were Africacentered; Martin’s only catalogue essay drew attention to art history’s racist history, making the statement that African history would remain “Europe’s narrative” until there was more support for Africans working within African to renarrate this history (Martin). Madeline, however, wrote her catalogue essay about Picasso as a dynamic actor, one

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whose sensibility and intellectual and creative drive allowed him to enact artistic revolution through his encounters with the “Other”. “Picasso’s Africa”, Madeline wrote, “remains the one he has chosen for himself: opaque and magical” (Madeline). The dichotomy of these two perspectives alone — the two people whose collaboration was supposed to be cohesive and progressive — is also visible in the actual installation and curation of the artwork. The emphasis on Picasso’s work in juxtaposition with the anonymous African art destabilized both curators’ insistence that the exhibition showed a dialogue between Picasso and Africa. The chosen work of Picasso ranged in date from 1906 to 1972 (the time of his death) and were selected to clarify Picasso’s interest in African art. Among these pieces were sketches for the painting “Les Demoiselles D’Avignon” and the painting “Three Figures Under a Tree”. By including a large range of Picasso’s various artistic styles into an exhibition dominated by abstraction, the exhibition seemed to offer a narrative that Picasso moved towards abstraction through his “appreciation” of African sculpture. His works, as noted by the two curators, “contain and communicate those moments when Picasso surrendered his talent to the characteristics of classical African art through this simplification of form and colour, the transformation of the individual to an idol” (Madeline).

The works the curators chose were meant to assert Picasso’s creative prowess, his ability to transform the course of Modernism through his willingness to “surrender his talent”, implying that an appreciation of African art required the relinquishment of conventional artistic skill.

In this exhibition, African art remained without agency, remaining an inactive subject, unable to engage in defining and changing the course of modern art history. Many of the African sculptures were vaguely identified, without the history or context of how they were created in the first place, or information about how they came to be acquired by South African collections. At the very least, the information surrounding the acquisition of the sculptures would have provided at least some of the exhibition’s purported “dialogue” between African art and Picasso. The sheer juxtaposition of various, vaguely identified African artworks with thoroughly documented and analyzed works

by Picasso banished African art “outside” history. because it exhibited Picasso’s relationship to African art as one of approximations, not direct engagement, The curation of Picasso’s work and African artwork perpetuates the idea that African art is of the past, that it lacks intellectual and creative development, Picasso is active in the narrative perpetuated by this exhibition, while African art remains passive.

This relationship of approximation was also evident through the ways artworks were installed within the exhibition space. The installation centralized African art on a center display table, while hanging up the various prints, paintings, and drawings of Picasso on the peripheral walls, aiming to “recreate the shock Picasso had upon seeing the

African sculptures in the Trocadero” (Madeline). The curators also hoped that by having a clear spatial separation between Picasso’s art and the African art, the audience would avoid one-on-one comparisons between the artworks.

Madeline emphasized that the African objects on exhibition were not the ones that Picasso encountered; instead, Picasso’s complex relationship with African art could not be recreated through one-on-one comparisons. They made the mistake of believing that Picasso’s relationship with Africa alone sufficed to counter a history of exploitation and depreciation by Europe, or that Picasso’s work demonstrated a true reappraisal of African art even though Picasso often refused to acknowledge his African sources.

Figure 4. Exhibition view of “Picasso and Africa” at the Iziko South African National Gallery. 2006.

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s the need for new ways of thinking about art becomes even more important, questions must be asked about how justice can take place in the museum space, and how narratives can be redefined. In “Picasso and Africa,” progressive motives were undermined because the curators’ work still operated under a system in which African was still rendered passive, whereas Euro-American art was deemed revolutionary. As I have argued, African art should have been more fully contextualized so that the professed “dialogue” between African and Euro-American art could have been somewhat achieved. A full contextualization of African art is undoubtedly important in art exhibitions, especially when African art is displayed within the same space as thoroughly documented Euro-American art. It is of course important, and necessary, to recognize the dynamics of the term “primitive” as something that operates in the service of placing Euro-American art as the highest criterion of determining the value of art. It is also important to recognize the internal heterogeneity of what constitutes the “primitive”, in spite of the term’s vagueness. The primitive, though supposedly universal, is defined in relation to the majority — to the powerful; thus, the primitive will always consist of those in the minorities, those whose voices are silenced and stories are appropriated. These minorities are not cohesive, they are not similar, linked by any “primitive” notion. They are not one “ethnic state”, they do not embody Fifth World

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some kind of cultural adjacency. Yet, if minority cultures are changing, then the dominant culture, with which minority cultures are in continual relation, is also unstable and unclosed. The suggestion is that the general terrain of what is “primitive” and what is “not primitive” is open, plural, and dynamic.

The path to justice for African artworks, and all art deemed “primitive” by art museums, curators, and historians, requires more than just extensive contextualization.

The work done in art history and museum spaces to demarginalize African, and all non-Euro-American art, will still operate under a system defining Euro-American art as the standard, the highest criterion for the formal evaluation of art and culture, until the narratives and ideas surrounding Euro-American art is reworked and redefined. The canon, in its Eurocentric basis, must be destabilized. There are multiple ways to contextualize, and it is necessary for contextualization to be from non-Eurocentric viewpoints.

As Marianna Torgovnick writes: “In asking eurocentric questions about primitive masks and sculptures, we miss important opportunities: the opportunity to reserve alternative value systems, and the opportunity to reevaluate basic Western conceptions from the viewpoint of systems of thought outside of or aslant from those in the West” (Torgovnick 83). Just as important as empowering and historicizing African art, and all art which has been deemed “primitive” by the scholarship and artists of Euro-America, is rethinking of the narratives surrounding Euro-American art, and that which has been considered civilized by the scholarship and artists of Euro-America.

North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

Ames Michael. Biculturalism in exhibitions. Museum Anthropology. 1991.

Araeen, Rasheed. “Conversation with Aubrey Williams”. Third Text. 1987.

Bennett, Tony. The birth of the museum: : History, Theory, Politics (Culture: Policy and Politics). Routledge.

1995.

Elisofon, Eliot. Understanding African Negro Sculpture. The Museum of Modern Art. 1952 Keller, Katherine. September 19, 1984–January 15, 1985. Photographic Archive. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York.

Kortjie, Cecil. 2006. “Picasso and Africa” exhibition view. Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.

Madeline, Laurence. “Picasso and Africa” exhibition catalogue. Cape Town, Bell Roberts. 2006 Martin, Marilyn. “Picasso and Africa” exhibition catalogue. Cape Town, Bell Roberts. 2006.

McEvilley, Thomas. Doctor Lawyer Indian Chief. Artforum., 1984.

Rubin, William. Primitivism in the 20th Century. The Museum of Modern Art in New York. 1984.

Sunami, Soichi. March 18, 1935–May 19, 1935. Photographic Archive. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York.

Sunami, Soichi. July 1, 1952–October 5, 1952. Photographic Archive. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York.

Strauss, Claude Levi. The Savage Mind. University of Chicago Press Translated from the French.

1972.

Sweeney, James Johnson. African Negro Art. The Museum of Modern Art in New York., 1935.

Torgovnick, Marianna. Gone Primitive Savage Intellects, Modern Lives. Univ. of Chicago Pr., 1993.

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Women Subjugate the Male Gaze: Exploring Female Eroticism in Art Lilah Craig

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onsider two art pieces: Fernand Khnopff’s The Meeting of Animalism and an Angel and Joan Semmel’s Erotic Yellow. Khnopff was a Belgian male artist who was born in 1858, and Joan Semmel is a New York female artist, professor, and feminist born in 1932. Khnopff’s work depicts a man who is tall, serene, and dignified. He stands with his hand on a creature who’s part woman and part tiger. The drawing represents the unity between woman and beast in their confrontation with masculine intellectual power, and the man is clearly in control. The bestial representation of feminine sexuality in Khnopff’s work is aggressive, yet the artist was confident in his own masculinity, as the drawing flaunts the control of dangerous female eroticism as a sort of reassurance to its audience of men (Dijkstra 289). Semmel’s painting, Erotic Yellow, is another of a man and a woman.

They are depicted as lovers lying naked and entwined, entirely vulnerable to one another. The woman is painted in a bright pink, the man in dark green, and their background is yellow. The pink coloring of the woman in comparison to that of her green counterpart is throbbing in contrast, and it signifies the equality of woman as an active partner in sex.

Said of the woman’s color: “Semmel confronts the physical body as an outer extension of inner strength using natural color and subtle shadings” (Beckenstein). The bright pink color exhibits the strength Semmel gives to her subject.

Both of these paintings are depictions of heterosexual relationships. The active role as lover of the woman in the second image is not entertained in the first. Knopff’s representation of the woman as a thing to be conquered exposes the artist’s fears for his own masculinity, his fear that women are dangerous and animalistic when not disciplined by male power. The pattern of men depicting women as dangerous or as objects is prominent in fine art. Women have never been treated equitably, and there is evidence of this throughout art history. Here, I introduce the idea of the male gaze, exhibited when women are depicted by men as passive objects of male pleasure and desire, or as beings whose sexual power threatens the fragile masculinity of men. Sometimes, male artists depict women as monstrous, which is a method of commanding the dangerous sexuality they perceive.

Left. Fernand Khnopff’s The Meeting of Animalism and an Angel Right. Joan Semmel’s Erotic Yellow

It is important to me that I point out the multitudes of people who are affected through the media by someone else’s stance on their age, gender, sexuality, status, race, ethnicity…. There is much diversity in the people who find themselves a part of a group oppressed by someone else’s imagery. For the purposes of this paper, I am discussing women and the male gaze, but I want it to be clear that the examples I detail here are not solely those of one subsection of person, and I do not mean to presume that others do not share similar feelings or experiences. There are also more sides to each of the artists here and their art, but my research is focused on their reaction and response to the male gaze.

It is also necessary to note that, although I refer to them as such for clarity’s purposes, it is important not to think of women who make art as “female artists,” because male artists have always been just “artists.” It supports the idea that the view of white, male, Western art is the original viewpoint in art history. This viewpoint has formed art’s canon for many years although it repeatedly proves inadequate at representing its every person, seeing as that would be an impossible task.

Women artists depict female nudity and sexuality differently than men, and often such depictions by women, as well as movements that create a space for them, are an attempt to subjugate the male gaze and regain a safe space for eroticism and self-representation in their own art.

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he male gaze is apparent in many paintings, sculptures, films, and other art forms by men. It is especially prominent in paintings of the reclining female nude, which is a subject many artists have replicated since the first: Giorgione’s The Sleeping Venus from 1510.

The male gaze is the instance of women in art being viewed by any audience member through the eyes of their heterosexual male creator as passive objects of pleasure and desire. When art is affected by the male gaze, it can show motifs of voyeurism, of women as the object of male pleasure, and of the deployment of general phallocentric idealism--of masturbatory single-mindedness, in other words. It is important to realize that, when a painting is completed and exhibited, the artist’s physical space is replaced by audience members viewing the painting from the same place the artist stood.

Other instances of the male gaze in art are women who are shown sleeping, dead, naked, in gruesome or bestial poses… It is a way for men to conquer a female sexuality that threatens masculinity. By depicting women as either twisted or overtly sexual, a male artist is able to demonstrate masculine power over a female sexuality they perceive as dangerous. This is important, and devastating, because male artists have historically been more successful as artists than women, not because they are more talented, but as.s a result of unfair gender roles and sexism in the art world.

Success of male artists means the art that most of the world is exposed to is contaminated by the male gaze. There is also overt sexualization of women in male art. This can include images of women in which they appear as passive and sexually pleasing from the eyes of the man who created them. Women in positions that suggest a lack of agency over their situations, such as naked and dead, are images that can be representative of a male desire to control a seemingly rampant and dangerous female sexuality that threatens their power.

By exploring the male gaze, I don’t want to reduce masculine visual desire to merely the power and control exhibited in some (not all) paintings by men of women, but to bring attention to the issues in male-begotten depictions of females. I do not aim to eliminate sympathy or vulnerability that the male onlooker has for his female subject, nor to suggest that a man’s view is always from a heterosexual, sexually threatened perspective that shows passive women. This oversimplification could deprive women of the power they hold in any painting, whether that power is representative of male fears or not. Rather, I believe it is important to recognize women who have been stripped of their power by the men who created them on canvas. I proceed with the theory that there are exceptions, but that it is important to always consider the power the artist has over the images s/he creates as well as the intent inciting the act of creation. It would be simpler to condemn every image.

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One way sexism is realized in art is through the depiction of women in men’s art as evil, purely sexual, submissive, or dangerously dominant. Male perspectives of women through art vary, yet they all revolve around the male experience, as is characteristic of the male gaze. The idea of the male gaze can be observed in many male artists’ work.

Often there are depictions of evil, dead, ugly, or monstrous women. For example: “In Degas’ depiction of the feminine, specifically in the painter’s famous studies of women in their circular bathtubs, Hamel discerned the ‘bestial poses,’ the ‘froglike crouch’ of creatures seen as inherently degenerate” (Dijkstra 286). A wealthy man’s view squashes the naked woman washing herself into a wild animal.

One of the main differences between Giorgione’s The Sleeping Venus and another reclining nude, Titian’s Venus of Urbino, is that the reclining Venus in Titian’s work gazes directly at the viewer. Giorgione, by whom Titian was inspired and taught, depicts Venus with downward cast, relaxed eyes and an open, frontal pose -- arm up and bent behind her head, hips aimed out from the canvas.

Titian’s Venus, her body softly glowing with its layers of glazed oil paint as she lays nearly the same, makes direct, although delicate and coy, eye contact with the viewer.

The significance of Venus’s gaze is that its absence allows for a viewer’s gaze to unrestrictedly run over her body -- essentially, her downward cast eyes represent the opportunity to objectify her body and visually enjoy it without the social awkwardness of staring at a person who knows they’re being stared at. It puts the male painter and his projected viewers in the position of a hidden man voyeuristically enjoying a naked woman.

The male gaze brings me back to art history class and to looking at Manet’s Olympia. In this painting, a stiff, flatly painted prostitute stares frontly from the canvas to the viewer. The strength of her eye contact was unheard of when it was painted in 1863. When her stare is combined with her skin -- pale and not modeled -- her face appears masklike, and under this mask are the skull and mind of a woman, things with which the world of the 1860’s was not familiar. Her legs cross at the ankle, and her hand rests steadily on her naked body, covering and in control of her genitalia. She physically blocks the viewer, who has been placed in the position of one of her customers, from impregnating her, which injures his masculinity because he can no longer continue his bloodline, and therefore cannot be immortal. Prostitutes, femme fatales, were also undestood to be infertile, and her bouquet features a sterile tea rose. Olympia is a powerful figure because of her bold, obvious sexuality and her unheard of directness. It is interesting that Olympia employs a frontal eye contact that breaks the social art codes of the 1860’s by not being flirty.

In other words, she is not reliant on the viewer’s approval because she holds the control -- over herself, others, and her interactions. As a result, the scandal of Olympia’s gaze

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received abundant negative reactions. Manet’s Olympia is an example that differs from the classic male gaze, as his painting of Olympia takes a shot at reversing the traditional image of women depicted sexually by men. Not every instance of male perspective on women must be derived from sexism, woven with symbols of female inferiority, or display feminine sexuality as dangerous.

In Charles Chaplin’s Sleep, a woman lays naked sleeping in a stream. The water envelopes her arms and legs, leaving her abdomen and face exposed and tilted towards the viewer.

This painting is interesting because of the water that covers her, almost holding her down with it. She sleeps, helpless in a stream, as the audience of the painting looks on. The sexuality in this is in her passivity. She is an object, and she has no power to either object or assert herself, leaving the male artist and the audience in control.

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n instance of the male gaze is the siren, a creature created by men. Sirens are usually depicted as women whose legs have been replaced by the tail of a fish. They live at sea and sing sweetly and alluringly. Through their lovely song, sailors on boats that pass by jump overboard and are lured to their death by the deceptive sirens. Classical Mythology depicts early sirens as bird-women and not fishwomen, which makes more sense than fish because their weapon is their song. Because siren imagery is often very sexual, and sirens are dangerous creatures who lure men to their death, it makes sense that the male gaze is in play.

In the storyline of innocent fishermen and treacherous sirens, there is evidence of the perceived danger of female sexuality. In classic mermaid/siren tales such as Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” mermaids are evil creatures who lure men to their deaths by singing to them. Some lead sailors to their death upon jagged rocks and others underwater by singing seductively (Andersen 3). One art piece that exemplifies this narrative is Aristide Sartorio’s The Green Abyss, which depicts a naked man whose body is situated halfway out of his small boat as he reaches for a beautiful, milky mermaid -- he believes she is a woman who needs his help, yet she is perfidiously beguiling him to his death in her dark waters (Dijkstra 269). Her seductive lethargy attracts him.

Joseph Guy’s Making a Train

Joseph Guy’s Making a Train from 1867 depicts a halfdressed young girl pretending to be in a wedding gown. This represents the sexualization and objectification of women, even young girls, in art by men. I saw this painting in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and its overt creepiness struck me -- why does this probably-old probably-white probablyman think it is okay to depict a small girl making a wedding train out of a skirt and a nightgown, her chest exposed and a playfully longing look on her face? Through naive eyes, this painting shows an experience of growing up, but when turned through the gaze of the actual artist, the painting becomes a predatory act. An article by Lauren Lessing proposes that Guy, the painter, meant the painting to be a sort of “problem picture” that is intended to arouse weird creepyterrified feelings in its viewers. The article also says that Guy wanted to use his media to show his criticism of the “vain pursuit of luxury,” particularly fashion’s oppression and corruption of young females (Lessing).

Aristide Sartorio’s The Green Abyss

Another mermaid painting is Charles Dana Gibson’s In the Swim, the mermaid of which watches with peaceful disdain as her victim slips helplessly underwater. All that is shown is the mermaid’s head and the man’s hands as he reaches the end of his struggle. These mermaid depictions “trace each step of the process by means of which the all-tootrusting and impressionable fisherboy came to be filed away in the watery locker of the mermaid’s conquests” (Dijkstra 269). These paintings by men are realizations of masochistic fantasies about the evil nature of sexual women, and they symbolize the reason men feel threatened by women’s sexuality. The beautiful moonwater women within them are objects of sexual gratification targeted towards the heterosexual male.

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Charles Dana Gibson’s In the Swim

Mermaids and sirens are dangerous to men who listen to her song. I am interested in the relationship of this to the regulation of female voices that is prominent in society.

“Siren Song,” a poem by Margaret Atwood, is interesting to me as I examine the relationship between men regulating female voices and the idea of the siren as a terrible monster whose victims are men. The poem is from the perspective of a siren, so Atwood is giving the siren a voice, and she paints man as a stupid victim of his own lustful curiousity. It reads: This is the one song everyone would like to learn: the song that is irresistible: the song that forces men to leap overboard in squadrons even though they see the beached skulls the song nobody knows because anyone who has heard it is dead, and the others can’t remember.

Shall I tell you the secret and if I do, will you get me out of this bird suit?

I don’t enjoy it here squatting on this island looking picturesque and mythical with these two feathery maniacs, I don’t enjoy singing this trio, fatal and valuable.

I will tell the secret to you, to you, only to you.

Come closer. This song is a cry for help: Help me!

Only you, only you can, you are unique at last. Alas it is a boring song but it works every time.

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hen a woman paints a female body, her art depicts a different form of portraiture. Rather than the woman of her art appearing as an object, she often becomes the subject of the art. This is representative of women being the only people able to adequately convey a woman’s experience. Following are women whose art works to fight for their voices and the voices of the women they depict.

Alice Neel was an African American artist. She painted portraits of people she knew, anyone from family and friends to her neighbors or celebrities -- Andy Warhol, for example. She said of why she loved to paint: “it was a world, and I could do what I liked in it.” Rather than focusing on the race, age, social status, or gender of her subjects, she painted them as they were, not assuming their beings to be any certain way. This is a method of subverting the meaning of the female body by subjugating the male gaze (The Art Story).

In her painting Pregnant Maria, Neel painted a woman sensually lying in bed. Her pregnant belly rests heavily on the sheets and faces the viewer, and her eye contact is confident. One arm rests along the ridge of her body, and the other is propped on a pillow and supporting her head.

Her feet splay out comfortably as if she had stretched them out and then relaxed them where they were laid. This image is surprising. By painting a woman lying in bed, Neel plays with the viewer’s expectations of sexuality. The gaze of her eyes, steady, almost defiant, also suggests eroticism. Her position is open and bold, and she makes no move to cover herself. However, the random and comfortable position of her limbs appears natural rather than intentionally provocative. By painting a pregnant woman in a sensual position, the idea of non-sexual maternal nudity is contrasted with a borderline-traditional model position for a reclining nude (Moura).

John Perreault is a Neel painting in which the subject is a male reclining nude, an interesting twist in classic convention. His body is relaxed, and he holds himself up on his arm. It is important to look at this image alongside Pregnant Maria because there is some similarity between their expressions. This shows how Neel, a female painter, worked in a way that brought attention to humanity by painting nudity, and that she didn’t change the way she worked with women and men because she viewed them as they appeared to her without imposing the structure of gender upon her view (Kennaugh).

Another artist, Erin M. Riley, turns sexts into art. In this digital world, sexts are an example of communication that moves quickly. Photography is art, yet where is the line between sext and art, or is there one? Riley slows down the digital world to bring attention to women’s bodies and a female point of view that is present in sexual, sometimes pornographic images created by women. She makes tapestries of nudes that bring attention to female sexuality, from trauma to excitement. She presents a series of pieces about womanhood, venturing into areas that aren’t typically

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represented in art because of their personal, sometimes lonely qualities -- her art is “work that taps into memory, fantasy, masturbation, dating, self-care, food, pop culture, sexual assault, and domestic violence, to reclaim her power while simultaneously negotiating the impact of trauma with sensitivity and respect” (Dazed).

Often, Riley leaves the faces of the women she depicts blank to both objectify them and give them anonymity. It also serves to bring attention to the details of their photography.

The photos she weaves from were selfies taken by women in strange, twisted positions, and they often include details in the background such as hairbrushes, laundry piles, and sink faucets. Riley offers the perspective of many women whom she allows to remain in their own environments, in control of their own positions.

She gathered men, women, chicken, sausages, other meats together on a stage, and the audience watched as the people exploded sexually and went crazy on stage dancing and rubbing their bodies with meat, in a Carnage of flesh. At one point during this performance, a man in the audience dragged Schneemann off stage and began to strangle her because he was enraged by her art.

Francesca Woodman

Hannah Wilke

Hannah Wilke was an artist who worked on representing women through forms that resemble female genitalia. In portraits she called “performalist self-portraits,” she posed undressed with vulvas made of chewing-gum scattered on her body. This work is descriptive of the male reduction of women to their sex organs, but it also brings light to a woman in complete control of and at ease in her own body.

Carolee Schneemann was a performance artist whose work was photographed. In one piece titled “Interior Scroll.” she reads the script to a video she wrote as she pulls it out of her vagina. With this piece, she shows that female anatomy, and the female nude body in general, is the root of creativity and creation for many women, and that it is not merely a space of male fantasy (Sleek Magazine). Another one of Schneemann’s performances was an expression of carnality.

Francesca Woodman featured herself in much of her photography. The image above, in which she depicts herself attached to the wall alongside the other pieces of art, indicates to me an ironic acceptance of the traditional use of female bodies as aesthetic, masturbatory eye candy in art. By hanging herself as a painting, she is a woman stuck on the wall for viewing -- passive, losing control. Cindy Sherman, an artist who photographed herself and played off the idea of the male gaze by being on both sides of the camera, said of Woodman, “She had few boundaries and made art out of nothing: empty rooms with peeling wallpaper and just her figure. No elaborate stage set-up or lights … Her process struck me more the way a painter works, making do with what’s right in front of her, rather than photographers like myself who need time to plan out what they’re going to do” (Tate).

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n order to create artwork and be successful in subjugating the male gaze, women must be heard. This is a social process, but it begins with forging a safe space for eroticism within themselves, their work, and the community. This movement was made possible by artists who fought against the widespread ideas of domestic femininity to become artists, and it was furthered by the female artists who began reversing the roles of male painter, female nude. It is important to recognize the difficulty women have trying to become successful artists; the art world has always been comprised of men, and women were merely models. When considering subject matter in a piece of art, the background story is significant, so, in this case, looking at female painters painting nudes, it is relevant that there is a history of female Fifth World

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nudes in male art. Also, male paintings of females are oppressive in their imagery and in the idea that they existed in popular culture and women, for a long time, were unable to find success in the art world fighting oppressive imagery by making their own art.

Past tense is used, but the issue stands; the numbers shared by the Guerrilla Girls examine the hardships women face in the male-dominated world -- many galleries’ shows contain 10% or less work by women artists. In an interview of the Guerrilla Girls, they further examine the detrimental effects of the male domination of the art scene. They hate the language used to describe art, as most of it is malecentered by origin. As an example, they said in the interview: “Seminal, an adjective for semen, is completely overused to describe creative achievement and originality. The word ‘genius’ is related to the Latin word for testicles. Maybe that explains why it’s so rarely used to describe a woman” (Guerrilla Girls). The art world was built around men, and even the language used to describe art leaves women out of the picture. This is interesting because it shows the sexism inherent in art culture, explaining why it has been difficult for women to find success.

And women do not want to assimilate into a world that was designed to exclude them. Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro designed their school for women so that women could practice art in a space that wasn’t male. Chicago wrote about “human,” and how the definition of the word revolves around men, prohibiting women to express their own personalities (Chicago 48). She gave art classes exclusively for women in order to create a space where the women weren’t restrained so that they could express themselves through their art. She describes that, being a female artist, she felt unable to even express her oppression because the audience and foundation of the art world was male dominated. Schapiro describes the necessity of the art classes being only for women by saying, “Women are afraid of openly expressing their true feelings as females around men.” (Schapiro 49). As a result, the women who work to subjugate the male gaze are strong, forced to fight against all of art history.

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odies are pretty and have always been used in art, and this isn’t an issue. With the male gaze, however, the question that comes into play is how one type of person could even attempt to represent all bodies; bodies being defined by their experiences rather than pure physical appearance. Bodies have personal and cultural meanings, and the depiction of female bodies needs to mean more than it does to a man who paints it with a single-mindedness about the shape of a woman’s body as an object.

The idea that bodies are useful in artistic imagery is clear.

There is an issue that begins to appear in classical artwork, such as Giorgione’s The Sleeping Venus, when it becomes evident that images traditionally created by men are

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depicting women in certain ways, and that these ways are often motivated by male pleasure over a stagnant, passive woman. A woman created by a male artist has no control over her own depiction nor over the situation within which she is painted.

When a woman paints a woman, I feel empowered as a female viewer. Women have been able to paint their way into the art world, and they have learned to express their sexuality and anatomy through their own art because this is the only way for the world to see truly what womanhood is -- through the eyes of a man, a woman can only be pictured how he sees her, not in all the possible accuracy and honesty of a woman’s depiction of herself or another woman. Women in art, a group of oppressed people, are fighting back in a necessary war, and their weapon is a female nude that shares a moment of the rawness of the female experience in its realness.

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Ingram, Barbara Lichner, and Stephen E. Berger. “Sex-Role Orientation, Defensiveness, and Competitiveness in Women.” The Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 21, no. 3, 1977, pp. 501–518.

JSTOR. Ridgeway, Cecilia L. “Predicting College Women’s Aspirations from Evaluations of the Housewife and Work Role.” The Sociological Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 2, 1978, pp. 281–291. JSTOR. Dijkstra, Bram. Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Turn-of-the-Century Culture. Oxford University Press, 1986.

Beckenstein, Joyce. “JOAN SEMMEL Across Five Decades”. The Brooklyn Rail, 2019.

Beckenstein, Joyce. “Joan Semmel: Naked Came The Nude.” Woman’s Art Journal, vol. 36, no. 2, 2015, pp. 3–11. JSTOR. “Christina Hendricks Painting By Paul Meijering”. Fine Art America, 2019.

Christian Andersen, Hans. The Little Mermaid. Dreamscape Media.. “‘These Galleries Show No More Than 10% Women Artists Or None At All’, Guerrilla Girls, 1985 | Tate”. Tate, 2019.

Chicago, Judy, and Miriam Schapiro. “A Feminist Art Program.” Art Journal, vol. 31, no. 1, 1971, pp. 48–49. JSTOR, JSTOR. Fusco, Coco, et al. “Sacred Naked Nature Girls.” BOMB, no. 52, 1995, pp. 20–22. JSTOR. Lessing, Lauren. “Rereading Seymour Joseph Guy’s Making a Train.” American Art, vol. 25, no. 1, 2011, pp. 96–111. JSTOR. Winant, Carmen. “Our Bodies, Online.” Aperture, no. 225, 2016, pp. 138–143. JSTOR. “Confessions_Interview — Guerrilla Girls”. Guerrilla Girls, 2019.

“Alice Neel Paintings, Bio, Ideas.” The Art Story.

Natasha Moura, V. (2019). Pregnant Maria by Alice Neel. [online] Women’n Art. Kennaugh, Stuart. Alice Neel.

Dazed. “The Artist Weaving Complex, Beautiful Tapestries about Sex and Trauma.” Dazed, 30 May 2018.

“The Performance Artists Who Made Feminist History.” Sleek Magazine.

Tate. “Five Things to Know: Francesca Woodman – List.” Tate, 23 May 2018.

Nochlin, Linda. “From 1971: Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” ARTnews, 24 Sept.

2018.

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China’s Ratification and Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Implications for Children Halden Levin

警方通报 2018 年 6 月 25 日，南京警方根据群众报警，在南京市江宁区湖熟街道句 容河宁杭高速公路桥下河道中发现一具女童户体。警方对此高度重视，经 过连续一个月的侦查工作，于 7 月 25日抓获犯罪嫌疑人杨某响（男，36 岁，安徽芜湖人，被害女童父亲）和杨某松（男，65 岁，被害女童祖 父）。经审查，两名犯罪嫌疑人初步供述了于 6 月 23 日晚将被害人推入 句容河中致其溺亡的犯罪事实。目前，相关工作仍在进行中。 南京市公安局 2018年7月25日 Police Notice According to the public report, on June 25, 2018, in the Jurong River under Ninghang Expressway at Hushu Street, Jiangning District, Nanjing, police discovered the corpse of a young girl. Police attached importance to this and, after a month of investigations, seized criminal suspects Yang Mouxiang (male, 36, Wuhu resident, murdered girl’s father) and Yang Mousong (male, 65, murdered girl’s paternal grandfather) on July 25. Undergoing investigations, the two criminal suspects initially confessed to pushing the girl into Jurong River the evening of June 23, which caused her to drown. At present, investigative work is still in progress.

Nanjing Public Security Bureau July 25, 2018

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n June 23, 2018, she was murdered at night. On June 25, 2018, the police found her in the Jurong River under Ninghang Expressway at Hushu Street, Jiangning District, Nanjing. They found her body: the pink ruffled jacket, the polka-dotted pants, the white t-shirt, the pink shoes, the jade Buddha necklace, the smiley-faced-ladybug backpack, the young, female body, the bricks in the backpack, the corpse (“Father”). Her body told them she was a nine-year-old girl who suddenly died by drowning; the four kilograms of bricks in the backpack told them she was murdered. On July 25, 2018, the police found the men who perpetrated the crime: Yang Mouxiang, her father, and Yang Mousong, her grandfather. On August 30, 2018, Yang Mouxiang and Yang Mousong were arrested by the Nanjing Public Security Bureau, suspected of conducting intentional homicide (“Father”).

When asked why he placed bricks in the child’s smileyfaced-lady-bug backpack, Yang Mouxiang stated they were a means of alleviating the child’s suffering which he had North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

imposed upon her (程 [Cheng]). What was the origin of her suffering, the suffering imposed by him? On November 2010, she was born with neonatal pneumonia, ischemia, and hypoxic encephalopathy and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and severe mental delays. Caring for the child was costly temporally and monetarily (陈 [Chen]). In October 2012, Yang Mouxiang and his wife divorced, agreeing that Yang Mouxiang would take care of the child, so Yang’s mother began taking care of the child until she was diagnosed with cancer. On June 23, 2018, Yang Mouxiang drove to Nanjing and asked his father Yang Mousong to care for the child, but he refused and proposed killing her, which was not a foreign idea. Weeks prior, Yang Mouxiang discussed abandoning and/or killing the child with his sister (陈 [Chen]).

By Article 232 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, Yang Mouxiang and Yang Mousong were charged with intentional homicide; Yang Mouxiang was sentenced to ten years and six months in prison, and Yang Mousong was sentenced to eleven years (“南京”

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[“Nanjing”]). Article 232 states, “Whoever intentionally commits homicide shall be sentenced to death, life imprisonment or fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years; if the circumstances are relatively minor, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than 10 years” (“Criminal Law”).

The indictment of illegal deprivation of life by intentional homicide under reasonable circumstances, practically under “relatively minor” circumstances, led to their fixed-term imprisonment sentences. What were these circumstances relative to to result in the sentencing of Yang Mouxiang and Yang Mousong to ten to eleven years of imprisonment in exchange for the life of Yang Mouxiang’s daughter? Was her diagnosis of cerebral palsy and mental delays circumstances considered relatively minor, relative to the circumstance of her without bodily differences, as an “able-bodied” individual? Were the circumstances the lack of resources Yang Mouxiang and Yang Mousong had to care for Yang Mouxiang’s daughter in the face of her primary caretaker, grandmother, being diagnosed with cancer? Was it the failure of the family, of the State, or of the international community?

On the basis of her disabilities, she was murdered. On the one hand, the origin of her suffering was the utter refusal of her father and grandfather to take care of her, to accommodate her bodily differences. Perceived as a problem, she was provided medical rehabilitation to a certain extent, costing time and money without desired results; ultimately, the easiest way to solve this problem was to swiftly eradicate it. On the other hand, although these actions were not directly perpetrated by them, the State and society were at fault, failing to acknowledge barriers faced by individuals with disabilities as the problem, and instead framing individuals with disabilities as the issue. The disability that led to her murder was derived from the fact that her bodily differences were not properly accommodated for in a society whose structure implies bodily norms from which she was excluded.

In 2006, utilizing the “Criteria of Disabilities for the Second National Sample Survey on Disability” based upon the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the International Criteria of Functions, Disabilities and Health (ICFDH), the Second National Survey on Disability was conducted. This survey discovered that approximately five million children, 1.6% of all children in China and 6.1% of all individuals with disabilities in China, live with a disability (Children 120-121). The vast majority of children with disabilities reside in rural areas. Although China has implemented some services and accommodations for children with disabilities and their families, according to the Second National Survey on Disability, only thirty-nine percent of children with disabilities received services noted in the questionnaire, including: “medical service and assistance; auxiliary tools for people with disabilities; rehabilitation training and

services; subsidy, reduction or exemption of education fees; vocational education and training; employment placement and support; assistance and support for poor people with disabilities; legal assistance and services; barrier-free facilities; and barrier-free access to information, life services and cultural services” (Children 123).

Generally speaking, within Chinese society, children with disabilities are seen as “undesirable and costly,” resulting in families aborting, abandoning, and/or murdering them (Hernandez and Zhao).

Parents who do choose to care for their child often face financial hardship due to a lack of educational and medical accommodations available to their child, a loss of guanxi (relationships) and lian (face), and discriminatory behaviors from family members, friends, and strangers (Shen 2). In 2014 in Chengdu, China, Harvard graduate student Liying Shen conducted a qualitative study in which she interviewed parents, the vast majority of whom were mothers caring for children with disabilities. One mother who brought her child to a local rehabilitation center described her experience: “The first year at here [the rehabilitation center] was extremely difficult for me. I felt ashamed and didn’t want to live. Every day I had to carry him to get across the bridge… I wish I could jump from here and die with my child. I was very sorry to bring him into this world” (Shen 24). Another mother, receiving little support from her husband and family members, sobbed, “Support? So limited… nobody would help us” (Shen 26). Mothers often feel sorrow for their child’s future, for failing to give their “child a normal body,” for the difficult situation they have been forced into (Shen 24-25). In the absence of financial, psychological, and medical support, mothers, parents, caregivers providing for children with disabilities often feel stigmatized and pressured into hiding or eradicating the source of such stigma (Shen 4).

Returning to the case of Yang Mouxiang and Yang Mousong, what could have saved her life? What force can change the attitudes and behaviors relating to disability pervading society? How can children with disabilities live on an “equal basis” with others when their lives are dependent on those who care for them? Ratification and implementation of comprehensive legislation and human rights treaties with well-defined, inclusive terminology is essential. The first human rights treaty established in the twenty-first century, the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was drafted in 2006, open for ratification in 2007, and entered into force in 2008 (Petersen 618-619). On March 30, 2007, China was one of the eighty-two nations who signed the CRPD on the first day the CRPD opened for ratification; in June 2008, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress ratified the CRPD but not the Optional Protocol (Petersen 618, 621). Ratification is the first step towards systemically addressing the needs of children with Fifth World

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disabilities, individuals with disabilities. In the case of China, failed ratification of the Optional Protocol to the CRPD and insufficient implementation is where the problem arises.

On a fundamental level, the purpose of the CRPD is “to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity” (Convention 4). In regard to children, State Parties must recognize that “children with disabilities should have full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with other children” (Convention 2-3). Although China has ratified the CRPD, the Chinese government’s failure to ratify the Optional Protocol to the CRPD and to properly adhere to and implement the policies outlined within the CRPD has led to children with disabilities not fully and equally enjoying “all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with other children” (Convention 4). For children with disabilities to live on an “equal basis” with others, ratification and implementation of comprehensive legislation and human rights treaties with well-defined, inclusive terminology is essential.

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he UN was founded in 1945 with the purpose of promoting fundamental human rights, of upholding “the dignity and worth of all human beings” (Division 5).

However, who constitutes “all human beings,” and how are those constituents defined? On a fundamental level, ensuring “all human beings” are secured their “dignity and worth” requires that those who compose “all human beings” are defined in terms that establish their being as an active agent, as opposed to an object to be acted upon. Currently, the UN defines individuals with disabilities as “beneficiaries and agents of change in society and development,” which is consistent with the human rights model of disability (Division 3; Zhijiang 253). As revealed by the declarations, treaties, and legislation produced, the UN has shifted its perspective on individuals with disabilities from defining individuals with disabilities in terms of the medical model of disability to defining such individuals in terms of the human rights model of disability, which was comprehensively established by the CRPD. Originally, with the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, disability was framed as an “event” as opposed to an effect of the structure of society upon individuals whose bodies or minds differ from implied bodily norms (Universal Declaration 7). As a result, throughout the 1950s, addressing issues related to disability fell in the context of rehabilitation, social protection, and welfare.

With the adoption of the reports “Social rehabilitation of the physically handicapped” and “Social rehabilitation of the blind” by the Social Commission during its sixth session, rehabilitation programs designed for individuals with physical disabilities and/or blindness were promoted North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

by the Economic and Social Council (Division 6; “The United Nations”). Similarly, during the seventh and eighth sessions of the Social Commission, the focus remained on discussing and promoting rehabilitation for individuals with disabilities, including social rehabilitation and international rehabilitation for individuals with physical disabilities (“The United Nations”). In the 1960s, individuals with disabilities began to be defined as active social agents, as the focus shifted on treating issues surrounding individuals with disabilities as social problems (Zhijiang 255).

Subsequently, in 1975, with the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons, addressing disability from a human rights perspective began to emerge (Division 7). Within the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons, “disabled person” is defined as “any person unable to ensure by himself or herself, wholly or partly, the necessities of a normal individual and/or social life, as a result of a deficiency, either congenital or not, in his or her physical or mental capabilities” (Declaration). By this definition, although individuals with disabilities are defined in terms of being unable to secure “the necessities of a normal individual” and in possessing “a deficiency,” they are subjects with rights: the statement declares that “disabled persons, whatever the origin, nature and seriousness of their handicaps and disabilities, have the same fundamental rights as their fellow-citizens of the same age, which implies first and foremost the right to enjoy a decent life, as normal and as full as possible” (Declaration; Zhijiang 254).

As the first thematic human rights treaty on disability, the CRPD most comprehensively marks a movement away from the medical model of disability towards the social/ human rights model of disability. Receiving substantial input and engagement internationally in the drafting process, the CRPD was crafted as a means to “bring disability issues into the mainstream of international human rights law and discourse” and promote the full inclusion of individuals with disabilities in their communities by removing barriers they face (Petersen 612). With the first World Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Summit on Disability in 2000 in Beijing, the first steps were taken towards developing the CRPD; the call for an international human rights treaty of CRPD caliber occurred with the creation of the Beijing Declaration on the Rights of People with Disabilities in the New Century. Subsequently, the Mexican government introduced and adopted a resolution at the UN General Assembly in 2001, establishing the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities and calling for the contributions of States, NGOs, and others regarding the development of the CRPD (Petersen 613). From 2002 to 2006, the Ad Hoc Committee met to begin the drafting process with substantial contributions from civil society in-person and through the Internet (Petersen 613-614).

In December 2006, the CRPD and the Optional Protocol,

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providing procedures on making individual complaints and inquiries regarding the implementation of the CRPD by State Parties, were approved by the United Nations General Assembly, and on March 30, 2007, the CRPD was open for ratification (Petersen 618).

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n March 30, 2007, China signed the CRPD. However, before the CRPD could enter into force, twenty nations needed to ratify the treaty (Convention 30). Although past international human rights treaties had taken years to receive enough ratifications to enter into full force, the CRPD garnered enough support by April 3, 2008, resulting in the CRPD and the Optional Protocol to the CRPD entering into force on May 3, 2008 (Petersen 618-619).

The difference between signing the CRPD and ratifying the CRPD is important to note. When a State signs the CRPD, the State is not bound to fully implement the treaty.

However, the State is obligated not to act in such a way that would go against the fundamental purpose of the treaty (Vienna Convention). Once a State has signed the CRPD, they may proceed to ratify, accept, or approve the treaty.

Ratification of the CRPD is the binding agreement where the State consents to be bound by and to fully implement the treaty. States who ratify the CRPD may also nominate representatives to serve on the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities overseeing the implementation of the treaty by State Parties, States who have ratified the treaty.

Since China only initially signed the CRPD, China was not bound to implementation of the principles therein.

Concerned with international perception, however, China quickly moved towards ratification. September of 2007, the Vice President of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF) and Vice Secretary of the State Council Working Committee on Disability indicated that China was working towards ratifying the CRPD and was beginning to reform domestic legislation relating to individuals with disabilities in preparation for such, including implementing Regulations on Employment of People with Disabilities and reforming the 1990 Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons (Petersen 619). By April 2008, the amendments to the 1990 Law were passed, and the reformed law entered into force on July 1, 2008. By June 2008, confident in the reforms made to the 1990 Law and otherwise, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress ratified the CRPD but not the Optional Protocol, officially committing China to adhere to the principles of the CRPD without authorizing implementation of the additional procedures within the Optional Protocol to the CRPD (Petersen 621).

Considering that the reforms enacted reflected the medical model of disability, portraying individuals with disabilities as objects of welfare, it is clear that China was not prepared to proceed towards ratification of the CRPD. After the reformation of the 1990 Law, disability referred to “one who has abnormalities or loss of a certain

organ or function, psychologically or physiologically, or an anatomical structure and has lost wholly or in part the ability to perform an activity in the way considered normal.”

This definition delineates disability as derived solely from an individual’s bodily disfunction, which is consistent with the medical model of disability (“Law”). The 1990 Law also failed to define discrimination against individuals with disabilities, preventing the law’s enforcement. Although discrimination “on the basis of disability shall be prohibited,” discrimination “on the basis of disability” was not clearly defined (Petersen 620). A number of other articles within the reformed version of the 1990 Law raise concerns. Article 36 imposes quotas on the number of individuals with disabilities a company must employ to receive tax benefits. Article 49 suggests that individuals with “no working capabilities, no legal fosterers or financial resources or whose fosters are incapable to provide for them” should be placed in “welfare homes or fostering institutions” (“Law”). Establishing quotas for employers and welfare homes and fostering institutions for individuals with disabilities as classified above does not promote inclusion of individuals with disabilities or work towards eliminating discrimination faced by individuals with disabilities, but rather promotes their image as objects of welfare.

As a result of ratifying the CRPD, China committed itself to developing a comprehensive report within a two-year period on the measures taken to realize the principles and purpose of the CRPD to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Petersen 621). Although remaining a signatory nation to the CRPD would have allowed China to approve of yet not bind itself to implementing the principles therein, China ratified the CRPD mainly due to its concern of international perception. In the summer of 2008, China hosted the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games in Beijing. Because of its desire to claim leadership in the disability rights movement in the Asia Pacific region where few States had ratified the CRPD, China ratified the CRPD despite the lack of legal and policy framework in place fulfilling the demands of the treaty (Petersen 622).

Remaining a signatory nation would have prevented China from participating in the Conference of State Parties to the Convention on October 31, 2008, a regular meeting of State Parties to the CRPD to “consider any matter with regard to the implementation of the present Convention,” and nominating an individual to serve on the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Convention 29). Ratifying the treaty in time to nominate an individual to serve on the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, China nominated Yang Jia, Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Founding Director of the Women’s Committee of China Association of the Blind. As a woman and the only nominee from East Asia, Yang Jia was swiftly elected to serve (“Jia Yang (China)” 1). Ratifying the CRPD, attending the first Conference of State Parties to the Convention, and nominating a Chinese national Fifth World

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to serve on the first Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities solidified China’s image as a leader in the disability rights movement in the Asia Pacific region and as a host for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2008.

However, in ratifying the CRPD, China did not commit itself to one integral part: China neither signed nor ratified the Optional Protocol to the CRPD, meaning that it is not subject to formal scrutiny from individuals, groups of individuals, and third parties. By Article 1 of the Optional Protocol to the CRPD, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities may “receive and consider communications from or on behalf of individuals or groups of individuals subject to its jurisdiction who claim to be victims of a violation by that State Party of the provisions of the Convention”; however, communication sent to the Committee may not be considered if such concerns “a State Party to the Convention that is not a party to the present Protocol.” If an individual or group of individuals claim to be victims of China’s failure to implement the CRPD, their complaint will not be considered or remedied through this outlet (Convention 32). Although China must submit comprehensive reports on its progress towards achieving the aims of the CRPD to the Committee, vital complaints from those tangibly effected by violations of the CRPD will not be considered extensively. From ratification comes implementation with formal consideration of the fundamental rights and basic interests of individuals with disabilities. Without ratification of the Optional Protocol, China’s progress towards fulfillment of the CRPD is stifled, considering the insufficient reforms made prior and continued discrimination faced by individuals with disabilities within China.

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t’s important to consider the definitions of “reasonable accommodation” and “language” within the CRPD. If “reasonable accommodation” is defined vaguely, individuals may find loopholes to escape its requirements. When defining “language” as that which is “spoken and signed,” as well as other “non spoken” forms, it is necessary to include other “non spoken” and unconventional linguistic forms that individuals with disabilities utilize as a means of communication (Convention 4). Individuals’ lives are affected by those who possess the power to define their being in and through legislation and by other modes.

Terminology serves as a means of negotiation; thus, it must be conceptually clear and operationally feasible. By conceptually clear, terms should comprehensively and inclusively be defined within a theoretical framework. By operationally feasible, terms must be able to be acted upon within reality; there must be a way to empirically evaluate if

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such terminology is effectively acting as demanded.1 Discrimination may also be defined as that that occurs “on the basis of disability.” The issue of intersectionality comes into play here in that women with disabilities experience discrimination that exceeds the sum total of discrimination on the basis of disability and discrimination on the basis of sex; children, being dependent on those who care for them, also fall within this space of ambiguity. By Article 2, discrimination specifically “on the basis of disability” refers to: “any distinction, exclusion or restriction on the basis of disability which has the purpose or effect of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal basis with others, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field. It includes all forms of discrimination, including denial of reasonable accommodation” (Convention 4).

Discrimination, and arguably disability, is that which results from individuals within society; and society, as it is structurally constructed, prevents individuals with disabilities from living “on an equal basis with others.”

The last two terms defined in Article 2 of the CRPD, reasonable accommodation and universal design, are terms of solutions. Reasonable accommodations are “necessary and appropriate modifications and adjustments not imposing a disproportionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to ensure to persons with disabilities the enjoyment or exercise on an equal basis with others of all human rights and fundamental freedoms” (Convention 4).

Although the definition of “reasonable accommodation” is inclusive, the language used to define “reasonable accommodation” as a means of negotiating that which “reasonable accommodation” demands for must be more specific. Reasonable accommodations should be afforded to individuals with disabilities as a way to ensure they may live on an equal basis with others; equality does not mean treating everyone the same or affording everyone the same accommodations. However, the language “disproportionate or undue burden” raises the question as to what is a “disproportionate or undue burden.”

Lastly, universal design is defined as “the design of products, environments, programmes and services to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without

1 To ensure the clarity of pertinent concepts within the CRPD, Article 2 serves as a means of defining certain salient terms, including communication, language, discrimination, reasonable accommodation, and universal design (Convention 4). For the purposes of the CRPD, communication is defined as that including “languages, display of text, Braille, tactile communication, large print, accessible multimedia as well as written, audio, plain-language, human-reader and augmentative and alternative modes, means and formats of communication, including accessible information and communication technology” (Convention 4). Both conceptually clear and operationally feasible, this definition serves to clarify communication through specific language.

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the need for adaptation or specialized design.” It is crucial to note that “universal design” is to “not exclude assistive devices for particular groups of persons with disabilities where this is needed,” which refers to implementing reasonable accommodations where universal design may not feasibly occur (Convention 4). This is a demand for systemic change, because individuals with disabilities should not have to request for accommodations: these essential accommodations should already be engrained in society. What is, however, “the greatest extent possible”? Considering the way societies are structured internationally, is implementing universal design limited to the creation of new structures or the establishment of reasonable accommodations within old structures for use by all? Physical structures and systems in society should have previously been developed considering those with bodily differences, because a society in which individuals with bodily differences can function in is a society in which the able-bodied may as well.

Although disability is not defined within Article 2 of the CRPD, the Preamble does suggest its meaning, demanding State Parties recognize that “disability is an evolving concept and that disability results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others” (Convention 1). In these terms, disability is defined as dynamic and interactive as opposed to solely medically or biologically derived (“The United Nations”). Disability as an “evolving concept” emphasizes the dynamic nature of disability: an individual does not have to chronically experience disability to be considered disabled. Additionally, this definition of disability emphasizes the origin of disability, particularly in interactions between people with “impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers” (Convention 1).

Within the statement of the CRPD’s purpose in Article 1, “persons with disabilities” are defined as inclusive of “those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.” This emphasizes disability as derived from interactions between individuals with bodily differences and societal barriers (Convention 4). In relation to implementation of the CRPD, terminology therein must be considered and adhered to with clarification provided by the United Nations, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, or other related entities.

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ithin the CRPD, Article 7 is directly concerned with addressing the rights of children with disabilities.

Section 1 reiterates the fact that State Parties must work towards ensuring children with disabilities enjoy basic human rights “on an equal basis with other children.”

Section 2 serves to emphasize that, although children with disabilities are dependents, their “best interests” are

of primary consideration in matters concerning them; children with disabilities are not mere objects of welfare but subjects with rights despite being minors dependent on others. Section 3 synthesizes Sections 1 and 2 in further emphasizing that children with disabilities are subjects with rights who deserve to be treated “on an equal basis with other children” (Convention 7-8).

On August 30, 2010, two years after the CRPD was promulgated in China, China submitted the first of three reports on its implementation of the CPRD to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as is required under Article 35 (Convention 26-27). Considering Article 7, China presented a number of measures taken to adhere to the principles on children with disabilities in relation to education, rehabilitation and social security, and the right for children with disabilities to participate in making decisions concerning their own being. However, despite China’s claim that the Chinese Government “fully protects the various rights of children with disabilities” and provides “special safeguards” in addition to allowing children with disabilities to “equally enjoy the same rights as other children,” the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities discovered a number of discrepancies between that presented by China through the initial report and that occurring in reality (“Implementation” 13-14).

In response, China cited numerous laws and programs, including the 1990 Law, the Compulsory Education Law, the Regulations on the Education of Persons with Disabilities, and the Programme for the Development of Chinese Children (2001-2010) (“Implementation” 13). Despite the number of laws, programs, and projects cited, children with disabilities do not enjoy the right to an education on an equal basis with other children in China because the Chinese Government’s primary approach to protecting this right was to provide compulsory schooling for children with disabilities, mainly children with physical disabilities or visual disabilities, through special schools instead of offering all children with disabilities the opportunity to attend regular schools to some degree (“Concluding” 6).

Fundamentally, the language within the laws cited indicate that the educational rights of children with disabilities are not being fully realized. The Compulsory Education Law provides that ordinary schools “shall admit to the classes corresponding to the levels of the disabled school-age children and adolescents who are capable of receiving regular education and provide them with aid in study and rehabilitation.” Similarly, under the 1990 Law, ordinary pre-, primary, and junior high schools “must accept children or juveniles with disabilities who are able to adapt themselves to life and study there”; this statement is specifically cited within China’s initial report. The issue here lies within the demand for adaptation: only children able “to adapt” to regular schools or receive “regular education” are able to attend regular schools (“Law”; “Compulsory”).

By definition, the expectation of adaptation for exercising Fifth World

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“human rights and fundamental freedoms” and “denial of reasonable accommodation” is discrimination. Developing reasonable accommodations and universal designs within regular schools and compulsory educational systems is essential to ensure the inclusion of children with disabilities in regular schools within China (Convention 4). Expecting adaptation directly violates the principles outlined and terminology defined within the CRPD. Furthermore, within the initial report, China specifically cited the “Central and Western Regions Special Education Schools Construction Project,” beginning in 2008 with the aim of constructing 1,160 special schools for children with disabilities (“Implementation” 13). Although establishing special schools provides the opportunity for children with disabilities to receive an education and be provided accommodations, inclusion of children with disabilities in society is prevented. Focusing on establishing special schools, as opposed to developing reasonable accommodations and universal designs within regular schools, prevents children with disabilities from realizing their human rights on an equal basis with other children. Moreover, in citing the Compulsory Education Law, China indicated that special schools should be established for children and adolescents “with visual disabilities, hearing and speech disabilities, and intellectual disabilities,” revealing the fact that only children with certain types of disabilities are even given the opportunity to attend a special school or receive compulsory education (“Implementation” 38).

Additionally, evidencing the claim that the right for children with disabilities to receive rehabilitation services and social security is protected, China similarly cited a number of programs and projects from the Programme for the Development of Chinese Children (2001-2010) to “Tomorrow Plan: Operations and Rehabilitation for Orphans with Disabilities” (“Implementation” 13). This does not, however, give sufficient consideration for the development of rehabilitation services and social security for children with disabilities in rural areas; the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities expressed a concern in their review of China’s initial report of the “lack of community-based services and assistance” available for children with disabilities in rural areas (“Concluding” 2-3).

Considering the vast majority of children with disabilities live in rural areas, China’s failure to provide opportunities for them to receive support and compensation of this nature is directly inhibitory, preventing China from fully realizing the rights of children with disabilities (Children 123).

Regarding protecting the right for children with disabilities to participate in making decisions concerning their own being, China’s claim of adherence to the principles within the CRPD through the presentation of a domestic law is insufficient. Within the initial report, China states that the Law on the Protection of Minors ensures that “parents or other guardians shall inform the minors in question, taking into account their age and level North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

of intellectual development, and listen to their opinions” (“Implementation” 14). The language within the Law on the Protection of Minors cited merely reflects Article 7, Section 3 of the CRPD, providing no tangible indication as to how China has adhered to the CRPD in this respect.

Moreover, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities indicated that children with disabilities face the “risk of abandonment by their parents and are often placed in isolated institutions.” In reality, as in the case of the daughter of Yang Mouxiang, the best interests of children with disabilities are often not considered, resulting in abandonment, neglect, or even death (“Concluding” 2-3). Failing to address the abandonment of children with disabilities in favor of citing a law reiterating the language of the CRPD violates the fundamental principles outlined within the CRPD. Six years after submitting its initial report, China addressed the concluding observations and issues identified in the initial report with the submission of its combined second and third periodic reports. China has made some advances in securing the rights of children with disabilities, but further comprehensive measures must be taken.

Responding to concerns regarding providing the right to an education for children with disabilities, China amended the Regulations on the Education of Persons with Disabilities in 2017 (“Combined” 16). However, the Human Rights Watch revealed a number of lingering issues. Although promoting the integration of children with disabilities into the mainstream educational system by Article 3, Articles 17 through 21 reveal that the ability of a child to adapt to the mainstream school environment, ability to receive an education, and their physical condition are all factors that are considered by the Expert Committee on the Education of Persons with Disabilities in giving children with disabilities the opportunity to engage in the mainstream educational system (“Regulations”; “Regulation”; “China”). Accessibility challenges within schools, such as inaccessible bathrooms, and failure to provide reasonable accommodations to children with disabilities continues to pose an issue to full integration of children with disabilities into the mainstream educational system (“Submission”; “China”). In addition, addressing the concluding observations on the abandonment of children with disabilities in the periodic reports, China stated “abandonment of children with disabilities constitutes a criminal offence” and further mentioned that “a guidance document on strengthening the protection of children in difficulty” from 2016 demands integration of “child-oriented services into the community public-system” (“Combined” 25). Nonetheless, abandoning children constituted a criminal offence at the time the initial report and concluding observations were published. Fighting stigma surrounding children with disabilities requires more than just legislation and the demands of “a guidance document” (“Combined” 25; “Concluding” 3).

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atification and implementation of comprehensive legislation defining individuals with disabilities as subjects with rights is essential to move towards individuals with disabilities living on an equal basis with others.

Although originally defining individuals with disabilities utilizing the medical model of disability, the United Nations began defining individuals with disabilities in the context of the human rights model of disability through the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons in 1975 and, ultimately, the creation and promulgation of the CRPD and Optional Protocol thirty-two years later (Declaration; Petersen 612). In part concerned with international perception, China was among the first nations who signed the CRPD (Petersen 618). After reforming the 1990 Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons, China ratified the CRPD but not the Optional Protocol, preventing individuals, groups of individuals, and third parties under the jurisdiction of China victimized by violations to the CRPD from directly presenting complaints to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Convention 32; Petersen 621622).

Considering the language of the CRPD, and specifically those terms defined within Article 2, China’s violations of the CRPD in relation to children with disabilities, are apparent (Convention 4; “Implementation” 13-14). Article 7 demands that children with disabilities are able to enjoy fundamental human rights and freedoms on an equal basis with other children and have their best interests and own opinions considered in matters concerning their own being (Convention 7-8). China’s demand for the adaptation of children to regular schools and creation of special schools with consideration of only children with certain types of disabilities directly prevents children with disabilities from being fully included in mainstream society and living on an equal basis with other children (“Implementation” 13). Regarding the right for children with disabilities to receive rehabilitation services and social security, although China cited a number of different projects and programs implemented in the initial report, China did not give due consideration to children with disabilities in rural areas (“Implementation” 13; “Concluding” 2-3).

As for protecting the right for children with disabilities to participate in making decisions concerning their own being, only the Law on the Protection of Minors was cited, which merely reiterated Article 7, Section 3 of the CRPD without evidencing implementation of that demanded therein (“Implementation” 14). Furthermore, the best interests of children with disabilities are not taken into account, considering children with disabilities are at risk of abandonment by their parents or caregivers (“Concluding” 2-3). China did make advances in protecting the rights of children with disabilities after submitting the initial report, but further comprehensive measures must be taken.

The reality of “disability” has been primarily constructed based upon the needs of able-bodied individuals

internationally. The fact that individuals with bodily differences are prevented from living on an equal basis with able-bodied individuals reveals the need for systemic change. It is not naïve to demand for the eradication of discrimination on the basis of disability, the treatment of individuals disabled by society, by the interaction between their own bodies and social barriers, as active agents, and the consideration of children with disabilities, although dependent on others as minors, fully in matters concerning their own being. In ratifying the CRPD, China made the first step towards fully realizing the rights of individuals with disabilities. However, China must ratify the Optional Protocol to the CRPD, fully consider the carefully defined terminology within the CRPD, and properly implement the principles outlined in the CRPD with due consideration to the suggestions of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to ensure individuals with disabilities, children with disabilities, in China are able to live on an equal basis with others, with those able-bodied and uninhibited in this regard.

Fully addressing the barriers individuals and children with disabilities face is not solely an issue China has struggled to grapple with. According to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, ensuring individuals and children with disabilities are able to live on an equal basis with others is an international “moral imperative” (“Everyone”). Consider the United States. Despite aspirationally acting as the “city upon a hill,” the moral beacon for the international community, the United States has only ratified three of the nine core human rights treaties adopted by the United Nations (Kanter 301-302). Although modeled after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the CRPD has never been ratified by the United States. On July 30, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the CRPD and sought ratification to “reaffirm America’s position as the global leader on disability rights and better position us to encourage progress toward inclusion, equal opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic selfsufficiency for persons with disabilities worldwide” (Kanter 302, 332). However, on two separate occasions, December 2012 and July 2014, the Senate failed to gain enough votes to ratify the CRPD (Kanter 332-333). Ratifying the CRPD would not only further the ADA and the ADA Amendments Act but would also signify the United States’ desire to support international initiatives advancing the rights of individuals with disabilities domestically and abroad.

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Petersen, Carole J. “China’s Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: The Implications for Hong Kong.” Hong Kong Law Journal, vol. 38, 2008, pp. 611-643.

“Regulation on Education for Persons with Disabilities (2017 edition).” China Law Translate, 24 Feb. 2017.

Shen, Liying. Stigma Against Mental Illness and Cerebral Palsy in China. 2016. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, PhD dissertation. DASH. “Submission to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.” Human Rights Watch, 15 Apr. 2015.

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---. Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons. Resolution 3447 A, 9 Dec. 1975. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

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JSTOR.

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The EU at Crossroads: From Right-wing Populism to Illiberal Democracy Marco Barrientos

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emocracy is in crisis. For much of the last century leaders of the Western world parroted this claim, with freedom and prosperity’s boogie man being the communist or socialist ideals espoused and supposedly embraced by the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China. Despite the dissolution of the Communist Bloc nearly three decades ago, Russia and China remain prime political targets for Western politicians and are widely held as the greatest threats to national security in the free world. The influence of these two states is still of valid concern for many reasons, if not only for the dangerous ideologies associated with their regimes. Although Russia is no longer considered a geopolitical superpower, it has taken strides to undermine the dominance of democratic institutions, having been implicated in voter misinformation campaigns in the United States’ 2016 general election and corruption scandals in the European Union. Meanwhile, China’s increasing economic power has made the globe reliant on a regime that silences dissidents and imprisons minority populations.

Additionally, both Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have taken steps to consolidate power by rewriting their constitutions to lengthen their stay in office. Thus external threats to liberal democracy posed by autocratic leaders are as prevalent as ever, although the meager economic sanctions enacted in response to the trampling of individual freedoms in Hong Kong and infringements upon the sovereignty of Ukraine would suggest that Western democracies tolerate these illiberal societies, believing that the strength of their political institutions will safeguard liberal democracy from limited external affronts.

Democracy is in crisis, not from afar, but from within.

As is the case today, liberal democracies can coexist with illiberal autocracies. But a troubling marriage of the two has entered the sphere of Western politics in Europe: the illiberal democracy. While liberal democracies are characterized by free and fair elections, the rule of law, civil liberties, and separation of powers all upheld by strong institutions, political scientist Fareed Zakaria defined illiberal democracies in 1997 as governments which “gain legitimacy, and thus strength, from the fact that they are reasonably democratic” (Zakaria).

That is, these governments lay claim to the democratic label through the existence of free elections, but govern through institutions which may not defend equal access to political representation, enforce the rule of law equitably, or respect

its citizens’ civil liberties. Zakaria claimed that “democracy without constitutional liberalism is not simply inadequate, but dangerous,” producing governments that once elected take advantage of weak institutions to commit abuses of power, erode liberty, and produce ethnic divisions (Zakaria).

The distinction of constitutional liberalism is important, as without strong traditions of respect for individual rights enshrined in the national character, any freely elected party could at once begin to pick away at restrictions placed upon it; “constitutional liberalism has led to democracy, but democracy does not seem to bring constitutional liberalism,” as noted by Zakaria.

When Zakaria wrote his The Rise of Illiberal Democracy in 1997, he noted that illiberal democracy was a growing trend, though outside of Western democracy, which after the collapse of the Soviet Union was enjoying a democratizing moment. With a chance to unify Europe, the European Union became the strongest bastion of liberal democracy and remains so today, encompassing 27 European nations in a unique economic and political union governed by the principle of representative democracy, with states represented in the European Parliament and European Council, while the European Commission enacts legislation and the European Central Bank governs monetary policy (EU). These institutions safeguard the EU in its democratic experiment, defending the values of the EU -- human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law, and human rights -- and its ambitious goals to build a prosperous and unified Europe. This has enabled the establishment of such designs as the Schengen Area which allows free movement across internal borders for over 400 million EU citizens, and the Eurozone, a monetary union adopted by 19 member nations who use the Euro as a common currency (EU). The unity of the EU and its goals express the desire for a maximum approach to a liberally democratic Europe, but this goal has been imperiled by the resurgence of right-wing populist movements in European politics. The EU’s ideals of a unified, open, and inclusive Europe are directly at odds with right-wing populism, which embraces nationalism and xenophobia in opposition to the elites of the neoliberal EU who embrace open borders and immigration, and whose institutions infringe upon the idea of national sovereignty. The growing strength of these movements now threatens the Union with the introduction Fifth World

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of illiberal democracy as a means to survive in an institution increasingly at odds with its subject member states. Until recently the EU has allowed right-wing populism to fester under its nose and gain its unique identity and proclivity for illiberal democracy, spurred by the defining crises of the last decade: the European Debt Crisis as a part of the larger Global Financial Recession and the Migrant Crisis.

The impact of both these crises and the EU’s response to them has shaped and continues to influence European right-wing populist parties rhetoric and platforms. The European Debt Crisis led to increased rates of poverty and unemployment in EU countries that resulted in austerity measures and economic reform platforms imposed by organizations such as the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The less affluent nations of the EU are still struggling to recover. The Migrant Crisis then brought millions of migrants into Europe. National governments and the EU struggled to respond and at times have conflicted on measures to address the acceptance and resettling of the influx of migrants, with EU measures seen as having the capability to exacerbate the conditions of the Debt Crisis. EU membership criteria, economic, social, and political have placed heavy burdens on these nations and made them more beholden to external regulation. Both crises are still ongoing.

Under the perceived threats of the migrant crisis, desperate from dire economic forecasts, and disillusioned with both the leadership of the EU and national governments in response to these crises, many European voters have turned to relatively young right-wing populist parties that have played on eurosceptic concerns and xenophobic fears to enter the political mainstream. As a reflection of the power of this movement, one European Parliament political grouping, the “sovereigntist” Identity and Democracy Party, comprises 76 out of 705 members of parliament (Adams).

Under the leadership of the populist party Fidesz, Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán has proudly claimed his country to be an illiberal democracy (Kossow). Poland’s Law and Order party appears to be following his example in rewriting the country’s constitution, while La Lega’s Matteo Salvini of Italy has formed a close relationship to Orbán.

Greece, the EU’s hardest hit member nation in the financial crisis, saw the rise of the EU’s most violent far-right populist party, Golden Dawn. Nationalism is once again sweeping through Europe, electing right-wing populists to government in nearly every EU country (Barber). Populism relies on momentum from the people, which means that exploiting discontent is necessary for the survival of these parties. Establishing illiberal democracy, as seen in Hungary and Poland, then becomes a method by which these parties can remain in power. The EU’s prevailing crises enabled the rise of right-wing populist parties which seek to use the influence of fervent nationalism to subvert the EU’s founding democratic principles and take advantage of the

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Union’s parliamentary structure to establish sovereign illiberal democracies.

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ight-wing populist parties existed before the crises.

In Hungary, Fidesz was founded after the collapse of the communist regime as a liberal party, having roots in the anti-communist movement and as a sponsor of free speech (Rankin). It appears even then that the party’s leader Viktor Orbán, an opportunist, saw the appeal to navigating the muddier waters of nationalist politics. That Hungary did not have a strong tradition of constitutional liberalism made it all the more susceptible to right-wing movements. Orbán abandoned the ideals of liberalism, rebranding Fidesz as a “flagbearer of a new right-leaning middle class” when liberal ideals failed to win votes, and in 2006 he led protests against the Socialist government (Rankin). Organizing around populist ideals, Orbán became a champion of the people.

This strategy proved very effective; in 2010 Fidesz became the governing party with a supermajority in Hungarian parliament (Scheppele). Thus Hungary was in a unique position to use the rhetoric of right-wing populism to cement its leading position in domestic politics when the Debt and Migrant crises arrived.

The European Debt Crisis beginning in 2009 revealed the fraught nature of certain nations within the greater scope of the European Union. With such wealthy nations as Germany and France leading the EU economically, populations in Italy and Greece, two of the countries hit hardest by the crisis, experienced extreme frustration at the lack of support from the EU and its reserves, and began to question their relationship with the Union. Many Greeks and Italians believed that their governments were subject to all of the rules and regulations of the EU without many of the benefits. In Greece, unemployment in 2012 hit a record 23.1%, and Greece’s centrist government undertook “the most severe austerity measures in EU history” under its Central Bank and the IMF (Voss). These actions would heavily influence eurosceptic attitudes in Greece, but the government was not left unscathed, its EU friendly terms prior to the crisis being noted. As expected Greek politics became polarized, with most Greeks choosing to elect a new left-wing populist government. But one party -- Golden Dawn -- claiming to be “the only nationalist choice,” was gaining ground with the most desperate members of society (Smith). A far-right party, Golden Dawn existed on the fringes of Greek politics, too extreme in its ideology to join the mainstream and having less than 0.5% of the vote before Greece’s sovereign debt crisis (Smith). Golden Dawn benefited from its status as anti-establishment outsiders in a government that had capitulated to non-Grecian terms and betrayed its constituents to untold economic pain.

Government and eurosceptic resentment were allowed to manifest while the leftist government struggled to reject the terms of the EU and IMF, and the fringe-right became

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a more viable option. Golden Dawn began gaining traction, 16.6% of its voters being victims of record unemployment with no end in sight (Smith).

Italy too has been subject to the economic ailments of the debt crisis and the political afflictions of the EU. The country owes $2.3T in public debt, weighing down on French, German, British, Spanish, British, and Belgian banks; as well the number of Italians living in poverty has tripled since the crisis (Sullivan). As in Greece, high rates of unemployment and declining lifestyles made the angry eurosceptic platforms of the right-wing increasingly appealing. Italy’s economic struggle has made it more susceptible to the prospect of EU disciplinary processes for breaching regulations on its debt and budget. But the tendency of national governments to look out after their own citizens first put in jeopardy the delicate relationship between national sovereignty and inclusion in European free trade. “Italians First” nationalism is championed by La Lega, Italy’s growing right-wing populist movement that has rejected austerity measures and whose leader, Matteo Salvini, has directly blamed EU authority for having “ruined Europe and our country” and “made Italy poor” (Harlan). While in Greece the debt crisis led to a first-round pick of the left-wing populist movement, La Lega’s rhetoric has been effective enough to place it on equal footing with the ruling leftist Five Star Movement and in government positions of power (Niranjan).

The European Debt Crisis normalized eurosceptic attitudes and led European citizens in affected countries to question neoliberal ideals, their genuine sense of frustration with declining quality of life calling the European project into question. The crisis also prompted intrusions by the EU into national economic policy, which then brought the politics of complacent ruling parties into scrutiny in abandoning the idea of national sovereignty. But another crisis better explains the rise of right-wing populist parties over their left-wing counterparts, the Migrant Crisis. For right-wing populist movement’s nationalist traditions in Europe include not only euroscepticism but a high degree of xenophobia shaped by this crisis, which has additionally provided plenty of political fodder against the EU as well. With the debt crisis leaving many poor Europeans frustrated and looking for a scapegoat, right-wing populism has identified the millions of asylum seekers and refugees who have fled even worse quality of life conditions in Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe as the source of their ailments. Hungary’s Orbán has mastered this rhetoric in faulting both the EU and immigrants for causing most of Hungary’s modern challenges, and used the migrant crisis to strengthen Fidesz’s standing among the Hungarian people.

In 2015, Hungary had the highest proportion of asylum applications in proportion to its population in the EU, with nearly 1,800 refugees per 100,000 Hungarians (BBC News). Orbán took advantage of this political opportunity to increasingly focus party rhetoric on the threat posed by Muslim immigration to European identity

and culture. Orbán has characterized Europe’s identity as uniformly Christian, both historically and contemporarily, despite Hungary itself having a sizable Jewish population (Beauchamp). This has made Muslim immigrants into a threat to Western culture and the sovereignty of European nations, through violating borders as invaders opposed to ideals of national sovereignty and through retaining their traditions upon arrival as strangers posing a threat to the national identity. The arrival of migrants is further seen as undermining the liberties of citizens, introducing needs different from their own into national discourse, burdening social systems, and stealing jobs. In a reflection of increasing public anxiety over the Migrant Crisis, the percentage of Hungarians who viewed immigration as a top concern of the EU shot up from 19% to 68% in only a year according to a Eurobarometer poll (Beauchamp). Fidesz has acted on these fears, closing Hungary’s border with Croatia in 2015, and erecting a fence along Hungary’s southern border (BBC News). The right-wing populist response to immigration and appeal to xenophobia serves as a means to criticize liberal ideas such as diversity and open borders championed by the EU. No crisis goes to waste in an illiberal democracy, the ruling party taking efforts to undermine opposing ideals and strengthen their image through vanity projects such as fence-building. Indeed, in the same speech to the EU denouncing a decision that can “only be made by the Hungarian citizens” and criticizing the supposed Union entitlement to “formulating our taxation policy,” Orbán has blamed Angela Merkel and the EU for threatening European sovereignty through their imposition of mandatory quotas in an effort to resettle Europe’s refugees, (Orbán).

Mandatory migration quotas were introduced as a method to redistribute refugees among the EU, easing their burden on two states, Italy and Greece. The influx of migrants along the southern regions of these two countries greatly boosted the rise of their populist parties. Italy’s La Lega was formed originally as a northern secessionist party, advocating for the separation of Italy’s more industrial northern provinces from the south, derided as lazy and inferior (Niranjan). As opportunistic as Fidesz, Lega abandoned one xenophobic tradition for another as it strove to become a nationalist party, using fear of the immigrant wave as a uniting factor, reconciling north and south.

La Lega can still be considered a secessionist party in the given context of its anti-EU stance, switching out Rome for Brussels in its bid for power. The anti-establishment stance has been solidified by the arrival of migrants to Italy, which has been viewed as a consequence of the EU’s open border policy and denounced as disastrous to Italy’s floundering economy, but has of course proved beneficial to La Lega in furthering xenophobic and eurosceptic discourse in Italian politics. Salvini has likened African migrants to slaves and dismissed accusations of racism as an “invention of the left.”

Coinciding with Lega’s xenophobic comments has been a rise in hate crimes both related and unrelated to migrants, such Fifth World

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as anti-semitic attacks (ECRI). Words have consequences, when politicians communicate a sense of job insecurity and “cultural upheaval,” the threat of radicalization becomes immense (Niranjan).

With worse economic conditions in Greece, the vitriol of the right-wing populist Golden Dawn becomes greater, yet more appealing. The anti-immigrant stance of the Greek party has exploited the perception of large waves of immigrants on Greece’s southern shores, stoking fears that “Greeks could soon become a minority in their own country” (Smith). Although sounding like an absurd claim, high emigration and low birth rates due to poor economic prospects, paired with the constant media obsession over boatloads of Syrian refugees in Europe’s greatest humanitatian crisis of the 21st century leave some Greek citizens vulnerable to Golden Dawn’s xenophobic rhetoric.

Desperate Greeks lashed out in attacks on immigrants, anarchists, and communists as Golden Dawn’s influence increased within the government (Iordanou). The latter two victims of right-wing populist provocations in Greece reveal that its situation is even more politically fraught, with the combination of the two prevailing crises birthing extremism and causing concern for the survival of the EU’s liberal values.

The introduction of migrants into the EU is seen as undermining the economy, already in dire condition from the EU debt crisis. Many are worried that immigrants will saturate the already struggling job market, stealing jobs, driving wages lower, and relying on government benefits, taking advantage of welfare policies meant for natives of each nation. Many are being led to believe that their livelihoods and status in society, weakened by the debt crisis, will further be eroded by refugees with foreign cultures perceived to be incompatible with their own. Following the influence of Fidesz’s Hungary, right-wing populist parties are striving to shape ethnonationalist identities that lend well to the creation of illiberal states, reducing the status of immigrants to criminals and thieves in an effort to convince the least fortunate members of their society that their economic security is under threat by what is seen to be a result of external EU influence. Additionally, mandatory quotas and economic demands imposed by the EU are constructed as an affront to national sovereignty and allow for the creation of the EU as an organization of neoliberal elites and influences that seek to forcefully subject Europe to liberal ideals such as cultural diversity that are perceived as backwards and dangerous, irrespective of national citizens cultures and needs.

Most evidence suggests right-wing populist rhetoric is succeeding. In Italy La Lega was awarded 17.4% of the vote in its most recent national elections, while opinion polls have it set at 32 percent support, greater than any other Italian party; Lega achieved this by making strides in the south where the effects of immigration have been the strongest (Niranjan). Hungary appears to have been successful in North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

consolidating its support, shaping Hungarian’s outlook on national security to fit the Fidesz platform and enabling the party to enact its subversion of democratic institutions and implement illiberal democracy. Orbán currently holds approval from 71% of the country on his handling of the migrant crisis, while only a quarter of Hungarians have said the same of the EU (Manevich). According to the Pew Research Center, Hungarians have become less tolerant of refugees, with “eight-in-ten believing them to be a burden on Hungary,” taking jobs and social benefits (Manevich).

In the European Union, Fidesz belongs to the largest party with 182 of 751 seats, while the right-wing populist alliance to which Lega belongs, the newly founded Identity and Democracy, secured 73 of 751 seats, marking efforts by nationalists to gain control in the EU and be able to dictate both its direction and limit its influence on their respective nations’ sovereignty (EU).

With right-wing populist strategies meeting success in both national and European parliamentary elections as the crises continue, it seems unlikely that the trajectory of increasing xenophobic rhetoric in the EU will slow.

However, examining the situation in Greece, the most extreme aspects of the movement may warrant reconsideration by its proponents in their strategy to build popular support. At the height of the migrant crisis, Golden Dawn was able to garner 7% of the vote in the national election, up from less than 0.5%, and with the largest share of the unemployed electorate. For identical reasons to Italy, it made strong showings in Greece’s southern regions (Nardelli). But it appears that the populist experiment is over. In Greece’s most recent election in 2019, the governing left-wing populist party was voted out in favor of a return to centrism after failing to deliver on promises to defy EU imposed austerity measures. Golden Dawn suffered the same fate, losing all 18 out of 300 seats that it had gained in 2015 (Smith). With its EP representatives and national politicians abandoning the party because of violent crimes committed by its supporters such as the murder of an anti-fascist Greek artist and the televised assault by a Golden Dawn spokesperson of two women who criticized the party, it appears that the right-wing populist movement is Greece is all but dead (Smith). There are limits to the amount of extremist ideology a population will accept, even its most desperate members, and Golden Dawn could not uphold such precarious momentum without risking reckless political conflict.

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Figure 1. A government sponsored billboard stressing the urgency of halting the hordes of migrants on Hungary’s border complements a Fidesz campaign poster for Viktor Orbán.

Figure 2. A blog post from 2014 by Italy’s newly elected prime minister compares the EU to Nazi Germany.

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t the risk of losing the momentum that defines their movement, right-wing parties must solidify their presence. Hungary has shown that European right-wing populist parties in power can entrench their political positions through constitutional subversion and the erosion of pluralism, rewriting election laws, hijacking the media, and reshaping the electorate in violations of basic democratic principles and approaching illiberal democracy. Much of this has been made possible through Hungary’s vilification of neoliberals, the EU, and immigrants. Their perceived threat towards Hungarian sovereignty and culture has been used as a crutch by Orbán to perpetuate a state of crisis, allowing Fidesz to make changes to the Hungarian constitution and giving credence to illiberal democracy as a modern system of political governance.

Hungary took its first steps towards illiberal democracy when Fidesz won a supermajority -- or two-thirds of seats -- in Hungarian parliament in 2010, the threshold to rewrite the constitution by parliamentary vote (Beauchamp).

This put Fidesz in a unique position, allowing the party to unilaterally draft legislation without having to engage in discussion or compromise with other political parties.

Thus, Fidesz was free to rewrite the Hungarian constitution to benefit the party platform and be in accord with right-

wing populist ideals, obtaining a grip on power that would allow it to rule Hungary unilaterally and begin to shape the political terms. This is exactly what Orbán’s Fidesz did, with the result being that today little distinction remains between Fidesz as a party and the effective government of Hungary.

The Fidesz parliamentary bloc began its assault on Hungary’s liberal democracy by reshaping the governing institutions so crucial to liberal democracy to benefit its bloc; despite having only two thirds of the government, Fidesz sought to control the whole, enabling it to enshrine illiberalism under the rule of law.

The government takeover was done entirely by legal terms. First, parliament was halved in size, with representative changes meaning that each individual constituency would have to be redrawn (Scheppele). Districts were redrawn and gerrymandered to undermine the power of “liberal bastions,” such as the capital city of Budapest, and to overrepresent districts in the more conservative countryside. This was done so effectively that in Hungary’s 2018 election Fidesz still held its two-thirds majority despite only receiving 49% of the total vote (Beauchamp). Fidesz offered another layer of protection to their electoral dominance by writing these new districts directly into the constitution. Fidesz’s parliament then had exclusive jurisdiction over redrawing districts in an abandonment of the ideal of separation of powers. Hungary’s constitutional court was expanded, then filled by Orbán with Fidesz loyalists confirmed by the parliament, while the retirement age for judges was lowered in order to accelerate Fidesz stacking of the courts (Scheppele). In a wholly constitutional manner Fidesz took possession of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches in an affront to constitutional liberalism; its supermajority as a populist party then made these acts entirely defensible to its critics, the popular will of the people having elected them to power and enabled them to enact constitutional reform. The only crime committed was that the ousted Socialist party had been out of touch with the people, and the people had judged them accordingly.

Although Hungary had slid towards illiberalism, it was still a liberal society. A capable opposition to Fidesz still existed, equipped with dangerous civil liberties that threatened to undermine the influence of the party over the people.

Naturally the focus of illiberal action turned towards the independent media, a strong tradition of liberal democracy that Orbán himself had championed in his anti-communist years. Thus he knew the threat it posed to a party seeking not only to maintain absolute control of the government, but a “central political forcefield” (Beauchamp). Fidesz created the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (or NMHH) as an expression of the state over the media, with Hungary’s state broadcaster being the first entity to be put under its jurisdiction with its editorials mirroring Fidesz positions (MWBP). The existence of a state broadcaster itself reflected the weak traditions of constitutional liberalism in Hungary and perhaps made the rest of the media more Fifth World

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vulnerable to Fidesz intrusions into the free press. However, the NMHH was not at the forefront of tactics to rein in the media. In an example of increasing crony capitalism within democratically backsliding Hungary, Fidesz used the full economic power of the state to pressure private media corporations to sell either to the state or to Orbán allies. Economic pressures included selective withholding of government advertising funds, blocking private mergers, and imposing punitive taxation measures on advertisement revenue, through which most newspapers remain profitable (MWBP). By 2017, the state and Fidesz allies controlled 90% of all Hungarian media including every regional newspaper (LSE). A mix of state and “private” control of the media is important in giving the impression that the free press is alive and well within Hungary. Those not belonging to the Fidesz beneficial media empire can denounce the state of private media institutions within the country but their very existence, permitted by the state, is used to justify the continued operation of independent media within Hungary.

Orbán claims the state to be illiberal, not autocratic. If any of these media entities becomes too large or is deemed a threat, it will be quickly subjected to crushing regulation and divulged from its ownership. Meanwhile the control of regional newspapers is crucial in communicating the party platform to Orbán’s most supportive base in rural Hungary.

It is the purported existential threat to Hungarian traditions posed by Muslim migrants that provide Fidesz with loyal voters and legitimized the transition to illiberal democracy in undermining the Fidesz opposition which would lay Hungary bare to external forces.

Pluralism has been done away with in Hungary in an illiberal manner; opposition parties still exist and remain politically active, but their influence has gradually tapered off. Opposition lawmakers are still elected to Hungarian parliament but the supermajority impedes them from enacting meaningful legislation without Fidesz support. In reality only half of the country supports Fidesz, the electoral system having been structured to unfairly represent their popularity in government through techniques including, but not limited to, gerrymandering. The state owned media then takes this electoral data to skew the image of widespread support for Fidesz. As long as Fidesz accommodates the existence of opposition parties, it will have to constantly oppose their efforts, although this opposition has been made more effective through its media dominance. While suppressing the opposition at home, Fidesz has concurrently endeavored to expand its base abroad, reshaping the electorate by extension of voting rights and social benefit payments to ethnic Hungarians outside of Hungary. Over one million ethnic Hungarians benefitting from these citizenship rights make up about 10% of the electorate and vote for Fidesz’s agenda -- and the continuation of Hungarian social benefit payments -- at a rate of 95% (Bayer). Such an effort by the state to weaken

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a segment of the population of the electorate at home in favor of ethnic Hungarians abroad reeks of mass clientelism, with state funds from a struggling nation being exported in exchange for political favor that ensures the absolute majority of Fidesz, allowing it to continue to speak on behalf and claim to represent the needs of a segment of its population that it has significantly disenfranchised through constitutional subversion of democratic principles.

While many of its illiberal tactics have been awarded a sense of legitimacy due to their adherence to a mercurial constitution, Fidesz has been caught engaging in direct violations of its constitution: in the 2018 national elections, it was accused of committing electoral fraud; in competitive electoral districts, it was accused of propping up “bogus parties” in order to undermine the opposition (Scheppele). Forged duplicate signatures of Fidesz aligned voters appeared on the voter rolls of these smaller parties, with many of them having received funding directly from Fidesz itself (OSCE). With the overwhelming majority of these parties parroting platforms similar to the left-wing opposition, their confusion of the electorate -- splitting genuine opposition votes -- revealed the intent of their creation to be another Fidesz opposition suppression tactic. Hungarian Parliamentary elections have thus been characterized as democratically unsound, with right-wing populism inherently opposing pluralism, hijacking the state apparatus in an effort to suppress civil society. The combined tactics undertaken by Fidesz to formally replace certain aspects of its short-lived liberal democracy have resulted in the creation of an illiberal one, without having to resort to more autocratic measures such as violently crushing dissent and creating technical one party rule.

While Hungary has demonstrably adhered to its own constitution in its achieved goal of illiberal democracy, the same cannot be said in respect to its adherence to the EU’s founding principles, which have been abandoned or rejected in its pursuit of national sovereignty. In 2018 Fidesz stood accused by the Sargentini Report of posing a “systemic threat” to the European Union’s fundamental principles, with concerns about restrictions on freedom of the press and, subversion of the electoral system and the constitution being chief among the accusations brought forth in a motion to suspend certain rights of Hungary as a member state under Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union (Beswick). EU criticism and censuring of the Fidesz government for its affronts to liberal democracy have only emboldened Orbán’s rhetoric at home, serving as a prime example of the overreach of the European Union into Hungarian affairs. attempts by the EU to limit Hungarian influence as punishment for its threat to the rule of law and violation of electoral guidelines play directly into the hands of the right-wing populist message. Fidesz’s loyal voters fear any external intrusion upon Hungarian society, whether from migrants or from the EU, and Fidesz media spin of the

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Sargentini Report as emblematic of the existence of these threats have helped bolster eurosceptic furor.

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he European Union is then faced with a seemingly contradictory dilemma: the existence of an illiberal democracy within the borders of its liberal federation. As a relatively new but dangerous threat to the fundamental principles of the EU, the rise of such governments as Hungary’s confronts the Union with increasing pressure on its political institutions and founding ideals, undermining its attempt to build a cohesive European state. Despite all of the affronts to basic democratic principles and liberal society, right-wing populist parties have been able to maintain legitimacy through their association with more respectable political entities, forging alliances that shield them from many of the consequences of their intrusions upon ideals of liberal democracy and violations of EU law itself.

Hungary’s Fidesz has taken advantage of its membership within the EU’s largest party, the EPP, in order to further its illiberal democracy without fear of repercussions from the EU. The European People’s Party is the dominant transnational alliance within the EU, holding the largest share of seats within the Union and enjoying the benefits that come with this plurality, such as greater allotted time in parliamentary debates and influence over the share of EU funding which it receives (Kelemen). The EPP’s dominance extends across the regulatory body, with its members holding the presidencies of the European Commission, European Council, and European Parliament (Baume). The party is centre-right politically, and strives for a united Europe based on values such as democracy and transparency. Despite being at odds with the direction of the majority of the liberally democratic parties of the EPP, the European People’s Party has allowed Fidesz to retain its membership in the alliance because the EPP relies on Fidesz’s European Parliamentary representation to secure its dominant position within the Union. The symbiotic relationship between the EPP and Fidesz has placed the liberal governments of the Union in a position where they are enabling the growth of illiberal democracy in the Union by defending parliamentary values.

Despite the constant antagonistic rhetoric towards the EU that has emanated from Orbán and the Fidesz party platform, Fidesz has not attempted to distance itself from its European parliamentary alliance, nor the EU itself.

Eurosceptic rhetoric has proved useful in stoking the fear of foreign influence and eurosceptic attitude domestically, but has not manifested as concrete action against the Union. Orbán has carefully trodden a fine line, knowing that the benefits of EU membership greatly serve Fidesz. By posturing the EU as an enemy of the people but accepting its economic aid, Fidesz runs little risk at home from manipulating its position in the Union, while a resulting expulsion would only serve to reinvigorate its base.

Fidesz has placed EPP and EU leadership in a more difficult situation when justifying their alliance in terms of EU ideals. When the Sargentini Report turned public opinion against Fidesz through exposing its “systematic threat” to the EU’s fundamental principles and renewed calls for its expulsion from the EPP, the alliance’s leadership was merely content with temporarily suspending its membership (Baume). It appears that party leaders were willing to set aside their concern for the well being of the union and its fundamental democratic values in order to further their partisan interests. To punish Fidesz would be to punish their own governments at home, losing their influence in European Union affairs. One of the criticisms lobbied at Fidesz when facing expulsion accurately noted that its most recent national elections were characterized by “a pervasive overlap between state and ruling party resources,” undermining the ability of the opposition to compete fairly (Beswick). With Hungary receiving large amounts of EU subsidies in no small part influenced by its membership in the EPP, EU funds can then be identified as in part perpetuating the abuses of Fidesz. The subversion of civil liberties and the rule of law in Hungary then is not of concern to the EPP, but something which has benefited its position as the ruling EU party. The dominance of the EPP is now reliant on illiberal democracy in Hungary, with Fidesz experiencing only benefits from its relationship with the EU, accepting its funds to further its consolidation power while lambasting the organization at home in order to gain popular support.

The EPP is not alone in this perversion of EU values.

Leaders of the Eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists, home to the British Conservative party, have defended the Polish PiS as it has followed Hungary’s model of illiberal democracy and attacked institutions upholding the rule of law in Poland (Kelemen). Meanwhile, the arrival of far-right populism into the mainstream discourse of EU party politics has been hailed by the rise of Identity and Democracy composed of Italy’s Lega and nine other nationalist parties from all across Europe in the most recent European parliamentary elections. When Fidesz was facing the threat of expulsion by the European People’s Party, Viktor Orbán remarked that “we are the EPP’s most successful party” (Baume). If this success is measured by the undermining of party values such as liberal democracy and rule of law, Fidesz might indeed be the EU’s most successful party.

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lliberal democracy has arrived in the West and cemented its place in the most liberal society in contemporary existence, on the heels of the growth industry of right-wing populism spurred by the two defining European crises of the last decade. Faced with dire economic crises and foreign influences threatening to undermine the Western order,

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the people chose populism, revealing the fragility of the European project nearly as much as the Debt and Migrant Crises which prompted their rise. In regions where threats to quality of life were the most dire, right-wing populism was championed for its eurosceptic and xenophobic attitudes which sought to reject foreign influence in a reinvigoration of nationalism.

The prevailing crises of the European project have left democracy in the European Union in a precarious place, with movements throughout Europe scattered across the democratic spectrum. The last decade has also revealed that the attitude of Western democracies towards illiberal societies existing outside of its borders is no less apathetic than that shown towards illiberal societies which have arisen from within. With economically insignificant countries such as Hungary and Poland as the hallmarks of illiberal society in the West, much more attention has been paid instead to the waves of right-wing populism sweeping through Greece, Italy, France, Finland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, and many more countries throughout the West. Illiberal democracy remains on the fringes, operating best without scrutiny as its governments seek to subvert the rule of law and silence rather than crush the opposition. In Hungary’s case, it seems as if Zakaria’s concept has been co-opted by Orbán and Fidesz, with illiberal democracy increasingly appearing to be doublespeak for autocracy. If few in the West have noticed the rise of illiberal societies in the West’s East -- with modest attempts in Britain and the US grabbing headlines -- then even fewer will have taken note that the European Union has fostered the growth of these illiberal democracies in its European parliament, with economic powerhouses such as Germany taking advantage of the precarious democratic situations in order to gain influence in the Union. In fact, it appears that the dream of a diverse, tolerant, and open Europe was just that, subordinated to its more important goal of economic competition with the United States and China. As shown by Orbán, liberal ideals are dispensable in the face of partisan politics and global economic interests.

Whatever hope remains for a united Europe relies on the EU’s ability to come together and condemn movements that are incompatible with its fundamental principles. Surely the Union can survive with liberal and illiberal societies side by side: the European People’s Party formed a relationship that benefits each of its member parties. But such a union would be fraught and vulnerable to the tides of change, and it seems almost impossible to predict what crisis might threaten the West next. If that crisis is posed by illiberal society, it will have been of its own making.

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Adams, David. “Identity and Democracy Group: United on the Outside, Divided on the Inside?” Le Portail De Référence Pour L’espace De Liberté, Sécurité Et Justice, 27 June 2019.

Barber, Tony. “Europe’s Diminished Far Right Still Poses a Threat.” Subscribe to Read | Financial Times, Financial Times, 23 May 2019.

Baume, Maïa de La. “Donald Tusk: EPP Will Decide on Fidesz Expulsion ‘at the End of January’.”

POLITICO, POLITICO, 21 Nov. 2019.

Baume, Maïa de La, et al. “Europe’s Center Right Won’t Expel Orbán, Leader Says.” POLITICO, POLITICO, 18 Apr. 2019.

Bayer, Lili. “Viktor Orbán Courts Voters beyond ‘Fortress Hungary’.” POLITICO, POLITICO, 24 Aug. 2017.

BBC News. “Migrant Crisis: Migration to Europe Explained in Seven Charts.” BBC News, BBC, 4 Mar. 2016.

BBC News. “Migrant Crisis: Why EU Deal on Refugees Is Difficult.” BBC News, BBC, 25 Sept. 2015.

Sargentini, Judith. “REPORT on a Proposal Calling on the Council to Determine, Pursuant to Article 7(1) of the Treaty on European Union, the Existence of a Clear Risk of a Serious Breach by Hungary of the Values on Which the Union Is Founded.” Europarl.europa.eu, Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, 7 Apr. 2018.

Scheppele, Kim Lane. “Hungary, An Election in Question, Part 2.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Feb. 2014.

Smith, Helena. “After Murder, Defections and Poll Defeat: the Sun Sets on Greece’s Golden Dawn.”

The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 21 Sept. 2019.

Smith, Helena. “Neo-Fascist Greek Party Takes Third Place in Wave of Voter Fury.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 20 Sept. 2015.

Smith, Helena. “Greek Golden Dawn MP Assaults Female Politicians on TV Talkshow.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 7 June 2012.

Sullivan, Arthur. “Debt and Doom Loops: The Eurozone’s Italian Nightmare: DW: 27.08.2019.”

DW.COM, 27 Aug. 2019.

Beauchamp, Zack. “It Happened There: How Democracy Died in Hungary.” Vox, Vox, 13 Sept. 2018.

Voss, Jason. “European Sovereign Debt Crisis: Overview, Analysis, and Timeline of Major Events.”

CFA Institute Enterprising Investor, 4 Oct. 2018.

Beauchamp, Zack. “White Riot.” Vox, Vox, 19 Sept. 2016.

Zakaria, Fareed. “The Rise of Illiberal Democracy.” Foreign Affairs, 1 Nov. 1997.

Beswick, Emma. “What Does the Sargentini Report Accuse Hungary of?” Euronews, 10 Sept. 2018.

Harlan, Chico. “Behind Italy’s Fiscal Fight with Europe, a Populist Pledge for an Economic JumpStart.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 11 Nov. 2018.

Harlan, Chico. “The Testy Marriage at the Center of Italy’s Government.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 7 Mar. 2019.

Iordanou, George. “Golden Dawn Is Growing – Europe Must Help Curb the Rise of the Far Right | George Iordanou.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 19 Sept. 2013.

Iordanou, George. “Golden Dawn Is Growing – Europe Must Help Curb the Rise of the Far Right | George Iordanou.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 19 Sept. 2013.

Kelemen, Daniel. “Europe’s Pet Autocrats.” Aspen Institute Central Europe, Feb. 2018.

Kossow, Niklas. “Transparency International Knowledge Hub.” Knowledge Hub, Transparency International, 28 Jan. 2019.

Kossow, Niklas. “Transparency International Knowledge Hub.” Knowledge Hub, Transparency International, 28 Jan. 2019.

LSE. “The State of Hungarian Media: Endgame.” Media@LSE, The London School of Economics and Political Science, 29 Aug. 2017.

Manevich, Dorothy. “Hungary Less Tolerant of Refugees, Minorities than Other EU Nations.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 30 Sept. 2016.

MWBP. “What Happened to the Hungarian Media?” Meanwhile in Budapest, 6 Dec. 2018.

Nardelli, Alberto. “The Italian Prime Minister’s New EU Adviser Compared The EU To Nazi Germany.” BuzzFeed News, BuzzFeed News, 13 June 2018.

Niranjan, Ajit. “Italian Populists Sue Black Politician for Calling Their Anti-Immigrant Party Racist: DW: 03.10.2018.” DW.COM, 3 Oct. 2018.

Orbán, Viktor. “Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Speech in the European Parliament.” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Speech in the European Parliament | Embassy of Hungary Berne, Embassy of Hungary.

Orbán, Viktor. “Viktor Orbán Denounces the Blackmail of the EU – FULL SPEECH.” Visegrád Post, Visegrad Post, 11 Sept. 2018.

Rankin, Jennifer. “How Hungarian PM’s Supporters Profit from EU-Backed Projects.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 12 Feb. 2018.

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Interrogating the Analytical Modeling Processes Ingrained in Government Institutions Under a Frame of Foucauldian Biopolitics Rohit Jagga

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or one unfamiliar with the texts of Michel Foucault, a reference to the term “biopower” might seem as nothing but a conjunction of some sort between life (from “bio-”) and its external control in some form. At its deepest core, this concept served as an important foundation for Foucault’s later philosophical work. From relative simplicity, his texts continually reshaped and restructured what was originally meant by “biopower” to a present a complex system of power relationships that penetrate deep into the reaches of modern society and its people. Foucault’s rather abstract notions of biopolitical power relations can thus offer an unexpected new perspective on the concrete power dynamics institutions use in structuring our modernday lives.

In this paper, we will suggest that government institutions’ use of modeling processes to maintain a purported level of knowledge about its populace is an appropriate subject for inquiry through the lens of Foucault’s framework of biopolitics. By the term ‘modeling processes’, we mean that this paper will interrogate the implicit assumptions underlying how power flows from societal institutions to their subjects through the vehicle of statistical analysis and quantification. We first draw from Diaz-Bone’s (2019) work to explain how the increasing “datafication and quantification” of modern society justifies a further investigation into how power has been shaped in response to this modern societal trend.

Next, we move into a discussion of our methodology for a Foucauldian analysis of modeling processes in greater rigor. Here, we establish a five-step system for conducting our Foucauldian analysis from the work of Kendall and Wickham (1999), which will rely on our identification of a relevant discursive system through which our analytical modeling processes of study function, in this case being the mathematical discourse and its associated rhetoric (Neyland 2014). Taken with McBride’s (1989) argument for the inherently biopolitical relationship between power and the establishment of “knowledge” as they manifest in government institutions, we provide the necessary justifications to support the viability of our Foucauldian analysis of analytical modeling processes.

North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

From this argument, our paper then moves into an analysis of a particular modeling process, namely congressional redistricting and the prevalence of “gerrymandering”, a historical summary for which we provide in the following section. As is critical to the subject of this study, we apply Foucault’s framework of biopolitics in Kendall and Wickham’s (1999) methodological fashion, taking care to establish the mathematical discourse, identify how congressional redistricting practices have been steeped in the rhetoric of said discourse, and how this discursive system has in reverse influenced the power structures that governments put in place through congressional redistricting.

By the end of our paper, we will have substantively shown that the closed mathematical discourse through which government institutions employ their analytical modeling processes like congressional redistricting is inherently an obfuscation of power, which our Foucauldian analysis suggests is reflective of the broader biopolitical framework that institutions of power function under in their attempts to control and regulate the lives of their populace.

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athematical modeling is rarely viewed as relevant to discussions of governance and the populace, but the rapid technological advancement of society has made such a discussion necessary. Diaz-Bone (2019) writes, “Datafication and quantification have invaded not only the public sphere (mass media and state activities), but also the private sphere – making individuals, groups and whole populations visible for different kinds of actors as private enterprises exploiting these ‘personal data’ for their economic interest.” Even in restricting ourselves to the public sphere, it has become impossible to ignore the collective transition towards integrating technology into every facet of society. Our paper examines a slightly different form of technological integration: framing a subset of governmental practices like congressional redistricting as an analytical modelling technique enables us to interrogate redistricting’s questionable foundation-level assumptions, justifying a Foucauldian analysis of the processes’ underlying biopolitical framework.

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That there are issues with the practice of congressional redistricting are not lost on the populace, but the next sections of the paper will lay the groundwork for an interrogation of a systematic biopolitics that we observe within this practice.

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e begin with a brief contextualization of the relevant principles of biopolitics as they arise from Michel Foucault’s work, in order to present operational standards that will allow us to understand their functions within governmental processes of interest to this paper, namely the mathematical modeling techniques underlying congressional redistricting. In his work, The History of Sexuality, Foucault characterizes the manifestation of biopolitics in a distinctly governmental sense, labelling it “the endeavor, begun in the eighteenth century, to rationalise problems of a group of living human beings constituted as a population”. The distinct governmental power derived from this act of constituting populations, particularly within institutionalized modeling processes for population regulation, is what our paper calls into question.

For Foucault, this form of power cannot simply be said to be limited to the regulation of populations though their suppression; he describes the expression of power as being far more intertwined with the inherent classifications that governments begin their regulation with, meaning that this power first manifests prior to the actual act of suppression.

McBride (1989) summarizes Foucault’s proposed relationship between knowledge and power as follows: “Knowledge functions as a form of power and disseminates the effects of power - it is an expression of power and thus of relations among individuals. It is whatever one can speak about within discourses. New forms of knowledge, therefore, will translate into new expressions of power”. This relationship is key because it highlights how knowledge can be used by institutions of power as a vehicle for exercising and extending a system of power relations. In this way, we observe that governmental power can be thought of as being derived on a set of discourses whose translations are interpreted as knowledge by the populace.

As such, it becomes important to take a systematic approach to our investigation of congressional redistricting that accounts for Foucault’s “discursive formation” of power and subsequent knowledge through institutionalized practices. Our analysis will align itself in accordance to Kendall and Wickham’s method for rigorous Foucauldian analysis of a given discourse, as simplified into the following five steps (Kendall and Wickham, 1999).

1. The recognition of a discourse as a corpus of “statements” whose organization is regular and systematic.

2. The identification of the rules of the production of statements.

3. The identification of rules that delimit the sayable (which of course are never rules of closure).

4. The identification of rules that create the spaces in which new statements can be made.

5. The identification of rules that ensure that a practice is material and discursive at the same time.

By no means must the discussion be restricted to these simplified steps, but given the relative obscurity of the subject of our paper, we thought it best to begin from the established framework for interrogating the biopolitics of a general discourse.

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n this section, we will examine how biopolitics has implanted itself into the rhetoric by which governments talk about, study, and justify mathematical modeling processes like congressional redistricting. In accordance with the set of rules presented by Kendall and Wickham (1999), we show that the “mathematical discourse” upon which these analytical processes are based is organized around regular and systematic rule-based statements.

We look first to the general heuristic rules that can be observed at play within what we would propose to be a mathematical discourse, and then we move to the specific rhetorical evidence for a discursive formation within the sphere of congressional redistricting policies. Neyland (2014) summarizes Totaro and Ninno’s work, writing that “algorithms become a feature of bureaucratization, hindering social interaction by formalizing and mechanizing organizational members. The mechanization of members of organizations enables a recursive logic – similar to that found in mathematics – to pervade organizations.” The recursive logic he discusses is significant both in the mathematical sense and in the sense of governmental power. The most important feature of a mathematical recursive system is that it possesses the capability to act upon itself in succession; it is distinguished by its ability to extend new meanings from the results of its own function simply through repetition. This characteristic has important repercussions for the way we represent institutions’ mathematical discourse. The analytical processes they use to control and regulate populations are also inherently recursive, in that “organizations appear characterized by a rapacious drive to accumulate ever more data and to feed that data into digital infrastructures to be read by algorithms, with new ways constantly sought to create relations between data and create the means to financially exploit these relations” (Neyland 2014).

Diaz-Bone (2019) elaborates on this tendency in what he calls the “statistical panopticon”, an extension of Bentham’s panopticon through which modern society’s “‘quantified individuals’ and the actors underlying the influence of statistical panopticism can only see their own numerical representations but not the ‘other side’ of quantifying practices, which is the quantifying agency generating these Fifth World

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numerical representations”. We posit that the recursive nature of rhetoric concerning mathematical modeling processes within government perpetuates a self-reinforcing cycle that restricts individuals being acted on by these processes to the limits of their purported discourse.

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efore we delve into specific instances of how the rhetoric associated with congressional redistricting draws on biopolitics, it is necessary to address the fundamental characteristics of the process and its function within the United States in particular. On the congressional level, federal law mandates that “states with more than one congressional representative must redraw congressional districts after every decennial census to bring them into close population equality” (Arrington, 2010). However, much of the recent critical attention directed towards congressional redistricting is a result of the racial and partisan gerrymandering that often occurs in the process. The effects of not taking proper care to preserve a standard of fairness within the redistricting process can lead to harmful longterm effects. Arrington (2010) summarizes Morrill (1987) in detailing these effects: “if done poorly, redistricting can create a sense of disenfranchisement and futility among voters, which results in less participation, less support for government, and poor quality of representation and governance”. Since the congressional maps drawn in each redistricting cycle are usually set in place for a decade until the next cycle is reached, the reverberating implications on the district’s voting and political statistics can be artificially altered, or “gamed” in a certain sense, depending on the interests of those who are given the power to redraw the congressional lines.

The real reason why this gerrymandering along racial, partisan, etc. lines is possible is because there is no objective standard towards which a particular congressional redistricting map can be optimized. As Arrington (2010) explains, “Such a model would have to take into account the role of political geography, geographic information systems (GIS), interest group activity, institutional factors, transparency, and public participation or lack thereof. It would have to take all the possible criteria for redistricting into account, and it would have to apply to more than one state”. It becomes impossible to perfectly balance each of these parameters in constructing the final congressional maps, and on the state level the majority party is in control of the redistricting process, so it would not be in their best interests to implement a system of fair partisan representation in any case. Frequently, the competing partisan interests in play during the map creation process can lead to the formation of heavily skewed voting results when compared to a “neutral” map, as we show in Figure 1.

North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

Figure 1. Alterations in North Carolina’s 2016 electoral vote counts as a result of applying different congressional redistricting maps (Wolf, 2017).

The two most common methods used for partisan gerrymandering are “cracking” and “packing”. The former refers to “the practice of breaking up the targeted party’s geographical bases of support into several different districts, thus diluting their votes and reducing their efficiency”, and the latter refers to the “practice of combining the targeted party’s geographical bases of support into a few supermajority districts, thus wasting significant numbers of their votes in a small number of overwhelming victories” (Seabrook 17). Fg. 1 shows us how state voting results can be manipulated such that they heavily favor certain partisan outcomes over other less desirable ones, but this calls for a deeper look at the modern technologies that have enabled such precise manipulations to take place on the government level.

In recent congressional redistricting efforts, new quantification methods like geographic information systems (GIS) have been implemented to give legislators a more intimate handle on the micro-level characteristics of map creation. As Arrington (2010) writes, “GIS provides simplification and standardization across all the state’s geography, and legibility or the ability to see data and compare. Forest (2004, 433) argues that this means that maps simplify and make legible by excluding data.

Information which is excluded from the dataset is no longer available for redistricting”. This has led to the development of professional GIS redistricting software packages such as Texas’ “RedAppl” (Redistricting Application) and Caliper Corporation’s “Maptitude for Redistricting”, which have brought an unprecedented level of control into the hands of legislators. Arrington (2010) explains that “current redistricting GIS packages… have graphic interfaces that allow users to ‘point and click’ to add various units of geography (existing districts, counties, census blocks, census tracts, election precincts, etc.) to a particular district… giving

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them tremendous flexibility in choosing the boundaries between districts”.

We can even draw from the controversies North Carolina’s redistricting efforts have faced in the past year, which has contributed to more efforts at introducing transparency into the redistricting process. As Parks (2019) illustrates, “A staffer points and clicks, points and clicks, slightly changing the dimensions of the red, yellow and cyan jigsaw puzzle at Horner’s request. It’s a map of the voting districts of North Carolina. Horner, a Republican, is shaping democracy… another chunk of voters moves into the swath that he represents, North Carolina’s 11th Senate District.

He’s moving the voters in an effort to make the district as compact as possible”. Yet these technological advancements facilitate the ease with which government institutions are being given the power to dictate the narrative of their management of the population.

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e have already discussed our recognition of a “mathematical discourse” whose organization is regular and systematic, per the Foucauldian analysis process taken from Kendall and Wickham (1999). In the previous section, we have also shown how government institutions’ use of mathematical modeling procedures within established practices like congressional redistricting has given way to a set of rules and methodologies from which the mathematical discourse can be constructed. We now turn our attention to particular instances of how the discourse in question has enabled the creation of spaces in which new statements can be made and has highlighted the materiality of the redistricting process, in order to show how our Foucauldian analysis encapsulates the latter two steps of Kendall and Wickham’s (1999) system. Taking again the legislative rhetoric that was used during redistricting campaigns like North Carolina’s in 2019, we can observe that even though efforts were made to introduce a high level of transparency into the proceedings, even the phrases used by lawmakers in describing the practice gives way to distinctly biopolitical undertones.

For instance, Orr (1969) wrote that “one New York Republican, whose party controls the state’s legislature and governorship, remarked about New York’s congressional districts: ‘Now it’s just a question of slicing the salami, and the salami happens to be in our hands”. As another example, Senator Horner of North Carolina viewed it as “sort of like [sic] a video game, but with much larger consequences,’’ a rhetoric which strongly ties into the pervasive power relationships that institutional discourses have utilized for controlling the populace, as we discussed in a previous section of this paper (Parks, 2019).

The frequency with which such rhetoric has manifested itself cannot be understated; even in court rulings striking down the gerrymandering of congressional districts as unconstitutional, we still see evidence for biopolitics, in that

rhetoric stemming from the mathematical discourse has supplanted itself into both those who reject manipulations of the redistricting process and those who have sought to uphold these manipulations. For instance, the majority opinion of the Supreme Court, in the case Rucho v. Common Cause, used justifications like “the ‘central problem’ is not determining whether a jurisdiction has engaged in partisan gerrymandering. It is ‘determining when political gerrymandering has gone too far’” to reposition the problem with congressional redistricting as one of determining maximal limits as opposed to one of taking issue with the biopolitical operations intrinsic to redistricting (Rucho v.

Common Cause, 2019).

On the other hand, the individual justices’ inclinations toward the use of mathematical tools to found their decision was mixed: “Chief Justice John Roberts expressed discomfort in using statistical tools to justify or overturn election outcomes, calling them ‘sociological gobbledygook.’ Justice Elena Kagan, on the other hand, noted at one point that all the algorithms and other tools they’d heard about were pointing in the same direction, toward gerrymandering” (Ornes, 2018). Here, though we observe a general legal aversion towards fully basing rulings on congressional redistricting off of mathematical analysis, the assumptions and decisions being made are being made from the officials’ foundational assumption that the statistical displays of the redistricting maps encompass the dynamics of the population at hand, rather than recognizing that these computer simulations fail to conclusively represent individuals within these congressional districts.

Ornes (2018) elaborates on the oft-cited justification presented by legislators incorporating mathematical tools into their redistricting process, namely that “anything is better than having one party do whatever they want”.

Although this strategy seems to counteract the effects of partisan gerrymandering by introducing quasi-objective metrics to assess the maps, it becomes overly debilitating in the sense that it cannot account for numerous other parameters like the distributions of minority communities, the dilution of voting power in urban centers, etc. In this way, co-opting a mathematical discourse when framing issues in congressional redistricting serves as a facade behind which legislators abstract away from the actual complexities of identifying gerrymandering within such an ambiguous analytical process.

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rom the justications that we evaluated in the previous section, we begin to interpret governmental modeling practices such as congressional redistricting not as an example of the all-encompassing statistical panopticon proposed by Diaz-Bone (2019), but rather as a system of exclusivity that remains privy to the controlling power demanded by the state. Increasingly advanced technological measures for evaluating whether congressional redistricting

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maps have been sufficiently gerrymandered entrench the state’s management and regulation of its electoral populace. As Forest (2004) explains, “...the state seeks out previously hidden or private realms, and constructs ‘data’ about previously unclassified knowledge… the state also seeks to exclude partial knowledge about itself because such incomplete representations would challenge its status as rational, orderly, and sovereign”. Reexamining Neyland’s (2014) claim for a recursive property of institutions’ analytical processes, we see that “the algorithm is noted as central to organizations, algorithms are characterized by the recursive function and so the recursive function becomes a means to make sense of (provide an interpretative key for understanding) contemporary organizing”. Modern redistricting software tools only serve to emphasize the state’s intentions of subordinating its population through the collection of “systematic, comprehensive and consistent information about its territory,” which it forcibly posits as truth and knowledge (Forest, 2004).

In this way, the analytical modeling processes employed by government institutions are organized around a closed discourse of mathematics that encompasses the subjects of these processes. The formation of this mathematical discourse “functions to inculcate… [those] who study mathematics with the idea that they are the passive recipients of cold hard facts… It is a very controlling discursive system, and its status in our technological society causes individuals to accept this discourse as normal” (McBride). Developing and propagating its power through the population by means of this limiting discourse, government institutions are able to selectively filter out particular ideas and bolster their legitimacy by advancing the statements of their discourse as facts for the populace to accept. It is important to note how this phenomenon enables institutions’ biopolitical processes to seep into the discourse it has formed, the implication being that “mathematics can be and needs to be understood as a constructed discourse that, with its prac- tices and rules, affects our concept of truth” (McBride, 1989).

Our Foucauldian analysis yields for us a more complete understanding of the ways in which institutions’ use of mathematical modeling processes can be interrogated under a biopolitical framework. Congressional redistricting is but one example of this subset of governmental practices, but it is more illustrative than other practices in that its recent controversies and interest by the scientific community has presented us a clearer structure for how power has been obfuscated within the regulation of individuals via the establishment of a mathematical discourse.

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o conclude, in the words of Raman and Tutton (2010), “we need to remind ourselves that the ‘bio’ relates not only to the discipline of biology… but also to the broader question of how the biological existence of different human beings is brought into the political domain.” Those who seek to restrict the application of biopower to some arbitrary North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

frame only consisting of traditional forms of subjugative government control over people’s bodies should consider the abundance of biopolitical characteristics exhibited in the way government institutions apply analytical modeling processes in their management of the populace.

Through a Foucauldian analysis of a specific modeling practice, congressional redistricting, this paper constructs a new perspective of biopolitics for the common power relationships put into place by government institutions.

In constructing the method for transposing Foucault’s principles of biopolitics into an application area not traditionally framed from the viewpoint of biopower, we made use of Kendall and Wickham’s (1999) five-step system to ensure that our analysis was built from the framework that other more common applications use. Using this approach, we identified a relevant discursive system through which our analytical modeling processes function, in this case being the mathematical discourse and its associated rhetoric (Neyland 2014).

Incorporating McBride’s (1989) argument for the inherently biopolitical relationship between power and the establishment of “knowledge” as they manifest in government institutions, we then developed the central argument of the paper by providing the necessary justifications to support the viability of our Foucauldian analysis of analytical modeling processes. Specifically, we detailed how instances of this rhetoric, such as Senator Horner’s “video game” analogy for congressional redistricting, only serve to entrench a mode of control into such attempts at analyzing the population (Parks, 2019). In the end, our Foucauldian analysis allowed us to extrapolate about how the rhetoric being employed by governmental institutions of power operating under a mathematical discourse is helping to propagate power relations into every facet of institutions’ regulation of their populace.

Yet although this paper seeks to glean new insights about congressional redistricting and modeling processes more generally by applying Foucault’s principles as a means of analysis, it must be noted that there is still a significant need for more research in this area. For one matter, we limited our study to an in-depth discussion of one particular practice, congressional redistricting, in order to try to make sense of how biopolitics has seeped into government institutions’ modeling processes. However, this is only one approach, and additional inquiry into other modes of analytical modeling–such as political polls, statistical analyses performed by government think tanks–can assist in painting a more comprehensive portrait of how Foucault’s principles of biopolitics are relevant to institutions of power in modern-day society.

On that final note, we bring up one more time the particular value that is to be gained from using a framework of biopower to seek insights into nontraditional areas of application within institutions of power. Has the concept of “life”, from which “biopower” gets its roots, not evolved

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throughout the progression of our society that a sufficiently broad interpretation would be able to include various other modes of control over populations, such as analytical modeling processes? Taking a closer look at the discourses and structures of power at play as biopower manifests within modern-day governments can provide us with new understandings of how power operates in society, so it is critical that further analyses are done to flesh out the ways in which Foucault’s principles can be applied to give important insights.

Arrington, Theodore S. “Redistricting in the U.S.: A Review of Scholarship and Plan for Future Research” The Forum, 8.2 (2010): -. Retrieved 22 Oct. 2019.

Diaz-Bone, Rainer. “Statistical Panopticism and Its Critique.” Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung, vol. 44, no. 2 (168), 2019, pp. 77–102. JSTOR. Forest, B. (2004). Information sovereignty and GIS: the evolution of ‘communities of interest’ in political redistricting. Political Geography, 22, 425e451.

Kendall, Gavin, and Gary Wickham. Using Foucault’s Methods. London : SAGE Publications Ltd, 1999.

SAGE Research Methods. Web. Introducing Qualitative Methods. 21 Oct. McBride, Maggie. “A Foucauldian Analysis of Mathematical Discourse.” For the Learning of Mathematics, vol. 9, no. 1, 1989, pp. 40–46. JSTOR. Neyland, Daniel. “On Organizing Algorithms.” Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 32, no. 1, Jan. 2015, pp. 119–132.

Orr, Douglas M. “THE PERSISTENCE OF THE GERRYMANDER IN NORTH CAROLINA CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING.” Southeastern Geographer, vol. 9, no. 2, 1969, pp. 39–54.

JSTOR. Parks, Miles. “A Surprise Vote, Thrown Phone And Partisan ‘Mistrust’ Roil N.C. As Maps Are Redrawn.” NPR. 16 Sept. 2019. NPR. 18 Sept. 2019.

Raman, Sujatha, and Richard Tutton. “Life, Science, and Biopower.” Science, Technology, & Human Values, vol. 35, no. 5, 2010, pp. 711–734. JSTOR. Wolf, S. “Here’s What North Carolina Might Have Looked like in 2016 without GOP Congressional Gerrymandering.” Daily Kos, 2017. Accessed 22 Oct. 2019.

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The Stain of Ink: Exploring the Motivation Behind Self-Branding under Incarceration and the Discourse of the Tattoo and the Criminal Juliette Michéle Frances Clark

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rom the moment a person is born, and even before, they are trapped in the identities society inscribed upon their physical body. If you are a woman, you are told you must be feminine, and your childhood bedroom must be painted the softest shade of pink. You must grow up playing with dolls, instead of building blocks, and you must walk around in impractical poofy dresses (yet not ones that are too short).

If you are a man, you must be masculine and infatuated by the world of strength and danger produced by video games

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that teach you to steal, hunt, and murder. If you are African American, you often grow up in the gap between your understanding of your blackness and how your existence is read by those around you. You may spend your entire life trying to understand how this world allowed you to be wronged based only on the color of your skin. If you are Hispanic-American, you are expected to be fluent in Spanish and must face the stares of all those who feel it their right to question the legitimacy of your presence on “their” soil. If you are of mixed ethnicity or race, you face the glare of the competition between your dual identity and often hear the statement that “you are not ___ enough,” as interpreted only by the pigmentation of your skin. Before you even learned to speak, the social interpretation or writing of your body forced you into a role you never signed up for. Everyday, without any prior knowledge of you, people attempt to read the story your skin is made to produce so they can become comfortable with your existence. As you grow older, you begin to believe that an entire novel has been engraved into your skin that governs the interpretation of your identity.

You cannot escape this, and any attempt to alter your identity or claim it too extremely is criticized by society all the same. In this situation, one may then turn to the ability to alter the presentation of their identity, by utilizing voluntary alterations such as makeup, tattoos, piercings, and other bodily modifications. Through these alterations, one can elect to rewrite the story of their skin and claim a new identity for themselves rather than allow others to declare them one.

When I was in preschool living in a small suburban community outside the mountains of Boulder, Colorado, I remember the days when corporate employees would come for evaluation visits. The staff would make sure the toys were in their rightful places, that our artwork (only the most innocent) was hung evenly on the walls, and that their tattoos were hidden neatly under nude colored band-aids. I asked my teacher once why she had to cover the beautiful cross tattooed onto her body. She told me the bosses didn’t like to see tattoos and which they believed to be ‘unprofessional.’ I couldn’t comprehend how a butterfly or presentation of one’s beliefs could take away from one’s ability to be understood as a professional human. As I

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grew and the fruit of judgement began to poison daily life, I came to learn that a canvased body opens the door for others’ interpretation. Unfortunately, this interpretation is often based upon an assumption that body art is a signal of criminality rather than an avenue of self-expression. In the case of a convict, one must then ask whether or not a prisoner’s bodily ink exists as a validation or as separate from their criminal acts.

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ccording to John. P. Conrad, it “takes a strong stomach to contemplate the situation of any male offender, no matter how vicious his criminal career might have been, when he arrives at a maximum security prison and begins adjustment to the state of affairs in the prison “community” in which he will have to live for months or years or for the rest of his life,” (Toch & Conrad, 322). Twentyone year old inmate Alexei Subotin, held in a maximum security prison in Russia, told Alix Lambert, “My most frightening thought was that I might be cut up, killed, or raped,” (Lambert & Christ, 14). Physical, mental, emotional, and verbal abuse run rampant through the institutes of incarceration supported by our nation and globe. The civilian is then forced to ask themselves, what do those who have committed crimes against humanity deserve? At what point is the punishment of prison more hurtful than helpful, and when does it become acceptable for a government to strip a human of their humanity, regardless of their crimes?

The purpose of a prison is societally accepted as that which serves as punishment for transgressions of the law, but it is also a system of rehabilitation after which criminals should be able to return to society as citizens. However, in far too many institutions of incarceration across the globe, the pain caused in prison is irreversible to the point where convicts are unable to participate in conventional society thereafter.

In The Pains of Imprisonment, Conrad writes on the subject of “What do the undeserving deserve?” stating, “Physical and verbal abuse, filth, constant personal danger, and general degradation are mindlessly and heartlessly tolerated in too many penitentiaries on the premise nothing positive can be done with most criminals and certainly all of them deserve the conditions they have brought on themselves,” (Toch & Conrad, 315). In its extremities, the condition of a modern prisoner forces a person to do all they can to protect themselves. In such horrific conditions and the daily fight for their lives, what must a prisoner do to save themselves?

This may include turning to greater violence, affiliating oneself with gangs, or inscribing a criminal history of intimidation onto one’s body as a form of protection. This acknowledgement of inscription as a strategy of survival forces a question of the great role of tattoos, specifically those obtained in prison, in the life and societal dynamic of inmates.

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s you turn the key into the lock of the door to your home after your eight hour work day, your surroundings most likely seem harmless. As you look closely and your mind wanders to the metal cell of an inmate hundreds of thousands of miles away, these items appear as weapons of an epidemic spread rampantly through the cold bodies of prisoners nationwide. Contrary to popular misconception, this epidemic is not due to unprotected sex or sharing of unclean drug insertion tools, but to the utilization of contaminated household items for the purpose of underground tattooing. In the world outside the prison, behind the metal bars of professionalism and societal acceptance, you are often forced to conform to life in itchy gray suits if they wish to be given a voice to speak and to be heard. However, when you break the law, your voice is taken from you. You are reduced to a number, merely an entry in a database whose identity is discounted by the stain of the word “prisoner.” This reduction leads to a propensity for tattooing. Because tattooing is an illegal practice in American prisons, inmates wishing to rewrite the social discourse of the identity into which they have been forced must resort to pens, wires, needles, or a variety of other unsanitary tools to stain their bodies with the ink of their reclamation.

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n the reality that prisoners do not have access to proper sanitation practices, underground tattooing upholds the risk of further transmission of HIV, HBV, or HCV viruses.

The question left to ask is why prisoners continue to partake in non-sterile tattooing practices while understanding their great risk of fatal infection. The reason inmates across the nation and the world as a whole continues to reinscribe the condition of their identities upon their skin, regardless of the risk they take, is because they wish to reclaim the body that should belong only to them. The body of a prisoner may remain their last true possession in a world where they have been stripped of all else; as such, it may also feel stolen in the reality of an extremely violent environment. In Fifth World

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tattooing, the incarcerated is free to rewrite the identity of their incarceration and view an external self greater than the self-sentenced by the law.

This research attempts to analyse the results of this reduction of humanity, specifically investigating an inmate’s wish to reclaim some form of identity outside of the word “inmate.” Specifically, it will look into the motivations and risks of presenting an external self through tattoo artistry in a concrete world where identity is stripped away, and the misconception of tattoos’ presence as a signifier of criminality. Tattoos within institutions of incarceration can act as a cloak of protection against prison violence, an expressive script written upon the skin which defines one’s identity beyond their crimes, or act as a future career venture to combat unemployment and recidivism, which grasp the lives of many ex-convicts.

of an external self within a system of incarceration is as necessary as it is dangerous, as one often chooses to affiliate themselves with a certain gang within the prison or present their criminal history as “a criminal coat of arms that confers respect, and therefore protection, in the company of killers,” (Lambert & Christ, 16). The risks that prisoners take in their acquisition of body art should not be judged in a light of recklessness; instead, it should serve as greater evidence of the power prison holds over a prisoner that they would brand themselves for protection through a practice that is inexplicably dangerous.

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hen one regards a convict’s body inscribed with tattoos, some that communicate their deeds and some that reflect a unique sense of predation, they often jump to a conclusion that fits into their definition of a convict. This defines an inmate as one who does not deserve the sympathy or understanding that would be given to the plight of any other. However, searching deeper under these ink stained skins, one is able to discover that instead of reading tattoos as a sign of evil they are often a fatal grasp for survival within a concrete world. Further, when analyzing one’s motivation for self-branding, the severity of such risks must be taken into account to understand the gravity of tattoos’ meanings in prison. Tattooing in prison is illegal in the United States, as well as many nations around the globe, resulting in prisoners lack of access to correct sanitary equipment. When visiting a Russian prison, Alix Lambert spoke to an inmate and found that “Tattoos in prison can also be done crudely without devices. ‘You take two thin needles, tie them together with string so that one is higher than the other by just a bit,’ described one tattooed prisoner. ‘Dip these in ink and then the tattoo is done by hand,’” (Lambert & Christ, 39). Due to the lack of sterilization available, tattooing in prison is believed to be one of the leading causes for the epidemic of Hepatitis B&C and HIV spread between prison inmates.

A case report of a 39 year old prisoner was included in a study wherein all other variables were isolated, proving unsanitary tattooing as the most likely cause of his contraction of the HCV virus (Thompson, S.C. & al., 1996).

A further study found that there was an HCV antibody prevalence valued at 93% of individuals with tattoos received in jail/prison. Similarly, a 76% seroprevalence of HBV antibodies, the highest amount recorded, was found in subjects with tattoos received in jail/prison (Samuel M.C. & al., 2001). When one regards tattoos on convicts, the jump to judgement often impedes their minds from wondering how important these symbols must be in order for one to truly risk their lives in order to present them. The construction North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

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eople all over the world, human beings, regardless of their convictions, are dying every day of transmitted diseases because they wish so deeply to find the safety that their skin’s manufacturing into a shield can provide them.

An extremely captivating example of this is found in the story of a man held in a Russian prison who tattooed the heads of Lenin, Marx and Stalin upon his chest. If one did not reach into the mind of this man, to see him as a person worthy of explanation, they may have assumed that he was a radical supporter of the tyrannical leadership of the USSR. However, as this man explained to Alix Lambert, he and many others tattooed the leaders on their chests so that if they were sentenced to the death penalty, they could not be subjected to a firing squad. It is believed that as a result, they escaped the guns of the guards (Lambert & Christ, 2003). It is convenient for a civilian to look at a convict’s canvased skin and assume that these tattoos reveal their complacency

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into the world of crime, but the identity of a criminal who is incarcerated is deeply complex.

In the book, Doing Time, it is stated that, “An inmate’s prison identity, as an inauthentic presentation of self, is not in itself a form of identity transformation but is rather a form of identity construction. It is a false identity created for survival in an artificial world,” (Jones & Schmid, 149).

A prisoner must protect themselves with a cloak of ink that will protect them from being attacked by someone who could end their life in a matter of minutes. Many prisoners, while incarcerated, choose to affiliate themselves with gangs in order to survive. Part of this initiation in many cases is found through the process of tattooing. In the realm of their purpose as protection, tattoos serve as a “kind of secret language, understandable only to the initiated,” (Sterenly, 2013). In investigating the prison tattoos of the Nuestra gang in California, Sterenly found that “In prison, information concerning identity can literally be a matter of life or death,” (Sterenly, 2013). Due to the fact that a range of gangs exist in prisons globally, if one walks through the doors of incarceration and resists alignment with any affiliates, they are much more likely to be harmed than if they prove their protection through permanent inscription of the skin.

to the prison population what one has done and is capable of doing, therefore further expressing an identity of protection by the symbols on their skin. If an inmate chooses to present upon their skin the crimes that they have committed, they are simultaneously permanently forcing themselves into the identity of a convict and making this decision due to their dire condition within concrete walls that foster a society overly prone to violence.

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n addition to tattoos’ function as a mask of protection, they also represent a form of external self expression that is available to prisoners when much else is not. When a prisoner enters the concrete kingdom of a prison, they are immediately stripped of their personal items, are often forced to have their head shaved, and the sum of their basic identity is reduced to a numerical database entry. The yearning for an identity, to be an individual more than merely an orange jumpsuit, is aided by tattooing, as prisoners search for a way to present an external self greater than their conviction.

Researcher Douglas Kent Hall remarked, “The prison tattoo is also a statement that the convict, though resigned to the reality of prison life, still clings to his right to do what he will with his own body, his own mind. The skill of the tattoo artist, and the finished work of the wearer’s body, provide the freedom of creative artistic expression.” (McCarron, 2008). This and such other studies present the sanity value of prison tattoos in their complexity for external and internal survival as an inmate hopes to escape physical violence and mental degradation into insanity.

When you acknowledge the condition of a prisoner as facing constant abuse from their fellow inmates, as well as often by those in positions of authority, it is reasonable to conclude that many of these prisoners would in turn feel a discontent for the state. Therefore, prisoners may choose

Further, the presentation of a greater affiliation allows one to be more protected from violence based on the attacker’s observation that an entire group would retaliate rather than the violence ending with a one on one incident. In The Pains of Imprisonment, Irwin writes of the fact “Toughness... means, first, being able to take care of oneself in the prison world, where people will attack others with little or no provocation,” (Toch, 320), explaining why one must present in such an exaggerated manner the violence they, or their affiliates, are willing to commit upon another if probed.

This once again reinforces the idea that prisons create a convict identity that knows only how to exist in a ‘dog eat dog’ society, limiting one from rejoining the conventional order after they are released. The communication of gang affiliation and a past criminal history as well communicates

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to wear tattoos that symbolize an acknowledgment of the skin’s ability to serve as an external canvas of rebellion against the domination of the state (Awofeso, 2002). A study that attempted to understand prison tattooing in a deeper context stated, “To wear tattoos, especially visibly antisocial tattoos such as those worn by prisoners in spite of their disvaluation, is to cause offence, to challenge dominant notions and contest limits and boundaries placed on the body,” (Awofeso, 2002). When one enters prison, they are removed from natural society and are forced to reinvent a self that can be contained behind the metal bars of their cell. They can not choose to express who they are through a career, hobbies, clothing, or indulge in many of the pleasures that used to act as the foundation for who they are. Instead, prisoners are all forced into identical uniforms, with identical shaved heads, and an identical lack of self

beyond the explanation detailing why they are incarcerated.

Tattoos, although illegal in many prisons, represent an act of self-reclamation in which prisoners utilize all that is left to them to present an identity that exists beyond their crimes.

In ancient history, countries from Asia, Europe, and North America utilized tattooing as a form of punishment for prisoners. Its evolution into a voluntary practice is an example of a population’s reclamation of a device which is used to demean them (Lozano, 2007). This is not unlike many group’s reclamations of specific verbal terms or stereotypes placed upon them into such that strengthens their community. Altering this example to fit the population of a prison, the power of a prisoner to utilize bodily art to alter their body’s presentation to reflect what they choose is extremely valuable. Many in the external world would regard prison tattoos as a confirmation of criminality, but through further investigation it has been proven that the tattoo is of a greater identical significance than simply an act of unsubstantiated impulsion, as some critics of body art would state (Phelan & Scott, 1998). Not only can the meanings of tattoos be deciding factors of life or death in North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

prison, they can reflect a sense of personal power within the prisoner to do as they wish with their body. In their world where they are constantly being controlled by abusive figures of authority and attacked by their fellow inmates at no provocation, a sense of self can easily be lost in the melancholy of one’s situation.

Often, prisoners will choose to be tattooed with symbols of their home as they are no longer able to participate in their chosen community once they are sent to prison. The body can act as an important site for the exposition of cultural/communal aspects of one’s identity within prison as they are not able to express such in many other ways.

Tattoos offer the prisoner feelings of self-empowerment, self-expression, and a way in which to reclaim their body through the inscription of their skin. Inmates in prison often face physical abuse beyond only violence, such as sexual violence and rape. The 2012 published BJS report found that 88,500 incarcerated individuals at the time of the survey had experienced sexual assault within their first 12 months of incarceration (Review Panel on Prison Rape, 2012). In these cases, wherein a prisoner may truly feel that aspects of their body or their rights to it have been stolen from them, tattooing can offer a comfort in their expression to present only what they choose. This notion greatly challenges that of the average citizen who looks upon the inscription of a convict’s body and sees it as a validation of moral failing, wherein it truly exists as a device inexplicably more complicated than such. Tattoos are one of the few ways a prisoner can express themselves or formulate any sense of identity within institutions of incarceration, and therefore the marking which they choose to represent on their skin are worth much more than a simple act of rebellious impulse.

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further example of tattoos’ important function within prison is their ability to transfer into a career after release. Because of the condition of inmates within prison, many are abused to such a high degree mentally, emotionally, and physically that they can no longer exist in a conventional corporate society. In The Pains of Imprisonment, Conrad stated “Many of the recidivists who return again and again to captivity have been irreversibly damaged by their

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experiences in prison,” (Toch, 314). Conrad stated that “If prisoners can be tough enough, they will turn themselves into the worst kind of predators, forcing themselves on the weak and thereby protecting themselves from fellow toughs, as well as enjoying the spoils of their predation. Such people are virtually incapacitated for normal existence outside of the prison,” (Toch, 322). Based on the mentality that being in prison creates, and the abuse that prisoners endure, ex-cons often have an extremely difficult time rejoining traditional society. After existing in such a cutthroat world, it is unlikely that an ex-convict would then be able to move onto a corporate world due to the incompatibility of a typical career’s focus on teamwork with the ‘every man for himself’ society that exists in prison. This, combined with the fact that many employers are hesitant to hire individuals with criminal records, makes it very difficult for ex-cons to get jobs after being released, explaining why “Men with criminal records between the ages of 25 and 54 account for over one-third of the unemployed in America,” (Benson, 2015). Further, if inmates have tattoos, these can therefore often hinder one’s ability to be hired for a job once they are released due to the societal outlook that these are exhibitions of poor decision making. However, for some of those who engage in tattooing others while incarcerated, tattoo artistry can become a viable career path after release.

When Alix Lambert spoke to inmates in a Russian prison, one stated, “Even in the zone, there are tattoo artists who gain notoriety. Prison artist Boris Vollejoy specializes in tattooing vampires and dragons, like the motif shown here,” (Lambert & Christ, 42).

Journalist Thor Benson performed a case study on Freddy Negrete, (shown to the right), a 58-year-old tattoo artist based in Los Angeles, California. He grew up in an underprivileged neighborhood and joined a gang before even entering middle school. When he was 11 or 12, he was sentenced to juvenile jail, and met a kid with prison tattoos while waiting to be taken to court. From this instance forward, Negrete became fascinated by prison tattoos and soon after became known as the ‘tattoo guy’ in his neighborhood. Despite being in and out of prison, Negrete landed a job at a popular tattoo parlor in East L.A. because of the expertise he was able to gain in prison. Negrete stated that he has also been able to offer these same opportunities to other ex-convicts as they are released from jail, lining up jobs for talented artists in order to help them resist the pull of recidivism that grasps many soon after they are released (Benson, 2015).

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he condition of a prisoner is incomprehensible to a civilian. It is in this concrete cage that one’s identity is fully consumed by the digits of a barcode. Their possessions are stripped from their backs, rights stripped from their hands, and bodies forced into the cold 6 by 8 cell in which their lives must continue. In a world where all is lost, the prisoner may come to feel that their self has been shattered on the

surface of their concrete floors. To combat the dissolution of the self, this research has shown that many inmates turn to the practice of underground tattooing in order to reclaim their body, all that they feel they have left. In the event that even an inmate’s body is stolen from them in an act of sexual violence, a prisoner’s motivation to externally claim their identity is further intensified. Prisoners also take a great risk in their receiving of unsanitary tattoos; because of laws against tattooing in prison, prisoners lack access to sanitized instruments, resulting in Hepatitis B, C, and HIV viruses running rampant. Yet, their continued desire to be tattooed validates the importance of tattooing to these individuals. Tattoos for prisoners can also become not only an expression of their identity but also a possible career path after one is released, saving the lives of ex-inmates looking to restart their lives from the depths of unemployment and homelessness.

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here are still a multitude of questions to be asked about prison tattoos and their practice. The bias that constrains self-expression and criminalizes the appearance of the tattoo perpetuates an unhealthy prejudicial social tendency. It is important for convicts, and all citizens, to continue pushing these boundaries. It is important that creative minds continue to advance art’s definition beyond what has been conventionally accepted. Everyone is a person, regardless of what they have done, and the reading of someone’s body as evidence of their criminality rather Fifth World

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than a device for physical and mental survival is taking away the voice of hundreds of thousands of people. The voice of those who have made mistakes is still a voice, and no one deserves to die because of their deep desire for selfreclamation. Bodily art is beautiful, it is freeing, it is saving lives, and it is so much larger than simply a sign of a crime. It signifies a desire for redemption of the body and of the soul.

Awofeso, Niyi. “Jaggers in the Pokey: Understanding Tattooing in Prisons and Reacting Rationally to It.” Australian Health Review, vol. 25, no. 2, 2002, p. 162., Benson, Thor. “How Prison Tattoos Can Save Former Inmates.” ATTN, ATTN: 1 Jan. 7237 Claes, Laurence, et al. “Self-Care versus Self-Harm: Piercing, Tattooing, and Self-Injuring in Eating Disorders.” European Eating Disorders Review, vol. 13, no. 1, 21 Dec. 2004, pp. 11–18.

Demello, Margo. “The Convict Body: Tattooing Among Male American Prisoners.” Anthropology Today, vol. 9, no. 6, 1993, p. 10.

Jones, Richard S., and Thomas J. Schmid. Doing Time: Prison Experience and Identity among First-Time Inmates. Emerald, 2000.

Lambert, Alix, and Mary Christ. Russian Prison Tattoos Codes of Authority, Domination, and Struggle.

Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2003.

Lozano, Alicia T. Rozycki, et al. “Prison Tattoos as a Reflection of the Criminal Lifestyle.” International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, vol. 55, no. 4, 2007, pp. 509–529.

Mccarron, Kevin. “Skin and Self-Indictment: Prison Tattoos, Race, and Heroin Addiction.” ESC: English Studies in Canada, vol. 34, no. 1, Mar. 2008, pp. 85–102.

Phelan, Michael P., and Scott A. Hunt. “Prison Gang Members Tattoos as Identity Work: The Visual Communication of Moral Careers.” Symbolic Interaction, vol. 21, no. 3, 1998, pp. 277–298.

“Russian Prison Tattoos.” Lost in a Supermarket.

Samuel, M. C., et al. “Association between Heroin Use, Needle Sharing and Tattoos Received in Prison with Hepatitis B and C Positivity among Street-Recruited Injecting Drug Users in New Mexico, USA.” Epidemiology and Infection, vol. 127, no. 03, 10 July 2001 Sterelny, Kim, et al. Cooperation and Its Evolution. MIT Press, 2013.

Toch, Hans. The Pains of Imprisonment. Waveland Press, 1988.

Thompson, Sandra C., et al. “Hepatitis C Transmission through Tattooing: a Case Report.” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, vol. 20, no. 3, 1996, pp. 317–318.

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Historical Institutional Effects of Racism and Sexism in North Carolina Psychiatric Care Lily Kovasckitz

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hen I was 10 years old, my brother, who is 7 years my senior, was placed into a psychiatric institution for several days. My parents were familiar with mental health issues; much of my family, both extended and immediate, have been diagnosed with psychological disorders. Instead of this familiarity easing familial conversations about my brother, other relatives, or simply about mental health in general, discussion or even acknowledgement of such things was not condoned. I recall when I first found out where he was staying-- I had to sift through the trash to find an informational card from the institution late one night when my parents were asleep-- I used my tablet to define most of the words on the card. I’d been told that he was gone because he was no longer “good.” Asking my parents about his whereabouts or the conditions that caused his leave would only result in evasive answers: for instance, he was “at a place that is making him better.” Even after my brother returned, we did not acknowledge his mysterious absence.

This silencing of my older brother occurred as soon as he stepped inside the psychiatric institution; even now, the silence persists in the wide eyes and awkward silences that occur when he brings up his stay, even casually. The refusal to discuss mental illness pushes not only the issues but the people into dark corners, so that American society does not have to become uncomfortable by acknowledging those who are mentally ill. My brother is an intelligent, charismatic, middle-class white male. When he was institutionalized, he had access to a strong support group and the resources required to improve his state. He is fortunate to live in a time where modern psychiatric treatments are more effective than ever so that he had innumerable options for therapists and recovery plans. And yet, his treatment and recovery both proved to be incredibly strenuous, partially because of the stigmas surrounding mental illness.

Throughout the history of the United States, patients of psychiatric institutions have struggled in ways both very similar to and different from the struggles of my brother.

This is not a bold claim-- they either suffered intrinsically from a condition that needed genuine attention from both doctors and therapists,were forced into institutions by those who held authority over them because they did not behave according to social norms, or, most commonly, they suffered from both medical and social judgements. Such suffering was intensified by race, class, and gender. In 1925, Junius

Wilson, a black deaf man, was accused of rape (Wright).

One cannot, and should not, deny the impact that racist stereotype of black men as predators of white women played in Junius Wilson’s sentencing. Wilson was never tried or convicted; he was instead sent to a psychiatric institution in North Carolina where he lived for 68 years. Because no efforts were made by institutional staff to learn his antiquated sign language or to teach him modern signing, he was left unable to communicate with those around him. He was also castrated. He was not sent to a psychiatric institution to be rehabilitated or cared for; otherwise, a genuine attempt at communication would have occurred before well over half of a century passed. One cannot even claim that Wilson was sent to the Asylum for Colored Insane for the safety of himself and others, because officials have since determined that he is not, and has never been mentally ill. Instead, Wilson lost the vast majority of his mutilated life to a racism enforced by psychiatric institutions.

It is because of cases like Junius Wilson that it is necessary to analyze the ways in which different factors such as race and gender have impacted the treatment of psychiatric patients placed in public institutions. In this paper, I wish to investigate the ways in which the oppression of minority groups translates into the violence against patients by doctors and to explore institutional attempts to subordinate marginalized groups (women, people of color, those of low socio-economic status, queer people, etc.) to the social roles and expectations that their very existence would seem to defy. It is impossible to look at the ways marginalized groups were affected by institutional violence in psychiatric institutions without, however, first understanding the concept and effects of stacked oppressions. This requires looking at the intersection of race and sex, or perhaps more specifically, the intersection of racism and sexism.

Here, I am referring to Kimberle Crenshaw’s argument for intersectionality: To be a black woman is more than the sum of the oppressions faced1 by being black and being a woman. Instead, this intersectional experience and identity is unique in the prejudice and isolation they have faced as it 1 For more, see Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Anti Discrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics by Kimberle Crenshaw. (Volume 1989, Issue 1, Article 8 of the University of Chicago Legal Forum)

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forces black women to contend with the complex and often conflicting stereotypes assumed of their separate minority groups. What is more, being a black woman is to be a part of two marginalized groups who have rallied for recognition and equal status within society, and yet they have been historically ignored by their own parties. Rather than using a single-axis framework to analyze the treatment and language of all institutionalized people as a broad category, I instead choose to break these categories down into a matrix.

Race and gender indisputably affected the way patients were treated, and to use a white male patient as the standard for describing treatment would be irresponsible at best.

The suffering of a relatively privileged white man like my brother is real; however, it does not comprehend or exhaust the multiply-determined suffering of others.

Throughout this paper I will cite sources from around the United States; my argument, however, focuses on psychiatric institutions in North Carolina. This specificity is a result of the unique historical environment of the state.

North Carolina cannot claim to be the home of the first psychiatric hospital open in the United States for either white people (Tartakovsky) or people of color (Alcalade)2.

North Carolina, however, provides an important setting for my work because of its long and violent relation to race roles and plantation work, emphasis on the fragility and subordination of women in expected gender roles, the strong role of religion in constructing both societal expectations and scientific understanding, and the fact that there were, eventually, asylums for both white and black people.. That is not to say that my greater argument is limited to North Carolina. Instead, I believe my claims of stacked oppressions and discrimination informing institutional violence can be generalized to the south or to pyschiatric hospitals as a whole.

To write of one instance is not to say that other instances did not exist or were not widespread; in fact, I argue the opposite. Because I am able to use diverse accounts of the ways in which systems of oppression have impacted the language and care of different groups in the psychiatric field, I claim that psychiatric institutional violence is a phenomena that nationally affected the scientific community and the populations it studied in the 19th and 20th centuries.

I am choosing to frame my argument from the mid 1800s through the early 1900s for several reasons. First, there were simply no structures devoted solely to treating mentally ill patients in North Carolina prior to 1856.3 It was only after Dorothea Dix’s plea to the North Carolina General Assembly

2 Pennsylvania Hospital was the first psychiatric hospital to open in the United States in 1753 while the first psychiatric institution opened for people of color was The Central Lunatic Asylum for Colored Insane in Petersburg Virginia in 1870.

3 The first psychiatric institution in North Carolina was the North Carolina Hospital for the Mentally Ill. Its name was later changed to Dorothea Dix Hospital to honor Dix’s work advocating on behalf of the mentally ill.

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in 1848 that true reform was initiated for the state’s mentally ill population. Because I wish to look at the institutional violence of psychiatric care, I can only speak of the years following the construction of North Carolina psychiatric institutions. Additionally, because of Dix’s advocacy, this was a time of great change in the psychological community.

Thus, the use of medical language and the discussion of new treatments and categories of mental illness occurred with increased frequency and debate. Second, following the overturning of Jim Crow segregation laws and forced integration of public institutions by the federal government in the 1950s and 1960s, all psychiatric hospitals in North Carolina were required to hold both white patients and patients of color. In order to make the most clear distinctions and use the most relevant historical examples for my argument without overwhelming my text with a full timeline of psychiatric institutionalization, I will only use sources from this earlier time period. This was a period of great expansion in the scientific knowledge of mental illness as well as of the segregation of others. This allows me to claim that the structures that existed in North Carolina were typical for the United States of America during this period as a whole. Last, I do not believe this argument is only relevant to the past. There is no reason to believe that these same permeations of discriminatory policies and language towards minority groups into institutional conduct, though perhaps sometimes expressing itself in a different form, has not been perpetuated through to the present day.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman enacts the difficulty of using a language created by those who are not mentally ill to argue for altered treatments or diagnoses. The struggles of its narrator discourses the difficulties for these mentally ill patients to think critically about their own cases. The Yellow Wallpaper follows a narrator recently diagnosed with hysteria, or what we would now in her case likely diagnose as postpartum depression, by her husband, John, who is also a respected physician. His prescribed treatment for his wife is bedrest, in which she is forcibly confined to the attic room of their home and forbidden from engaging in activities he deems strenuous to the body or mind, including walking outside, hosting guests, and keeping a journal. His dual authority as husband-physician leaves the narrator powerless to alter her own treatment, without even the knowledge of what medicine she is taking, as she writes: “So I take phosphates or phosphites-- whichever it is...”. Additionally, her own experience with what is effective for her recovery is at odds with what John and the medical community at large believe is the proper treatment. So, she is forced to rebel by indulging her writings and obsession with the wallpaper in secret. John even goes as far to discourage the narrator from contemplating her mental illness as she confesses that “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus-but John says the very worst thing I can do is think about

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my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad.”

Eventually, the narrator fully loses touch with society as she seeks obsessively to understand, at night and in the broad light of day, the strange figure of a woman trapped in the yellow wallpaper of her attic room, a figure with which she identifies so intensely as to lose herself within it-- or, perhaps, to discover her lost self in its “pointless pattern.” It is at this moment that she finally disregards John, stepping over his unconscious body to continue to pace the perimeter of the room indefinitely.

This text, though a fictional work, was written to describe the author’s own experience with the rest cure as she recovered from postpartum depression.4 Charlotte Perkins Gilman hoped The Yellow Wallpaper would serve as a warning to patients and physicians alike that bedrest was in fact an ineffective treatment and save a woman from the same horrors she endured. Her writing is a key example of the issues that women faced in expressing their symptoms and concerns with a language that was not their own. Charlotte Perkins Gilman could not simply write, “The bedrest cure is harmful and I do not recommend it to any woman suffering from hysteria.”. Or, rather, if she had, then her words would have been disregarded because she did not write or speak from a position of institutional authority over her own illness. Instead, she wrote a story which served as a dramatization of her experiences of silence, pain, and resistance.

An equally frustrating component of the limiting language and general silence surrounding the poor conditions of psychiatric institutions is when this silence has been directly perpetuated by an institution’s refusal not only to allow patients to write nor think, or its constraints upon their writing and thinking, but to keep their own extensive or detailed records. For example, there are an estimated 3,000 graves on the site of the Asylum for Colored Insane, the first psychiatric institution opened to people of color in North Carolina, and yet there are only an estimated 700 of these graves marked with the names and dates of the deceased patients. What is more, there is not a comprehensive list of all those buried on the grounds, and absolutely no death records available online for those who died prior to 1913 (Cherry Hospital). It is important to emphasize there are thousands of graves at the Asylum for Colored Insane. Thousands. Some of the names of those buried cannot be found anywhere at all. There are far too many forgotten bodies buried under the land that patients were forced to work over getting the help that was well within the asylum’s obligation to provide as a public institution. Letters written from those inside institutions are few and far between. This does not mean that patients did not write letters, nor that they did not want to write, but that censorship by institutional staff did not provide a

channel for these patients, now an isolate other, to reach greater society. The limitations and indeed the suppression of patients’ voices demonstrated the institution’s desire to keep patients in psychiatric institutions out of the eyes of the rest of society. If there were no letters to be read from patients, then those outside of institutional walls could willfully forget the existence of these patients as a whole, and thus avoid the uncomfortable nature of confronting the taboo.

Even when these psychiatric institutions did speak of patients, their cold language depersonalized them and therefore failed to acknowledge the extent of human suffering caused by their institutional violence. The table below is from The North Carolina Hospital for Mentally Ill’s 1856 review, titled An Exhibit of Patients Received Into, Continuing In, and Discharged From the Institution From February 22nd, 1856 to 31st October, 1856. After listing patient Age, Sex, Relationship Status, Apparent Form, Supposed Causes, and Duration When Admitted, there are three final categories that list Condition, Prospect, and Result. There are only single words, sometimes simply just lines and dashes under each column to denote the entire assumed state and future of a person who was struggling.

The practicality and efficiency of bureaucracy leaves these people as either “Improved” or “Unimproved”, “Favorable” or “Unfavorable”, or “Removed”, “Remains”, or “Died” instead of complex people who require deeper reflection and analyses. What is more, this is not a single page in this book that acknowledges the unnecessary difficulties of a patient living in their conditions. Indeed, there were pages detailing the required repairs to the institution or requests for more funding to expand facilities, but there is not even so much as a sentence that states that yes, the nuances of one’s mental illness or prospects following institutionalization are much more complex than our tables can communicate and there is so much more to the current state of someone than “Removed”, “Remains”, or “Died”. Though one may argue that this cold, depersonalization is a necessary byproduct of communicating factually and effectively within an institution and to a larger population, I reject the notion that the unique challenges and restrictions that are byproducts of using short, cold language is not a pressing issue.

What is perhaps more striking than the disparaging death rates and depersonalization of institutional language to describe psychiatric conditions were the cases in which language, and as a direct result of that language, acknowledgement of institutional violence was as a whole entirely disregarded. There is a reason why so few records exist from those at the time which patients were institutionalized, especially records of minority figures.

This occurrence of limited records can be attributed to two things:

4 As was explained in Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s letter Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper.

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1. Oppressed people were not allowed the proper language to dissent their conditions or critically analyze their state and care.

2. Writing was seen as an unnecessarily taxing and wholelly unhelpful practice by medical professionals for white, middle and upper class patients and was a generally forbidden activity.

Essentially, the validity of an accepted language used to diagnose and describe mental illness was only accessible to medical professionals who had been trained in an official capacity. This language was rendered a largely unreachable tool by women and people of color in institutions from the beginning of colonial America to the early 20th century, but more especially with the rise of specialized knowledge sanctioned by professional credentials in the late 19th century. The language created by patients to describe their conditions was regarded as irrational by the medical community, reducing any attempts these groups attempted to make for reform or autonomy as uninformed or without scientific backing, therefore ignorant. If this sounds disturbingly crude in an age that prided itself on its medicinal modernity, then good ear! That is exactly what this is. Who is better qualified for the job of describing what one is experiencing than the person that is experiencing that phenomena? Why does a man, with his violent institutional authority, have more claim to the validity of these experiences when he is only a mere observer? And yet, as was the case in The Yellow Wallpaper, a careful and thoughtful response to a person’s self-understanding of their condition is thrown out in favor of the fancy “phosphates or phosphites” (Gilman) and the treatment plan of a physician.

Mary Poovey’s Uneven Developments, The Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England, explores the way doctors used religion and control to create double standards and absolute authority over women in the medical field. Though her discussion centers on the discourse over chloroform as an anesthetic for women during childbirth, her work reveals how this fight closely reflects the challenges with communication and autonomy in psychiatric fields. In the debate over chloroform use, one of the primary opposing arguments was that women were meant to feel pain as a punishment from God for the sin of Eve. The notion that women deserve to suffer for the actions of a biblical character is incredibly dangerous as it encourages doctors to invalidate or deny the authenticity of a woman’s voice when she speaks of her own suffering. Additionally, Poovey introduced a concerning occurence of the classification of the similar symptoms as different diseases between gender lines was introduced in her paper. While women were determined by physicians to display sexual excitation, these same ‘sexual spasms’ were determined to be expressions of aggression and masculinity in men. This double standard in diagnostics, and thus for the appropriate treatment for these symptoms leads to discrepancies in care between North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

genders and unfortunately, to inefficiencies and injustices in treatment. Additionally, this article discusses the shift from patients being to describe what they were feeling to doctors in a way that was validated and trusted to doctors shifting from observer to absolute authority over a woman’s body and care. As medical care advanced during this time period, medical professionals wished to require earning a degree and official medical licensing necessary to become a doctor. Thus, they made the language and power used to treat patients increasingly exclusive. This shift towards professional standing holding more significance than the ill patient experiencing their own symptoms also represents the movement towards silencing patients who did not have the proper vocabulary nor medical knowledge to describe their cases. Because Victorian women were not allowed to work as doctors and this movement invalidated the standing and expertise of midwives, women were excluded from the world of medical dissent and could not advocate for better care on their own behalf.

Women have historically been confined to the home, to their children, or to the general expectation of social and biological reproduction and servitude placed upon them by a patriarchal society. In the 19th century, patriarchal society was recreated through modern disciplinary institutions.

The Annual Report of the Chairman of the Directors of the Eastern North Carolina Insane Asylum for the Year 1884 writes of the different work and freedoms allowed to both men and women placed in their institutions. While men were allowed to leave the institution to work often laborious jobs, women were not offered any such opportunity. Instead, women were employed in the Matrons Department, where they were instructed to make clothes and quilts in the sewing room. Not only were women put to work doing a stereotypically and historically feminine chore, these institutions explicitly stated they were not permitted to leave the facilities to work as institutionalized men could.

From the same annual report, a table noted the number of male and female patients and the reason they were institutionalized. While the majority of the supposed causes were fairly equal between males and females, by far the most drastic difference between diagnostics and gender were the sheer number of women who were institutionalized without a proper diagnosis.

While only 5 men were institutionalized without a known cause of insanity, more than 4 times that number of women were institutionalized with an unclear diagnosis.

This shocking data further shows that while both men and women were treated in psychiatric institutions, it was much more difficult for the psychiatric language created by men to

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apply to women in terms of diagnosis. Thus, more women remained undefinable by institutions, and as a result their illnesses, if illnesses at all, were not treated properly. After all, there is no standard protocol for treatment plans for mental illnesses that do not have names. Women do not fit in the male-made definitions for them; instead of these unknown mental illnesses being diagnosed, and perhaps discovered not to be mental illnesses at all, they were placed into the care of the state without even being provided their reason for institutionalization.

Another table from The Annual Report of the Chairman of the Directors of the Eastern North Carolina Insane Asylum for the Year 1884 lists the relationship status and gender of those admitted.

While the number of men who were admitted was spread fairly evenly between single and married men, women who were married had a significantly higher chance of being admitted into The Eastern North Carolina Insane Asylum.

As The Yellow Wallpaper reveals, this is due to these womens’ husbands exerting control over them by claiming authority over their mental health while denying their capacity to represent. This process forced women to conform to the societal expectation of acquiesce to male authority placed over married women’s lives. However, single women often had a less domineering male presence arching over them through the absence of a spouse, and as a result were admitted less frequently. So, it is not challenging to draw the conclusion that because of the masculine elitist structure of the medical community, women were more actively misunderstood in their disorder than men in psychiatric institutions. The same assumptions and stereotypes were able to permeate into the walls and roles of the institution, regardless of the fact that the goal of these institutions was to remove their patients from the eyes of the rest of society. xfIt must be acknowledged that the entirety of my argument’s evidence was sourced from doctors or institutions that only treated white patients. Black people, especially black women, were even further removed from society as their oppressions stacked. Though there were 2 psychiatric institutions built to hold white patients during the period I am discussing, the Western North Carolina Insane Asylum Hospital and the Eastern North Carolina Insane Asylum, only 1 institution was erected to treat black

patients. The Asylum for Colored Insane, now known as Cherry Hospital, was opened in 1880 (Asylum Projects), a frustrating 24 years after the first psychiatric facility to treat white people in North Carolina was constructed. In addition to the delayed accomodations for black patients in comparison to white patients, the Asylum for Colored Insane was not built to meet the needs of all mentally ill black patients in the state. On a fundamental level, these patients lacked the ample space, materials, and sanitation necessary for their states to improve.

Even if an equal percentage of white and black people in North Carolina suffered from mental disorders, the Asylum for Colored Insane would not have had the proper facilities to house the percentage of black patients as the Western North Carolina Insane Asylum and the Eastern North Carolina Insane Asylum did for white patients. Even assuming that the relative percentages of white and black people would need the same psychiatric attention feels absurd, as the experiences that exclusively black people suffered in slavery and throughout the legal and extra-legal violence of of Jim Crow would likely lead to more cases of what we now understand to be post-traumatic stress disorder.

In 1900, the population of white people in North Carolina was estimated to be 1,257,798, while the population of black people was approximately 622,781 people (U.S. Census). In 1900, The Western North Carolina Insane Asylum Hospital and The Eastern North Carolina Insane Asylum could hold a total of 716 patients (Asylum Projects, Broughton Hospital), or 0.06% of the state’s white population. Conversely, The Asylum for Colored Insane could only hold 76 patients (Asylum projects), though within months of the hospital’s opening it already housed over 100 patients, or 0.01% of the state’s black population. The Chairman of the Eastern North Carolina Insane Asylum wrote in his 1884 yearly review: In my last report, I congratulated the Board on having room for the colored insane of the State for several years to come. Taking the information from the different counties then at my command, together with this year’s receptions, I was not far from correct in my calculations.

Since then I have been examining the tables of the tenth (1880) Census reports, and if they are to be relied on, I was premature in my congratulations. According to the Census, we had in North Carolina in 1880, 450 colored insane, which must now reach 500, considering the great increase there is in this disease. From a calculation of the statistics of colored insane in the United States in 1870 and in 1880 we find the percentage of increase to be 238.

At this rate it will be but a few years before larger accommodations will be needed for them. Of this there is no present necessity, but it would be well for us to accept the inevitable, so as to govern ourselves with this view in end, viz: that this institution will have to be enlarged in the future. It is not intended to recommend here that steps should be taken for enlarging. The State, at present.

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has a large burden in providing for the white insane, 1,100 of whom, according to the Census reports, are without Asylum treatment.

This unfortunate sentiment that white patients were somehow more in need of care and state funding than comparatively incredibly underrepresented black patients was the stansdard for the state. The Asylum for Colored Insane met its capacity almost immediately (within a year) after first opening its doors and remained overcrowded and underfunded for the entirety of the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. Additionally, just as the work of white men and women differed in their own psychiatric institutions based on pre-existing societal expectations, racial prejudice impacted the ways in which black people received care.

Black psychiatric patients, even black men in institutions, were not allowed the same freedoms as their white patient counterparts. The very understanding of black mentally ill patients was wildly different from that of white patients.

The Western North Carolina Insane Asylum instituted a colony-style approach of care for select patients that created more of an atmosphere of community living and helped limit the institutional reach imposed on patients (Broughton Hospital). Additionally, both all-white asylums in North Carolina focused on a “moral treatment” for patients which emphasized tranquility, kindness, and limited restraint placed on patients (Asylum Projects). In contrast, the standard treatment route at The Asylum for Colored Insane was to take a custodial or laborious action plan. Black patients, both men and women, were expected to clean their own facilities and tend to the crops they grew on their property (Asylum Projects), working in the fields in a fashion and likened to that of plantation workers. Some of the “treatments” at this facility were cotton picking, castration, and confinement in small spaces. These conditions cannot be disguised as proper psychiatric care. The environment into which black patients were forced extended the power and control exerted over black people by carceral institutions during slavery into the twentieth century. Because white medical professionals understood black patients as less valuable than white patients, their care was not at all similar, and the patients at the Asylum for Colored Insane suffered as a result of it.

One cannot look at the discrepancies between white and black patients without then separately analysing the increased hardships placed on black women in comparison to the white male patient standard. Though white women were understood by medical professionals to be more fragile than men and needing to acquire a more domesticated treatment than white males, black women were both expected to be domesticated and docile as well as to work the fields and clean the facilities at The Asylum for Colored Insane just as the men were. These assumptions, this framework of stacked oppressions, created an impossible and punitive standard for black female patients. There was the belief by medical professionals that women were not to exert themselves lest they become hysteric and more mentally ill.

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Contrarily, there was also the false understanding by these same doctors that black mentally ill people required work and treatment similar to that of slaves to subordinate them and most effectively erase them from the eyes of the rest of society. Because of these contradictions, it would have been impossible for a black woman to express her condition or discuss and contest her treatment in an effective way, as she not only had to overcome the barrier of an inaccessible language, but contend with the conflicting stereotypes about her inherent nature.

One cannot deny that being institutionalized during the mid 19th through the early 20th centuries was difficult; treatments were rudimentary, there was limited precedent to follow or established effective treatment plans, and most facilities were quickly filled to capacity and required expansions. Attempts to remove psychiatric patients from the public eye only resulted in treatments that looked more like constriction and subordination than care and psychological progress for every single patient in North Carolina. However, one cannot also deny that those who faced additional oppressions against them, such as being black, being a woman, or being a black woman, also faced greater institutional violence than the white male patient.

It is as odd as it is wrong that while white males were only 1 of 4 different standard demographics in institutions, they were considered the spokesperson for institutions and the care that they received is written in texts to be what was assumed that all other patients received.

Though the ways racism and sexism permeated what was supposed to be a state-regulated institutional standard of care is shown clearly when analyzing the history of North Carolina’s psychiatric institutions, this is no way the only place where these stacked oppressions have increased institutional violence for minority groups. All one has to do is compare the incarceration rates between racial demographics or analyze graduation rates in majority black high schools vs. majority white high schools. Even in the medical field, where facts and objectivity are supposed to stand supreme, the standard understanding and communication of symptoms of a heart attack is conducive with the male experience, leaving many women to suffer preventable serious injury or death simply because they were not given the correct vocabulary to understand their own bodies with.

As I started my argument with Kimberle Crenshaw’s intersectional framework of understanding institutional violence, it is only fair that I end my work with a consideration of her solution to the issue of stacked oppressions and a decidedly non-intersectional powering body. Crenshaw argues that, in order to rid society of discrimination and oppression of minority groups, one must start by ensuring the equality of the most oppressed groups first, and then working to give equity to less oppressed groups. Though a challenging task, this would assist all

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oppressed groups in reaching the playing field or level upon which non-oppressed people stand rather than expecting that equality and respect for human life would somehow eventually trickle down to the most oppressed groups. This only succeeds in creating a slightly larger elite class, if indeed it succeeds at all. The state of psychiatric care in North Carolina, and the United States of America at large have greatly improved. There is more comprehensive care and access to resources for those struggling, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders undergoes constant revisions and updates as understandings and classifications of mental illnesses improve and psychiatric discourse has become easier with the rise of the internet and as a result, the ability to access the information and vocabulary used by medical professional. However, there are still many areas that must be addressed by institutions. The male standard of autisitc symptoms being used to diagnose both males and females and higher rates of male suicide than female in the United States (ASFP) due to pressure on males to fulfill their societal expectations and resist emotions deemed feminine are two issues that immediately come to mind.

Though we cannot travel back in time to improve the care of past psychiatric patients or remedy the institutional violence minority groups have faced in psychiatric institutions, let us give light to those who have struggled unnecessarily. Read their stories and speak out about their unjust experiences in order to prevent such a thing from continuing institutionally. Do not speak for these oppressed people, but instead speak of them and remember them with a warmth that institutional medical language never provided its own patients. When you look at an institution, think about those that died. Remember the fields they toiled in.

Find their stories and read them, really read them. Question the policy and language used by the state to speak of people.

Watch the progression of new classifications of diseases and symptoms, especially when they are related to specific demographics, carefully. Move on critically, passionately, and solemnly. It is not too late to help reduce the effects of institutions for those currently in the system. Institutional violence affected all people entered in them, but it did not do so with a blind hand. The stacked oppressions and understandings of minority groups made it impossible for doubly or triply oppressed people to move away from the constraints of institutionalism, but with advocacy and progress, that does not have to remain the case.

“Broughton Hospital.” History. Broughton Hospital.

“Census Records for the Year 1900.” Search U.S. Census (Index & Images). US Census. Accessed November 5, 2019.

“Cherry Hospital.” Cherry Hospital - Asylum Projects. Asylum Projects, April 1, 2019.

Crenshaw, Kimberle. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics [1989].”

“Dorothea Dix Hospital.” Dorothea Dix Hospital - Asylum Projects. Asylum Projects. Accessed November 5, 2019.

“Dorothea Dix Hospital of North Carolina (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service.

U.S. Department of the Interior, July 18, 2017.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper.” The Forerunner, Oct. 1913.

“Suicide Statistics.” AFSP. American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, April 16, 2019.

Tartakovsky, Margarita. “The Birth of the Mental Asylum.” World of Psychology. PsychCentral, July 8, 2018.

“The Annual Report of the Chairman of the Directors of the Eastern North Carolina Insane Asylum for the Year 1884.” Insane Asylum of North Carolina. Annual Report of the Board of Directors and the Superintendent of the North Carolina Insane Asylum, for the Year Ending November 30,1884. Messenger Steam Power Press Print, February 1, 2002.

“Uneven Developments.” University of Chicago Press. University of Chicago, December 1, 1988.

“UT Scholar Tells Forgotten Story of African-American Psychiatric Patients.” The Alcalde.

TexasExes, January 17, 2014.

Wright, Gary L. “Now 95, Deaf Man Was Castrated, Locked up for Decades.” baltimoresun.com.

Baltimore Sun, October 25, 2018.

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The Geneology of Abortion Bans in the United States Lennon Lupton

A

merica is a country built on the idea of progress. We were also built on the idea of freedom and equality for all, although “all” referred to land-owning, white males.

Despite the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution ensuring “equal protection under the law” to all US citizens, the 15th Amendment protecting voting rights of US citizens despite “race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” and the 19th Amendment extending suffrage to women white and wealthy men have always had the upper hand over people of color, people living below the poverty line, and women in the United States.

Today, we live in a progressive country with regressive values. Today, the Equal Rights Amendment, which would make discrimination “on account of sex” unconstitutional, has yet to be ratified by the 38 states needed to become an amendment;1 it has been nearly 50 years since the amendment passed through congress (Equal Rights Amendment). Today, feminism, a word defined by Gloria Steinem as the belief “in the equality and full humanity of [all genders],” is often equated to misandry (Berry). Today, feminists are labeled as “feminazis,” a term popularized by Rush Limbaugh, referring to “women who are obsessed with perpetuating a modern-day holocaust: abortion” (Rudman).

Today, a woman’s right to control her body is being attacked, as multiple states are attempting to drastically limit the time period at which abortion is legal (Rebecca Lai).

One may wonder why such simple beliefs as equality of all genders and the right to bodily autonomy are under attack today. To understand the current battle over abortion rights and feminist beliefs, we must look to the past. On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court decided that the right to privacy guaranteed in the Fourteenth Amendment applied to a woman’s right to seek an abortion without state interference (Oyez). This case, known as Roe v. Wade, came after years of women seeking back-alley abortions due to state laws that prohibited the procedure, though some states had exceptions for health risks and victims of rape.

Around this same time, on March 22, 1971, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was passed by Congress with bipartisan support (Equal Rights Amendment). A few years before the 1 On March 8, 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the amendment but due to a congressional ratification deadline, the amendment has still not been added to the constitution.

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ERA’s passing and the Roe v. Wade decision, on June 30, 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded to “promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life” (National Organization for Women).

With the feminist movement of this era going strong, equality of genders was closer than it had ever been in US history. After passing Congress, however, the ERA was not ratified by two-thirds of the states; thus, it did not become an amendment. While support for abortion was high after the decision in Roe v. Wade, it soon plummeted. The victories achieved by the women’s movement were suddenly at risk of being lost.

Something caused this arrest of progressive legislation.

In the 1960s-70s, three important moral and political phenomena emerged: the family values movement, the revival of evangelicalism, and the change in Republican party values. The family values movement, led by Phyllis Schafly, was centered around the idea that the American family was under attack by feminists, abortions, atheists, and homosexuals (Phyllis Schafly Eagles). After World War II, the baby boom hit, and families began to be more involved in their churches. This led to a revival of evangelical beliefs and a strengthening of the power held by protestant denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention. Finally, through this time, the Republican party was changing from the party of Lincoln to the party of Nixon and, later, Reagan. With each of these movements occurring simultaneously, they fed into each other and created the “Christian Right” which opposed feminism and abortion rights.

To understand the history of US abortion laws in the 1960s-70s, we must look back into the 19th century. Until the mid-1800s, abortions were not illegal in the US. In 1845, the Massachusetts Supreme Court decided in Commonwealth v. Luceba Parker that abortion with the mother’s consent was legal until quickening began (Heathcotte, Commonwealth v.

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Luceba Parker).2 Twenty-seven years later, in Evans v. People of the State of New York, Thomas Evans was charged with manslaughter after he gave Ann O’Neill drugs to induce a miscarriage which did not work. Three months later, Ann gave birth to twins who died within a week of their birth (Heathcotte, Evans v. People of the State of New York). Since Evans attempted to perform an abortion before O’Neill was quick, the court ruled he was not guilty as actions to abort before quickening were not seen to be illegal (Heathcotte, Evans v. People of the State of New York). Both of these cases resulted in abortion remaining legal until the woman was quick with child; however, a year later, the Comstock laws began to emerge.

In 1873 the United States Congress passed the Act of the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use, also known as the Comstock Act (Seward, The Comstock Law). The act prohibited the publication, distribution, and possession of information, devices, or medications relating to abortion or contraception (Encyclopaedia Britannica). After the passing of the Federal Comstock Act, state and territorial Comstock laws emerged (Malladi). Due to these anti-obscenity laws, women all over the country lost access to safe and legal abortions which had previously been accessible before quickening began.

Women across the United States continued to procure abortions even with the Comstock laws, but because there was no access to legal abortions, women turned to dangerous, back-alley abortions. The number of illegal abortions in the United States during the 1950s-60s is estimated to have been between 600,000 and 1.2 million per year (Gold). Illegal abortions were extremely dangerous and often resulted in death because they were not performed by a trained professional; in fact, 77 percent of low-income women in the 1960s reported performing their own abortions (Gold). In 1930, 2700 women had abortions listed as their cause of death; in 1940, the number lowered to 1700, then to 300 in 1950 and 200 in 1965 (Gold). While the total number of deaths from abortion lowered, the percentage of maternal fatalities due to abortion remained around 18 percent (Gold). With abortion prohibited by laws such as the Comstock laws, women risked their lives to gain a small amount of bodily autonomy.

To regain control over themselves, feminists of the time worked in other ways toward liberation, such as expanding legal protections of women. The Equal Rights Amendment was one such tool of liberation. The ERA was first introduced by Alice Paul at the Seneca Falls Convention

2 Quickening has been used for centuries to describe the time at which an expectant mother can feel the fetus move inside of her (Brind’Amour). Luceba Parker was charged for providing three abortions for three different women, all of whom had given consent. The first two women were not quick with child, while the last had been described as so.

Because there was no evidence any woman had felt quick, Parker was able to appeal his case (Heathcotte, Commonwealth v. Luceba Parker).

of 1923 when women’s rights activists returned to Seneca Falls to remember the first great convention (Equal Rights Amendment).3 There, Alice Paul introduced the first draft of the ERA: “Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction” (Equal Rights Amendment). Both the Democratic and Republican parties added passing the amendment to their planks in the 1940s (Equal Rights Amendment). In 1943, Alice Paul rewrote the ERA, introducing the language we know today: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex” (Equal Rights Amendment).

The work of feminists in the 20th century was crucial to the movement for liberation. In 1965, the Comstock laws were challenged in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut.

Estelle Griswold, who was the Executive Director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, and Dr. C. Lee Buxton were charged for violating Connecticut’s own 1879 Comstock law, which prevented the use and distribution of contraception (Seward, Griswold v. Connecticut). The law was argued to be unconstitutional due to the right to privacy found in the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the right to privacy of married couples applied to their use of contraception (Seward, Griswold v. Connecticut). Six years after Griswold v.

Connecticut, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled in Eisenstadt v. Baird that the right to privacy also applied to unwed couples using contraception (Seward, Eisenstadt v. Baird). The use of the right to privacy as an argument against anti-obscenity/contraception laws led the way for the case of Roe v. Wade.

Both Griswold v. Connecticut and Eisenstadt v. Baird opened up a nation-wide dialogue on contraception and abortion.

By 1971, these discussions had led to Alaska, Hawaii, and New York legalizing abortion as well as thirteen other states adding clauses to their anti-abortion laws allowing for the procedure in cases of rape, incest, and life-threatening emergencies (Nunez-Eddy). However, many states maintained strict anti-abortion laws, some even punishing physicians who performed the procedure. One of these states was Texas where Norma McCorvey lived. When she became pregnant for the third time, McCorvey sought an abortion, which was illegal under Texas law (Nunez-Eddy).

McCorvey was referred to the lawyers Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, who were looking for pregnant women seeking an abortion in Texas in order to challenge the antiabortion laws of the state (Nunez-Eddy). McCorvey was given the name Jane Roe for anonymity, and the lawsuit was filed in 1970 at the US District Court in the Northern

3 The first Seneca Falls convention was held in 1848 and focused on women’s suffrage. It resulted in the writing of the Declaration of Sentiments, a declaration imitating the structure of the Declaration of Independence but listing grievances toward Men not the King of England (Stanton).

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District of Texas (Nunez-Eddy). Coffee and Weddington argued the anti-abortion laws violated a woman’s right to choose whether she wanted children or not, citing the Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution (NunezEddy). This amendment states “[t]he enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people,” meaning the Constitution protects rights even when they are not listed (US Constitution). They argued that while the right to choose was not explicitly stated in the Constitution, it was protected by the Ninth Amendment (Nunez-Eddy).

The US District Court decided in favor Roe but would not issue an injunction to stop the anti-abortion laws, for this reason, Roe v. Wade was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States (Nunez-Eddy). On 22 January 1973 a 7-2 majority vote ruled that the Texas laws on abortion were unconstitutional (Nunez-Eddy). With this decision, all antiabortion laws were declared to be unconstitutional, and the right to choose was protected for women across the United States.

The fight for a woman’s bodily autonomy was not won however, after Roe v. Wade or the ERA. The decision did strengthen organizations such as the National Organization for Women (NOW), but anti-abortion groups also grew after the case. In 1976, three years after Roe v. Wade, the United States Congress passed the Hyde Amendment, which banned the use of federal funding for abortion through Medicaid (Gerais). The Hyde Amendment was supported by organizations such as the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), which was one of the first anti-abortion groups to use the term pro-life when referring to an anti-abortion stance (National Right to Life).4 In 1978, the ERA had been ratified by 35 states and was approaching the seven-year deadline set for ratification, but support was dwindling (Cohen). When Congress voted to extend the deadline, the Senate passed the resolution 60-36, with the majority of Republicans voting no, and the House voted in favor 233-189, with 70 percent of Republicans voting against the extension (Cohen). The ERA had lost its bipartisan support; now, only democrats were pushing for its ratification.

In the late 1970s, the Equal Rights Amendment had suddenly lost its traction and support for a woman’s right to choose was waning, despite the victory of Roe v. Wade a few years earlier. Something caused this loss of support in feminist beliefs, but what? At this time, there was an emergence of a new group of people: the Christian Right (Cohen). It consisted of evangelists from the south who had recently been renewed in their beliefs and values.

4 The term pro-life was first used by A.S. Neill, a Scottish educator, in 1960 to describe a “pro-life” approach to parenting. The slogan “right to life” had previously been used by anti-abortion groups, but they adapted “pro-life” to their cause after Roe v. Wade. The term “pro-choice” was adapted by NOW to describe their view that women should have control over their own bodies (Solis).

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Abortion had traditionally been a Catholic issue, while protestants had no official opinion on the issue. This changed in 1971 when the Southern Baptist Convention passed its first resolution on abortion stating: [B]e it RESOLVED, that this Convention express the belief that society has a responsibility to affirm through the laws of the state a high view of the sanctity of human life, including fetal life, in order to protect those who cannot protect themselves; and Be it further RESOLVED, That we call upon Southern Baptists to work for legislation that will allow the possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape, incest, clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother (Southern Baptist Convention).

With this resolution, while it was liberal as it allowed exceptions in certain cases, abortion was no longer a Catholic-only issue. Evangelicals became interested in the issue of abortion as it became a nationwide topic, and the strength of evangelicals in the south increased as they became part of the Christian, or religious, right.

The Republican party started out as the party of Lincoln, supporting equal rights for African Americans and women.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican president from 1953 to 1961, supported rights for all people, as did many Republicans of his time. As mentioned previously, the issues of abortion and women’s rights were supported across the aisle. In 1969, 46 percent of Republicans supported legalizing abortion in the first trimester compared to 35 percent of Democrats (Tait). Betty Ford, the First Lady to Republican President Gerald Ford in the late 1970s, was a huge proponent of women’s rights (Nichols). Ford fought for the passing and ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment; she supported a woman’s right to choose, the decision of Roe v. Wade, and worked closely with the National Organization for Women (Nichols). Many historians consider Betty Ford to be one of the last socially liberal Republicans, as the Republican party had a massive change in social values during the late-20th century.

The values of the Republican party changed from the socially liberal ideas of equality to socially conservative ideals. The nomination of conservative Barry Goldwater for president in 1964 marked the beginning of the change in the Republican party. With Richard Nixon’s presidency, new conservative values of the new Republican party could be seen emerging; the change was clear by Reagan’s administration in the 1980s. After World War II, many southerners were drawn to the Republican party, also known as the Good Old Party (GOP). Southerners were attracted to the party because of the “opposition to big government, expanded labor unions and Democratic support for civil rights” (History). As many Southerners had revived Evangelical beliefs, the Republican party became influenced

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by these Christian beliefs (History). Together, the change in the Republican party and the rise of conservative evangelical southerners brought about the opposition to women’s rights and abortion rights.

One of the core reasons many Americans became prolife was the Family Values Movement. This was a term affiliated with the movement toward the morality of many conservative Americans who saw the traditional American family as under attack by immoral practices (Reddick). The immoralities were attributed to homosexuals, atheists, and feminists (Reddick). The movement criticized the decision of Roe v. Wade, as it believed abortion destroyed the family (Schlafly). Family Values supporters also rejected the Equal Rights Amendment as they believed it would take away a woman’s right to be dependent on her husband (Schlafly).

An important figure in the Family Values Movement was Phyllis Schlafly. She was a lawyer, author, and conservative activist who fought against abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment. Schlafly founded the STOP ERA movement and gained a huge following of conservative Christians who still praise her actions today.

In a ten-year battle, Mrs. Schlafly led the pro-family movement to victory over the principal legislative goal of the radical feminists, called the Equal Rights Amendment.

She assembled the movement called Stop ERA. She was America’s most articulate and successful opponent of the radical feminist movement. (Phyllis Schlafly Eagles) Phyllis Schafly used her position to spread the Family Values Movement’s ideals not least through spreading misleading information on feminists and feminism.

In 1972, Schafly wrote an essay entitled What’s Wrong with ‘Equal Rights’ for Women?. In it, she argues against the ERA and women’s liberation movement, stating that “[o]f all the classes of people who ever lived, the American woman is the most privileged. We have the most rights and rewards, and the fewest duties” (Schlafly). Schlafly suggests that the family keeps women safe and allows “[a] woman [to] enjoy real achievement when she is young—by having a baby” (Schlafly). In this essay, Phyllis Schafly argues that men, not women fighting for “so-called” equality, have liberated women.

The great heroes of women’s liberation are not the straggly-haired women on television talk shows and picket lines, but Thomas Edison who brought the miracle of electricity to our homes to give light and to run all those labor-saving devices—the equivalent, perhaps, of a half-dozen household servants for every middleclass American woman. Or Elias Howe who gave us the sewing machine which resulted in such an abundance of readymade clothing. Or Clarence Birdseye who invented the process for freezing foods. Or Henry Ford, who massproduced the automobile so that it is within the price range of every American, man or woman. … In America, women have the freedom from the slavery of standing

in line for daily food. Thus, household duties have been reduced to only a few hours a day, leaving the American woman with plenty of time to moonlight. She can take a full or part-time paying job, or she can indulge to her heart’s content in a tremendous selection of interesting educational or cultural or homemaking activities.

At the same time, Schlafly made the feminists fighting for women’s liberation into shrill women who did not understand the beauty of marriage and hated the family.

She described the fight for equality as a “deadly poison masquerading as ‘women’s lib’ ”: The women’s libbers are radicals who are waging a total assault on the family, on marriage, and on children. Don’t take my word for it—read their own literature and prove to yourself what these characters are trying to do…. It is anti-family, anti-children, and pro-abortion. It is a series of sharp-tongued, high-pitched whining complaints by unmarried women. They view the home as a prison, and the wife and mother as a slave. To these women’s libbers, marriage means dirty dishes and dirty laundry….

The women’s libbers don’t understand that most women want to be wife, mother and homemaker—and are happy in that role. The women’s libbers actively resent the mother who stays at home with her children and likes it that way.

In this same essay, Schlafly criticizes a popular feminist magazine called Ms. The New Magazine For Women, calling it the “most pretentious” of the women’s liberation magazines and claiming its “principal purpose... is to sow seeds of discontent among happy, married women so that all women can be unhappy in some new sisterhood of frustrated togetherness” (Schlafly). She also critiques the magazine Women for promising “[to] provide women with ‘escape from isolation...release from boredom,’ and [to] ‘break the barriers...that separate wife, mistress and secretary...heterosexual women and homosexual women’” (Schlafly). Schlafly then argued that: [t]hese women’s libbers do, indeed, intend to “break the barriers” of the Ten Commandments and the sanctity of the family. It hasn’t occurred to them that a woman’s best “escape from isolation and boredom” is—not a magazine subscription to boost her “stifled ego”—but a husband and children who love her.

As the essay shows, Schafly’s views were extremely antifeminist, perpetuating anti-feminist rhetoric still heard today.

Though the change of the Republican party, the rise of evangelicalism, and the Family Values Movement were each separate entities, they were intertwined and supported each other. The socially conservative values of the Republican party were derived from the new southern evangelical beliefs. The Family Values Movement was supported by the Republican party, to the point that Reagan made family morality a central theme to his political philosophy

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(Reddick). The Moral Majority and Christian Coalition were two groups that followed evangelical beliefs and were proponents of the idea of the Family values Movement (Reddick). The three movements overlapped in their antiabortion and anti-feminist beliefs. These anti-choice and anti-equality beliefs of the Christian Right continue to exist today: there are still supporters of the Family Values movements and practitioners of conservative evangelicalism, the Republican Party has lost all of its socially liberal beliefs in moving from the party of Reagan to the party of Trump, and many anti-abortion/pro-family organizations continue to exist.

Focus on the Family, an active Christian-Family Values organization founded in 1977, believes the “primary reason for existence is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ through a practical outreach to homes.” They are strong proponents of pro-life values, arguing that abortion is only acceptable if the mother’s life is at risk and even then, there is a moral issue. Under the Pro-Life tab on the Focus on the Family website, there are articles about raising a child “conceived from rape” and a pro-life pledge titled “A Declaration for life.” Founded in 1986, Operation Rescue® is another active Christian pro-life organization, which, according to their website, has “led the largest movement involving peaceful civil disobedience in American history.” That movement being one against abortion clinics. They describe themselves as: [O]ne of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation. Operation Rescue®... has become perhaps the most visible voice of the pro-life activist movement in America. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates (Operation Rescue).

During the 2016 Presidential Election, Troy Newman, the president of Operation Rescue® voiced his support for Donald Trump (Oh). In December of 2016, the Glover Park Group conducted a survey of Trump supporters and found that 42% of Trump supporters believed abortion should be illegal except in cases of rape, incest, and to save the mother’s life, while 18% believed abortion should never be legal. Eagle Forum, a “pro-family” organization founded by Phyllis Schlafly, continues to argue against passing the Equal Rights Amendment, stating that the ERA would loosen current abortion restrictions, resulting in a degrading of the American Family (Eagle Forum). In a list of ten reasons to stop the ERA, Eagle Forum claims “[t]he ERA would overturn laws and practices that benefit women because they would be viewed as showing preferential treatment to women.” The ideals of the Family Values Movement and Evangelical Right continue today through organizations such as Focus on the Family, Operation Rescue®, and Eagle Forum. These groups persist at arguing against bodily

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autonomy and gender equality, with one of their main goals to be overturning Roe v. Wade.

On October 6, 2018, despite multiple sexual harassment and assault allegations, Brett Kavanaugh assumed office as a Justice on the United States Supreme Court. He was appointed by Donald Trump to be a conservative justice, bringing the US Supreme Court to a conservative majority.

Many Republicans have waited for this conservative majority in order to have a chance at overturning the decision of Roe v. Wade; although, they have tried before.

In 2000, the United States Supreme Court upheld the right to abortion Stenberg v. Carhart (Zhang). Brett Kavanaugh is the justice pro-life supporters have awaited as he has upheld anti-abortion standards throughout his career (Ertelt, National Women’s Health Network). With Kavanaugh on the court, Republican state legislatures began passing bans on abortion in a hope that a lawsuit against the bans would be brought to the Supreme Court and Roe v. Wade could be overturned.

In May of 2019, Alabama passed the Alabama Human Life Protection Act (Ivey). It is a near-total ban on abortion which has no exceptions in the case of rape or incest. The law only allows for the procedure when there is a lethal fetal abnormality or there is a serious health risk to the pregnant individual. The ban also threatens doctors who performed abortions with felony charges and up to 99 years in prison (Levenson). When the governor, Kay Ivey, signed the bill into law she stated the following: To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God….[t]he sponsors of this bill believe that it is time, once again, for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit this important matter, and they believe this act may bring about the best opportunity for this to occur.

By the end of May of 2019, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky, Iowa, and Ohio had all established or introduced a “heartbeat bill,” prohibiting abortions after a fetal heartbeat has developed, which often occurs before a woman knows she is pregnant (Levenson). Some of these laws have been blocked by judges or are already facing lawsuits from organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (Levenson). The Guttmacher Institute, a research organization focused on reproductive health, compiled maps to organize state hostility toward abortion and abortion bans (See Appendix 1).

These bans prove that many people do not consider bodily autonomy a human right. Their intent is to overturn the world-altering decision of Roe v. Wade, bringing America back to a time where women worked in the home and birthed children, nothing more. The legislators supporting abortion bans are conservative Christians, passing them to protect every life as “a sacred gift from God” (Ivey). Values of the Chrisitan Right are traced back to movements of

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the 1960s-70s, which objected to legalizing abortions and adopting the Equal Rights Amendment because of fears that abortion and women’s liberation would cause family destruction and straying from God. Such ideas fail to recognize that women are equal to men, can work as hard as men, lead as well as men, and choose for themselves as men do. Bodily autonomy is a right all humans deserve, its a human right; restricting access to safe abortions and denying all genders true equal rights violates this right to autonomy.

Levenson, Eric. “Alabama’s Anti-Abortion Law Isn’t Alone. Here Are All the States Pushing to Restrict Access.” CNN, Cable News Network, 30 May 2019.

Nash, Elizabeth, et al. “Radical Attempts to Ban Abortion Dominate State Policy Trends in the First Quarter of 2019.” Guttmacher Institute, 19 June 2019.

“National Organization for Women.” National Organization for Women.

“National Right to Life.” National Right to Life.

Nichols, John. “Betty Ford: Feminist, Social Liberal, Republican.” The Nation, 29 June 2015.

Oh, Inae. “Troy Newman, Extremist Who Thought Abortion Caused the Drought, Endorses Donald Trump.” Mother Jones, 23 June 2017.

“10 Reasons to Oppose the Equal Rights Amendment.” Eagle Forum.

“Operation Rescue.” Operation Rescue.

Berry, Bridget. “Gloria Steinem.” Lori Weintrob.

Rebecca Lai, K. K. “Abortion Bans: 9 States Have Passed Bills to Limit the Procedure This Year.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 May 2019.

Brind’Amour, Katherine, “Quickening”. Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2007-10-30).

Cohen, Alex, and John F Kowal. “Is the GOP Warming Up to the Equal Rights Amendment?”

Brennan Center for Justice, 27 Nov. 2018.

Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Comstock Act.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 5 Apr. 2019.

“Equal Rights Amendment.” Equal Rights Amendment.

Ertelt, Steven. “Meet Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a Supreme Court Finalist Who Says Government Can Protect Unborn Children.” LifeNews.com, 5 July 2018.

“Focus on the Family.” Focus on the Family.

Gold, Rachel Benson, and Guttmacher Institute. “Lessons from Before Roe: Will Past Be Prologue?”

Guttmacher Institute, 14 Sept. 2018.

“Resolution On Abortion St. Louis, Missouri - 1971.” Southern Baptist Convention.

Rudman, Chelsea. “‘Feminazi’: The History Of Limbaugh’s Trademark Slur Against Women.” Media Matters for America.

Schlafly, Phyllis. “What’s Wrong with ‘Equal Rights’ for Women? - 1972.” Archives of Women’s Political Communication, 1 Jan. 1972.

Solis, Marie. “The Way We Talk About Abortion Shapes How We Understand It.” Vice, 2 Apr. 2019.

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. “Declaration of Sentiments.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

“State Abortion Policy Landscape: From Hostile to Supportive.” Guttmacher Institute, 24 Sept. 2019.

“GPG Survey of Trump Voters, December 2016.” Glover Park Group, 25 Jan. 2017.

“State Bans on Abortion Throughout Pregnancy.” Guttmacher Institute, 1 Oct. 2019.

History. “Republican Party.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 4 Apr. 2018.

“Interactive Constitution: The National Constitution Center.” Interactive Constitution | The National Constitution Center.

Ivey, Kay. “Governor Ivey Issues Statement After Signing the Alabama Human Life Protection Act.” Alabama Office of the Governor, 15 May 2019.

“The Life and Legacy of Phyllis Schlafly.” Phyllis Schlafly Eagles.

Reddick, Gavin J. “Family Values Movement.” Civil Liberties and Civil Rights in the United States.

Tait, Joshua. “How Did Evangelicals and Republicans Come to Want to Ban Abortion?” Medium, Arc Digital, 22 May 2019.

“What Does Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee Mean for the Future of Women’s Health?” National Women’s Health Network, 12 July 2018.

Zhang, Mark, “Stenberg v. Carhart (2000)”. Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2014-01-28).

Appendix 1.

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50 Shades of Mixed Sonali Harris

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eing biracial should be simple--you are half your mother’s race and half your father’s race. Just as any other child inherits half of their characteristics from one parent and half from the other, I am half Puerto Rican from my mother and half African-American from my father. Growing up, I never knew that there was anything different about being of mixed-race. I never knew what was different about my curly hair and my mother’s straight hair, my brown complexion in contrast to the lighter and darker complexions of my classmates, or my inability to describe my race with one word. I never noticed how I was the only person in my class being asked: Are you adopted? Why don’t you look like your parents? or What are you? I was never offended by the assumption that my mother was my babysitter or that I was adopted; I simply asked the question back. I was proud of being myself.

It was simple to grab a peach crayon and a brown crayon and use both to color in my drawings of myself. It was simple for me to consolidate my identity under my own terms. I was a proud “Halfrican-American Sorta-Rican.” I did not notice anything was different until I did. I did not have the problem--society did. I did not meet society’s requirements for an easily legible identity; I was a mixture of two polarizing distinctions--white and black. It did not matter to my society that I was actually half Puerto Rican, not white. I did not understand the big issue; I still do not today.

Although America prides itself on being a diverse melting pot, albeit one that attempts to transform diversity into a single unified American identity, that is not the America we live in today. My classmates expect things to be black and white as if there are no nuances, no shades of grey. My inability to provide a concrete answer to the question “Who are you?” shakes them to the core. If black and white remain racial classes, why has biracial not remained one? Why has the existence of a biracial identity challenged the idea of a singular racial identity? Why did the US Census change after 1920 to exclude it? Biracial children live in the perpetual grey area, in the nuances of race.

It is difficult to identify as biracial in America. One views it as an inconvenience. When taking standardized tests, one is often only given one choice of what race to put. When one is choosing their friends, they are regarded as “too white” to be with one race, but “too ethnic” to be with the other. When choosing whom to date one is making a “statement” about

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who they are or who they want to be. When did getting coffee with someone become a declaration of one’s racial identity? How is one to and why must one consolidate their mixed identity in a society hell-bent on racial taxonomy? To what extent is a biracial person’s identity dictated by the society they live in?

Being multiracial is still regarded as a novel experience, yet approximately 2.7% of citizens report identifying as two or more races (“U.S. Census Bureau Quickfacts: UNITED STATES”). That is approximately nine million people in the United States. With popular figures, including former president Barack Obama and the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, identifying as multiracial, it is surprising it has not become a trend. The unfortunate reality is that as long as race and racism continue to be polarizing topics in society, the curiosity and confusion towards multiracial individuals will continue.

Perhaps this obsession with multiracialism can be traced back to the origins of racial distinction in America.

On March 26, 1790, Congress passed the original United States Naturalization Law, declaring that naturalization was limited to immigrants who were “white” and of “good character” (“Naturalization Act Of 1790”). This presented the difficult question of who would be classified as white.

For many this seemed simple--by looking at someone’s complexion, one should be able to determine their racial classification. However, sorting individuals by the color of their skin has not always worked. As more of the population became of a mixed descent, the ideology of sorting by sight was revealed to be immensely flawed. How could the law look at a mixed-race, “passing” individual and declare their race for them? To what extent have the laws in the United States not only condoned but enabled the racial taxonomy in the nation? The distinctions of races within laws is at the root of racial division. The polar language of “white” versus “non-white” or “white” versus “black” leaves no possibility for individuals to identify as both. Laws in the past insist that if one is not entirely “white” they are not able to classify themselves as “white.” If racial distinctions are so prevalent in the law, how can America begin to understand the duality of race and the position of individuals of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity? How is the human experience and the relationship to one’s identity affected by these laws and societal conventions?

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The concept of race is a relatively new idea. Scholars believe that race and its ideology arose from African slavery; however, many people throughout history have been enslaved without the imposition of racial labelling. Slavery was rooted in the practice of indentured servants or keeping war prisoners. Religion, class, and other unfortunate circumstances have all been used as an excuse to enslave populations, for example, Egyptians enslaving Hebrews and Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors enslaving native populations. These were not racially motivated cases of enslavement. However, loopholes of escaping indentured servitude or converting to a different religion to escape slavery caused wealthy planters to fear the end to their cheap labor force. They then chose to establish a new rationale behind exploiting a class of people. By making the color of one’s skin the reason for enslavement, planters could justify the importation of dark-skinned people from Africa and their radical exploitation and death on plantations and silver mines. This system of servitude could then be made hereditary, ensuring the children of enslaved people automatically inherited an unfree status (“The Birth Of Race-Based Slavery”). The development of race served to ensure that there would always be a subjugated class of individuals to perform free labor. While slavery was not always about race, the social construct of race emerged from the practice of slavery.

The mere idea of racial mixing has been problematic throughout history. Racial mixing implies that race is not defined by an outward appearance, but that it is instead something that courses through people’s blood. Being of mixed race or ethnicity is regarded as an impurity, an inability to easily fall into place into the caste system we refer to as race. In this paper, I seek to understand the flawed racial caste system that has been developed through laws in the United States as well as determine the extent to which societal confusion has impacted the ethnic identity of multiracial individuals.

Through this research, I hope to better understand my own position in society and help others better understand the biracial experience.

P

rior to delving into my argument, I should discuss the terminology I plan to use. I will use “mixed,” “biracial,” and “multiracial” to describe individuals belonging to multiple ethnic groups. When referring to “mixed” or “biracial” individuals, I am referring to individuals whose two parents are from two different ethnic backgrounds, while “multiracial” individuals are individuals whose parents belong to two or more ethnic groups. I will avoid using terms such as “mulatto,” “mutt,” “mongrel,” or “halfbreed” which have historical significance and often ignorant or offensive connotations. I will also attempt to move away from the “tragic mulatto” stereotype to which multiracial individuals are subjected. While my argument is rooted in the displacement of mixed-race individuals due to the distinction of “black” and “white,” it is not my intention

to cast mixed-race individuals as depressed individuals victimized by a racially segregated world. I will use the term “mixed” as it implies the social interaction and intimate relationships between individuals of distinct ethnicities.

Another important term to define is “passing.” “Passing” is the ability of a person to be regarded as a member of an identity group or category different from their own, which may include racial identity, ethnicity, caste, social class, sexual orientation, gender, religion, age and/or disability status. (“Passing (Sociology)”). Passing allows one to exist in a race different from their own, eradicating the differences attributed to race. In my argument, “biracial” and “multiracial” will be used interchangeably; however, the difference in terminology must not distract from my argument of how individuals belonging to multiple ethnic groups are displaced in terms of the law and social relations.

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aws constructed in the United States that legitimized slavery aided in the development of two distinct races: black or white. These laws that diminished or eliminated the grey area between these two races had a great impact on how biracial individuals continue to be perceived in the United States. Many laws in the past have prohibited the interaction between races, much less interracial relationships.

Therefore, being of mixed race was scandalous, even illegal.

Being biracial in the Pre-Civil War South typically implied that one’s father was a slave owner and one’s mother was a slave, making them the property of their white father. These implications continue to be problematic in terms of how polarized races remain and the rarity of individuals who are biracial and identify as biracial. Laws rooted racial identity in one’s physical appearance, reputation, and ancestry, thereby creating presumptions surrounding one’s slave or free status.

White people were free, while black people were slaves. It seems simple until one recognizes that while ancestry and status of slavery or freedom could be documented, one’s race could not be proven through documentation.

The laws in the United States made it so that biracial individuals were not given a classification; in terms of the law, they do not exist. The mere existence of biracial individuals was ignored, due to the implications. In the PreCivil War South, a mixed individual was often the product of sexual violence between a slave and a master. These implications, as well as the implication of blood mixing, made it so interracial marriages and unions were prohibited by the law. Being biracial was essentially illegal until Loving v. Virginia, passed in 1967, which legalized miscegenation.

This allowed marriages to occur, and be legally recognized, across the colorline. Richard and Mildred Loving were the first legal interracial couple, and their children became some of the first biracial individuals to be considered legal.

Prior to this, biracial individuals had no place in the law, and therefore, were unable to make their “blood” known through their performance of their racial identity (Gross 3), as their full identity would be unrecognized.

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Trials to determine racial identity were not uncommon in United States courts beginning in the late eighteenth century. These trials demonstrate the way in which racial categorization has come into being through the United States legal system. In the South, they were used to determine the racial identity of slaves contesting their freedoms, to annul marriages across the color line, or when individuals of African descent were passing as white individuals. Let us discuss Morrison v. White (1857), a case in which Alexina Morrison, a slave in Louisiana, ran away from her master and began passing in the white community.

Morrison sued her master, James White, for her freedom in parish court with the support of her neighbors and other white community members. In order to determine her race, which her freedom was contingent on, the courts relied upon her appearance and the word of her neighbors.

Morrison’s witnesses testified that she fit in perfectly with the white community, and that by her behaviors, they would be able to detect even a single drop of African blood.

In addition to the reviews of one’s community, the hidden marks of race, interpreted by self-appointed “experts,” are what convinced a jury of one’s “whiteness.” One’s body, as well as their actions, were scrutinized in order to determine their racial identity.

If one’s actions are judged, must one perform their identity? If so, this implies that one’s “blood” is evident through the way in which they present themselves in society.

How are biracial individuals meant to present themselves to society, if one’s race is performed according to a strict script?

This is a question that United States law precedents force biracial individuals to address. Must biracial individuals choose a race to exemplify through their actions, and if so, how would they go about choosing one aspect of their racial identity? Therefore, this implies that race is not so much expressed, as it is produced by one’s actions. What, then, if one works from different scripts?

Race became something that could be determined through varying factors based on the convenience of the courts within a Jim Crow society. Race could be based on “appearance, ancestry, performance, reputation, associations, science, national citizenship, and cultural practice” (Gross 9), although performance and science became increasingly more important after slavery in determining one’s race.

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Certain physical features were deemed “white” or “black” by medical “experts.” For example, “hollow” arches meant whiteness, while oval hair follicles signified blackness (Gross 9). These medical experts claimed that they could perceive race in the ordinary features, while others who were not trained could not decipher them. Essentially, they placed importance in signifiers of race which they believed to be signifieds: that is, they read “meaning” back into the features purported to reveal it. While race determining trials were held in courthouses, a site traditionally associated with justice, those whose race was being questioned often had their rights violated. Women suspected of being black were asked to disrobe in court, a violation that a white woman would not be subjected to. Despite not being a proven science, these “medical experts” were believed in court.

Their observations were used as one of the determining factors in the ruling of one’s race.

In trials to determine race, testimonials from the community and “common sense” were used to determine an individual’s race. For example, if a woman exemplified sexual purity and fit in well with the white women of the community, she was labelled as white. If a man was able to attend white gatherings, serve on juries, and vote, he was labelled as white. Certain activities and actions were given racial labels, once again polarizing the two races. This became dangerous, as it gave the community the power to become “race experts” and wield their newfound powers on disliked neighbors. White citizens could be cast as black if their community chose to. In this way, one’s community had a hand in creating and reshaping the construct of race. Race was not necessarily an abstract concept created by those in authority, it also was in the hands of the community to determine how race was meant to be performed. Courts gave power to communities to define race by giving “effect to communities’ racial knowledge [meaning] that communities trying to reshape their racial order used trials to reimagine the future by reinventing their past” (Gross 10). Race determining trials had the effect of developing race into a societal construct that could be redefined at the whim of the community.

This mentality of race being “common sense” and being rooted in medical expertise is disrupted by the existence of mixed individuals. Their race is not as easily classified and takes more consideration in terms of how they are meant to perform their race to society and how medical experts are able to determine their race. If they take after both races, how are they meant to be classified through such a strict sorting system? These race trials highlight the lack of attention that the law paid to individuals who could not be easily categorized. Or, rather, the law’s wish to render such individuals intelligible as “black” or “white,” categories to which it was committed.

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irginia Slave Codes sought to answer the question of how to determine who is enslaved. “WHEREAS some doubts have arrisen whether children got by any Englishman upon a negro woman should be slave or ffree, Be it therefore enacted and declared by this present grand assembly, that all children borne in this country shalbe held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother, And that if any christian shall committ ffornication with a negro man or woman, hee or shee soe offending shall pay double the ffines imposed by the former act” (Virginia Slave Codes 1662). This law states that slave status is dictated by the slave status of the mother. Therefore, only mixed children who had slave mothers would be slaves. This implies that mixed children that were born to white mothers or freed mothers were also free. In this way, Virginia simplified the way in which mixed individuals were categorized according to the law. This is an example of how the categorization of mixed individuals was done without drawing conclusions about their racial identity.

In the Pre-Civil War South, being a mixed individual was most likely indicative of being a product of rape between the slave master and one of his slaves. Despite being lighter in complexion, they were not seen as superior to slaves of full African-American descent. In the United States, even one drop of African blood condemned individuals to a life of servitude. The status of a child was determined by the mother’s. If the mother was a slave, the child would be as well and vice versa. Unlike slavery in South America, America did not have a racial caste system that placed “mulattos,” a term coined by Spanish America to describe the product of a Spanish and African slave union, above full AfricanAmerican slaves. In fact, according to Frederick Douglass’ account in the Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, mixed slaves were treated even worse than other slaves.

In Douglass’ account of his own experiences as a mixed individual, slaves that were the children of their masters were rejected by the white community, as well as regarded as different by the black community. Slaves that were children of their masters “invariably suffer greater hardships, and have more to contend with than others.” (Douglass 876).

Slaves that were fathered by their masters often experienced extra attention that was not always beneficial, as it often led to harsher punishments. In an attempt to overcompensate for being related to a slave, the master’s family began to treat the mixed slaves worse than they would slaves who were not mixed. The wife of the master, needing someone to blame for her husband’s infidelity, oftentimes used mixed slaves as scapegoats. Douglass emphasizes that the slave children of the master were “a constant offence to their mistress. She is ever disposed to find fault with them, they can seldom do any thing to please her; she is never better pleased than when she sees them under the lash…” (Douglass 876). The wives and children of these masters who produced mixed children would become distorted by their own jealousy and

find pleasure in the sufferings of the children, whose only faults were being born of two parents of different races.

In Frederick Douglass’ case, being a mixed individual was difficult because of what it implied. As a mixed individual in the Pre-Civil War South, Douglass was subjected to much hate. His mixed identity served to unsettle multiple members of the community, as the idea of racial mixing was uncomfortable and frowned upon because of the marital status of most masters. In addition to being treated horribly by their communities, mixed individuals were also exploited.

When fundraisers were held, slave owners utilized mixed slave children, as they believed lighter skinned slaves would foster more sympathy, therefore money. An example of an advertisement of two slaves is shown on the right. The black individual and the mixed individual who could pass for white are both being portrayed as slaves. This implies that mixed individuals were categorized as black, therefore signifying slavery. Yet, mixed slaves were distinguished from their darker slave counterparts.

This double standard does not allow for a mixed individual to develop their own racial identity. How can they be slaves if they are different from the other slaves on

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their plantation? How dark must someone be to be black enough to be categorized as a slave versus how light is light enough to be considered white? These questions are ignored in favor of the simple system of racial categorization. Even in a society where mixed individuals are known to exist, their existence is ignored in favor of traditional black and white categorization.

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ecent studies have shown that nearly two-thirds of mixed individuals do not classify themselves as multiracial or biracial, and approximately 47% of those individuals state that this is because they look and are perceived as one race (Moné and Beddingfield). The way in which a racist society categorizes individuals does not allow for multiracial individuals to feel comfortable being who they are. For many multiracial individuals, they feel a push to decide between the duality within themselves.

Being multiracial is regarded by multiracial individuals as having a duality within themselves. As a biracial individual, one is authorized to wage a race war within themselves. As stated by DuBois, “The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, -- this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost... He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American...” (DuBois 1750). While Du Bois is discussing accepting the duality of being both American and a black person, the same can be applied to someone who is of mixed descent. But Du Bois is making your point, really: for him, as indeed for a great many AfricanAmerican intellectuals to be “black” is to be “mixed.” Again, racial purity originated from a desire for white supremacy.

For many individuals of mixed descent, accepting all aspects of their identity is their way to becoming a better, truer self. This exemplifies the problem with the current way our society views race. If race continues to be an “either or” rather than a “yes and,” multiracial individuals will be unable to consolidate their identity into one categorization. DuBois argued for the acceptance of the duality within oneself; this is something multiracial individuals should begin to do.

Meghan Markle has received recent attention due to her association with the royal family. However, Markle is an example of a mixed individual who chose to forge her own path in terms of her racial identity. She grew up with a black mother and a white father, and like President Obama, confronted the duality within herself. As stated by Markle, “My teacher told me to check the box for Caucasian. ‘Because that’s how you look, Meghan,’ she said. I put down my pen. Not as an act of defiance, but rather a symptom of my confusion. I couldn’t bring myself to do that, to picture the pit-in-her-belly sadness my mother would feel if she were to find out. So, I didn’t tick a box. I left my identity blank — a question mark, an absolute incomplete — much like how I felt.” In Markle’s case, her identity was a struggle against her confusion. She did not understand society’s insistence on her North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

choosing one race, especially if she was not solely one race.

Markle is an example of how society’s insistence on racial labelling alienates mixed-race individuals. However, rather than conform, Markle stayed true to the duality within her identity, opting instead to choose the metaphorical “other” box.

Former president Barack Obama discusses how being biracial has informed the way in which he views the world.

In his speech “A More Perfect Union,” he states, “But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.” Obama asserts that his position as a multiracial individual in America provides him with a unique vantage point than other candidates. He addresses racial tensions and inequality within America, claiming that through his multiracial background, he will be able to unify the nation. Despite assertions that he was “not black enough” or “too black,” Obama was secure in his identity as a mixed-race individual. He was born of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, and he was raised with the help of white grandparents. These are all factors that contributed to his racial and ethnic identity. Mixed-race individuals have a unique position in society; they are directly situated in between the polarized “black” and “white” races, a perpetual grey area only because it is colored by the false clarity of “race.” Obama used the duality of his background to inform the way he regarded race relations. More so than other racial groups, multiracial individuals are privy to just how deep racial divides lie. While some would remain uncomfortable with their inability to belong in a racial group, Obama chose to capitalize on it. Because of his pride in his racial background, one that is only possible in the United States, Obama was able to grow past racial divides and begin to attempt to heal the nation. Obama is an example of a mixed individual who was able to accept the duality within himself and develop his own racial identity outside the confines of “black” and “white.”

Being mixed in America requires one to either choose a race or pave one’s own path as a racially ambiguous individual. It is simple to check the box that matches one’s skin tone best, but that does not do the complexity of one’s identity justice. In a society in which mixed individuals go undiscussed or are erased, mixed individuals must accept the multiplicity within themselves by either creating their own racial category or adapting the belief that being multiracial offers one a unique perspective.

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s stated by Kerry Ann Rockquemore, “Identity is understanding who we are in the world. Part of that is how others understand us, and the other part is how we understand ourselves.” What Rockquemore is referring to is self-concept. Baumeister (1999) defines self-concept as “the individual’s belief about himself or herself, including the person’s attributes and who and what the self is.”

This includes not only what the individual believes about

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themselves, but also the roles of society in the development of their identity. One’s ethnic identity is an important aspect of developing self-concept. Carl Rogers believes there are three components of self-concept: the view one has of themself (self-image), how much one values themself (self-esteem or self-worth), and who one wishes to become (ideal-self) (McLeod). For mixed individuals, the act of selfconception becomes more complicated.

There are many theories that outline the development of self-concept in biracial individuals. W. S. Carlos Poston was one of the first to propose a model. Poston (1990) proposed the following model for the healthy development of biracial identity: 1. A young child develops their personal identity that is not necessarily attributed to any specific racial group.

2. Because of factors such as appearance, cultural knowledge, perceived group status, and social support, an individual has the choice of group categorization. Therefore, they are able to choose to define themselves as multicultural, including both parents’ heritage or cultural backgrounds.

3. Being unable to identify with all aspects of one’s heritage leads to guilt that can present itself as anger, shame, or self-hatred. This stage is referred to as enmeshment or denial. The guilt and anger the multiracial individual feels must be resolved before they are able to move past this stage.

4. Through learning about aspects of their background, individuals are able to gain an appreciation for their identity. At this point, individuals may choose to identify with one racial group over the others.

5. The final stage is when an individual values their multicultural existence and appreciates all of their ethnic identities. This is the integration stage in which individuals own the duality within themselves.

While other models are similar, the final stage often differs. According to Poston, an individual is able to come to terms with all aspects of their identity, yet Poston does not account for the influence that society’s racial impositions has on multiracial individuals. Another model, such as proposed by Kristen Renn in 2004, asserts that the final stage is obtaining a situational identity. In this model, multiracial individuals hold a situational identity, allowing them to identify differently in different contexts. This fluid identity does not signify that the individual’s self-concept is unstable; instead, it highlights the multifaceted nature of multiracial identity. Certain aspects may be more salient in different contexts. Maria P. P. Root (1990) stakes a third claim. Root theorizes that multiracial individuals begin to identify as a new racial group, separate from that of both parents. In Root’s model, the individual may move fluidity

through various racial groups, but they most strongly identify with other biracial individuals, regardless of their racial backgrounds.

According to Poston, Renn, and Root, multiracial people have three different options to reach true self-concept.

They can either accept the duality within themselves, obtain a situational racial identity, or identify as a new racial identity. In this way, multiracial individuals are free to choose their own path, outside of social impositions. However, this raises the question of how society influences which path a multiracial individual takes. For example, if a biracial individual has grown up passing, are they more willing to identify more closely with their white identity rather than their black identity? This is a question that can only be answered through more research.

There is a fourth option to reaching self-concept that no model offered: the multiracial can choose to identify as solely one race. However, since this is not a proposed model, it is implied that in order to develop a healthy multiracial identity one must accept all aspects of oneself. Therefore, in order to truly develop one’s identity, they must become comfortable with every aspect of one’s racial identity, despite how one chooses to identify themselves to others.

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n this paper, I wanted to begin to understand the flawed racial caste system that has developed through laws in the United States and determine the extent to which society has shaped the ethnic identity of multiracial individuals.

I have argued that the laws which legitimized slavery and encouraged the separation of races created polarizing racial distinctions. These laws diminished the idea of equality, took advantage of differences, and now have an impact on the racial nuances in the United States. Laws meant to polarize race left little room for individuals to determine their own identity outside the strict racial divide. Individuals were sorted into either black or white, simply ignoring the notion of someone who was a mix of both. Through establishing race as a category, the development of a biracial identity was not possible until after these laws were overturned. If race is a societal construct that can be redefined by the community, because of the emergence of individuals of mixed race, race should adapt to become more inclusive. Race should not be a process of polarizing categorization, instead it should account for individuals who do not fill the black and white mold and instead are in the perpetual grey area of race.

The United States has become more inclusive of multiracial identity in the past few decades. As more celebrities, such as former president Barack Obama and Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, have asserted their complex identity, being biracial has become normalized in a way that commodifies it rather than liberating it. Despite being an identity for many people all over the world, the United States remains fixated on the idea that some individuals identify with more than one race. It has been proven that

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one’s interactions with their community shapes who they are. In communities that have been exposed to more interracial couples, the idea of biracial children is normal; however, many people in the United States find the idea of interracial couples uncomfortable. This discomfort extends to biracial individuals. The discomfort stems from the ambiguity of race. If biracial people exist, it means that the concept of race is flawed. Race can no longer be categorical; it must be a spectrum allowing for individuals to choose for themselves where they fit.

Race as a social construct limits how individuals perceive and develop their identities. By herding people into categories, society destroys the nuances of identity.

No longer can individuals be judged by the content of their character, but instead by the color of their skin. This destroys the ability of individuals to consolidate their identity within themselves. In accordance with DuBois’ ideology, there is a duality within all people of color--the way society perceives them versus the way they perceive themselves. While biracial individuals may be categorized into one race, they perceive themselves as belonging to multiple. Biracial individuals use this duality to come to terms with who they are. While the United States may continue to use its racial taxonomy to organize individuals, biracial identity will persist.

Through my research, I have been exposed to the complexities of race and the nuances of identity. For many individuals, it is difficult to consolidate their identity in accordance with the racial categorization that persists in society. Instead, many individuals use their unique position to their advantage. The reason why biracial individuals are a source of confusion is because of the questions their existence poses. If biracial individuals can exist, how can race remain only two categories? If biracial individuals are a mix of both parents, how can we claim that race is inherited?

Biracial individuals are a different race than both of their parents, so race cannot be inherited in the way that we currently understand it. There is still confusion over the position of biracial individuals on the race spectrum and in society. Ultimately, the systematic labelling of one’s racial identity is a process that no longer works in our complex society. Moving forward, we should all recognize that one’s identity is crafted through the nuances and grey areas of our society. Through the rejection of the racial divisions once written into the laws of the United States, one can learn to form their own mixed identity.

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Douglass, Fredrick. “Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature, by Paul Lauter, Concise ed., pp. 867–931.

Gross, Ariela J. What Blood Won’t Tell. Harvard University Press, 2010.

Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large, vol. 2, p. 170, Date: December 1662-ACT XII. Negro womens children to serve according to the condition of the mother.

Holland, Brynn. “Mildred and Richard: The Love Story That Changed America.” History.com, A& E Television Networks, 17 Feb. 2017.

“Isaac & Rosa, Slave Children from New Orleans, / Photographed by Kimball, 477 Broadway, N. Y.” Mcleod, Saul. “Self Concept.” Self Concept | Simply Psychology, 1 Jan. 1970.

Moné, Brianna, and Natasha Beddingfield. “What You’ll Never Understand About Being Biracial.”

Marie Claire, 21 Oct. 2019.

Ortiz, Jazmine A. “Meghan Markle Does Not Want Her Racial Identity To Fit In A Box.” BET. com, 1 Dec. 2017.

Renn, Kristen. (2008). Research on biracial and multiracial identity development: Overview and synthesis. New Directions for Student Services. 2008. 13 - 21. 10.1002/ss.282.

Rockquemore, Kerry et al. Beyond Black: Biracial Identity in America. 2nd ed., Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008.

Root, Maria P. P. The Multiracial Experience. Sage Publications, 1996.

“Transcript: Barack Obama’s Speech on Race.” NPR, NPR, 18 Mar. 2008.

“U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: United States.” Census Bureau QuickFacts, 2019.

Wood, Peter H. “The Reason America Adopted Race-Based Slavery.” Slate Magazine, Slate, 19 May 2015.

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Strength in Weakness: The Silent Rise of the Asian American through Art and Film Grace Dai

“Can you even see through your eyes?”

“I bet you got a 100 on the test - Asians are always good at math.”

“Can you speak louder? Asians are so quiet.”

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hese are questions and statements that I, along with many of my Asian American peers and community members, have been asked or told. As I hear these words, I cannot help but wonder what has led people to believe or say such things. Is it that they are uneducated or misinformed, perhaps, about the diversity in my ethnicity? Is it that they are simply ignorant about how these questions may impact others? Or, is it that deep history of discrimination has led people to mockingly say such things? My curiosity has led me to look into the history of the underlying racism of such statements.

Since the mid 19th century, the Chinese have faced injustice in the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, along with discrimination and racist stereotypes towards Chinese Americans, led them to form close-knit Chinatowns. These communities allowed them to live with one another and find strength against the hardships they faced in America. Well into the 20th century, restrictions and nativist sentiments persisted. However, overshadowed by global conflicts, economic depression, and cultural and societal shifts during this period, contemporary discussion of Asians in American society oftentimes does not extend far beyond the Exclusion Acts and Japanese Imprisonment Camps. Left out of the conversation is the fact that Asians still face discrimination in work and daily life. About 20% of Asian Americans have reported that they faced discrimination in job applications, pay rate, college applications, and housing (Discrimination in America)1. Additionally, the use of racial slurs or the assumption of stereotypical characteristics also degrades the character and humanity of a person, resulting in insecurities and fear among Asian Americans.

The fear inflicted upon Asian Americans is accompanied by the stereotype of the model minority myth that Asians are studious but passive, particularly in political contexts.

Chinese American social activist Grace Lee Boggs once said, “When I was growing up, Asians were so few and far 1 Self-reporting serves as a rough estimate; over or under-reporting may occur due to bias or pressure to not acknowledge such issues.

between as to be almost invisible. And so the idea of an Asian American movement or an Asian American thrust in this country was unthinkable” (“In Context | American Revolutionary”). This quote reflects the common notion that Asians are less involved in civic engagement and public policy than other races, making them less visible and valuable to the public eye. There is also less information in the media and elsewhere about Asian American accomplishments and movements, and these factors have led to a lack of understanding about Asian Americans in modern American society. If there is less involvement, perhaps it is spurred by traditional values of shame. Perhaps it is spurred by what the media portrays or does not portray; or perhaps it is caused by the stereotypes that Asians are compliant. Perhaps the perpetuation of the violence inflicted upon Asian Americans has led to the creation of such stereotypes, stereotypes that are themselves gentler perpetuations of violence.

Compared to other marginalized groups, Asian Americans have actually shown to be more likely influenced by the environment and culture of their community (Junn and Masuoka). The history of African Americans in the United States is unifying because the challenges they faced during enslavement, the Civil War, and Reconstruction were more synchronous and collective compared to the ones Asian Americans have faced, which have been dispersed over time and place. In order to challenge the system of slavery and extreme discrimination they faced in American society, African Americans had to be united and vocal in their black pride and power movements, and the impact of the character of their movements can be seen through the discussion of them in present-day US History courses and textbooks. On the other hand, Asians have more varying social histories and socioeconomic backgrounds. The discrimination they have faced has been staggered in time and by race, whether it is the Chinese Exclusion Acts or Japanese internment camps. This has resulted in disparity within the Asian American community in fear of association with another racial minority that is being discriminated against. Without a larger, unified front against racial injustices, Asian Americans are more likely to conform to or be shaped by the political and social environment.

Another factor that leads Asian Americans to conform is resentment of their own identity. Like many other minorities and marginalized groups, Asian Americans feel Fifth World

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a sense of displacement in American society. The Asian cultural understanding of silence as respectful has prevented many from openly voicing their concerns about public injustice, which can lead to mental health disorders and self-hatred (Courturier). Stereotyping and ethnocentric remarks that suggest that Asian Americans are submissive also intensifies such feelings, as it continuously degrades the hard work and value of Asian Americans as if it were normal and not extraordinary in the everyday scene. In hopes of being accepted and recognized, of feeling less invisible or displaced, Asians sometimes try to be more “American” in their clothing, diet, and mannerisms.

Asian Americans and others of mixed or intersectional identity face a great struggle to identify themselves with a particular group. There is the desire to be American, yet stereotypes and traditional values create a barrier, preventing one of mixed identity to be given equal treatment and consideration as a “white” person. This barrier disables racially different people from being able to connect on more meaningful levels without prejudice.

While people tend to differentiate by race in spending time with those which are most comfortable with, there is also a multiplicity in identity which includes a person’s gender, sexuality, class, and character. This internal diversity needs to be taken into consideration as parts of the whole identity of Asians in America. The heterogeneity of Asian American communities allows their identity to be constantly transformed through different individual experiences.

Inspired by other social equity movements such as the Civil Rights Movement, many Asian Americans have worked to speak to their individual and collective identity, to claim their space in American society in the past few decades.

In using art and film to effectively bring awareness to their identity, Asian Americans have explored and found confidence in their body, acknowledged the imperfections and nuances in their identity, and used the insights of their intersectionality to expand a community of support, asking to be seen and treated as equals in American society.

art as a way to claim ownership of their identity; through using the body, they sought to represent the depth of the harm that was being inflicted upon them. Known as body art, this method of communication is able to break down a global political issue to a personal one through a shared part of the human experience. It brings down barriers between an audience and the art, putting them in an uncomfortable position where they must see and come to terms with the raw truth of the art (“Body Art Movement Overview”).

Modern art often includes forms of body art, and Asian American writers and artists are not an exception.

In literature, art, film, and media, they have explored inflictions of pain upon the human body, how it connects to their identity, and how it shapes their stance in society.

The artwork series Girls Playing by Cathy Lu show a Chinese girl with dismembered body parts, bloody wounds, and a multitude of little girls pulling on her flesh and wounds (Figure 1). These large, open wounds intensify the girl’s vulnerability, showing how she may feel selfconscious and exposed in her hurt. Additionally, an injury is painful and it takes time to heal, for it is part of one’s body.

This shows the real toll that societal discrimination and oppression have taken on Asian-Americans, a pain beyond surface level because it is causing harm to a human’s body. A notable detail of this art series is that the little girls reference a motif in Chinese art. These little girls would typically be boys in traditional Chinese art, as boys were more highly valued because they carry on the family line and contributed to the physical labor needs of the household (“100 Sons and Children at Play”). Little boys symbolized fertility and happiness and would often be portrayed with an object indicative of their future. Lu states that making this change from little boys to little girls gives females a voice in art. She also discusses how she chose to depict fragmented girls “to portray ideas of multiple identities, and fragmented selves” (Lu).

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isual art is a voice that speaks loudly without verbal words. It is a space for all people, especially marginalized groups, to freely express their thoughts, concerns, and feelings when they may not be able to express them with speech. Art enables people to explore imagination, humanity, and the world in which we live.

Historically, the human body in art has commonly been used as a symbol of appreciation for human beings. It is used because it is something that humans share and because the body is an evolving and vulnerable being connected to one’s mind and spirit. During the 1960s and 70s, a time of great social movements, the escalated social climate led many people to express themselves through protests, literature, and art (“The Human Body in Symbolism”). Whether it was the Civil Rights, women’s rights, or the LGBTQ+ movement, more artists began to use the human body in

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Figure 1. Girls Playing (Float), Cathy Lu, 2013.

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Cathy Lu grew up in Miami, Florida, around Cuban exiles and immigrants. Her background has led her to feel more American than Asian, and she has struggled with what it means to be “Asian American.” Her art is a way for her to explore her relationship with her Chinese heritage, which is depicted in several ways in Girls Playing (Lu). The swapping of girls for boys is one of these ways, as it combines a traditional Chinese cultural value with modern body art and the feminist movement. This art tries to find a balance between the Chinese and American values that an Asian American might assume. The exacerbating of the wounds in Girls Playing also depicts a struggle between being Asian and American, the literal tearing in the body metaphorically representing a fissure between multiple identities. As the skin tears, it can be implied that the girl is trying to discover and reveal her true inner self that challenges the singularly conceived identities of “American” and “Asian”.

This exploration of violence on the body, sexuality, and racial identity also fights for a deeper understanding and consideration of the perspective and voice of female Asian Americans.

Along with body art came performance art, which deploys time and movement to convey its message through live performance. Anida Yoeu Ali, a Muslim Khmer artist who grew up in the US but was born in Cambodia, uses performance art as her media. Her performance, Palimpsest for Generation 1.5, entails the writing of ink on an Asian woman’s exposed back, representing the universal female warrior figure who endures violence. Generation 1.5 is a term that describes the generation of immigrants whose first language is not English but who live in or are citizens of the United States (“Generation 1.5 and ESL”). Because these people are influenced by different cultures on such a personal level, their identity consists of different parts and layers. Although palimpsest is a word that used to mean a document that would be erased and recycled for new writing, it is now used to describe something that has many different layers (“The Chicago School of Media Theory”).

Both definitions are perfect for this art - the woman’s back is a palimpsest because it is written on and erased for new writing and the woman’s back and dress hold multiple layers of history in ink. Furthermore, the woman herself is a palimpsest because as a member of Generation 1.5, she has multiple layers to her identity.

The woman written on during the performance Palimpsest for 1.5 is not identified, as she faces the wall and her head is covered under a downrush of black hair.

On her exposed back, historical memories of her family and Cambodia are written in black ink and drip onto her dress. Having these memories inscribed into her back by an external force shows her inability to control the translation of her experiences to personal histories of violence. Although each inscription is gently washed with water, the inscription is never completely washed away, demonstrating perpetual damage to flesh and personal history that will never be

able to be completely rewritten. After the performance, all that remains is hanging hair detached from the head and a dress stained with traces of black ink. These traces of ink further show that the history of a person will forever affect them, whether it is personal memories or their cultural background. In this case, it is the memories of her family, the violence she has witnessed, and Cambodia that Ali will forever carry (“Palimpsest for Generation 1.5”). The liveaction performance transforms a person whom the audience doesn’t understand into one whose story is known, allowing the audience to understand and feel compassion for them.

Exposure to this kind of art may spur audience members to think back on this performance when they encounter other Asian Americans and remember that they each have a literal different backstory and cultural values that will always be a part of them.

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hile some artists used their bodies to exhibit the suffering or challenges they have faced as an Asian American, others have used their bodies to show their displacement. Hye Yeon Nam is a modern Korean American artist who uses videography to speak to her identity. Her work Self Portrait consists of four videos which represent her struggling to accomplish a simple daily activity, including walking, drinking, eating, and sitting. In one of the videos, Nam walks around with planks attached to her feet, making it difficult to simply go about her daily life. In another, she tries to pour orange juice into a cup, but the cup has a hole and leaks most of the juice over her clothes. The perpetual challenges that Nam faces in these videos show how she feels as if all her actions are ineffective and wrong.

Whatever she does, and for however long she does it, she feels incompetent, like an outsider, an immigrant in an America into which she will never be able to fit. People will always notice the ways that she is different, which isolates her from society, making her feel alone and vulnerable.

She has to consistently pull herself up and accept less than what other people get because society does not work for female minorities and immigrants - the system is built to work for white males. Because these problems are related to everyday activities that are often taken for granted, her struggles with things out of her control are frustrating. Nam states that since immigrating to the US, her body has felt different, as if elongated. She struggles in her videos, using them as a creative outlet to recognize the displacement she feels physically and psychologically. She expresses that she works hard, deserves to be treated more equally, and that she disagrees with but has taken ownership of what it means to be Asian American in American society (“Self-Portrait”).

Another modern Asian American artist is CYJO, a Korean American artist who also uses videography and photography as her primary medium. In her work of performance art KYOPO | Multiplicity, CYJO uses a live orchestra, dance, and big-screen image projections to create art that can be experienced in a variety of ways. Through

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this, CYJO gives space to Korean Americans in different ways, depicting their multiplicity through images on-screen and through movement and music. Another one of her most distinguished works is KYOPO, a photographic series that seeks to validate the identity of American immigrants, particularly Koreans (Fig. 2). The series includes pictures of over two-hundred Korean Americans, each with their own story of how they have become who they are and of how being Korean American has played a role in that. Some of the people pictured are teenagers, others are politicians, teachers, filmmakers, or more. Each portrait is also paired with a quote from the portrait subject such as: “I am Spanish. I am American. I am Korean. I am short.

I have crazy eyebrows and a birthmark on my left hamstring. Not one aspect is more important than the rest. They all define who I am.” Hyun Pak, International Media Consultant (CYJO).

Figure 2. Kyopo, CYJO, 2009.

In this quote as well as many others, CYJO and the portrait subjects discuss the multiplicity of their identity. They talk about being multi-racial and about the challenges that have come with being multiracial, about being adopted, about the cultural values that they grew up with, such as haggling in markets. They point out characteristics that make them unique, emphasizing that one part of their identity is not more important than the other. Quirks such as having a birthmark on one’s left hamstring make the subject more human and easier to connect with, because every human has their own unique characteristics. It makes the subject of portrait more known to the audience, closing the gap between them by reminding them that at a certain level, all humans are the same: we don’t wish to be discriminated against, we seek happiness, and we believe or struggle to

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believe in the values we grew up with. At the end of each quote, the name and occupation of the portrait subject is given. Using multiple characteristics to shape the identity of a person and inform the audience that every human is more multiple than their race combats the way that a racial label categorizes members of a group as the same, assuming that the individuals in that group share the same character.

Modern-day TV shows and movies have also used the complexities of individual and group identity to validate Asian American identity. “The Farewell” is a recent movie centered around an Asian-American character, Billi, who has conflicts with her Chinese family about their beliefs.

Her maternal grandmother, also called nai nai, is fatally ill, and while she believes that her grandmother has the right to know this information in case she wants to say goodbye, the rest of her Chinese family wants to keep nai nai from knowing that she will likely pass away soon. Here the Eastern and Western beliefs differ, but both cultures have the same fundamental goal and purpose: they are doing what they believe is best expressing their love and care for nai nai. Billi’s Chinese side of the family believes they should not reveal to nai nai that she is fatally ill because it will prevent her from carrying the emotional weight of her death. However, having grown up with Western values rooted in individuality, Billi thinks that nai nai should have the right to know information about her own body and life (The Farewell). This familial conflict is reflected in the macro, external issues of misunderstandings between different cultures. Showing this conflict within a family allows an audience to realize that these miscommunications are unintentional and that they are not just inter-racial conflicts. Billi and her family’s pain portrays these conflicts as difficult for both sides. In producing this movie, Wang encourages the audience to understand the real challenges Asian Americans face as they try to determine their identity and the values that they stand for (Gross).

Similarly, “Fresh off the Boat” is a television series that was the first to include an Asian-American family, the Huangs, as the primary characters and to succeed with over one hundred episodes (Huang). Starring well-known Asian American actors and actresses like Constance Wu and Randall Park, this series uses the differences between Asian Americans to convey that they have multi-dimensional identities. The setting of the series is one that many minorities can relate to - one where the main characters feel displaced in a community that lacks other minorities similar to them and a culture that they grew up with. Having moved from Chinatown to a place in Orlando with a much smaller Asian community, the Huangs struggle to assimilate.

They are stereotyped as being bad drivers and at school, the three sons, Eddie, Emery, and Evan are called racial slurs like “chink” and made fun of for their food. Despite these challenges, the Huangs refuse to accept the discrimination and hold onto their Taiwanese background and culture (Chan).

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Common stereotypes of Asian Americans are that they are obedient, quiet, and or geeky. Television series like “Fresh Off the Boat” break down these stereotypes by including the various personality traits, beliefs, and aspirations of Asian American characters, building up an awareness that Asian Americans are a diverse group of people. The nuances and intricacies shown in individual characters reveal that Asian Americans cannot be grouped under one category such as “nerds.” They tell the story of a person as a whole rather than looking at them from one perspective, which gives each character in the show depth and humanity. Jessica Huang, the mother and wife of the series, is a strong and driving influence in making sure that the family remembers and honors their heritage. She pushes her husband not to get sucked into white culture like country clubs and sends her sons to Chinese school while fighting the urge to eat macaroni and cheese herself. Her tendency to do what is best for her family differs from her husband, Louis Huang, who tries to see the good in all people and pursues the American dream through his Western steakhouse restaurant. Their conflicts over the values they hope to instill in their sons yet again shows the complexities in what it means to be Asian American and the stress that has on families and different generations of people.

“Fresh Off the Boat” is also unique in that it uses comedy to address the various stereotypes about Asian culture, yet it is this factor of humor that allowed it to be a success.

Comedy and entertainment, particularly through TV and movies, are integral to American culture. People cannot simply be told about racism because the majority of them do not want to be preached to about it. This show strategically utilizes entertainment as a way to educate audience members on subtle discrimination in daily life, including stereotypes, while adding to the complexity of Asian American identity.

Rather than starting an entire social movement about Asian American identity, “Fresh Off the Boat” raises racial and cultural awareness through the influence of popular culture in American society. It takes Asians out of the economic or legal context that they have long been seen in since the late 19th and early 20th centuries when Asian immigration was at a peak, and puts them into a familial and cultural context that is more personal and emotional for an audience.

Although more dated, one of the most classic films that speaks to Asian American identity is The Joy Luck Club, which is based upon a book written by Amy Tan. The plot focuses on the conflict between mothers who immigrated to the United States and daughters who were born and raised in America. When these mothers and their daughters gather to play mahjong, they share hope and support for each other. While the mothers who have overcome great struggles, such as having to leave their infants or being in an abusive marriage, share dreams of a better life for their daughters, the daughters resist these dreams and become frustrated, thinking that the mothers only want to show off using their daughters’ success. Contributing to the cultural

barrier between the two is the fact that English is the first language for daughters, but Chinese is the native tongue for the mothers. Nevertheless, after the mothers finished sharing their stories with their daughters at the end of the movie, a newfound connection is formed between the mother and daughter, breaking down the former cultural barriers that stood in between them. In a way, the initial relationship between the mothers and daughters in the movie is a microcosm of the lack of understanding between Americans and Asians. Because family members are more willing to share their stories with one another, the movie is able to use internal conflict within a family to break down, find the roots of, and address the same sort of conflict on a larger scale.

Within the generational conflict exhibited in The Joy Luck Club, emotions such as deep frustration, fear, and sorrow further demonstrate multiplicity in identity that legitimizes the humanity of Asian Americans. When one of the daughters, Waverly, decides to marry a white man, her mother Lindo expresses great disapproval and refuses to speak to Waverly. Waverly thinks that her mother dislikes Rich, but Lindo believes Waverly is ashamed to be her daughter and that she does not truly see or value her background. Waverly then tearfully expresses how much her mother’s feelings and words can hurt her and how she feels as if she has never been able to please her mother.

It is at this moment that both sides recognize that the communication gap between them has caused them both emotional suffering. The pain they feel also shows how the conflict is unwanted, real, and impactful to their lives, and this may spark compassion in audience members, inspiring them to see Asian Americans for who they are as whole human beings.

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nother one of the ways that The Joy Luck Club creates and recreates the Asian American identity is by using intersectionality to its advantage. The intersectionality between race and gender has oftentimes been used to further discriminate against people such as women of color. Feminist thought is often centered around white women, while racism is often centered around colored men. This leaves a gap where intersectional people such as women of color are left out of the conversation. By using women of color as the main characters, The Joy Luck Club gives representation to a marginalized group that often is more discriminated against. The scenes that the movie presents are not always about racial discrimination - sexism also plays a key role in the plot. For instance, the male assertion of power plays a key role in the challenges that the mothers have faced in their past such as abuse in marriages and being shunned for not giving birth to a male child. This male dominance is also reflected in the lives of the daughters, as Jess’s husband does not consider her feelings or value her opinion in household decision making. Furthermore, the daughter Rose tries to please her white husband Ted by showing submissiveness

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and refraining from speaking her own thoughts. Combating these gender-related struggles within a non-white community gives rise to a shared challenge between the white and Asian American communities. It turns what intersectionality into an occasion of community between marginalized groups of people. Empathy and acceptance are easier to have when a commonality exists: here, The Joy Luck Club uses gender-related issues to create a bridge for other women to gain insight on and, in some ways, relate to the Asian American female experience.

The intersectional identities in The Joy Luck Club also show that one cannot separate Asian Americans from other factors that make up identity, preventing people from differences as “racial”. People of all races who are subject to racism also desire love and connection with friends and family, and these characteristics are still a part of an Asian Americans’ entire identity. The four different mother-daughter relationships also add to this identity, as they depict the diverse thoughts, values, and backgrounds that Asian Americans have. Although The Joy Luck Club has led the way in giving Asian American identity space in American culture, it has primarily given this space to East Asians rather than all of the diverse racial identifications within the Asian American community. By focusing solely on the intergenerational mother-daughter conflict, it has also stereotyped this kind of conflict as an essential part of Asian American identity, which makes it crucial to look at how other works speak about Asian American identity (Lowe).

An Asian American who exemplified intersectionality in identity was Bernice Bing, an artist of Chinese descent from San Francisco. As a female, lesbian, and third-generation Asian American, she experienced marginalization in multiple ways, and because of this, her work has largely been left unrecognized. Besides being a lesbian female painter, Bing was also an abstract expressionist, an appreciator of nature, a social activist, and a faithful Buddhist (Matthews).

She was also a major inspirational leader in the midtwentieth century, as she was the first Executive Director of SomArts, a cultural center that uses art to advocate for and create social change and had her own exhibition at the Beat Batman Gallery (Banta).

While Bing was largely known as an abstract expressionist artist, her art spoke to the various aspects of her identity. Epilogue is one of her many works that display her intersectionality in her art (Asia Week: San Francisco Bay Area). Using traditional Chinese calligraphy that she had picked up while she traveled to Asian countries for art inspiration and combining it with western abstract art techniques that include bright, colorful spaces, she conceives phenomenal works that radiate vitality and celebrate her Chinese heritage and childhood in a white community. With art like this, Bing found ways to bring together the vastly different communities she was a part of, refusing to identify herself with one particular group such

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as “lesbians” or “feminists”. In asking to be seen as a human who can not be classified into one defining category such as “Asian American”, she utilizes her intersectionality to uplift all aspects of her identity (Matthews). She makes herself someone that people will not immediately identify as Asian American, but rather as her own unique self: Bernice Bing.

Bing redefines what it means to be “Asian American” and proves to the world that being Asian American does not confine one into a certain group of character or behavioral traits; rather, it is only one aspect of someone who can be many things and connect with many different people.

Asian Americans have also explored intersectionality between and across multiple cultures, such as basic human needs and traits, to demonstrate the equality of their identity with others. Two Cultures is a series of paintings by Chinese artist Hong Chun Zhang (Fig. 3). In each painting, Zhang paints two objects with the same function side by side.

Though the objects have the same basic function, they are objects from two different cultures, one Chinese and the other American. For instance, Tasty contrasts the head of a salmon, which is considered to be one of the most valuable parts of a fish in Chinese cooking, with the part of a salmon’s body that Western cultures tend to use in cooking. The differences in the physical appearance of the various objects represent the differences in outward appearance of people of different races. However, the fact that the objects have the same function, such as food, a utensil for eating, or diaper for a child, shows that at the roots of different cultures and identities, people are much more alike than they like to think of themselves to be. The side-by-side comparison shows that people have the same basic human needs, making no one culture superior to another. The exploration of the similarities and differences between Asian American and Western culture also illustrates the continual search to break down barriers and challenge the idea that people can only be one or the other. Instead, this art shows that there are more than just two binary expressions of identity, and that different identities can be made common through a search for humanity within itself.

Figure 3. Two Cultures (Tasty), Hong Chung Zhang, 2004.

CYJO, Lulu Wang, Bernice Bing, and many more Asian Americans have used various media to validate, create, and recreate Asian identity and culture in America. Whether in painting, multimedia videography, or film, these artists have

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transformed aspects of minorities that are often considered as a hindrance or weakness into a strength in their argument for a more multiple, heterogeneous identity. By asserting the value in the Asian American body through connecting human experience with the one’s physical identity, using personal and familial nuances and imperfections to raise consciousness about the multi-dimensional identity of Asian Americans, and simultaneously breaking down stereotypes and growing a larger support network through intersectional communities, Asian Americans have spoken their voice, asking to be seen and treated as equals in American society.

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he search for and critique of the boundaries between different identities continue today. As cultures continue to integrate with one another, the lines defining identity blur. The discussion of racial identity can not occur without the discussion of one’s whole identity, including their gender, class, sexuality, and generational background.

Identity is something to be self-defined, something that every person should have control over. Like sexual identity, how one defines themselves is characterized not by physical appearance but by what one feels, and these feelings can be fluid and flexible. One identifies themselves by what they believe themselves to be and what they desire to become.

Identity is about being comfortable and confident in one’s own skin in an environment that feels like home. It is about being unique and justified in being multiple ethnicities at once, and about finding human connection with others who are different.

Alongside gender, race has always been considered to be one of the most defining components of one’s identity.

Studying the cause of this predisposition would allow people to develop a greater understanding of how racism has been rooted in American society.

The works discussed in this paper have redefined identity to incorporate much more than just race, showing that there is a network of connections between humanity, gender, sexuality, race, class, and identity. However, these works are merely a sample of the ways Asian Americans today have sought to define identity for themselves through art and film. There are many more unknown works of Western and Southern Asia that have yet to be identified, explored, understood, and appreciated.

Although the methods by which authors, artists, and filmmakers have worked to redefine Asian American identity have been obscured, they have effectively incited audiences to analyze the subject, spurring deeper thought and contemplation. The more one searches and analyzes the art, the more it speaks of previously unknown sentiment and new meaning because of the personal narrative and truths that inspired the work. Thus, these works of art have become a space for a powerful, subtle movement, a silent social movement that deserves a greater space in Asian American studies as well as art, film, and American

studies in all levels of education. They are a place where a movement on the rise will one day allow Asian Americans to confidently voice their opinions and say, “I see the value in my body and background. I appreciate and embrace the multiplicity and intersectionality of my identity. I love who I am as a whole, part of which is being Asian American.”

“100 Sons and Children at Play: Chinese Traditional Symbols and Motifs.” The Specialists Guide to Chinese Antiques, 13 Mar. 2012.

“Asia Week: San Francisco Bay Area.” Asia Week | San Francisco Bay Area.

“Body Art Movement Overview.” The Art Story.

Chan, Antonia. “Fresh Off the Boat: Asian-American Representation.” Harvard Political Review Fresh Off the Boat AsianAmerican Representation Comments, 2015.

“The Chicago School of Media Theory Theorizing Media since 2003.” The Chicago School of Media Theory RSS. Courturier, Mark. “THE ASIAN AMERICAN MOVEMENT: A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS.” Michigan Sociological Review, vol. 15, 2001, pp. 83–92. JSTOR. CYJO. Kyopo. Photography. 2009. CYJO. “Discrimination in America: Experiences and Views of Asian Americans.” National Public Radio, Inc., November 2017.

The Farewell. Directed by Lulu Wang, Big Beach, 2019.

Fresh Off the Boat. Directed by Nahnatchka Khan, American Broadcasting Company, 2015.

“Generation 1.5 and ESL.” Undergrad Main Site.

Gross, Terry. “Filmmaker Lulu Wang Based ‘The Farewell’ On Her Family’s Real-Life Lie.” NPR, NPR, 24 July 2019.

Huang, Josie. “We Visited The Set Of ‘Fresh Off The Boat’ - The First Asian American Sitcom To Hit The 100-Episode Milestone.” Laist.

“The Human Body in Symbolism.” Secret Teachings of All Ages: The Human Body in Symbolism.

The Joy Luck Club. Directed by Wayne Wang, Hollywood Pictures, 1993.

Matthews, Lydia. “Quantum Bingo.” Bernice Bing, 1999.

Ali, A.Y. “Palimpsest for Generation 1.5.” Live Performance. 2009. Anida Yoeu Ali. Pov. “In Context | American Revolutionary | POV | PBS.” POV, 19 Jan. 2014.

Junn, Jane, and Natalie Masuoka. “Asian American Identity: Shared Racial Status and Political Context.” Perspectives on Politics, vol. 6, no. 4, 2008, pp. 729–740. JSTOR. Lowe, Lisa. “Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Marking Asian American Differences.” 1991.

In Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan (Ed.) Literary Theory: an Anthology (2nd edition, pp. 1031-1050).

Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing.

Lu, C. Girls Playing. Watercolor. 2013. Cultural Identity in Art: Interview with Artist Cathy Lu. Nam, H.Y. Self Portrait. Video. 2006. Hye Yeon Nam. Zhang, H.C. Two Cultures. Oil on canvas. 2004. Hong Chun Zhang.

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The Effects of Standardized Education and Generational Shift on Immigrated Language Vitality Taylor Nguyen

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ne of my earliest memories is learning how to count.

My young and elastic mind was perceptive of this experience. My grandfather handed me a glass of milk and promised that if I drank the entire eight ounces in eight seconds flat, I would be well-rewarded. Once I began gulping the milk down, my grandfather began counting to eight—in Vietnamese. My brain made the easy correlation between each uttered syllable and its English counterpart, and I was reinforced by a lollipop for all my effort. It’s often claimed that learning a language is like learning to ride a bike. Yet I have found over time that recalling what I once knew of Vietnamese became difficult. Last year, I handed my cousin a glass of milk and promised that if he drank it before I could count to eight, he would be well-rewarded. So he drank and I counted—in smooth, flowing English. This moment brought me back to my childhood. I realized, ten years into standard English-based education, that despite my best efforts, I had been rendered incapable of counting to eight in Vietnamese; I was lucky to recall as far as three. Eight was simple in English, Spanish, and French—languages taught to me, if briefly, throughout my academic career.

Language was deeply imbedded into my education, but not all languages were given equal consideration. Foreign language learning is valuable in education as multilingualism is seen as culturally significant. The question then becomes what defines multilingualism and how is the acclaimed ‘diversification of language’ actually reflected in linguistic communities.

The majority of research into linguistic standardization begins with predictions of extensive linguistic demise: “Of the estimated 7,000 languages spoken in the world today nearly half are in danger of extinction and are likely to disappear in this century” (Wilford, 2007). Two schools of thought emerge from this consensus: one, that standardization of dominant languages isolates speakers of minority languages and two, that a standard basis of language simplifies teaching foreign languages. Neither ideology is baseless; however, they are derived from alternate perspectives. Both these groups support multilingualism, but the rationale for diversifying the linguistic landscape of a community often conflicts.

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Monolingualism is considered a simpler solution to barriers in communication that more often than not impede economic development and cultural awareness. Most who support monolingualism do not necessarily support pure monolingualism. Rather, they believe that a foundational language, typically a lingua franca, will provide subsequent generations with the potential for economic success while they maintain an independent culture.1 Many linguists argue that the multilingualism which academic programs promote only supports other dominant languages. The attitude towards multilingualism shapes the nature of multilingualism. Generally, language decay is attributed to “external factors”: exposure to other languages as a loss of perceived cultural significance, for example (Bradley, 2001).

Interaction with dominant languages and the subsequent generational decay of cultural or minority languages are clearly correlated. This is attributed to the role of the “semi-speaker” (Bradley, 2001) who serves as the linguistic turning point—a transition between cultural and dominant language. In an academic setting, this semi-speaker—often a child—is exposed to and convinced of the benefits of the dominant language(s); thus, they are made to serve a greater societal purpose. The cultural language of their family loses relevance, especially in cases of immigration, where other speakers of the language are less accessible. This is especially true in the case of mass migrations of people, such as the Atlantic Slave Trade or the Vietnamese diaspora of the Second Indochina War.2 In migration—especially compelled migration—of any scale, immigrated populations face disruptive collision with dominant cultures.

Academic programs also seem to support linguistic diversity. Competitive colleges prefer applicants to have ‘two or more years of language’ education (Grove, 2018) 1 Defined as a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different, often called a bridge or trade language 2 The title “The Vietnam War” predominates the literature surrounding the war, which the Vietnamese call Kháng chiến chống Mỹ, the “Resistance War Against America” or simply, the American War. Which was officially fought between South and North Vietnam.

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or other demonstrations of proficiency, such as Advanced Placement (AP) exams. College Board (2018) cites an average net positive increase of students taking ‘World Languages & Cultures’ (AP) exams. Colleges accept scores on standardized AP Exams featuring formalized interpretative communication and interpersonal and presentational speaking/writing. A standardized level of proficiency is preferred to informal development of cultural languages.

This is where significant conflict occurs: what is more beneficial, retaining a language with cultural and traditional significance or promoting dominant languages with greater “social worth”? In the context of the United States, whose population exhibits a uniquely high racial, cultural and socioeconomic diversity, cultural minority languages are merely tolerated under English’s predominance.

Dominant languages prevail in a system of standardization because they are demonstrative of commonality, even as they reinforce what is “common”; while native and cultural language struggle to maintain relevance. The worth of cultural language must be justified through focuses on for career and commerce-driven utility: “German and Chinese are both valuable languages for students interested in business, and strong French skills would be ideal for someone who wants to teach English...” (Grove, 2018). Thus, educational systems do not support minority languages; dominant languages that are typically standardized in other countries simply gain a foothold within the curriculum.

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he Vietnamese language serves as the official language of Vietnam, but it is a language born from colonialism.

The historical context is crucial: the 1,000-year Chinese domination of Vietnam resulted in Sino-Vietnamese.

Formerly, a vocabulary of modified Chinese characters, called Chữ Nôm along with classical Chinese, was used in formal texts.3 Chữ Nôm remained in primary use until the creation of Quốc Ngữ by the Portuguese Jesuits, namely Alexander De Rhodes, in the 17th century, which was later reinforced by the era of French Indochina (Taylor, 1991).4 When France replaced Portugal as the primary European power of Southeast Asia colonialism, the Vietnamese state was unified under the Nguyen Dynasty only to be overthrown later by the French Empire in a naval expedition called the Cochinchina Campaign (Manguin, et al 2011). The French then introduced the French language to the locals, which soon became the governing language of Vietnam. French replaced both native Vietnamese and formal Chinese, establishing a Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet (Taylor, 1991). In the 19th century, French was designated for the educated and elite, up until the early 20th century when it was established as the primary language of 3 Despite its basis in classical Chinese, the script remained unintelligible to all Chinese people 4

Composed of modern-day Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos

education and Tây Bồi (a French pidgin language)5 emerged among the lower class.6 Japan’s brief occupation of Vietnam during World War II resulted in Vietnamese—which now shared common characteristics to French and Chinese— being established as the sole official and educational language, resulting in a transitional phase that lasted until 1976 (Manguin, et al 2011). The language of revolution against French colonialism became Vietnamese even before it resulted in the First Indochina War. Despite the partial occupation of Vietnam by the Viet Minh, French still predominated state politics, education, and media. In 1954, Vietnam gained independence from the French, but the cultural and political influence remained, and soon Vietnam was divided into the communist North and capitalist South (Taylor, 1991). This preceded the Vietnam War and subsequent United States involvement. Following the Fall of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, the communist government imposed Vietnamese as the official language and characterized French as anti-communist (Manguin, et al 2011). The French-speaking elite fled Vietnam, sending the language into a sharp decline.

Here, the history of Vietnamese people is subdivided into that of Vietnamese nationality and that of the Vietnamese diaspora. The focus of immigration shifts the perspective towards the “Overseas Vietnamese”, or those living outside Vietnam.7 Influenced heavily by the violence and colonialism of dominant imperialism, Vietnam’s history requires the period of departure, individual experience, and political eras to be considered. Still diasporic Vietnamese are often generalized to the post-Vietnam war migratory period, the most modern instance of “mass emigration,” due to war, poverty, and political changes dominating diasporic literature (Lam, 2008).8 The Vietnamese language, which evolved significantly from colonialism, came in contact with languages within the “host countries” of its refugees: the United States, France, Canada, Australia, Germany, etc. An important distinction to be made in the case of Vietnamese is that from a worldwide standpoint, it is not a minority language.

Vietnamese residents saw a continuous increase in the prevalence of Vietnamese as a national language (Nguyen,

5 A simplified form of a language used between two speakers without a common language, arising out of contact between speakers of other languages 6 Revolutionaries opposed the colonial language of French; however, national dependency on the language resulted in insurgent literature being written and spoken in French—rather than Vietnamese.

7 This is translated literally from the Vietnamese Người Việt hải ngoại, meaning “Overseas Vietnamese.” An alternative is the Sino-Vietnamese phrase Việt Kiều, meaning “Vietnamese sojourner.” In some cases, the politically charged Người Việt tự do, meaning “Free Vietnamese,” is also used.

8 Vietnamese diasporic literature often forgoes accounts of pre1975 wartime, or pre-war narratives, and post-war refugees

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2007). Vietnamese became a dominant language in Southeast Asia overall.9 In France, among internationally spoken Asian languages, Vietnamese ranks first in France and fifth in the US (Nguyen, 2007). Thus, from a global perspective, Vietnamese is by no means “dying” or “endangered”; however, on a local scale—the United States specifically—it degraded: Depending on their local relative importance, the number of their speakers, the non-dominant languages can be home languages helping their speakers to maintain their feeling of ethnic identity and pride, or they can be local municipal administrative languages or lingue franche and trade languages over a more extended area, or more widely used and understood contact languages of considerable importance which can function as secondary major languages in parts of the country. (Wurm, 1998) The processes that define immigrated linguistic decay when a language is removed from its origin—acculturation, cultural and economic insignificance, generational language shift, and language standardization within educational systems—now come into play.

of language progresses until it reaches the apotheosis of dominant-language monolingualism in third-generation immigrants (G3). In this stage, their ethnic language exists as a subset of their ethnic identity, rather than as their linguistic background. This process stems from a shift in perspective towards the language. There are also many other independent factors that can accelerate or mitigate the progression of this process, such as the community that the immigrant family lives in, intercultural marriages that introduce other potential ethnic languages or proximize the dominant language, methods of intervention, etc. It’s also important to note that the language shift each generation experiences is not defined by periods of rapid, immediate change and stagnancy, but rather by the gradual divergence from the previous generation’s understanding of the native language throughout each generational lifetime.

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any factors influence the temporal process of degradation. For instance, there are changes in language exposure, dependence on the dominant language for precursory communication, and dependency of parents on children’s knowledge of the dominant language. The most well-understood model for language assimilation is the three-generation model, characterized by the progression of cultural language loss from initial immigrated populations to third-generation immigrants (Fishman 1966; Alba, et al 2002; Veltman 1983). Immigrant populations (G0) experience acculturation upon contact with the hegemonic language and gain minimal familiarity with English. However, immigrants maintain a preference for their native language, and, at home, it is dominant.

The following generation (first-generation immigrants, G1) is bilingual from the collective experience of at-home native language and exposure to the dominant language through educational systems and societal interactions.10 As a result of their parents’ preference towards the dominant language, Children of this generation (G2) have a reduced knowledge of their ethnic language and speak primarily the dominant language at home, even in response to their parents speaking their ethnic language.11 This loss 9 Vietnamese is now the most commonly spoken Austroasiatic language, and foreign language integration has expanded to include English—for the benefits of its status as a lingua franca.

10 Given the society that they live in is not pre-dominated by people who also speak that native language, resulting in decreased potential interactions utilizing their native language 11 Note the transition from native language to ethnic language, as the language is no longer closely associated with teachings from the parent, but is now more closely linked with the child’s ethnic identity

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Figure 1. Three-Generation Language Assimilation Model

This transition is facilitated by modern approaches to language standardization and foreign language education.

Regarding language in academic settings, standards are often prioritized for the sake of commonality and ease of communication between students and teachers. This school of thought is not irrational; education would otherwise be a site of linguistic and cultural segregation as students would be divided by linguistic skill sets,12 requiring different teachers. Therefore, common language is established in an academic environment to ensure equal opportunity for all. In spite of this, elementary school grades are where ethnic language development suffers the most significant degradation (Alba, et al 2002).

In the formative years of childhood, reinforcement in the importance of and increased exposure to English detaches each successive generation from the previous. As ethnic language becomes relegated to home-only use, a generational gap forms as children of the prior generation no longer view their ethnic language as having a major bearing on their cultural identity. Further, the development

12 This is wholly unfeasible from the perspective of public education, teacher hiring, etc.

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of slang and code-switching produces more linguistic gaps between older and younger generations, “...in which the younger speakers of the language speak something radically different from what is spoken by fluent elders...the changed version may persist or rapid change may continue” (Bradley, 2001). That generation’s children will experience the same Angelization—with even less cultural influence from their parents.13 Subsequently, the view of the ethnic language (in comparison with English, for example) shifts towards insignificance. This is especially true within the transition from the immigrated generation to the first generation, as from the child’s perspective, their parents are dependent on learning English for employment needs and economic stability. This places greater importance on learning the English—and bilingualism is the product of necessity in parental communication.

The child’s interpretation of standardized, dominant language is in opposition to their ethnic language. Parents lack educational structure that academic school systems provide when teaching standardized language, including resources such as time and educational materials.14 Simply by virtue of a child’s learning environment, ethnic language learning becomes increasingly less imperative. The child is taught at a young age that structured education is superior; therefore what is taught through a system of a structure becomes more valuable than a language reliant on immersion and associated with parental dependence. The drift from the ethnic language of their culture towards assimilation into the dominant linguistic landscape is viewed as a positive development: “Certain languages, including widely used ones such as English, French and Spanish, are believed by their speakers to exist in standardized forms, and this kind of belief affects the way in which speakers think about their own language and about ‘language’ in general.” (Milroy, 2001). A sense of nationalism also affects the mindset of descendants of immigrants, as they associate their cultural identity with the country in which they were born and their cultural background with the homeland of their parents.

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n aspect of standardized education that threatens the vitality of immigrated language is the emergence of movements such as the “English-Only” movement.15 The English-Only movement advocates for the use of English as the official and only language to be used in the United States, which can prove detrimental to the maintenance of native languages, their speakers, and the educators that work with them: “A serious threat to the continuation of bi-

13 Assuming that the family lives in a community with either very few or no other speakers of their ethnic language, meaning that dominant language contact is most prevalent. The child also wouldn’t be enrolled or participate in ethnic language-based immersion schools.

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Excluding homeschooling.

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Also referred to as “Official English” by its advocates.

or multilingualism acquired in early childhood is the narrow minded and uninformed attitude of many schoolteachers in various countries discouraging young pupils from using, or even remembering, languages of their early childhood bi- or multilingualism.” (Wurm, 1998).

ProEnglish, leading advocates of the Official English movement, insist that “Official English would also reinforce America’s historic message to new immigrants — that we expect them to learn English as the first step in their assimilation — and that we are committed to ensuring that all Americans share in the economic, social and political benefits of having a common language.” They also assert that Official English does not equate to “English-Only” as that would “give the impression that official English will rid the United States of all foreign language use.” Rather, foreign languages could be used in the context of daily personal use or for the sake of public interest (i.e. public service announcements, public health and safety, etc). This relegates ethnic language to personal use while ensuring that no individuals can demand government services in their native language: “Naturally as governments spread their reach and the network becomes more open, some new domains in which a minority language cannot be used come into existence, and some existing domains may shift to an outside language” (Bradley, 2001). Movements that advocate for English to be the official language of the United States legislature typically come to fruition during times of national crisis or mass immigration, when the public (or those groups who claim to be the public) seeks a sense of national unity under the English Language. However, movements that devalue the use of ethnic language are harmful to immigrants, who are forced to learn English out of necessity. This is the most impactful for their children, who face pressure in standardized education to conform at a young age.

In second language acquisition, the use of the primary language—in the case of bilingualism—affects the educational development of non-native languages. Language minority children develop skills within their primary language (L1) and use this firmly-established linguistic base to learn their second language (L2), relative to their pre-existing knowledge: “Even when the written form of the L1 and English—such as the Chinese characters and the English alphabet—are distinctly different, the children are still able to apply the visual, linguistic, and cognitive strategies used in their L1 to reading and writing in English,” (Lu, 1998; Freeman & Freeman, 1992). However, in an EnglishOnly environment, children and the process of language acquisition are forcibly isolated from their native language, which places ESL (English as a Second Language) students at an academic disadvantage. This would be akin to foreign language classes not being taught in the context of English, forcing students to learn unfamiliar content in an

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unfamiliar language.16 Wong-Fillmore noted that the rate at which language shifts at home and at school in the United States is rapid, especially among younger children. She argues that native language is lost at a substantially higher rate than secondary languages are learned, resulting in a phenomenon where learning a language is equated to losing one (Wong-Fillmore, 1998). This leaves bilingual children with insufficient language skills in both their primary and second languages, which are both unable to support a child’s academic development.

The introduction of English-only instruction on the basis of equal academic opportunity is yet another representation of favoring the concept of equality rather than equity. This perspective also influences students’ attitudes towards the necessity of language diversity, as school exists as a reflective microcosm of society. Education in the United States has been traditionally verbal, and as language serves as the dominant method of teaching and learning, complete English-immersion within schools sets a precedent against the maintenance of ethnic language. A large part of this stems from the fact that English exists as a dominant political and economic language within the United States.

This contributes to the positive feedback loop of English’s hegemony within the United States: “The general tendency appears to be a reduction of traditional multilingualism: first ‘enriching’ it with one (or more) newly introduced lingua franca(s); then losing some of the languages, and then perhaps losing all the traditional languages.” (Aikhenvald, 2001). It’s become exceedingly difficult for immigrated generations to impart the importance of their native language upon their children while mainstream culture continuously diverges from economic and political monolingualism.

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nother issue within the academic setting is the concept of foreign language learning. While foreign language learning promotes the expansion of worldview, multiculturalism and can provide an economic advantage, it is a further justification for the greater value given to standardized languages. Standard foreign language teachings are often centered around formal language (that of which is used in an economic perspective), and the use of slang and truly conversational voice is rarely used in a classroom setting. This forms another distinction between their ethnic language and their primary language (Bradley, 2001). Their parent’s language—which is typically more informally based—is subject to language variation (use of slang, code-switching, dialect differences, etc). Variation through the lens of standardized language education is seen as the root of poor quality education.

Foreign language programs are developed on the basis of language dominance and necessity. From the perspective

16 Meanwhile, continuing education in other disciplines that now teach through the secondary language students are attempting to learn.

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of economic and political advantage, dominant languages persist in terms of foreign language education within the United States. The emergence of certain languages as most commonly taught within U.S. schools are typically in response to rapid economic growth in other countries or international crises affecting national priority. For example, as Japan experienced a record period of economic growth post-World War II—rising to the world’s second-largest economy17—Japanese language education increased within the United States. In response to China’s political and economical reformation into the People’s Republic of China, Chinese language education received increased funding from the U.S. government. Post-9/11, Arabic has seen an increase in percent enrollment—U.S. Senator Norm Coleman called Arabic “the next strategic language.” (Anderson, 2010). This is to say that U.S. government funding into foreign language functions on a reactive basis rather than a proactive basis. The reasoning of increases in government funding towards specific foreign language arises from concerns for national security, economic needs, and advantages within the workforce. As Suzanne Romaine asserts, “Preferences for particular languages and language varieties are always articulated within the context of an ideology that reflects society’s view of itself” (Romaine 2007). This mentality has top-down repercussions for language minority children and their families.

The three most common languages taught in U.S. K-12 school systems are Spanish, French, and German, while the rest are designated as Less Commonly Taught Languages (or LCTLs). The promotion of dominant language in school systems has the potential to produce situations where bilingualism is discouraged upon introduction into the standardized school system and encouraged later in development. This creates a system that exchanges ethnic for dominant language—wherein a child can enter the K-12 system in a state of developing bilingualism, experience degradation of their ethnic language, become monolingual, and learn a dominant language per their graduation requirements. There are even some cases that arise in which a child’s native language is a dominant language. However, even in school systems that have funding for LCTLs, the methods of teaching center around formal use of the language, rather than conversational aspects (Romaine, 2007).

The promotion of multilingualism in societies where there is a focus on academic standardization results in the decay of unstandardized cultural languages because the promotion of linguistic ‘diversity’ is in favor of dominant languages. The majority of modern education systems require a second language because of the benefits of multilingualism in a multicultural society; however, what is learned in the classroom is massively formalized.

17 They were second to the United States until the 1990s, when their worker demographics stagnated.

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Meanwhile, the promotion of dominant languages due to socioeconomic forces result in evolving attitudes towards cultural language—particularly from younger generations.

Discouragement from minority language in favor of languages such as English, Spanish, Chinese, and French lead to a loss of awareness of cultural significance, which results in the decay of a language as the generational goals shift towards what is more socioeconomically preferred.

That being said, there is no simple method to promote minority languages. To do so would be to strike a balance between the cultural and social significance of language learning, which would require academic programs, such as colleges, to be impartial to the proficiency of language and aware of its cultural significance.

As societies grow more interconnected, the domination of language throughout countries that seek to be more involved in the global economy escalates. This positive feedback loop of language decay begins as soon as a child enters an educational system and is exposed to standardized learning. In U.S. school systems, there is great significance placed on learning English from the beginning of primary education—those who don’t are required to take ESL classes, where a child’s view of their native language is reduced to a barrier in academics. To amend this, there would have to be a greater emphasis placed on the cultural worth of maintaining languages without reducing the social and economic worth of learning dominant ones. Still, subsequent generations, who are further displaced from the cultural and historical origins of language, will continue to diverge from their native language unless there is a strong intergenerational understanding.

for academic programs to sacrifice funding in the name of linguistic maintenance leaves the responsibility primarily to a child’s family; however, a child who gets home from a long day of, say, learning vocabulary and grammatical structure, is less inclined to retain any at-home learning. The perspective generally being that they’ve ‘learned enough.’

Even foreign language classes are being mishandled. This features yet another instance of language standardization.

The required nature of academic language acquisition drives students to become proficient in a language in as much as two years, while very little students continue to pursue that language past that point. These courses also lack the education of informal language. When a child learns English in the US, they are subsequently exposed to the nuances of oral and written language due to the significant speaker base and abundant academic resources. This lack of language retention can result in a society that’s falsely multilingual, as proficiency in the classroom does not equate to proficiency in practice.

The education of dominant foreign language exists in correlation with the discouragement of cultural language.

The focus of research in this field must fall into two primary areas: how to maintain native language and how to promote proper learning and usage of dominant foreign language outside of the classroom. These two programs for promoting language learning should not conflict, as that would simply result in a greater disparity between cultural and dominant languages in the pursuit of the same goal— language retention. Then, children can learn to count to eight—and beyond that, even—in whatever language they want, and we’ll learn to understand, instead.

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here is a very little immediate incentive for governments and academic programs to promote cultural languages.

As the quantity of speakers decreases, the perceived worth of the language shrinks, and as the perceived worth of the language shrinks, the quantity of speakers decreases.

Meanwhile, educational systems do little to promote the usage, expansion, and appreciation of culturally significant language in favor of building a strong foundation of a dominant language. Thus, the challenge becomes growing the incentive to retain native language on a broader scale.

This includes promoting all language learning in schools and parents ensuring that linguistic transmission is successful at home and the cultural significance of the language is made known by their children.

It is impossible to ask that every minority language speaker will promote their native language to their children, in favor of simply supporting a more standardized level of education. It is also impossible to ask that all academic systems shift their focus to the education of minority languages because, unfortunately, it is easier to maintain class sizes and hire teachers of more dominant foreign languages—making the financial feasibility preferred over the promotion of multicultural identity. The reluctance Fifth World

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Aikhenvald Y., Alexandra. “Traditional Multilingualism and Language Endangerment.” Language Endangerment and Language Maintenance: An Active Approach, edited by Maya Bradley & David Bradley. London: Routledge, 2001, pp. 24-33.

Whitmore, John K. “Colonialism and Language Policy in Viet Nam. By John DeFrancis. The Hague: Mouton, 1977. Xv, 293 Pp. Maps and Illustrations, Glossary, Bibliography, Index. DM 45.

(Distributed by De Gruyter.).” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 38, no. 3, 1979, pp. 620–621.

Alba, Richard, et al. “Only English by the Third Generation? Loss and Preservation of the Mother Tongue among the Grandchildren of Contemporary Immigrants.” Springer on Behalf of the Population Association of America Stable.

Wurm A., Stephen. “Endangered languages, multilingualism, and linguistics.” Diogenes. Sage Publications Inc, 1999, pp. 56-66.

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Are Students Prepared for a Global Society?

K – 12 Public School Foreign Language Course Enrollment. 2007, pp. 1–8.

Anderson, Holly, and Roger Degerman. Concordia Language Villages Makes Arabic Announcement in Washington, DC. 2010.

Bieswanger, Markus. “ Language and Education.” Handbook of Language and Communication: Diversity and Change, edited by Sijmen Tol, Mark Janse & Linguistic Bibliography. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2007, pp. 401-427.

Bradley, David. “Language Attitudes: the key factor in language maintenance.” Language Endangerment and Language Maintenance : An Active Approach, edited by Maya Bradley & David Bradley. London: Routledge, 2001, pp. 1-10.

Extra, Guus & Gorter, Durk.. “Regional and immigrant minority languages in Europe.” Handbook of Language and Communication: Diversity and Change, edited by Sijmen Tol, Mark Janse & Linguistic Bibliography. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2007, pp. 15-52.

Fishman, Joshua A. “Language Maintenance and Language Shift: The American Immigrant Case within a General Theoretical Perspective.” Sociologus, Neue Folge / New Series, vol. 16, no. 1, 2019, pp. 19–39.

Lam, Ha. Vietnamese Integration. Encyclopedia of Bilingual Education, edited by Josué M. González.

Vol. 1, Sage, 2008, pp. 884-887.

Lu, Mei-Yu. “English-Only Movement: Its Consequences on the Education of Language Minority Children. ERIC Digest.” English-Only Movement: Its Consequences on the Education of Language Minority Children. ERIC Digest., ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading English and Communication Bloomington IN., 30 Nov. 1997.

Manguin, Pierre-Yves, Mani, A., Wade, Geoff. Early Interactions Between South and Southeast Asia: Reflections on Cross-cultural Exchange. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2011.

Milroy, James. 2001. Language ideologies and the consequences of standardization. Journal of Sociolinguistics 5: 530-555.

Myers-Scotton, C. “Codeswitching as a mechanism of deep borrowing, language shift, and language death.” Language Death: Factual and Theoretical Explorations with Special Reference to East Africa, edited

by Matthias Benzinger. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 1992, pp. 7-30.

Nguyen, Angie; Dao, Lien, eds. “Vietnamese in the United States.” California State Library. p. 82, 2007.

Pauwels, A., & Hellinger, M. Handbook of Language and Communication: Diversity and Change. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2007.

Romaine, Suzanne. “ Linguistic diversity and language standardization.” Handbook of Language and Communication: Diversity and Change, edited by Sijmen Tol, Mark Janse & Linguistic Bibliography.

Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2007, pp. 685-713.

Sasse, Hans-Jürgen. “The Theory of Language Death.” Language Death: Factual and Theoretical Explorations with Special Reference to East Africa, edited by Matthias Benzinger. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 1992, pp. 7-30.

Sasse, Hans-Jürgen. “Language decay and contact-induced change: Similarities and differences.”

Language Death: Factual and Theoretical Explorations with Special Reference to East Africa, edited by Matthias Benzinger. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 1992, pp. 59-80.

Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove. “Linguistic Diversity and Biodiversity: The Threat From Killer Languages.”

The Politics of English As a World Language: New Horizons in Postcolonial Cultural Studies, edited by Christian Mair. Amsterdam: Brill Academic Publishers, 2003, pp. 31-52.

Stalker, James C. Official English or English Only. Vol. 77, no. 3, 2019, pp. 18–23.

Taylor, Keith Weller. “The Birth of Vietnam”. University of California Press, 1 April 1991.

Veltman, Calvin. Language Shift in the United States. De Gruyter Mouton, 1983.

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Wurm, Stephen. “The Language Situation and Language Endangerment In the Greater Pacific Area.” Language Death and Language Maintenance: Theoretical, Practical, and Descriptive Approaches, edited by Sijmen Tol, Mark Janse & Linguistic Bibliography and the Languages of the World.

Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2003, pp. 15-47.

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The Balance Between Desire and Disdain: The White Appropriation of Black Culture in America Rose Wang

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merican historian Robert Farris Thompson once proclaimed that “to be White in America is to be very Black. If you don’t know how Black you are, you don’t know how American you are” (Thompson). American identity is marked by Black culture, with almost every aspect of its White culture being influenced by Black culture. From football, to Elvis, to minstrelsy, much of what is recognized as White culture would not exist without the influence of Black culture. I begin this essay where I was first introduced to the topic: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In her essay Interrogating “Whiteness,” Shelley Fisher Fishkin argues that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn could not have been written without Black speakers and oral traditions (975986). Put in the context of Ernest Hemingway’s “all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn” (29), then all modern American literature must have come from Black voices as well. This connection makes American literature, a field normally thought to be crowded with White men like Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway, deeply dependent on Black voice, culture, and influence. This appropriation of Black culture brings about a multitude of questions: if American literature is so dependent on Black voices, why do we only think of works by White writers as components of American literature, entirely separate from what is conceived as African-American literature? Are there other cases of this unrecognized appropriation of Black culture by White America? Most importantly, why does this appropriation occur, especially under the wider pretense of racism, discrimination, and hatred in America? And finally, what are the implications of this on wider American culture and American identity? In this paper, I hope to address each of these questions, offering a background and insight into the White appropriation of Black culture – specifically under the pretense of racism – and explain how the causes and effects of this appropriation are rooted in American identity. Further, I will show how each of these causes and effects are dependent on a feeling of dissatisfaction at the core of “Whiteness.”

In this essay, I will be utilizing the definition of race by Ian Haney Lopez, a critical race theorist. In his essay, The Social Construction of Race, Lopez defines race as “a vast group of people loosely bound together by historically contingent, socially significant elements of their morphology and/

or ancestry” (965-974). It is worth noting that, under this definition, “White” is defined as a race. Whiteness is oftentimes described as a social group, or even as the absence of race, but in the context of this essay, it is necessary to think of “White” as a race. By doing so, White identity now accurately reflects the building and maintaining of racial constructs. It is through the social construction of race that racism against Black Americans and the White appropriation of Black culture is possible. Since race is a fiction of law and societal custom, our society lives race out as fact, allowing these constructs to be accepted as everyday custom. As Mark Twain shows in his book, The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson, race can easily be manipulated to fit the needs of society (Tragedy). According to antebellum legal conventions, Chambers, the son of a slave who is onesixteenth African, would have been considered legally Black, and therefore a slave. When Chambers was switched at birth with Tom, the slave master’s son, no one doubted that Chambers was a White man’s son. Chambers’ race was easily manipulated by the simple exchange of clothes. The ability of Chambers to pass as Tom, and vice versa, depicts the fact that race is nothing more than a construction, something that can easily be manipulated to fit the expectations of individuals and society – signified here by the clothes that distinguish the two children. Seeing the plasticity of this construction, Lopez describes race as a “social construction that, however perilously, remains subject to contestation at the hands of individuals and communities alike” (965974). Especially when race has been defined throughout American history under the guidelines of physical and biological characteristics, Lopez furthers the plasticity of race when he is unable to find a concrete biological separation that defines different races. The construction of race is especially important in that it has and continues to impact every aspect of our lives. As explained by Michael Omi and Howard Winant in Racial Formation in the United States, “our very ways of talking, walking, eating, and dreaming are ineluctably shaped by notions of race” (Omi and Winant). In today’s America, race continues to impact economic opportunities, political power, and even physical health. Because of the vast importance of “race” to our lives, I wish to explore the construction of what is “White” and “Black” in order to better understand the causes and effects of White desire and discrimination of Black culture.

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It is through the construction of race that racism has been crafted and employed throughout American history.

In early America, there was no “White” or “Black.” Race was constructed as a means to justify the African slave trade, the colonization of Native lands, and later the exclusion of immigrants to be naturalized or to live in America (Roberts). Focusing on the construction of specifically what has come to be known as the “White” and “Black” races, the institution of the African slave trade was crucial in justifying discrimination and creating the first racebased divides in America. Without race, it was impossible to differentiate between European indentured servants and African slaves. It was through the creation of race that it was possible to lock hundreds of thousands of people under the bonds of slavery, both legally and socially. By categorizing Africans as inherently slaves and legally institutionalising race through a matrilineal lineage, the artifice of race became a seemingly natural way to divide “White” workers from “Black” workers. Colonists were enraptured by the physical differences between “White” and “Black, using physical features to define racial meaning. Massachusetts Minister Samuel Sewall noted that African slaves had “such a disparity in their Conditions, Colour and Hair, that they can never embody with us” (Sewall 1-2). Further, Sir Thomas Herbert, an English traveler, described Africans as “cole Black, hav[ing] great heads, big lips, are flat nos’d, sharp chind, huge limbd, affecting Adams garb” (Herbert 27). It was through the significance of physical attributes, facial structures, and complexion of Africans as socially meaningful that the basis of separation was found, allowing early Americans to create race (Harvey).

The institution of slavery was founded on and rooted in racism. From the food they ate and the religions they practiced, to the music they played, all aspects of African culture were deemed fit for savages, a race inferior to the White master. Since then, this creation of race and racism has persisted, continuing to impact American identity, history, and culture in the post-slavery era, starting with the rise of Jim Crow. In the absence of slavery, the Jim Crow Era saw other forms of institutionalized racism and White on Black violence, including extra-legal violence such as that of the Ku Klux Klan and lynching. Through poll taxes, share-cropping, and Black codes, post-emancipation America sealed Black Americans in poverty across the South. After the Civil Rights Movement and the election of the first African American president, many Americans believed that America was in a post-racial society, leading to the rise of new race theories, including color blind ideology. The impression of a post-racial society is simply incorrect, due to persisting societal ideologies and the remnants of institutionalized racism that Black Americans continue to face. Today, racism rears its head in the form of police brutality, deaths in Charlottesville, modern-day Blackface, and more. American history is and has always been deeply intertwined with the construction of race, and the subsequent employment of racism.

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The construction of race has empowered the appropriation of Black culture. In Black Looks: Race and Representation, bell hooks explains the relationship between racism and cultural appropriation as a process in which “all Whites have learned to overvalue ‘Whiteness’ even as they simultaneously learn to devalue Blackness” (hooks, “Black Looks”). It is because of the institution of race as “whiteness” and “culture” that African American contributions to American culture and identity are ignored.

The inherent racism against Black culture in America has devalued Black culture to the point where Black culture is seen as and kept entirely separate from American culture.

Even when the cultural appropriation of Black culture and the Black influence on White culture is clearly proven, the contributions of Black culture are belittled through racism.

While American literature classes are full of White male writers like Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, African-American literature is regarded as a completely separate subject, and as a result, is studied in a completely different manner. While White authors and their works are admired for their intellect and prose, Black authors are admired for the raw emotion within their works or for the sociological information they provide. This difference in reception can be illustrated by two renditions of When the Levee Breaks. In Memphis Minnie’s version of the song, listeners oftentimes refer to the raw emotion that can be heard within her voice. But when listened in comparison to Led Zeppelin’s version of the same song, listeners reference the musicality, the chords played, the refined, controlled sound of their voices. Black culture is reduced to primitive values and preconceptions of savagery, while White appropriation of the same culture is hailed for its intellect, its manufacturing and polishing. The roots of racism and the influence of the construction of race is the reason why Black culture is ignored, belittled, and ultimately so easily stolen and appropriated by Whites.

The ease of the appropriation of Black culture by White Americans translates to a rich history of envy and resulting theft of Black culture in American history. The earliest forms of White desire for African culture in America emerged on the slave plantation. White plantation owners, fascinated by African culture, watched enslaved Africans perform for their pleasure, as they danced, sang, and played traditional music for their white masters in communal areas.

Many of these cultural traditions would soon cross over into White culture and music. In the Antebellum period then in the Reconstruction Era, the Minstrel show became one of the most popular forms of White entertainment (“How the Minstrel Show”). It represented a new form of desire, one embodied by White Minstrels. Blackface, or the emulation of a Black person by physically painting oneself black and acting in a “Black” manner, allowed a White person to step into a “Black” body. The entertainment value and popularity of such shows skyrocketed, manifesting a deep sense of envy and desire within White Americans

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to embody Black Americans, and to watch a caricature of Black culture and identity for pleasure. Yuval Taylor and Jake Austen further argue in their book, Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop, that the Minstrel show has not ended, continuing through the 20th century in the form of Jazz music (Taylor and Austen). They argue that Jazz, an inherently Black genre of music, was frequently appropriated by White performers, like Elvis, who reached great popularity. They also note the popularity of Black performers performing Jazz music, and the ways that Black performers played up aspects and stereotypes of their race to gain popularity. Taylor and Austen continue by arguing that the Minstrel show persists today in the form of Hip-Hop and Rap music, professional and collegiate sports teams, and stand up comedy. The exaggeration of “Blackness” for White enjoyment in Hip-Hop and Rap, the stereotype of Black athleticism that powers White entertainment of watching professional sports dominated by Black athletes, and the usage of Black stereotypes and racism as punchlines for Black comics, continues to power the American Minstrel show. Ishmael Reed perfectly encapsulates the noted balance between desire and hatred in his essay on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain’s Hairball: Huck cries, ‘I want my nigger,’ like the children of the suburbs who are addicted to gangster rap, like the White Southern children after the Civil War who craved their coon songs from New York. Twain exposes this bizarre hunger, this exotic yearning of those who despise Blacks yet wish to imitate them. Who wish to be called ‘honey’ by them. Who wish to be ‘petted’ by them. Who wish to burn them, cut out their very entrails, and take them home with them. If you can’t give us our nigger, they seem to say, we’ll make do with Elvis (Reed).

It is this persistent fascination, this continued training of the White gaze on Black culture, that exists within the greater context of racism and discrimination that I would like to further explore in this essay.

This essay does not argue against the mixing and sharing of cultures and customs. There is a fine line between cultural appropriation and cultural syncretism. Throughout human history, cultures have combined, mixed, and disappeared, their paths continuously intertwined. From Hellenistic syncretism in Ancient Greece to colonies and colonizers, culture continues to be appropriated and shared within different geographies and groups of people. Cultures have adapted to each other, borrowing and taking aspects from others to form their own. This history of cultural appropriation and sharing can be interpreted through different lenses. Rosemary Coombe, a Canadian lawyer and anthropologist, has interpreted the question of cultural appropriation from both aspects of her expertise: law and anthropology. In Cultural and Intellectual Properties: Occupying the Colonial Imagination, Coombe explains the legal and anthropological implications of cultural appropriation. If culture was to be legally possessed as intellectual property,

other cultures would be legally unable to reproduce the “works” of the appropriated culture, making the embodiment of another’s culture illegal. As Coombe explains, these “legal categories constitute a Western colonial imaginary that culturally impoverishes the self while it Orientalises the other” (249-285). This legal constitution creates two groups – those without culture, and those with. It is through this understanding that creates the desire to take the intellectual property of the “other,” appropriating their culture. Through an anthropological lens, culture, as well as the possession of culture, can be understood by the history of different groups of people in different geographies possessing different cultures. Thus, this anthropological perspective accepts and supports White appropriation of Black culture due to the thousands of years of precedent for cultural appropriation in human history. Through an anthropological perspective, the possession of culture is not as concrete and binding as a legal perspective, nor is the appropriation of such culture understood through desire to take. With both the legal and anthropological understanding of cultural appropriation in mind, it is clear how fine the line is between cultural appropriation and cultural syncretism. The differentiation lies within the motivation, the underlying desire. Cultural appropriation is driven by racism, a lack of understanding, and overall disregard for the original culture itself.

Cultural syncretism, on the other hand, is driven by a deep understanding and appreciation of a culture, as well as the adaptation of it. The legal and anthropological distinctions also allow for a closer look at the difference between cultural syncretism and appropriation, as well as the desire behind it. With this distinction, we will further examine racismdriven cultural appropriation, particularly in the form of Minstrelsy.

Merging desire with hatred of Black culture, the inverse of this “appropriation” should be studied. What occurs when Black Americans are perceived as “appropriating” aspects of “White” culture or mannerisms? This is exploited by the Minstrel character of “Zip Coon,” a free Black man who dresses flamboyantly and incorrectly uses sophisticated words, imitating the “intellect” of the “White man.” “Zip Coon” is ridiculed, laughed at for trying so hard to rid himself of his own “savage” culture for the intellect of “White” culture. Mark Twain perfectly characterizes the White response to such an “appropriation” in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, when Huck’s father says: There was a free nigger there from Ohio—a mulatter, most as White as a White man. He had the Whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest hat; and there ain’t man in town that’s got as fine clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a silver-headed cane— the awful-est gray-headed nabob in the State. And what do you think? They said he was a p’fesser in a college, and could talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything.

And that ain’t the wust. They said he could VOTE when he was at home (Huckleberry Finn).

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The hatred, and belittling that Huck’s father feels towards the Black man who doesn’t fit into the “Jim Crow” Minstrel character, the rural dancing fool, the “happy darky,” shows a clear difference in the White appropriation of Black culture and the Black “appropriation” of White culture.

The thought that Black people could possibly be anything other than that “Jim Crow” character seemed incredulous to Huck’s father, as well as many other White Americans.

While White society imitated much of Black culture, Black people themselves were unable to do the same without White retaliation, as Black people were required to fit into the derisive mold created for them.

Black reactions to White Minstrelsy have been varied, undergoing a tumultuous history from forced submission to outspoken disgust. Even today, the usage of the word “Minstrel” and the discussion of “Minstrelsy” has polarizing effects. In May of 2018, a rap feud between Pusha T, Terrence Thornton, and Drake, Aubrey Drake, was sparked by Pusha T’s accusation that Drake had not actually written some of his biggest songs, and instead had a ghostwriter. This sparked a series of diss tracks and clapbacks, culminating in the release of The Story of Adidon, whose cover art featured a photo of Drake in Blackface, as well as Pusha T labeling Drake as a “passing Minstrel” (Pusha). As Marc Aronson describes in his article for the Washington Post, “being called a ‘minstrel’ seems to be the ultimate accusation of wearing a mask — being false” (Aronson). Over time, Black viewpoints of the White appropriation of Black culture have changed, shifting from the needs and wants of stardom and fame to the disgust associated with exacerbating stereotypes.

This shift is clearly seen in the literary discussion of this appropriation, as explained by Shelley Fisher Fishkin in her essay Interrogating “Whiteness.” After she published her first book in 1993 on the topic of the White appropriation of Black voice in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, she notices “two or three books published that same year in the U.S. that tilled adjacent fields” (Fishkin 975-986). In the years that followed, over a hundred books surrounding this topic are published, looking at all aspects of Black culture.

Fishkins concludes that “in the early 1990s, our ideas of ‘Whiteness’ were interrogated, out ideas of ‘Blackness’ were complicated, and the terrain we call ‘American culture’ began to be remapped. (Fishkin 975-986). Much like overall Black sentiment towards White appropriation, the trends in appropriation that had begun hundreds of years ago only truly began to be commented on twenty to thirty years ago.

With an understanding of the construction of race, racism, and cultural appropriation, we now move to the reasoning behind the White appropriation of Black culture with the pretense of a racially discriminatory environment.

The core reasoning behind this phenomenon is White dissatisfaction and insecurity about their own culture, privilege, and freedoms. It is in this state of dissatisfaction with the current state of White identity that the desire and envy for Black culture is created.

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We first study the causes of this cultural appropriation and dissatisfaction with “Whiteness” in terms of freedom.

By taking part in Black culture, White Americans believed and felt as though they were participating in their own personal rebellion, engaging in something more savage, and developing a sense of freedom. Specifically, this dissatisfaction manifests in the freedom of the body in Minstrelsy and Blackface. The wild popularity of such entertainment among European immigrants is based upon the desire for freedom of the body. In the late nineteenth century, European immigrants worked in cramped factories, performing the same repetitive motions over and over again. For the vast majority of the day, they would not have freedom over the actions of their body, their movements specifically choreographed for their roles in the factory and the manufacturing of products. Workers’ bodies were highly regulated, their every move dictated by the factory. In contrast to the controlled, civilized, and repetitive movements of White workers, Black bodies were seen as the opposite – savage, wild, and free. In particular, Black women’s bodies were hyper-sexualized. The contrast between the hyper-sexualized Black woman versus the ideal of the conservative White Victorian woman also reveals the sexual control over the bodies of White women.

Minstrelsy was able to reflect the freedom of Black bodies, depicting African Americans as foolish, happy, and illogical, but also more emotional, creative, and artistic than the White performers of White entertainment. In many aspects, the freedom of Black bodies was a source of envy for many White Americans. By putting on a Black mask, stepping into a new body, and imitating Black mannerisms, White workers were able to physically experience the freedom of a Black body. The imitation, as well as the viewing of this imitation, allowed White Americans to live a “Black” life and embody a “Black” body. Marc Aronson provides another example of this rebellion, writing “for some white workers, watching minstrels was a way to let loose themselves, evident in the way white audiences streamed up to Harlem’s segregated jazz clubs in the 1920s to experience ‘hot’ and ‘primitive’ music” (Aronson). Eric Lott, a literary historian, has furthered this explanation by demonstrating how White workers are able to feel as sense of freedom by identifying with Black people while watching minstrelsy (Clark). Due to its racist construction, participating in Black culture and viewing Blackface and Minstrelsy was in it of itself a small act of rebellion (Fishkin 975-986). This act of rebellion is, and has always been controlled, the Black paint always able to be wiped off, the Minstrel show always able to be stopped. The controllable nature of such a rebellion ensured that White Americans could feel as though they had taken a risk, when no risks were actually taken. Despite trying out Black culture, White Americans were able to easily return to the safe space of regulated bodies in factories and the elevated status of White privilege.

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Another example of this dissatisfaction is in White superiority. The need to reaffirm White superiority is dependent on the dissatisfaction of lower working class White Americans (Aronson). Economically, lower-class White Americans were paid little for working hard and laborious jobs. Socially, working class White Americans were treated poorly by their higher class counterparts. Politically, many of these working class Americans were immigrants from Europe, and the combination of the lack of citizenship and lack of economic power yielded them little political power as well. From a lower economic, social, and political status, lower class White Americans felt the need to differentiate themselves from Black Americans after the definitive lines of slavery were erased and such racial differentiation was blurred. This dissatisfaction manifested in an obsession with and love for Minstrelsy and Blackface. For working class of White Americans, Minstrelsy and Blackface quickly became a wildly popular pastime. Over time, this fascination and obsession made Minstrelsy “America’s longest running form of popular entertainment” (Omi and Winant). By participating in Minstrelsy and Blackface, White Americans were able to control the narrative about Black culture and identity. This manufactured narrative characterized all Black people through caricatures of negative Black stereotypes, displaying and manifesting a negative and discriminatory view of Black Americans. The racist creation of the “Black American” and maintenance of Black Americans as a subWhite class allowed White workers to clearly differentiate themselves from Black Americans in the absence of slavery and Jim Crow, and in the presence of low economic, social, and political status.

Besides freedom and superiority, dissatisfaction is also rooted in the basis of Whiteness itself. Insecurity in Whiteness is best seen in the influx of European immigrants in the late nineteenth century. As George Lipsitz describes in The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, “people… left Europe as Calabrians or Bohemians becom[ing] something called ‘whites’ when they got to America” (1-2). From the moment that European immigrants stepped onto American soil, the identity of “Whiteness” was automatically assumed as a valuable property to be acquired as soon as possible.

Race was a new identity, separate from the concept of nationality that was so familiar to European immigrants.

In Towards the Abolition of Whiteness, David Roediger observes the predicament of the immigrant, writing that “the idea that it is desirable or unavoidable to be White, leads to the dilemma where it is unavoidable to be White, but also impossible to fully be White” (12). The inevitable assignment of “Whiteness” is then fulfilled by the process that Theodore W. Allen describes in The Intervention of the White Race, where “European immigrants ‘became White’ by developing into intermediaries in and supporters of White controlled constructions of race, including racial oppression and class privilege” (Allen). European immigrants were only able to fully form this identity of “Whiteness” in terms

of discriminatory relationships with people of color, in particular, the discriminatory relationship with African Americans. By defining their “Whiteness” in terms of this discriminatory relationship, newly “White” European immigrants flocked to activities that would further cement their “White” identities. It is this insecurity with never feeling “White” enough that cultural theft through Blackface and Minstrelsy gained wild popularity.

The cause of White desire for Black culture is also a response to the echoes of White imperialistic behavior.

This imperialistic behavior can be characterized by the intersection of three aspects of dissatisfaction with White identity – bodily freedom, superiority, and Whiteness itself. American identity, which is so inextricably tied to White identity, has been characterized as the continuous expansion and exploration of the new frontier. In the history of the United States, the definition of these frontiers have continued to change. The first frontier was the New World, where the settling of the United States in it of itself was driven by British colonialism. The American response to British frontier expansion can be connected back to White appropriation of Black culture. As Michael North explains in The Dialect of Modernism, the “preemptive mimicry of blacks is a traditional American device allowing whites to rebel against English culture and simultaneously use it to solidify their domination at home” (3). Just like the White dissatisfaction with bodily constraint, the repulsion towards English expansion was manifested through cultural appropriation, where stepping into a Black or dark body served as an act of rebellion. The next American frontier, the Western frontier, started in the eighteenth century. White Americans, backed by the American government and legal system, took land from Native peoples, the first instance of American-specific imperialistic nature. The construction of race and the deployment of racism was what legitimized this expansion and swift control of land. In 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner presented his paper, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” at the World Columbian Exposition. Connecting the expansion of the Western frontier with American identity, he writes – The peculiarity of American institutions is, the fact that they have been compelled to adapt themselves to the changes of an expanding people to the changes involved in crossing a continent, in winning a wilderness, and in developing at each area of this progress out of the primitive economic and political conditions of the frontier into the complexity of city life.

What constitutes American exceptionalism, or what Turner calls the “peculiarity of American institutions,” there is a never-ending yearning to explore and expand the American frontier.

The next frontier was an example of classic American imperialism. Starting in the late nineteenth century, America began taking control of land, people, and countries around the world, legitimizing forced take-overs with American

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exceptionalism. Deeply rooted in racism, White superiority, and Social Darwinism, American exceptionalism has allowed Minstrelsy and other forms of White appropriation of Black culture to endure until today. These past frontiers, the frontiers that have followed, and the frontiers to come have exemplified a clear connection between American identity, American imperialism, and American exceptionalism.

These core values are what drive the White appropriation of Black culture.

With a better understanding of the causes behind the White appropriation of Black culture, it is crucial to understand the impacts of this appropriation on Black culture and identity. While there is an argument that the White appropriation of Black culture was economically beneficial for Black people in America, the negative impacts on the Black population far outweigh the positive impacts.

Marc Aronson briefly details this positive impact in his Washington Post article: Minstrelsy allowed whites to admire translated forms of African American music and dance and, eventually, provided paths of economic empowerment for African Americans in blackface. Black performers were able to use the humiliating dialect, gestures and characteristics that they loathed to become stars (Aronson).

This uplifting of Black Minstrel performers was brief and superficial, only providing economic benefits for a few Black performers. While Minstrelsy provided an avenue to “admire” Black culture, it also inaccurately portrayed Black culture in a biased and stereotypical manner.

Cultural appropriation presents Black culture after it has been manufactured and packaged by White Americans, only allowing Black Americans to be characterized in two clear ways – the two Minstrel characters that White Americans knew best. Jim Crow was foolishly happy, never questioning white authority. Zip Coon, on the other hand, was deemed to be more evil, a character who looks to act and become “White.” The two poles of the White portrayal of Black character clearly defined two avenues for Black life, forcing Black Americans to conform to these poles within the public eye. Aronson continues on to characterize the negative impacts of Minstrelsy and Blackface, by describing this cultural theft as “a practice that allows White people to fulfill their desires of being Black on the basis of racism and negative stereotypes” (Aronson). David Leonard furthers this argument by claiming that Blackface is “an assertion of power and control, allowing society to routinely and historically imagine African Americans as not fully human, serving to rationalize violence and Jim Crow segregation” (Clark).

By controlling the dialogue and narrative of Black people in the eyes of White Americans, Blackface and Minstrelsy were employed to spread racist views. For example, blockbuster movie The Birth of a Nation used blackface characters to spread and exacerbate anti-Black sentiment, portraying Black people as unscrupulous rapists. The Birth

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of a Nation and its portrayal of Black people was used as a powerful and effective tool to recruit members of the Ku Klux Klan, kicking off the revival of the KKK. In the beginning, Blackface and Minstrelsy were performed as shows. However, as technology developed, the ability of these forms of entertainment to spread White supremacist propaganda increased. The dissemination of such films and television increased the reach of the negative impacts of White appropriation of Black culture. The impacts of over a hundred years of Minstrelsy and Blackface are still seen today, changing American culture and identity as a whole by sustaining racism. Hip-hop, rap, and sports are viewed as modern day Minstrel shows. Specifically, as bell hooks describes in We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity, Hiphop and rap have promoted a fear and aversion towards Black men (hooks, “We Real Cool”). In the context of a domineering White supremacist capitalist patriarchal society, this fear and aversion leads Black men to believe that they are ugly and undesirable towards White men, White women, Black women, and even other Black men themselves. Furthermore, the imitation and exaggeration of “Black” culture in Hip-Hop and rap creates an impossible expectation to fill the caricature of the Black man in America.

This is exemplified by Pusha T and Drake’s feud that culminated in the release of a picture of Drake in Blackface.

The track that was released along with this picture, The Story of Adidion, specifically highlighted Drake’s struggle with never feeling “Black enough” (Pusha). Pusha T directly attacks Drake’s interracial struggle while rapping in a genre that exaggerates what it means to be Black in America.

This attack on not being “Black enough” clearly shows the negative impacts of exaggerating Black stereotypes on Black culture and identity. Through the promotion of negative stereotypes and inaccurate depictions of Black culture and identity, White appropriation of Black culture has exacerbated and perpetuated racism against Black Americans.

Understanding the negative impacts of cultural appropriation and White superiority in America has led to many improvements in the rights of Black Americans, as well as radical responses on the opposite end of the spectrum.

One of these radical responses is color-blind ideology. As defined by Jason Rodriquez color-blind ideology is “the assertion of essential sameness between racial and ethnic groups despite unequal social locations and distinctive histories” (645-668). Color-blind ideology is oftentimes masked as an effort for equality. Instead, it denies the reality of racial inequality in America, justifying the status quo of racism and White supremacy. Slowly but surely, as the leading racial ideology in America, color-blind ideology is chipping away at Civil Rights legislation and reforms. By ignoring the historical context and baggage of race and institutionalized racism in America, color-blind ideology contradicts the need for Affirmative Action and reparations.

As a result, Civil Rights legislation and reforms that work to

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account for the inherent racial inequality of the status quo are being gutted by proponents of White supremacy and color-blind ideology.

In the context of this essay, Rodriquez further explains the impacts of color-blind ideology, writing that “Whites do not simply consume African American art forms. They also appropriate those forms for their own purposes” (645668). By ignoring racial disparities, color-blind ideology legitimizes and justifies the appropriation of Black culture.

With the example of Hip-hop, Rodriquez argues: The new color-blind ideology does not ignore race; it acknowledges race while disregarding racial hierarchies by taking racially coded styles and products and reducing these symbols to commodities or experiences that whites and racial minorities can purchase and share (645-668).

The color-blind ideological outlook on race allows White Americans to fully engulf Hip-hop and rap culture without guilt and for the sole purpose of seeming “cool” and “woke,” leading to the increased involvement of White Americans in Black culture. The gradual “whitenizing” of Hip-hop reflects similar trends in Blues and Rock and Roll. With the help of color-blind ideology, cultural theft by White Americans is allowed to persist, even being legitimized. Furthermore, color-blind ideology disguises racism and discrimination under the mask of racial equality and “left-wing politics.”

Over time, color-blind ideology will allow these sentiments to flourish in American society.

With the rise of color blind ideology, racism in America is met by the lack of support for reparations and restitution.

Even in what is thought to be a post-racial America, Civil Rights legislation is being chipped away from both sides of the debate. Such beliefs enable cultural theft, allowing this trend of cultural appropriation under the pretense of racism and racial discrimination to endure. In a world where the balance between White desire and hatred towards Black Americans is still widely prevalent, understanding the causes and effects of this hypocrisy allows us to better understand American identity and culture as a whole. The theft of Black culture is rooted deeply within the dissatisfaction and insecurity in White freedom, White superiority, and Whiteness itself. This theft is then justified by the same racism that it contradicts, belittling Black culture and undermining Black identity. White theft of Black culture is dependent upon the construction of race and racism, the core of which enables, justifies, and causes cultural theft. Race links the phenomenon of cultural theft and American identity, making this balance between desire and discrimination what makes America, America. In Playing in the Dark, Toni Morrison states, “what differentiates American culture is the influence of Black culture” (10051016). American exceptionalism, originally thought to stem from a sense of White supremacy, is actually due to Black culture’s influence on wider American culture.

Cultural appropriation has created something exceptional, something that is different from the rest of the world. What

is of the utmost importance now, is understanding how to completely and respectfully acknowledge this influence.

Through a better grasp of the causes and effects of the White appropriation of Black culture, this understanding and acknowledgement can be found.

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Allen, Theodore W. The Intervention of the White Race, Volume One. Racial Oppression and Social Control (London and New York: Verso, 1994).

Aronson, Marc. “The Complicated Mix of Racism and Envy Behind Blackface.” Washington Post, 22 July 2018.

Clark, Alexis. “How the History of Blackface Is Rooted in Racism.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Feb. 2019.

Connor, Jay. “White New Anchors Embarrass Mankind with Their Unseasoned Attempt at Black Slang.” Very Smart Brothas, The Root, 28 Mar. 2019.

Coombe, Rosemary J. “The Properties of Culture and the Politics of Possessing Identity: Native Claims in the Cultural Appropriation Controversy.” The Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, vol. 6, no. 02, July 1993, pp. 249-285.

David R. Roediger, Towards the Abolition of Whiteness (London and New York: Verso, 1994) pp.12.

Fishkin, Shelley Fisher. “Interrogating ‘Whiteness.’” Literary Theory: an Anthology, by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, Blackwell Publishing, 2013, pp. 975-986.

Frederick Douglass, “The Hutchinson Family.” The North Star (27 Oct. 1848).

George Lipsitz, “The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: Racialized Social Democracy and the “White” Problem in American Studies,” American Quarterly 47 (September 1995) pp.1-2.

Harvey, Sean P. Ideas of Race in Early America. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History.

April 05, 2016. Oxford University Press.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Green Hills of Africa (New York, 1935), pp.29. hooks, bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Routledge, 2015, pp. 12. hooks, bell. We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity. Crypt Publishing, 2012.

“How the Minstrel Show Influenced Modern Hip-Hop and Comedy.” The Takeaway, 2012.

Lopez, Ian Haney. “The Social Construction of Race.” Literary Theory: an Anthology, by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, Blackwell Publishing, 2013, pp. 965-974.

Michael North, The Dialect of Modernism: Race, Language, and Twentieth-Century Literature (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994) pp. 3.

Michael Omi and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1980s, 1986.

Morrison, Toni. “Interrogating ‘Whiteness.’” Literary Theory: an Anthology, by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, Blackwell Publishing, 2013, pp. 1005-1016.

Pusha T. The Story of Adidon. No I.D. Reed, Ishmael. “Mark Twain’s Hairball.” A New Literary History of America, by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012.

Robert Farris Thompson, Lecture on “The Kongo Atlantic Tradition,” University of Texas, Austin, 28 February 1992.

Roberts, Justin. Race and the Origins of Plantation Slavery. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. March 03, 2016. Oxford University Press.

Rodriquez, Jason. “Color-Blind Ideology and the Cultural Appropriation of Hip-Hop.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, vol. 35, no. 6, 1 Dec. 2006, pp. 645-668.

Sewall, Samuel. The Selling of Joseph: A Memorial (Boston, 1700), pp. 1-2.

Sir Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels into Divers Parts of Asia and Afrique (London, 1638), pp. 27.

Taylor, Yuval, and Jake Austen. Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip Hop. W.W. Norton & Company, 2012.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Sirius, 2018.

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Twain, Mark. The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson; & Thoses Extraordinary Twins. Wordsworth American Library, 1996.

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Rock’s Real Rebels: Women and the Misogynistic Machine of Rock and Roll Jane Wilson

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n 1968, Tommy James & the Shondells, a popular American rock band, released their #1 hit “Crimson & Clover.” The song reveals some of rock’s most important characteristics; its lyrics, likely the result of a mind-bending psychedelic, make little sense, but the song still provides an enjoyable and moving experience in a way that is essentially indescribable. In an interview with Songfacts, Tommy James said about the title, “I had no idea what it meant, or if it meant anything. They were just two of my favorite words” (Ortega). Rock isn’t easy to define, maybe because it has never had to make sense, a rebellion against the “normal.”

Musicians and listeners of all ages have taken part in this rebellion of weird, loud, and sexual tunes for over 70 years.

Though it is necessary to understand what was desirable about rock and roll to a young, white dude in the ’50s—who craved to escape the grips of anyone who threatened to deter him—the study of rock and roll must go deeper. Rock, through performances, lyrics, and music videos, is more than a white male rebellion. In the 1981 cover of “Crimson & Clover” by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, one of the few popular rock bands with a female forefront, Jett chose to sing the original lyrics: “Oh, I don’t hardly know her / But I think I could love her.” Instead of changing the lyrics to male pronouns to indicate heterosexual desire, Jett chooses to sing about her sexual feelings for a woman. Jett’s choice suggests not only a fluid sexuality not widely validated in the 1980s but a refusal to conform to the societal and lyrical expectations placed upon women at the time. Women who write, perform, and listen to rock music challenge the understanding of rock that was formed alongside the genre as a form of male expression. Jett is one of many female musicians who, throughout her career, has fearlessly imitated male rebels of the time, defining herself against “the ‘limitations’ of femininity” and avoiding what was typically expected of white women of the time: marriage and children (Reynolds & Press 236). It is through her transgression and appropriation of the masculine rebellion that Jett exceeds the limitations of masculine rebellion.

In addition to their struggle to find a place within the rock and roll genre, women who write and perform rock and roll have been and continue to be discredited by the musical press. Such women are categorized by the press as part of the singular “Women in Rock,” which places their achievements not into the box labelled “Rock and Roll”

but the box labelled “Women in Rock and Roll.” Women who listen to rock are also discredited by the press. Because rock as a form of masculine, heterosexual performance requires a feminine audience, women who listen to rock are generally assigned the title “groupies:” screaming girls in the audience who would do anything for the sexy rocker dude, swooning as soon as he opens his mouth or strums a chord. Here, I found Helen Davies’s essay “All Rock and Roll is Homosocial: The Representation of Women in the British Rock Music Press,” very useful. In her work, Davies claims that the music press excludes women musicians and fans from the significant conversation, further proof that women, so dangerously eliminated from the rock and roll discourse, oppose the societal expectations of gender which male musicians perpetuate in their “rebellion.”

Because the music media is historically influenced almost solely by men, it is important to discuss the “male gaze,” particularly in the production of music videos. In most music videos produced by the male majority, women are portrayed as objects who exist solely for the pleasures of men: weak and dependent, and yet needed to be the proper audience for male rebellion. Without feminized spectators, does masculine rebellion even exist? Women in music, especially with MTV’s popularity in the 80s, have fought to freely perform their sexualities, disregarding the inevitable criticism of the predominantly male music industry. A rock and roll discourse is created by the press that excludes women from the ‘more convincing’ genre established by men (Davies 1). This discourse is what then must be the site of the rebellion.

In order to explore the ways that rock can be more than rebellious but in fact revolutionary for women, I will first look at the establishment of rock as male rebellion, where men fear domesticity and objectify women. Then, I will discuss women rockers who rejected the performative female sexuality on stage in order to “rock as hard as the guys.” I will advance an understanding of rock as an inherently misogynistic genre, a genre which was hurtful to women in many ways. I will use Jean Paul Sarte’s distinction between the “rebellion” and the “revolution” to further understand men in rock as solely “rebellious” and women in rock as “revolutionary.” I will then discuss the rock media, which, as proven by Helen Davies, has constructed and still constructs women as the singular and other “Women Fifth World

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in Rock,” perpetuating the idea that “male” is the true form of rock. Finally, I will look at music videos and the ways in which women embrace their feminine sexuality in performances and therefore appropriate the male gaze with her song lyrics and music video.

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ock and roll as a genre initially constructed men in a powerful, dominant light. Male rockers objectified women in their lyrics, leading to a toxic and misogynistic industry that encouraged violence towards women. As rock and roll was further established and normalized throughout the later twentieth century, expectations for men and women progressed, but women have always been and are still underrepresented in the music industry and subject to objectification and violence.

What did it mean to become a rock and roll singer? Rock is controversial in its earliest form. The genre evolved as a form of sexualized music throughout the twentieth century and was developed from many genres of music, including gospel, blues, jazz, and rhythm and blues (Altschuler 364).

Rock is played loudly and meant for dancing; the phrase “rocking and rolling,” coined in the 1920s, referred to dancing, sex, or a combination of the two. Rockstars sang almost exclusively about partying, sex, and drugs and adhered to anti-Christian values. Lawrence Grossberg fittingly defines rock and roll as “post-war youth music” (Grossberg 226). The era prompted many people, primarily young, to reconsider their values, moving away from believing loud music and sexual expression to be sinful or taboo. Rock’s emergence and the widespread response to its emergence can lead to an understanding of American values throughout the twentieth century.

This musical rebellion was important when defining more progressive values in the later twentieth century, but the title of “Rebel” is almost always limited to men, leaving women to be understood as either objects who exist for the pleasures of men or monsters who confine the male rocker into domesticity. Grossberg states, “In the rebel imagination, women figure as both victims and agents of castrating conformity. Women represent everything the rebel is not (passivity, inhibition) and everything that threatens to shackel him (domesticity, social norms)” (Grossberg). Most popular male rock stars, such as Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, created music that rebelled against a conservative, domestic society, blaming women for attempting to “shackle them into domesticity.”

Though there are numerous examples of subtle misogyny within the lyrics of many popular rock bands, “Under my Thumb” by the Rolling Stones is blatantly sexist. When Mick Jagger croons “Under my thumb / She’s the sweetest, hmmm, pet in the world / It’s down to me / The way she talks when she’s spoken to,” he celebrates his dominance over a woman. It’s hard to stop enjoying rock and roll for its often sexist implications, but it’s important to be aware of the subtle misogyny that has objectified women for many

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years. Though sometimes it is hardly subtle. The point is that it interpellates or invites women to understand themselves as pleasurably dominated by a male rocker or rock and roll as such.

Once we see rock as a masculine rebellion, we can recognize women in rock who embrace the rebellion. The oppression of women influenced their involvement in the emergence of rock and roll. So violently constructed within the masculine ideal and expected to hold strong family values, support their husbands, and adhere to all of their needs and desires, women have always been subject to discrimination.

Brienes states, “The women’s liberation movement of the late 1960s and 1970s confirmed young women’s shift away from the traditional and constraining gender values of their mothers, who had come of age during the Depression and war years and had been shaped by anticonsumption and family-centered values” (Brienes 12). However, because even men who sang rock and roll struggled to fit within the realm of societal acceptance, for women, sacrificed to greatly conservative expectations, it was exceedingly difficult to be accepted as sexy rock and rollers.

Joan Jett, guitarist in The Runaways, current frontman of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, has always believed that a woman should be able to sing rock and roll as it was acceptable for a man to do, even while remembering that rock in its purest form is socially unacceptable.

When asked about gender-based discrimination in the music industry, Jett responded, “Being told that girls can’t play rock ‘n’ roll was so illogical to me. What do you mean?

That girls can’t master the instruments? I [was in] school with girls playing cello and violin and Beethoven and Bach.

You don’t mean [that girls] can’t master the instrument[s].

What you mean is they’re not allowed to socially” (Joan Jett).

The songs that The Runaways covered were often “dripping with sex,” according to Jett, and they revealed the threat that women singing rock and roll posed to a misogynistic society (Joan Jett). When a woman rejects feminine norms and embraces a fluid sexuality of which they are more in control, misogynistic conventions are challenged. Women looking to perform rock and roll like The Runaways had to fit into this masculine form of sexual expression, fighting the odds placed against them by a misogynistic society.

A woman wishing to perform rock and roll had to be willing to face the skepticism and hostility of listeners. She had to have confidence to perform, though the objectification of women perpetuated in rock and roll lyrics is dangerous, and women have repeatedly received the brunt of a violent and toxic scene. Led Zeppelin is a classic rock band, and their famous incidents involving underrage women in the groupie scene did not make the public aware of the terrible reality but excited to hear more of their wild and crazy tales (Powers). There are countless well-known charges of sexual assault against popular male rockers, but the reputations of these men have hardly been tainted.

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“To get ahead in the music business of the mid-’70s, to get your own Kiss Army and a chunk of that arena money, meant convincing a man you were worth it,” Jason Cherkis writes. Ann Powers writes, “One of the music’s fundamental functions has been to frame and express sexual feelings for and from the very young, and its culture has included real kids, the kind who feel free but remain very vulnerable, relating to older men whose glamour and influence encourages trust, not caution. The worst, weakest and most self-deluded of these men have stepped over moral lines, over and over again” (Powers). The ways in which women are ignored and discredited in the music scene are made clear upon realizing that this masculine rebellion created a violent scene in which women are portrayed as objects wishing to be dominated and women are told that the rock stage is not their place. A young female in the 70s who wanted to play music was in the hands of older men who celebrated their dominance over her (remember, “she’s the sweetest, hmmm, pet in the world”). The men manage the bands, produce the music and music videos, and write the lyrics. But are these men who so easily established themselves as the dominant figures in this scene truly rebels?

To understand the rock rebellion, we must look at the construction of a rebel and the ways that it applies to male rockers. Jean-Paul Sarte makes an important distinguishment between a rebel and the revolutionary. He claims that “the rebel is secretly complicit with the Order he revolts against,” and his main goal is to simply break rules.

A revolution “aims to replace an unfair system with a new, better system” (Reynolds 3). Therefore, Reynolds claims that “Rock is not a revolutionary art, that its insubordination and ego tantrums are complicit with or bound within the terms of capitalism and patriarchy” (Reynolds 3). For men in rock and roll, the music was only a way to rebel against what they believed to be confining them, to feed the patriarchy, the idea that they were the dominant and powerful in the rock scene, and they always would be.

The Runaways, an all-female band are not just rebels; they are revolutionaries. The Runaways rocked as hard as the boys and faced the shame and distaste of the general public as five teenage girls singing about sex and drugs, but the band has had “a lasting influence on pop culture and on feminism” (Cherkis). With Joan Jett and Lita Ford on guitar, Cherie Currie’s lead vocals, Sandy West on drums, and Jackie Fox on bass, they were able to “neatly combine American heavy metal with the newly emerging sound of punk rock” and in the process, they’ve “proved crucially important in paving the way for female artists to crank up the volume on their guitars” (Huey). It was not easy for them. Joan Jett said in the documentary Bad Reputation, “I’ve had my head split open by a beer bottle, a rib cracked, and a battery thrown at me. But we’re still here… And we had to fight on” (Bad Reputation).

Their classic single, Cherry Bomb, has become wellknown for its rebellious lyrics that the girls performed on

stage with aggression and arrogance similar to any popular boy band at the time—“Hello world, I’m your wild girl / I’m your ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch, cherry bomb.” These lyrics announce loudly and confidently that the Runaways were not messing around. They would rock as hard as any male, and it was even cooler because they were girls. The group, alongside other well-known artists, such as Suzi Quatro and Chrissie Hynde, sought to appropriate for themselves the common masculine expression on stage.

Women had to fight to express their sexualities and break down misogynistic norms. In their performances as females reproducing masculine norms, they critique masculine performances, introducing an entirely new layer of performativity and rebellion in music. Ann Powers writes, “Because rock and roll originates within a celebration of the spirit of teenage self-empowerment, girls especially have moved more freely within the spaces it creates than they could elsewhere, and, in doing so, have often found themselves in peril of violation by the very men who would call them queens” (Powers). The rock and roller’s rebellious image is entirely displaced when the female is introduced: she is able to appropriate his shallow rebellion by creating a place for herself to allow herself to be who she is, breaking walls and norms assembled by a centuries of discrimination.

The Slits, a punk group in the late 1970s, were another band that set the stage for the next generation of feminists, and “through sheer emotion and desire, [they] created some great music” (Dougan). The band consisted of lead singer, Ari Up, who was only 14 in 1976 when the group was founded and gained popularity when they “nabbed the opening spot of the Clash’s White Riot tour of England in 1977” (Dougan). They almost immediately became an important part of the punk movement. In 1979, when they finally released their first album Cut, they were producing music that would one day influence many young female musicians to rebel and play music no matter what everyone else says (Dougan). One of their most popular songs, “Typical Girl,” critiques the standards to which girls were held and works to discredit the “type” produced by these conventions. It begins, “Typical Girls / Don’t create / Don’t rebel / Have intuition / Can’t decide.” The song is empowering because it is being used by women to critique the typical model of girls.

The song ends with “Who invented the typical girl? / Who’s bringing out the new improved model? And there’s another marketing ploy / Typical girl gets the typical boy.” They imply that the idea of a ‘typical girl’ is ‘sold’ to young girls with enticing advertisements, which influences these girls, making them think they have to be someone they’re not.

Particularly influenced by the music of the Runaways, the Slits, and other post-punk female bands, the Riot Grrrl movement originated in Olympia, Washington in the 90s as a protest against sexism in the punk scene (Feliciano).

Bikini Kill, fronted by singer Kathleen Hanna, were crucial to the beginnings of the Riot Grrrl movement. Hanna worked alongside other women who wished to participate

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in Washington’s underground punk scene, which was traditionally composed of white men. Frustrated with the sexism that made it difficult for them to be perceived as legitimate musicians, Riot Grrrls mixed feminism with the punk mindset to protest this misogyny. They played traditional punk music (angry, loud, and unorganized), but refused to censor themselves, singing openly about significant feminist issues, such as sexuality, domestic abuse, rape, and patriarchy.

Bikini Kill’s number one song, a popular feminist anthem, “Rebel Girl” celebrates the power of rebellion of a young girl: “When she talks, I hear the revolution / In her hips, there’s revolution / When she walks, the revolution’s coming / In her kiss, I taste the revolution / Rebel girl, rebel girl / Rebel girl you are the queen of my world.”

The Riot Grrrl movement, with their own zines and press, tried to subvert the sexist descriptions and elimination of the press by turning insults placed upon them into a mantra.

By reclaiming titles such as “bitch,” “slut,” and “whore” in a more positive and empowered light, Riot Grrrls discredited these titles. The Riot Grrrl manifesto, “HISTORY IS A WEAPON,” was published in 1991 and ends with these three statements, which illustrate the revolutionary aspects of feminist punk bands and their fight to produce a better, fairer music world: BECAUSE we are angry at a society that tells us Girl = Dumb, Girl = Bad, Girl = Weak.

BECAUSE we are unwilling to let our real and valid anger be diffused and/or turned against us via the internalization of sexism as witnessed in girl/girl jealousism and self defeating girltype behaviors.

BECAUSE I believe with my wholeheartmindbody that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real. (HISTORY IS A WEAPON) From Joan Jett in her tomboyish glory to Ari Up’s and Rebel Grrrl’s unphased and radically feminist critiques on the social standards to which “typical girls” are held, these groups have had a substantial impact on the definition of rock and punk music today. They not only more-thanrebelled, they succeeded in the creation of a revolution. The Riot Grrrl movement directly aligns with Sarte’s definition of a revolution because it “aims to replace an unfair system with a new, better system” (Reynolds 3). A system in which women are the producers or writers and performers rather than the eroticized and submissive audience of music.

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he construction of women musicians by the media has been detrimental to the credibility of women artists, excluding them from the rock and roll narrative. Media throughout the era of rock consisted mostly of newspapers, magazines and, since 1981, MTV, and it was the most influential way to promote or demote artists and their songs.

The music press, created almost entirely by men, “assumes that all its readers are male as well, so that the situation is

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often one of male journalists writing for male readers, a fact reflected in the mode of address of much music writing” (Davies). The press prevents female artists from being understood as serious musicians by creating concepts of authenticity that obscure their work. Because history is defined by the dominant group, shown in the writings of the history of rock and roll (by men, for men), the exclusion of women from the narrative does not give us a full sense of the impact women have in music.

Often, under the umbrella term, “Women in Rock,” the success of musicians (who happen to be women) is separated from the rest of rock and roll history, the rock and roll which happens to have been performed, written, and produced—controlled entirely—by men. With this term, women are not seen as musicians but female musicians, even though there are incredible differences between each woman artist and band.

A new generation of female rock musicians continue to fight the media as their predecessors have while they produce new and exciting music. In “What’s it like to be a woman in rock today? The question is part of the problem,” Washington Post reporter Travis M. Andrews explores the notion of the term “Women in Rock.” He notes that whenever there are a number of women at one time who are releasing popular music, headlines “scream their tired refrains” (Andrews). In late 2017, Pitchford declared, “‘Women are now at the forefront,’” and the New York Times released, “‘Rock’s Not Dead, It’s Ruled by Women’” and another headline, “Rock’s Not Dead, It’s Ruled by Women: The Round-Table Conversation” (Andrews).

Andrews continues, “In the 1980s, the music industry hype machine proclaimed Joan Jett and Pat Benatar as the future of rock. A decade later, Alanis Morissette, the Breeders and Bikini Kill had critics declaring that women had finally arrived — a narrative that drew a scoff from Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders. ‘Year of the woman rocker?’ she asked the Chicago Tribune… ‘Is that like the year of the pig?’” And it’s important to realize that with his article, Andrew is doing exactly what he is critiquing as well as what is happening with this paper. There is not equality in the music industry until articles like these are unnecessary, until interviews don’t always include a choreographed response to the question, “What’s it like to be a woman in rock today?”

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ock embraces a form of self-expression, which did allow women musicians to embrace their feminine sexuality in performances and appropriate the male gaze with their music. According to Grossberg, who has studied the cultural implications of rock and roll music, “rock and roll cannot be approached by some textual analysis of its message[;]” the “meaning itself functions in rock and roll effectively, that is, to produce and organize desires and pleasures.” This statement does not take away from an analysis of the meaning behind women being able to sing rock and roll. Though a woman playing rock and roll is

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clearly meaningful in a political movement for women’s rights, a woman singing rock and roll was fighting for her music to be seen as regular rock and roll music: pleasurable and loud and sexy.

Though MTV popularized music videos that objectified women, there were instances in the “reign of MTV” where women created music videos that poked fun at overtly sexualized music videos clearly written and produced by men for the pleasures of male viewers. These objectifying videos illuminate the power of the male gaze, the visualization of a woman as an object of masculine desire and power. But also, again, they attempt to persuade women to see themselves (and to know themselves) as they are seen by men.

The 1950s brought a post-war attitude of exploring sexuality, experimenting with psychedelics, and an overall disregard for what is expected and normal. The rebellious attitude is shown in the music of men singing rock and roll.

However, when women tried to sing similarly, they were shamed and disregarded.

Because of the ways that women were initially disregarded, the emergence of rock and roll must also be examined alongside the women’s rights movements. In the 1950s, sex other than marital was looked down upon and brought shame, ignorance, fear, and punishment to women (Brienes 5). There was a fear of looking as if you’d ‘gone all the way,’ as if having a sexual relationship would prohibit you from living a normal life, and sadly, this was often the case: a woman who defied societal obligations was demonized and viewed for the rest of her life as somewhat of a delinquent. The Riot Grrrl movement worked to poke fun at obscene expectations placed upon them by symbolically rejecting every standard: singing about sex and drugs, and wearing crazy clothes.

Most qualities of rock music were seen as ‘masculine,’ such as anger and rebellion. According to Reynolds and Press, “Where male artists who walk a high-wire over the abyss of self-destruction tend to present a spectacle of mastery, female performers who flirt with disaster tend to elicit different responses: a morbid mixture of voyeurism, pity, and sadistic delight at the possibility that she might fall.”

Fiona Apple is a popular singer-songwriter who plays what is often classified as ‘alternative rock.’ Her most popular song “Criminal” was released with her first album, “Tidal” in 1996. She sings, “I’ve been a bad, bad girl / I’ve been careless with a delicate man.” The music video for “Criminal” is on a list of the “Top 10 Controversial Music Videos” for the way it portrayed Apple, at the time 18 years old. Throughout the video, Apple is portrayed alone, gradually undressing herself.

Described by the New Yorker as “an underfed Calvin Klein model,” Apple chooses to sexualize herself in her video, but if you watch, there are no men present (Frere-Jones).

Other music videos, including “What’s Love Got to Do with It” by Tina Turner and “Sex is a Weapon” by Pat Benatar, came out while MTV was very popular and mock

the videos created by men who only liked girls for their sexy bodies. Turner walks around singing while pushing men away, and Benatar poses in front of muscular men, dancing around them because she doesn’t think they’re cool. In these videos, Apple, Turner, and Benatar rebel against what was expected of them, a powerful statement against the status quo: it wasn’t their sexuality that got them where they are today.

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ock and roll as a genre of music is understood as rebellious, the emergence of rock and roll a rebellion: loud and overtly sexual, with lyrics that would make your mother shudder. However, women who play(ed) and listen(ed) to rock and roll are part of the true rebellion. Men were instrumental in building a music scene which was toxic for women. Ignored, objectified, and belittled, women who take part in the rock scene exceed the limitations of the male rebellion, fighting to be recognized as real musicians and rewarded for their achievements. This fight still goes on today. According to the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, from 2011 to 2017, only 22% of all artists on the pop charts are females, and only 12% of songs were written by females (Andrews). Without a higher percentage of females in the industry, and especially when most of the popular music we are listening to is written by males, women in music will continue to be a part of a musical revolution, where they work to replace the current system with a fairer system.

In a recent study, women who play rock music at a local level spoke up about the sexism they experience in the music industry. Researchers Stephen B. Groce and Margaret Cooper coordinated 15 interviews with women who primarily perform(ed) in local clubs and bars. Groce and Cooper concluded that women who play rock and roll feel as if even today, their gender plays a significant role in the way in which they are understood as musicians, despite the fact that these women supply a valuable contribution to their band’s stage presence.

According to Groce and Cooper, a woman is usually assumed to be a vocalist, so they interviewed guitarists and drummers who spoke about the sexual bias they experience in their everyday work. For Nancy, a guitarist, “several people, especially men, would indicate or suggest that I had learned everything from Johnny [the male guitar player in the band].” Anne, a drummer, declares “I’m gonna hit those heads and skins and cymbals as hard as any man can” (Groce 225).

Ten out of the fifteen women interviewed claimed that they were “aware of being seen by audiences as objects, specifically sex objects,” and they “knew they were taking part in the selling of sex” (Groce 222). The women in the study claim to make “conscious decisions to dress and act to accentuate their sexuality” (Groce 223).

Teri, a vocalist, claims that “it makes people feel good about their own sexuality to see somebody getting wild on stage… I think that’s really part of the performance” (Groce

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223). However, despite the women feeling good about their performances and being able to express their sexuality on stage, they were still subject to discrimination from the audience: “Audiences’ perceptions of their supposed sexual desire, interest, and availability made it difficult for them to be taken seriously as performers” (Groce 224).

It is empowering to watch a woman perform music that celebrates sexual openness because with every movement she makes, she carries upon her shoulders the 70 year fight for equal representation for genders in music. Women in rock have been able to write themselves into a masculine genre of music, yet they are still underrepresented and objectified in the media. Therefore, it is up to us to normalize women in rock, looking forward to a world where interviewers don’t always ask a woman what it’s like to be a woman in rock but what it’s like to be a rock star.

Andrews, Travis. “What’s It like to Be a Woman in Rock Today? The Question Is Part of the Problem.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 12 Sept. 2019.

Auslander, Philip. “I Wanna Be Your Man: Suzi Quatro’s Musical Androgyny.” Popular Music, vol.

23, no. 1, 2004, pp. 1–16. JSTOR. Bikini Kill. “Rebel Girl.” Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah, Bikini Kill Records, 1992.

Breines, Wini. Young, White, and Miserable: Growing up Female in the Fifties. University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Cherkis, Jason. “Jackie Fox Of The Runaways Opens Up About Her Traumatic Rape.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com.

Coscarelli, Joe. “Rock’s Not Dead, It’s Ruled by Women: The Round-Table Conversation.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Sept. 2017.

Davies, Helen. “All Rock and Roll Is Homosocial: The Representation of Women in the British Rock Music Press.” Popular Music, vol. 20, no. 3, 2001, pp. 301–319. JSTOR. Dougan, John. “The Slits: Biography & History.” AllMusic.

Frere-Jones, Sasha. “Extraordinary Measures.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 20 June 2017.

Groce, Stephen B., and Margaret Cooper. “Just Me and the Boys? Women in Local-Level Rock and Roll.” Gender and Society, vol. 4, no. 2, 1990, pp. 220–229. JSTOR. Grossberg, Lawrence. “Another Boring Day in Paradise: Rock and Roll and the Empowerment of Everyday Life.” Popular Music, vol. 4, 1984, pp. 225–258. JSTOR. “HISTORY IS A WEAPON.” RIOT GRRRL MANIFESTO. Huey, Steve. “The Runaways: Biography & History.” AllMusic.

Kerslake, Kevin, director. Bad Reputation. Magnolia Pictures, 2018.

McDonnell, Evelyn. “Joan Jett.” Interview Magazine, 1 Mar. 2010.

Ortega, Shawna. “Tommy James: Songwriter Interviews.” Songfacts, 15 Sept. 2009.

Powers, Ann. “The Cruel Truth About Rock And Roll.” NPR, NPR, 15 July 2015.

Reynolds, Simon, and Joy Press. The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion, and Rock’n’roll. Harvard University Press, 1996.

Roberts, Robin. “‘Sex as a Weapon’: Feminist Rock Music Videos.” NWSA Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, 1990, pp. 1–15. JSTOR. The Rolling Stones. “Under My Thumb.” Aftermath, Andrew Loog Oldham, 1966.

The Runaways. “Cherry Bomb.” The Runaways, Mercury Records, 1976.

Steinmetz, Katy. “Top 10 Controversial Music Videos.” Time, Time, 6 June 2011.

The Slits. “Typical Girls.” Cut, Ridge Farm Studios, 1979.

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Impacts of Sex Segregation in Athletics: Revealing the Discrimination of Modern Sports Regulations Against Transgender and Intersex Athletes Michael Guilmette

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n 2009, Caster Semenya won the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships at the 800-meter race. Because of her muscle tone and incredible performance, she was asked to take part in “a sexverification test, which allegedly revealed that she had three times the amount testosterone typically expected in female athletes” (Huber). In response, the IAAF introduced rules regulating the amount of testosterone someone can possess and still be considered a woman. Additionally, rumors of Semenya’s “sexual ambiguity” spread quickly, and although the IAAF never released their findings, many people consider Semenya’s victories to be illegitimate because of her rumored testosterone levels, which are supposed to indicate an unfair advantage over other female athletes.

Since the implementation of Title IX, the number of women competing in athletics has increased by 600%. We are witnessing groundbreaking alterations to traditional athletic events that have been dominated by men for years (Taylor). In spite of the progress, though, regulations still exist in athletics which invariably exclude athletes who do not fit perfectly into the current binary athletic system, such as Caster Semenya. Even the landmark legislation put forth in Title IX possesses loopholes allowing for the exclusion of athletes and offers little guidance or suggested courses of action in order to address intersex and transgender athletes.

In an attempt to enforce the traditional stereotypes of gender in athletics, many athletic organizations have implemented invasive and arbitrary methods of forcing people into the binary categories of male and female, which have served only to keep up an illusion of fairness while causing intersex and transgender athletes to suffer humiliation and unnecessary inconveniences.

The reason that many people support these regulations is that they believe that these athletes possess an unnatural advantage over their competitors. This argument is particularly prevalent when discussing transgender female athletes, who many people believe should not be considered women because their sex assigned at birth was male. This argument reflects the gender stereotypes essential to our culture of gender-segregated athletics, which assumes the absolute superiority of male athletes over female athletes, with little regard for other factors of performance.

Therefore, if an athlete does not align with the stereotypical appearance and performance of the gender with which the athlete identifies, then they possess an unfair advantage, or so the argument goes. Thus, the transgender female athlete is framed as an illegitimate female athlete and excluded because of traditional gender stereotypes.

It has been observed that many factors beyond gender possess significant impacts on athletics, a field in which true fairness is not desired. For example, Michael Phelps possesses a body type well-adapted for swimming. Should he be prevented from competing in the sport because his height and wingspan give him an unfair advantage?

Additionally, access to resources and leisure necessary to train for competition provides certain athletes with advantages that we do not typically determine to be unfair.

Since these athletes received their athletic advantages by circumstance, and a transgender or intersex athlete has no control over their sex at birth or their effective testosterone levels, it does not make sense to consider them any more unfairly advantaged. In order to accommodate for all advantages and not only those determined, or believed to be determined, by an athlete’s sex, the regulations of athletic organizations need to determine competitive levels based on other measurable factors, such as effective testosterone or physical features (weight, height, etc.) which might offer an advantage in a specific sport.

As technological advancements make it easier to measure the physical and biological features of athletes, it is necessary that we find more accurate ways of measuring actual competitive advantage, rather than maintaining vague and archaic regulations and attitudes which allow for the exclusion of transgender and intersex athletes. We must find a more definite and less divisive factor to separate competitive levels.

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n order to understand the ways in which intersex and transgender athletes are unfairly excluded from athletics, it is necessary to understand the situation of transgender and intersex identities within the idea of gender. The societal ideas of male and female require that people fit into strict categories in many aspects of their lives. In reality, however,

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many people do not fit within the binary framework because “gender is not something we have or we are, but something we perform, we do” (Pfister 235). As a performance, gender is not restricted to the binary framework we often perceive it to be, making sex-segregated athletics particularly difficult to regulate.

Transgender people do not fit into the binary idea of gender because their sex assigned at birth does not match the gender with which they identify. Transgender people may or may not undergo hormone therapy, which would alter hormone levels, particularly testosterone, so that they physically exhibit the gender with which they identify.

Additionally, they may or may not select to undergo a surgical procedure for the same effect, but they are still transgender regardless of whether they alter their outward appearance. A transgender male is someone who exhibited female characteristics at birth but identifies as male, while a transgender female is someone who exhibited masculine characteristics at birth but identifies as female.

As stated in Transgender Student-Athletes and SexSegregated Sport, “transgender athletes are controversial because their existence disrupts essentialist and binary ideas about sex that are reflected in the historical and contemporary organization of sport” (Buzuvis 3). Because of the organization of sport based on sex, transgender athletes are offered little guidance and regulation which provide them with rights. This allows for them to be discriminated against in athletics and for athletic organizations to create superfluous regulations to regulate the involvement of transgender athletes in athletics.

Intersex people similarly do not fit into the binary framework of gender because their reproductive organs do not fit clearly into male or female categories. Often this occurs when someone possesses XY chromosomes but does not have entirely male sex characteristics. One of these cases is referred to as “androgen insensitivity, also sometimes referred to as testicular feminization,” which causes the person to “have a feminine appearance” (Hipkin 152). They may, however, have normal testosterone levels of a male, but do not react to the testosterone to develop male characteristics. Therefore, the person may not even know they are intersex because they possess female sex characteristics and their effective testosterone, which is the amount of testosterone that actually impacts characteristics, is at a level typically exhibited by people with female sex chromosomes. Androgen insensitivity can manifest either partially or completely, causing a variety of different abnormalities of people’s reproductive organs.

Another common form of intersex people is those with gonadal dysgenesis, where there can be “sexual infantilism with eunuchoidism and lack of breast development” and external and internal genitalia may be female (Hipkin 152).

This can be exhibited to varying degrees, so once again the person with gonadal dysgenesis may not be aware of their condition.

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Intersex athletes are excluded by many methods of testing for sexes in athletics because they can be identified as either sex depending on the method of determination.

Additionally, they may be suspected of illegal doping because of abnormal muscle growth and hormone levels, when in reality they did not choose the biological functions of their bodies. It is important to accommodate both intersex and transgender athletes in athletics, a particularly difficult task when sex-segregated athletics rely on enforcing a strict binary gender division.

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n order to maintain the integrity of athletics, particularly female athletics, organizations have sought to utilize archaic and invasive forms of gender verification which particularly subject intersex and transgender athletes to humiliation. This reveals a need for a better way to determine competition levels. Until 1968, female athletes were subjected to physical examinations in order to compete in the Olympics, which was degrading for all athletes involved, particularly transgender and intersex athletes whose reproductive organs may not exhibit the typical traits of a biological female. After public outcry over the process, it was replaced by the buccal smear test which determined chromosomal sex (Fox 148). Sex chromosome, however, cannot be used as a metric of athletic advantage because intersex people may exhibit physical traits which do not align with their chromosomes. Some athletes, who likely would identify as female because of their reproductive organs matching with those of a female, may have XY chromosomes but low testosterone levels or androgen insensitivity. Because of this, the methods of determining sex would identify them as male when they appear to be and often identify as female. This occurred at the 1985 World University Games when a hurdler named Maria José Martínez-Patiño’s sex test verified that she had XY chromosomes even though she identified as female and appeared to be female (Bianchi 232). Additionally, some people with XX chromosomes are hyperandrogenous, meaning that their testosterone levels are unusually high.

These intersex athletes may or may not exhibit female sex characteristics, but if utilizing the chromosomes to determine the sex with which they should compete, they are placed in the female competition group.

Using chromosomes to determine an athlete’s sex also unfairly assesses the gender of transgender athletes. For example, Reneé Richards was asked in 1976 to take a sex test, which, because she is a transgender female, would have found her to have XY chromosomes and thus to be only eligible to compete in the male category. She had actually undergone surgery and hormone therapy when she began to identify as female, which meant that she was physically female. She refused to take the sex test, “which prompted the US Tennis Association to ban her from competing,” but she later challenged their decision. It was determined that she was female and should be allowed to compete with other

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female athletes (Bianchi 232). When she did compete, she lost, despite the belief of many that she would win because she was transgender. This reveals that determining sex by chromosomes is not only unfair and humiliating to many athletes, but that it does not seem to consistently determine an athletic advantage.

Currently, athletic organizations such as the International Olympic Committee use testosterone levels to determine the sex with which athletes should compete. Hormone levels are believed to be the best way of determining competitive advantage, which is then separated by sex. Following this logic, “transgender female individuals, because of high endogenous testosterone levels, are perceived to hold an advantage in sport (when testosterone has not been blocked to a cisgender female level),” allowing athletic organizations to deny athletes the opportunity to compete as the gender with which they identify (Jones et al. 702). There is no data to support this assertion. Indeed, “testosterone may not be the primary, or even a helpful marker in determining athletic advantage” (Jones et al. 713). Therefore, until a better method of determining sex is found, it would be fairest to allow people to compete as the gender with which they identify rather than one which is perceived to be most fair by metrics that are not based in fact.

Furthermore, the idea that testosterone levels are the most significant factor in athletic performance is inconsistent with the policies which are based on this idea. This can be seen in the fact that transgender males are not typically excluded from sport regardless on the basis of their testosterone levels. Transgender males who undergo hormone therapy are given artificially high levels of testosterone. Although this should offer a potentially unfair advantage to these athletes, their participation in sports is rarely questioned on the basis of testosterone levels, though they still experience discrimination due to transphobia (Jones et al. 702). This reveals the general public’s lack of knowledge. The fact that the participation of transgender males is not questioned on the basis of testosterone also reveals the inconsistent application of testosterone regulations ‒ using them to exclude only certain groups of people assumed to possess an advantage, due to stereotypes not based in fact.

In addition to simple testosterone levels, there are other regulations used by certain organizations that exclude transgender female athletes. For example, the International Olympic Committee has regulations that “their blood testosterone levels are below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months prior to competition.” They also state that the 12-month requirement may be extended on a case-by-case basis (Jones et al. 711). Many other athletic organizations have enacted nearly identical rules. This requires that transgender female athletes go to great lengths to adhere to a testosterone guideline without a factual basis, only to be denied from competition if the International Olympic Committee determines them ineligible. This is unfair to transgender female athletes, and “until (and if) there is

consistent and direct evidence to demonstrate transgender people have an athletic advantage, it seems unreasonable to exclude them on any basis” (Jones et al. 712).

If fairness in sport is the true objective of regulation, the best course of action would be not to divide athletics by sex at all and to find a more definitive way of determining biological advantage. Some athletic organizations, such as the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, have allowed athletes to compete with the gender they identify as, saying “cross-sex hormones and gender-confirming surgeries should not be a requirement at any level of sport” (Jones et al. 713). Without consistent data confirming the perceived advantage of transgender athletes, it is necessary that we allow athletes to compete as the gender with which they identify without regulation (Jones et al. 713).

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n athletics, transgender and intersex athletes are made to feel excluded not only through unfair gender verification but also through the attitudes of audiences and fellow competitors who feel that transgender and intersex athletes possess an unfair advantage. This issue is endemic to a society that divides competitive levels by sex. In order to prevent claims of unfairness, we must find a fair metric that actually measures advantage rather than sex which does not consistently determine physical abilities. Then, athletes can be separated without regard to sex and we can eliminate a culture that prevents transgender and intersex athletes from enjoying physical activity in a competitive setting.

In athletics, “some transgender people experience stigma, transphobia, prejudice, discrimination and violence as a consequence of their gender identity,” causing many of these athletes to be diagnosed with anxiety (Jones et al.

702). Additionally, many transgender athletes experience harassment from people who refuse to respect their pronouns (Jones et al. 706). This harassment is in part due to the division of athletics by gender, which creates expectations of masculinity and femininity in certain sports.

The significance of gender in sports exists not only at a professional level but also for recreational athletes who desire to be a part of groups centered around physical activity (Jones et al. 707). “Stigma and discrimination still operate to deter individuals from openly acknowledging or presenting their gender non-normativity,” causing many people of all athletic levels to feel uncomfortable with their gender identity in athletics (Buzuvis 13). According to some scholars, “because transgender individuals are positioned as outsiders simply for not meeting societal suppositions about the student-athlete ideal, notions of gender-appropriate athlete behavior are distinct barriers to transgender acceptance in sport” (Gray et al. 46). To be inclusive of all athletes regardless of their gender, separating competition levels by different, more just factors would eliminate the idea of gender-appropriate behavior.

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Many laws outside of athletics also reinforce the idea that transgender people are not truly the gender with which they identify, causing the exclusion of transgender and intersex athletes to seem acceptable to much of society. For example, “in 2016, the North Carolina General Assembly passed House Bill 2 (HB2), which restricted the rights of transgender individuals to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity” (Gray et al. 45). HB2 reinforced the idea that transgender people should act according to their perceived sex at birth in situations where sex divides people into groups; this can be extended to attitudes about transgender athletes.

This is also exhibited in “President Trump’s orders to revoke federal guidelines specifying that transgender students have the right to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity and his reversal of President Obama’s policy allowing transgender people to serve in the military” (Gray et al. 45). These regulations indicate an “unsubstantiated fear that transgender individuals in bathrooms and locker rooms pose a threat to cisgender individuals, when, in fact, transgender individuals are verbally and physically assaulted at higher rates than cisgender people” (Gray et al. 45). One conceivable method of reducing instances of exclusion is not to separate people by gender in athletics, giving people fewer reasons to discriminate against transgender and intersex people. Athletics currently serve to reinforce harmful gender stereotypes that allow for the humiliation and harassment of those who do not conform with the stereotypes of their perceived sex. We can utilize the platform provided by athletics instead to develop a healthier understanding of athletic competition, challenging the stereotypes currently reinforced by athletics.

Amidst the many ways in which people cheat today in athletics, “gender verification is a bizarre form of discrimination which identifies individuals who, through a quirk of genetic fate, have a sex chromosome endowment which is at odds with their sex of rearing” (Fox 149). In particular, intersex and transgender female athletes are often assumed to be cheating despite the fact that identifying with a certain gender is an action that allows people to confirm their own identities and should not be taken from athletes.

The competitive levels of athletics can be redefined to take into account a measurable factor unrelated to gender, so as not to discriminate against the diverse identities of athletes.

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ne reason many people have negative attitudes towards transgender and intersex athletes is a competitive advantage that they are believed to enjoy.

The argument of unfair advantage is particularly applied to transgender females, who after hormone treatment and surgery are both physically and biologically female. For instance, after surgery and hormones, Reneé Richards, a transgender female athlete, lost “30% of her muscle mass as well as 40 pounds” (Katz and Luckinbill 229). She was physically similar to her cisgender female competitors and “was legally and biologically a woman” (Katz and Luckinbill North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

230). Despite her physical, biological, and legal status as a woman, though, she was initially not allowed to compete in the female category of competition because she refused to undergo invasive sex testing. It was not proven that she possessed a competitive advantage by any metric other than ambiguous sex chromosomes, which does not inherently indicate improved ability since her weight and muscle mass were comparable to that of her cisgender female competitors.

In addition to the lack of evidence supporting a competitive advantage amongst transgender female athletes after surgery and hormone therapy, there is also “no direct or consistent research suggesting transgender female individuals (or male individuals) have an athletic advantage at any stage of their transition” (Jones et al. 701). While many people argue that the hormones which transgender females possess before transitioning provide them with an unfair advantage, there is “a serious lack of scientific evidence that hormones significantly impact athletic performance” (Athlete Ally). Therefore, even before hormone therapy, we cannot confidently state that transgender females have an advantage. Additionally, transgender and “intersex athletes are vulnerable to criticism stemming from the presumption that anomalous sex-related physical characteristics necessarily produce a competitive advantage,” an assumption based in transphobic sentiments rather than facts (Buzuvis 20). As the sex characteristics of athletes, such as their reproductive organs, are not proven to impact performance, so transgender female athletes should not be required to undergo sex reassignment surgery. Therefore, limiting the hormones and physical structures of transgender and intersex athletes is unnecessarily invasive because there is no evidence to support the necessity of these procedures.

In some cases, cisgender female athletes are more supportive than spectators of their transgender peers, particularly those who have transitioned. One such athlete is Michelle Dumaresq, a transgender female mountain bike racer. She competes as a female and, except for some athletes who remarked she should compete in a separate transgender category, was accepted and supported by many of her competitors in spite of her success (Buzuvis 16-17). The support of many of her competitors, the ones who would be most impacted if she possessed an unfair advantage, show that many cisgender athletes do not believe Dumaresq has an unfair advantage now that she has transitioned.

In addition to the lack of evidence linking hormone levels and sex characteristics to competitive advantage, we must also consider that even amongst a single sex, there is a lot of variation. There is now research “outlining medical evidence… dismantling stereotypes, and pointing to physical variation that appears across athletes” within specific categories, indicating that advantage is possible regardless of whether or not the athlete is transgender or intersex (Gray et al. 46). Many believe that “higher levels of effective testosterone that may be possessed by trans* women are

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unfair since cisgender women have no ability to naturally possess those same attributes,” but there is no evidence to prove that cisgender women cannot possess some other advantage (Bianchi 234). “The IOC has not taken steps to provide a workable framework for dealing with athletes with hyperandrogenism” because they have not found yet conclusive evidence in order to quantify the perceived advantage of transgender and intersex athletes as a function of their testosterone levels (Katz and Luckinbill 239). The ambiguity of the regulations allows for organizations to decide often on a case-by-case basis, which makes possible the exclusion of athletes based on their gender identity.

Because the advantage of transgender and intersex athletes is not scientifically proven, it is unreasonable to require hormone treatments or surgical procedures which are, at best, an inconvenience for athletes. By dividing athletes by a factor other than gender, we would be able to better include intersex and transgender athletes based on physical attributes rather than by making inconsistent decisions.

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ince the issues of including intersex and transgender athletes are not based on factual research, but rather on the assumptions based on their perceived sex and hormone levels, we must question the origins and persistence of sex-segregated athletics. When reviewing the history of athletic regulations, it becomes clear that “stereotypes, rather than reasoned analysis, have been unduly influential in law and policy in this area” (Katz and Luckinbill 217).

The stereotypes of masculinity and femininity in athletics originate in societies focused on limiting the roles of women carried into athletics and have persisted as the method of determining an athlete’s level of competition, despite a lack of evidence supporting this method.

While men typically perform better than women in athletics, “no empirical research has identified the specific reason(s) why,” indicating that the cause is only presumed to be biological in nature (Jones et al. 713). Historically, women have been limited athletically and forced to wear restrictive clothing. Additionally, they were made to play games with modified rules such as softball, which limited their opportunities for success in athletics against male athletes (Buzuvis 4). Additionally, “children begin to classify occupations, activities, and attributes according to gender” in middle childhood, developing gender stereotypes that persist into adulthood and impact their views of athletics and other activities that separate genders (Xiang et al. 235).

The performance of females in athletics is influenced by the societal expectations that women and men compete separately and that women should only pursue “feminine” sports if any sports at all. Because of “long-held stereotypes that masculine sports and physical activities generally entail speed, strength, endurance, bodily contact, and face-to-face competition, while feminine sports and physical activities are characterized by being graceful and nonaggressive,”

many female athletes may not pursue sports which are typically considered masculine, contributing in part to the disparity between the athletic achievements of male and female athletics (Xiang et al. 234).

Even the legislation intended to remove the disparity between the male and female sexes is corrupted with gender stereotypes. This is exhibited in the Contact Sports Exemption of Title IX, “an exception that expressly allowed sex discrimination” (Katz and Luckinbill 225). This excludes women from many revenue-producing sports, reinforcing the assumption that women are incapable of handling contact sports, even when compared to scrawny male athletes who are likely to be injured but still allowed to play on the team.

The Contact Sports Exemption also does nothing to address transgender and intersex athletes, who do not fit into the binary structure of the regulation (Katz and Luckinbill 223).

This portion of Title IX has been “consistently found by the courts to be unconstitutional” because it excludes women from all contact sports (Katz and Luckinbill 226). Made to exclude female athletes, this regulation also allows for the exclusion of transgender and intersex athletes who are determined by athletic organizations to be female, even if they identify as male. In order to prevent the exclusion of transgender and intersex athletes if we are to maintain sports organized by sex, we must update the regulations beyond Title IX, whose text “does not even mention athletics” (Katz and Luckinbill 224).

The final aspect of gender stereotyping which allows for the continued survival of sex-segregated athletics is “the ostensible stigma that boys would face in losing to a girl” (Buzuvis 9). If a male athlete were to lose to a female athlete, it would embarrass the male athlete while if the male athlete were to win, his victory would be seen as predictable because of the stereotype that male athletes are always naturally superior to female athletes, except for in sports deemed feminine. According to a study done on youths, “boys perceived that they were more competent in sports,” and losing to a girl as a boy would be a humiliating experience (Xiang et al. 234). This logic can then be used to exclude transgender athletes, particularly transgender female athletes who many people believe to have the biological advantage of a male.

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eyond just testosterone, there are many factors which can provide an advantage to certain athletes and are sometimes considered unfair. “There are numerous examples in which successful athletes have unique features that are based on genetics, as opposed to pure skill,” such as the genetic disposition of Michael Phelps to have a body ideal for swimming (Bianchi 234). These advantages are not proven to be any less significant than the perceived advantages of transgender and intersex athletes with higher testosterone levels, making the argument for their exclusion unreasonable. Additionally, Phelps and other “persons with genetic advantages are often encouraged to participate since Fifth World

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they may influence certain results in a way that is exciting for spectators to witness” ‒ breaking world records, for instance (Bianchi 235). Instead of shunning Phelps from athletics for having advantageous physical traits, he is supported by many in his athletic endeavors and is seen as a model athlete in many cases.

In order to support the implied argument that athletes should not be rewarded for genetic advantages within the argument against including intersex and transgender athletes, we would need to credit people proportionally to their skill level rather than purely their performance (Bianchi 236). A system would need to be put in place to determine the genetic predisposition of an athlete to a specific sport and then determine their probable ability if they did not possess this advantage. For example, we would determine the advantage of Michael Phelps based upon his natural wingspan and height (and any other factors we deem significant) and then alter his performances accordingly.

This method is unlikely to please people because it requires that we either have to start people in a single race at different times or we must crown a victor who did not necessarily win the race, but instead performed the best when compared with their genetic circumstances. I do not recommend this method, but it reveals how the exclusion of transgender and intersex athletes is unfair because of their similar perceived genetic disposition to better performances. It creates an illusion of fairness when, in reality, their exclusion does not fully preserve the fairness of athletics. By removing gender and separating competitive levels by genetic predisposition, we would be able to create some degree of fairness without forcing athletes to compete with a certain binary gender with which they may not identify.

Even if one disagrees that genetic advantages naturally justify the inclusion of transgender and intersex athletes, it is necessary that you allow athletes who have undergone hormone treatments to compete with the gender with which they identify. If testosterone levels do, in fact, have an impact on performance, then “any unfair genetic advantages will be mitigated” (Bianchi 235). Even if they do not meet the meaningless testosterone levels mandated by many athletic organizations, hormone treatments create an unnaturally fair competitive situation. Researchers have found some evidence “that effective testosterone levels vary among all individuals irrespective of their gender identity,” indicating that the regulation of testosterone levels for only intersex and transgender athletes suspected of not meeting an organization’s requirements unfairly excludes intersex and transgender athletes (Bianchi 235). Athletes who have undergone hormone treatments already have taken steps to artificially alter an aspect of their body with no proven connection to performance; they deserve the opportunity to compete with the gender with which they now biologically match. If organizations still refuse to allow athletes who have undergone hormone treatments to compete with their biological gender, then a better metric of the advantage North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

of gender must be implemented in order to fairly and definitively divide competitors into categories without discriminating against people of certain gender identities.

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n Changing Sex/Gender Roles and Sport, Katz and Luckinbill ask: “By what right does an organization or person dictate to another on the subject of that other’s sex or gender?” (241).

Although this question is essential to my argument against sex segregation altogether, Katz and Luckinbill assert that the system of sex segregation should be maintained and that people just be allowed to compete as the gender with which they consistently identify. While this is an improvement from the current policies which govern sex segregation, it does not address the attitudes of many people who feel that transgender and intersex athletes identifying as a female would be unfairly advantaged. This would lead to continued harassment of these athletes and would cause many people to question the validity of their accomplishments. In order to stop the penalization of athletes for their gender identity, we need to separate gender identity and athletics.

By constructing a system based on measurable factors rather than attempting to define someone else’s gender, there would also be no need for surgery or hormone therapy for athletes who do not desire to undergo such procedures.

One method of applying competitive advantage effectively to athletics is suggested by the Canadian Center for Ethics in Sport, who recommend that other sports should implement regulations based on size and weight, such as is currently implemented in wrestling (Jones et al.

713). In doing so, they believe they can achieve fairness and still include athletes regardless of their gender identities.

This would be very effective in many sports, although it would be important to look more into what factors actually affect performance (such as whether testosterone makes a substantial impact on performance and should be used to determine competitive level).

In Transgender women in sport, Bianchi makes a similar argument for determining the competitive advantage which athletes naturally possess, but does not suggest the removal of sex segregation. Instead, Bianchi asserts that athletes should be allowed to compete with the sex with which they identify and that competitive advantage should be determined and applied as a “handicap system” (230238). While this option is an attractive one, it still does not address the separation of people into male and female, which may be particularly confusing and discouraging to intersex and nonbinary athletes who do not strictly fit within the structure of binary gender. By utilizing the competitive advantages which we determine to create new ways of separating athletic categories, we remove the need for gender and for a complicated handicap system.

In her argument, Bianchi also recognizes that “one’s skill would need to be separated from one’s unfair genetic attributes in comparison to one’s competitors” (237).

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This would be a particularly difficult task, but with recent advancements in technology, it could be within our reach in the near future. Until such metrics can be determined, we can use physical measurements that can be made now, such as muscle mass, fat percentage, height, and wingspan in specific sports in order to reasonably determine competition levels. Although some of these factors may be impacted by an athlete’s training, it would allow people to train into more competitive categories.

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lthough many people believe that sex can be biologically determined in order to divide athletics, transgender and intersex people are anomalies to this supposedly definite system. Transgender and intersex athletes are often excluded by the regulations made from these assumptions, which only exist because people perceive that males are always physically superior, justifying sex segregation in athletics.

It would be much more inclusive and fair either to allow athletes to compete with the gender which they identify or, better yet, to rid athletics of sex segregation in favor of more definite methods of separating competitive levels.

The ambiguity of gender and sex make gender verification – a process riddled with complications and arbitrary regulations – a superfluous exercise that excludes athletes who do not clearly fit into a binary category according to current sex-determining methods. Additionally, the separation of sexes in athletics leads to negative views of intersex and transgender athletes from audiences, who often believe that they are unfairly advantaged. This assumption is false, as many women are more capable at athletics than a man with less musculature, and the regulations in place for sex segregation are based in gender stereotypes rather than in fact. Athletics will always be unfair to some extent due to biological advantages from genetics, so it does not make sense to limit certain aspects of someone’s natural biological advantages to conform with a specific sex and then not force other athletes to conform in the same way.

Once it has been established that a new method of separating competitive levels of athletics is necessary to maintain the integrity of sports without excluding athletes of certain gender identities, possible processes for the implementation of such regulations must be considered.

First, further research must be conducted which analyzes certain biological factors in athletes that correlate to their performances. Once the most significant factors have been determined (likely some combination of physical factors such as height and chemical factors such as effective testosterone), then effective regulations based on measurements can be implemented. Additionally, further research should be done considering the plight of other athletes disadvantaged either financially or due to physical disabilities in order to determine whether it would be best to incorporate them into this new system or somehow further divide athletic competitive levels. Research in this field is most limited by a lack of biological data regarding athletic advantages and a

lack of transparency from sports organizations in how they determine their regulations and make specific decisions.

By further researching this and other factors that impact performance, we can make a system that can be implemented more effectively and preserve fairness in sport, which many people argue is preserved by sex segregation.

By implementing a new system of defining competitive levels in athletics, rather than preserving the archaic and exclusionary gender verification methods currently in use, we can more effectively include transgender and intersex athletes in our culture of competitive athletics. Everyone deserves a chance at maintaining a healthy lifestyle in a competitive environment, and it is our responsibility to work to remove any barriers to this. By first recognizing the complexity of this issue and working to eradicate it, we can work together towards a more inclusive and diverse society.

Bianchi, Andria. “Transgender Women in Sport.” Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, vol. 44, no. 2, 2017, pp. 229–242.

Buzuvis, Erin E. “Transgender Student-Athletes and Sex Segregated Sport: Developing Policies of Inclusion for Intercollegiate and Interscholastic Athletics.” Seton Hall Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law, vol. 21, 2011, pp. 1–59.

Fox, John S. “Gender Verification - What Purpose? What Price?” Br J Sports Med, vol. 27, no. 3, 1993, pp. 148–149.

Gray, Ashley, et al. “Transgender Student-Athletes and Their Inclusion in Intercollegiate Athletics.”

New Directions for Student Services, 2018, pp. 43–53.

Hipkin, L J. “The XY Female in Sport: the Controversy Continues.” Br J Sports Med, vol. 27, no. 3, 1992, pp. 150–156.

“How Rethinking Sex-Segregation in Sports Is the Key to Equality.” Performance by Hudson Taylor, YouTube, YouTube, 27 Oct. 2016.

Huber, Martin Fritz. “This Is the Fiercest Debate in Pro Running.” Outside Online, 31 July 2019.

Jones, Bethany Alice, et al. “Sport and Transgender People: A Systematic Review of the Literature Relating to Sport Participation and Competitive Sport Policies.” Sports Med, vol. 47, 2017, pp.

701–716.

Katz, Ronald S, and Robert W Luckinbill. “Changing Sex/Gender Roles in Sport.” Stanford Law & Policy Review, vol. 28, 2017, pp. 215–243.

“Model Policy #1: Transgender and Nonbinary Athlete Inclusion.” Athlete Ally.

Pfister, Gertrud. “Women in Sport – Gender Relations and Future Perspectives.” Sport in Society, vol. 13, no. 2, 2010, pp. 234–248.

Xiang, Ping, et al. “Students’ Gender Stereotypes about Running in Schools.” The Journal of Experimental Education, vol. 86, no. 2, 2018, pp. 233–246.

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The Myth of the Golden Door: Racist Foundations in American Immigration Law Celie Kaplan

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or centuries, conceptions of the American identity have centered about the idea that the United States is a nation of immigrants. This idea is embodied by the Statue of Liberty, an icon of America’s open doors and endless opportunities for immigrants. A point of national pride, the grand statue towers over Ellis Island, a historical port of entry for twelve million immigrants to the United States.

The presence of such immigrants is central to a national identity of cultural diversity. As early as 1782, American writers such as J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur praised people of distant origins for strengthening the American nation. It was his view that, “The Americans were once scattered all over Europe; here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared” (Crevecoeur 448). This affirmation of America’s diversity is echoed throughout history. It inspired Emma Lazarus to write the “New Colossus,” famously inscribing upon the base of the Statue of Liberty, “From her beaconhand/Glows world-wide welcome;” (Lazarus 6-7). Not only does Lazarus support the notion of welcoming immigrants, but the most well known lines of the poem emphasize that this welcome is extended to all, without regard for class or origin: ‘Give me your tired, your poor,/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,/The wretched refuse of your teeming shore./Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,/I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’ (Lazarus 1014).

Despite the great fame of these words, entrance to the United States by foreigners has been met with great resistance from elected legislators throughout our nation’s history.

The bigotry of President Trump is horrifying to many, but the racism underlying his policy rests on foundations of white supremacy that were built over the last two and a half centuries. Legal suppression and public disdain for racism over the latter half of the twentieth century have led to the impression that America is becoming more tolerant.

While this may be true, the hatred and white supremacy of earlier decades remained, just below the surface. Following decades of resistance to the Civil Right Movement and resentment toward the election of Barack Obama as the first African American president, Trump’s presidential campaign released closely connected waves of white supremacist and anti-immigrant sentiment. The racism that inspired the

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development of American immigration law continues to impact immigrants today.

Ever since the first legislation on immigration in 1790, the law has worked to restrict “undesirable” immigrants by way of taxes, tests, quotas, and even explicit exclusion by race. Who is undesirable? On the surface, the definitions varied from decade to decade, but there is a consistent theme underlying the motivation for exclusion. Certain classes of people were consistently treated as inferior, such as disabled people, impoverished people, and people with criminal backgrounds. Anyone falling into these categories was explicitly barred from entry for most of United States history. However, the final classification of people who have been considered unworthy of American citizenship are people of races deemed “nonwhite,” and therefore “inferior”.

The word race has been redefined and creatively interpreted on many occasions, which is easy to do, given its constructed nature. Although people of color are consistently identified as members of a separate race, the concept of race was generally applied in association with nationality for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While racial restrictions on citizenship were originally intended to apply to people of African origin, they have been modified throughout American history to exclude new groups of people as legislators saw fit. Despite efforts to disguise their intent as a desire to protect our nation or preserve its “moral character,” there is little room for debate over the intentions and impacts of American lawmakers. Behind closed doors and within sealed envelopes, their goals are vividly explicit, and horribly discriminatory. An examination of the reading material, social circles, and writings of elected officials of the past reveals the racist intent of the laws they penned.

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he concepts of nationality and race are closely intertwined. Both are subjective terms, used to reference groups of people with commonalities. Moreover, both are societally constructed and evolving. Race, more so than nationality, has played an integral role in the development of American society. It originally distinguished enslaved African peoples from indentured English peoples, then, more generally, enslaved people from those whom Roger Taney in Dred Scott described as the “citizen race.”

After slavery, the concept of race referred to groups of people

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distinguishable by physical features or reputation; however, race is not as simple as black and white. With the passage of time and the birth of new generations, racialized people intermingle, the result being that many people exist outside of a binary racial system. However, the societal structure of the United States has always been based on a black and white binary. When this system failed in the age of slavery, the courts often decided based on physical attributes, or even testimony of acquaintances, the race, and by extension the freedom or lack thereof, of individuals who claimed they should be free.

With the arrival of immigrants from overseas in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the American populace rapidly diversified, and the conceptualization of race became increasingly complicated. This is reflected in the United States Census, which evolved in attempts to more accurately represent the demographic changes of the nation.

The questions asked on the census, particularly with regard to race, are revealing of the ways in which the American government sought to differentiate between people, creating the other throughout US history. When the census was first instituted in 1790, it identified each person as a “free white male,” “free white female,” “other free person,” or “slave.”

The use of these categories indicates a desire to differentiate between people based on their status as free or enslaved (Humes and Hogan 113). However, it follows a racialized system, and laid the groundwork for future separation by race. The apparent need to find differences between people at all comes from the desire of people in power to maintain authority over others, which can most easily be attained by separating oneself from the other, the inferior.

In the early nineteenth century, a wave of poor Irish immigrants blurred the lines between the superior and inferior classes that had been well established up to that point. To account for a new group of people, who were deemed inferior to the political elite, the Census Bureau introduced a new question to record place of birth (113).

By doing so, they differentiated between the first wave of immigrants, whom members of the Census Bureau such as Francis Walker considered “native,” and more recent immigrants. In 1870, the census introduced a question on parental place of birth. By doing so, they maintained an inferior category which included not only immigrants and people of color, but the American-born children of immigrants as well.

The superintendent of the 1870 and 1880 censuses was Francis A. Walker, a respected statistician and the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Based on census data, he determined that immigration of “inferior” races was lowering the natural American birth rate, and spoiling the American people. In 1896, The Atlantic published Walker’s essay, “Restriction of Immigration.”

He spoke of protecting the “American standard of living, and the quality of American citizenship from degradation through the tumultuous access of vast throngs of ignorant

and brutalized peasantry from the countries of eastern and southern Europe.” Throughout the paper, he referred frequently to “native Americans,” by which he meant Americans descended from seventeenth and eighteenth century immigrants from western Europe. He observed that before the new wave of European immigration to the United States, “of the men of all nationalities in the giant army formed to suppress the slaveholders’ rebellion, the native American bore off the palm1 in respect to physical stature.” Here he finds an association between geographic origin and physical characteristics. More importantly, he has determined that people of foreign origins and races are objectively inferior to so called native Americans. He argued that the introduction of “beaten men from beaten races; representing the worst failures in the struggle for existence,” caused Americans to shift away from careers they had previously held with pride. That is to say that immigrants did not fill a gap in the American workforce, but rather created one by forcing native Americans out. It is deeply concerning that Walker held these views, first and foremost because the evolution of the census demonstrates its subjectivity.

Despites its constant adaptation and inconsistency, the data collected by the census is generally held as scientific fact.

This interpretation of the census motivated the actions of the Immigration Restriction League and inspired Congress to implement restrictions on immigrants from certain regions in the 1920s.

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he first legislation to regulate naturalization of foreign born persons as United States citizens was the Naturalization Act of 1790. It presented four requirements in order to become a citizen: two years’ residence in the United States, an oath of allegiance to the constitution, status as a free, white person, and “proof that he is a person of good character,” (“Naturalization Act of 1790”). In 1795, an act was passed to revise and clarify the expectations set forth in the original act. In addition to pledging an oath of allegiance to the United States, it was now necessary to also renounce allegiance to any foreign state and forfeit any foreign titles or nobility. Furthermore, the required residency was extended from two years to five, and children of American citizens were deemed citizens by right of relation. Finally, the good character requirement was clarified to read, “He has behaved as a man of good character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States” (Naturalization Act of 1795). Each of the requirements set forth by the naturalization acts has had a lasting impact on our expectations for those who wish to become citizens.

Most notably, the prerequisite of good character has had a significant effect on immigrants throughout the history of the United States. Although it sounds like a reasonable way to preserve the so called “moral character” of the United

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Bore off the palm is taken to mean that they were superior.

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States, its lack of specificity makes the requirement of “good character” a dangerous tool for use in judicial decisions on the matter of immigration. Although these laws are over 200 years old, the legacy of moral fiber was passed down through generations’ worth of legislation, and the caveat continues to impact immigrants today. Because it leaves so much up to the arbitrary interpretation of an individual judge, there is abundant room for discriminatory decisions (Rhode 18). Another requirement of note is that of being both free and white. This was repealed after the Civil War, acknowledging both the humanity and residency of black Americans. However, its influence remained prevalent in legislation for centuries.

In 1882, nationality was used as justification to ban immigration, by way of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited the immigration and naturalization of Chinese people. This is one of many instances throughout the history of immigration law in which race and nationality were conflated. The act is very concise, and neglects to define the term ‘Chinese,’ which could be taken in reference to someone of Chinese descent or simply someone emigrating from China. In fact, when the category of Chinese was added to the census in 1870, it was included along with “white, black, Indian, and Mulatto.” Among these terms, Chinese is the only one to reference a nation, and not simply a race (Humes and Hogan 113). The act states that, “in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory thereof” (“Chinese Exclusion Act”). This reasoning is indicative of fear, and a desire to preserve a white Anglo-Saxon majority, even if it did not exist in such states as California which had passed racist legislation. The reference to order implies that the entrance of Chinese laborers would disrupt the status quo-- an idea to which the white men in Congress were strongly opposed.

In section 14, Chinese people are barred from citizenship, a condition initially set as a ten year restriction but later renewed indefinitely. Assessing the character and value of a person based solely on the place from which they come is discriminatory, and follows a similar pattern to racism. The sole difference between the two is that arbitrary judgements in one case are based on physical attributes, and in the other are founded on a location.

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aving observed that the profile of the American immigrant changed after 1875 from his ideal of an American, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts became a strong advocate for laws restricting immigration, and one of the primary voices for the Immigration Restriction League (IRL). The IRL was composed of wealthy and well educated New England elites, including multiple members of the United States Immigration Commission, also known as the Dillingham Commission, and Congress.

The IRL sought to preserve the American moral character, and the value of American citizenship. In their own words, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

“The objects of this League shall be… to arouse public opinion to the necessity of a further exclusion of elements undesirable for citizenship or injurious to our national character” (Immigration Restriction League). Although relatively short-lived, the IRL was highly influential in the development of anti-immigrant legislation such as the Literacy Test.

In 1896, Lodge gave a speech on the Senate floor in which he provided justification for his proposed legislation to restrict immigration. He declared in reference to race that “We mean the moral and intellectual characters, which in their association make the soul of a race” (Lodge). His affirmation that morality and intellectual capacity are a characteristic of race intertwined past requirements of morality with nineteenth century efforts to restrict immigration. The inadmissible “moral turpitude,” and required demonstration of “moral character,” which prevail in immigration law, remain linked to race until the present day. In the same speech, Lodge drew a connection between race and language, frequently referring to the “Englishspeaking race,” which he believed to make up most if not all of the American population. This association was influential in the use of mother tongue data at the Census Bureau under the Dillingham Commission. Lodge’s view of the American population was very limited as well, for he referred to the wave of immigrants from Eastern Europe and Asia as unassimilable, and drastically varied from “native” Americans. His view that America is composed of an Anglo-Saxon, English speaking population is completely exclusive of those native to the Americas, as well as the large population of African Americans descended from enslaved people.

Although it took them two decades, the IRL worked tirelessly for the passage of their Literacy Test into law.

The literacy test was carefully developed as a mechanism of immigration restriction, deemed effective because “It would exclude many, if not all, of those persons whose presence no one desires, and whose exclusion is demanded by our duty to our own citizens and to American institutions” (36). Based on their own statistical analysis, the committee determined that “the races most affected by the illiteracy test are those… with which the English-speaking people have never hitherto assimilated, and who are most alien to the great body of the people of the United States” (Lodge). Although the literacy test was cleverly presented as a method of barring uneducated people who would compete for low-paying jobs, the primary purpose of the literacy requirement was to simultaneously restrict immigration of those who were not sufficiently Anglo-saxon, and increase immigration from western European countries such as England.

Lodge and the IRL worked to restrict what they felt was invasion by anyone who did not fit their American mold.

They promoted the idea that these outsiders threatened the promise of the American people, which was possible “due to the qualities of the American people… as homogeneous.

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Those qualities are moral far more than intellectual, and it is on the moral qualities of the English-speaking race that our history, our victories, and all our future rest.”

In 1906, Senator F. M. Simmons, who wrote the literacy bill, described new immigrants as ‘nothing more than the degenerate progeny of the Asiatic hoards [sic] which, long centuries ago, overran the shores of the mediterranean’ (Pula 7). This appealed to the view, widely held among members of Congress, that immigrants from southern and eastern Europe were inherently inferior to western Europeans.

Although this race-inspired act was passed multiple times in Congress, it was vetoed three times by three different presidents (Pula 8). In 1917, the IRL prevailed when the Senate finally overrode a presidential veto and passed the Immigration Act of 1917 into law. In addition to the classes of immigrants already excluded based on physical or cognitive disability and disease, the Act excluded “All aliens over sixteen years of age, physically capable of reading, who can not read the English language, or some other language or dialect, including Hebrew or Yiddish” (Immigration Act of 1917). As was its intention, the passage of the Literacy Act significantly reduced the number of immigrants admitted from countries such as Romania, Lithuania, and Russia between the years 1913 and 1921 (Annual Report, 1924).

In addition to his significant sway of popular opinion as a member of the IRL, Henry Cabot Lodge became an influential member of the United States Immigration Commission, also known as the Dillingham Commission. The commission was a joint committee consisting of members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Led by Senator William P. Dillingham of Vermont, the commission produced an infamous 42 volume report evaluating the so called “immigration question.” The report intended to prove that “old immigrants,” from Western Europe, were superior to “new” immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe.

Upon review, this data fails to take into account many key factors affecting employment rate and other qualifiers.

Furthermore, much of the data was collected based on relatively arbitrary definitions. For example, Jews, who were generally considered new immigrants, were counted as old immigrants only for comparisons regarding the skill level of new and old immigrants (Pula 21). This inconsistency exemplifies the twisting and misrepresentation of data which was done in an effort to prove the inferiority of new immigrants.

Volume 5 of the commission’s report was the infamous Dictionary of Races and Peoples, by Daniel Folkmar. The dictionary is a 150 page amalgam of crude descriptors and qualifiers. The descriptions range from a few lines to nearly ten pages, but one commonality shared by all is the lack of scientific basis for differentiation. The dictionary relies on racial stereotypes, noting of Jews that “Their features are more truly semitic. The ‘Jewish nose,’ and to a lesser degree other facial characteristics, are found well-nigh everywhere throughout the race” (Folkmar 74). The primary purpose

of the dictionary was to provide clear distinctions between different groups of immigrants. This typification made it easier to discriminate against immigrants by appearance, national origin, or race, which by this point seemed to lack any significant meaning. By writing out common stereotypes in a formal document produced by the government, Folkmar validated racism and nativist sentiment, fueling greater popular support for restrictionist legislation.

The Quota Acts of the 1920s were heavily influenced by white supremacist pseudoscience. In 1919, Representative Albert Johnson became the chair of the House Committee on Immigration. A close friend of the eugenicist Madison Grant, he was quite impressed with Grant’s The Passing of the Great Race. At the time this was a well known and widely respected work. It is worth noting that the American public, including members of Congress, were reading such opinions as the following: “What is needed in the community most of all is an increase in the desirable classes, which are of superior type physically, intellectually, and morally… The ideal in eugenics toward which statesmanship should be directed, is, of course, improvement in quality rather than quantity.

This, however, is at present a counsel of perfection, and we must face conditions as they are” (Grant 43-44). Grant explicitly states that not only are some races (presumably Anglo-saxon) superior to others, but that inferior races should ideally be eradicated via eugenics. It is this type of thinking which inspired the passage of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921. As he worked to pass the Quota Act, Johnson held a hearing in Congress, which included evidence from the aforementioned report of the Dillingham Commission, as well as the testimony of eugenicist Henry Laughlin.

Laughlin declared, ‘We in this country have been so imbued with the idea of democracy, or the equality of all men, that we have left out of consideration the matter of blood or natural inborn hereditary mental and moral differences’ (Pula 9). This is yet another example of the racist mindset that informed the development of immigration quotas.

The Quota Act stated that immigration from each country should be restricted to three percent of the American population of that nationality living in the United States, as recorded in the 1910 census. The first issue at hand is the use of the 1910 census, given that the records of the more recent 1920 census were available when the quotas were developed.

The true rationale for using the older census record, provided by a member of the House of Representatives, acknowledges that ‘the number of the older and better immigrants coming has been relatively much smaller during the last ten years, and the number from southern Europe, Italy, and Russia much greater, which will be reflected in the 1920 census.

The making of the 1910 census as the basis will give us more of the better and less of the less desirable immigrants than if it were based on the 1920 census’ (Pula 11). As a result, the commissioner for immigration noted in his 1924 annual report that the quotas allowed for greater immigration from Western Europe than was predicted based on recent years.

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In contrast, immigration from eastern Europe was severely restricted (Report of the Commissioner for Immigration 3).

Note the impact on immigration from various regions in Appendix 1. Observe as well, that the headings indicate an accepted correlation between race and geographic region.

In 1924, the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 was revised by way of the Johnson-Reed Act. The nature of the quotas changed in two ways, as stated in Section 11 below: Sec. 11. (a) The annual quota of any nationality shall be 2 per centum of the number of foreignborn individuals of such nationality resident in continental United States as determined by the United States census of 1890, but the minimum quota of any nationality shall be 100. (b) The annual quota of any nationality for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1927, and for each fiscal year thereafter, shall be a number which bears the same ratio to 150,000 as the number of inhabitants in continental United States in 1920 having that national origin (ascertained as hereinafter provided in this section) bears to the number of inhabitants in continental United States in 1920, but the minimum quota of any nationality shall be 100.

First, the quota from each nation was decreased from three percent of that nationality as represented by the census to two. This is a blatant effort to reduce the number of immigrants overall. Second, the quotas were based on populations recorded in the 1890 census, rather than the 1910 census. It is not only in retrospect that the use of the 1890 census was discriminatory. In 1925, Columbia Law Review published a review of the Johnson-Reed Act, noting that “Congress frankly employed an earlier census because it wished to increase the proportion of immigration from western and northern Europe, and to curb immigration from southern and eastern Europe” (Outstanding Features 90). It is appalling yet unsurprising that Congress was able to pass such discriminatory legislation without questioning from other branches of government or the populace.

Third, the nationality data used to determine the quota for each country was, itself, discriminatory. Historic census records were incomplete with regard to immigration and nationality, as the collection of this information began during the nineteenth century. Because the census questions varied from year to year, the Quota Board had to make decisions about the method of classification, which required the merging and overlapping of many vague and ill-defined categories (Ngai 71). Additionally, the law excluded nonEuropean people from consideration at all, stipulating that ‘‘inhabitants in continental United States in 1920’ do not include (1) immigrants from the [Western Hemisphere] or their descendants, (2) aliens ineligible to citizenship or their descendants, (3) the descendants of slave immigrants, or (4) the descendants of the American aborigines’ (72). The exclusion of non-white Americans from consideration is racist, for it effectively dehumanizes them by deeming them unworthy of tabulation. Furthermore, it skewed the quotas,

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as quotas were allocated in greater numbers to European nations, rather than African countries.

To the further advantage of Western European nationalities, Chief Statistician Joseph A. Hill placed greater numerical weight on population data from older census records. This favored older immigrants and led to greater increases in the quotas for western European countries (80). In short, the national quotas were based on population data which had been twisted to the point of meaninglessness. Note in Appendix 2 that Great Britain has the largest quota by far, at roughly 85,000 people per year, and Germany has a quota of 20,000. In contrast, most countries have quotas of under 1,000 immigrants per year, and most southern European and middleeastern countries are assigned the minimum quota of 100 people.

The data shown here clearly demonstrate the extremity of the imbalance between western and eastern European quotas. The difference is staggering, as the quota for Great Britain is greater than most of the eastern European quotas by a factor of ten thousand. Additionally, the inclusion of “colored races” at the base of the table emphasizes the lack of distinction between race and nationality, serving as a reminder that the data used to calculate the quotas was based on pseudoscientific classifications. Intermediate columns give a sense of the factors taken into consideration when the quotas were calculated. Observe that the countries with populations descended of “colonial stock enumerated in first census” are among those with the largest quotas. These numbers were inflated by the meticulous guesswork of the Quota Board and the Census Bureau, as the nation of origin information was not collected until the nineteenth century.

The majority of other countries with quotas over 500 have large populations listed under “Foreign White Stock Foreign Born…” Shortly after the passage of the Johnson Reed Act, lawyer John B. Trevor authored “An Analysis of the Immigration Act of 1924,” in which he concluded that … the Immigration Act of 1924 may reasonably be expected to accomplish the following results: (1) A definite improvement in the quality and character of immigrants lawfully admitted to the United States through more efficient means of enforcement of the provisions of Section 3 of the Act of 1917, excluding undesirables from the United States… (3) A definite restriction upon lawful immigration into the United States without the violation of treaty engagements. (4) The progressive development of a homogeneous population. (Trevor 28) Trevor’s evaluation of the act reemphasizes racist and restrictionist ideals and a desire to maintain the perceived racial purity of the United States. His claims exemplify the white supremacist attitude that animated the lawmaking process. United States immigration law rested on this unstable foundation until the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

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n 1952, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act, which revised but did not abolish the quotas set in 1924. For each country with a quota, this quota was determined to be one-sixth of a percent of the representative population within the United States in 1920. In a similar fashion to earlier legislators, Congress elected to use a census outdated by decades, despite the availability of three more recent ones. This indicates a desire to maintain racial representation in the United States at a similar level to that of the 1920s, as well as to reduce overall immigration rates.

The Chinese Exclusion Act had not been repealed until 1943, at which point an annual quota of 105 was allotted for Chinese people (Daniels 318). Thus, quotas for immigrants from Asia were once again set at the bare minimum of 100 people per country per year. Furthermore, quotas for Asian nations applied not only to immigrants traveling from Asia, but also for people of Asian races who came from non-Asian countries (Daniels 320). The application of this law to Asian races alone is discriminatory, and indicates racist intent as it results in the entrance of fewer Asian people, and more people of European origin.

In 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act was revised to eliminate national origin quotas entirely, instead prioritizing family reunification, people with valuable skills, and refugees. This represents a significant shift in the trajectory of American immigration law. The latter half of the twentieth century was a period of tremendous social change. The civil rights movement, as well as multiple significant wars contributed to progress for race relations in America. The end of legal segregation is a significant landmark, followed by a long period of increasing awareness and suppression of surface-level racism, as well as the election of the first black president in 2008. However, the racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric surrounding Donald Trump’s election serves as a reminder of the long road ahead, and the white supremacy stewing below the surface.

In 2017 President Donald Trump signed the “Executive Order Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States,” more commonly known as the Muslim Ban. The order “suspended for 90 days the entry of certain aliens from seven countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. These are countries that had already been identified as presenting heightened concerns about terrorism and travel to the United States.” It is racist to presume that everyone from these countries, with citizens predominantly of color, are a danger to the United States, solely based on their countries of origin. Additionally, the order suspended the United States Refugee Admission Program, because “Terrorist groups have sought to infiltrate several nations through refugee programs.” In fact, a 2016 study found that the vast majority of metropolitan areas that have experienced increased immigrant populations also have lower crime rates (Adelman et. al.).

The 45th president of the United States is a mouthpiece for white supremacy, but legal implementation of racism

during his administration is not innovative. He is just the latest in a long line of American politicians who have allowed their racist views to dictate their legislative agendas.

Immigration law throughout American history has been a result of white supremacist attitudes, and a desire to maintain the perceived superiority of the Anglo-Saxon population.

Legislators, and both elected and appointed officials have practiced exclusion using quotas, tests, and even outright racial bans. Although these discriminatory policies have often been focused by name at nationalities, and not exclusively the racial groups we think of today, the mindset behind them is unchanging. Scholarly literature of the early twentieth century reveals a link between perception of race and nationality. Furthermore, the racist language used today is reflected in the terminology and tones used in reference to people of southern and eastern European descent in the early twentieth century. The personal writing, official reports, and social circle of legislators reveal white supremacist outlooks, and even affiliation with eugenicists.

As we address the problematic nature of legislation today, it is insufficient to criticize President Trump. We must acknowledge the deeply ingrained racism that enabled his election before we can hope to dismantle the laws harming immigrants today.

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Adelman, Robert, et. al. “Urban crime rates and the changing face of immigration: Evidence across four decades.” Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, vol. 15, no. 1, 2017, pp. 52-77. Web. Accessed 18 October 2019.

An Act to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act. Pub. L. 89-236. 79 Stat. 911-921. 30 June 1968. GovInfo. Accessed 6 October 2019.

Annual Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration to the Secretary of Labor - Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1924, Hathi Trust Digital Library. Accessed 13 October 2019.

Annual Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration to the Secretary of Labor - Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1926, Hathi Trust Digital Library. Accessed 13 October 2019.

Chinese Exclusion Act. Pub. L. 47-128. 22 Stat. 58. 6 May 1882. The Avalon Project. Accessed 18 September 2019.

Crevecoeur, J. Hector St. John. “Letters from an American Farmer.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature, edited by Paul Lauter, Concise ed., Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004, 436-453.

Daniels, Roger. “United States Policy towards Asian Immigrants: Contemporary Developments in Historical Perspective.” International Journal, vol. 48, no. 2, 1993, pp. 310–334. JSTOR. Exec. Order No. 13769. 3 C.F.R. 8978. (2017). Accessed 20 October 2019.

Grant, Madison, 1865-1937. The Passing of the Great Race; or, The Racial Basis of European History. New York :C. Scribner, 1916.

Humes, Karen, and Howard Hogan. “Measurement of Race and Ethnicity in a Changing, Multicultural America.” Race and Social Problems, vol. 1, no. 3, 2009, pp. 111–131.

Immigration Act of 1917. Pub. L. 64-301. 39 Stat. 874-898. 5 February 1917.

Immigration Act of 1921. Pub. L. 67-5. 42 Stat. 5-7. 19 May 1921.

Immigration Act of 1924. Pub. L. 68-139. 43 Stat. 153-169. 26 May 1924.

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Pub. L. 82-414. 66 Stat. 163-281. 27 June 1952. GovInfo.

Accessed 9 October 2019.

Immigration Restriction League (U.S.). “Constitution of the Immigration Restriction League.”

Widener Library, Harvard University. Accessed 17 October 2019.

Lazarus, Emma. “The New Colossus.” Poetry Foundation. Accessed 29 October 2019.

Lodge, Henry Cabot. “The Restriction of Immigration.” The North American Review, vol. 152, no.

410, 1891, pp. 27–36. JSTOR. ------ “The Restriction of Immigration - Speech in the Senate, March 16, 1986.” Nationalists.org.

Naturalization Act of 1790. 1 Stat 103. 26 March 1790. Indiana University History Department.

Accessed 18 September 2019.

“Outstanding Features of the Immigration Act of 1924.” Columbia Law Review, vol. 25, no. 1, 1925, pp. 90–95. JSTOR. Rhode, Deborah L. “Virtue and the Law: The Good Moral Character Requirement in Occupational Licensing, Bar Regulation, and Immigration Proceedings.” Law and Social Inquiry - Journal of the American Bar Association, 2017. Accessed 12 October, 2019.

Trevor, John B. “An Analysis of the American Immigration Act of 1924.” International Conciliation, 10, 1924, p. 370-443. HeinOnline.

Ngai, Mae M. “The Architecture of Race in American Immigration Law: A Reexamination of the Immigration Act of 1924.” The Journal of American History, vol. 86, no. 1, 1999, pp. 67–92.

JSTOR. Pula, James S. “American Immigration Policy and the Dillingham Commission.” Polish American Studies, vol. 37, no. 1, 1980, pp. 5–31. JSTOR. Walker, Francis A. “Restriction of Immigration.” The Atlantic, June 1896. Accessed 13 October 2019.

Appendix 1.

“Immigrant Aliens admitted by principal races or peoples in fiscal years specified” (Report of the Commissioner for Immigration 9)

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Appendix 2.

Table depicting information used to determine the national origin quotas as directed by the Immigration Act of 1924, as well as the resulting quotas in the rightmost column (Trevor 58-29).

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At Radha’s Hips: The Exploration of Erotica, Sexualization, and Seductionism in Indian Dance Forms Vrinda Desai

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t six years old, sensuality and sexuality had no definition to me, but they had been offered to me through dance. When I was told to sway my hips or spin, I didn’t understand it beyond its basic movement, nor why it would be appealing. However, after a decade of training and growing, your body will ease into the movements. Your hips will hit each beat with a sharp raise and dip; rolling your body is no longer some type of calculation, it comes effortlessly. A new attitude rises to the surface—something coquettish and sweet. People are cheering, but you can spot out the ones that aren’t or the ones who will approach you after you leave the stage. You wonder if they received what you meant to give them. You wonder if they took what they were not meant to have.

Underneath the wild excitement is another feeling, one without a language. It is the same grief that lives in the mirrors.

For centuries, female dancers have had their careers taken away from them, faced physical violence, faced sexual degradation, and heard constant derogatory commentary from the people surrounding them. I seek safety and power as a dancer, but I am challenged because sexuality and physicality are within the eye of the beholder. More than this: the “beholder” who defines sexuality, or physical movement as sexual (and as for him) is male; what is seen is defined by masculine norms—in fact, sexuality is perhaps only made visible through these norms. So if sexuality has been stolen or misconstrued from female dancers, what are the means of realigning sexuality to their own terms? How can these women possess their sexuality?

To answer this question, I work through the development of Indian dance forms and dancers. I discuss the relationship of erotica and performance in ancient texts, the intrusion of puritanical idealism from the West; the introduction of sexlessness within the revival of dance, and finally, the re-emergence of seductionism in Bollywood. With the examples and history of dance in India, I analyze the transformations of power structures with the boundaries of gender as performed. I travel through different periods of time and uncover the stories lost between them. I question Indian morality and the relationship between the dancer and the audience.

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There are two main concepts received: first, sexualization in dance is used as a means of possession and objectification of the performer, and second, seductionism plays on the understanding of how the performer herself may be eroticized and uses that to possess the audience and her own sexuality. I have found that dance serves as the erotic language and the medium through which the strongest systems can be challenged and and power may be redistributed.

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here are many preconceived notions of India, including its propensity for modesty and the battle against “vulgarity” within the culture. This “vulgarity”very much exists, only it hides in the private conversations between a group of men or the unspoken thoughts of women. Does “vulgar” truly illustrate the bedroom, nighttime, honeymoon acts? I can tell you “vulgar” is not the word they used in the Natyashastra or Kamasutra when they spoke about erotica.

The Natyashastra’s composition dates back to the first millenium, but the actual time period is not known for certain. Bharat Muni introduces erotica as a form of expression, not the unspeakable subject of moral corruption it is treated as now, but as one of the four original rasas or developed sentiments within drama. There were later eight rasas which are all meant to arouse emotion. The text instructs performers to depict erotica or sringara through soft and graceful movement; it details which limbs to use and how to move them. The text also introduces nakhra or the facial expressions which might include contracting the eyebrows or glancing away.

The Kamasutra is estimated to be written in the third century. Vatsyayana refers to a man and woman taking part in a sexual act as nayaka and nayika, which means actor and actress. This constructs two ideas: first, sexual acts are a performance and the arousal of your partner is based on a specific expression of yourself. The human body is an instrument, the common factor between dance and sex, it has language-like qualities. This is why both dance and sex can be a series of responses between two people. Second, it illustrates the duality of a relationship where both erotic partners can play the role of both performer and audience as

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they accept and respond to each other in mutual exchanges.

Texts like these reveal the underlying truth. Indians have not only spoken about what they now consider vulgar, but they have also written and taught these ideas. The systems and genres of traditional Indian dance were based on these texts. It is surprising to find ancient writings to be more progressive than the current newspaper articles, but it only illustrates what Indian dance has sacrificed over time. Dance needs erotica, but in the following centuries, sensual and sexual movement would be rewritten into notoriety.

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evadasis, translatable to the servants of God, were first seen in 6th century southern India. These women have had differing names and roles throughout each time period and geographic area, but the earliest of these women would have a marriage ceremony where they married the deity of the temple. They dedicated their lives to worship of the temple and dance. Before the colonial era, they were offered grants, gifts, and encouragement from the royal class. They practiced Bharatanatyam, which is considered one of the four schools of classical dance and originated in the temples of Tamilnadu, developed directly from the text of the Natyashastra. If the word was broken down, it would include the terms: “Bhava,” “Raaga,” “Taala,” and “Natyam.”

This is a form of art where dance has a direct and equal link to the music and rhythm.

Another empowered dancer includes the Mughal-era courtesans, referred to as tawaifs, who came about much later in the 16th century. While they harnessed their sexuality for personal benefit, their only gauranteed service was entertainment, not sex. Although more recently deemed as whores, typically in modern media, tawaifs were actually gifted and celebrated figures in Indian society.

While these women practiced kathak, a dance style with the purpose of storytelling, they pursued language through poetry, literature, and music as well. These literate and intellectual women would study Hindi and Urdu poetry to memory and then recite it amongst royal patrons.

Furthermore, etiquette was another tier of the courtesan’s practice. In fact, in the homes of the elite, it was common tradition to send growing boys to tawaifs to be educated and cultured.

While they had a series of professional duties, they also developed seduction into an art form. They practiced nakhra, which is the act of being playful or dramatic to gain the admiration of a man and is usually depicted through facial expressions. Texts like the Kamasutra were in popular circulation among the women. Along with their recitations or songs, they required wit and charm to seduce the men they served. Seduction allowed for admirers or lovers who would lead them to more fame and wealth. Not to mention, the king’s bed was an interesting location to quietly influence politics.

In a culture, where women could only earn respect through their relations with a man as a wife or mother, devadasis and tawaifs were the first to work independently and achieve high status. Devadasis were praised for their greatness and dedication to their gods while tawaifs became known through their talent, charm, and sex appeal. Tawaifs also had a choice in who they pursued or if they wanted to withhold their affections.

As the Mughal Empire disintegrated, the reign of the tawaifs also came to an end. While there was constant warring amongst successors and eventually, rebellion against the British, the courts that these women used to occupy fell silent. While Kathak has survived, the women and their power are long gone. With lacking evidence of who they actually were, they are depicted as unsavory figures, despite existing as quite the opposite.

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s Imperialism took the global stage, the British seeped into the country like toxin. They carried many of their own ideals and philosophies into the country. Dance, in particular, was looked down upon, derided according to Western views influenced by Hegel. In the words of Dr. Aili Bresnahan, researcher of Philosophy and Dance: The idea was that the “fine” arts are those that contribute to knowledge and intellectual thought, with the implication that supposedly non-symbolic and non-verbal arts like dance were pre-lingual and pre-civilization, belonging only to the world of primitive gesture or to the low and the corporeal rather than to the elevated and cultural.

This contrast between the West and the East led to the sexualization of Indian dance forms, even though these practices were based in religion.

During the British Raj, in 1910, in addition to other dancers, devadasis were banned from performing because they were confused with prostitutes. To sexualize these women of divinity and high social status was an insult; it was a way to exhibit power over them and then control them. If they had banned dance without reason or comment, there would have been more outrage and revolt against it; the act would have been recognized as wrongful suppression.

However, accusing these women of immorality drove Indians to question their own systems and proposed that the depravity was real and internal. It created shame, leading Indians themselves to denounce the parts of their culture involving dance.

These women had been named as something they were not, this idea has been perpetuated until today: devadasis are now sex-slaves. Women of the Dalit caste prominently fill these positions; families force their prepubescent daughters into this condition as a means of money and survival. A ceremony is held for these girls where they are dressed in green (interestingly, this color is linked to erotica in the Natyashastra). These girls are forced to have sex with patrons and they cannot escape from their bondage. If they Fifth World

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have children, the cycle begins again when a new generation of daughters will be forced into the role.

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hile the Devadasi position lost value, several passionate figures set out to revive dance after independence was achieved. Women like Rukmini Devi who were strong activists and dancers led the movement to fight the stigma revolving around dance. In 1931, Rukmini Devi opened the Kalakshetra center for music and dance in spite of serious public protest.

As devadasis were married to the temple deities, Bharatnatyam was originally a dance of great devotion and affection that a wife performed for her husband. When Rukmini Devi was reconstructing the method of teaching Bharatanatyam, she tried to make dance more acceptable by adding new meaning to it. First, she based it around religion and worship, but more decided and demure in this than before. She stripped away any erotic depiction of Hindu gods or goddesses. Second, she encouraged moral growth through a strict and disciplined training process. In fact, Rukmini Devi founded the Kalakshetra center, “with the sole purpose of resuscitating in modern India, recognition of the priceless artistic traditions of our country and of imparting to the young the true spirit of Art, devoid of vulgarity and commercialism.”

These changes are most characteristic of modern-day Bharatanatyam seen in studios all over the world today.

They were a response to the contempt of Indian society towards dance. While dance was returning, the revival had played into the existing themes of sexism and sexualization.

The sexualization of the East by the West was a parallel to the sexualization of female dancers by men. When dancers would depict Hindu narratives, men were honored, representing symbolic and powerful figures in Hindu mythology. The roles of women in Hindu epics were minimal so women often danced in roles that were more submissive. This faulty foundation allowed for a lack of respect which then led to female dancers being questioned in their act. This is another part of the broken system where despite women dancing in the meaning of something righteous and respectful, they were once again harmed.

The revival of dance did not try to disrupt this faulty culture and system of thinking, but instead tried to work around these ideas. As they only built on top of internalized western puritanical ideas, the concept of “sexlessness” entered dance for the first time. The more women were criticized and belittled as dancers, the harder they tried to erase erotica from dance. While this method was not effective, it seemed reasonable at the time, especially after such a harsh and tragic period with the British. The idea of dance as art had been so twisted that the revivalist wanted no more than to reinstate it, even if that meant conforming to the constraints..

With these tactics, or rather, because of them, the audience North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

who thirsts for dominance will find a way to exhibit power.

In the frame of prior systems of meaning, physicality and sexuality is up for interpretation by the viewer. Imagine the way in which children are eroticized. Modern dance is also offered as innocent and unerotic, completely devoid of any sexual intentions. So, in this day and age, why do dancers still face backlash? Why are young girls at my local temple approached by older men? It is because they are “eroticizing a product that was marketed as eros-free.” As Kincaid says in Erotic Innocence, “defining something entirely as negation brings irresistably before us that we’re trying to banish.”

Despite no definitive sense of sexual agency, children are treated as if they have a sort of hidden sexuality lurking underneath, thus, inducing a kind of sadism in the viewer.

The chilling idea is that dance has been severely affected by the negation of what it really is. Devadasis were denied to dancers, so they have actually become prostitutes over time.

Both the younger and older Bharatnatyam dancers have done everything to erase the idea of eroticism, yet they are still disfavored in certain communities.

Let’s look at a smaller scale example of personal reconstruction. In her work “Between Life History and Performance: Sundari Devi and the Art of Allusion,” Carol Babiracki offers a narrative of the life story of Sundari Devi, a Nagpuri dancer in 1993. She depicts the relationship of a dancer and their talent as something based in pride, but also writes how the values and confines of society put pressure on that relationship. It reminds us that dance is an art form and something to be appreciated, whether it is sexual or not.

There is also an interesting conception of performance in general: Sundari Devi is questioned why a “nacni” goes on to be a stage performer and stops dancing. In her answer, she describes how the dynamic and context changes between the two acts. As a stage performer, she sings but does not highlight the movement of her body, the instrument of sexuality.

Sundari Devi also reinvents the known religious narrative of Radha-Krishna. Radha is the female lover of God Krishna, who is compared with the many women who also adore Krishna. In dance, they have a loving and playful relationship. Sundari Devi interprets the character of Radha with sexual-neutrality and puts herself in that image without the social eroticism. This also yields to the idea of “sexlessness.” However, if she sees herself this way, why would she leave dance?

She is in the heart of history and society. Social pressures have forced her to enact this idea of a sexually-neutral Radha which allows her to justify and accept what she is doing.

While her mindset may protect her from her internalized self-schema, there is no real negotiation between her and the pejorative audience. This mental bargain does not allow her community to accept her or stop them from disrespecting her, she continues to struggle in much of the same way.

Ultimately, she decides that the only way to escape this moral scrutiny is to remove herself from dance.

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e may find dance all over the nation including Hindi Cinema, the largest and most prevalent platform for dance and music, revered on the global scale. It offers the newest form of Indian dance referred to as Bollywood, which includes the mixture of other Indian dance forms and modern erotic dance that are presented on the silver screen.

The women in Bollywood were initially much like the women in Bharatnatyam, playing a role that was trivial to the plot and only existing in relation to the male character.

As Bollywood came about, the women who performed in dance numbers were not the main heroines, but typically from a lower-class. In 1927, the Indian Cinematograph Committee commented that these women did not belong to the “cultured class” and were discouraged from pursuing acting. This character or dancer was referred to as the “vamp.” She would engage in the activities in which the heroine and chaste Indian woman would never partake, like smoking, drinking, cursing, wearing revealing clothing, and of course, dancing. The vamp allowed society and cinema to confine their ideas of immorality and sexuality to that role. Both the character and the real women were frowned upon, depicting how Indians repressed and punished their desire for erotica—the impositions of a British reign. Even as Victorian porn featured “oriental” women and men, an eroticized ideal of submission that the British military enforced upon actual Indians.

It took decades of dance numbers and backlash to engender respect or even appreciation for these dancers.

Early dancers like Helen Richardson Khan danced through generations of men and supported progress. I first saw her pumping her chest, clad in a dazzling red costume. I was eight and MTV India was featuring Bollywood Hits of the 70s. The song was catchy, one of my favorites today: “Piya tu ab to aaja…” I didn’t understand the sexual elements then, but the longing in her eyes was apparent. While Helen danced and played the vamp character for most of her career, she was tasteful and classy in her act. Her charisma and revolutionary cabaret styling, created for greater popularity, profit, and desire for these dance numbers.

In the 1980s, demand was so high that the heroine and dancer were now the same person. Slowly, the dance number became more grand and attractive as more money was poured into them. Producers expected these scenes to attract viewers to the film. Since the late 1990s, it has been common for films to include “item numbers” or “item girls.”

“Item” comes from film slang used to signify an attractive or sexy woman. These dances are commonly irrelevant to the plot or narrative, but the dancing and performance of the woman is vital to the scene’s success and the movie’s box office.

People made icons out of Bollywood dancers and dancing is now a required skill to enter the industry. In fact, it allows women to take small roles that showcase their skills and assets without having to work for or commit to the whole film. Many young women like Nora Fatehi have made

appearances in dance numbers then received offers for acting positions. These women are praised, not only for their bodies and looks, but their incredible talent. Item girls, much like tawaifs, have found themselves reaching new heights and more empowered than the women before them.

The British Raj practically illustrated the beginnings of dance in Hindi cinema. The last four decades of Bollywood, however, are starkly different. Indian morality has given way to an awkward imbalance and there are several reasons why. The initial force and the preceding willingness to erase erotica was quick, but there was no real remorse, understanding, or depth behind the purification. It was not as much behavioral conditioning as it was a result of colonial pain and postcolonial fear. The moral compass was not realigned because erotica is rather necessary and natural in Indian life and culture.

Hindi Cinema is the national persuasion. The ideals of Victorian society and now Indian society have been loosened as modern dance offers the men of India exactly what they desire. Seductionism merely tickles your true instinct. You may act—perhaps with hesitation—but do not pursue something you are morally against. Consider it like an effective drink.

Seductionism means directly offering eroticism to the viewer. Once again, item girls, like tawaifs, pretend to expose themselves to Indian men as a manifestation of vulnerability and desire. According to The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene, there are 24 steps in the seductive process. While tawaifs used several of these, Hindi cinema is even more insightful of their much larger audience: the most important steps include choosing the right victim, appearing to be an object of desire, creating a need, creating temptation, poeticizing their presence, stirring up the transgressive and taboo, and using physical lures.

Let us quickly dissect the deeper psychology of the (characteristic) deprived Indian male. In the house, they rule, but on the street, they are one of more than a billion.

The power may not transfer over. This leaves room for dissatisfaction, the maddening stress of carrying on the family name, and a deep-rooted insecurity of their very insignificance. As only the foundation for rape-culture, they are taught that they are entitled to the submission of women. The neighborhood girls are raised to be modest, silent, and with their eyes to the ground. Sexual submission is out of the question.

So who is left? With her lyrics about intoxication, lust, and blood, of course the item girl is here to save the day.

She enters the Indian’s man life as a figure of temptation, knowing exactly what he wants. She lets him think that she might need him just as much as he needs her.

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s social ideas are destined to change, the ones surrounding Indian dance forms have evolved significantly. Beginning with ancient texts on erotica, Fifth World

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we understand that erotica was not always a taboo or undiscussed subject. These texts have guided tawaifs, devadasis, and other classical dancers in the art forms they have constructed. Imperialism and the British Raj in India has been cruel and unforgivable, but the response of Indians has been equally harsh.

Indians have upheld a false sense of morality, an exertion of power in the name of something other than their history prior to colonialism. What they describe as morality is actually used to possess, objectify, and restrict women.

While powerful icons have struggled to keep dancing alive and legal, they have played into these ideas of “morality.”

Hindi Cinema emerged with the same treatment of women, but has transformed into an industry that caters to the audience and produces a contrast between the values of classical dance and its own unabashed promiscuity.

These developments of dance allow us to compare sexlessness and seductionism. The issue with sexlessness is that negating sexuality is repression, despite whatever form it actually exists in. It is also the lack of something—a blank slate for the viewer to project his own sexual fantasies onto.

After all, doesn’t less to see leave more for the imagination?

This is similar to how fear works; in horror movies, the obstruction of a figure’s face allows us to place our own deeper and personal fears onto that creature. We don’t know what it looks like, but we can still imagine it. Now, this idea is applied to a dancer and her fully clothed body.

She is a sexual figure as long as the viewer wants her to be.

Dance and sex exist as an interaction between a two parties, a conversation. A modern dancer has two choices of response. Sexlessness is like being unable to respond, so the other party has a one-sided conversation, choosing the answers to his own questions. On the other hand, seductionism is like having a conversation where you can speak, but you must answer the question, silence may no longer serve you.

The 13th century poet Rumi once wrote: Dance is not just Getting up painlessly, Like a leaf, Blown on the wind; Dancing is when you tear Your heart out And rise out of your body To hang suspended Between the worlds.

I have learned many things in my research. My largest focus has been on the interpretation of our movement, our intentions. We have found ourselves moving with this quiet hurt, with fear, with shame. I have studied the responses of society and industry, but the individual has taught me plenty more. These women have continued on in the face of an entire nation opposing them. As dancers, we search for how to protect ourselves and here, we must defy our culture both

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old and new to exist. We reach, trying to reclaim our bodies.

Perhaps, we should reach for confidence instead, pursue an unapologetic act. Perhaps, it takes trust and a deeprooted appreciation of your own. Perhaps, the question has not become of possession, but of courage.

Babiracki, Carol M. “Between Life History and Performance: Sundari Devi and the Art of Allusion.”

Ethnomusicology, vol. 52, no. 1, 2008, pp. 1–30. JSTOR. Bresnahan, Aili, “The Philosophy of Dance”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).

Biswal, Bijaya. “Despite Being Progressive, How The ‘Kamasutra’ Still Reinforces Gender Roles.”

Youth Ki Awaaz, YKA Media Pvt. Ltd., 14 Aug. 2017.

Bröcker, Marianne. The World of Music, vol. 33, no. 2, 1991, pp. 115–117. JSTOR. Courtney, David. “Bollywood Dance (The Indian Film Dance).” Bollywood Dance (The Indian Film Dance).

Devi, Nilimma. “ The Revival of Indian Dance Since Independence.” Dance Sidra.

Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, The. “Natyashastra.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 12 Apr. 2011.

Ganapathi, Archana. “Socio-Cultural Dynamics of Indian Classical Dance.” SemanticScholar, Allen Institute, 2007.

Greene, Robert. The Art of Seduction. Profile, 2004.

Hanna, Judith Lynne. “Dance and Sexuality: Many Moves.” The Journal of Sex Research, vol. 47, no.

2/3, 2010, pp. 212–241.

“Imagery Of Showgirls In Hindi Cinema Film Studies Essay.” UK Essays, All Answers Ltd., Nov. 2018.

“Item Number.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Nov. 2019.

Kincaid, James R. Erotic Innocence: the Culture of Child Molesting. Duke University Press, 2000.

KHOKAR, ASHISH MOHAN. “LEADERSHIP IN THE ARTS: Rukmini Devi Arundale.” India International Centre Quarterly, vol. 39, no. 3/4, 2012, pp. 186–200. JSTOR. Mahmud, Aslam. “Seduction, Music and Sex Education: Life and Times of Awadh’s Glorious Tawaifs.” DailyO, Living Media India Limited, 5 June 2017.

Newberry, Cynthia. “Examining the Unexcavated Histories of Hindi Cinema’s Dancing Women.”

The Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Stanford University, 19 Feb. 2019.

Pillai, Nrithya. “Celebrated to Condemned: Tracing the Devadasi Story.” Times of India Blog, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., 30 Jan. 2018.

Rajam, Krithiha. “How Devadasis Went from Having High Social Status to Being Sex Slaves and Child Prostitutes.” YourStory.com, YourStory Media Pvt. Ltd., 24 Apr. 2017.

Safvi, Rana. “How Tawaifs Fell from Grace and Came to Be Known as Prostitutes.” DailyO, Living Media India Limited, 12 Jan. 2018.

SENGUPTA, MEKHALA. “COURTESAN CULTURE IN INDIA: The Transition from the Devdasi to the Tawaif or Boijee.” India International Centre Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 1, 2014, pp. 124– 140. JSTOR. Surabhi. “ Search Impact Of British Rule On Indian Arts.” Tutor Hunt, Tutor Hunt, 13 Jan. 2016.

Vaidyanathan, Chella. “Bharatanatyam and Mohiniyattam – Classical Dances of South India.” The Sheridan Libraries Blog, 2019 Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries, 25 July 2011.

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Environmental Injustice and Class Disparity in Amazonian Deforestation Margaret Wagner

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s the Earth warms and natural disasters increase in both frequency and intensity, it’s obvious that our future is threatened. The Earth’s population is growing, and we’re already overconsuming resources, making the question of how this increased population will be fed, clothed, and housed an increasingly urgent one. Despite the widespread impacts of environmental destruction, the media tends to focus only on how these events will impact those in the wealthy North American and European nations of the Global North, ignoring the nuances that make the issue of environmental justice so complicated.

Global warming and environmental destruction disproportionately harm poor people and people of color. This disparity can even be seen within wealthier nations, such as the United States, through the impact of natural disasters. For example, poor people of color suffered the impacts of Hurricane Katrina much more than their wealthier white counterparts. Nonetheless, these differences are much more visible on a global scale as people in developing countries often depend more directly on the resources threatened by climate change than those working in corporate or industrialized careers in the Global North.

One of the most prominent instances of this inequality can be seen in the Amazon Rainforest.

The Amazon is the largest forest in the world, covering between 6 and 8 million square kilometers of land; thus, it is unsurprising that the Amazon is so vital to the environmental health of both the countries it spans and the world as a whole. In addition to providing about ten percent of the world’s biodiversity and fifteen percent of its water, the Amazon captures massive quantities of carbon dioxide, earning it the nickname of the “lungs of the world” (“The Amazon”). In Brazil, which accounts for 65% of the Amazon, deforestation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to the 15% of global greenhouse emissions created by this factor (“What”). With over twenty percent, almost 70,000 square kilometers, of the rainforest having been cut since 1970, it is no surprise that Brazil is such a large contributor.

Agriculture is the main culprit of environmental destruction in the Amazon, particularly through cattle ranching and soy production. Other industries, including mining and logging also contribute to this deforestation.

However, it is not just industrial and agricultural practices that threaten this area; as a result of an increasingly urbanized growing population, development is also a large contributor. For example, the presence of roads is strongly correlated with deforestation, and the use of hydropower to support the energy needs of local populations has detrimental impacts on surrounding areas (“The Amazon”).

Although not all symptoms of environmental destruction are explicitly or immediately visible, some, such as forest fires, are. While it is normal for fires to occur during dry seasons, forest fire rates increased dramatically in the past year. As of August 23rd, 2019, there have been at least 72,000 forest fires across Brazil, an 84% increase since 2018. Not only do these fires produce a greater rate of deforestation but they also threaten air quality throughout the globe, pumping smoke, ash, and other particulates into the surrounding air and producing massive quantities of carbon dioxide (Watts). The issue of forest fires is clearly an important one, threatening the safety of millions of people, and it certainly deserves the media attention it receives.

However, it is also important to acknowledge the other environmental issues facing the Amazon as well.

Even less visible instances of environmental destruction have profound impacts. Oftentimes, the issues plighting predominantly marginalized populations, whether indigenous or lower-class people, are disregarded. Although environmental destruction directly threatens the land and livelihoods of these people, the media often focuses primarily on the impacts this destruction would have on those living in the Global North. In order to enact successful initiatives to problems that are so widespread and deeply ingrained in both society and the global economy, it is important to consider the disparity in how this destruction affects members of different social classes, as well as the discrepancy in responsibility for these issues, especially as impoverished and indigenous suffer from destruction for which they are not responsible.

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ince the age of colonization, exploitation and environmental destruction in the Amazon have been inseparably tied. In contrast to the minimal disruption of indigenous practices, European colonists destructively settled and farmed the land (“Land”). In addition to these

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disruptive practices, European colonists used indigenous people as slave labor in order to increase their profit from the abundant natural resources in the area. However, this utilization of resources did not involve deforestation; widespread land clearing was not a common practice throughout the centuries in which the rubber industry exploited the Amazon. During the 1950s, the populations of many Amazonian countries began to expand to previously secluded areas of the rainforest, resulting in the construction of highways and other development projects. As a result of policies encouraging citizens to move to less densely populated areas, these developmental projects began to encroach on previously untouched land (“Traditional”).

Land use varies greatly in Brazil, with most development being focused in the south of the nation or along its eastern coastline (“Land”).

Although much of the Amazon remains intact today, increasing populations pose a threat to the rainforest’s health. Most undeveloped land in the Amazon exists only as a result of the legislation that protects it: of the 350 million hectares of preserved land in Brazil, 110 million are indigenous reserves, 25 million are sustainable development reserves, and 70 million are national parks. In spite of these protections, illegal logging remains common in both public and private land. Even legal logging creates detrimental impacts, with cattle ranching alone accounting for 45 million hectares of cleared land (“Land”). Urbanization, largely in southeast and central Brazil, accounts for a significant portion of legally cleared land as well. In fact, approximately 95% of deforestation occurs within 50 kilometers of roadways, and the presence of roads is associated with tree mortality, drought, and invasive species, demonstrating the connection between urbanization and forest health (“Roads”).

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This prominent environmental destruction has recently garnered national attention as a result of the forest fires that accompany it. Because the primary natural cause of forest fires is lightning and lightning in the Amazon is almost always accompanied by rain, forest fires there rarely ever start naturally. Although most of these fires are started unintentionally, their increasing frequency still demonstrates the harmful impacts of increased human presence in these regions. These fires can have detrimental effects on surrounding areas with their smoke reducing air quality even in distant countries (“What Satellite”). The global impact of environmental destruction adds a sense of urgency to an already pressing local issue.

Throughout the history of the Amazon, foreign influence--whether through European colonization or the pressures of the global economy--has been a major contributor to environmental destruction. In contrast to native practices, which value the land, Western influences often promote profit over the health of ecosystems, encouraging corporations to destroy the rainforest. These corporations encompass multiple industries, ranging from retail to finance. However, those most responsible for deforestation are the companies involved in the agriculture industry, particularly in cattle ranching (“Global”).

Although agriculture has always played a role in the Brazilian economy, the rise of the beef market did not occur until 1979, when the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association (ABEIC), an alliance of thirty companies, formed in order to combat the heavy regulations surrounding the cattle industry by promoting domestic sales and reducing trade barriers (“History”). As a result of their influence, beef production increased to approximately 10.9 million tons per year, over $6.2 billion. Due to their immense economic influence over the region, these corporations play a large role in the lives of many Brazilians, providing over 3 million direct and indirect jobs. Therefore, further regulation of this industry is unlikely, placing the Amazon at an even greater risk of environmental destruction (“Livestock”).

The ABIEC’s influence spreads all throughout Brazil, with a majority of their industries located in the heavily deforested southern and eastern regions (Neugarten). This correlation is no coincidence as cattle ranching accounts for 80% of deforestation in the Amazon, an unsurprising figure considering the scale of the industry. Brazil is the largest beef exporter in the world, accounting for over one-fourth of exports with over 200 million heads of cattle.

Although this large of a scale of an agricultural operation inherently has a significant environmental impact, Brazilian corporations often use low-yield ranching techniques. For example, each cow requires one hectare of land to support their grass diet. In order to effectively grow, this grass needs to be burned every several years. Accompanied by burning pastures to clear land and replenish the soil, this practice results in the clearing of 450,000 kilometers of land for cattle ranching alone, greatly increasing the risk of forest

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fires. Despite the high resource consumption and risk of these practices, a combination of quick transportation and plentiful land in rural areas allows for low start-up costs that make agriculture development attractive (“Cattle”).

In addition to these legal practices, illegal activities also play a large role in deforestation. Oftentimes, governmental regulations are both irrelevant and poorly enforced, resulting in them going largely ignored. For example, rural landowners do not have access to the few environmental agencies that exist, as they are located in urban centers.

Adding to the confusion, Brazilian states can issue logging licenses without the knowledge of the federal government, creating a sense of ambiguity over when someone is breaking the law. Even if they are aware of the laws, few farmers have enough money to pay for their land to be licensed for logging, leaving them no choice but to do so illegally in order to survive in the global economy. Nonetheless, the government refuses to pass further legislation or enforce existing laws and instead chooses to let the potential for profit take priority over environmental preservation despite the risk it poses to citizens. As a result, illegal logging accounts for an estimated 90% of deforestation in the Amazon. Oftentimes, these loggers employ harmful techniques, removing only valuable trees and burning the vegetation, increasing the risk of forest fires (Givetash).

Without the economic profit associated with exporting wood and cattle, there would likely be little motivation for deforestation. Therefore, overconsumption and demand for these products in the Global North bears responsibility for these practices. There is a clear disparity in the consumption habits of the wealthy and the poor, resulting in the rich creating a greater environmental footprint than the impoverished people who produce the goods they consume. However, this individual consumption is not the only culprit in environmental destruction: governments and corporations also play a large role, with 36% of global emissions stemming from government, infrastructure, and international transportation (“Extreme”). The scale of this systematic consumption is dependent on the wealth of the countries in which it exists. For example, while the United States produces 17.5 tons of carbon emissions per capita, Brazil only produces 2.5 tons, indicating that wealth produces variation in environmental destruction within both individuals and corporations (“Per”).

Beyond its high carbon emissions, the US contributes to environmental decline through its economic influence over the Amazon. Each year, the Amazon exports over $4.7 billion of wood, demonstrating the high foreign demand for these products that drives both legal and illegal logging (“Deforestation”). Similarly, cattle ranching, the largest source of deforestation in the Amazon, provides the meat that Brazil trades as the largest beef exporter in the world.

As Brazil’s second-largest trading partner, the United States “enjoy[s] robust political and economic relations” with Brazil, a relationship that is “rooted in a shared commitment

to economic growth and prosperity” (U.S.). Since they have such a large stake in industries with destructive practices, the economic power of the United States exerts a destructive influence in these areas.

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hile class differences are present throughout the globe, they are particularly acute in Brazil, whose very history is founded upon the exploitation of its native people and slave labor. Even after gaining independence from Portugal, Brazil maintained its strict social class system, resulting in one of the most skewed income distributions in the world. Poverty also runs rampant, with 18.4% of the urban population and 42.8% of rural inhabitants falling below the global poverty line. As a result of their economic reliance on upper and middle classes and lack of class solidarity, lower classes fail to unite, preventing them from demanding rights, higher pay, and better living conditions from those in power. This issue is further complicated by the presence of an “informal sector” of work where people are not officially employed and cannot benefit from protections for workers, resulting in them often being underpaid and mistreated. Together, the informal sector and a lack of class solidarity combine to create a system where the wealthy profit from pushing their workers even deeper into poverty, widening the already vast gap between classes (“Brazil”).

These differences in economic prosperity are evident through the official social groups in Brazil--Classes A, B, C, D, and E--which are based on an assessment of wealth that includes income, possessions, and employees. Unlike other countries, where income alone provides a relatively accurate measure of socioeconomic status, income in Brazil reveals little about a person’s wealth, as it varies wildly based on whether they live in urban or rural areas. Nonetheless, income is often included as an indicator of social class, with Class A, the highest class, being primarily composed of people who make over $10,200 Brazilian Reals (BRL), or $2,500 USD, a month and accounting for only 2.7% of Brazil’s population. In contrast, Class E is comprised of people who are uneducated and often illiterate, making less than $1,020 BRL, or $248 USD, per month, commonly receiving no income (Nes). Members of the two lowest social classes, people who make less than $2,040 BRL or $500 USD per month, account for over one-fourth of Brazil’s population. Because members of every social class live in almost every city and every part of the nation, these differences in socioeconomic status are explicitly visible (Brazilian).

With such a clear and drastic disparity in social class, it is logical that members of these groups experience their daily lives very differently, a discrepancy that extends to the impacts of environmental destruction. While it is true that the wealthy are impacted by environmental destruction, their suffering is often lesser and less immediate than that of the poor. Primarily, the wealthy are impacted by the environmental destruction that is truly inescapable: Fifth World

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you cannot run away from widespread poor air quality or increasing scarcity of natural resources the same way you can move away from areas more heavily impacted by natural disasters such as forest fires. In particular, people cannot easily pay their way out of the erosion, flooding, and worsened air quality caused by deforestation, which accounts for 11-14% of global carbon emissions (“California”).

For example, Brazil experienced its worst flood in 2012, damaging infrastructure and driving the Brazilian Amazon into an official state of emergency. As the impacts of climate change continue, droughts are predicted to worsen as well, decreasing precipitation and making the dry season longer (“Climate”).

These inescapable impacts at all levels of society are not limited to traditional natural disasters; they also increase the damage caused by disease. In recent years, Brazil came into global spotlight for the development of Zika, an outbreak that likely would not have occurred with the conditions created by a combination of warming global temperatures and the presence of El Niño (“Climate”). To make matters worse, the changing climate also prevents people from gaining access to the tropical natural resources used in almost half of current medications (“Deforestation”). As a result, people are more likely to not only be impacted by disease, but also less able to receive treatment.

Potential increases in medicine costs are far from the only way the wealthy lose money to environmental destruction. Both domestic and international industries rely upon the Amazon’s abundant natural resources, meaning that environmental destruction will likely result in either their collapse or profit reduction (Neugarten). Additionally, Brazilian tourism relies heavily on the preservation of the natural environment. The severe droughts resulting from increased temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns diminished several of the resources on which the industry depends. The threat of Zika also reduced tourism, causing an estimated loss of $6.5 to $9 billion. Worsening the economic damage, rising sea levels and flooding damage coastal infrastructure, diminish natural resources, and create a sense of fear among coastal populations (“Climate”).

Even when these events don’t pose a threat to the safety of the wealthy, they carry high economic costs.

Environmental destruction inflicts even more profound suffering, however, on the lower class, which has a more direct reliance on the land for survival. Even events that seem to have a universal impact, such as natural disasters, disproportionately harm the poor. While threats to agriculture can cause an increase in food prices for wealthier consumers, many working-class people either directly depend on agriculture as a source of livelihood or simply cannot afford increased prices. Another example of unequal suffering is housing, a need so fundamental that it is often considered a basic human right.

Although Brazil has undergone rapid population growth in recent years, the infrastructure of its cities have not North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

expanded at such a rapid rate. Between 1940 and 1970, Brazil’s major cities grew at a rate of 4.5% as over 43 million people, primarily migrant farmworkers, relocated to urban areas. Because the existing infrastructure was incapable of supporting this growing population and many of these people were unable to afford the more costly developing areas, they were reduced to living in “urban frontiers” on the outskirts of cities. Located far from employment with little to no infrastructure and high rates of gang violence, these areas place their inhabitants at greater risk of both direct and environmental harm (Logan).

The detrimental impacts of Brazil’s housing crisis, particularly on the homeless, are almost entirely unnecessary occurrences. Expensive gentrified homes in urban centers sit vacant as the working class is unable to afford them and developers are either unaware of or unwilling to meet their needs. As a result, Brazil’s housing market is largely unregulated, as only 200,000 to 300,000 of 1 million homes produced each year are listed on the official real estate market. This lack of regulation only further threatens the populations already at risk for environmental destruction (Logan). If the only housing you can afford is unregulated, how can you ensure it will be strong enough to stand up to the strong winds of a hurricane or survive a flood?

Even without the worry of having a home in which to take shelter, the survival of Brazil’s poor directly relies on the health of the environment. Approximately 40% of farmers in the “developing world”, which includes many areas of the Amazon, rely on forests to absorb and release water for agriculture. In addition to this effect’s being crucial to over $36 billion of exports a year, it ensures people have enough food to survive. These forests also mitigate the impacts of natural disasters on surrounding areas as roots reduce erosion and prevent floods (“Deforestation”).

The worry of not starving doesn’t simply end with food production; impoverished urban populations also need to be able to cook their food. In some areas, including Latin America, this population often spends a quarter of their income on charcoal and firewood. Erik Eckholm argues that these materials are necessary, explaining how “even if we produce enough food to feed the world’s population, there wouldn’t be enough firewood to cook it” (“Deforestation”).

Although the practice of burning charcoal and wood isn’t environmentally friendly, it is one that people depend on, and it is vital to ensure that forests will be able to continue to produce these resources.

In addition to the detrimental impacts on the nonindigenous poor, indigenous people suffer from a unique set of issues. Urban expansion threatens the indigenous lands account for a majority of protected forests. To make matters worse, Brazil is home to more uncontacted tribes than any other country, with over 100 isolated groups. As a result of their lack of exposure to infection, these populations are vulnerable to common diseases such as the flu and common cold, with up to 50% of their populations dying within

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the first year of contact with outside populations (“The Uncontacted”). Despite their wishes to remain isolated, urbanization and its resulting infrastructure expansion is making it difficult for these tribes to do so. For example, the construction of the Jirau and Santo Antonio dams create pollution that forces isolated groups from their land due to the combined risks of land and water pollution and disease.

Although these construction projects are detrimental to their health, indigenous people lack the socioeconomic and political power to resist, often as a result of their lack of land ownership rights. Land plays a crucial role in the lives of indigenous people, such a large role that Marcos Veron, a member of Guarani tribe, stated, “this here is my life, my soul. If you take the land away from me, you take my life.”

Corporations, however, have done just that. Largely as a result of economic interests, indigenous people in Brazil still lack the collective land ownership rights to which they are entitled by international law, making them more vulnerable to other forms of exploitation as well (“Brazilian Indians”).

Even with land rights, indigenous people’s safety would still be threatened by the presence of illegal loggers, who are willing to do almost anything to gain access to the land, even threatening or killing native populations. Southern tribes are often the most vulnerable to the impacts of expanding development. For example, the Guarani tribe has resorted to living in roadside shacks as gunmen target their leaders and suicide rates soar. Loggers have also targeted members of the Kawahiva group, forcing them to abandon their homes and agricultural practices, instead relying on hunting and fishing for food. Members of this tribe have also stopped having children, likely as a result of these pressures (“Uncontacted”).

Many other tribes have faced similar threats, demonstrating how illegal logging endangers these people and prevents them from gaining access to food, shelter, and clean water.

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he impact of environmental destruction in the Amazon reaches far beyond the expanses of the rainforest. Since the effects of this destruction are felt in unique ways by different groups of people, the solutions each group requires vary drastically as well, ranging in cost, methodology, and permanence. Unsurprisingly, it is often the groups who are affected the most who work the hardest to combat these issues, despite lacking the political and economic power of the upper class, often proposing immediate solutions in contrast to the Global North’s systemic ones.

Despite the differences in mitigation strategies from different socioeconomic groups, most everyone agrees on steps to combat the most immediate problem facing the Amazon: forest fires. Firefighting is a crucial component of minimizing environmental decline and ensuring the safety of people living in or near the Amazon. However, because it addresses the symptoms rather than the root causes of the issue, firefighting alone is not enough to combat this issue (Givetash). Therefore, it is vital to implement techniques that combat the deforestation that causes forest fires.

As a result of their physical separation from the immediate impacts of the Amazon’s destruction, the wealthy are often more removed from these issues, giving them less motivation to combat them. While individuals can minimize their impact on the natural world by limiting their consumption, they are often immobilized by a society which forces them into patterns of environmental destruction. It is almost impossible for the wealthy to combat environmental destruction without completely altering their lifestyles, and few people are willing to make these changes. As the impacts of climate change worsen and the wealthy began to more greatly feel its impacts, perhaps more will be moved to action (“Extreme”). Even when individuals with socioeconomic power are willing to speak out for these issues, however, they are often quickly silenced, whether by the corporations they are combating or the governments that support them.

For example, despite increasing environmental efforts in Brazil, President Jair Bolsono reduced protective legislation and took away much of the already minimal power of environmental agencies, speaking out against conservation groups. These actions have placed environmentalists at great personal risk for their work, often preventing people from effectively enacting change. In recent years, there have been numerous incidents of environmentalists and people who report illegal logging being targeted and killed for their actions, whether by illegal loggers, landowners, or hired active police officers (“Rainforest”).

As a result, several environmental organizations have formed with the hope of gaining power in numbers. One of the most prominent of these groups is the Amazon Watch, which both advocates for legislature and encourages individual lifestyle changes. Andrew Miller, their Advocacy Director, explains how current legislature allows deforestation to flourish, stating that the government is “doing everything it can to not obey the existing laws in the short term and to weaken them in the long term.” In addition to advocating for better legislation, the Amazon Watch believes people should take individual action to minimize their economic influence over the Amazon. Miller states, “people need to stop eating meat. We need to stop being the market for these products, and stop creating the economic impetus that’s behind these things” (Hirsch).

While the efforts of the upper class are crucial to environmental preservation, it is often lower-class indigenous groups who most prominently combat deforestation. As a result of their strong reliance on the land to support their minimally destructive lifestyles, these groups often both know how to preserve the land and care enough to do so. These protective practices are deeply historically ingrained in indigenous societies.

Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, a member of an Amazonian indigenous group, states, “You have schools, we don’t, but we know how to look after the forest.” This demonstrates just how extensive indigenous knowledge of the area is and how crucial it is to its conservation. As a result, not only Fifth World

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are indigenous lands considered “the most important barrier to Amazon deforestation,” but indigenous knowledge of these lands is crucial to their protection (“Brazilian Indians”). Despite their lack of socioeconomic and political power, indigenous groups play a major role in preventing deforestation and environmental destruction by relying on cultural knowledge and following their traditional ways of life.

However, following sustainable lifestyles is hardly enough to combat a problem so widespread and deeply societally ingrained, and many indigenous people recognize this need for further action. In addition to advocating for control over their own lands, which would allow for more areas to be managed using sustainable strategies, many members of indigenous groups also work to directly combat deforestation by organizing patrols to stop illegal loggers through patrols, even at great personal costs. Indigenous people are often threatened or killed for advocating for control over the land that is rightfully theirs. In recent years, there have been numerous incidents of gunmen attempting to murder or murdering indigenous logging patrols who attempt to combat illegal logging on their lands (“Rainforest”).

While participating in logging patrols often places people at great personal risk, they are largely effective. One particularly notable group is the Guajajara people, who take pride in being “forest guardians.” Olimpio Guajajara, the leader of the guardians, explains that, since “those who should be enforcing the laws and protecting indigenous lands are not doing it”, he believes that he “has a mission to protect the land.” As a result, this group takes a direct approach to combating illegal logging, burning trucks and searching for and detaining loggers throughout the night.

Oftentimes, they arm themselves for protection against the loggers, who do not hesitate to target and kill them for their efforts. Despite these dangers, the work of the guardians pays off: illegal logging expeditions in these areas have decreased by about half during a period of overall increase in deforestation throughout the Amazon (“Photos”).

A Guajajara forest guardian watches an illegal logging truck as it burns, preventing it from being used again (“Photos”).

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Although these initiatives are successful, local law enforcement discourages people from these strategies, deeming them “vigilante” (“Photos”). Instead they suggest that people work to further legislation surrounding these issues. Sometimes such policies are effective: as a result of shifting policies and advancements in technology used to track forests, deforestation has begun to decrease to 500,000 hectares per year (Hummel). Additionally, Brazil has been internationally recognized for their management of protected areas and forest monitoring techniques.

Even with these efforts in place, many of Brazil’s policies to stop deforestation fall short, either from a lack of governmental organization or as a result of the economic interests of environmental destruction. Brazil’s foreign minister, Ernesto Araujo, actively denies that deforestation in the Amazon is a problem, stating “there is no climate change catastrophe” despite how “from the debate that is going on it would seem that the world is ending” (Boadle).

When people in political power adamantly deny that the issues their constituents are suffering and dying from are real, it makes it difficult for anyone, even the wealthy, to enact meaningful change. To make matters worse, the laws that are already in place are often poorly implemented.

While this lack of enforcement is partially a result of the corruption and ineffectiveness of law enforcement, it largely results from the lack of organization of Brazil’s environmental policy. Therefore, although there is a system in place to authorize the removal of native vegetation on municipal, state, and federal levels, these policies often fall short of their goals (Hummel).

In addition to the local legislation preventing deforestation, countries in the Global North with high economic stake in this area, particularly the United States, have begun to develop policies aiming to mitigate the environmental impacts associated with this practice. Likely as a result of the United States’s monetary investment in the Amazon, most of these policies are economic in nature, including refusing loans to companies that contribute to deforestation (“Cattle”), reducing consumption of goods that are produced with deforestation, donating, and voting (Sitzer). However, the United States Agency for International Aid (USAID) also plays a role in combating deforestation, working with both public and private Brazilian organizations to increase the--often indigenous-land within Brazil’s Protected Areas system (U.S.).

As a result of their diverse experiences and roles in society, different socioeconomic groups generally present different solutions for the issue of environmental destructruction.

Oftentimes, implementing as much environmentally protective policy as possible seems like the best solution, combining both immediate and systemic changes in order to preserve natural systems. However, these groups’ proposed solutions occasionally conflict with each other, raising the question of how to create cohesive and effective environmentally policy on which all groups can agree.

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he impacts of climate change and environmental destruction in the Amazon clearly have profound effects, whether on the wealthy in the Global North, who rely on the rainforest for its capacity to capture carbon, or the local indigenous tribes, who need its land to sustain their lives. In spite of the inherent inequality of environmental destruction, legislation surrounding these issues fails to protect the vulnerable poor populations who need it most.

Corporate influence on both local and foriegn governments combine with ineffective organization to prevent further legislation and to make existing laws inherently useless.

Thankfully, many diverse groups impacted by this destruction--both the rich and poor local populations, indigenous tribes, and citizens of the Global North--are looking for solutions to combat it.

On a local level, activists are working to make more cohesive governments that can effectively implement and enforce climate policy. Currently much of the Brazilian government’s legislation surrounding the environment is rendered ineffective by a lack of communication between local and federal governments; working to integrate these groups would allow this legislation to function smoothly.

Unified policy would allow small-scale landowners to become more aware of the laws surrounding their land, which in turn would result in them being able to foster sustainable practices while protecting their livelihoods (Hummel). Additionally, many climate activists around the world call for various environmental policies, including the use of carbon stocks and sustainable forestry practice, outraged by the discrepancy in the effectiveness of Brazil’s policy and claim to care about the environment.

Brazil’s environmental legislation is so ineffective that it worries people in the Global North, who are concerned that current agricultural practices will not be enough to sustainably feed the growing population.

Despite technological advancements, the world uses more farmland for this increased demand in food, often resulting in agricultural lands expanding into previously forested areas. As a result, many members of the academic sphere in the Global North have called for more effective patterns of development. For example, a group of scholars at Yale University are working to develop a “global road map” suggesting patterns of road construction that minimize deforestation (Laurance). Although these professors are working to combat a crucial and pressing issue, works like this map raise the question of who should have an influence over development in the Amazon.

The environmental health of the Amazon impacts people globally, whether they buy goods produced from its resources or not. Without the Amazon rainforest to capture carbon, global air quality would decline. However, it is often foriegn demand that causes destruction, encouraging local people to deforest in order to have enough money to live. It seems as though many people in the Global North only care about the Amazon as far as it impacts them whether they are for the

protection or development of the Amazon. People want the goods produced by Amazonian natural resources and labor and global corporations want the profits they create. They are, however, often unwilling to suffer the consequences of these actions despite the common knowledge of just how detrimental these practices are to local populations.

If current patterns of deforestation and destruction in the Amazon continue, many people will die. Floods and natural disasters will destroy homes, droughts will threaten food sources, and forest fires will burn towns to a crisp.

People will also suffer, however, if the development that so heavily contributes to these disasters stops and they lose their sources of income. At some point in the search for climate justice, people will have to endure negative consequences, raising the question of how to balance this suffering. Where do you draw the line between saving lives in the moment and creating a future where people don’t have to die? Should the Global North have an authority over conservation efforts despite not feeling their impacts as strongly? How do you convince the wealthy to make sacrifices to ensure others’ safety? As we work to build a future where everyone can live, it is vital to seek answers to these questions that avoid further marginalizing the people who already disproportionately suffer from the impacts of environmental destruction, making these decisions much more nuanced than they may origin.

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Akbulut, Bengi, Demaria, Federico, Gerber, Julien-François, Martínez-Alier, Joan. “Who promotes sustainability? Five these on the relationships between degrowth and the environmental justice movements.” Ecological Economics 165 (2019). Web. Boadle, Anthony. “Brazil foreign minister says ‘there is no climate change catastrophe’.” Reuters.

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Boyd, William. “Opinion: California can help save the Amazon rainforest. Do we have the guts to try?” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 12 September 2019. Web. 21 October 2019.

“Brazilian Criteria 2015 and social class distribution update for 2016.” Associação Brasileira de Empresas de Pesquisa (2016): 1-6. Web. “Brazilian Indians.” Survival. Survival, 2019. Web. 21 October 2019.

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Warlenius, Rikard, Pierce, Gregory, Ramasar, Vasna, Quistorp, Martínez-Alier, Joan, Rijnhout, Leida, Yanez, Ivonne. “Ecological debt: history, meaning and relevance for environmental justice.” Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT) Report 18 (2015): 5-42. Web.

“Extreme Carbon Inequality.” Oxfam Media Briefing (2015): 1-14. Web. Givetash, Linda. “The Amazon is still on fire. Conservation groups blame illegal logging and criminal networks.” NBC News. NBC Universal, 22 September 2019. Web. 21 October 2019.

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Good and Evil: An Analysis of the Seven Deadly Sins and Human Nature Anna de la Torre

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hink about every story you’ve ever heard, seen, or read.

Think about the characters who have helped you grow, who have taught you lessons, sometimes subtly, sometimes not so subtly. Almost all stories have morals, and all have both a protagonist, and an antagonist. We need drama - if a story is to be any good, of course there has to be a bad guy. If you break down each story you have heard, seen, or read, you will find that the concept of good and evil is almost always underlying the plot. In this paper I will address and define a) what it means to be evil, b) why it is inescapable, and c) why it is nothing to be ashamed of.

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y definition of evil accounts for parts of a person rather than their whole. Selfishness, apathy, and aversion to helping others are traits that make someone bad, while the traits of greed, lust, gluttony, sloth, pride, envy and wrath are, from a Christian standpoint, what make people evil. These traits are also what make people people. I believe that humans recognized their evilness early on, and created systems to control these instincts in order to work together in communities, these systems being laws and religious doctrines. One could argue that in recognizing our abhorrent instincts and systematically regulating ourselves, we are actually naturally good, but this is not true. We created systems so as to work together, thus to advance our individual selves. In civilization are there not still slaves and class systems? Is there not still wealth disparity and homelessness, and aversion to act on such problems? My original thesis stated that while humans live in a society where the overall consensus goal is to climb economically and socially, we cannot be good. But I believe we have the capacity to facilitate good using the instincts we have inherited. Humanity cannot fix our ingrained need to survive, but we can learn and adapt to living in societies that build each other up.

First and foremost, Evil is a social construct, and humans have defined it in a plethora of terms, which for this paper I am calling systems. Systems can be socially enforced, such as the system of laws that we have created to govern our civilizations, or they can be silently and mentally ingrained in us - some things as simple as the stories we tell our children create morals that will guide them and enforce good habits, stories that can be even more authoritative

than the law. Systems can also be theological, such as the seven deadly sins. No matter what you call them - the capital vices, the cardinal sins, the seven deadly sins - or if you even realize you are following them, (I’ll admit I held myself to strong Christian morals when I was younger despite the fact that I wasn’t Christian), the antagonism of these traits have impacted the development of stories as well as the systems of laws that have the ability to physically enforce them.

This is literally a list of behavioral traits that human beings have defined as wrong and to which they held themselves accountable; This theological list is, in my opinion, the most obvious system used to avert Evil, and that is why it is the main system that I will be focusing on.

For the sake of using the term “Evil,” I should start by describing what I believe it to be. Brian Leiter argues that Nietzche believes there are certain traits that one must own when attempting to “move beyond good and evil.” Firstly, you have to believe that untruth is a condition of life. Second, you cannot consider yourself a “free spirit” - it is Nietzsche’s belief that this means you are someone who advocates for equality and the abolition of all suffering. Third, you must not be under the “delusion of morality.” This is supposed to tie into the second rule, chastising those who believe they should help others and that all humans want to be morally good. Lastly, Leiter says that to move beyond good and evil, one must act as a “ruling group” does towards those of “lower rank” - do you treat others “below” you any differently or with pity? You cannot. Leiter then goes on to describe that there are two ways you can look at good and evil. One perspective is that of a “master,” who views someone as good because of high social standing, someone as bad because of their low social standing. Genetics are also most likely considered, and from this point of view, to view someone as good or evil you would have to take them in as a whole. Assess all of them at once.

The other point of view is that of a slave, which Leiter describes as more of a perspective of good and evil rather than good and bad, like the master. The slave perspective assesses a person based on their individual acts, rather than judging them as a whole for their nobility and genealogy.

The master’s morality attaches value to “noble traits of character” while slave morality attaches substantial value to actions favorable to the suffering.

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To find what Nietzsche means when he says “to move beyond good and evil,” Leiter compares then the master morality and slave morality. This means comparing the genetic, evaluative, and metaphysical properties that are taken into account by both moralities when assessing what is good and evil (or good and bad). Therefore, to move beyond good and evil, you must choose to look past the commonplace morals that have become the norm when assessing good and evil (Leiter). I am using this journal article to better express what I believe is evil. I take the stance of the slave morality, that people should be judged by their deeds and their passion for helping others. I am also using this article because I believe to move beyond good and evil does not mean to adopt a more ethical or all-knowing mindset. We should embrace the fact that humans are evil and turn it to our advantage.

The seven deadly sins are, in no particular order: pride, greed, envy, gluttony, lust, sloth, and wrath. I am analyzing these traits, using evolutionary fact as well as an NPR podcast around which the sins are focused. In an NPR recording, from a segment called TED Radio Hour, Guy Raz reports what each of the vices are and how they are impossible to evade. I believe that humans recognized early on that they all have evil and selfish properties. The formulation of the seven deadly sins, or the cardinal sins, is proof that we began to create systems to avoid conflict within civilization. On NPR’s TED Radio Hour, Christopher Ryan argues that by avoiding the temptations of lust, we are essentially defying the instincts of our ancestors. In his own TED talk, What Did Cavemen Think About Lust?, he makes the point that monogamy is a completely man-made ideal, and to find other people sexually attractive does not mean that you are a sinful person - it is written in your DNA. Our ancestors needed to reproduce to survive, and most likely had more than one sexual partner. Guy Raz also interviews six other people, learning about all seven deadly sins and why, from them, humans can’t restrain themselves.

Mick Cornett addresses gluttony. He is the mayor of Oklahoma city, and in 2007, he was shocked to find that his city was on a list of the most obese cities in America from Men’s Health Magazine. He couldn’t believe it, until he started to look around and noticed that his fellow citizens were, indeed, obese. He decided to combat what he saw as the collective actions of the sin gluttony, by completely transforming the city. He started the conversation, and started a movement to help Oklahoma city lose 1 million pounds. He and his team created a website for people to log their weight loss, and they spent more money towards building a city for people, not cars; constructing sidewalks so that people have the option of walking anywhere they go.

After he started his movement, more citizens started to care, and community organizations formed to decrease the overall weight of the city. His point, though, was that because the city had been in an economic lull, and fast food was so easily accessible and because no one cared to talk about the obesity North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

crisis, the citizens of Oklahoma city were gluttonous. This case is different from the others in that the sin in question was collective. It required engagement from multiple people to combat what is normally an individual trait.

Gluttony is a sin that one has to dig deeper into, if you are to explain it using evolutionary reason. It results from an abundance of food, or scarcity of nutritious food, and indulgence in said food, as well as capitulation to the sin of sloth. These two sins do not coincide with natural selection, though their existence may be due to the fact that society and civilization have erased the need to search and hunt for food. Our ancestors’ main priority when civilization did not exist was to survive. If they obtained food during a food drought, they would not abstain from eating. But due to the complex organization of businesses, schools, foundations, and medical treatment centers, we really only need to focus on our individual jobs now. The majority of people in the U.S. do not need to worry about how they are going to obtain their next meal or where they are going to sleep at night, although due to wealth disparities, sadly, a significant percentage of the population still does. As a result of the same capitalistic system that causes that wealth disparity, many Americans have an abundance of resources and food.

They indulge because of outside stresses and our society allows them the comfort to do so. Human beings are the only species of animal known to succumb to gluttony, and this is because we don’t live in the “wild.” Humans, for the most part, do not hunt each other like predators and prey, searching for their next meal every other day. They bring the food to themselves. They domestically hunt with farm animals and convenient store produce.

Dave Meslin’s TED talk on political apathy reveals that sloth is very prevalent in today’s society. Voting and reading about politics in the U.S. has become a spectator sport, rather than a system in which all American citizens’ points of view are devalued, valued, and heard. Meslin says “As long as we believe that people - our own neighbors, are selfish, stupid or lazy, then there’s no hope” (Raz). While this quote is actually evidence of mental sloth, Meslin says that the greed of the same idea is sometimes a cure for sloth, because people vote out of greed, and in their best self-interest.

When addressing wrath, Raz interviews Gary Slutkin, a man who, in the 1990s, made a living off of researching what made certain parts of the U.S. more violent than others. His TED talk is called Why Should We Treat Violence Like A Contagious Disease?. He argues that violence acts as a disease that spreads from city to city, and whether or not you participate in it depends on your location. There is a reason that some quarters are more susceptible to violence than others. Therefore, someone who is violent is not sinful, they have been dealt bad cards and are a product of their environment. This argument is weak because it does not take into account why people are violent, it merely states proximity to the thing as an explanation. There are many reasons why someone would engage in violent acts.

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Mental illness, stress, community, and many other factors contribute to the act of this specific sin. I take this as an argument for my thesis, because it proves that all humans are capable of committing wrath - of committing sin and those who do not commit wrath are more than likely fortunate to live in a non-violent neighborhood, without stressors like economic instability or any others that could contribute to mental illness.

Next is envy. According to Parul Sehgal, envy is the catalyst that drives society, or at least literature. She goes as far to say that we might not even have literature if it weren’t for envy or for jealousy. People just crave it. Think about what makes the Great Gatsby, or Hamlet, or modern telenovelas so endearing. When talking about jealousy, Sehgal says “I think it’s a really, really deep, deep, deep part of what it means to be a human being. Darwin says it was a survival mechanism, jealousy and envy, that we have this need for access to the loved one, ... But I think linked to that - and more interesting to me, I think - is we are storytelling creatures.” Humans can’t resist but become jealous of each other, because jealousy is an expedient used to compare competitors, and to gauge who is good, and who is evil. For most of the seven deadly sins, the characteristics ultimately come down to competition, the survival of the fittest. Early animals had to compete with each other to survive, then they adapted enough to build communities, and civilizations. But the existence of civilization by no means implies that humans are still not in competition with each other. Communities and cities become catalysts for the higher social class, or the higher paycheck. Humans work together in society to help each other’s lives become easier, but all the work that we do is, when it comes down to it, greed and survival.

For the segment of pride, Raz brought in Ken Jennings, who was a 74-game Jeopardy! champion. He stayed on the game show for more than six months, and a little while after he left, he was invited back to the show to play a supercomputer named Watson. Watson was developed by IBM and took millions of dollars and some of the smartest computer programmers to create; in the end, he beat Ken by a landslide. It was the first time Jennings’ pride had been detrimentally hit, and he had been given a taste of his own medicine. But Jennings and Raz come to a consensus in their interview that does not correlate with some of the other evaluations - there are some things that you should legitimately feel proud of (Raz). Pride, like greed and envy, is a motivational trait. It was pride that got the U.S. to the moon, and it is pride, envy, and greed that motivate people to work harder every day.

When it comes time to talk about greed, Raz turns to expert Nick Hanauer, who landed in the top .01% of the American population after co-founding a tech company and then selling it to Microsoft for $6.4 billion. In his interview he states “Greed is a sin because humans are social creatures, and they simply cannot survive without the opposite of

greed, which is cooperation” (Raz). This statement makes sense and ties together that which I myself have been struggling with when forming my argument. If humans are naturally evil as I am arguing, does creating systems that keep themselves in check mean that they are really naturally good? No, not naturally good, but can adapt to be good.

Greed is the central aspect of competition and therefore necessary for the survival of the human race. Greed is the antithesis of cooperation, but also the force which enables cooperation.

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illiam Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, tells the story of a group of British boys who were traveling on a school trip when their plane crashes on an uncharted island. Only children survive. The boys have no adult supervision, are completely isolated from British society, and quickly realize that they need to find food and shelter.

They originally create a diplomatic community led by a boy named Ralph, who is their leader and is considerate of everyone. But when ideas for strategies to survive differ among the boys, a new autocratic leader, Jack, takes over.

The boys split between those who will follow Jack and those who must subsequently act as prey to survive. Golding has written an extraordinary and deeply disturbing account of human nature with his small group of school boys in Lord of the Flies. The book asserts that beneath the civilized facades that all humans seemingly wear lives a violent nature. The reader follows Ralph, who is the protagonist because he does not succumb to barbarous behavior and savagery, and his fellow classmate, Piggy, who is plump but wise, and loyal, and hated by Jack.

Throughout the novel the boys are searching for something they call the Beast. At first it was something that the “littluns” were afraid of at night, because all little kids are afraid of the dark, and they were especially scared to be on an unknown island away from their parents. They created the Beast to direct their fear towards a figure, because that was easier than not knowing what they were afraid of. But as the story progresses, the reader discovers that there is indeed a “Beast” that two boys saw with their own eyes, and the group makes it their goal to hunt it. The physical beast that the kids claimed they saw ended up being a parachutist from the war in the outside world, dead from a battle that occurred over the boys’ island while they were sleeping. This is Golding making a statement that the true beast was always man. Golding’s argument over man’s true nature is even more exemplified by the parachutist’s presence because, as the boys on the island continually ask themselves “what would grownups do?,” a war led by men continues outside, and the true answer seems to be that adults would do exactly the same as the children - they would fight and kill.

The symbolism of the Beast is clarified when Simon, one of the only kids who stays with Ralph’s group, has a vision in which he visits the Lord of the Flies. This becomes one of the defining moments of the book. The Lord of the Flies Fifth World

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is the name that Jack gave to a severed pig head on a stick, after the boys caught and killed the creature, leaving it in an open area as a sacrifice to the Beast. In his dream, the Lord of the Flies talks to Simon, and says that he (the pig head) is the Beast. As Simon is stunned and can’t speak, the pig head continues, saying “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!...You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?” (Golding, 200). The hallucination explains, more in depth, what Simon meant when he brought up an idea in a previous chapter. The group was having a meeting about the Beast, and debating whether or not it was real. Simon states “Maybe...maybe there is a Beast...I don’t know, but...

What I mean is...maybe it’s only us” (Golding, 119-20). This is Golding’s argument for the true nature of man.

As the book continues, the boys become more and more violent, more and more like animals, and they regress into “savagery.” Their mob mentality causes them to revert to violence to survive, rather than cooperation, and in the end they murder two of the other boys. Ralph ultimately becomes the last kid to remain “civilized,” because he is still holding on to a chance of rescue. The reader will also notice that the terminology changes as well. Names do not matter anymore, and all boys are referred to as savages. In the final scene, the boys are hunting Ralph, and as he is being chased through the woods, he bursts out onto the beach, running for his life but knowing that he will soon be caught. As Ralph falls and cradles his head, curled in the sand, he is surprised to find that he is not being torn apart and killed.

A British Naval officer has come to rescue them after seeing Ralph’s fire, and the presence of an adult suppresses the boys’ violence. The realization of what has occurred on the island brings them to tears, and then painful sobs (Golding): “...sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them for the first time on the island;...with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, and the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy” (Golding, 286).

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aniel Dennett, an American philosopher of biology and science, explains natural selection and biological evolution using concepts that he calls biological “cranes” which eliminate the theodicies of godlike or cartesian forces that he calls “skyhooks.” Skyhooks allow people to negate evolutionary fact by stating that the existence of man may not have come about due to natural selection but rather through creation or other-worldly explanations. In using cranes, Dennett achieves his goal of explaining natural selection using previously known and established biological truths.

He also explains how the process of natural selection has not only influenced how we have adapted to our environment, but how all humans view each other and the system that we have created to thrive in. Natural selection, he claims, “‘unifies the realm of life, meaning, and purpose within the realm of space and time, cause and effect, mechanism and physical law’’ (Thompson, 28). Because of the way in which North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

it operates, he compares natural selection to a “Universal Acid.” I believe that Dennett is most certainly correct when he makes this statement. The natural process of evolution has allowed our brains ideas to form in an obscure and, funnily enough, mind-boggling shape. Our brains allow us to create explanations that are unknown to us, such as skyhooks. The evolutionary trait of adaptation engendered the creation of systems that explain the world when humans themselves cannot explain it. Religion and civilization were created by us! “Skyhooks” such as the ones that may try to disprove my exact argument are still things to be celebrated, because they are a product of our evolution. The system of religion, whether or not you choose to participate in a denomination or faith, should be revered, respected, and studied. It has evolved alongside humans just as much as our physical selves have actually changed, and within theological stories we can find human histories.

There is no reason to feel ashamed of our instincts.

Human nature always comes down to putting the self before the masses, the individual before the greater good. Before humans had each other, we had only ourselves. While this selfish view may create a rift between people, human beings have miraculously created systems that turn our greed into a societal advantage. While the system is not perfect, civilization creates a model that allows civilians to work for the benefit of themselves, while simultaneously improving their businesses or community around them. In this way, an individual is working for themselves while also working for the system. Technological advancements and medical breakthroughs would never occur without collaboration.

As stated above, the U.S. never would have made it to the moon without competition - without the sins of pride and greed and envy. This system works up to a certain point, when greed and envy no longer act in pride, but in wrath.

They can enable advancements, but also war. To reference a song by Sabrina Carpenter, Thumbs talks about the power of greed, in a rather negative connotation. Carpenter sings: Somewhere in the world they think they’re working for themselves They get up everyday to go to work for someone else And somebody works for them and so they think they’ve got it made But they’re all just working to get paid the very same (Carpenter) While this song may not be an optimistic outlook on the system that the U.S. has created, it is a correct evaluation.

Such is the beauty of the human mind that the instincts for survival are so ingrained, it has the ability to create a system in which every organism can use their own selfishness to contribute to the greater good.

In contrast, if you do not wish to merely celebrate the advantages that “sin” and Evil provide for society, consider the fact that we do, indeed, have the capacity to become better people. Aristotle has created a model that represents how human nature can be trained to become “good.” It starts

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with small acts of good deeds - the ones that immediately make us feel good about ourselves afterwards - and good deeds eventually become habitual. Our habits become a characteristic of ourselves, and then, according to Aristotle’s ethics, they can become our disposition. Our disposition is the way we act, think, make sense of why we are where we are, and how we can make a difference. It is important to note that humans do not have naturally good dispositions, and it requires continuous good actions as well as empathetic thoughts to maintain and control our evilness. This reformative model is ingenious, in my opinion, and at the very least, people should adopt it for its selfish advantages, if they are not at first swayed by the virtues of being good (Kraut).

Humans may not be naturally good, but they have the capacity to be so. While our evolutionary goal is to survive, we realize that in an even more connected world, we need to connect with others to do so. When I was younger, I asked my dad if he thought that we would ever experience total world peace, and he responded with “no, because greed is the force that drives war, and there is always going to be greed in the world.” While this is an extremely dismal thought, it is true. Greed will always exist, however, as shown by Meslin and Sehgal, it can be a force for good. If world leaders divert their actions from those of violence and war to achieve “dominance” for their country, and instead realize that much more can be achieved and more people can prosper from cooperation, greed could be used to achieve world peace.

Thomas Aquinas, the Italian philosopher of the 13th century, established rules for human nature. He claims that reason is divided into two regions, or “powers”: the cognitive and appetitive. These are intellect and will, respectively.

Every human action must have reason behind it, moving towards an end. This means that small things like fidgeting or meaningless things like snacking on food are not proper human actions. He also claims that human goodness should be assessed by multiple performed acts with the end goal of happiness and goodness in mind. This does not mean that all people who perform human actions are good, but that all people who perform human actions must do so with the belief that what they are working towards is good. If humans are performing actions with good-intentioned reason behind them, they are performing them in their own favor (McInerny). Therefore, even in a world with reasoned decision-making, there is going to be evil and misfortune for others, because competition is the root of this decision making.

systems that do just that. The best that humans can do now is to continue to evolve and improve those systems.

Most civilizations and histories have acknowledged the creation of evil. Humans created the concept to explain the misfortunes that, in an “orderly” and “civilized” community, are still prevalent and widespread. In Greek mythology we see the fields of Asphodel and Elysium; in Norse mythology we are given Valhalla and Helheim; in Christianity there is Heaven and Hell; in modern society there is success and prison. Humans are always going to create systems of Good and Evil. The next step is to create a world-wide system that allows all cultures to coexist whilst still succeeding.

Our ultimate challenge is to compete while still making sure everyone wins.

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Ben Gibson (Illustrator), E. M. Forster (Introduction), E. L. Epstein (Biographical note), 50th anniversary edition, Perigee, November 2003, NCSSM library.

Thompson, David, et al. Dennett’s Philosophy : A Comprehensive Assessment. MIT Press, 2000.

Leiter, Brian. “Beyond Good and Evil.” History of Philosophy Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 3, 1993, pp.

261–270. JSTOR. Carpenter, Sabrina. Thumbs. HollyWood Records, 7 October 2016.

McInerny, Ralph. “Saint Thomas Aquinas,” John O’Callaghan, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)

Kraut, Richard. “Aristotle’s Ethics.” Aristotle’s Ethics, Lander University, 17 Apr. 2006.

Raz, Guy. “7 Deadly Sins.” TED Radio Hour, NPR, 6 Feb. 2015.

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s demonstrated by William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and his philosophy on the nature of man, it is human nature to be evil. But because of Aristotle’s model and the systems that we have created, it is nothing of which to be ashamed. If you try to control it, you will most likely always lose, and besides that fact, we have already created Fifth World

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A Post-colonial Study of Queer India Anushka Deshmukh

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first realized that I was attracted to other girls when I was in middle school. At that time, the self-denial of my identity was almost immediate. I felt like being queer was a western ideal, and that liking girls went fully against my Indian identity. I knew that being queer was a normal thing, after watching TV shows like Modern Family and Glee which featured gay and lesbian characters; however, these shows and all other representations of queer people I saw in the media were all white and American. The younger version of me thought that identifying as LGBTQ+ was something only white “Americans” could do and that queer Indians simply did not exist.

As I started high school, I felt tired of rejecting my identity and sought out other people like me, to gain confidence in my own desires. This distant support came from my discovery of artists such as Hayley Kiyoko, who is Asian-American and uses female pronouns in her songs. Seeing another AsianAmerican share her queer identity with the world allowed me to accept my own identity as a queer Asian. The first representation I saw of a queer brown person, who looked like me in the media was the character Rasha, from Degrassi: The Next Class on Netflix. She was Syrian and Muslim, but the openness of her sexuality allowed me to finally identify with a character on screen.

After accepting myself, I questioned what exactly caused my internalized homophobia, especially growing up in an increasingly progressive society in America. The first thing I turned to was my religion, I thought there may have been a scripture somewhere that mentioned homosexuality.

After reading several translated Hindu texts however, I found nothing that explained why I thought my identity as an Indian person conflicted with my identity as a bisexual woman. This initial lack of answers only increased my desire to find a reason.

I realized that many answers to present confusions lie in the past. Upon starting to look in the past, I knew that British colonialism had left a lasting impact on almost every single aspect of India, a country that had its own values and history before the forced change by a western power. I wanted to see if other queer Indians existed and how long have they existed historically as well as if they faced persecution before the arrival of the British. Through examining legal, social and media discourses this research not only explores the history of homophobia in India but also analyzes its presence in Indian society today. After many

North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

months of exploring these questions, most of the answers I found were surprising, hidden from common knowledge but needed to be heard.

Homosexuality has been present in Indian society as dating far back as the Vedic Age. According to Hindu texts such as the Mahabharata, Kama Sutra and Arthrashastra, there was a third nature called the tritiya prakriti, which was an umbrella term for ancient LGBTQ+ Indians. In Vedic society, these people were not persecuted or denied basic rights, in fact, they could live together, get married and engage normally within society. Learning about this hidden part of Indian history is surprising, especially considering the widespread homophobia present in Indian society today.

The change was not immediate but after the Vedic age, India began its slow, multilayered degression into homophobia.

During the post-Vedic era around 500 BCE, the teachings of Vedas were rejected due to the rising influence of Buddhism and the formation of the caste system. It was not until the Gupta period that the Vedas were reclaimed and Vedic culture blossomed, which is shown by the creation of temples that have statues and paintings that depict homosexuality.

However, after the Mughal Empire was established in 1526, homosexuals were punished by death under the extreme Islamic law (Wilhelm).

The main cause for the descent into homophobia was the British colonialism of India. Once the British colonized India, a lasting effect was their translation of the Vedic texts into English. Most mentions of tritiya prakriti people in the original Sanskrit versions were translated to “eunuch.” This translation was historically inaccurate as castration was not mentioned in any ancient Indian texts and was most likely uncommon in India until around 1000 CE because of the Islamic invasions. Other notable mistranslations include Savairini, the Vedic term for lesbian which means “independent women,” but was translated by the British to mean “corrupt women.” Also maithunam pumsi, which means “sexual union between males,” has been translated as “the unnatural offense with a male.” These English translations erase the history of a society that embraced sexuality.

Additionally, the British renounced the Kama Sutra, as its descriptions of sexuality and eroticism transgressed the repressive Victorian views of sexuality: the Kama Sutra has several examples of homosexuality in Vedic society and its rejection is another form of erasure in the colonial context (Wilhelm). These actions have caused people in India

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to assume that LGBTQ+ people are a product of western influence and progressive metropolitan views; in reality, LGBTQ+ people have always existed in India and the homophobia that erases their existence issues from western thinking.

The main lasting impact of British rule in India was the Anti-Sodomy Law of 1860, which was instituted by Lord McCaulay, as an effort to impose “proper” Victorian values on the “barbaric” Indian society. This law states: Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall be liable to fine.

The law criminalized homosexual sex and essentially homosexuality in India, taking away the rights of its LGBTQ+ subjects. This law, now referred to as Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), was kept in Indian law codes until September 26, 2019. These actions have caused people in India to assume that LGBTQ+ people are a product of western influence and progressive city views, when in reality LGBTQ+ people have always existed in India and the homophobia shown by the majority of society is from western thinking.

When discussing the impact of the British imposition of Victorian values upon India, it is important to know the background of these values. In the late eighteenth century, laws concerning sexual practices were focused on protecting marriage; other sexual practices like sodomy were equivalent to adultery and treated the same as an act against the law.

However, after the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the law was less interested in heterosexual monogamy became the norm and began to focus on everything different from it was considered to be “unnatural” (Foucalt 893-894).

This discourse on sexuality during that time caused a focus on other forms of sexuality, attempting to classify these practices as forms of “deviant” identities. It was during this time that the term “homosexual” was created to describe that which was not normal and did not fit into the small box of sexuality that Victorians had called the “norm.” These values are the ones that were forced onto India that led to it becoming the homophobic society that it is today.

Section 377 was first applied in the 1884 case of Queen Empress v. Khairati, where a “eunuch” was arrested for habitually wearing women’s clothes in violation of the law. A medical examination of the defendant showed that she had syphilis and exhibited signs of frequent sodomy.

Although, Khairati was eventually acquitted due to a lack of evidence, she was treated as less than human, because her gender expression did not match her biological sex.

Her humanity was disregarded as she was forced to endure “medical” examinations that violated her bodily integrity and humiliated her (Narrain 44-45). Khairati’s gender expression was the only thing that allowed her to be someone

who violated the law of Section 377, which means that the law was used to attack those who were “abnormal” to the Victorian views that had been imposed on Indian society.

Section 377 has not been applied frequently in court cases as it is hard to find proof of “carnal intercourse” between two consenting adults, especially as it is something done in private. There have been 50 reported judgments involving this law, one of them being the prosecution of homosexual sex between consenting adults, the rest of the cases being cases of sexual assault, abuse of minors and rape.

As seen, there is a conflation between consensual and nonconsensual relations in this law. Although there have not been many successful prosecutions, the law still had an effect on the LGBTQ+ people in India. It forced them to hide their sexuality and identity from their loved ones, community, and authorities in fear of blackmail and prosecution from the law. Therefore this law has allowed widespread discrimination supported by the government (Misra 21).

Section 377 may have also had an impact on HIV and AIDS prevention in India. The criminalization of homosexuality, combined with its social stigma, forced gay men to hide their their sexual encounters, making them less likely to show up for HIV testing, prevention services, or treatment (Misra 22). In 2001, two AIDS prevention organizations in Lucknow city were invaded by the local police to arrest the staff because they were “promoting homosexuality” (Agoramoorthy and Hsu 658). Another example of the law’s impact on HIV prevention is in 1994 when health officials visited the Tihar jail in Delhi and noticed a lot of homosexual activity and recommended that the jail distribute condoms to prevent the spread of STDs like HIV/AIDS. However, the prison official refused to do so because providing condoms would indicate approval of homosexual acts, which under 377 was illegal (Agoramoorthy and Hsu 659). These blatant attacks against AIDS prevention hindered the fight against HIV and AIDS. In response to the Delhi prison case, in 1994, a nongovernmental organization, the AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA), filed a public interest litigation in the Delhi High Court against Section 377, on the ground that the law did not recognize the constitutional right of a citizen’s right to privacy (Agoramoorthy and Hsu 659). As the case was not brought up for seven years and the ABVA was underfunded and understaffed and failed to appear in court, so it was dismissed (Misra 23). The next case against Section 377 came in 2001, when the Naz Foundation Trust petitioned the Delhi High Court to not fully repeal Section 377 but to exclude the criminalization of private consensual sex between adults, as this was one of the only laws that allowed the prosecution of sexual abuse of children (Narrain 49). They claimed that the law violated four constitutional rights: the right to equality before the law, the right to be free from sex discrimination, the right to fundamental liberties, and the right to life and privacy.

The case was initially dismissed by the Delhi High Court Fifth World

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on the grounds that the Naz Foundation was not personally affected by the law, so they had no locus standi or the right to bring up the case before the court. In response to this, the Naz Foundation appealed to the Supreme Court of India to review the dismissal of the case, which determined that the grounds for dismissal were invalid and remanded the case back to the Delhi High Court. Over the next few years, other non-governmental organizations representing LGBTQ+ groups joined the petition to strengthen the case. These efforts resulted in the July 2009 decision by the Delhi High Court that section 377 needed to be read down to exclude private, consensual sex between two adults as it violates sections 14,15, and 21 of India constitution. The decision stated that the law would continue to apply in cases of nonvaginal rape of minors (Misra 23).

However, a mere seven days after this groundbreaking decision, Suresh Kumal Koushal brought a Special Leave Petition (SLP), asking for special permission to be heard by the Supreme Court to challenge the decision of the Delhi High Court. Along with fourteen other individuals, spanning multiple religious groups in India, he brought a case opposing the Naz decision; these individuals were representative of the lasting impact of the British, as in traditional Hindu texts there is not anything that encourages homophobia. This led to those who supported the Naz decision to testify about the harassment and discrimination they faced under 377 (Narrian 54). However, even with this evidence, the judge ruled that: A miniscule fraction of the country’s population constitute lesbians, gays, bisexuals or transgenders and in last more than 150 years less than 200 persons have been prosecuted (as per the reported orders) for committing offence under Section 377 IPC and this cannot be made sound basis for declaring that section ultra vires the provisions of Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution.

This case led to the overturning of the Delhi High Court Decision. Therefore, as of December 11, 2013, the criminalization of homosexuality in India had returned: the court had decided that the constitutional validity of the law remained and therefore that it had no reason to be overturned.

In 2016, LGBTQ+ activists in India filed five petitions in the Supreme Court to overturn Section 377 of the IPC. They claimed the law violated their constitutional rights of privacy, sexual autonomy, and equality (Kidangoor).

In the earlier cases, like the Naz decision, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian religious groups were extremely vocal in their opposition to the repeal of 377; however, in this case, Muslim and Hindu organizations did not show up in court to challenge the case. There was legal opposition coming from Christian groups, such as the Apostolic Alliance of Churches and the Utkal Christian Council, who argued from sources in religious books and texts; however, the court ruled that these arguments had no legal standing (Bhuyan). This result of the petition was a unanimous decision from the Supreme North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

Court to overturn the colonial-era law, decriminalizing homosexual sex on September 6, 2018. Upon delivering his decision, Chief Justice Dipak Misra said, “The LGBTQ community has the same fundamental rights as citizens.

The identity of a person is very important and we have to vanquish prejudice, embrace inclusion and ensure equal rights” (Kidangoor). This recent decision will change the lives of LGBTQ people in India and was an enormous step in helping LGBTQ+ people feel accepted in Indian society.

Repealing this law made people more likely to come out and be proud of their identity because there is a difference between being yourself against social taboo, and being yourself when your identity is illegal.

Even though the repeal of section 377 was monumental, there is still much work that needs to be done in India in order to create a more inclusive society for LGBTQ+ Indians. There are still no anti-discrimination laws that protect members of the LGBTQ+ community and as of today, gay marriage has not become legalized or protected by the government. However, the repeal of 377, is likely to encourage more activism, as now people know that positive change is possible in Indian society, as long as people stand up for what they believe in.

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he discriminatory views towards LGBTQ+ people can be seen within Indian movies and the public reaction to these movies. One example of this is Deepa Mehta’s 1996 movie Fire. This movie is about the love that two sistersin-law, Radha and Sita, find for each other while being in loveless marriages. This was the first Hindi movie to showcase a lesbian relationship; however, it is very different from the typical Bollywood movie, as it lacks the musical aspect and has darker themes. Also, the movie features sex and masturbation scenes, which would never be shown in Bollywood movies. This could be due to the fact that this was an Indo-Canadian movie, so that would explain how more “western” themes were shown in the movie. The movie is groundbreaking, considering it was released in a time when homosexuality was criminalized. An impactful scene occurs after the two have sex for the first time, when Radha assures Sita that the two of them did not do anything wrong, asserting that there is no word in the Hindi language that describes her identity as a woman who loves another woman. This is an example of the lasting impact of the colonial oppression of LGBTQ+ Indians.

Another important scene is when Radha’s dress catches on fire during a fight with her husband after she and Sita are caught. This scene has religious undertones to the Trial of Fire that goddess Sita faces when proving her purity to Lord Ram. Sita (the goddess) survives the trial and proves her purity to Ram, and Radha also survives the fire, which could mean that her relationship with Sita was pure.

However, homophobia is still shown in the movie through the scene when Biji, the grandmother, spits on Radha’s face when she seeks comfort in her arms after being caught with

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Sita. This act of spitting signifies that Biji sees Radha as dirt, not worthy of respect, regardless of the several years Radha spent caring for Biji. Radha’s act in loving Sita allowed her to be treated as abnormal, which represents how convoluted Indian society has become toward LGBTQ+ people.

The film caused an extreme reaction from the Indian public. A far-right Hindu political organization called Shiv Sena reacted to the movie by “vandalizing theaters, attacking movie-goers, and demanding that the film be banned” (Misra 22). The leader of this organization, Jai Bhagwan Goyal, said, “The film insulted Radhaji and Sitaji.

It insulted the Ramayana. We asked them not to show the film as it would hurt sentiments of the Hindus, but did they listen? Everybody knows what men and women do in their bedroom after marriage, but will we let them do it openly?” (Nath). The movie did push religious boundaries with the characters being named after Hindu goddesses and openly showing sexual scenes that are not typical in overall conservative Indian cinema. This led to the movie eventually becoming banned from showings in theaters in India.

Another movie that has LGBTQ+ representation is Tarun Masakhani’s Dostana, which came out in 2008. This movie is a Bollywood comedy/drama in which two straight men, Kunal and Sam, pretend to be a gay couple in order to live in an apartment in Miami with a girl and to get a green card faster. Initially, everyone accepts their “relationship” including their roommate Neha and her aunt. However, when Sam’s mom learns of the “relationship” between him and Kunal, she asks why God is punishing her. Soon after, the movie breaks out into a musical number with the song “Maa Da Laadla” or “Mommy’s Boy,” written by Master Saleem, which includes lyrics that have homophobic undertones.

God only knows which bad spirits cast an evil eye on her son As he didn’t find peace in the cool shade of long tresses/ hair (of women) He’ll die rotting in the sun, I’m telling him, he’ll die Someone come and make him see sense May someone come and remove the ghost’s (evil spirit’s) influence from him In this verse, the mother is thinking that an evil spell has taken over her son. This line insinuates that homosexuality is something that possesses someone and causes them to become corrupted and less than human. This song, although used in a comedic manner, is important because it is supposed to depict the views that a typical conservative Indian person would have about homosexuality, especially with their loved ones.

The image above is from a musical scene in the movie where Sam and Kunal jokingly dance with each other. It illustrates the comedic aspects of the film as throughout the film the main “couple” lean into the stereotypes of gay men. When the two have their immigration interview, they compliment the interviewer’s shoes and speak in a different way, to cover up the fact that they are not gay. Essentially, they both relied on signifiers of gayness to pull off the lie that they were living, performing their “love” for each other to live in a house and get a green card.

In the end, the mother accepts Sam’s “sexuality”, never knowing that he is not actually gay. If Kunal and Sam’s relationship had been real, this movie could have helped bring more acceptance of homosexuality in India. One scene that could have been impactful was when Sam’s mother decides to accept their “relationship,” she performs a puja on Kunal and gives the couple her blessing, which is very important in Indian culture. However, the fact that Kunal and Sam were not actually gay or in a real relationship undermines almost all of the strides and impact this movie could have had on the Indian people. It is important to consider that the movie’s success could have been due to the fact that the relationship was false and Indian audiences could not handle viewing a real gay relationship on the screens, especially in 2008 when homosexuality was still criminalized.

Most recently in 2019, Ek Ladkhi Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga was one the first mainstream Bollywood movies to have a lesbian protagonist. In terms of its representation of LGBTQ+ people, this is the Bollywood movie that handles the character most maturely and depicts LGBTQ+ issues most realistically. Sweety, the main character, is played by well-known Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor. The movie starts out as a typical Bollywood movie, with a boy meeting Sweety at a wedding; a dance number ensues. Later, the film switches to the perspective of a struggling playwright, Sahil.

Sweety runs through Sahil’s theater as if she’s running away from someone. The playwright, Sahil, falls in love with her and helps her run from her brother. Sweety’s brother thinks she is seeing the boy she met at the wedding, who is thought to be Muslim, and he forbids her from seeing him, thus revealing discrimination against Muslims by Hindus. Sahil follows Sweety to her hometown, a small village in Punjab Fifth World

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that has conservative views, as he is in love with her and feels like she needs to be in one of his plays. However, the twist is that Sweety is not seeing the “Muslim boy” from London, but is seeing his sister, whom she met at the wedding. This is revealed when Sahil confesses his feelings to Sweety and she starts crying and confesses that she is in love with a girl.

When the story flashes back to Sweety’s school life, it powerfully shows how she was bullied after her diary with a wedding drawing of two women was found:

The above image shown in the movie that Sweety drew as a child shows two women in an Indian marriage. The story focuses on the tradition of marriage, as it is something that is drilled into the minds of Indian girls throughout their lives. Sweety as a child talked about her dreams of falling in love, becoming a bride, and having a beautiful wedding.

However, when she realizes her attraction to other girls, she figures out a way to fit her identity within her dreams, as shown in the drawing above.

After her diary was discovered, however, she swore to keep her sexuality a secret. Sweety struggles with internalized homophobia, which is disclosed by statements like “people like me are dirty” and prayers asking “why did you make me like this God? Please reform me”. The societal homophobia is depicted in several ways, the first being when her brother catches her with Kuhu at the wedding and screams “ It (Homosexuality) is a disease! Can’t you cure this disease?”

After hearing her story, Sahil is determined to help Sweety and creates a play featuring a lesbian couple that is performed in Moga. Her brother outs her to her family when he finds out what the play is really about. At this point, Sweety finds her voice and stands up to her brother and father, who say they are ashamed of who she is. This scene is important because Sweety does not really have a huge voice in the story, which mainly focuses on Sahil and his journey to becoming a successful play director by sharing Sweety’s story in a play. The play faces huge opposition from the audience, with people leaving and shouting obscenities about it, but it is so powerful that it causes Sweety’s father to accept her as who she is and support her desire to be with Kuhu. This acceptance of a lesbian relationship by a father North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

figure from a conservative Indian village, like Moga, had a huge impact on Indian audiences as they have never seen a real acceptance of sexuality on the movie screen before.

Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga was an important step in the right direction for normalizing and erasing the stigma of homosexuality in India and gave LGBTQ+ people a better representation in mainstream Indian film than Dostana.

Indian LGBTQ+ people still deserve better representation in Indian media. There is a lack of mainstream films that showcase LGBTQ+ character and almost none that have any transgender, bisexual, or non-binary representation.

In order for this representation to happen, we must hold a push for our stories to be heard in movies and T.V. shows in India and support the representation we do have, so directors and producers know that LGBTQ+ representation can help make Bollywood movies more successful.

Looking through the history of homophobia in India has shown me that while homophobia was a relatively new concept in India, it has had a large impact on its LGBTQ+ citizens. Through activism and legal work, people have created great change in India society, which until last year had institutionalized support of homophobia. Through improving the representation of queer Indians in film and other media, Indian people can be desensitized to queer people and queer relationships in India, which is a major way to decrease the post-colonial homophobic views of India society and create pathways toward acceptance.

Through this research, I personally found a deeper connection to my background as a queer Indian, as I know that my distant ancestors lived in a society where homosexuality was not only accepted but celebrated. I no longer feel in conflict with my identity. Being Indian and queer are not mutally exclusive.

Agoramoorthy, Govindasamy, and Minna Hsu. “India’s Homosexual Discrimination and Health Consequences.” Revista de Saúde Pública, vol. 41, Sept. 2007, pp. 657–60 Bhuyan, Anoo. “At Supreme Court, All Three Religious Groups Backing Section 377 Are Christian.”

The Wire, 18 July 2018 Dhar, Shelly Chopra, director. Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga. Vinod Chopra Films , 2019.

Kidangoor, Abhishyant. “India Decriminalizes Homosexuality in a Landmark Ruling.” Time, Time, 6 Sept. 2018 Masakhani, Tarun, director. Dostana. Dharma Productions, 2008.

Mehta, Deepa, director. Fire. Kaleidoscope Entertainment, 1996.

Misra, Geetanjali. “Decriminalising Homosexuality in India.” Reproductive Health Matters, vol. 17, no.

34, 2009, pp. 20–28. JSTOR. Narrain, Arvind. “Vacillating between Empathy and Contempt: the Indian Judiciary and LGBT Rights.” Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights: (Neo)Colonialism, Neoliberalism, Resistance and Hope, edited by Nancy Nicol et al., School of Advanced Study, University of London, London, 2018, pp.

43–62.

Nath, Dipanita. “Keeping the Flame Alive: What Made Deepa Mehta’s Fire Such a Pathbreaking Film.” The Indian Express, 19 Mar. 2016.

Wilhelm, Amara Das. Tritiya-Prakriti: People of the Third Sex. Xlibris Corporation, 2008.

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Monuments of Identity: An Analysis of Historic Preservation through Social Constructivism Katherine Bryan

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onfederate symbols clutter the contiguous United States- more than 1700 signifiers of Confederate values occupy American cities. However, in recent years, protests against such symbols calling for their removal have become increasingly prevalent and successful- the SPLC recently reported that 110 public Confederate signifiers had been removed by lower levels of government (SPLC Report: More than 1,700 Monuments, Place Names and Other Symbols Honoring the Confederacy Remain in Public Spaces). One particularly prominent protest was the activist conflict which occurred at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, regarding the Confederate monument commonly referred to as Silent Sam. At Chapel Hill, many students, faculty, and community members rallied together in the quest to remove the statue from the campus. One such activist was quoted by a local newspaper: “It felt very clear to me that the monument, as it stood, was a misrepresentation of history… It felt important that the university, an institution of great academic accomplishment, and an incubator of knowledge… should have a historically accurate understanding of it” (Stancill and Carter). This activist speaks of the necessity of understanding the history behind monuments. This understanding of history in the context of Silent Sam had recently been deepened through a newly discovered document at one of the UNC libraries- a copy of a speech delivered by Julian Carr at a commemorative ceremony celebrating the placement of the statue; a speech polluted with racist sentiments towards African Americans. As knowledge of this speech and the context of the statue spread throughout the Chapel Hill community, condemnation of the statue grew. This physical evidence connecting the statue to a narrative of oppression and racism served to catalyze public rejection of the statue, leading to its eventual removal (Stancill and Carter).

The case of Silent Sam exemplifies the importance the public ascribes to monuments and the historical narratives they represent. This statue was a physical manifestation of a specific set of values which formerly represented the climate of belief of the Chapel Hill community. However, once the climate of belief changed, the community felt the need to remove a signifier which opposed their present value system. People are outraged by narratives that they find untrue and unjust—they do not subscribe to norms

with which they cannot or will not identify and will try to remove examples of the narratives they reject.

Another professor at the university who advocated for the removal of Silent Sam was quoted in the same article, saying, “We were instructed sternly that toppling statues was attempting to rewrite history,” (Stancill and Carter). While this professor seems to condemn the idea that removing the monument is rewriting history, this concept of revision does have an element of truth within it. While the events of the past are distinct, factual occurrences, they can only be viewed through history. History and facts are not the same entity: history is the creation of a narrative from an interpretation of facts, a discourse (Rivkin and Ryan 506).

Just like any other narrative, it has a goal in mind, regarding some events or as more important than others. Removing the statue of Silent Sam is not rewriting the facts which are incorporated into a history; however, it is rewriting the narrative which the statue helped to construct: if the statue connotates white supremacy, the removal of the statue is an active decision to rewrite the narrative in favor of a different view of history.

Silent Sam shows how the destruction of a monument serves to deconstruct a previously popular historical narrative which contradicted the values of equality desired by the public to be synonymous with the current American identity. As we will see Butler define identity to be performed by the individual, identity is also created and performed by the body politic through acts of historic preservation.

Analyzing the creation and designation of monuments and other sites of historic value produces a depiction of how narratives of American identity are created. This depiction of historic preservation’s evolution, rooted in legislative analysis, reveals the Butlerian social construction of the American national identity.

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he construction of the American identity can be analyzed through the philosophy of social constructivism. The work of Judith Butler is a useful site from which to derive an initial definition of gender identity. In “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution”, Butler describes gender as non-essential and dynamic, a performance of acts defined by their societal interpretation (900). For example, since the act of wearing a skirt is societally ascribed to femininity,

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an individual wearing a skirt is performing a feminine identity. Butler adds more qualifiers to this overview of gender identity, stating “…gender is instituted through the stylization of the body and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements, and enactments of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self” (Butler 900). We can derive four main characteristics of identity from this declaration- the creation of gender identity is stylized, it is composite, it is quotidian, and it is illusory.

Stylization of identity can be defined as the social presentation of acts which constitutes the concept of self. As Butler says, “one ‘does’ one’s body” (902). An example: one can choose to stylize or “do” oneself by displaying facial hair and presenting oneself as masculine. Here, it is important to note that the gender assigned to acts is derived from society and history; individual acts do not inherently correspond to a particular identity (902-903). This summative stylization of individual acts leads to the next component of Butler’s description of gender identity, the composite. Butler defines gender as a repetition of acts, so it is the combination of multiple individual decisions and acts which lead to the combinative totality of identity. It is imperative to realize, however, that the nature of the composite is fluid, that the summation of acts does not lend them permanence.

The next component of this identity is the quotidian.

The acts which form gender identity are a ubiquitous, everyday occurrence. In addition to this commonality of performance, gender is lastly illusory. Butler depicts gender identity as a “fiction” which is realized in the mind of the creator and the eyes of the perceiver. The idea of illusion also implies a temporal constraint on identity or on its actsthe makeup eventually wears off unless it is reapplied.

The most difficult aspect of identity to reconcile with previous conceptions of self is the notion of the illusory.

Here, it is useful to turn to the work of Roland Barthes in his book Mythologies. In his work, Barthes analyzes the creation of a “cultural alibi” through a travel guidebook (Barthes 76). While criticizing this form, he says, “there is no myth without motivated form” (124). Here, we can take his use of the word form to mean body. The body fundamentally exists, regardless of our perception of it, but devoid of an essence which defines the body’s identity. However, it is how we “motivate” it, how we alter it, how we perform it, that creates a conception of identity. This alteration of reality superimposed upon the body is what makes the identity an illusion overlaid on the form.

Butler’s theory of acts of gender and Barthes’ definition of a cultural alibi can be expanded to a different kind of body, the national body. One can extrapolate from this view of a singular component of individual identity to a holistic identity at the national level. The components of performative identity describe the way in which that identity is acted on, by, and through the body. We can consider this body to be that of an individual, or we can consider it to be

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the body of the nation as a political grouping of individuals.

If the identity of a country can be analyzed constructively through performance, the goal is then to determine the mechanism by which identity is performed at the national level. Since gender performance was determined to be a presentation of acts, national identity must also be performed as a societal presentation of acts. Yet the nation’s acts can be different from those of an individual.

A metric must be identified which quantifies and qualifies a presentation of identity meeting the components of Butlerian identity. One such metric which can be used to analyze the construction of a national American identity is historic preservation. Historic preservation is the process of rehabilitating and protecting sites that are declared stores of value and emblematic of culture. This process of care and repair prepares conscripts sites of value for presentation in the spotlight of the national narrative of nature.

While engaging in research about historic preservation in the United States, I found a statement from the National Park Service’s website page about the National Historic Preservation Act which reads, “The law is perhaps the nation’s most important advocate for the past. Buildings and landscapes that serve as witnesses to our national narrative have been saved” (“National Historic Preservation Act”).

The usage of the word narrative suggests a continuing story of identity. However, Butler said that there is no “abiding gendered self”, so we know that the narrative the government describes has no solidity in time. The “narrative” must then rather be not the past itself, but a fluid view of it.

Another way of interpreting this section of the quote involves an investigation of the definition of history. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan penned a particularly illuminating description: “History is not some unmediated reality out there, some stable background… it is not a context. Rather… it is a discourse.” (506). Like the Butlerian description of identity, Rivkin and Ryan emphasize the dynamicity of history- it is a conversation of decision constantly in flux with only the illusion of permanence. This narrative discourse of history can represent and tell the story of the progression of identity. The current national identity is only dependent upon the past in how we choose to emphasize and interpret it in the present.

Secondly, the usage of the word “advocate” is an interesting locus for analysis, suggesting the support of something that was or is being harmed, slighted, or negatively affected.

The narrative of national identity continues to lengthen and evolve in accordance with new circumstances. Since the past is always analyzed from the present, the constantly changing perception of the past could be viewed as an attack on its previous discursive constructions (Rivkin and Ryan 506). Historic preservation is thus considered by the writer of the National Park Service article, and the National Park Service itself, as a way of creating an image of American identity in its continuous evolution, temporarily cementing a particular perception of the past in the present. According

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to the government, individual acts of historic preservation paint pictures of distinct facets of the historical discourse which they wish to include in the present national narrative identity. In the context of national identity, we can rephrase Butler’s work through the inclusion of a few key words to say that national identity is instituted through the stylization of the past and, hence, must be understood as the manner in which buildings and various sites are selected (or not selected) for preservation to constitute the illusion of an abiding national core identity (rephrased from Butler 900).

Another variation upon Butlerian philosophy can be used to understand the conception of a national identity. Butler opens “Performative Acts of Gender” with an explanation of how theatrical metaphor is seldom used in the realm of philosophy, with the exception of a usage of the language of “acts” (900). However, it is both possible and useful to extend the usage of the metaphor of theater to analyze the national identity through historic preservation. This can be done through a description of the technical side of theater, more specifically, lighting.

Light is used in the theater to draw the eye to specific features of a production through spotlights, to set the mood through color of light, to conceal and hide through lack of light. Historic preservation is the light used in the performance of identity on the stage of the American past.

For example, if a church and an abandoned insane asylum are both scheduled for demolition to make way for new buildings, and demolition is stopped for the church to be historically preserved but not for the asylum, a presentational narrative decision has been made. The entity deciding to preserve the church and not the asylum has decided that the church is more relevant to and has more value to contribute to the national narrative, while the asylum is either irrelevant or would detract from the desired national identity narrative.

The control of the presentation of the past is where the power of historic preservation lies. Like the lighting cues in a theater performance, historic preservation and the legislation governing it control the social cues creating the dynamic presentation of the American identity.

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t has been established that the United States creates an identity through historic preservation, but the methods by which these sites of value are selected and preserved have not yet been discussed. Preservation has occurred on many scales through many organizations in the nation over time.

It has been endorsed by government at the city level and at the regional country level. However, these small-scale views center on specific aspects of American identity held by the local people, and do not individually depict a holistically accurate picture of a national narrative identity (Barthel 94). The most useful way to view the creation of American identity through historic preservation is on a larger political scale, which incorporates more of the nation’s sites of value simultaneously; focusing on federal laws with occasional references to situational circumstances in cities and states

allows us to adopt this larger view. While there are most definitely variations amongst the identity of American subregions, ranging from the state level to the individual, an exterior perspective of identity is influenced more by federal political decisions than state and local level decisions. As such, this depiction of identity will center on an averaged American narrative, focusing on how federal legislation describes and endorses historic preservation.

The passage of laws through a democratic system of government as a proxy for the will and desires of the people ideally results in the creation of laws which largely reflect the desires of the people. If the desire of a country’s people is to create and possess a public identity of the country’s ideals to globally present, then these desires will naturally be translated into the body of government through the election of officials sharing constituents’ vision of national identity.

These elected officials will then ideally create laws which propagate methods of identity construction. In the context of historic preservation, an analysis of the progression of federal legislation can be used to determine what identity a government representing its people is creating, and why and how these performances are endorsed.

National parks are an interesting place to begin a legislative analysis of preservation. The government website for the National Parks Service prominently displays at the top of one of their webpages a quote from the author Wallace Stegner- “National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” (“Learn & Explore”). The American government here chooses to display and affirm its performative goals through the words of a renowned American author (“Wallace Stegner”). By quoting Stegner, the National Park Service is affirming a desire to represent and aid the will of the people by creating locations of concentrated cultural value, as well as affirming their capability to act upon this desire. The development of historic preservation can be witnessed through the legislative development of the National Park Service.

The beginnings of the National Park Service and historic preservation at the federal level can be traced back to the Yellowstone National Park Act. Passed in 1872, it was the first major federal legislation concerned with preserving stores of American value. The legislative text states that this park was to be “dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people” (“Yellowstone National Park Protection Act (1872)”). This depicts a desire for an internal satisfaction with the identity of America through the creation of a reservoir of natural value and beauty. The text also states that “regulations shall provide for the preservation, from injury or spoliation, of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders within said park” (“Yellowstone National Park Protection Act (1872)”).

The first part of this condition deals with the preservation of natural aspects with a direct link to economic utility-

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the timber and the minerals within the newly defined boundaries of Yellowstone National Park. However, the latter half of this legislative component provides an insight into the nature of Yellowstone National Park and the beginnings of federally recognized and organized historic preservation. Congress wrote of the parkland containing “natural curiosities” and “wonders” which needed to be protected. While it would be possible to classify such features under the umbrella of economic utility through tourism, the concept of performative identity is more useful here. By setting aside and preserving that which is distinct or “special” for non-economic purposes, the government is legislatively creating an arena for the performativity of American identity. To contextualize this in Butler and Barthes, Yellowstone National Park has been declared to be part of the body upon which the American identity is to be motivated and performed.

The next step in the progression of federal legislative endorsement of historic preservation was taken with the passage of the Antiquities Act of 1906. This act is comprised of multiple sections with a variety of purposes: the establishment of punishments for destruction of and damage to sites of historic value owned by the US government, the creation of a precedent for designating new national monuments, and the establishment of regulatory practices for the examination of government-owned historic value assets.

The purpose of the first section of the Antiquities Act was to establish a punishment for physical damage done to monuments on government-owned land. This follows with the concept of national monuments as a store of identity value. The government desires to protect what it has chosen to preserve, to protect the created identity from exterior detriment. As such, it institutes punishments for actions attempting to disturb and sabotage components of this created identity.

The second section of this act is the most integral to government involvement in historic preservation. This section of the Antiquities Act gave the president the power to “declare by public proclamation” new national monuments (“The Antiquities Act of 1906”). This expedited historic preservation, as the body of legislative officials would no longer have to craft and agree upon a new law each time there was a desire to create a new national monument. The act also established the loose criteria that any sites declared by the President to be a national monument should be “objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States” (“The Antiquities Act of 1906”). The language of this legislative text perpetuates the centrality of preservation around sites of value which would be useful in creating a performance of American identity. The qualifications for receiving a designation of historic value rest in the hands of whoever creates national monuments. Since this act largely assigns the power of monument creation to the office of the

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President, the national narrative will be determined by the belief system and agenda of the person holding this office.

The third section of the act, similarly to the first section, sets out to protect monuments and create a plan of action for gaining knowledge through national monuments.

It mandates that for an object or place of designated significance to be studied, the Secretary of the executive department in charge of the given monument must give permission. This section also states that “examinations, excavations, and gatherings are undertaken for the benefit of… recognized scientific or educational institutions, with a view to increasing the knowledge of such objects, and that the gatherings shall be made for permanent preservation in public museums.” (“The Antiquities Act of 1906”).

This legislation is logical when one attempts to understand the practiced utility of national identity creation from the perspective of the creator: the mere existence of a national monument does not create a shared identity and cultural story. This section of the Antiquities Act makes government-regulated study of monuments permissible for the purpose of gaining cultural knowledge to help cultivate a national identity, and by mandating that this derived knowledge be made permanently available to the general populace. These regulations also allow the government to both protect the monuments from physical damage from potentially reckless researchers and protect the monuments from “reckless” interpretations of identity the government does not wish to propagate.

The fourth and final section of the act provides the power to the relevant department secretaries to create future regulations to further the preservationist aims of the act. This creates a future permanence for the existence of the national narrative identity, while leaving room for the identity to evolve and be dynamically acted out. While not necessarily wholly democratizing historic preservation, as the power to create a national monument and component of the national identity still largely rested in the hands of the President, the Antiquities Act of 1906 was a major step forward in government interest and action in the field of historic preservation.

The passage of the Organic Act and Executive Orders 6228 and 6166 are important for the centralization of an authority to guide the multiplicity of sites of identity formation throughout the United States. Additionally, the Historic Sites Act of 1935 was also influential in supporting a construction of American identity. However, while furthering previous legislative manifestations of Butlerian identity, there was no significant evolution in conceptions of identity performance until about thirty years later.

The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 is by far the most important legislation passed governing federally recognized preservation in the United States. The most critical aspect of this act was the creation of the National Register of Historic Places: a listing of all the buildings and sites which have been recognized by the federal

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government to be worthy of preservation due to their cultural significance. Its creation required the cataloguing of previously existent parks, monuments, and places; and put into place a process for the inclusion of new historic sites. It also created an authority network amongst federal and state levels of government to promote review of decisions.

In the body of the NHPA’s legislation, the term “cultural park” is used to describe sites of meritorious historic value, a term described in the body of legislation as “a definable area that— (A) is distinguished by historic property, prehistoric property, and land related to that property; and (B) constitutes an interpretive, educational, and recreational resource for the public at large.” (“National Historic Preservation Act, Pub. L. No. 89-665, as amended by Pub. L. No. 96-515”). Part A sets apart the park as something of historic value, meaning it is seen as contributing to a desired narrative. Part B is the most intriguing part of this legislation, as it depicts the publicly recognized motives for narrative creation. The governmentally endorsed goal is to “educate” and to “interpret”. The purpose of the cultural park is to create a site which highlights and recognizes discrete events of the past, and to disseminate an identity created through an endorsed analysis of these sites. The cultural park exists to teach a created historical identity based on the event components of the sites.

The National Register of Historic Places is largely controlled by the Secretary of the Interior. This act gives the secretary the authority to “…expand and maintain a National Register of Historic Places composed of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects significant in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, and culture.” (“National Historic Preservation Act, Pub. L. No. 89-665, as amended by Pub. L. No. 96-515”). The National Register can be viewed here as a manifestation of the composite component of the Butlerian identity- the collection of multiple acts of identity creating a dynamic whole. The composite is controlled by the secretary, who establishes the criteria a site of interest must meet to be added to the National Register.

This is a large quantity of power concentrated in the hands of one person, as this individual decides the values of the American narrative identity. However, the Secretary does not hold all the power- there are other avenues which can be taken to add a property or place to the National Register of Historic Places. To be considered for addition to the National Register, a property must be nominated to the Secretary. Nominations are generally submitted to the secretary by either a state or a federal agency. The NHPA creates some of these state agencies by authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to create regulations for the instatement of State Historic Preservation Programs. One of the main criteria of these State Historic Preservation Programs is public participation in preservation through nomination submissions of sites of historic value to preservation offices. As such, Americans can nominate a site

of value to their State Historic Preservation Office, who can in turn nominate the property to the secretary. This aspect of the NHPA’s legislation depicts a democratization of the narrative of historic preservation, by making the power of preservation more available to the individuals who actually perform the identity being crafted.

The existence of a national park or monument more effectively contributes to a universal and unified national narrative when an explanation of the given site is provided.

The Volunteers in the Parks Act of 1969 enabled such an educational function. This law gave the Secretary the power to hire volunteers to perform “interpretive functions” at areas under the control of the National Park Service. This further serves to ideally democratize the identity narrative, in the same way public ability to nominate properties to the National Register made federal preservation more accessible to the American people.

To once again reference Butler, the power to provide interpretation of the acts of preservation is the power to influence the social perception of the performed acts of historic preservation. The power to nominate potential sites derived from the NHPA gave Americans a voice in what was preserved; this act gave Americans a literal voice in the narrative that was being shared about the selected historic sites. While it is a given that any narrative shared at a government-owned site would be cultivated to convey a specific message, it would still take on a more direct voice of America through the delivery of an American volunteer. (“54 U.S. Code § 102301 - Volunteers in Parks Program”).

The numerous American preservation sites were more organized than they had ever been, but these properties became almost completely consolidated in the National Park Service through the passage of the General Authorities Act of 1970. The initial section of this act declares “that these areas, though distinct in character, are united through their interrelated purposes and resources into one national park system as cumulative expressions of a single national heritage; that, individually and collectively, these areas derive increased national dignity and recognition of their superb environmental quality through their inclusion jointly with each other in one national park system preserved and managed for the benefit and inspiration of all the people of the United States;” (Act to Improve the Administration of the National Park System (General Authorities Act,) 1970).

One could easily interchange the usage of the word heritage in this quote with the word narrative: the goal of this act is to federally combine all the elements and instances of preservation the United States had amassed into a cohesive narrative body for the creation of an evolving identitythe Butlerian composite. This legislation also formally introduces the idea that the narrative is enhanced in quality by the combination of dichotomous stores of value, or diverse and dynamic acts of preservation, while reaffirming the old standby of inspiring the American people.

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socially constructed identity can be divided into four components: quotidian, composite, illusory, and stylized. The analyzation of the progression of legislation governing historic preservation and the National Park System reveals the mirroring of these qualities in the construction of American identity. The national American identity is quotidian through the constant creation and display of national monuments- a constant performance of acts of identity. It is composite, because acts of historic preservation are combined together in the National Register of Historic Places to form a dynamic whole comprised of individual acts, the total performance of the identity. It is illusory, because the existence of the national narrative through preservation is not the reality of nature and does not and cannot exist before the preservation and its interpretation. Lastly, the national identity is stylized through the selection and rejection of properties and places for historic preservation and inclusion as acts in the identity narrative. The constructivist effect of historic preservation of the national American identity is, frankly, monumental.

Barthel, Diane. “Historic Preservation: A Comparative Analyses.” Sociological Forum, vol. 4, no. 1, 1989, pp. 87–105. JSTOR. Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. Translated by Jonathan Cape Ltd. New York, The Noonday Press, 1991. pp. 76.

Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution”. Literary Theory: An Anthology, edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, Blackwell Publishing, 2004, pp. 900-902.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Wallace Stegner.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 30 Apr. 2019.

“For Public: Whose Heritage Master Sheet”, “SPLC Report: More than 1,700 Monuments, Place Names and Other Symbols Honoring the Confederacy Remain in Public Spaces.” Southern Poverty Law Center, Southern Poverty Law Center, 4 June 2018.

“Learn & Explore (U.S. National Park Service).” National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

“National Historic Preservation Act.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Rivkin, Julie and Ryan, Michael. “Introduction: Writing the Past”. Literary Theory: An Anthology, edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, Blackwell Publishing, 2004, pp. 506.

“SPLC Report: More than 1,700 Monuments, Place Names and Other Symbols Honoring the Confederacy Remain in Public Spaces.” Southern Poverty Law Center, Southern Poverty Law Center, 4 June 2018.

Stancill, Jane, and Carter, Andrew. “The Unfinished Story of Silent Sam, from ‘Soldier Boy’ to Fallen Symbol of a Painful Past.” News & Observer, Raleigh News & Observer, 25 Aug. 2018.

United States, Congress. “54 U.S. Code § 102301 - Volunteers in Parks Program.” Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute.

United States, Congress. “Act to Improve the Administration of the National Park System (General Authorities Act,) 1970.”, “America National Park System: The Critical Documents.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

United States, Congress. “The Antiquities Act of 1906.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

United States, Congress. “National Historic Preservation Act, Pub. L. No. 89-665, as amended by Pub. L. No. 96-515.” National Parks Service, U. S. Department of the Interior.

United States, Congress. “Yellowstone National Park Protection Act (1872).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

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Sexualization of Women in Media: Examples, Effects, and Resolutions Aditi Shah

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hilippa Gregory, author of The Lady of the Rivers, once said, “I am, at this moment, what I have always been to him: an object of beauty. He has never loved me as a woman.” This quote seems to encompass how society has altered women’s ideals to fit certain beauty standards. When speaking from a woman’s perspective, there seems to be a double standard on women. In media and advertising, many companies use the ideal woman to attract customers. Such a woman, “has no wrinkles, blemishes, or scars. She has long, smooth, and shapely legs. Her waist is quite small. Her ample breasts and buttocks defy gravity. Her radiant hair looks like CGI. Her eyes are dazzling and bright. Her teeth are shining white and perfectly straight” (Suggett). Victoria’s Secret Angels are a common example of clothing companies objectifying beauty in that they often use extremely skinny models to showcase their products. These models are forced to go on diets and follow workout routines to speed up their metabolism so that they embody these standards.

In movies and TV shows, the actresses cast to play teenagers are much older, usually in their late twenties or perhaps even in their thirties. Although this is mostly due to child privacy laws, the appeal of the sexualization of young women is a major factor in choosing the actresses that are cast. Along with casting older women (which causes teenagers to feel discomfort in themselves and their bodies), the women who are actually playing in these movies are objectified by their male co-stars as a form of comedy. This objectification, however amusing it may be in context, teaches the male audience that it is perfectly fine to sexualize all women. Women in video games are also incredibly objectified, emitting an aura of sexual appeal that brings in male customers. With developers understanding exactly what will bring in more players of a game, they ensure that hormones will drive teenage boys to purchase a game, regardless of how interesting the game actually is. If there is a picture of a sexualized female on the cover, perhaps standing next to the main male character, boys will be able to picture themselves in that position. Seeing the pictures of these animated yet extremely appealing women may cause younger girls to feel completely inferior, particularly once they realize that these types of women are the ones that boys are attracted to. Although they may not be fully developed, girls may begin going through depressive states and have a negative self-image from a young age.

Women are made to feel inadequate from the heavily photoshopped images of women in magazines and on the media, but when they try to live up to those standards, they are considered to be “desperate”. Magazine images of famous celebrities such as Kim Kardashian are often photoshopped to the point where their body becomes physically impossible.

When all of the flaws are blended away from a picture, a woman is able to look like a completely different person, an abstract image which is appealing to men because it is what they have learned to be normal for women’s bodies. From a young age, women are taught to uphold beauty ideals, and such standards can have a hazardous effect on their self-esteem and mental health. There is a direct correlation between the sexualization of women in the media and the low confidence that girls have in themselves, because they feel as though they are not as perfect as other girls that have been shown in the media. This low self-esteem and extreme self-consciousness in girls by unfair and unreal beauty standards leads to a rise in eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, both of which are associated with the low selfesteem that are causing them to starve themselves in order to achieve ideal beauty standards.

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n many movies, particularly Hollywood-directed ones, female leads are thin, with a toned body and curves unproportional to the rest of their bodies. Many of them are often barely dressed, clad in attire deemed as “sexy”. This depiction marginalizes actual women, causing them to feel as though their worth is solely based on their appearance.

According to the Deseret News, “about 54 percent of teenage female characters are played by adult actors, offering a ‘distorted image of teenage females to younger viewers.’”

As the beauty industry makes advances in their products, these products are able to make older women look much younger than they are, allowing them to fit the standards set

by Hollywood. As adults, these women are fully developed and are able to look more desirable, particularly when playing the romantic interest of a male lead. This image portrayed by these older women often causes teenage girls, particularly those from the ages of fourteen to seventeen years old (high school girls), to feel inadequate, as if their worth were determined by how teenage boys are encouraged to see them. The standard set by older women

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on teenage girls often creates an ideal that teenage girls will not be able to live up to, at least not until they mature to that point. This anxiety causes many teenagers to cover up their natural beauty in makeup and other products that are only meant to be used minimally. Rather than using makeup to simply enhance one’s beauty, many teenage girls will use this makeup to hide each and every imperfection that they believe they have. This can age girls far beyond their years, potentially causing them to look as if they are in their midtwenties.

The figure below shows a few statistics on how the media sexualizes teenage girls by putting them in situations that may be deemed as “unethical”. The majority of sexualization of teenage girls is caused by screenwriters who seek to attract viewers by adding scenes of passionate love. However, the female leads may still be minors and thus unable to give proper consent. The sexual situations in many movies and TV shows are encouragingg the notion of premarital sex without consent.Although it is unfair to say that female sexualization in the media is causing moresexual assault allegations, it is directly correlated to influencing boys to view girls as sexual objects rather than peers.

Another source of sexualization of women is in the music industry, particularly in music videos. These music videos are small films at their root, often showing women being North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

catcalled or touched unwillingly, further normalizing the objectification of women by men. This objectification within music videos creates a climate where women believe that they should always be comfortable with sexual innuendos or being seen as “eye candy” or trophies by men to obtain. This stance on sexualization gives males a great deal of power, able to bring down a girl’s self-esteem by merely stating their opinions on how attractive they believe these girls are. With an already low self-confidence stemming from what they see in the media, teenage girls accept what boys tell them and take it seriously, often exaggerating it to the extreme. Boys’ opinions begin to define girls, and girls treat life as a competition to impress boys, rather than focusing on the more important factors in life, such as their academic and social lives. By taking these opinions so seriously, girls feel as though they have to completely change themselves to even begin to “compete” with others for attention. Through the entertainment industry, teenage girls are shown to be boy-crazy, dedicating the majority of their time obsessing over boys and trying to boost their self-confidence by fishing for compliments. Female leads in movies are primarily cast to be the romantic interest of a male lead, which tends to be their only significant contribution to the movie. Even females who play powerful roles are involved in some form of romance within the film, and the plot centers around this idea of romance. This causes teenage girls to crave a romantic relationship, and many of the males that they are surrounded by have been influenced by the media sexualizing women. These boys then believe that it is perfectly fine to treat females in any way they wish, because females are nothing more than objects in their minds. As the world progresses, it seems that the entertainment industry is lagging behind, still sexualizing women to illicit hormonal responses within male viewers. Many companies have observed the productive way that “sex sells”, and thus do not believe there is a valid reason to change.

The gaming industry is a prime perpetrator of sexualization geared towards women, as women are hypersexualized to seem more appealing to men. Mortal Kombat and Tomb Raider are some of the more popular video games that have been accused of exploiting their female characters. Much of the criticism has come from feminist viewpoints, particularly because these characters seem to have no purpose other than being captured and rescued by men. There is a definite lack of female representation within the gaming industry, as females are hardly ever represented as strong characters meant to be admired or feared.

This is because video games were originally constructed as“masculine”, catering to male audiences. Using male desires against them was an effective method to bring in more customers for the game (Ferguson). Console games with increasing amounts of violence in them are primarily geared towards teenage boys, and they are able to encourage more boys to play the game by including incredibly sexualized women in each level. The goal of these games

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includes capturing or violating the woman in a way that may “cultivate sexism or misogyny” (Ferguson), thus increasing the amount of males who see women as insubordinate or weak. Responding to female criticism about how women are portrayed in their games, the developers of Mortal Kombat sent out a survey asking players how they would feel about changing female characters to have more realistic bodies, rather than the dream body for most men. The majority of the negative feedback to this survey came in from their male players, who were unwilling to lose their fantasy women; these men believed that making women more realistic would take away an important part of the game (Weekes).

The reason for this protest was because male gamers have become so accustomed to the objectification of women through these forms of entertainment that they are unable to comprehend any change, particularly when related to feminist ideals.

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he hypersexualized models of women shown in advertising are, once again, geared towards the enjoyment of male viewers. This objectification is often extremely insulting to women, as men are never able to take them seriously due to their imaginations revolving around fantasies of these women’s bodies. The females portrayed in advertisements, particularly beer commercials, are beautiful, with bodies that are anatomically impossible without some form of touching up. These women are not naturally perfect, so they spend hours having their flaws corrected by makeup artists. Even once they are covered in makeup, the industry is unsatisfied by their outward image, and use digital methods of photo and video editing such as Adobe Photoshop.

The picture above depicts a model who is already beautiful, seemingly already without imperfections.

However, according to the advertising industry and magazine publishers, there are many ways that she can be touched up to normalize the impossible beauty ideal. The photo above has been significantly brightened and saturated to make the model look tanner, as though she has just spent days outside in the sun and has tanned evenly. If this took place in the middle of winter, the woman would look as if she was naturally tan, which is what many women strive to achieve, often resorting to using tanning beds and spray

tans. Her body has also been retouched, with her arms photoshopped to look significantly less flabby in certain areas. Most women have fat that accumulates on their arms, and this photo makes it seem as though in order to be beautiful, one must not have an ounce of fat anywhere on their body. Her waist is also smaller, portraying the hourglass figure that is a cause of envy among many women.

The model has also been given a flatter stomach with dips and curves resembling ab muscles. However, these abs are quite subtle, so as to not make her look too muscular.

The ideal of beauty seems to rest between non-athletic and muscular, extremely skinny yet with muscles and curves in the right places to show evidence of frequent exercise not to grow stronger but to become more attractive to men.

This is difficult to achieve, as athletes need to consume more calories than the average person to benefit from exercise, resulting in an accumulation of fat in various places on their bodies. Additionally, those who are unathletic generally have medium body types, not targeting specific body parts to lose fat. This is extremely unrealistic because it is impossible to be skinny yet curvy, as curves are caused by an accumulation of fat within the body.

Sometimes Photoshop can go wrong, altering women’s bodies too much. The photo below shows the cover of a Ralph Lauren catalog in which the model has been retouched to the point where her waist looks completely disproportionate to the rest of her body. With personal photo editing, many celebrities also edit their bodies to promote a particular brand, and sometimes it may look extremely unrealistic as in the picture below.

Companies often find tall, beautiful women to star in their commercials, and this is because they understand how to direct the hormonal processes of males towards the Fifth World

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consumption of advertising images. Since visuals are the most effective way of gearing an advertisement towards a certain group of people, while at the same time creating that “group of people” as such, the most common method of bringing in viewers is to appeal to their most deeply hidden desires, most of which include their sexual desires. There is an overwhelming sense of power that men are able to exert through the media. The sexualized images through which women are exhibited serve as “glaring reminders of the power of media to shape culture and define how men and women see women, both by marginalizing them and objectifying them” (Israelson-Hartley). This is distinctly unjust to most women, who are unable to prevent the opinions that the media has placed into the minds of men.

From a young age, boys are attracted to the idea of the ideal woman that they see in commercials, and this leads to higher expectations of women in the real world. However due to the impossibility of the standards set by the media and advertising, men are unable to find these “perfect” women that are photoshopped to become completely flawless.

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he objectification of women portrayed in forms of entertainment and advertising is having hazardous effects on the health of young adults, particularly teenage girls. Due to the immense amount of “perfection” showcased on television, there is an ideal of being both curvy and skinny at the same time, curvy in terms of assets, yet skinny in terms of body fat. This ideal is becoming more impossible for girls to achieve, as there is a balance in the world for body types.

Each body that exists in the world is proportional in its own way, and it is seemingly impossible to achieve the standards set by the media, especially as trends are constantly changing.

With these trends becoming more and more popular, girls are feeling an indirect sense of pressure from others around them. All around them (particularly in public schools), social media and body image are particularly emphasized by the more popular people in these schools, and many girls find themselves surrounded by many different types of bodies, some naturally conforming to the ideal body type.

Only about “34% of girls report being very satisfied with their bodies, and that 60% compare their bodies to fashion models. Almost 90% of girls feel pressured by the fashion industry to be thin, 55% diet, 42% know someone who has purged after eating, 37% know someone diagnosed with an eating disorder and 31% acknowledged that they have starved themselves or refused food to lose weight” (“Sexualization of Young Girls in Entertainment”). These statistics are important because they highlight just how serious the sexualization of women has gotten. While this is relevant to all ages of women, the majority of the negative statistics have been reported by teenage girls and young adults who have been exposed to the many judgements of the outside world.

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n order to achieve or exceed idealistic standards, girls tend to resort to more unconventional methods, leading to the development of eating disorders. The two most common types of eating disorders in teenagers are anorexia and bulimia. Anorexia is defined as an obsessive desire to lose weight, and is characterized by an intense loss of appetite and starving oneself. Bulimia, although also linked to losing weight, is characterized by binging food and purging after eating. Both are linked to societal pressures that girls commonly feel, and common methods of starvation and purging include the intake of diuretics, laxatives, and diet pills. Although neither one of these groups of people is overweight, they develop an obsession with being the skinniest person at all times, an obsession that can become life-threatening and can lead to many illnesses throughout the body, particularly in relation to the immune system.

These eating disorders develop not only through a physical disconnect but also a mental one, as the main cause for starvation and purging is the thought that one is too fat and thus, ugly. When comparing themselves to other people, especially when these people are imaginary, anorexic or bulimic people’s vision may be distorted in terms of their body image, and this desire for the perfect body can drive them to the point of insanity. No one’s body is or can be an ideal, an abstraction.

Anorexia is often driven by any type of traumatic event, and the peer pressure that girls feel from society through the hypersexualization of women is classified under this category. Often, people suffering from anorexia see themselves as “fat” or “overweight” every time they look in the mirror, which is only amplified by the women that surround them in the media. Although these girls may already be skinny, they believe that no matter how much weight they lose, they are still not skinny enough to achieve the perfect body type. In order to stay thin to the point where their bones are visible, they count each and every calorie and do not eat during meals regardless of their hunger. These girls believe that they are doing justice for their bodies, but the reality is that they are causing a great deal of harm.

Starving one’s body may cause their hair and nails to become brittle, and may result in feeling cold all the time because the body is using its fat to feed rather than insulate itself. In more severe cases, anorexia can lead to amenorrhea, or the absence of menstrual periods, which may affect childbirth processes later in life (“Eating Disorders”).

Statistics have shown that over 90% of the people suffering from bulimia are females (“Eating Disorders”), and the majority of these females are teenage girls who have resorted to these methods of losing weight. Although there are many pressures from society to be thin, these girls do not starve themselves, but instead eat as normal. However, they lose weight by purging this food by inducing vomiting or taking laxative pills. These methods do not cause girls to be thinner, however, as their bodies are still consuming calories from the food they have eaten even if this food has not been

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digested. By purging their bodies of food, bulimic girls are able to feel a sense of control over their bodies, as they are controlling the cycles in which food remains inside their system. Through this feeling of control, girls believe that they are able to manage when they gain weight, although this is not what actually occurs. Instead, bulimia leads to a wide range of health problems, some even more severe than those experienced by people with anorexia. Bulimia affects the inner body much more than outward appearance. Bulimia can lead to heart problems and soreness, particularly in the throat and salivary glands. By purging, one dehydrates the body, thus losing electrolytes. This imbalance of electrolytes leads to heartburn and other cardiovascular diseases. The main cause of females becoming bulimic is pressure from the media and acting industries. Many actresses suffer from bulimia because Hollywood and the paparazzi criticize every aspect of their bodies, even those they can’t control. When teenage girls observe this criticism, they begin wondering how much others are judging them based on their bodies, resulting in a rise in eating disorders.

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he development of eating disorders leads to emotional burdens that can be too heavy for teenage girls to bear.

The symptoms of these eating disorders become more and more prevalent as time goes on, and coupled with the stresses of peer pressure, can trigger a sense of helplessness leading to depression. Depression is a feeling of immense sadness to the point of feeling ultimately helpless. Its relation to the occurrence of eating disorders is a vicious cycle, and it can be difficult to distinguish which came first (James). Often, the feeling of depression is what makes teenage girls take action to gain back control over their bodies and emotions. Being able to control the rate at which food enters the body and gets digested helps manage the helplessness. Because of the self-consciousness brought on by the hyper-sexualization of women in the media, many girls begin to feel inferior to the models that are portrayed. This feeling of inferiority also stems from women in the media seeming incredibly fit, with toned bodies and confidence in themselves. The confidence emitted by celebrities is a façade of bravado that causes girls to question their own bodies, especially since they are already vulnerable to judgement from others.

Negative body image from what is in the media causes girls to be unsatisfied with their bodies, which places a burden of body image stress in addition to academic and social pressures. When these stresses become too overwhelming to bear, teenagers become withdrawn, often compromising their emotional health to battle these feelings. This leads to them becoming unwilling to socialize with their peers, and potentially talking in a manner that may be construed as suicidal due to its negativity. By viewing oneself negatively, girls protect themselves from being susceptible to hurt (others’ criticism may be less emotionally painful). Although these girls may believe that criticizing themselves harshly can help them become acquainted to judgement from others,

it is instead affecting them in an incredibly negative way that leads to these girls being unable to stand up for themselves, often battling against their own personal demons as opposed to focusing on overcoming obstacles that have been placed by the world outside of them.

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lthough it has become ordinary for women to be sexualized or made into an unrealistic version of themselves, some companies have been trying to change the portrayal of women in the media through using models of various shapes and sizes in order to showcase different types of beauty. The government has acknowledged that false portrayals of women in media and advertising is unhealthy in relation to young girls, and has approved a few important bills about photo editing. Additionally, many other companies have been taking action against photoshopping or digitally altering the bodies of these women, which has significantly helped to put a stop to this issue.

In order to show that the “ideal” body type is neither normal nor the goal for girls to strive for, there has been an increase in the number of normal-sized women used for campaigns. Forever 21 has become one of the biggest supporters of this cause, as they have begun to incorporate more plus-sized models into their campaigns, marketing to women of all sizes. They have expanded their catalog to include all types of people, regardless of size. This inclusion is a big step in correcting the stereotypes surrounding women.

To help with teenage girls’ confidence and prevent eating disorders, the Senate passed a bill known as the Healthy Media for Youth Act in 2010. This act states that its purpose is “to authorize grants to promote media literacy and youth empowerment programs, to authorize research on the role and impact of depictions of girls and women in the media, to provide for the establishment of a National Task Force on Girls and Women in the Media, and for other purposes” (Hagan). Since many children spend the majority of their free time online nowadays, they are constantly surrounded by forms of entertainment that sexualize women, leading them to feel insecure about themselves. To prevent these feelings (or at least significantly decrease them), the Healthy Media for Youth Act is meant to regulate the amount of negative feedback on women and help promote more realistic standards. If children are exposed to more realistic images of women’s bodies from a young age, girls could spend less time feeling self-conscious as they get older, and boys could have more practical mindsets about the girls around them. With lower expectations and much less peer pressure, teenage girls would not be driven to starving themselves or constantly be burdened by their emotions. Since this act also funds research on how women are sexualized, researchers in this field could develop a model of how to actively put a plan in motion, rather than researching without application.

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the Truth in Advertising Act. This act was implemented in 2014 by the Eating Disorders Coalition, who rallied a large group of women and teenage girls to advocate for this bill to be passed. The majority of advertisements have been retouched in some way to make the female body look more appealing, and this is impacting the self-confidence of teenage girls. The Eating Disorders Coalition reported that what bothered them was not “the ads themselves, [but rather] the altered images the ads present” (Rhodan). The problem with these ads is that although companies significantly digitally alter images of women, they fail to mention that the images have been edited, instead passing them off as natural. This creates the unrealistic body ideal that leads to eating disorders and depression. The Truth in Advertising Act stands to ensure that all images in advertisements that have been retouched acknowledge that these images have been changed, and helps promote the research of digitally altered images to determine the best course of action against them. This bill also gives the Federal Trade Commission the power to take “‘unfair and deceptive’ commerce away from consumers” (Rhodan), and this helps keep vulnerable teenagers from believing what they see in advertisements.

inspire self-confidence. Such songs include “Scars to Your Beautiful” by Alessia Cara, which has been named one of the most empowering songs for girls nowadays. Overall, although women have been the object of intense double standards, there are efforts to improve this stigma.

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Rhodan, Maya. “Lobbyists Push Congress to Curb Misleading Photoshopped Ads.” Time, Time, 3 Apr. 2014.

hen companies discovered that they could objectify women to bring in customers, they began to use this to their advantage, significantly aiding their profits.

Using pictures of scantily clothed females in commercials became the norm for many companies, as it was the most effective method to showcase how different products looked on a specific body type, and encouraging women to strive for a skinny body type. While Victoria’s Secret Angels commonly appealed to male viewers, they were also able to bring in many female customers who hoped their bodies would be flattered by the clothing that this brand provided.

Through photoshopping and heaping piles of makeup for shows and commercials, these women were made out to be a “Barbie-Doll” version of themselves in order to appeal to viewers. Beer commercials, common perpetrators of objectifying women, have used the picture of women to bring in customers.

Girls in society today suffer from self-esteem issues because they have been shown pictures of “perfect” and flawless women since they were young, and this leads to greater health issues later on in life. If these issues spiral downwards, these girls may lean towards going to drastic measures to achieve looks similar to supermodels. Eating disorders, along with altering their bodies through nose jobs and injections, are by-products of what low self-esteem does to girls. In Brazil, getting implants and surgically enhancing one’s body is considered to be completely normal, and this is unhealthy for future generations of women. There have been some movements to change this picture of an ideal woman, as many brands are using natural models to broadcast their products. Additionally, there are songs that have been released, geared towards teenage girls, to help North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

D’Anastasio, Cecilia. “Study: Sexualization Of Women In Games Doesn’t Impact Women’s Body Image.” Kotaku, 25 July 2019.

“Eating Disorders: Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge Eating.” MedicineNet, MedicineNet, 12 Aug. 2016.

Ferguson, Christopher J. “Sexualization in Gaming: Advocacy and Over-Correction.” Quillette, 8 May 2019.

Hagan, Kay R. “Text - S.1354 - 112th Congress (2011-2012): Healthy Media for Youth Act.” Congress. gov, 13 July 2011.

Israelsen-Hartley, Sara. “Ignored or Sexualized: How Hollywood Is Failing Women.” Deseret News, Deseret News, 22 Nov. 2017.

James, Deanna. “Poor Body Image and Depression.” Eating Disorder Hope.

“Not An Object: On Sexualization and Exploitation of Women and Girls.” UNICEF USA, 31 Jan. 2019.

“Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls.” PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2007.

“Sexualization of Young Girls in Entertainment.” SocialWorker.com, 29 Sept. 2013.

Suggett, Paul. “Advertising Sets Impossible Standards for Women.” The Balance Careers, The Balance Careers, 28 Jan. 2019.

Taylor, Charles R., et al. “Photoshopping Of Models In Advertising: A Review Of The Literature And Future Research Agenda.” Global Fashion Management Conference, 14 Sept. 2018, pp. 379–398.

Weekes, Princess. “Study Attempts to Figure Out How Sexualization in Video Games Impacts Women - Here We Go.” How Does Sexualization in Video Games Affect Women? | The Mary Sue, 29 July 2019.

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An Investigation into the Psychological Uses of Feminine Pleasure Isabella Mason

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he open sexuality of women has been condemned for years. When it is studied upon rare occasions, its usual tone is that of concern and pathology, rather than that of an open-minded and objective approach (Hogarth and Ingham). Little seems to be known about whether or not there are positive outcomes to female autoeroticism, and even less about the connections that may lay between self-pleasure and sexual health, self-esteem, and body image.

Little work has been done at all to consider the good of masturbation. Yet, despite the years of attempts to render women unable to engage in pleasurable sexual acts with or without reference to men(Shulman and Horne), women and girls alike still continue to engage in acts of self-pleasure (Arafat and Wayne). This engagement not only leads to higher levels of sexual independence but also higher levels of self-esteem and positive body image, through the accessing and affirmation of one’s sexual individuality.

Michel Foucault, in The History of Sexuality, writes about the condemnation of pleasure by the Christian pastoral, owing to the idea that pleasure should exist for the sole purpose of reproduction. If this should be the case, then women’s sexuality should only truly exist for the pleasure of men—a woman’s pleasure is not required to procreate. In a world where sexuality equals procreation, female pleasure has no value, nor do any sexualities without social purpose.

If we should find ourselves wanting a better world, we must also find ourselves driven to examine the true motivation for the denunciation of women’s pleasure.

Objectively speaking, masturbation is a form of empowerment and independence for women, as it entails a woman finding sexual release and satisfaction without assistance from another person. These practices of selfpleasure allow women to break down what is traditionally thought (or suppressed from thought) about sexuality, as the purposes of sexuality are transformed from achievement, completion, and other instrumentalities to to pleasure, which can exist for the sake of itself only and not for material benefit (Shulman and Horne). This idea of women discovering such a thing is, of course, extremely threatening to people who wish to continue the archaic power dynamic that often exists between man and woman. Simone de Beauvoir writes, “No one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful, than the man who is anxious

about his virility.” This note holds true; no one is more aggressive to the woman seeking sexual independence than the man who is insecure about his own sexuality, in spite of his privileges and social powers. But what occasions this anxiety? Why should a woman’s pleasures threaten “virility”?

In her 1991 novel Women on Top, Nancy Friday writes about surgical measures such as clitoridectomy that powerful men imposed upon women to ensure they never experienced the possibility of sexual pleasure. Now commonly known and condemned as female genital mutilation, it was once a common practice to physically mutilate women in order to establish dominance over them. Nowadays, she says, “mental clitoridectomy will suffice.” Friday implies our speech about women’s sexuality is enough to dispel the possibility of sexual women. “Projected early enough onto a young female mind, the ‘ugly’ slit between our legs is as untouchable as one of the vaginas butchered by the highminded doctors of early times,” Friday writes. The idea that not only women’s pleasure but also women’s bodies are deplorable is frightening to a modern mind and makes one wonder how much power can actually be achieved by women who establish a personal sexual relationship with their bodies.

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e are not alone in wondering such a thing—how powerful a woman might become if she were openly sexual—and we know this because of the centuries in which women have been silenced, forced into the guilt of a mute privacy. Before we are able to fully address the history of women’s sexual oppression, though, we must examine if it is as simple as that. Cis and trans women, Black and white women, and able-bodied and disabled women all have different experiences of being a woman, so do they face the same oppressive histories? If not, then how do we ‘sum up’ the history of female sexual oppression? In Alyson Escalante’s essay, Biology and the Oppression of Women, she asks, “Are women oppressed because they are women, or are women made into women by their oppression?” This question, which is extremely powerful, invites thought upon the standing of trans and non-binary identities as women or not-women. Escalante answers this question which she has proposed in several steps, the first being to determine what exactly ‘being female’ is.

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She argues there is no such definition that exists—there is no one ‘female’ existence—and, as such, there is no unifying thing which makes all women women, other than the desire, of course, to be a woman—a very Beauvoirian answer to a very Beauvoirian problem. Still, one struggles to accept this answer, because so much of women’s oppression is owed to their menstruation and pregnancy and, consequently, their biology? How can women who do not share biology with other women relate to their sexual oppression if they are not the same sex? Still, there exist women who do not menstruate, women who are unable to get pregnant, and they, being assigned female at birth, are still surely women, because they experience life as women. Some would suggest trans women are just the same, because they, too, experience life as women. Other groups would argue trans women still cannot be qualified as women, for they have not experienced misogyny. Oh, but they have—trans women experience “violence at the hands of strangers and lovers [... even as] demands for the ideal female appearance [create] negative body image marketing,” writes Escalante. It seems there truly isn’t a single signifier of ‘womanhood’ which exists to separate women from all others. Simone de Beauvoir once wrote, “Biology is not enough to give an answer to the question that is before us: why is woman the Other?”

Baumeister and Twenge propose theories about why women may be the ‘Other,’ and about the reasoning behind the silencing of female sexuality, the most prominent theory being the ‘Male Control Theory.’ This theory details the primal need that men feel to protect their wives from being impregnated by other men, in order to best pass on their genes. If a woman lacks the desire to have sex because she has been rid of sexuality, then she is much less likely to seek out anyone other than her husband to have sex with. As this practice was modernized, some have suggested that men continued this suppression of female sexuality in order to secure heirs for their property. Feminist theory, Baumeister and Twenge note, suggests that men want to restrict the sexuality of women to continue the notion that women exist as men’s possessions. In short, keeping women sexually inactive and dependent is a move of power. Through the repression of women’s sexuality, men can prevent women from seeking out autonomy over their own bodies, ultimately preventing them from making their own decisions around their bodies. Baumeister and Twenge also note that “female sexuality represents a potential threat to the orderly society that men want.” Of course, in this case, ‘orderly’ means hierarchical, with the hierarchy organized so that men are on ‘top,’ or dominant, physically and discursively. In this case, men are assured sexual gratification, while women are used as tools or toys. As such, the idea of women’s individual pleasure is almost as preposterous as the idea of women being pleasured at all.

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ringing our attention back to female masturbation, we must focus on the history of masturbation itself

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before understanding its implications. For a long time, masturbation was thought to be a compulsive disease and was studied mainly in males. However, when taking this ‘disease’ into account, people often failed to consider how many values had been peppered into the categorization of masturbation as a disease. A book, fully titled Onania: Or, The Heinous Sin of Self-Pollution, and All Its Frightful Consequences (in Both Sexes) Considered: With Spiritual and Physical Advice to Those Who Have Already Injured Themselves

By This Abominable Practice, was released anonymously in London in the early 18th century, presumably spreading the first word about ‘onania,’ known now as masturbation.

This word comes from the biblical character Onan, who was damned for not reaching completion appropriately during intercourse with his wife. This act, coitus interruptus, was twistedly equated with masturbation, causing masturbation to be seen as an obstacle to repopulation. Onania, the ‘disease of masturbation,’ is described in Onania as “self-pollution [...] that unnatural Practice by which Persons, of either sex, may defile their own Bodies without the Assistance of others, whilst yielding to filthy Imaginations the endeavour to imitate.” Many people drew from Onania, especially SamuelAuguste Tissot, a Swiss physician who wrote L’Onanisme, a medical treatise on the symptoms and maladies which were then associated with male masturbation. Arguments that Tissot made in his ‘dissertation’ include that of semen, which he deemed an ‘essential oil’ necessary for strength, memory, and ability of the nervous system. If one lost too much of this ‘oil,’ said Tissot, then their nervous system may begin to fail, leading to inflammation of the body and gout. It is curious how those men having copious amounts of sex with their wives did not suffer from rheumatism and gout as well.

Masturbation was presumed to be involved in not only physical but also mental dysfunction. As a result of Enlightenment values, which said that problems could be fixed (i.e. mental illnesses could be cured) masturbation was linked to insanity, and brought under the control of doctors.

“Because sexual arousal involved stimulation of the nervous system, it was easy to conclude that chronic nervous excitation attending the unnatural act of masturbation might eventually undermine the health of the brain.

By the early 1800s, European and American physicians concurred that masturbation led to insanity,” writes James Whorton in his essay, The Solitary Vice. By the mid-19th century, this belief previously held only by physicians became widespread. Sylvester Graham, notorious for his invention of the Graham cracker, held the belief that masturbation was dangerous for young people because their reproductive systems were not yet mature. To combat this problem, he created his cracker, providing the rationale that adhering to a bland diet would prevent impure thoughts, therefore preventing impure actions. Throughout the 19th century,the epidemic of “overstimulation” spread. Good food is stimulating, as is passionate writing or thought, but sex is, unarguably, the most stimulating activity we

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can involve ourselves in. As such, it was regarded with great danger; however, some men—doctors—were allowed to think and to write about it, while all women were not.

“Some forms of sex, nevertheless, were more dangerous than others,” writes Whorton, with the marital sex being least dangerous because it was not impassioned or exciting.

Marital sex was to masturbation what a Graham cracker was to an eight-ounce filet (Whorton). As such, masturbation was, for all of its solitude, the most threatening form of sex one could engage in.

If masturbation caused mental illness, then it had to be cured. The measures by which the ‘cure’ was achieved were through tactics previously mentioned: surgical removal of pleasure systems, that being clitoridectomy in women and circumcision in men. Among many other absurd things, 19th-century physicians believed females were deeply intune with their reproductive systems, causing any issues presenting in their reproductive systems to also present elsewhere within their health, typically within their mental health. To physicians and others, women were defined by their bodies, controlled by their uteruses and ovaries. As such, something had to be done to prevent women from ‘losing themselves’ to their sexuality and emotionality.

T

he word ‘hysteria’—quite the buzz word in the 19thcentury—comes from the Greek hystera, meaning uterus. Hysteria is an important subject when considering the history of female masturbation, for the latter (i.e. female sexual release) was, at times, seen as a sort of cure to female hysteria. ‘Manual massage’ was the form of a sort of cure that doctors suggested for women diagnosed with hysteria— manual masturbation performed by a male doctor upon a female patient. In this case, man remains in control of women’s pleasure, not allowing her to experience her own sexuality outside of a cold, clinical setting. It would not be preposterous for an onlooker to assume that, at times, this ‘curing’ method would make one’s supposed hysteria worse.

In married women with diagnosed hysteria, the prescribed cure was sexual intercourse with their husbands. Does this not seem ridiculous—the solution to women’s woes is men’s pleasure? (Maines).

Physicians, most notably Isaac Baker Brown, turned to even more aggressive ‘treatment’ options for female hysteria caused by sexuality and masturbation. Baker Brown, who was known for his gynecological technical skills, belonged to an elite group of physicians in London during the early 19th century. While he did pioneer many necessary surgeries, such as the repair of vaginal and rectal fistulae, he also “experimented enthusiastically” with female genital mutilation, essentially operating on his own beliefs about what might ‘aid’ in women’s ‘hysteria,’ while actually denying women access and ownership of their own bodies (Scull and Favreau).

Eventually, Baker Brown and his surgical ‘remedies’ were condemned because of Baker Brown’s lack of ethical skill and social prowess—he had angered his peers with the way he sought public attention and validation. As Isaac Baker Brown was condemned, the surgical practices relating to the potential ‘cures’ of female masturbation were brought down as well. The view that masturbation caused insanity was transformed into the possibility that it was a consequence of insanity. Still, it is important to reflect on the psychology behind the “clitoridectomy craze”; gynecologists possessed great amounts of power over women and abused this power through the mutilation of their reproductive systems.

Over time, power dynamics between males and females shifted. Feminism has aided in this shift—women demanding a valid place in society and rights to their own bodies certainly helped change power dynamics between sexes within the 20th century (LeGates). It’s unclear whether or not the reclamation of power by women lent itself to an increase in female sexuality or simply to an increase in documented female sexuality, but women were sexually active nonetheless during the beginning waves of feminism.

In 1974, Arafat and Cotton studied the masturbation practices of college-aged men and women. Their findings showed that 60.98% of college-aged women masturbated, finding that 84% of women who masturbated were below the age of 17 when they first masturbated. This is quite indicative of the number of women who engage in selfstimulation, and especially of the number of women who engaged in masturbation first as children or adolescents.

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hildhood masturbation is no longer included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and has not been since 1994. According to Mallants and Casteels, childhood masturbation is not the result of physical sexual development, but rather of psychosexual development that begins in infancy. “The discovery of certain pleasurable areas,” they note, “can be fascinating and can lead to masturbation because a young child reacts to instinctual drives and looks for pleasure.” Of course, not every child engages in masturbatory behaviors: a study by Friedrich on the normative sexual behavior of children discovered that children engage in perceived sexual behaviors, such as touching one’s sex parts in public or at home, at a great variance of frequencies. However, as one ages, they tend to conform to social expectations, meaning they become less outwardly sexual and sexually explorative.

Friedrich’s study found that while 15.8% of girls in the age range of 2 to 5 years old masturbated, only 7.4% of girls aged 10 to 12 years old masturbated (according to the reports of their mothers, which might not account for much or all of the child’s sexual behavior). Childhood masturbation, at normal developmental rates, serves as a normal opportunity for children to explore their bodies, even from a non-sexual standpoint. Children explore what feels good and what is

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stimulating, but tend to naturally learn social norms about the organization of their own body no less than about public sexual behavior.

Caitlin E. Welles, in her essay, ‘Breaking the Silence Surrounding Female Adolescent Sexual Desire,’ notes that, while most males learn about masturbation from peers or, nowadays, the internet, females mostly learn about it upon accident, having never heard it talked about among their female peers or family members (Welles). Simply put, males tend to know more about their genitalia than women do.

This disproportionality of knowledge can be attributed to many things, but the most obvious notion may be that males’ genitalia is external, so they are forced to observe it further at a young age. Ussher notes that most girls, unless they have masturbated, are not aware of their possession of the clitoris, meaning that most girls are not aware of the pleasure that can be associated with one’s genitals. Girls tend to be taught about their genitalia only when their menstrual cycles begin, bringing along societally imposed shame and embarrassment. When girls are taught appropriately about their genitalia, they are only informed of its partial function— childbearing—rather than its anatomy and its function of pleasure, whereas boys are taught about the pleasure that may come from their genitals—informing them about nocturnal emissions, masturbation, and sexual intercourse.

Most girls are simply prepared to take care of their bodily functions, without being informed of the purpose of this function, or their purpose beyond this function.

It would be wrong to go on without recognizing the wrongdoings of Sigmund Freud, a renowned psychoanalyst whose widespread ideas caused the minimization and simplification of women’s sexuality. Freud has been criticized by many notable feminists, primarily for his idea of ‘penis envy,’ the notion that women desire the male’s penis, turning angry at their mothers for having given her no penis. Freud drafted many theories about the importance of the woman’s clitoris, claiming that, because the clitoris is the main erogenous zone for women, as is the penis for men, the entire drive of women is to obtain a penis, if not for her own physical body, then her mate’s as a substitute.

During intercourse, Freud says, the role of the clitoris is to excite the rest of the female body, not to be stimulated itself.

The clitoris surrenders itself to the vagina, which “comes into its own” (Kulish). Along these lines, Freud argued that clitoral masturbation would gradually dissipate should healthy female development proceed. We know, however, that this is not the case, referring back to Arafat and Wayne’s 1974 study on the regularity of female masturbation in adolescents and young adults. Furthermore, most argue that no such thing is needed for the achievement of “vaginal supremacy.” Many feminists emphasize the patriarchal and heteronormative nature of Freud’s work, for it denies women independent, adult sexuality apart from man.

Clara Thompson, in her 1943 paper titled “‘Penis Envy’ in Women,” notes that “the position of underprivilege might North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

be symbolically expressed in the term ‘penis envy’ using the penis as the symbol of the more privileged sex.” What Thompson meant by this was that woman does not desire man’s penis, but rather man’s social status; woman desires man’s patriarchal privileges.

No matter the timing of when a woman first discovers masturbation—during childhood, adolescence, or adulthood—female masturbation tends to serve a multitude of purposes for women, sexually and socially. In Women on Top, Friday offers to her reader seven important benefits of self-pleasure to women. The first is that it teaches women that they are sexual creatures in themselves. I n addition, Friday suggests that masturbation allows one to find the critical difference between love and sex, that it allows one to discover her likes and dislikes as well as her own physical anatomy, that it is one of life’s greatest sexual pleasures, and that it allows a woman to be better prepared to sexually educate her children, should she choose to have any.

However, the most important benefit that Friday presents is the ability o accept and potentially love oneself. “If we are loathe to touch what lies between our legs,” Friday says, “our revulsion spreads, leaving us eternally dissatisfied with the acceptability of the rest of our bodies.” Friday implies a distinct connection between bodily pleasure and body image—one that we shall explore in depth.

The concept of body image was first introduced by Paul Ferdinand Schilder, an Austrian psychoanalyst. In his 1935 study titled in English as The Image and Appearance of the Human Body, Schilder describes body image as “the picture of our own body which we form in our mind, that is to say the way in which the body appears to ourselves.” It is a concept that is addressed throughout fields—medicine, psychiatry, philosophy, feminism, and beyond. Body image in people in their formative years is of particular interest to clinicians. In her essay titled Body image in children and adolescents: where do we go from here?, Linda Smolak writes about the reactions that most children have to being asked about their bodies.

“It is invariably instructive,” she says, “to interview children about their appearance.” Smolak goes on to detail the extent to which children will talk about their dissatisfaction with their own bodies. “There are the young children who are already modifying what they eat or doing aerobics with their moms in order to lose weight. They surprise us with their knowledge of weight loss and body sculpting techniques, specifying commercial diet programs [...] by name.” It is obvious that many children may struggle with the ways in which they view and evaluate their bodies, given the strong societal messages that are being sent to and have always been sent to young people about the ways they should look and act. However, it is also clear that the disparity between how young people feel and should feel about their bodies is not without hope; there are ways to improve one’s relationship with one’s body, including a more pleasurable relation to that body.

Self-esteem is similar to body image, but exists on a

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wider spectrum, and has also been considered by clinicians for a longer period of time. It has been shown that, like body image, self-esteem has an important impact on the way we as humans function. Campbell and Lavallee (1993) note in their essay within a book on self-esteem that “self-esteem effects in such diverse areas and competition, conformity, attraction, causal attribution, achievement, helping, and coping with stressful life events.” What this demonstrates is that self-esteem plays a large role in forming one’s thoughts and actions.

Masturbation comes into the relationship between body image and self-esteem in an important way. “The potential connection between masturbation and body image is noteworthy in light of the high prevalence of body dissatisfaction experienced by women and girls,” note Shulman and Horne. Because women tend to be dissatisfied with their bodies, the ability to satisfy one’s self could be part of a solution to this problem. It is clear that having ‘bad’ body image can lead to to disordered eating or mental illness, if not both. Sex and sexology come into this when body image prevents one from engaging in sexual activity.

“In Ellison’s large-scale study,” write Shulman and Horne, “women reported that their negative feelings about their bodies interfere with sexual pleasure with a partner.” Several studies have gone on to prove that there is a correlation between body satisfaction and masturbation in females diagnosed with eating disorders, most notably Wiederman and Pryor, who studied body satisfaction and sexuality in women with bulimia nervosa. In addition, a surprising number of studies have been done on women who are afflicted with breast cancer. However, few studies have been done to determine the relationship that exists between body image and sexuality in women without eating disorders or breast cancer.

Despite the lack of studies done in this specific area, it would not be unwise to assume that there is some correlation between one’s body image and one’s willingness to be sexual. In a paper by Weaver and Byers, the authors depict a study being done to investigate the relationship between body mass index measures (BMI), body image, and sexual functioning in heterosexual women. “Body image,” they note, “accounted for 20% of the variance in women’s sexual functioning.” Weaver and Byers also write that, in 2000, Wiederman found a positive correlation between women’s self-consciousness and their sexual self-esteem and assertiveness, as well as sexual anxiety and avoidance.

Weaver and Byers go on to, in the discussion of their findings, note that they “found that women with higher BMI appraised their bodies more negatively and were more likely to avoid situations that provoke concern about body image.” It makes sense then, that women with worsened body image (and subsequently women with higher BMI) would be more likely to avoid sexual situations, as their intimacy—whether with another person or oneself—tends to provoke great body-consciousness. Could one not assume

that the opposite is true? If one does assume that better body image causes one to be more involved with sexuality, then we must next investigate whether or not the reverse is true; does higher involvement with sexuality provide for better body image?

While research on this subject is not surprisingly sparse, we can begin to theorize ourselves about this possibility of a direct relationship between masturbation and better body image in women. First, we must address the studies which have already been done on the benefits of female masturbation. Most literature on the subject relates higher frequencies of female masturbation to the ease of achieving orgasm during intercourse, as well as better overall sexual health in women. Kaestle and Allen note that women tend to recognize the connection between masturbation and sexual health less readily than men tend to, primarily because women struggle to destigmatize their own masturbation more than men do. Kaestle and Allen produced a study that found, as put by the authors, “that a young adult’s perceptions of and feelings toward masturbation were the result of a developmental process that included: (1) learning about the act of masturbation and how to do it, (2) learning and internalizing the social contradiction of stigma and taboo surrounding this pleasurable act, and (3) coming to terms with this tension between stigma and pleasure.”

Masturbation serves, quite obviously, as a substitute for risky sexual behavior, as it tends to offer few long-term consequences (if any), but Kaestle and Allen imply that it offers even greater benefits, such as a more positive and knowledgeable relationship with one’s body as a female.. In 1953, Kinsey et al. suggested that there may be a positive correlation between the ability to achieve orgasm during masturbation and the likelihood that one could do the same during coitus. This positive correlation was highly agreed upon in the late 20th century, with women struggling with anorgasmia, or the inability to orgasm, turning to the masturbational orgasm as a sort of ‘cure.’ A study by Leff and Israel confirmed nonmasturbating women were much less likely to achieve a coital orgasm than masturbating women. Their rationale for this discovery was the ability that a woman gains through masturbation, which is that of knowing her own pleasures, and how, exactly, she can achieve orgasm, considering the fact that every woman achieves orgasm differently. We are able to relate this back to the woman’s notion of positive body image, for not only is she able to know her body better, but she is able to ‘operate’ it at a high echelon as well.

Truly, it is possible that masturbation could improve body image in most anybody—men and women alike—however, because women tend to struggle more prominently with body satisfaction, it is within our best interests to study its impacts on women’s body image. For women are the sexually oppressed sex, and not men. If body image is improved, then self-esteem should be improved, as body image is a component of self-esteem. See Figure 1.

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Arafat, Ibtihaj S., and Wayne L. Cotton. “Masturbation Practices of Males and Females.” The Journal of Sex Research, vol. 10, no. 4, 1974, pp. 293–307.

Baumeister, Roy F., and Jean M. Twenge. “Cultural Suppression of Female Sexuality.” Review of General Psychology, vol. 6, no. 2, 2002, pp. 166–203.

Campbell, Jennifer D, and Loraine F Lavallee. “Who Am I? The Role of Self-Concept Confusion In Understanding the Behavior of People With Low Self-Esteem.” Self-Esteem: the Puzzle of Low SelfRegard, edited by Roy F. Baumeister, Plenum Press, 2012.

Escalante, Alyson. “Biology and the Oppression of Women.” Medium, 2018, Biology and the Oppression of Women.

Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. Vintage, 1990.

Friday, Nancy. Women on Top: Women’s Sexual Fantasies. Hutchinson (Random Century Group), 1991.

Hogarth, Harriet, and Roger Ingham. “Masturbation Among Young Women and Associations with Sexual Health: An Exploratory Study.” Journal of Sex Research, vol. 46, no. 6, 2009, pp. 558–567.

Figure 1. The above figure visually demonstrates the relationship that exists between masturbation and body image, with self-esteem and orgasm frequency serving as offshoots from the ‘results’ of masturbation and body image. Note that the relationship between body image and masturbation is dipoled; it ‘goes both ways.’

I

t is clear that, throughout history, men’s needs have gained priority over women’s needs. Indeed, women’s needs have often been wholly discarded or denied for the benefits of men. Women have been physically tortured for the sake of men’s power security, having their genitals mutilated so that men could feel as though they had control over their own sexualities. Nowadays women are, of course, less at risk for physical injury in the Western world, but still face the stigma that prevents them from the pleasures of their bodies, including the stigma of writing about these pleasures. However, it is clear that, when women are introduced to self-pleasure without stigma, they are able to explore their own bodies and get acquainted with not only the physical maps of their genitals but also the many emotional and sensory maps that exist in connections with one’s genitalia. Women are not only able to connect with their bodies in a healthier manner, but also seem to be able better project their self-images in a more positive light. So, women’s body image tends to be improved by masturbation, along with their self-esteem, which correlates to body image. There is, of course, no ‘magical’ connection between masturbation and self-esteem, but there is a logical one: when one is in better touch with their own bodies, they tend to be in better touch with their minds. When one is in good standing with their cognition, their self-esteem tends to be heightened.

It is a relief to hear such a thing—that women’s masturbation has a great number of benefits, examples of which have been shown in males—because women have been stigmatized for so long. Women should be able to become in touch with their own bodies, to take ownership of their sexual individuality, and, in turn, to reconcile their bodies to their souls.

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Kaestle, Christine E., and Katherine R. Allen. “The Role of Masturbation in Healthy Sexual Development: Perceptions of Young Adults.” Archives of Sexual Behavior, vol. 40, no. 5, 2011, pp.

983–994.

Kinsey, A C, et al. “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female.” Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 154, no. 12, 1954, p. 1045.

Kulish, Nancy Mann. “The Mental Representation of the Clitoris: The Fear of Female Sexuality.”

Psychoanalytic Inquiry, vol. 11, no. 4, 1991, pp. 511–536.

Leff, Joanne J., and Michael Israel. “The Relationship between Mode of Female Masturbation and Achievement of Orgasm in Coitus.” Archives of Sexual Behavior, vol. 12, no. 3, 1983, pp. 227–236.

Maines, Rachel P. The Technology of Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction.

Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

Onania: or, the Heinous Sin of Self-Pollution, and All Its Frightful Consequences, in Both Sexes Consider’d, &c.

With Spiritual and Physical Advice ... The Sixteenth Edition, as Also the Seventh Edition of the Supplement to It ... Printed Together in This One Volume. Printed for the Author, and Sold by J. Isted, 1737.

Scull, Andrew, and Diane Favreau. “The Clitoridectomy Craze.” Social Research, vol. 53, no. 2, 1986, pp. 243–261.

Shulman, Julie L., and Sharon G. Horne. “The Use of Self-Pleasure: Masturbation and Body Image Among African American and European American Women.” Psychology of Women Quarterly, vol.

27, no. 3, 31 Jan. 2003, pp. 262–269.

Slade, Peter David. “What Is Body Image?” Behaviour Research and Therapy, vol. 32, no. 5, 1994, pp.

497–502.

Smolak, Linda. “Body Image in Children and Adolescents: Where Do We Go from Here?” Body Image, vol.

1, no. 1, 2004, pp. 15–28.

Thompson, Clara. “‘Penis Envy’ in Women.” Psychiatry, vol. 6, no. 2, 1943, pp. 123–125.

Tissot, Samuel Auguste. L’onanisme, Dissertation Sur Les Maladies Produites Par La Masturbation.

HACHETTE LIVRE - BNF, 1760.

Weaver, Angela D., and E. Sandra Byers. “The Relationships Among Body Image, Body Mass Index, Exercise, and Sexual Functioning in Heterosexual Women.” Psychology of Women Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 4, 2006, pp. 333–339.

Welles, Caitlin E. “Breaking the Silence Surrounding Female Adolescent Sexual Desire.” Women & Therapy, vol. 28, no. 2, 2005, pp. 31–45.

Whorton, J. “The Solitary Vice: The Superstition That Masturbation Could Cause Mental Illness.”

Western Journal of Medicine, vol. 175, no. 1, 2001, pp. 66–68.

Wiederman, Michael W., and Tamara Pryor. “Body Dissatisfaction and Sexuality among Women with Bulimia Nervosa.” International Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 21, no. 4, 1997, pp. 361–365.

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Segregated Taste Rory Klink

T

he fabrication of the cigarette smoker was one of the most important moments in the beginnings of an age of consumerism. This work began before I’d ever visited American Tobacco or the Duke Homestead or even heard of Bright Leaf; it began when I became fixated on Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

I became curious about the nature of recreating images of man. Religion was becoming a less defining factor in society leading into the twentieth century: if not God, then from what images were citizens created? The question brings important implications. Into what image are men made?

What function does this image serve? I found answers in the late nineteenth century which saw the simultaneous birth of the American cigarette and advertising. The specifics of this moment are important because, without great precedent, the conscious choices of tobacco companies produced powerful consequences over the future of personal and racial identity in America.

In the aftermath of slavery, ideas about race became the domain not only of science and law but of commercial advertising, a relatively new phenomenon. Studying the formative decisions in early cigarette advertising reveals hidden aspects of how identity was created in that historical context, and the tremendous effects of those choices attest to the significance of an emerging consumer identity inseparable from Jim Crow. The means by which cigarettes were marketed were successful because they tapped into, as they transformed, existing attitudes and needs. The slogan ‘Sex sells’ does not imply the advertiser invents sex, but that the advertiser exploits actual desires, attaching social meaning and mediating natural tendencies. We can also understand integral aspects of racial psychology in the late nineteenth century by understanding the methodology and success of advertising. This time period was essential to the

success of the desire for cigarettes as a desire for “race,” for white male supremacy and black inferiority and servitude.

Advertising recreates a mythology centered around the product being sold. This recreation works by tapping into existing conditions and incorporating them into the new mythology. In the above advertisement, used by W. B. Duke & Sons, the illustration depicts a wealthy black man whose shadowy self is that of a gorilla. This advertisement card and others of its kind played on white resentment toward the financial success of newly freed African Americans during and after Reconstruction, especially in Durham’s developing Hayti Community. In spite of the signs of wealth – cufflinks, umbrella, coat and tie – the depiction of the man’s gorilla shadow insists upon a racist essentialism. The advertisement assures its insecure white audience that Duke knows, as do they, that freed blacks will never be equal. Ads of this nature were only part of a broad mythology reinforced and designed by corporations during and after Reconstruction.

By studying any advertising campaign, we can base our assessment on two primary factors. Firstly, the nature of an advertising campaign points to the pre-existing attitudes it seeks to exploit. Secondly, the degree to which that exploitation succeeds indicates something of the magnitude or nature of that pre-existing attitude. Of course, the specifics of understanding historic advertisements are more nuanced than this, but these are the primary assumptions by which this work is justified. The mythology of cigarette advertising created the image of a white, male consumer that had never before existed in the United States, more generally, a category of advertised, white aesthetics, of “taste” inseparable from “race,” or, more specifically, racism.

This advertised white man was at once a promise and a path for actual white men who saw it. It promised to elevate and distinguish their race and sex. This was part of the active construction of race in the wake of Emancipation.

Whiteness was incessantly defined against blackness, and as the meaning of blackness changed with Emancipation, so too would the meaning of whiteness. As whiteness no longer rested on not being enslaved, so it became more and more dependent on an individual’s performance.

With legal differences between white and black becoming less distinctive, the social meanings of race were adapted to maintain disparity while recreating an imaginative ground for white supremacy. A created addiction of racial distinction.

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Legal racial distinctions were changing, and along with the legal forms of white supremacist reaction, the Black Codes and subsequent legislation of Jim Crow, came social changes meant to reinforce racial lines. Black and white people alike enjoyed chewing and smoking tobacco, but when white men took up cigarettes it created a new standard of what aspects of personal consumption constituted race: this was segregated taste. The construction of a person’s whiteness became more incumbent upon that individual’s performance as white. These performances involved adherence to the new images of whiteness, as seen in the advertising of cigarettes. By creating new contingencies for whiteness, which were to be performed by individuals, tobacco companies were able to sell products which acted as a prop in the performance of whiteness. This pressure to perform as white was an extremely sensitive aspect of identity, and one ripe for exploitation. Prior to emancipation, whiteness relied simply on not being a slave.

This does not mean performance was not a part of white identity, as evidenced in the white on white homicide rates in the south or blackface minstrelsy, but the less defined aspects of race after Emancipation brought the ambiguity which private and political interests exploited to influence the meaning of white identity for their own purposes.

Directing imaginations and cultural portraits, cigarette advertisements became the start of a lasting segregation taste.

D

uring the latter part of the nineteenth century white men were under pressure to define their race in ways which never would have seemed important during slavery.

Emancipation did not bring equal citizenship, but any shift at all in the existing, racial power structure was cause for alarm in the psyches of white men. A white supremacist - and white Americans were white supremacists almost without exception - grew up in the antebellum periodin a state and in a nation which constantly enforced white supremacy.

A white man’s place was superior to a black man’s place in very real ways because the State organized power so that everywhere, the ideology of white supremacy was given the actual reference of material conditions organized around race.

In the South, white masculinity was heavily connected with not being seen as a slave. On the frontier south, white men fought to the death over what W.E.B. DuBois called “the psychological wages of whiteness.” If a white man allowed himself to be insulted, he’d be called “poke-easy”, as slaves could not retaliate against insult. Enduring insult became a sign that a white man was slave-like, which lead to astronomically high rates of homicide among white men in duels and street fights in the Deep South. In Edward Baptist’s The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, Baptist cites cases such as that of Bob Potter, where white men outside the plantation aristocracy

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took violent action to defend their manhood, a manhood or autonomy jeopordized by their economic position. Potter murdered a political opponent after he declined Potter’s duel challenge on the basis of class. Potter was not punished for this and went on to castrate two men whom he suspected of having had affairs with his own wife. The crime could only be classified as “maiming” and resulted in new legislation against the castration of white men, but during his two years in prison his wife was able to divorce him and rename their children. Bob Potter’s status as father was undone and the children taken from him; here, again, his status was likened to an enslaved man, whose children were kept in their mother’s lineage. Further examples given by Baptist go to show how desperate lower-class white men were to define themselves as not slaves. As the perceived similarities between himself and an enslaved man grew (the alleged infidelity, the divorce, his children following the maternal line) we can see Potter’s desperation to distance himself from “blackness” mount. Potter is an example of race becoming an instrument to prevent class affiliation, for poor white men had indeed more in common with enslaved people than they did the planters who would send them to war.

Until emancipation, to be black in the South was to be a slave, and how else had whiteness been defined except as unequivocally “not black.” We see this distinction remade over and over again in more recent texts, including Virginia’s “Racial Integrity Act of 1924.” Virginia’s statute, which stood until Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia in 1967, established the first legal example of the one-drop rule. The one-drop rule defined anyone with any non-“Caucasian” blood as colored. Furthermore, as the law becomes less simple, it becomes more revealing of the conditions of racial definition: “a white person is one with no trace of the blood of another race, except that a person with one-sixteenth of the American Indian, if there is no other racial mixture, may be classed as white.” This ‘Pocahontas’ clause was included because a number of old Virginian aristocrats boasted that they themselves were descendants of Pocahontas, and the law was amended to prevent any legal trouble coming from these boasts. The meaning of race is taken from pre-existing attitudes and then legitimized in law, under the spell of eugenics and other forms of scientific racism now disavowed as pseudoscience. Although one must recognize the role “public sentiment” has in shaping these laws, it is in the addition of the Pocahontas clause that the true engineering of race is shown. Elites who wield the State power most directly are able to define race in ways that benefit themselves specifically, while still appealing to populist support. We cannot be sure of the degree to which political elites subscribed to the ideologies they themselves used to sway public opinion, but the specifics of implementation imply ulterior motives. That is to say, those in positions of power were using ideologies such as white supremacy in order to exploit white people and black people alike. Maybe

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Andrew Jackson believed in the right of all white men to vote, but he also knew that appealing to their masculinities provided a strong political base in the Southern frontier states and gave his campaign a competitive edge.

White supremacy has been maintained in the US because white men have always had the State and economic power to defend their ideologies from the consequences of critique.

The agendas of white elites did not have to “make sense”: pseudo-rationality was enough to provide legitimacy to the State because those in opposition lacked the power and forum to retaliate. Take for instance, the scientific field of eugenics popular at the turn of the twentieth century. Eugenics is the subtle extreme of madness spoken in a form designed and backed by State power. With scientific training limited to white men by the institutional racism of the universities, the disenfranchised groups which come under fire are excluded from this discourse. Even when black men knew eugenics was a fabrication, their response and resistance were not taken as legitimate. This monopolization and capitalization of legitimate rhetoric is clearly a perversion of discourse, wherein power structures are able to enshrine ideology in authorizations and criteria. To be white prior to emancipation was, in part, to have complete protection by the State against all enslaved peoples, who were by definition unprotected by the State, save as property. This protection was not only physical safety, seen in the disparity between laws against harming slaves and free men, but in the protection of white identity. Whiteness was identified legally as superior to blackness; thus to perform one’s superiority as “white”--to be white--was also to enact another’s inferiority.

This identity was increasingly connected to the nation, as, Jacksonian democracy established the white male, regardless of property, as the citizen.

Here we can look back again at the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. The “rationality” behind the law was based in Eugenics, and the report on Senate Bill 219 was written by W.A. Plecker, M.D. of the State Registrar of Vital Statistics.

Dr. Plecker lays out, with all the assurance of a physician, the meaning and requirements of race: “It is estimated that there are in the State from 10,000 to 20,000, possibly more, near white people, who are known to possess an intermixture of colored blood, in some cases to a slight extent it is true, but still enough to prevent them from being white.” His theatrical estimations, “10,000 to 20,000” and his further comments on the threat of these mixed-race people, who “ in not a few cases have intermarried with white people,” are technocratic fearmongering. Even as his estimations are anything but certain, Plecker carries the full weight of his authority in his definitions of race: “These persons, however, are not white in reality, nor by the new definition of the law.” Now then, who is this author? We may assert that most people reading or catching passages of the report will not have any personal relation with W.A. Plecker, and therefore his writing has allowed him to become a fictional persona to his readers: the state personified as a doctor.

Plecker is offering the State’s remedy for a problem which is only really a problem because it emphasizes it as such.

The State is giving itself greater authority in determining the race of its citizens and explaining this increase in State influence and biopolitical power with the perceived threat of mixed-race individuals. There is also an implied threat present in the statute. Again and again Pecker emphasizes that it can be extremely difficult or even impossible to distinguish some interracial people from white people. This decision then lies in the hands of the State, which Pecker reminds the reader of in phrases likec“really white,” because his authority as a doctor, aligned with the State, is the only deciding voice in these seemingly ambiguous cases. So, if skin color is not enough to prove one’s whiteness and thereby secure their position in society, the State has the final say on one’s race, connecting “reality” to “law.” The name W.A. Plecker becomes the authoritative specialist of the State, the one who knows a racial identity otherwise hidden by ambiguous flesh. In practice, this decision was often made in consideration to reports by people who knew the individual, and whether or not their behavior “seemed white”. Now, stripped of the power to claim one’s own race, these reminders of the State’s final authority become threats to the population which considers itself white. In order to be sure you will be counted white, you must not only look white but also act white. All people who wish to be considered white must now become white impersonators.

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et us go back and explore the purposes to which White Supremacy was used as ideology. Long after mob violence and national indifference had ended Reconstruction’s attempt to achieve interracial democracy in the United States, Political elites stood to gain something by inciting violence against black citizens. By mobilizing and militarizing “white” hate against “black” demands for political equality, political elites maintained a powerful grip on governance to which they were not necessarily held accountable for. In many ways, the lynch mob itself was being exploited by the “white” State. How might the rights of working people be better if instead of uniting with bourgeois whites, white laborers had seen freedmen as brothers in economic standing. But no, this is not what happened, so we must now ask why not? What about racial violence appealed to the men in those lynch mobs and in those KKK meetings? All of this violence imagined a place for primitive manhood in modern culture. The narratives of the Templars and the Knights of Medieval Europe are obvious in the decorations of the KKK, and the State allowing white men the opportunity to fall into such senseless violence cannot be forgiven. In W.E.B Du Bois’s essay, “Jefferson Davis as a Representative of Civilization”, Du Bois asserts that because of the mythology built around figures such as Jefferson Davis, the “Teutonic” traditions of the Strong Man have continued in American society.

If former confederate soldiers were idolizing Jefferson Fifth World

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Davis, then it is clear how they incorporated their own terrorist acts into a narrative of racial justice. Jefferson Davis represented what Du Bois called “the cool logic of the Club,” (DuBois). as well as a distrust of the government. As a governmental figure opposed to the Union, he is then the perfect idol for white Southerners looking for precedent before they ‘take justice into their own hands’. Who became the role models of white masculinity would define how white men would imagine themselves and how they would perform to define their racial identity. When someone like Jefferson Davis is elevated to that mythological status, the effects are seen in the actual embodiments of the values that figure was made to represent. Generalized, representations of these strong men were enshrined and perpetuated in tobacco advertisements, including the image below taken from a WM. Cameron & Bros advertisement. The illustrated, fictionalized reenactment of old imperialist battles reinforced a Eurocentric, culturally derived addition to essentialist racism in the South and struck a chord with Southern whites. The KKK and Southern white supremacist ideology more generally tied their ideologies to medieval ideals of chivalry and feudalism. (Twain blamed the novels of Sir Walter Scott for the Civil War; and indeed, the Ku Klux Klan takes its name from “Lady of the Lake.”

More generally, the narratives of Scots against imperial invaders were adapted to Scots-Irish resistance to the Union Army, depicted in Birth of a Nation as black rapists.)

Advertisements tapped into this tradition by reinforcing them with out of context historical examples and violent, dramatized scenes. The selection and accentuation of these values held great sway over individual choice and identity, and wealthy private groups held the capital necessary to propagate images which benefited themselves.

As there was political advantage to be gained from the terrorism of the lynch mob, there was money to be made North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

off of white men looking for new ways to define both their whiteness and their masculinity. The removal of violence from the day to day lives of most white men can be seen as the cause of such radical outbreaks of it, but it also indicates an enraged void in masculine identity which was to be filled by something. Political and private interests shaped these new identities in ways which exploited white workers and continued oppression of African Americans. Whiteness was becoming more and more performative, and these new white actors would need corresponding props. Cigarettes would become one of the most indicative signs of the shifts in white masculine identification. They represent the correlation between performance and consumerism, and the budding use of advertisement to create the narrative and character of a hyperwhite, hypermasculine consumer at a time when Americans simply did not smoke cigarettes.

We largely depend on our parents and those we grow up around for role models of our identity, but with the enormous changes going on during the late nineteenth century there were new aspects of identity which could not be fully explained by imitating parents who came from a different world. The opportunity create images with clear definitions of identity was taken on by cigarette companies and exploited to profit off Throughout the eighteen-hundreds, smoking and chewing tobacco had been wildly popular. Companies such as Blackwells and Duke & Sons had gained national bases through the confederate and union troops passing through Durham, North Carolina. However, at the end of the century we see the emergence of cigarettes, a new form of the same drug. Why cigarettes? They were necessarily designed as a white product and carried their own mythos of white aesthetics with them. Writes Frantz Fanon about the nature of white beauty, “I am white: that is to say that I possess beauty and virtue, which have never been black” (Fanon, 45). Cigarettes were new to the market and where chewing tobacco had been produced and consumed by whites and blacks alike, the entire process of producing and marketing cigarettes was segregated for white consumers.

Segregation in the process of cigarette marketing started before the images on cigarette cartons or the prints in local newspapers; the work force which produced them was segregated. When processing and manufacturing smoking and chewing tobacco, the Duke family hired out enslaved labor from other slave owners. However, when the Dukes started selling cigarettes, they switched their entire workforce over to an Eastern European immigrant base. If you visit the Duke Homestead visitor center you’ll be told about this switch, accompanied by explanations that these immigrants already knew how to roll cigarettes and were much more efficient than the previous workforce. This explanation does not hold up when placed in context with the marketing from the period. Cigarette cartons, before the introduction of machine rolled cigarettes, advertised the fine craftsmanship of their cigarettes: “Each rolled

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by artisan hands.” Those artisan hands could only be the hands of whites. This characterization, from the production stage, meant that cigarettes were a product made for and by whites. The advertising made it clear that they were the tobacco product “which have never been black” (Fanon, 45) Beyond white washing marketing of the labor force, other tropes of whiteness were involved in selling cigarettes.

The Duke company was the first to incorporate images on the cardstock needed to give cartons form. These cigarette cards went on to become baseball cards, but initially they depicted pornographic drawings of women and famous actresses. More than that, a set of these collectible cards depicted famous white actresses dressed in kimono and surrounded by jungle foliage and drawings of tigers and exotic birds (see below white actress Helen Standish as, “Helen Standish, Japanese Lady”). The identity of the cigarette smoker was created by identifying white, male taste. The cigarette smoker appreciated fine European craftmanship, appreciated the same kinds of women, and

held a certain entitlement to imperialist appropriations of foreign cultures. Did white men know they shared these bonds before they became cigarette smokers? No, because these bonds of white masculinity were constructed and codified by the cigarette product and its advertisement. One specific advertisement points out the true political motive that came with cigarettes. It is a card which depicts General Grant and General Lee. After flipping these images over, a short text reminded the reader that no matter what political affiliation you held, the bond between these sides was a shared taste for this cigarette brand. Of course, that “taste” is a stand in for whiteness: they are roughly synonymous in these uses.

Before Emancipation, slavery had been the primary distinction in racial identity. What it ‘meant’ to be white or black was a question of freedom, so the legal freedom given by the Reconstruction Amendments meant a new state of racial identity. New laws were instituted to provide State enforced distinctions, but the personal aspects of identity rested heavily upon personal choices. Personal choices were a way of realizing one’s racial identity by making choices in ways that conformed to racial codes, but because the nature of these racialized ideals was not defined yet there was a huge opportunity for powerful companies to influence them.

By controlling and providing the role models for white performance, cigarette companies shaped both the ideology of race after Emancipation and the nature of identity in an increasingly consumer-based society. Companies such as Duke & Sons and Blackwells used advertising to make consumer taste a hugely effective crosscutting cleavage for white men. This shared and constructed taste in tobacco product, women, and style became part of what it meant to be a white man in America. The ease with which these norms of identity were established is astonishing, and the effects have magnified since. It is necessary to question the construction of personal identity and undo the mythology of race.

Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, 1952.

W.E.B. DuBois, “Jefferson Davis as a Representative of Civilization”, 1890.

Richard Ohmann, Selling Culture: Magazines, Markets, and Class at the Turn of the Century, 1996.

Richard H. Robbins, Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, sixth edition, 2014.

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Justified Brutality: The History of Governing Warfare Ryan Caton

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he American Civil War was the most brutal war in American military history. Massive armies descended upon small American towns, with casualties often numbering larger than the local populations. At Chickamauga, 34,624 soldiers fell; in Spotsylvania, 30,000 were killed or injured; The Wilderness took 29,800; 24,000 casualties at Chancellorsville; 51,000 killed or injured men in just three days of fighting at Gettysburg. The single bloodiest day of American military history, the Battle of Antietam, resulted in 22,717 casualties in just 12 hours of fighting. In discussion of new developments resulting from the American civil war, the focus is mainly on the new technologies used in combat and the emancipation of African slaves in America.

Yet, born out of this savage, bloody war was a new kind of governance over military conduct. The American Civil War marked the first time a modern, standard codification of rules of war were used by an army.

General Order No. 100, later known as the Lieber Code, was a set of guidelines used by the Union army to make sure they were fighting what they thought was a “just” war.

Laws of war have changed over the years since the first introduction of the code, but the basic ground rules have stayed fairly consistent. Most standard laws of war have historically enacted rules that prevent the unjust killing, torture or suffering of enemy combatants or citizens. This includes restricting the use of weapons deemed at the time inhumane, protecting the rights and general welfare of prisoners of war (POWs) and at the same time preventing armies from harming citizens who happen to live in enemy territory but are otherwise uninvolved with the conflict itself. These rules are based on general human morality, not necessarily any legal grounds, as legal precedent for these rules were not established for a long time. Laws of war, or any other codifications of military rules, are an interesting moral dilemma that govern the conduct of millions of soldiers around the world today and in the past. In making these laws, a mutual agreement has been made that killing enemy soldiers is reasonable in legal as well as moral terms.

As well intended as they are, laws of war set killing of other humans in terms of right or wrong, as if there is truly a ‘right’ way or reason to kill another person. These laws do not determine if a nation is conducting a just war, though.

Any legal terms or conditions set by these laws are only in an attempt to protect those who cannot fight back, or to North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

protect opposing soldiers from particularly gruesome and painful deaths. Though the bases for these early guidelines were more focused on simply determining justness of a war being conducted, the modern interpretation of a set of laws of war is more to guide military leaders in decision-making.

This is similar to the Rules Of Engagement used by modern armies, most notably the United Nations’ Rules Of Engagements manual. These are specific guidelines given to individual soldiers for decisions about whom to fire upon while they are in active duty. These are meant to protect innocent civilians mainly, as most armed conflicts in the present day are armies trying to dispatch terrorist/rebel groups, not two massive armies converging in a field to do battle. The nature of modern conflict, which is more urban and therefore closer to civilians, requires warfare to use more caution. This is manifested in modern times by both international laws of war as well as Rules of Engagement used by many nations. Yet this has not always been the case around the world. It took many years of work and cooperation for nations to come to an international agreement as to what kind of conduct is allowed in warfare, and even longer to establish actual legal precedent for these guidelines.

Establishing rules for warfare, and certainly for any global regulations, require the ability to prosecute those who don’t follow the rules. Creating a way to try war criminals on an international scale was an undertaking that took decades, as legal challenges arose from attempting to try criminals not in one specific country, but on an international tribunal. An international Law of War can truly only survive if enforced by an international organization, with enough military and political power to be able to engage in peacekeeping missions and trials of war criminals. Thus, the Law of War only truly took an international scale under the guidance of the United Nations, after World War II. In order to be able to understand the modern day Law of War, one must go back to the beginning, the American Civil War. While the two huge armies of the United States and the Confederacy clashed along the east coast, U.S. president Abraham Lincoln had an interesting quandary on his hands: the exchange of prisoners. Some people believed that exchanging prisoners with the Confederates would confirm their legitimacy as a sovereign power, not just a band of rebels. An answer came to him via a letter to the

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New York Times, written by a professor at the University of South Carolina named Francis Lieber, titled THE DISPOSAL OF PRISONERS.; Would the Exchange of Prisoners Amount to a Partial Acknowledgment of the Insurgents as Belligerents, According to International Law?. Lieber argues that the exchange of prisoners with the Confederates would account more as “the mere recognition of fact as fact” than the of recognition of legitimacy. Lieber argues that if he were met by a robber asking for his money, he would be able to recognize the robbery as a fact and to acknowledge the dangerous nature of the armed robber without recognizing the robber’s right to be able to rob him. Around the same time, Lieber was teaching a series of lectures at the Law School of Columbia College entitled “Law and usages of War.” This caught the eye of General Henry Halleck, general-in-chief of the Union Army, who requested a summary of all of Lieber’s lectures.

Francis Lieber was about to be propelled into the middle of American and international war theory forever.

Franz Lieber, later known as Francis, was born in Berlin, Prussia, in 1800. In 1806, Napoleon’s troops entered Berlin; 10 years later, at the age of 16, Lieber joined the Prussian army to fight against Napoleon’s army. He was imprisoned twice for his opposition of Germany’s political system, once at age 19 and once at 28; Banned from most German universities and government employment positions, and he subsequently moved to Greece. After helping briefly in Greece’s fight for independence and tutoring young intellectuals in Greece, he moved around Europe, briefly living in Berlin and London, and finally moving to the United States with his wife Matilda in 1828. He became a professor at the University of South Carolina and started writing about political theories of war, motivated by his experience in Europe’s Napoleonic era.

While Francis Lieber was generally regarded as religiously ambivalent, his writings about war theory, especially the idea of the “just” war, were heavily influenced

by Christianity. The idea of the Just War is a Christian doctrine that is meant to guide Christian warfare while conforming to the biblical ideas that “taking human life is seriously wrong,” “states have a duty to defend their citizens and defend justice,” and “protecting innocent human life and defending important moral values sometimes requires willingness to use force and violence” (BBC, Just War). The dilemma is that it is impossible to accomplish all of these things, and thus forces the creation of a “just” war. The idea is that, if all these conditions for a justified use of force are met, governments should conduct a war following these rules. While the act of warfare, taking human lives, is still considered evil by Christian doctrine, if a war is justified, then the lesser evil must be taken to prevent greater evils.

In Lieber’s manual entitled Political Ethics, he argues that wars do not necessarily have to be unethical or immoral.

His guidelines for determining a just war reflect many of the same beliefs that stem from Christian doctrine, modified in terms of more modern beliefs. He indicates that wars

are inevitable between humans, and therefore must be conducted as humanely as possible, as to reduce casualties and suffering of combatants and civilians alike. Lieber suggests that wars must be fought only “after all other means of reparation are unavailable or have miscarried” and when “there must be reasonable prospect of obtaining reparation, or the averting of the evil, and the acquiescence in the evil must be greater than the evils of the contest” (Lieber, Political Ethics, p. 446). His last point directly references the idea of a lesser evil in warfare, the point that since wars are essentially inevitable, just wars are an exception wherein one is allowed to kill as long as it is deemed justifiable. Lieber defined 6 cases in which wars are just: “Wars of insurrection, to gain or regain liberty”; Wars of independence, in which a colony can run itself “and is treated oppressively by the mother country”; Wars to put down “armed factions”; “Wars to unite distracted states of the same nation”; Wars of defense; and “Wars of chastisement” (Lieber, Political Ethics, p.447).

These rules were heavily influenced by past wars in Europe, and his experience living in countries that were majority Christian.

In 1862, while corresponding with Union army generalin-chief Henry Halleck, Lieber proposed the idea of a manual of rules for warfare that would guide the U.S. Army. He was given the opportunity to work with Union leaders on his ideas, such as a reorganization of the army and creation of new ranks, but Lieber was not satisfied. He wrote a rough draft of his “Code,” originally 97 sections but lengthened to 157 by the final draft. Finally, on April 24, 1863, General Orders No. 100 was approved by President Abraham Lincoln. The 157 articles were made to guide Union troops in how to fight the Confederate armies in the south. The Code was essentially made up of guidelines based on his past works, influenced by the president and other high ranking Union Army officials. The goal of the Code was to organize the efforts of the army, as well as create political pressure on the Confederate leaders. This meant that the Code was not the pure moral guideline that Lieber had written in the past, but rather politically motivated for a specific side and a specific goal. Lieber made compromises in his code, in turn sacrificing some of his morals in the process. For example, one compromise made in the Lieber code surrounds the treatment of citizens. Lieber had prior established in Political Ethics that a just reason for warfare is protecting civilians, and that going to war with an aggressive regime was worthwhile to protect innocent lives. The Union Army, however, was enacting their Anaconda Plan, headed by General Winfield Scott, a man with whom Francis Lieber worked on editing and reviewing the Lieber Code. The plan entailed a complete naval blockade of the South and a slow strangulation of the Confederate States from land and sea, until they had no supplies or morale left to fight. The Lieber code states, in article 21, that “The citizen or native of a hostile country is thus an enemy, as one of the constituents of the hostile state or nation, and as such is subjected to the Fifth World

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hardships of the war.” (Lieber, General Orders No. 100, The Lieber Code, Art. 21). He treads lightly in his writing, saying also that unarmed citizens should be unharmed “as much as the exigencies of war will admit.” (Lieber, General Orders No. 100, The Lieber Code, Art. 22). This sort of wording appears to show that Lieber was not willing to fully compromise his moral beliefs, but had to alter his ideas on rules of warfare to adapt to the strategy of the group he was writing this for.

One main point that president Lincoln wanted to focus on was the dilemma of black soldiers in the Union Army.

The worry was that if they were captured, they would be subjected to harsh treatment and risk being re-enslaved by opportunistic slaveowners in Southern plantations.

Lincoln thought that if the Lieber code could politically pressure Confederate leaders into treating Union prisoners of war better, captured black soldiers would be saved from enslavement. Article 58 of the Lieber Code states “The law of nations knows of no distinction of color, and if an enemy of the United States should enslave and sell any captured persons of their army, it would be a case for the severest retaliation, if not redressed upon complaint. The United States cannot retaliate by enslavement; therefore death must be the retaliation for this crime against the law of nations” (Lieber, General Orders No. 100, The Lieber Code, Art. 58).

Records show that few Confederate soldiers were executed in retaliation, but many were forced into hard labor in attempts to get the attention of the Confederate leaders.

The lasting legacy of the Lieber Code was that it was the first modernized, codified set of laws governing how a nation and its soldiers were allowed to conduct warfare.

Other countries took notice, and soon after the war was over, Great Britain, France and Prussia reached out to the U.S. government to borrow and adapt it for their own militaries. The Lieber code was a first step for laws of warfare, but had its limitations. Mainly, it was specific to the United States Army in a conflict with a rebel group, so many of the rules had very specific rationale for their creation, in order to allow the Union the best chance of winning the war but also not legitimizing the rebellion itself. There needed to be more international, all-encompassing, unbiased set of rules.

The Geneva Conventions were a series of international meetings between 1864 and 1949 that laid the foundation of what international warfare laws are today. The goal of the Geneva Conventions was to establish international precedence for humane ways of treating soldiers, civilians and prisoners of war in wartime. It was closely associated with the Red Cross and its founder Henri Dunant, who set up the 1864 meeting known as the Convention for the Amelioration of the Wounded in Time of War. This convention provided for (1) the immunity from capture and destruction of all establishments for the treatment of wounded and sick soldiers and their

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personnel, (2) the impartial reception and treatment of all combatants, (3) the protection of civilians providing aid to the wounded, and (4) the recognition of the Red Cross symbol as a means of identifying persons and equipment covered by the agreement. (Shaw, Britannica) By 1867, all major European powers had ratified the convention, as well as some other nations around the world.

The second meeting of the Geneva Convention, in 1906, slightly tweaked and extended the rules made in the first convention. The third convention in 1929, the Convention Relating to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, established important rules surrounding humane treatment of captured soldiers in battle. It namely “required that belligerents treat prisoners of war humanely, furnish information about them, and permit official visits to prison camps by representatives of neutral states” (Shaw, Britannica).

The fatal flaw of the Geneva conventions, however, was there was no legal way to require other nations to implement these rules set up by the nations in attendance.

International laws only work when there is a force to hold people and nations accountable; after the end of World War I, there was no such organization. The early Geneva conventions that met before World War I and World War II laid an important groundwork in the early 1900’s for later work, but they were not as influential as the later Geneva Conventions would be.

Around the same time as the meetings of the Geneva Conventions, there were separate meetings at The Hague in the Netherlands from 1899 to 1907. The 1899 meeting meant to mainly focus limiting expansions of armaments and armies, as well as the adoption of the rules of the Geneva Convention of 1864 to naval warfare. The first objective was not completed, but they did apply the rules made in the 1864 Geneva Convention to a theater of maritime warfare. They created three more stipulations, barring the use of asphyxiating gases, expanding bullets, and explosives dropped from balloons. The initial conference at The Hague also led to the adoption of the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, creating a permanent court at The Hague for arbitrating on international disputes.

The second conference of the Hague Conventions was in 1907, attended by representatives from 44 countries.

The conference passed many new guidelines, such as the employment of force for the recovery of contract debts; the rights and duties of neutral powers and persons in war on land and sea; the laying of automatic submarine contact mines; the status of enemy merchant ships; bombardment by naval forces in wartime; and the establishment of an international prize court. Once again, there was no convention passed on being able to limit amounts of armaments of countries.

The true lasting impact of the Hague Conventions was the idea that there should be regular international conferences focused on discussing and solving global problems. These ideas heavily influenced the creation of the League of

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Nations, which, while not necessarily successful itself, influenced many organizations later, such as the United Nations.

World War I, then known only as The Great War, ravaged Europe from 1914 to 1918. Ten million soldiers and almost seven million civilians were killed in those four years, as well as hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed and millions of livestock killed. In 1921, a major step forward was taken for legal regulation of warfare. In Leipzig, Germany, the high German court, known as the Reichsgericht, started a series of court cases against German soldiers who were accused of war crimes committed during World War I. The Allied forces, victorious after the end of the war, had a list of as many as 900 German soldiers that they wanted to try for crimes committed during the course of the war. However, the German government insisted on trying them in their own courts, and shortened the list to about 45 men. The German Reichsgericht handed down resoundingly weak sentences, and when the German government reorganized in the 1930’s, many sentences were undone by the new Reich courts.

The Allied countries, the United States, Great Britain, France and Russia, increasingly grew to distrust the German courts and government. This failure to hold people accountable for violations of prior treaties was the exact reason they needed to form an international court of law, a governing body that was unbiased in nature and wide-sweeping enough to be able to have power to enforce the laws made in the Geneva Conventions and Hague Conventions. These steps forward were important for the countries involved, but it was not enough to stop what would happen in the next half-century.

World War II remains the worst war in the history of the human species. From around 1938 to 1945, 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians died. This included fighting on the battlefield, ethnic cleansing, mass rape, and indiscriminate bombing and sieging of large populations of civilians. When people began to discover what was happening in Germany, where the ethnic cleansing known as the Holocaust killed 11 million civilians, the world was shocked. In 1942, United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin announced their intent to punish Nazi war criminals following the conclusion of the conflict.

They signed the Moscow Declaration of German Atrocities, proclaiming that people deemed responsible for war crimes, such as massacres and executions, would be sent back to their home country and tried in a court of law. Major criminals, as well as people deemed to have committed acts not limited to one specific geographical region, would face an international tribunal of Allied countries.

The Nuremburg trials were the direct successor to the Leipzig trials, after the defeat of Germany in World War II. Held in Nuremburg, Germany, from 1945 to 1949, 22 Nazi leaders were prosecuted over a series of 13 trials by a military

tribunal made up of judges and prosecution teams from the four main Allied powers: the United States, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. Each defendant was tried for four separate charges: 1. Conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity 2. Crimes against peace 3. War crimes 4. Crimes against humanity The court used a combination of international guidelines of warfare, such as discussed in the Geneva conventions, as well as legal precedent from past trials, most notably the Leipzig trials. This was a delicate process of combining international laws with multiple judicial systems of the prosecuting countries, and was unprecedented for its time. The prosecution was also aided by hundreds of thousands of documents captured from the Germans, who kept meticulous records of the war and the Holocaust.

This allowed the Allies to put together compelling and comprehensive arguments against the Nazis, even without the presence of notable Nazi leaders such as Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels, who all committed suicide before the end of the war.

Another new development in the Nuremburg trials was the idea of prosecuting the leaders of a regime for war crimes, instead of starting with the individual soldiers who carried those actions out. There were many trials in the late 1940s and the 1950s prosecuting soldiers, doctors, guards and police, but the fact that the main trials started with the leaders of the Nazis was important. It established a level of high-reaching accountability, that even if someone never personally kills or tortures another human, if they are responsible for commanding others to do so, they are guilty. By the end of the trials, 12 leading Nazi officials were sentenced to death by the International Military Tribunal, three were given life sentences in prison, four were given 10-20 year sentences, and three were acquitted. Even more trials took place after the main 13 sessions, indicting 185 lower-ranking Nazi members. In those trials, the Tribunal gave out 12 death sentences, eight life sentences, and 77 prison sentences of varying length.

The Nuremburg trials were controversial, even among Americans. Harlan Stone, chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court at the time, criticized U.S. involvement in the trials. He said in private letters that there was nothing wrong with punishing Germans who committed atrocities in the war, but that it should not be “dressed up in the habiliments of the common law and the Constitutional safeguards to those charged with crime” and also referred to it as a “high-grade lynching party.” Other members of the Supreme Court were also concerned with Justice Robert Jackson’s participation as lead prosecutor during the trials in Nuremburg, saying it was causing him to neglect his duties Fifth World

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on the Supreme Court and violated the separation of powers (since he was a court justice taking part in an executive prosecution). However, American criticism softened as more evidence mounted of the atrocities committed against German citizens, and Nuremburg is now remembered more for the precedent it set in international law than for the dispute about overreaching judicial power. Nuremburg was used as useful precedent for trials against Japanese war criminals in 1946, and the idea of an international military tribunal was used in Yugoslavia in 1993 and Rwanda in 1994.

Following World War II, where the previous Geneva Conventions had done little to prevent mass war crimes and atrocities, the Red Cross wanted to expand and truly codify rules from previous conventions. The 1949 conference in Stockholm focused on four conventions: The Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field; The Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded, Sick, and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea; The Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War; and The Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. The first two conventions simply specified existing rules regarding fair treatment of uninvolved or unarmed people in wartime, while the fourth convention added almost nothing new in principle that hadn’t already been established in international law before the onset of World War II. The third convention -- The Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War – established new guidelines on treating prisoners of war, including requiring humane treatment of captured enemies, adequate supply of provisions such as food and water, as well as barring torture for information, mass punishments, and offenses that would result in “outrages upon personal dignity.” These new Geneva Conventions, as well as accords from the Hague Conventions, gained little traction at first.

It required the United Nations Security Council to set clear criteria for what counts as an international conflict and is therefore under the jurisdiction of the international law of war. No matter how much the rules evolve, there are always going to be infractions, so the conventions are only as good as the agency enforcing them.

The idea of a Law of War has changed over history, evolving as new contexts and new ideas are added upon the existing rules. Warfare changes as time goes on, as new technologies arise, and so naturally the laws governing which actions are deemed legal and illegal will change as well. The underlying issue with a governing document controlling how humans can act is that, inevitably, there are loopholes and people held unaccountable. History is written by the victor, and all too often that extends to who is held accountable for their crimes. No matter what each side of a war is fighting for, there are always immoral acts committed by the belligerents of either side. Is it immoral for the victors to not be punished for atrocities committed in the act of North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

winning a war? Is it moral for a side to do whatever it takes to win a war to save innocent lives? There is no language in any legal terms of prosecuting winners of wars, no precedent to jail the general of the victor for their methods needed to win the battle and the war.

Since 2015, a civil war in Yemen has been fought as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Saudi Arabia and their allies have been indiscriminately bombing the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group, indiscriminately killing civilians. In 2017, United States President Donald Trump signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to sell them $110 billion dollars of weapons and military equipment.

According to a September 2019 United Nations report, there have been many possible war crimes committed by both sides in the conflict, such as “airstrikes, indiscriminate shelling, snipers, landmines, as well as arbitrary killings and detention, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and the impeding of access to humanitarian aid in the midst of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.” The United States, Great Britain, and France are all aiding in these horrible acts by supplying intelligence, armaments, and support in the region, and yet will likely never face any international punishments. The United Nations must hold major countries accountable for what they do within other nations’ borders.

An evolution must be made in international laws to account for the responsibility of countries that engage in proxy wars, where the combatants are not as obvious, and liability of actions are unclear. When American-made planes drop American-made bombs onto civilians, does it mean the United States is responsible for these actions? When a port full of humanitarian aid is blown up by American-made missiles, is the United States complicit in denying crucial supplies to starving people? Current laws of warfare account only for traditional armies: a group of soldiers and their direct superiors. Responsibility, however, goes beyond just who pulls the trigger. It also must include the people who give them the tools to do the actions they may carry out.

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Gesley, and Jenny. “The ‘Lieber Code’ – the First Modern Codification of the Laws of War.” The “Lieber Code” – the First Modern Codification of the Laws of War | In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress, Library of Congress, 24 Apr. 2018.

Baxter, R. R. “The First Modem Codification of the Law of War. Francis Lieber and General Order No. 100.” International Review of the Red Cross, Apr. 1963.

Joseph Rikhof, “The Istanbul and Leipzig Trials: Myth or Reality?”, in Morten Bergsmo, CHEAH Wui Ling and YI Ping (editors), Historical Origins of International Criminal Law: Volume 1, FICHL Publication Series No. 20 (2014), Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, Brussels, ISBN 978-8293081-11-1. First published on 12 December 2014.

“International Military Tribunal at Nuremburg.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Bush, Jonathan A. “Review: Nuremberg: The Modern Law of War and Its Limitations.” Columbia Law Review, no. Vol. 93, Dec. 1993. No. 8, “Religions - Christianity: War.” BBC, BBC, 3 Aug. 2009.

“Ethics - War: Just War - Introduction.” BBC, BBC. Johnson, James T. “Just War.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 15 June 2017.

Baxter, R. R., and Henri Coursier. “The First Modern Codification Of The Law Of War.” Library of Congress, International Committee of the Red Cross.

“THE DISPOSAL OF PRISONERS.; Would the Exchange of Prisoners Amount to a Partial Acknowlodgment of the Insurgents as Belligerents, According to International Law?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Aug. 1861.

Lieber, Francis, and Theodore Dwight Woolsey. Manual of Political Ethics: Designed Chiefly for the Use of Colleges and Students at Law. J.B. Lippincott Company, 1893.

Avalon Project - General Orders No. 100 : The Lieber Code, 2008.

“Remarks of the Chief Justice American Law Institute Annual Meeting.” Home - Supreme Court of the United States, 17 May 2004.

“President Trump and King Salman Sign Arms Deal.” The White House, The United States Government, 9 Nov. 2017.

“Yemen: Collective Failure, Collective Responsibility – UN Expert Report.” OHCHR, 3 Sept. 2019,

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Our Silencing of Male Victims of Sexual Violence Sidney Nesbitt

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exual violence is a topic that has recently been brought to the forefront of media headlines with the #MeToo movement and other discussions of sex, gender, and power dynamics in western civilization. While these discussions have succeeded in bringing this important topic to light and helped to heal or to prevent the pain of many victims, they have, in many cases, also failed to give every victim a voice. While male victims of sexual violence are not often acknowledged by our culture for many reasons, they do exist and in large numbers.

Because of the substantial number of scholarly articles on the topic in comparison to other scenes of sexual violence against men, it’s clear that war is one context in which society has deemed it acceptable to discuss male victims of sexual violence. Sexual violence against men is notably used as a torture device for prisoners of war and “enemy” soldiers and civilians. There have been reports of mutilated genitals, forced penetration, rape, and other acts of sexual torture from numerous accounts surrounding the subject. In a research article surrounding wartime male rape and sexual torture Hilmi Zawati, Chair of the International Centre for Legal Accountability and Justice, states that: Male rape, in time of war, is predominantly an assertion of power and aggression rather than an attempt on the part of the perpetrator to satisfy sexual desire. The effect of such a horrible attack is to damage the victim’s psyche, rob him of his pride, and intimidate him. (Zawati, 2007) This asserts that sexual violence is not only reflective of sexuality, but also of power dynamics. It may be hard to believe, but the violence seen in war also permeates western culture and can be seen in the daily occurrences that promote sexual violence against men. The reason for the lack of literature and media coverage about these daily occurrences of sexual violence against men is because this violence is deemed acceptable war. Unlike these war stories; however, the daily occurrences in which men become victims to sexual violence are covered up by our media, ignored by our laws, and not considered in our discussions of sexual violence due to our society’s mutilated perceptions of masculinity and sex. This is because power and masculinity are measured by sexual dominance, aggression, and violence, which has led to the creation of the stigma that a male victim is weak.

In our culture, harmful descriptions of masculinity and femininity have led us to shame, ignore, and treat with great injustice male identifying victims of sexual assault and abuse.

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This work is a study on the effects modern culture has on male victims of sexual violence, it is meant to educate, to spread awareness of the major problem in our society that is the ignoring of sexual violence. It is important to bring this topic to light and share the stories of victims who have been silenced. It is our job to reform this culture that has silenced them.

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exual violence is a term used to describe any unwelcome sexual contact. This includes sexually violent talk, text, and touch (Yonack, 2017). Sexual violence includes actions of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and rape. There are many widespread myths and misconceptions regarding sexual violence that often deter victims from reporting and coming forth with their trauma. The belief that male rape perpetrated by another male is homosexual sex and therefore, that only homosexual men get raped and that only homosexual men perpetrate rape has caused many male rape victims to fear homophobic reactions from police and medical providers (O’brien, 2015). This is a common misconception regarding sexual violence, implying that sexually violent actions are dependent on the sexuality of the aggressor or victim, when sexual violence actually has more to do with power and control than the sexuality of those involved.

Sexual violence is a method of power and control that reflects and perpetuates harmful gender roles. To dominate or “feminize” another human in a sexual manner is a way to exert power. In 1977, researchers Groth and Burgess, through their studies analyzing accounts of 133 male offenders and 92 female victims of sexual assault, confirmed that power rather than sexual gratification is the motive in most rapes, including cases of males sexually assaulting other males (Bullock, 2011). In our society, the term feminine has connotations of weakness, and the term masculine has connotations of power, making feminization synonymous with weakness and linking asserting one’s dominance to feminizing another. In 2010, Edna Sednitzer, a blogger at Red Light Politics, took screenshots of “related adjective” results on Thesaurus.com for the term “power” (Sharp, 2010). Results included “male”, “masculine”, “broadshouldered”, and “manly” (Sharp, 2010). Since the article’s release, these results have been edited to be more gender inclusive; however, these adjectives continue to display how our language promotes the association of power with

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masculinity and the association of femininity with weakness.

Even culturally, manhood is defined by “violence, sex, status, and aggression” (Clemens, 2017). These links in language and culture display how violent behavior is promoted in men through our daily vernacular.

The problem with these descriptions of manhood is that they encourage men to act violently to establish their masculinity(Clemens, 2017). These descriptions also cause men to fear perceptions of weakness/perceptions of femininity. To men raised to associate masculinity with violence, it is more socially acceptable for a man to be the assailant rather than the victim. Due to this harmful stigma surrounding masculinity, men are less likely to come forth and receive help after sexually violent attacks against them.

There are many who believe that men cannot be victims of sexual violence or that “real men” and “strong men” can fight off an assailant, especially if that assailant is female.

In our culture, to identify as male and as a victim creates a paradox because these two descriptions oppose one another.

Although, in most reported cases of sexual violence, the victim is female, approximately one out of seventy-one men will be a victim of rape in their lifetime (Black, 2011). It is also important to note that rape is the most underreported crime in the U.S., with over 63% of medically treated sexual assault cases not reported to the police (Rennison, 2002).

Due to the reluctance to report sexually violent crimes, especially considering stigma surrounding male victims, there is no way to discern the real number of male victims of sexual violence.

Reluctance to report sexual violence also stems from the social and legal systems in our society that refuse to leave room for male victims to be heard and respected. Not only does our society not adequately acknowledge male victims, but it also restricts them from receiving justice. According to the definitions of sex crimes in North Carolina, a sex crime is only labeled forcible or statutory rape if vaginal intercourse occurs (RAINN, 2018). This law excludes both other forms of rape against biologically female persons and any person who is not biologically female from legally identifying as a rape victim. There are many laws similar to this across the western world that restrict non-biologically female victims from being able to get legal justice for sex crimes such as rape. In addition to law, even science has denied male victims acknowledgement. While sexual violence against men has been recorded throughout human history, there has not been sufficient research on the topic till as recent as the early 2000’s with investigations of the heightened rate of sexual assault in male prisons (O’Brien, 2015). These legal and scientific restrictions against identifying as a victim of rape have and continue to restrict how society identifies victims of rape.

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hile our society is becoming more progressive, there is still a reluctance to see men as victims of sexual violence. This is partly due to our archaic laws that enforce such thinking and partly due to our media that promotes normalizing harmful connotations of masculinity which often lead to sexually violent actions in the first place. Scenes of sexual violence against men permeate several popular television shows and movies, promoting masculinity in the Fifth World

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form of aggression and as the assumption that strong men cannot be victims.

Anyone who has watched a crime or police related television show has heard an actor playing a detective or police officer joke about prison rape to a suspect in order to motivate them to talk. It is common in crime shows for male suspects to be threatened with sexual violence in this manner. Jokes regarding rape in prison, such as, “don’t drop the soap”, have become normalized in our modern-day society, and you may not even notice just how wrong and harmful this comment is. This “joke” is a threat for sexual violence, and when coming from someone of authority in our society, such as an officer of the law, it is particularly harmful, as it validates the behavior of the assailant and delegitimizes the victim. While remarks of this sort are often heard in fictional television dramas, many real-life officers of the law carry this attitude and make sexual violent threats to real-life suspects. Around the time of the 2018 Super Bowl, Kentucky State Police tweeted “Enjoy watching Rob Gronkowski (TE) play but if you drink & drive ... your tight end may end up in jail!” with an accompanying picture of a bar of soap on the floor as a reference to anal rape (Novelly, 2018). Some may find this comment acceptable because the target of the remark is not only a male but possibly a criminal; however, sexual violence is not an action that should be threatened or joked about regardless of one’s gender or background.

Investigating what our society finds humorous is a good way to discover our society’s values. Films such as the 2015 blockbuster, “Get Hard,” repeatedly make fun of men who display “feminine” qualities and joke about them being victims of sexual violence in prison. The film, “Get Hard”, totaled over ninety million dollars in domestic box office revenue and over twenty one million in domestic video sales (Get Hard, 2015). Given the nature of the film, a comedy, and the fact that it is a modern blockbuster, it treats with the subject matter of fear of violence in incarceration and North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

prison rape how our society tends to view it - as a joke. In one scene, the main character is attempting to generate insults to use when he becomes imprisoned. Most of his insults are threats for sexual violence and references to gang rape, which are then used as punchlines and played for laughs (Warner Bros, 2015). The film reflects how western society is aware of the downplaying of violence against men. However, it does not understand the significance of its impact on men or take action against it, making jokes about the subject instead.

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here are many instances where men are victims of sexual violence and have had their experiences ignored by our society, such as sexual violence in prisons and even in the military. Even young men who have been sexually assaulted by women do not receive the same support as young female victims with male assailants. Studies conducted in England regarding the increase of reported female child molesters in recent years attributes some women’s desire for control in a heterosexual relationship to their desire to become sexually involved with younger men. This suggests that our sons need to be protected just like our daughters because masculinity does not stop predation (Schoenewolf, 2017).

Researchers at the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a UK based child protection charity, found that female child sex abuse is more widespread than what most people assume, with studies confirming that up to 20% of 320,000 suspected UK pedophiles were women who go unnoticed due to western societies reluctance to see women as sexual abusers instead of mothers and nurturers (Schoenewolf, 2017).

Another scene where male victims of sexual violence have gone unheard is the military. Sexual abuse in the military has only been a topic of discussion in recent years, as many have come forth with stories sharing their abuse. However, in these previous discussions regarding occurrences of sexual abuse in the military, men are overlooked, while the spotlight is placed on female victims. Over fifty percent of recorded victims of sexual violence in the military are men.

However, almost all media on the subject tends to focus on women (O’brien, 2015). This divide reflects the heightened harmful perceptions of masculinity that men in the military are supposed to embody. Due to the increased need to be seen as a strong defender of the country, these men are held to even higher standards of society’s definitions of masculinity. In 2004, the Office of Naval Inspector General reported that a large portion of “military men believed that males who were sexually assaulted are weak,” concurring that the environment does not support healthy perceptions of masculinity (Office of Naval Inspector General, 2004).

A study surrounding men who reported sexual assault and never sought mental health care, conducted at the Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System in Bay Pines, Florida, reported that male veterans did not seek help help out of their:

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“belief that sexual assault should be kept secret, fear of intense humiliation and shame if the assault was revealed to others, shame related to a perception of not fighting hard enough during the assault, fear of disbelief with disclosure, a belief that the assault should not bother them, and fear of their masculinity or sexuality being questioned.” (O’Brien, 2015).

These responses correlate with how many men feel in response to their assault, and these fears are valid considering how our society encourages ideas that male victims should be ashamed and keep their stories secret.

Like war, prisons are spaces in which we often acknowledge the occurrence of violence, yet rarely discuss it as a problem in serious contexts. Fear of sexual violence is a “defining characteristic of the prison experience in the United States” and “rape has been a key theme in the literature on imprisonment since at least the 1930s” (O’Donnell, 2004). Men and women are often sexually assaulted and abused in prisons to establish power in the highly precarious environment; however, these victims are rarely included in conversation about sexual violence and these crimes are rarely prosecuted. Just Detention International is an organization designed to spread awareness of and to end the abundance of sexual violence that is allowed to occur within our prison systems. The organization has also published firsthand accounts of those who have had experiences with sexual violence in detention centers. One of these survivors, under the pseudonym of Joshua, tells his story: Back in 1995, the unit I was on was big on rape, gang violence, and killing. In November of that year, my celly approached me and told me he needed to talk to me. As soon as I went into the cell, two more guys came in. I sensed something was wrong so I started fighting as hard as I could. But I was outnumbered. I was held down while the men took turns raping me. I went to Medical, where the nurses completed a rape kit and confirmed I was raped. I was placed in protective custody. When the officer from Internal Affairs came to see me, he asked if I wanted to file charges. I asked if he would put me in safekeeping, because if I snitched, the gang that raped me would kill me. The Internal Affairs officer told me I would not be put in safekeeping. So I decided not to give names… The following year, I attacked one of the inmates who was involved in the rape. As a result, I was placed in Administrative Segregation, where I have remained.

I have experienced low self-esteem and depression and have cut myself. (Just Detention, 2019) Joshua’s story mirrors the stories of many others with experiences like his. His story reflects the stories of those who have had their realities played for laughs on television screens and joked about at comedy shows. His story is not a joke. Like many other men who have not come forth with their stories, he experienced great trauma and is still suffering from its effects. Like many other men, his plea for help was ignored and he continued to suffer, both physically

and mentally. Stories like his are not jokes, yet they continue to be treated as one.

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irsthand accounts of male survivors of sexual violence are rarely heard or respected. When young boys are sexually abused by older women, comments of “he should feel lucky” are often heard. This is because society tends to deem the molestation of a male by a female harmless because it assumes that men should be sexually aggressive and open to all sexual advances, thus unable to become the victim to a female assailant. However, this should not be the case. Molestation is a form of sexual violence, and simply because the attacker was a woman and the victim a boy does not change that fact. If the roles were reversed and a male teacher had molested a girl then this comment would become inappropriate by society’s standards because we, as a whole, do not care about our men becoming victims of sexual violence as we should. We should care because a man is capable of being hurt, assaulted, and abused just as a woman can.

Due to our culture, men who who have been faced with sexual violence encounter many forms of adversity.

Contemporary social narratives, including jokes about prison rape, the notion that “real men” can protect themselves, and the fallacy that gay male victims likely “asked for it,” pose obstacles for males coping with victimization. A male victim’s sexual arousal, which is not uncommon during nonconsensual sex, may add to the misapprehension that the victimization was a welcome event. Feelings of embarrassment, the victim’s fear that he will not be believed, and the belief that reporting itself is unmasculine have all been cited as reasons for male resistance to reporting sexual victimization. Popular media also reflects insensitivity, if not callousness, toward male victims. For example, a 2009 CBS News report about a serial rapist who raped 4 men concluded, “No one has been seriously hurt.” (Stemple, 2014) The final sentence in the previous quotation stating that “no one has been seriously hurt” embodies the ignorance that permeates our society and promotes the refusal to acknowledge what is happening to our people. To propose that these men were not “seriously hurt” after being raped, most likely under the assumption that men cannot be hurt in such a way, is cruel and inhumane.

In recent years, feminist discourse regarding toxic masculinity has revealed the covering up of violence that suggests masculinity does not protect against sexual violence. However, men continue to face these ideals that promote the protection of violence against them. For example, many responses to men speaking out regarding their own experiences of sexual violence though the #MeToo movement have been degrading and unsupportive.

One man in particular, Terry Crews, made headlines when he entered the media’s spotlight in order to discuss his own experience with sexual assault.

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Due to Crews’ racial background and physical appearance as an extremely fit large black man, an appearance that in the past has been attributed to being a sexual aggressor due to harmful racial stereotypes, many people were shocked to discover that he too was a victim of sexual violence due to the misconception that sexual violence does not occur to what society deems strong men. While Crews did receive much support for his strength in coming forth, the backlash and jokes made in response to him when coming forth has also been immense. One commenter on an online article regarding Crews’ statements on his sexual assault states, “Terry Crews is such a pussy… It’s not that big of a deal tbh” (Chmielewski, 2018). The commenter’s use of the term “pussy” further reflects how insults reliant on feminized language are used to degrade and invalidate Crews because, in our society, to be comparable to a female is an insult.

Another comment follows: “if your masculinity was intact, you would have re-assaulted the [man] who touched [you]” (Chmielewski, 2018). These reactions to a man coming forth with his experience of sexual violence simply reinforce the culture that shames a man who does not adhere to traditional and harmful forms of masculinity by promoting violence.

Black, M.C., Basile, K.C., Breiding, M.J., Smith, S.G., Walters, M.L., Merrick, M.T., Chen, J., & Stevens, M.R. (2011). The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010 Summary Report. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bullock, Clayton M., and Mace Beckson. “Male Victims Of Sexual Assault: Phenomenology, Psychology, Physiology”. Journal Of The American Academy Of Psychiatry And The Law, no. 39, 2011, pp. 197-205.

Chmielewski, Dawn C. Deadline. Terry Crews Testifies Before Senate On Sexual Assault, Says He Won’t Be In ‘Expendables 4’ After Producer Threatened “Trouble”. 2018.

Clemens, Colleen. “What We Mean When We Say, “Toxic Masculinity””. Teaching Tolerance, 2017.

“Get Hard (2015) - Financial Information”. The Numbers, 2015.

Just Detention. “Joshua”. 2019.

Novelly, Thomas. “KSP Joke About Anal Rape In Tweet”. 2018.

O’Donnell, Ian. “Prison Rape In Context.” The British Journal of Criminology, vol. 44, no. 2, 2004, pp.

241–255. JSTOR. Office of Naval Inspector General. (2004). NAVINSGEN Sexual Assault Study Naval Inspector General Report to VCNO, 2014.

O’Brien, C., Keith, J. and Shoemaker, L. (2015). Don’t tell: Military culture and male rape. Psychological Services, 12(4), pp.357-365.

RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. “Sex Crimes: Definitions and Penalties in North Carolina.” 2017.

Rennison, Ph.D., C. (2002). Rape and Sexual Assault: Reporting to Police and Medical Attention, 1992-2000. Bureau of Justice Statistics Selected Findings. U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs.

Schoenewolf, Ph.D. Gerald. “The Rise Of Female Child Molesters”. 2017.

Sharp, Phd, Gwen. “Power = Masculine, Weakness = Feminine - Sociological Images”. 2010.

Stemple, Lara, and Ilan H. Meyer. “The Sexual Victimization Of Men In America: New Data Challenge Old Assumptions”. American Journal Of Public Health, vol 104, no. 6, 2014, pp. e19-e26.

American Public Health Association.

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ur culture has shown great injustice for male victims of sexual violence. Because of harmful gender roles, to be sexually violent towards men is not only socially acceptable but leads to the ostracization of male victims rather than sympathy. Sexual violence against men is too often swept under to the rug for it to continue to be ignored. If we were to simply create an environment for men to have a voice to tell their stories without fear of being emasculated, then our society would be better off. Not only does our societies’ treatment of male victims impact men who have encountered sexual violence, but it impacts all men who grow up in this society restricted by the harmful connotations of masculinity. When children, especially young boys, grow up viewing media and hearing their parents joke about the sexual abuse of men with comments such as “don’t drop the soap” and “he should feel lucky,” they grow to think that to be a “real” man is to be violent and sexually dominating. It is this cycle of ignorance that has caused so many voices to go unheard, and so many stories to be forgotten and ignored. It is our responsibility to change this culture we have inherited before it leads to greater violence.

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Warner Bros. Get Hard - Trash Talk Scene HD (1080P). 2015.

Yonack, Lyn. “Sexual Assault Is About Power”. Psychology Today, 2017.

Zawati, Hilmi. “Impunity Or Immunity: Wartime Male Rape And Sexual Torture As A Crime Against Humanity”. Journal On Rehabilitation Of Torture Victims And Prevention Of Torture, vol 17, no. 1, 2007, pp. 27-47. Accessed 29 Oct 2019.

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Identity Dysphoria in El Salvador: A Transgenerational Analysis Sofia I. Morales-Calderon

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he civil war in which El Salvador was engaged from 1980 to 1991 was the culmination of socioeconomic inequalities developed since the nineteenth century. Land ownership became intertwined with socioeconomic status systematically, from the 1881-84 Liberal Reforms, which eliminated common lands and illegalized vagrancy, to the monoculture of coffee representing 90% of El Salvador’s exports in the 1920s-30s. The subsequent dissatisfaction of the peasantry resulted in a revolt known as ‘La Matanza’, The Massacre, in which thirty-thousand protestors were massacred. This catalytic event further divided the economic and social elite from the poor, and introduced militarization as integral to the upholding of this traditional system of classes. The rise of Marxism, progressivism, and liberation ideology in the 60s and 70s would challenge the hierarchical structure of this traditional society, and threaten its international profile in the global economy. Further conflict between these two political-societal interests was inevitable, and would manifest itself into El Salvador’s proxy civil war, with the United States supporting the established elite against the rebels supported by the U.S.S.R. Salvadoran society was permanently altered after the war.

In displacing a third of the country’s population, the war effectively disrupted the traditional structure of Salvadoran society with most of its displaced people immigrating to the United States. While in the United States this immigration was associated with the MS-13 gang, it is important to acknowledge that the MS-13 gang was founded out of a reaction to United States’ racist disregard for the welfare of these immigrants. The United States’ social classification of Salvadorans as a whole inadvertently united this group of immigrants, who responded by founding of NGOs for racial equity, social awareness of underrepresented minorities, and for the finding of family members who went missing during the war. What this paper aims to do is analyze the effects of the war upon Salvadoran societal identity in the United States and in El Salvador. Using a transgenerational social identity analysis, I wish to know how the perception of identity of the new generation of Salvadorans in the United States compares to the perception of identity in El Salvador, and what it means for a future unity between these two-conflicting groups.

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raveling to El Salvador myself, I attended a Catholic mass and an evangelical gathering. The Catholic mass delved into the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, cities so infested with sexual sin, that the Lord decided to be rid of them. However, Abraham asked the Lord to spare them if fifty righteous people were found, lowering the number each time he asked, until he reached ten. There were not even ten people who were free of sin in the city, and so it was burned.

When Lot’s wife looked to see what was happening, she turned into a pillar of salt. In the same way, the evangelical gathering depicted a story where one can tolerate the sins of others, but must not attempt to understand others who have given into temptation. Citing the United States as a land of sinful temptation, the message emphasized at the gathering was that we, as a people, need the fortitude to resist the allure of this land of sin. The ideology was one sought to enable people to recognize the sin that surrounds them, and to stand against its seductions. They as Salvadorans did not have to consume the sins of the United States.1 This religious desire then caused me to question the extent as to which the United States was responsible for consuming the identity of these people, and why its attempt to replace their identity was failing. In fact, what was the Salvadoran identity which needed to be protected from the evils of La EE .UU.? 2

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p until the 1980’s, El Salvador was organized by a social formation akin to serfdom. Caste systems were divided into peasants, laborers, landowners, the Catholic Church, and the government. When the international value of coffee rose in 1880, land became a valuable resource, and one that the government would act swiftly to regulate becoming the “third most valuable internationally-traded commodity in the world” (Topik). Under the Liberal Reforms of 1881-1884, common land would cease to exist, and could be obtained in titular form if cash-crops were grown on it.

Effectively, vagrancy was illegalized. Suitable farming land that had been previously inhabited by Native Americans and peasants could now be obtained, and said people could be 1

Direct quote, Evangelical Gathering.

2

Standard acronym for the United States.

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used to work the land cheaply. It resulted in the formation of Plantations.

Coffee exports soon represented 90% of the nation’s exports (Topik). While industrialism allowed for lessened transportation costs, it led to the globalization movement in the twentieth century, which lowered the demand for Salvadoran coffee. In order to keep profits with this lessened demand, employment levels were lowered. It caused a peasant revolt to ensue in 1932, led by Farabundo Marti. Over the course of three days, 30,000 protestors were massacred, earning the event the name ‘La Matanza’, The Massacre. It revealed a disconnection between castes, between the wealthy and poor, between landowners and peasants, and between the rural and the metropolitan.

More remarkably, it commented on a contrast between the Spaniard descendants who inherited titular land titles, and that of the Natives who were stripped of their common land.

This contrast would serve to further exclude each group from the other. On one hand, it intensified the desire for a societal revolution, exemplified by the Marxist-Leninist viewpoints of Farabundo Marti in the peasantry; on the other hand, the revolution shrouded the elite in fear, a fear that would lead to a metropolitan centralization of official militant efforts.

The 1960’s and 1970’s were characterized by the rising conflict between the rightist and leftist ideology. Marxism, progressivism, and liberation theology would challenge the traditional power of the Salvadoran elites as a society built on a strict caste system. El Salvador had been able to industrialize itself for economical reasons, however, it was this fact that made it susceptible to ideological changes, which consequently threatened its international profile in the global economy. This societal conflict of interest that had intensified over decades would now enter an international scene through a proxy war- the U.S.S.R would support the insurgent Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), while the United States would support the central government of El Salvador.

Systematic injustice and oppression would lead to the start and cultivation of the FMLN, as seen in actions leading up until the 1980’s. Radio stations were required to attune to the central government’s ‘National Radio’ at least six hours a day, and station YSAX and periodicals ‘The Chronicle’ and ‘The Independent’ would have their offices bombed repeatedly for voicing conflicting opinions. The inevitable Conflict between the two political-societal ideologies began.

In 1981, FMLN guerilla forces began an armed offensive towards various guarded populations in El Salvador. The simultaneous, timed attacks indicated a unity between the forces that had been seen before. Official news of the attack from the central government shocked the United States.

Fearing a domino effect, it was officially recognized that the Salvadoran Civil War started. In the words of the liberation ideologist, Ignacio Martín-Baró, a Priest educated in psychology from the Pontifical Xavier University and The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

University of Chicago, the event: “..profoundly weakened the government, but above all [it weakened] its political, militant, and economical umbilical cord to the United States” (Martín-Baró). Eight years later, he would be assassinated by the central government.

Concerned over personal safety, the escalating violence resulted in voluntary exile, and large-scale immigration.

A third of the country would be displaced in this way (Torres). Legal barriers for political opposition came in decrees: for example, Decree 264 and 265 modified the classification of terrorism to include pacifist actions such as preaching or being in a Church during mass. Decree 296 forbade strikes from government employees, taking the right to organize away from the public employee. Decree 544 froze all wages collected and issued by labor unions, and delegitimized all activity connected to union wages. Decree 43 declared a state of emergency throughout the country, and more infamously, Decree 507 allowed for a citizen’s public safety to be disregarded if they were deemed a member of the insurgency. At one point, six members of the Frente Democratic Revolucionario (FDR, the Democratic Revolutionary Front, one of the guerilla organizations of the FMLN), were captured, tortured, and assassinated by the central government. Among them was its president, Enrique Alvarez Cordova. These instances showcase war crimes done by the central government through silencing political opposition/legal measures, as well as the systematic terrorism threats that were used. It was unrestricted.

Such political destabilization was not only evident between leftist and rightist sectors. Destabilization within the government was evident when Colonel Majano’s opposition to the increasingly marginalizing-oriented military orders was defeated. This event, along with comments from the United States President Ronald Reagan’s advisory board, encouraging an extreme right security group to carry out a failed assassination plot against Colonel Majano, lead to an extreme confusion and destabilization of central power.

This confusion is evidenced in the kidnapping, rape, and murder of four American Catholic Missionary women by the Salvadoran National Guard, justified on the ground that they were involved in with insurgents (Martín-Baró). The guards had never been ordered to do such actions.

International outcry was unavoidable. In order to re-deploy American military forces to El Salvador, two agreements were made. Firstly, in order to improve international relations, human rights violations pertaining to the civil war had to be ignored. Secondly, Robert White, the man in charge of the United States’ embassy in El Salvador, would declare that there were insurgents in Nicaragua waiting to attack- the same announcement that would be made on national television by Salvadoran President Duarte. It was a theatrical act, but it would serve to elicit more involved military assistance from the United States government. Adding to this, a public investigation into the deaths of the aforementioned American Missionaries was

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made. The Salvadoran Civil War was now ‘Vietnamized,’ seen as an attempt to complete the work of an earlier war (Martín-Baró). To complete this Vietnamization, American influence became a symbol of disruption. An elderly woman in Metàpan would say: “My grandchildren don’t visit. They say it’s too dangerous.”

To analyze this quote is to discover that the effects of this disruption lasted well beyond the end of the war, when her grandchildren who grew up in the United States had become accustomed to its [United States] perception of El Salvador.

To complete its Vietnamization of El Salvador, the United States labeled it as dangerous.

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s mentioned before, the war caused a third of the country’s population to be displaced. Fearing for their safety, most immigrated to surrounding countries, with the top destination being the United State (Torres). This incited an institutional discriminatory response from the United States towards these immigrants. In Vietnamizing El Salvador, a distinction between these immigrants as the ‘other’ and themselves was made, even as it had been involved in the circumstances of their displacement.

Speaking of the United States government, the experiences of the first generation and immigrants themselves highlights the difficulty in acquiring the funds needed to have a Bachelor’s degree translated, and in learning the English skills necessary for the workforce (Torres). A poorer socioeconomic status resulted, and when added to the social marginalization immigrants experience in the United States, it made the formation of gangs common (Howell).

The commonality (Musalo) of intrafamilial violence in El Salvador, and its proven effect of heightening the risk of the children towards disciplinary infractions only added to this risk. One of the gangs that arose in this period became known as MS-13, or, ‘La Mara Salvatrucha’. The formation of the gang was a response to the institutional discrimination, language barriers, and educational discrimination (Torres) the immigrants experienced. Vulnerable Salvadoran youth were not welcomed into the places where youth were supposed to develop, and in this way the formation of that gang can be seen as a formation of a surrogate family. With immigrant remittances to El Salvador accounting for 16.5% of its GDP (RAD Diaspora Profile), it was to the economic advantage of the Salvadoran government to not welcome back the group of immigrants, even after the civil war ended in 1991. Those who were deported back to El Salvador for being gangsters found themselves unwelcomed, as not only were they deemed criminal but they were of no use to its society. It was an attitude that allowed for MS-13 to become a sophisticated organization, an institution separated from the United States and Salvadoran people. Taking advantage of the familial divisions immigration had caused, extortion, threats, and acts of violence towards those who threatened their territory became a business practice for the gang. They

protected their own ‘family’, at the expense of the traditional family units of El Salvador. This added to the disruption Salvadoran family units experienced, as now the nuclear family would have to seek refugee status in order to avoid having threats become physical (Hernández).

That feeling of disruption continues itself in the immigrated and first-generation population of Salvadorans in the United States. Those who immigrated to the United States have been able to seek higher education, and therefore higher incomes with each generation (RAD Diaspora Profile), and have used this money to start advocacy groups to find the remains of family members lost during the war (Thale). The disruption then becomes rooted in the cultural connection felt towards El Salvador. Why? President Trump’s election in 2016 was strategically based on the ideological selling of ‘Make America Great Again’. A main focus of the campaign was to bring attention to the nation’s inability to control its border, allowing “Drug dealers, criminals, and rapists” (BBC) to come into American society and disrupt it. Focusing exclusively on the transnational gang MS-13 in the remark: “These aren’t people, they’re animals” (Davis), President Trump brought notoriety both to MS-13 and the country from which the gang originated: El Salvador. Yet, in light of the opportunist cultural remarks typical in a presidential election, these comments hint at a substantial social movement, one towards understanding and uncovering the motive for violence and immigration in said area. The comments reveal the irregular immigration to the United States- an action whose consequences have been shown to extend well beyond the social and economic sphere, and unto the familial essence that is incorporated into the religious and societal structure of El Salvador.

In order to discuss one of the more prevalent differences in cultural identity in Salvadorans before and after the war, we must return to the most infamous assassination of the war, the murder by a death squad of Monsieur Oscar Romero, the Jesuit Archbishop assassinated in the middle of mass. Up until the civil war, El Salvador was almost exclusively Catholic. Now, 35% identify as Pentecostal (Wadkins). El Salvador is no longer traditional in its identity, and the direct effect this had was on religion. In order to identify cultural shifts, religion will be analyzed as an identity factor.

In 2016, Pope Francis issued the beatification of Oscar Romero. Beautification is the final step before sainthood in the Catholic Church, making Monsieur Romero a martyr. In recognizing the martyrdom of Archbishop Romero Oscar, Pope Francis gives the Archbishop the international view that he died fighting for faith, not for Marxism (politics).

El Salvador’s reaction was both an outcry and a celebration, as the ideological difference between the right and left have been ingrained into society’s identity in the aftermath of the war.

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The differences in upbringing between the wealthy and poor of Salvadoran society are highlighted by their differences in ideology, a common observation that allows for the categorization of social classes and political ideology to be entwined. Teachers remain silent, well aware of the violence that can ensue by stating that the ARENA (Alianza Republicana Nacionalista, the central government) leader ordered the death squad assassination of Romero Oscar, which results in the willful ignorance of integral facts such as these in the education of the wealthy (Dyrness), keeping the elitist identity intact. On the other hand, this integral fact is common knowledge in the education of a poorer district, and is made into an identity that seeks justice.

Yet, immigration challenges such ignorance. In traveling abroad to the United States, the wealthier children are able to experience how they are judged internationally- as they are not the wealthy caste in America- they are Salvadorans; while poorer children become associated with international stances via immigrant relatives who go to the United States in search of a better life, and also find that with a lack of a social class system- they too are only Salvadorans. When Dr. Dyrness (Dyrness) interviewed youth on their patriotic identity, she noted that they made references to country’s diaspora brought on by the civil war, and to their desire to make a new identity for themselves. They felt that the war unfairly stereotyped them in terms of race or class, and they to change that. A new social direction that could possibly lead to an identifiable unity seemed to result from immigration.

‘Drug dealers, criminals, rapists’: What Trump thinks of Mexicans. (2016, August 31). BBC News.

Davis, J. H., & Chokshi, N. (2018, May 17). Trump Defends ‘Animals’ Remark, Saying It Referred to MS-13 Gang Members.

Dyrness, Andrea. “Two El Salvadors, One Diaspora.” Panoramas, Pitt Panoramas Scholarly Platform, 4 Oct. 2016 Hernández, R. (2017, November 24). Infancias robadas: la violencia de las pandillas en El Salvador.

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echnology as a Means of Unification. In interviewing Dolores,3 she accounted a story at the orphanage she works at: “Some years ago, there was a boy and his two little sisters at the orphanage. They had been together ever since their parents disappeared, and he had taken care of them. When an American couple came to adopt at the orphanage, they wanted to take the two girls but not the boy, because era negrito, he was black. He didn’t want his sisters to grow up here, so even though he was very sad he was happy for them. Now he’s a grown man, but every time I see him he asks me: “Doña Dolores, “Do you happen to know anything about my sisters?”

And every time I tell him no. The orphanage doesn’t tell us who they went with, but I do know that they visit here every year. He’s trying to find them on Facebook now.

Do you think he’ll be able to do it?”

While industrialization had allowed for the commodification of the people’s lives for economic advantage, the ideology and technology that came with globalization served as a

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tool that liberated them. Technology can become a means of connectivity and hope, as the quote above implies, but also a means of reclamation. In the way NGOs and advocacy groups started by Salvadoran-Americans are made with the goal of finding family members who disappeared during the war, the use of technology allows one to know what is going on with their distanced family members. The new societal direction towards unity involves the making of connections through technology, connections that can offer a sense of closure as to where your family is, and how they have changed. It is a connection that allows for the communication of perspectives that have changed, allowing for comfort to be brought to the sense of dysphoria between generations, while allowing the youth to actively search for a part of themselves needed to complete their future aspirations.

Communication, the technology that resulted in the decimation of Salvadoran society during the industrial age, then becomes the method by which to make a new diasporic society, a society imagined as a community organized by its interests and desires across political boundaries.

Name has been changed.

North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

History of Coffee in El Salvador. (n.d.).

Howell, J. C., & Moore, J. P. (2010, May). National Gang Center Bulletin [PDF]. Bureau of Justice Assistance U.S. Department of Justice.

Martin-­Baro, Ignacio. “La Guerra Civil En El Salvador.” Biblioteca “P. Florentino Idoate, S.J.”, Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas, 2015.

Musalo, K. (18, December 12). EL SALVADOR--A PEACE WORSE THAN WAR: VIOLENCE, GENDER AND A FAILED LEGAL RESPONSE [PDF]. Yale Journal of Law and Feminism.

RAD Diaspora Profile, MPI. “The Salvadoran Diaspora in the United States.” Migration Policy Institute, June 2015.

Thale, Geoff. “¿Cómo Ha Progresado Casos Históricos De Derechos Humanos En El Salvador?”

Topik, S. (2004, May). The World Coffee Market in the Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries, from Colonial To National Regimes [PDF]. Department of History -University of California, Irvine.

Torres, Camille M. “Migration, Assimilation and Identity: The Effects of the Salvadoran Civil War and State Violence on Migration to the U.S.” The World Mind, American University’s undergraduate policy magazine for international and public affairs, 9 Dec. 2016, Wadkins, T. H. (2017, July 24). The Rise of Pentecostalism in Modern El Salvador.

WOLA, The Washington Office on Latin America, 24 Nov. 2017.

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Living in A Man’s World: The Portrayal of Women in Greek Mythology Kayal Udaiyar

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yth has two main functions,” the poet Robert Graves wrote in his mythography in 1955. “The first is to answer the sort of awkward questions that children ask, such as ‘Who made the world? Where do souls go after death?’...The second function of myth is to justify an existing social system and account for traditional rites and customs.”

Based on Graves’s second definition, Greek mythology should explain the social system of gender hierarchy. Oddly though, considering the limited role of Grecian women, there was a relatively strong cast of female goddesses and figures that seemed to contradict the lifestyle of women in society.

In ancient Greece, especially in city-states like Athens, women had no voice. They were unable to vote, own land, inherit property, and were limited to the duties of the home.

Girl’s education catered towards preparing the lady for a future of rearing a family and maintaining a household rather than cultivating intellectual thought. Child marriage was a common practice during these times, and female offspring were much more likely to be abandoned at birth. They could not attend public events like the Olympics, and they were not allowed to speak to men who were not family. Society expected women to be faithful to their husbands, but their husbands could commit adultery without any repercussions (Cartwright). There was a significant difference in power between Grecian women and Athena, the patron goddess of the city. For example, the goddess triumphed over Poseidon when she won the patron god for Athens, destroyed a fleet of Greek ships, and beat the god of war, Ares, in battle.

However, despite the glory of strong goddesses, there were rarely any empowered women in Athenian society.

One theory explaining this contradiction is the possibility that the myths portrayed women as less powerful. By convincing people that strong women in power weakened Greece and caused misery, Greek historians warned the people of Greece that women only belong in the household.

They also signified that submissive women had better lives than independent women, that strong women should be domesticated, and that virgins were sacred and respectable compared to sexually active women. Sexism in Greek mythology is everywhere, and specific recurring themes relate to women and their standing among men.

The examples that this paper will focus on is how female virginity was idealized, how marriage tied women to motherly and familial duties, and how women’s main power was related to sexuality. The paper will also focus on how sexually active women were considered dangerous to Greek morals and how female warriors were humiliated by Greek soldiers. Lastly, the paper will address the ideal Greek wife and how people condemned innocent women for crimes committed by men.

Two criteria were used to determine which myths to analyze: popularity and personal relevance. There are multiple versions of ancient stories, written by several Greek historians over time. If a particular version of a myth were more popular than another, that version would get prioritized because more people of ancient Greece were likely to recognize it. By analyzing the stories of women through mythology, we can learn more about the real morals of the ancient society by looking back to the primary sources: the myths.

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he most empowered females in Greek mythology were the goddesses of the Greek pantheon, especially those who were part of the Olympians, the twelve great beings of the Greeks. The goddesses of the Greek pantheon may have had unimaginable power; however, they were all portrayed with feminine characteristics. Hera is the goddess of marriage, a value forced upon all the women of Greece, and Aphrodite represents sexuality and love, which were considered feminine characteristics. Hestia was the tender of the hearth and the home, which was the primary job for most wives, and Demeter was the goddess of the Earth, which represents fertility and ability to produce life. Even the more independent virgin goddesses, Athena, Artemis, and Hecate, were feminized. Athena is not only the god of wisdom and war but also of weaving, a popular hobby for housewives. Artemis was the goddess of young girls and childbirth, and Hecate was the goddess of witchcraft, a power that is associated with women (Slater, 2014). Although these goddesses were powerful, they were still characterized by feminine traits. The specialization of female goddesses in feminine qualities reaffirms the stereotypes of women’s behavior in Greece.

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he concept of virginity was heavily stressed and valued in Greek society, as seen in its mythology.

This idealization of virginity is seen in Greek myths as well, especially in virgin goddesses. If a goddess was a selfproclaimed virgin, she could live freely without the influence of a husband. The virgin goddesses, Artemis, Athena, and Hestia, made vows of eternal chastity, which inspired the pledges made by ancient Roman priestesses, or the Vestal Virgins. The Vestal Virgins were priestesses responsible for maintaining the eternal fire of Vesta (the Roman form of Hestia). The chastity of the priestesses directly correlated to the wellbeing of the holy fire of Vesta, stressing that virginity was highly sacred (Ciocani, 2013). Through virgin goddesses, Greek writers and philosophers emphasized values of purity and self-restraint. Greek myths also echo the importance of a youth’s virginity by including stories of when women’s virginity was tested.

One of these stories was the attempted rape of the goddess Athena. The goddess once went to Hephaestus’s workshop to get new armor, but when Hephaestus saw Athena, he was aroused and tried to rape her. Athena, being a virgin goddess, ran away from him and eventually fended him off.

However, when his semen landed on Athena’s leg, and she wiped it off, it fell on Earth and conceived a baby. Athena felt responsible for the child and secretly raised him. As the myth states, “When he got near her with much ado (for he was lame), he attempted to embrace her; but she, being a chaste virgin, would not submit to him (Apollodorus, 3.14.6).” Apollodorus emphasizes that because Athena was a virgin, she refused him. Athena was the goddess of war - she slew giants, triumphed over Ares in combat, and defeated countless enemies. Yet why did she not fight instead of running away? The idea of the goddess of war running away from a god with a dysfunctional leg is somewhat comical.

The myth highlights the importance of retaining one’s chastity by having even the most powerful war goddess run away. The goddess Athena preserved her virginity fiercely, inspiring the young girls of ancient Greece to do the same.

Besides Athena, there were other examples of virgin maidens fending off their lustful attackers by running away or giving up their life. For instance, in the story of Daphne and Apollo, Daphne prays to the gods to turn her into a laurel tree to escape the sexual advances of the god Apollo (Ovid, 452-567). By turning herself into a tree, she was able to escape Apollo at the cost of her humanity. The importance of virginity was bolstered by the sheer effort women underwent to escape pursuers, whether they had to transform into animals or trees to avoid rape. By stressing that changing form, dying, or running away was better than losing one’s virginity, Greek historians emphasized the importance of their sacred virtue of virginity.

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here were also examples of women who failed to protect their virginity and married their rapists to preserve their honor, including prominent goddesses like North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

Hera and Persephone. Initially, Hera, goddess of marriage, rejected the king of the gods, Zeus, so he resorted to trickery to try to win Hera. He transformed himself into a disheveled cuckoo and flew to Hera, who brought him inside her sanctuary. Immediately, Zeus turned into his true self and raped her. Ashamed of being exploited, Hera agreed to marry the god of thunder (D’Aulaire, 24). Because Hera did not have the protection of being a virgin goddess, her wishes were denied when a stronger male god wanted to claim her.

The goddess of spring, Persephone, was also forced to marry her kidnapper Hades at Zeus’s approval (Hesiod, Theogony 914). If a woman’s virginity was lost, she was more likely to marry her rapist to preserve her honor than to fight against him. Premarital sex was taboo in Greek society, so many women who lost their virginity would try to get immediately married because one of the requirements for a woman to be married was to be a virgin. If a woman had premarital sex, then she would have been shunned by society and could not get married (Blundell, 1995). When Hera still had her virginity, she still had the power to deny Zeus, but as soon as that was taken from her, she had to decide between being shunned by society or marrying the person who would save her image. Without any representation in mythology, girls followed decisions for the sake of their family rather than their wellbeing. This is exhibited in ancient Greece since marriages were contracts between two families where the father gave permission to the groom. The father was the one who arranged the marriage, and the daughter had to accept his decisions regardless of her opinion (Williamson, 1998).

Married women were banned from doing anything without the consent of their husbands. Many people thought that married women were lazy and the benefactors of marriage, as women “stay within the sheltered hives and gather...into their stomachs all the work expended by another (Hesiod, Theogony). One prominent example of a goddess restricted by marriage was the goddess of marriage herself, Hera. Although Hera was the personification of marriage, her marriage to the king of the gods, Zeus, was less than perfect. While Zeus had affairs with numerous women, Hera had to uphold her position of loyalty as a good wife. Because of her inability to punish Zeus since he was her king, she directed her rage to the lovers of Zeus. Hera could not punish the person who had wronged her because he was in a position of higher authority. She also could not exhibit the same freedom as Zeus by sleeping with other men because she had to represent the perfect and loyal wife.

Women were constantly reminded of their inferiority to men, even in areas considered feminine, like childbirth and love. After the birth of Athena, Hera was furious that Zeus was able to give birth to a child by himself, so she swore that she would make a child by herself as well. But the child who resulted in her attempts turned out to be Hephaestus, who was so incredibly ugly that Hera threw the baby off Mount Olympus (Hesiod, Theogony, 927-928). In this myth, we see how Hera was unable to replicate something that Zeus did,

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showing her inferiority in her abilities. Hera fails at creating a perfect child when a male god was able to do so, showing the power of males over females in even the most womanly of tasks: childbirth. The same is true when Zeus made the goddess of love Aphrodite fall in love with a mortal man because he was annoyed at her power over him (Cyrino 2010, p. 89). Here, a male god exerted his dominance over another goddess’s power, showing how, despite women’s best efforts, they will always be inferior to men. By causing the goddess to succumb to what she afflicted onto other people, Zeus humiliated Aphrodite and forced her to acknowledge his power.

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ome goddesses still held power by using their sexuality.

The primordial goddess Gaia seduced her husband, Ouranos, so her son Kronos could castrate him with a sickle that she created (Hesiod, Theogony, Lines 453491). Gaia used her sexuality to distract Ouranos from the actual danger, which ultimately led to his demise. Gaia’s granddaughter, Hera, also used her sexuality to convince Zeus to change his mind and remain neutral during the Trojan War (Illiad, 14.153-353). These stories warn readers about the dangerous sexual power of women and how they can bring the downfall of any man. But the goddess who exhibited sexuality and freedom was the goddess of love, Aphrodite. When Aphrodite first introduced herself to the Olympians, the male gods were instantly smitten, and the female goddesses were immediately jealous. Her overt sexual freedom was dangerous because she could make any man fall for her. Zeus hastily married Aphrodite to the ugliest god of the Olympians, Hephaestus, so that the other gods would not quarrel over her, a decision that the female Olympians supported (Stuttard, pg 86). By marrying her to the ugliest god, Zeus attempted to stifle her sexual freedom by constricting her with the morals and values of marriage.

Aphrodite, however, ignored her marriage to Hephaestus to have affairs with other gods, mainly Ares (Stuttard, pg 86).

Despite her marital status, Aphrodite was still considered dangerous by Greek society because she was still sexually active. Aphrodite rejected her role as the perfect wife. She committed affairs against her husband, never listened to Hephestaus, and never bore him children. Aphrodite was dangerous because her power was irresistible. Like in the story of Apollo and Daphne, lust caused men to lose their senses and focus on their desires. It even affected the king of the gods as he lusted after numerous women despite the consequences from his wife. No man could control Aphrodite’s sexual freedom, despite the multiple times they tried by humiliating her. For instance, Hephaestus caught Aphrodite and Ares in a golden net when they were having an affair, and showcased them to the other gods.

As the male gods laughed at the mortified pair, Lord Apollo said to Hermes, “Messenger Hermes, giver of good things, you would not care how strong the chains were, would you, if you could sleep with Aphrodite?”

“King Apollo,” answered Hermes, “I only wish I might get the chance, though there were three times as many chains - and you might look on, all of you, gods and goddesses, but I would sleep with her if I could (Homer, Odyssey, 8.295).”

By revealing her affair to the gods of Olympus, Hephaestus tried to embarrass Aphrodite into being meeker and more submissive. The gods openly talked about wanting to sleep with her while she was right in front of them, showing their utter lack of respect for the goddess. The message learned from this myth encouraged humans to publicly humiliate people who committed adultery. Although Aphrodite was publicly embarrassed, she never stopped exercising her freedom. She had children, but none of them were from her actual husband (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite). Because Aphrodite rejected the ideal Greek wife, she was considered dangerous by the people of Greece. The disgust towards sexual freedom can be seen through Greek society’s opinions about prostitutes and promiscuous women. If a woman committed adultery, she was no longer allowed to marry or attend public celebrations, which means all prostitutes could not marry. In a famous trial against the prostitute Neaira, the sex worker is described as “rubbed in the mud” by her owner and that the law would be “rubbed in the mud” if she were set free (Apollodorus, Against Neaira).

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lthough trends were showing how goddesses were less powerful than men, they still held undeniable power and punished gods and mortals alike. So, why did young girls not find role models in these powerful Greek goddesses? One possibility might be the general fact that no human was supposed to compare themselves to the gods. Gods were supposed to be feared and worshiped, as countless stories across Greek mythology have warned.

Whether it was Athena turning Arachne into a spider because Arachne thought she was the best weaver (Ovid, Metamorphoses.), Artemis and Apollo murdering Queen Niobe’s children because she insulted their mother (Iliad, 24.603-610), or Zeus destroying the king Salmoneus who imitated him (Virgil, Aeneid vi. 585), the gods were known for punishing mortals with hubris. If anything, the people of ancient Greece found role models in the great heroes and demigods of mythology. While famous mortal men were heroes of glory, most human women in Greek mythology were portrayed as chaste virgins or loyal wives.

One such woman was Penelope, wife of the great hero Odysseus. While Odysseus spent ten years trying to return home after the Trojan War, Penelope remained in Ithaca, waiting for his return. Despite having hundreds of suitors, she remained faithful to her husband, even while Odysseus romanced multiple women throughout his journey (Homer, Odyssey). Penelope displays the classic characteristics of the ideal wife and mother - she remains faithful, refuses to rule Ithaca in her husband’s absence, and spends most of the time in her castle. In the end, Penelope got to live joyfully with Fifth World

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her husband and son because she waited. Aristotle even mentions Penelope in his writing, stating “ nor Penelope have deserved all the high praises bestowed on her had not their husbands known adversity (Aristotle, On a Good Wife).” By referencing Penelope, Aristotle convinces young brides that they must remain steadfast in prosperity as well as adversity, since Penelope could not have become as famous as she was without the troubles of Odysseus. Penelope was only one of the many damsels in distress featured through ancient texts. For example, Ariadne, princess of Crete, was deserted on an island by the hero Theseus until the god Dionysus saved her and made her his wife (Homer, Odyssey, 9.321). Andromeda, princess of Ethiopia, was a sacrifice for the sea monster Cetus before the hero Perseus rescued her (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 4.663-5.235). These stories depict the narrative that women do not have the ability to save themselves. Instead, they must rely on men to solve the problem. By implying that the dependent women are the ones who live prosperous lives, historians teach girls how to be submissive and passive. Historians preached that a good wife was one who listened to her husband in all respects and obeyed his wishes. They believed that a husband’s wishes were laws appointed for their wives by divine will (Aristotle, On a Good Wife). The most revered philosophers endorsed a submissive nature for wives, which is why many people in society would have followed their advice.

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nother trend across mythological texts was the wrongful punishment of women because of the crimes of men; one famous example is the story of Pandora.

After Prometheus awarded humans with fire, an angry Zeus decided to punish the mortals through the first woman, a “beautiful evil” whose descendants would torment the human race. After the gods created Pandora and her famous jar of ailments, she was gifted to Prometheus’s brother, Epimetheus, who was warned not to receive any presents from Zeus. However, upon seeing the divine beauty, he married Pandora, who promptly released the evils contained in the jar (Hesiod, Work and Days, 90). As quoted by Hesiod, “the woman replaced the great heavy lid,” but already, “the other miseries were spread over all humankind.” Although Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Zeus were all male figures who were equally at fault for starting the conflict, they were never blamed. Instead, Hesiod solely framed Pandora as the weak-hearted woman who brought the downfall of humanity. She was held as the catalyst for all of man’s problems since she was the “evil” specifically created to bring misery upon Earth.

This story explained why women were inferior to men and why men needed to control women, so females do not repeat the same mistakes as their ancestors. If the women of ancient Greek culture believed that they deserved the injustice placed on them, then they would not fight for better rights. As Helen King, a British classicist scholar said, “For the Greeks, woman is a necessary evil, a kalon kakon; an evil North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

because she is undisciplined and licentious, lacking the selfcontrol of which men are capable, yet necessary to society as constructed by men, in order to reproduce it (Meehan, 2020).” The trend of blaming women for problems occured in ancient Greek society against Aspasia, a courtesan and mistress of the leader of Athens, Pericles. She had a wide influence over many prominent philosophers, thinkers, and writers and her home became a hub for intellectuals.

However, she received public backlash and was accused of corrupting the women of Athens as well as causing the Peloponnesian War (Waithe, 1987). Perhaps she was targeted because people saw her as a political threat, but she still managed to leave her mark on the ancient world.

The idea of victim-blaming existed throughout Greek text, as seen in the story of Medusa. Poseidon raped Medusa in the temple of Athena, yet the goddess Athena punished Medusa by turning her into a hideous monster (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 4.770). Even though Poseidon was at fault, Medusa was the one punished. But for all the might of Athena, she could not punish Poseidon for his wrongdoing because he was more powerful than her. So she took out her punishment on the weaker human, Medusa. Stories like Medusa’s create a narrative where the victim was at fault, whether because of her body, words, or actions.

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hile unfairly punishing women was common enough, the stories also villainized strong mortal women to prove that they were inferior to Greeks. The Amazons were one example of disempowered females fighters. The Amazons were a ruthless tribe of warrior women who were the enemies of order and establishment.

For example, the Amazons once invaded the realms of the Atlanteans, captured the city of Cerne, killed all the men, made the women and children slaves, and razed the city (Diodorus Siculus, Book III). Some ancient historians claimed that the Amazons burned or cut off their right breast at a young age to better aim and fight with their right arm (Justinus, Liber II, 4). By depicting the Amazons in a barbaric way, the people of Greece, and especially women, would be disgusted by the pure savagery of Amazon women.

If the Amazons were considered the uncivilized enemies of Greece, they would not be an empowering source for women.

The Amazons were the enemy of the values of Greek society, and they represented the savages that women would become if they were not controlled. Amazon women lost to Greek male heroes, showing how inferior women were in comparison to men. King Iobates once sent the Amazons against the Greek hero Bellerophon, but he defeated them all (Scholiast On Lycophron 17). Another time the Amazons fought against the city-state of Athens. The orator Lysias, in a speech honoring the war dead, proclaimed, “they [the Amazons] were the first to wear iron armor and to ride on horseback; they had conquered all their neighbors. But when matched with our Athenian ancestors, they appeared in all

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the natural timidity of their sex. All were killed on the spot.”

Although the Amazons were supposedly strong, they ended up losing to Greek men. By characterizing the Amazons as weak compared to the might of Greece, historians solidify women’s places in their society. Young greek girls learn to reject the idea of a strong female warrior and agree with society’s expectations of women, and boys learn how uncontrollable women behaved.

Distaste towards women with more freedom is seen in Greek society through Athen’s perception of Spartan women.

Athenian writings about women in Sparta were generally more disapproving about the greater rights exhibited by Spartan women. For example, in a speech made in the play Andromache, the Athenian man Peleus says, “Even if she wanted, no Spartan girl could be modest. They leave their homes empty, and with their thighs bared and robes ungirth, they share the race-course and the wrestling grounds with the young men - things which I find intolerable! Is there any need to wonder then if you do not train your women to be self-controlled (Millender, 1999)?” The Athenians looked down on the privileges that Spartan women had, including the ability to leave their house, be educated, or be sexually active. By denigrating the stronger independent females in the enemy city-state, Athenians reaffirm their own beliefs about women. Whether ancient historians villainized the Amazons or portrayed them as weak, they ensured that their version of Greek society would reign supreme.

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reek mythology also vilified another category of strong independent women - the sorceresses. Women associated with sorcery, which was considered feminine magic, were usually independent and the outliers of Greek society. One famous sorceress was Medea, the princess of Colchis, who helped Jason on his quest to acquire the Golden Fleece. She fell in love with the hero and assisted him, even murdering her own family to support Jason. They got married and had children, but Jason abandoned Medea for another princess. In revenge, Medea killed his lover as well as her and Jason’s children (Hyginus, 25). Before murdering her children, Medea says to herself, “Die they must in any case, and since ‘tis so, why I, the mother who bore them, will give the fatal blow (Euripides, Medea, 20).” Although Medea loves her children, she knows that they were the thing keeping her away from her freedom and revenge.

By killing her children, Medea breaks free of the role of the loyal housewife and becomes a powerful, independent woman. Medea is the opposite of what an ideal Greek wife would be. She murdered her children when women’s sole purpose in society was to bear children, and she defied her husband when wives were supposed to listen to their husbands (Aristotle, On a Good Wife). However, after her transformation, she is shunned by society, with Jason calling her “most hateful to gods and men. (Euripides, Medea).”

Another vital figure to Greek mythology was Medea’s aunt, the witch Circe. Circe was a seductive enchantress

who lived on a mystical island, surrounded by sailors who she transformed into beasts. When Odysseus and his crew landed on her shores, Circe lured them into her palace and turned Odysseus’s men into animals. She then seduced Odysseus and had three children with him before he continued his journey to go home (Homer, Odyssey, X).

Circe was considered a dangerous woman because she can beguile men into letting their guard down and trap them in her lair, as proven with one of the most powerful heroes of Greek mythology. Her sorcery was so powerful that she can distract Odysseus from his original goal of getting home and keep him on her island for over a year. Also, although she had children with Odysseus, she does not marry him, and in fact, helps him return to Penelope. Throughout the tales, she kept her sexual freedom and asserted her dominance over men through her sexuality.

But often, Circe was portrayed as a sexual predator and a dirty prostitute by Greek historians. She once turned Piccus, an Italian king, into a woodpecker because he rejected her advances (Ovid, Met. Lines 308-440). In this myth, Circe was depicted as an evil seductress who condemned a faithful husband to be forever separated from his wife. Her name is synonymous with deception, seduction and witchcraft.

According to ancient philosophers, women were inferior to men physically and intellectually, so the only way they dominated men was through their sexuality (Oost, 1977).

The men of ancient Greece were warned not to fall victim to the charms of pretty witches like Circe or Medea, or else those seductresses might bring about their downfall.

In facing the seductress, the physical capability of men was useless, and they must now rely on their wit to keep them from succumbing to the witch’s persuasion. By creating distrust of every woman’s behavior and sexuality, Greek society justifies the needed control over women and their promiscuity. This idea of restricting women exhibited itself in Greek culture, as women were confined to one wing of the house to limit their freedom and sexual interaction. The famous philosopher Aristotle believed that women would bring disorder, evil, and were “utterly useless and caused more confusion than the enemy,” which is why he advocated for separating women from the rest of society (Pry, 2012).

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reeks worshipped their chaste virgin goddess and their married goddesses while scorning the seductive sorceresses and independent female warriors. Their guidelines for women were strict and unforgiving. They taught women to be like the virtuous maiden Artemis and not engage in any sexual activity before marriage. When pressured to undergo sex, virgins were expected to escape through any means necessary, like how Daphne turned into a tree to escape Apollo. Young brides accepted their marriage because powerful women like Gaia and Hera did the same.

If there was a woman who defied society’s expectations and embarrassed her family, like the adulterous Aphrodite, Greek culture publicly punished her for inappropriate Fifth World

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crimes, creating a warning for other women. Historians made Amazons appalling and different because the warriors physically scarred themselves, which would have repulsed the fair women of Greek society. Women feared dangerous sorceresses like Circe because she was sexually active and condemned Medea for being a murderer. The stories tell women not to anger the gods like the stories of Medusa, or else the gods will ruin their life. They tried to emulate the characteristics of Penelope because she represented the ideal woman. Most importantly, they accepted the conditions in which they were oppressed because, as the myth of Pandora goes, it was the fault of a woman for humanity’s misfortunes.

Instilling these myths from a young age would form the misconceptions of women in society, resulting in a misogynistic culture bred from an early age, with no way to break free. The stereotypes associated with women were interwoven within the very laws, religion, and society of ancient Greece. As a society that proudly claims our democracy from this ancient civilization, it is essential to note whether we adopted some of their prevailing misogynistic practices. By learning to recognize the subtle sexist practices woven into the myths of ancient Greek, we can see those tendrils of misogyny in other texts as well. It is easy to point out the flaws in another civilization’s religion like ancient Greece, but it is harder to accept the fact that current faiths that people practice today also have the same flaws. Comparative mythology shows how common some of the trends between religious stories are, and the morals that they both share. Helen of Troy was kidnapped by the enemy for a long time, much like how Sita, wife of the Hindu god Rama, was abducted by the demon king Ravana.

Pandora was the cause of the problems of humanity, similar to how Eve was blamed for the original sin in the Christian creation story.

For women, it is crucial to realize when doctrines were written to help people in society, and when it was used to restrict people for the satisfaction of others. Biases do not have to be directed only at women; any group can be discriminated against in religious texts. What is genuinely imperative is how we, as a society, handle the discriminations in spiritual texts. We have two choices, do we agree with what the ancient historians wrote, or do we fight for a new future and a modern interpretation? The women of ancient Greece may not have acted against their oppressors, but that does not mean that the women of today must do the same.

By understanding how the old Greek doctrines dictate how women live their lives, people can learn to recognize how other people are ignorant of their prejudice.

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Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921 Apollodorus, Against Neaira Blundell, Sue, and Susan Blundell. Women in ancient Greece. Harvard University Press, 1995.

Cartwright, Mark. “Women in Ancient Greece.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 29 Oct. 2019 Ciocani, Vichi Eugenia (2013). “Virginity and representation in the Greek novel and early Greek poetry” – via ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

D’Aulaire, Ingri; D’Aulaire, Edgar Parin (1992). D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths. Delacorte Books for Young Readers. p. 24.

Hesiod, Theogony.

Hesiod, Work and Days, 90.

Homer, Iliad.

Homer, Odyssey.

Homeric Hymn 5 to Aphrodite 45 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th to 4th B.C.) : Hyginus, Fabulae 25 Justinus’ “Historiae Phillippicae ex Trogo Pompeio”, Liber II, 4 Meehan, Dessa. “Containing the Kalon Kakon: The Portrayal of Women in Ancient Greek Mythology.” Containing the Kalon Kakon: The Portrayal of Women in Ancient Greek Mythology Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History, 2019 Millender, Ellen. “Athenian ideology and the empowered Spartan woman.” Sparta: New Perspectives (1999): 355-91.

Oost, S. (1977). Xenophon’s Attitude toward Women. The Classical World, 71(4), 225-236.

Ovid, Metamorphoses.

Scholiast On Lycophron 17.

Slater, Philip Elliot. The glory of Hera: Greek mythology and the Greek family. Vol. 99. Princeton University Press, 2014.

Stuttard, David, An Introduction to Trojan Women (Brighton 2005).

Stuttard, David (2016), Greek Mythology: A Traveler’s Guide, London, England and New York City, New York: Thames and Hudson.

“The Internet Classics Archive | The Aeneid by Virgil”. Classics.mit.edu.

Virgil, Aeneid II, 246-247, 341-346, 403 - 408 Waithe, M. E. (1987a). Aspasia of Miletus. In M. E. Waithe (Ed.), A history of women philosophers (pp.

75-81). AH Dordeecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publications.

Williamson, Malcom (1998). The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece. Psychology Press.

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White Liberalism: How White Politicians Play with Identity Politics to Gain Minority Support Evan Steele

treatment” (Moreno, 2002) . Many felt that the New Deal programs treated them “more like white people” in terms of respect and quality of work (Moreno, 2002). Although many black people thought that the New Deal would finally get them the quality, well paying jobs they deserved, in many instances it fell flat. Many of The New Deal programs prioritized whites over black workers and even when black people were given the jobs, they experienced constant racial harassment in the workplace.

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iberalism to many Americans started with FDR’s New Deal. After the Great Depression, President Rooselvet implemented various programs to provide jobs for everyday Americans as a means of boosting the economy. The idea was getting America back on her feet and the claims were that ALL Americans would benefit from these programs.

This led to the black community shifting its support from the Republican party to the Democratic Party. Since the emancipation of enslaved people in 1865, black people had always aligned themselves politically with the Republican Party for their efforts in Reconstruction and helping free blacks integrate into American society (Moreno, 2002).

By the 1930s, the Republican Party’s support for corporate interests led African Americans along with many others to shift their allegiances to the Democratic Party, in spite of its history of support for white supremacy. However, it is important to note that not every black person felt that this was sufficient for a party and some doubted real intentions of the New Deal. Williams Leuchtenberg, a prominent historian who has focused on FDR and his programs, argues that New Deal “ enhanced the power of interest groups who claimed to speak for the millions, but sometimes represented only a small minority.” Leuchtenberg adds that “Negro intellectuals might fret at the inequities of the New Deal, but the masses of Negroes began to break party lines in gratitude for government bounties and nondiscriminatory

olitics has alway been filled with bias. However, in recent years, the political sphere has become increasingly governed by a term referred to as “identity politics’’. This is when individuals make political decisions based upon personal identities rather than party affiliation. For example someone who is a person of color might choose to vote for a politician who is also a person of color regardless of their political party. The problem occurs when identity politics become exploited and people are encouraged to vote for politicians who are “just like them” regardless of whether or not they actually have the public’s best interest in mind, are qualified for the position, etc. Many liberal politicians have banked on getting votes for simply voicing support for minority groups without actually doing anything to help.

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any critics, within and outside the realm of liberalism, have begun to criticize one common thing. The issue that liberalism has become determined by the interests of those who are white, male and the middle to upper class.

These interests have made it harder for the movement to stay focused on a centralized goal, thus weakening its effect.

This paper looks to examine how white politicians within liberalism and its movements overshadow those whose lives and rights are really at stake and instead use this as an opportunity to promote self-proclaimed acceptance for others--how “whiteness” thwarts the political goals of liberalism.

What happens when the word “white” is placed in front of the word liberalism? How does this affect politics as a whole? What does it mean when someone of the majority “race” places themselves within a movement that is meant to uplift the minority? How is this movement altered and who or what suffers from this alteration? Many experts claim Fifth World

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that the main problem with liberalism is the fact that it has been dominated by the invisible “identity politics” of white men. This has created a problem where the minorities who are supposed to be having their voices heard are yet again being drowned out by those who have had the spotlight (Smits, 2003).

It is also important to note that white liberalism as this paper discusses it is not viewed as an innate problem with liberalism. It is believed that white liberalism developed from liberalism just as white conservatism can develop from conservatism. To place the term ‘white’ in front of a word indicates its alteration, here, a politics that hijacks the perspectives of people of color while ignoring their historical interests . White liberalism wouldn’t exist unless there was something for it to oppose or to erase or to ignore.

White liberalism is therefore not inherent to liberalism..

Instead it seeks to piggyback off of liberal issues without fully understanding how different types of intersectionality, specifically race and class, affect how minorities identify with the movement.

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he Black Lives Matter movement is a great example of when white liberalists occupy a space that is not meant for them. Started in 2013 as a response to the deaths of numerous black individuals who were often wrongfully killed by law enforcement, BLM was soon to become a site of controversy. In response to the movement, a new movement, All Lives Matter, was formed, claiming that black individuals were placing themselves above other groups. In actuality it was a half- assed attempt to silence black individuals who were demanding that law enforcement be held accountable for the reckless killing of black people. Allen Kwabena, the organizer for the New York chapter of the BLM movement responded to the backlash by saying; “You’re watering the house that’s not burning, but you’re choosing to leave the house that’s burning unattended, It’s irresponsible” (NYT, 2016). Many of the backlash came from white individuals who felt that the movement overstepped a boundary. The question is What boundary is it? Who drew it in the first place?

According to the Center in Juvenile and Criminal Justice from 1999 to 2011, African Americans ages 20-24 have the highest chances of being killed by police. African Americans make up 13% of the United States population, yet they make up 26% of police shooting victims. African Americans are also 2.8 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement compared to white non latinos (Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, 2014). All of these statistics are the reasons why BLM exists. So why do some people refer to the movement as a “terrorist” organization?

The criticism of BLM is a great example of the discomfort of white liberals who enjoy pretending to give POC rights and have sympathy for them, but become defensive when those individuals start demanding actual respect and action.

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Many white liberals in particular, the same ones who were claiming to be all for racial equality, were the first ones bashing the movement. The same people who claimed to enjoy seeing POC thriving and becoming solidified in society were now the ones telling them that they need to know their place. The fear of black agency evinced by the white abolitionist movement, which prefered that the suffering of enslaved people be relieved by the actions of white people, is strangely reproduced in the present day’s discourse of “crime.” The “white” liberal is one who is uncomfortable with black people acting on their own behalf: “white” is the color of fear.

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oe Biden has become a prominent figure in the liberalist political sector. as the six-term senator of Delaware and Vice President under the Obama Administration, he has become well known as someone in favor of liberal politics.

Specifically, he was at the forefront of the Affordable Care Act, citing personal family tragedies as his catalyst for action.

Having lost his first wife and child in 1972 to a car crash and a son to brain cancer in 2015, Biden has continuously been a firm believer that healthcare is a right, not a privilege (NYT, 2019).

It seems, however, that Biden does what many white liberals do when faced with a situation where the ‘other,’ in this case, black people, becomes too close for comfort.

Many white liberals are all for equality as long as that doesn’t infringe on their ‘whiteness,’ which is their ability to have social power without having to acknowledge it. To those who are in positions of power, equality feels like oppression.

To some white liberals, equality is best in the form of an idea instead of an actuality. When people of color actually obtain equality, some white liberals become taken aback and begin to respond negatively. This can be harassing POC, or in Joe Biden’s case, writing laws that deliberately go against integration efforts.

In the recent 2020 election debates, Biden has been asked to comment on his views on using busing as a desegregation tactic throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Throughout the Civil Rights movement, Joe Biden was very outspoken about his belief in racial equality;however, he seemed to be less favorable of using busing as a method of integration. Biden in the 2020 Democratic debate claimed: “I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education. That’s what I opposed.”.

However, this is a false statement, as there is evidence proving that Biden was heavily involved in opposing busing both in and out of the political sector. In fact, he supported several Amendments and Bills obstructing the Justice Department from seeking busing as a tool of desegregation, limiting funding for busing and even allowing the federal government to file civil lawsuits to remove court-ordered busing. Biden commented on Delaware’s court-ordered school busing program by claiming busing was a “bankrupt concept” and “a rejection of the whole movement of black

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pride” (NYT, 2019). This exemplifies white people claiming that they know how People of Color feel about racially charged issues that they themselves will never have to struggle with. In addition, Biden is speaking over Black people who should be the ones leading the conversation on integration. Through a shift in racial consciousness, Biden is able to put himself in what he feels is an identity of blackness where he can comfortably speak on black issues which he knows nothing about. Through this, he is able to convince himself and others that what he is doing is the right thing to do for black people without consulting a single black person who was actually struggling from segregation at the time.

What this minstrelsy also shows is self-ignorance. Biden here most likely believed he was right when he made his comments during the debate. To him, he was not opposed to desegregation and therefore is still in the right. Biden and many white liberals are known for liking the idea of close proximity to a racialized identity whether that be ‘blackness’ or ‘asianess’, but they prefer such proximity on their own terms, across the distance of racialized comfort. For Joe Biden, desegregation was fine and lovely until it was right at his front door, asking to be let in. Then it was almost like a ghost, haunting him to the point where he felt he needed to bolt himself up in a bunker of whiteness cradled by his privilege.

So what about Civil Rights was Biden really for? What about desegregation by busing led him to say that there needed to be a pause in this progress he seemed to be so in favor of?

It appears that Biden was not completely of his past.

When asked about it during a 2020 Democratic debate, he lied, claiming that he was not involved with inhibiting busing efforts. This goes back to what was said earlier, that the Civil Rights Movement was supposed to be centered around the idea of fighting for equality for many marginalized groups including people of color, the poor, etc. Yet Joe Biden, a white, heterosexual man of the upper class is at the forefront of the discussion.

In Appendix I are two cases of Biden being complicit to racial injustice. The first letter is focused on Biden extending gratitudes for support in his proposed anti bus legislation to counter act integration laws. The second features Biden expressing joy over the fact that his proposed bill will be brought to the senate floor for debate. In order to understand the letters it is important to place them in context of the law that is being discussed.

B ill 1: S. 1651. This bill was proposed to remove any power of a United States court to issue school transportation orders based on race, color, or national origin unless the court first determines that a discriminatory purpose in education was a principal motivating factor in the constitutional violation for which such transportation is proposed as a remedy (Congress, 1977). In other words, if a court wanted to mandate integrated busing, they must first prove that discrimination is taking place and to what degree

it is occuring. A hearing must then take place which then must be followed by an opportunity for appeals. The entire process would most likely take months for a court to meet all of the requirements needed which is precisely the point.

This bill doesn’t restrict busing but dramatically slows it by making courts jump through many hoops, which in turn extends the process of integration as a whole (Appendix I).

Both letters are addressed to James O’ Eastland, a Mississippi senator commonly known as the “Voice of the White South” and the “Godfather of Mississippi Politics”. He is most noted for his work on fighting against desegregation and his opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (The Mike Wallace Interview, 1957). This roundabout camaraderie is what makes these letters so fascinating. At first glance why would Biden want to partner up with someone who seemingly opposes him? The reality is, Biden has much more in common with Eastland than he would like to admit.

It is very important to remember that to this day, Biden is claiming to be at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement and a lifetime advocate for POC. These states are false and grounded in a shallow layer of truth. But Biden perhaps doesn’t see where he went wrong, in his mind he might actually be an advocate and a man of the people. Perhaps through years of cognitive dissonance, he has managed to crown himself the king in his own castle.

ourty-second U.S. President Bill Clinton was elected into office in November of 1992.Clinton appealed to voters due to his charm, charisma as well as his relatively progressive policies. He spoke of working to stop Republicans from “gutting” the Clean Air Act as well as implying that the wealthy should pay higher taxes and that middle to working class Americans should receive tax relief (NYT, 1992). At first glance these policies with views of progressives today, but what ended up being one of the most memorable parts of Clinton’s presidency was his work or crime policies throughout the 1990s.

The politics of crime have always produced a great debate in both the public and political spheres. Many feel that crime prevention should focus more on the rehabilitation of criminals which methods such as career counseling, therapy and life coaching. What crime politics often fail to mention is the intersection of crime and racism. Through many means POC have systematically been put in difficult life circumstances, such as poverty, lack of education and inadequate mental health resources. These circumstances are exacerbated by racial profiling by law enforcement, which makes them prime targets for the U.S. prison system.

Since the suppression of Reconstruction and the return to white supremacy in the 1880s, one of the big political agendas in America has been to ‘get tough on crime’. Both the Democratic and Republican parties sought to find ways to incorporate harsher sentences, as well as increase federal spending on police efforts. The two sectors of Congress each

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passed their own versions of the same bill between 1993 and 1994. The 22.3 billion budget was split, with approximately 40% of it being allotted to adding 100,000 additional police to parole the streets, about $90,000 per cop (Congress, 19931994). Each included additions to offenses that could recieve the death penalty as well as detailing budgeting for crime prevention and protections. One of the major additions to the death penalty was drug charges. That means that someone who is charged for drug possession can be placed in the same category of punishment as murderers and rapists.

This is problematic for numerous reasons, one of them being that drug charges disproportionately affect POC more than whites. African Americans make up roughly 14% of the U.S. population, yet they make up 30% of the U.S. prison population (NAACP). In addition, laws like these can also be harmful for non-white hispanics, natives and asians who are also dispoportionately imprisoned compared to whites.

Laws such as these also paint criminals as incorrigibles who should rot for their crimes, not people who in most cases can be rehabilitated. In 1992, following a string of Los Angeles riots, rapper Sister Souljah commented on the situation saying; “if black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?” (TIME, 2015). Bill Clinton responded to this by comparing Souljah to David Duke, the grand wizard of the KKK. My question is, if Bill Clinton is supposedly the ‘first black president’, then why do these comments concern him? I mean these are ‘his’ people she’s talking about. Why did Bill Clinton feel the need to speak upon this in the first place, when the voters to whom he was appealing were not rooting for him anyway? Why abandon those whose votes he either had or almost had?.

Toni Morrison, a prominent African American novelist, referred to Bill Clinton as the ‘ first black president’. Clinton, she said, is “Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas.”

These comments led to years of controversy and even Morrison herself revealing years later that she regretted making those statements. Despite this, many black Americans agreed with her and Clinton himself accepted these wholeheartedly. It can be interpreted that Morrison meant to say that Clinton had experienced many of the circumstances that existed in the black community although he himself was a white man. The problem with Clinton agreeing with these statements is that he is accepting a ‘key’ into black culture, only to turn around and support bills that would negatively impact that same community.

It seems that Clinton is existing within two ideologies; there’s the “the first black president” who ‘understands’ the black community and the white politician who only cares about appealing to political colleagues and his white voting base. Clinton and crime didn’t have to be personal, but by masquerading as an honorary member of the black North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

community and claiming to be ‘one of us’, that betrayal only cuts deeper in the end. Instead of living up to his relation to the black community, identifying with their conditions and seeking to ameliorate or change them, Clinton chose to be “white,” thus compromising his liberal commitments.

White people have a choice whether or not to accept racially insensitive compliments or comments, even if they come from POC. For example, if a black person gives a white person the ‘pass’ to say “nigga”, that white person doesn’t have to and should not take them up on that. Just because a person of marginalized backgrounds seems to give you permission to disrespect their community, whether or not they realize it, as a white person you have the power and education to understand that although it may come out of a place of respect, it is at its core tone deaf and you should not allow yourself to be a part of it. For Clinton,the idea of ‘being black’ was more compelling than the opportunity to extend the protections of the law to black people.

The 2020 Democratic Candidate Debates have garnered a lot of attention amongst liberals looking to see who will represent them in the 2020 Presidential Election. Many were outwardly praising the diversity among the initial 20 candidates (See picture 1). Throughout 2019, candidate after candidate dropped out of the race for various reasons. At the most recent debate, the public criticized the fact that the once diverse group of candidates had been reduced to an all white cast (See picture 2). What happened? The problem with this is that if there are no POC then that will most likely mean the issues that directly affect POC in this country will go overlooked.

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The irony of the situation is that all of the candidates have used identity politics, particularly dealing with race to appeal to voters of color and in some cases even pretended to be a person of color themselves to gain supporters. Of course there is nothing wrong with discussing racial issues in a political platform, as these issues need to be brought to the public’s attention. However, it becomes apparent when politicians exploit minority struggles as a way of making themselves seem like they are “just like us”. Joe Biden is now the candidate of the Democratic Party thanks in large part to the efforts of black people in South Carolina, from the work of Representative James Clyburn to the strong support of ordinary but politically sophisticated African Americans. Whether he lives up to or betrays this support is the interesting question. Will Biden rise to the occasion, or will he instead choose “whiteness”?

Congress. S.1651 — 95th Congress (1977-1978). Congress. 1978.

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Reuters. 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates. 2019. The Washington Post. Photograph.

he liberal movement in American politics is a dynamic movement that has evolved and will continue to evolve. Although the idea behind the movement was to fight injustice, to many it feels like it has now become a place for the majority to ‘pretend to be like the minority’ while actually offering little to fix the issues at hand. Prominent figures such as Biden and Clinton give us insight into what it looks like when white individuals who identify as liberal are put in a position where their underlying racial prejudices are exposed to the public. White people have the privilege to leave when a movement inspired by others is inconvenient or uncomfortable, or to ventriloquize the voices of that movement when they wish to be associated with its accomplishments. The way to fix the problem with white liberalism is to first recognize that there is in fact a problem. Many white liberals, including those mentioned in this paper, do not see a problem with their actions. A movement cannot be progressive if its participants do not respect the continuing history of minority political struggle..

White people in general, but specifically those who identify with progressive politics, need to listen to POC when they say that there are boundaries that are being overstepped, issues overlooked, desires and interests ignored. It is alright to chime in on the conversation as long as you are not the one leading it. POC needs to be at the forefront, guiding the discussion, ensuring that liberalism will in fact be a platform for the underrepresented.

D’addario, D. Sister Souljah’s New Moment. TIME. 2015.

Glueck, Katie. Joe Biden: Who He Is and What He Stands For. The New York Times, 14 Oct. 2019.

Kaplan, Thomas. Elizabeth Warren Apologizes at Native American Forum: “ I Have Listened and I Have Learned” The New York Times 2019.

Males, M. Who Are Police Killing? Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. 2014.

Moreno, Paul. An Ambivalent Legacy: Black Americans and the Political Economy of the New Deal.

The Independent Review, vol. 6, no. 4, 2002, pp. 513–539. JSTOR. Neibergall, Charlie. Democratic presidential primary debate in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 14, 2020. Vox. Photograph.

Pear, R. The 1992 Campaign: Platform; In a Final Draft, Democrats Reject a Part of Their Past.

NYT. 1992.

Ross, Janell. Joe Biden didn’t just compromise with segregationists. He fought for their cause in schools, experts say. NBC News, 25 June 2019.

Stevens, M. What We Know About Joe Biden’s Record on School Busing. The New York Times.

2019.

The Mike Wallace Interview. Personal interview, July 28, 1957. Accessed 10 January 2020.

Times, New York. Fact-Checking Night 2 of the 2020 Democratic Debate. The New York Times, 27 June 2019.

United States Congress. Senate Bill. 1993-1994.

Victor, D. Why All Lives Matter is such a Perilous Phrase. The New York Times. 2016.

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Appendix 1.

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Public Interpretation of Dinesh D’Souza’s Movies Lilian Manning

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inesh D’Souza immigrated to the United States to attend Dartmouth college and has since become a major writer and documentary director within the Republican sphere. He began his career as a journalist, quickly producing 15 books on the topics of politics and philosophy. In 2012, Dinesh D’Souza entered the documentary scene with 2016: Obama’s America where he theorizes what the country would look like if Barack Obama was elected for a second term. He created three more documentaries, releasing them during election years in an attempt to influence national and congressional United States elections. America: Imagine the World Without Her, released in 2014, focused on the guilt that some Americans feel towards the country’s past as it defended America’s historical actions. Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party, released in 2016, focused on the history of the Democratic Party and called viewers to vote for Trump by politically criticizing Hillary Clinton. Death of a Nation, released in 2018, asked for the viewers to support Donald Trump and warned of a future where the United States falls from international power. All four of D’Souza’s movies needed outside financial help in the form of other producers.

Gerald R. Molen was a producer for all of Dinesh D’Souza’s films. He grew up on a farm in Montana and has since become a major producer in Hollywood. He produced movies such as Hook, the Jurassic Park films, and Twister. He also received recognition for helping to produce Schindler’s List (Staff).

John Sullivan was heavily involved in the production and direction of 2016: Obama’s America. He also helped produce America: Imagine the World Without Her. Sullivan is a “filmmaker and screenwriter based in Los Angeles” (Crofton). Outside of working with Dinesh D’Souza, he produced a few other political movies.

D’Souza, Molen, and Sullivan contributed funds to D’Souza’s political movies because they wished to display their political ideology. When one compares their intended reception of their political films to the various interpretations and reviews of their movies, one can analyze the discrepancy between the intended perception and actual receptions. The movies elicited three main responses: extreme agreement, extreme disagreement, and a rejection of America’s two party system as a whole, while the director and producers intended to spread their ideas.

Dinesh D’Souza wanted to create a conversation between the political parties, Republican and Democratic. “I hope,” he said, “to go to the Democratic National Convention next week too, I would like to generate some healthy debate.”

While D’Souza wanted to foster debate he also wanted to create excitement within the Republican Party around the Presidential election (McKay). He wanted to create a general sense of patriotism within the viewers of his movies, saying that “I want to rekindle that natural patriotism” (McKay).

D’Souza thought that Democrats created a story of selfhatred within the American political system, that he felt a responsibility to combat. In reference to 2016: Obama’s America, D’Souza felt like no one else had looked into Obama’s life. While Mitt Romney attacked Obama’s policy, he wanted to dive into Obama as a man. He wanted Obama’s own voice to play against himself because he thought that Obama was blocking the progress of America. In relation to his other three movies (America: Imagine the World Without Her, Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party, and Death of a Nation), D’Souza wanted to expose the public to facts that he believed were being hidden from the citizens of the United States of America by the left leaning media.

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erald R. Molen hoped that people would wake up to the facts about Obama and that 2016: Obama’s America would have an effect on the upcoming elections. He believed the movies could give republicans a good name. However, he did not want to be seen as a political person in Hollywood because it would make his job harder. At the release of 2016: Obama’s America, Molen released a piece through Fox where he called for people to view his movie and ignore the bad reviews made by people who, he claimed, had not seen the movie. He wanted to create a political dialogue between the party lines because “it makes the country a better one and stronger one for all of us” (Molen). According to David Bloom from Deadline, Molen planned to keep the movie in theaters until the election, which implies that the main goal for releasing the movie was to affect voters for the 2012 presidential election and not for profit (Bloom).

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ohn Sullivan, according to Paul Bond from Hollywood Reporter, “co-wrote and co-directed the movie [2016: Obama’s America] with Dinesh D’Souza” (Bond). Sullivan viewed the internet as becoming more democratized than it

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had been in the past, “It used to be that six bad reviews would kill a film. Now audiences are leaving their own reviews” (Crofton). His wish for the audience’s ability to rate 2016: Obama’s America implied that he wanted the movie and its content to spread by word of mouth. Sullivan wanted people on the internet to create a conversation around the movie.

He wished to teach interested viewers about Obama’s past and ideologies.

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iberal leaning reviews were quick to point out propaganda and inaccuracy within 2016: Obama’s America. Richard Corliss from TIME pointed out an irony within D’Souza’s argument about Barack Obama’s political ideology, noting that “his mother Ann and her parents apparently had less influence on him than did an AWOL dad and his later leftist surrogates” (Corliss). In a different part of the film D’Souza attacked Barack Obama’s mother by arguing that she held communist beliefs. Alternatively, Dominic Patten from DEADLINE argued that defining Barack Obama’s current political beliefs by the political beliefs of the people he was raised by is absurd and unsubstantiated (Patten). Hollie McKay of Fox news described the information presented in the documentary as a useful counter narrative going into the presidential election (McKay). She continued to speak of the film’s popularity and success at box office theaters as the film grossed “$9.2 million” and was “rapidly climbing towards the top of the charts” (McKay). At the movie theater where Richard Brody of The New Yorker saw 2016: Obama’s America, “the screen seemed on-message even before the movie began” (Brody). The ad line-up consisted of a political slide calling for protest of Mayor Bloomberg and ended with trailers for Atlas Shrugged: Part II, Argo, and The Hobbit which lead Richard Brody to believe “Clint Eastwood’s claim about Hollywood’s horde of hidden conservatives seemed less absurd” (Brody). 2016: Obama’s America was received positively or negatively based mostly on political lines.

The same party lines were seen in the Google Play reviews of 2016: Obama’s America. However, there was a small section of central reviews. Donald Cameron had the perspective that people on both sides of the political spectrum had been fooled, that the Democratic and Republican party had lied, so all Americans should come together to fix the big problem: national debt (Google Play). The beginning of his comment was a non-confrontational “Hey Righty!

Hey Lefty!” that theoretically allows any reader to view his anarchic comment without bias (Google Play). Stoner_ Mafia_Republic 1994 took that view to a more extreme level by stating that the entire government system is “bull” and concluded that no one can fix the government and the public is screwed either way (Google Play).

The stated reason for creating 2016: Obama’s America was that it would inform the public of important information regarding the upcoming election. Considering the timing of the movie’s release, before the 2016 election, it could be North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

assumed that the movie had political motives. Based on the movie’s content and D’Souza’s past writing career it could also be assumed that the desired effect was to convince voters to vote for Mitt Romney instead of Barack Obama.

Molen expected that the democratic news outlets would slander the movie and went so far as to quote Nat Hentoff’s book Free Speech For Me But Not For Thee: How The American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other to speak about the slander directed at the movie (Molen). There was a registered risk that 2016: Obama’s America would inspire the Democrats to stand and metaphorically fight against D’Souza’s recount of history. The surprising reviews were then the people who found themselves in the small crevice between parties, where they were unable to trust either party. Essentially, there was an anti-government backlash within a small portion of the comments on Google Review which was not expected and is potentially dangerous for the future of a voting system. It was dangerous because the lack of a trustworthy candidate might dissuade citizens from voting, which was not the intention of the director or producers of 2016: Obama’s America.

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ive major media figures endorsed Dinesh D’Souza’s America: Imagine the World Without Her despite the movie’s racial undertones: Megyn Kelly, Andrea Tantaros, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Martha Raddatz , according to Alexandrea Boguhn of Media Matters (Boguhn). America: Imagine the World Without Her was otherwise perceived as propagandistic and disappointing due to the difference between the title and opening scene, which promised a fictionalization of George Washington’s death and the proceeding history, and the rest of the political counter points made within the film.

Mark Jenkins, writing under the Washington Post, listed the democratic arguments that D’Souza countered: “that it’s[the democratic arguments] racist, expansionist, imperialist, colonialist and so on.” Jenkins then claims that D’Souza did a poor job of refuting the Democratic points he brought up (Jenkins). Jenkins theorized America: Imagine the World Without Her was “unlikely to convert any D’Souza skeptics to his [Dinesh D’Souza’s] viewpoint” (Jenkins).

By making uncontroversial claims seem controversial or provocative D’Souza allowed America: Imagine the World Without Her to be easily interpreted by people who may not have the same perspective, as “his is, quite probably, what most Americans believe. And that includes any of those progressives who, D’Souza supposes, would rather live in a world in which the United States was never born” (Jenkins).

America: Imagine the World Without Her was received relatively well, surpassed the fourteen million mark and situated itself as the “No. 6 political doc of all time” according to David Bloom of Deadline (Bloom). As in 2016: Obama’s America, Stoner_Mafia_Republic 1994 said “Screw America,” which was ironically what Dinesh D’Souza was trying to fight against, hatred of America (Google Play).

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Crideas Bane continued the movie’s anti-education theme by attacking another reviewer’s intellectual honesty by accusing the director of “rewriting history” (Google Play).

Alternatively, Björn Thomas called America: Imagine the World Without Her “tea party vomit at its best” and accused Dinesh D’Souza of creating a long political ad whose main purpose was to impress other conservatives (Google Play).

D’Souza’s purpose for releasing these films was to provide the public with information he believed was not available due to liberal news. In a sense, that was being accomplished: in Dan Tuttle’s case, older generations were taking their younger family members to the movies and exposing them to D’Souza’s political ideology (Google Play). Exposure to a new audience appears to be a significant reason D’Souza converted from writing books to writing books and filming documentaries.

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ordan Hoffman of The Guardian thought the largest flaw in D’Souza’s logic was that he assumes that history never changes (Hoffman). D’Souza took well known facts from the past and made them appear as relevant to the current elections when the platforms and ideology of the parties changed. Along the same line, Tom Keogh of Seattle Times said, “D’Souza ignores the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, which sent white Southern conservatives fleeing to the Republicans” (Keogh). Thomas DeMichele of Fact/ Myth found that the majority of the facts stated in the movie were correct, but D’Souza failed to situate the facts in the changing history of the Democratic and Republican Parties (DeMichele). Beyond the parties’ changes there were many factions of each party which made it hard to accurately group and compare the political parties through time.

The viewer reviews became more confrontational with less middle ground regarding Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party. Crideas Bane from Google Play reviews claimed to vote for Obama twice and switch over to Trump because he used to believe the lies that the democratic party told (Google Play). He believed that any reasonable person would have to question their views after watching Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party. Xithon from Google Play reviews also believed that anyone could verify the facts of the movie by looking at a “non-revisionist history book” (Google Play). Patrick Gibbs responded by saying that the movie was made by and for idiots and that anyone who did not already know these facts did not pay attention in history class.

Although Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party was less popular than D’Souza’s previous movies, it accomplished his goal of releasing a movie. Some professional reviewers argued that Trump’s success could be attributed to Hillary Clinton’s lack of voting appeal.

Self reportedly, some people changed their opinion and their vote to support Trump in the 2016 election because

of Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party (Google Play). The change of opinion within some viewers along with the intense support of the political ideology purported by Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party demonstrates that the intended purpose of the movie was achieved.

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att Prigge from The Guardian thought that Death of a Nation repeated the same antics and strategies as D’Souza’s previous movies but that “he’s never been more mad, or made less sense”(Prigge). John Ziegler of Mediaite found it humorous that the cover of Death of a Nation was a morphing of Abraham Lincoln’s and Donald Trump’s face as D’Souza was recently pardoned by Donald Trump (Ziegler).

As a self-professed Republican, he felt as if D’Souza’s movie quality and accuracy had decreased with Death of a Nation, which implied that Dinesh D’Souza was missing his mark in trying to convince Republicans to support Donald Trump.

Eddie Rausch from Google Play reviews brought up an interesting point, essentially that natural-born Americans are too privileged for their country (Google Play). He was born outside of America as was his wife and therefore they have a greater respect for the rights given to citizens.

Gordon Moore also from Google Play reviews thought that the people who enjoy the movie are morons and that it’s obvious that parties change over time, “it’s really just propaganda for the right”(Google Play). It appeared that D’Souza’s movies were still dividing his viewers, but that he might be losing support from more central conservatives such as John Ziegler.

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he purpose of production for Dinesh D’Souza’s movies was to educate the public, create a conversation across political lines, and influence elections to lean towards the republican side, as his movies were only released every two years during election season. The public’s reception of 2016: Obama’s America, America: Imagine the World Without Her, Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party, and Death of a Nation was mixed when compared to the intended effect. The movies consistently divided viewers along the lines of political identification. There was an interesting subsection of viewers that, when presented with information that they research and determine as truthful but counter to their beliefs, concluded that both political parties are corrupt and untrustworthy. There were also a few individual comments that found a more central stance on the information presented and stayed in between a traditional Democratic or Republican interpretation. Overall, Dinesh D’Souza’s political movies had marginal success at achieving the directors’ and producers’ goals. The work was observed to mostly confirm existing beliefs and sometimes lead to the repudiation of traditional, two-party system beliefs.

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Bcse. “Gerald R. Molen Archives.” Archives -, 22 Mar. 2012.

Bloom, David. “Dinesh D’Souza’s ‘America’ Becomes No. 6 Political Doc Despite Box-Office Ebb.” Deadline, 3 Aug. 2014.

Boguhn, Alexandrea. “Five Media Figures Who Endorse Dinesh D’Souza’s Racially Charged Agitprop.” Media Matters for America, 9 July 2014.

Bond, Paul. “‘2016: Obama’s America’ Filmmaker Indicted for Violating Campaign Finance Laws.” The Hollywood Reporter, 28 Jan. 2014.

Bond, Paul. “‘2016: Obama’s America’ Filmmakers Claim Organized Disinformation Campaign.” The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Sept. 2012.

McKay, Hollie. “Google Responds to Problems with Searches for Dinesh D’Souza’s ‘America’.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 31 Jan. 2015.

Media, Townhall. “John Sullivan, Executive Producer of 2016: Obama’s America, at the GOP Convention.” YouTube, YouTube, 2012.

Molen, Gerald R. “‘2016 -- Obama’s America’ -- Why Is the Media so Afraid of This Movie?” Fox News, FOX News Network, 9 Aug. 2012.

Molen, Gerald. “D’Souza Indictment: A Message from ‘2016’ Co-Producer Gerald R. Molen.” Dinesh D’Souza, 24 Jan. 2014.

Patten, Dominic. “‘2016: Obama’s America’ Documentary Slammed By President’s Campaign As ‘Lies.’”

Deadline, 12 Sept. 2012.

Bond, Paul. “Oscar-Winning Producer Denounces ‘Spoiled Brats’ Crying ‘Racism.’” The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Jan. 2016.

Play, Google. “2016 Obama’s America - Movies on Google Play.” Google, Google, 2012.

Brody, Richard. “Dinesh D’Souza’s ‘2016: Obama’s America.’” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 18 June 2017.

Play, Google. “America: Imagine The World Without Her - Movies on Google Play.” Google, Google, 2014.

Business, Fox. “White House Reacts to ‘Obama’s America’ Documentary.” Fox Business, Fox Business, 12 Sept. 2012.

Play, Google. “Death of A Nation - Movies on Google Play.” Google, Google, 2018.

Play, Google. “Hillary’s America - Movies on Google Play.” Google, Google, 2016.

Corliss, Richard. “2016: Obama’s America: Dinesh D’Souza Sees an End-of-Times.” Time, Time, 24 Aug. 2012.

Crofton, Gregory. “Barack Obama Special Issue: President Launches Nat Geo’s ‘Cosmos’ / Update of ‘2016 Obama’s America’ and Its $40+/- Million Payday.” DocumentaryBusiness.com, 4 June 2017.

DeMichele, Thomas. “Fact-Check: Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party.”

Fact / Myth, 3 July 2019.

Prigge, Matt. “Death of a Nation: More Angry Nonsense from Trump’s Favorite Film-Maker.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 31 July 2018.

Staff, Toi, and JTA. “‘Schindler’s List’ Producer Slams Hollywood Jews’ Support for Nuke Deal.” The Times of Israel, 16 Aug. 2015.

Zak, Dan. “Documentary Film ‘2016: Obama’s America’ Takes Approach.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 27 Aug. 2012.

D’Souza, Dinesh and Bruce Schooley, directors. Death of a Nation. D’Souza Media Corporation, 2018.

D’Souza, Dinesh and Bruce Schooley, directors. Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party. D’Souza Media Corporation, 2016.

D’Souza, Dinesh and John Sullivan, directors. 2016: Obama’s America. Lionsgate, 2012.

D’Souza, Dinesh and John Sullivan, directors. America: Imagine the World Without Her. Lionsgate, 2014.

D’Souza, Dinesh. “Hollywood Red Carpet: Gerald R. Molen Interview.” YouTube, YouTube, 2016.

Fletcher, Darrin. “The Meg and Gerald R. Molen.” Sneak On The Lot, 2018.

Hoffman, Allison. “The Producer of ‘Schindler’s List,’ Gerald Molen, Is Backing Dinesh D’Souza’s New Anti-Obama Movie.” Tablet Magazine, 16 July 2012.

Hoffman, Jordan. “Hillary’s America Review – Dinesh D’Souza Says: Beware Racist Democrat SuperVillains.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 18 July 2016.

Jenkins, Mark. “‘America: Imagine the World Without Her’ Movie Review.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 1 July 2014.

Kayne, R., and L. S. Wynn. “What Is an Executive Producer?” WiseGEEK, Conjecture Corporation, 1 Nov. 2019.

Keogh, Tom. “‘Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party’: Rambling ‘Documentary’.”

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McKay, Hollie. “Conservative Documentary Film ‘2016: Obama’s America’ Poised to Surpass Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 14 Nov. 2014.

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Ziegler, John. “Here Is What Happened When I Attended the Premiere of Dinesh D’Souza’s New Pro-Trump Film, Death of a Nation.” Mediaite, 1 Aug. 2018.

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The Reparenting of Abused Children Laura-Lee Crifasi

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hildhood maltreatment can take many forms including neglect, physical, sexual, or psychological abuse.

Physical and sexual abuse touch the victim in violent and violating ways. Psychological abuse takes many forms that many don’t recognize. Repeated verbal berating and degradation is the most severe form of psychological abuse, but the helicopter and smothering parents can also inflict abuse onto their children. Neglect is such that parents cannot provide adequate financial stability or food safety, or even a parent who has abandoned their child either by death or by choice. All of these forms of maltreatment subject the victim to chronic stress. Childhood maltreatment is relatively common in the United States. “In 2017, there were approximately 674,000 maltreated children substantiated in the United States, a rate of 9 per thousand (Child Trends).

Joel Covitz argues that narcissism is the root of all of this abuse. The ‘me-first’ behavior of adults hurts children.

Furthermore, Traina argues that it is quite deeper than narcissism. If an adult has not reached maturity to a point of recognizing the boundary between the self and the other, there is no way that child-centered parenting can occur because there is no sense of obligation to the child.

The parent’s needs trump anything else. The need to keep a house clean trumps the child’s fatigue. The need to save money trumps a child’s need to eat. A child’s need to be educated does not trump the parent’s need to go to work.

All of these examples lead to the maltreatment of children.

An overall sense of narcissism and egotism that is really a deeper failure of recognizing the boundary between self and other. This is multiplied when the ‘other’ is close and intimate the self. A child who is brought about from you or a spouse who has been touched by you and touched you.

Thus, spousal and child abuse. As Traina points out, these people feel like ‘extensions of themselves’ instead of other, autonomous, people. This effect isn’t just experienced by the caretaker. The child in question may also have boundary difficulties. “I [a therapist] had learned that her [the client’s] mother had so thoroughly taken possession of Ellen’s body that she did not know where her mother stopped and she began” (Imes 180). Here the child in question had become, as later explained by Imes, deadened to touch and left “confused about the difference between overwhelming fusion with another person and healthy contact” (180).

Recognizing the boundary between the self and others is perhaps the threshold for the capacity of healthy parenting, and a failure of this level leads to the abuse that so often

occurs. This recognition can be encapsulated in the term, “Self-actualization” which means “to become all you are capable of becoming.” This is the last step in the hierarchy of needs set forth by Abraham Maslow.

Figure 1. In the traditional hierarchy of needs, the needs of a person must be fulfilled in a ladder, not being able to progress until each is satisfied.

However, in order for a cycle of abuse to be avoided, a child must reach self-actualization in order to guide their future children through all of their needs. A narcissistic parent cannot achieve this, and thus, the cycle of abuse starts. In each form of abuse, one or more of the needs of the child have been violated.

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hysical child abuse or children experienced physical abuse (CPA), is is defined by each sovereign state. As a general definition, CPA is any act that causes significant physical pain and/or bodily injury to a child. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, in 2001, there were 903,000 U.S. children that were reported victims of abuse or neglect (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Of those, 18.6% of those were CPA cases, and younger children are more a risk of being physically abused.

Children aged zero to seven years old 51.8% of CPA cases (Herschell 146), and “the rate for children ages 0 to 3 is three times the rate for children ages 16 to 17 (15 and 5 per 1,000 children in 2017, respectively)” (US Department of Health and Human Services).

Victims of CPA experience several short-term effects.

They exhibit poor school performance, behavioral problems, Fifth World

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difficulty with attachment, social withdrawal, and higher rates of psychopathology like anxiety and depression which lead to the increased number of suicide attempts and self mutilations that victims of CPA express. (Herschell 143).

However, these short-term effects grow if the physical abuse is not stopped before the critical period is passed, these children grow up to be adults that show extreme antisocial behavior including aggression. They experience chronic, adult psychopathology, and they are more likely to perpetuate the maltreatment of children. They face financial instability with high unemployment rates and low paying jobs, and they exhibit lifelong physical health problems and concerns. (Herschell 143).

When physical abuse is perpetrated, a violation of safety needs is directly occurring as the child does not feel safe around the parent or caretaker. The child is in real, physical danger of being injured. As an indirect effect, esteem, love, and self-actualization needs are violated because “They were unable to understand the reason for their parent’s behavior toward them, reasons that were generally sadistic and irrational … Fran Grubb wrote in Cruel Harvest that she tasted the blood in her mouth when her father slapped her and screamed inside, “Why … What did I do? The assumption was that she must have done something to cause her father to behave this way” (Baker 21). Because the parent does not provide reassurance or love towards the child, self-esteem plummets throughout childhood evident in psychopathology they exhibit as children and adults.

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imilar effects are present in sexual abuse. Sexual abuse in childhood can include direct inappropriate touching by a family member or other adult, or it can be coerced actions such as photography and introducing them to sexual content prematurely. Twenty-eight to 33% of women and 12 to 18% of men were victims of childhood or adolescent sexual abuse (Roland, 2002, as cited in Long, Burnett, & Thomas, 2006 via Hall). Sexual abuse leaves its victims with distorted body images, eating disorders, feelings of guilt and shame, and continued feelings of helplessness, stress, and anxiety. High levels of depression are also reported as well as continued practice of defensive dissociation. “Dissociation for survivors of childhood sexual abuse may include feelings of confusion, feelings of disorientation, nightmares, flashbacks, and difficulty experiencing feelings” (Hall) The psychology pathology exhibited by abuse survivors is direct evidence of esteem needs violation in addition to the clear violation of the safety of the child.

Psychological, or sometimes referred to as emotional, abuse is arguably the most complicated type. Unlike physical or sexual abuse, there is no hard line or physical evidence that abuse has occurred. This abuse doesn’t take a tangible form, it’s hidden inside words. However, words are so closely related to the physicality that allows words to hold immense power. Touch phrases, or words that use tactile

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vocabulary to describe a feeling or emotion, are used as the most form of language. “All touch transverses the boundary between interiority and externality” (Stewart 178). Even if the parents aren’t physically touching their children, the words, as is said, transverse that boundary. It hits, arguably deeper than a physical slap could. The words hold substantial power over rapidly developing and confused children. Short term effects include shame, hopelessness, fear, and confusion. Long term consequences for a child include “chronic pain, social withdrawal or loneliness, guilt, anxiety, eventual feelings that their partner or parent is correct, and that they are “no good” or ugly, for example.

Children experiencing emotional abuse may develop effects such as a core feeling of worthlessness, difficulty regulating emotions, difficulty establishing trust, regression, sleep disorders, and trouble developing relationships with others” (Fletcher). Psychological abuse doesn’t necessarily violate the safety of a child but leaves ever-present self esteem and confidence issues that are evident of love and esteem need violations.

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reating abused children is complex, and their age, mental state, and type of abuse must be taken into account when pursuing treatment. Common cognitive behavioral therapy may not always be effective. For young children, parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), is an option. PCIT is a short-term intervention for families with externalizing behavior problems. These behavioral issues can be exhibited by either the parent or the child, but most commonly PCIT is pursued because the child is ‘uncontrollable.’ However, childhood behavioral problems, as stated, is a symptom of childhood maltreatment. PCIT is chosen for CPA cases in children around two to seven years for a number of reasons. Firstly, behavior problems and CPA often co-occur. These behavior problems include oppositionality and aggression, and “physically abused children demonstrate more oppositional and aggressive behavior than non-abused peers” (Dodge, Pettit, & Bated via Herschell 146). The strong correlation between CPA and behavior problems indicates that the parents undergoing PCIT had physically abused their children. Secondly, CPA is most likely to occur during a period of rapid development when they are young and learning emotion regulation.

“Attainment of of emotion regulation skills is hypothesized to be affected by four factors a) infant temperament, b) maternal mood, c) affective quality of the mother-child relationship, and d) the predominant pattern of emotional expression in the family” (Endriga, Jordan, & Spelz, 2003).

Three of these factors are affected by maltreatment, and that places the child at risk of problematic development.

PCIT addresses this in its teaching of emotion regulation.

Lastly, coercive parenting and inconsistent discipline often underlie CPA. PCIT helps eliminate interactions that are characterized by verbal aggression, whining, yelling, criticism, threats, and screaming. PCIT also helps regulate

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authoritarian control, anxiety, and guilt induction tactics and teaches rational guidance techniques. For these reasons, parent-child interaction therapy could be a good fit for CPA cases with children that fit the demographic.

Specifically, PCIT is designed to provide parents with discussions, training, psychodynamic treatment, relaxation, and stress reduction all with an emphasis on altering the family dynamics that enable coercion and aggression. They are taught skills to increase praise, reflection, imitation, description, and enthusiasm (PRIDE skills), while decreasing commands, threats, and criticism. Essentially, parents are trained as co-therapists and they act as agents of change for the behavior and emotional difficulty within the family.

PCIT encourages parents to take responsibility for solving mental health problems and to develop the confidence necessary to assist their children. PCIT is particularly useful in children but has also been proven useful when training foster parents because of the prevalence of behavioral problems that are exhibited by children in the foster care system. PCIT can train new and experienced foster parents in PRIDE skills and effective parent-child interactions.

This is critical if the foster system is to be effective in reparenting children with CPA histories. Reparenting is a process in which a new adult assumes the role of a surrogate parental figure in order to heal the individual in question from psychological disturbances caused by childhood maltreatment. A pair of foster carers, Andrew and Jane Fitz-Gibbon, explained their philosophy of reparenting in a book called Welcoming Strangers: Nonviolent Re-Parenting of Children in Foster Care. They used Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to explain their process. Instead of the traditional hierarchy of needs, the Fitz-Gibbons proposed “The Bundle Method.”

Figure 2. From Welcoming Strangers: Nonviolent Re-Parenting of Children in Foster Care; Re-imaged by Laura-Lee Crifasi

In the Bundle Method, Andrew and Jane Fitz-Gibbon argued that because of broken and dysfunctional families, some needs are fulfilled while others are left behind.

“Agreeing with him [Maslow] that the human person is motivated by basic needs, our preference is to view those needs as a series of interwoven circles rather than a hierarchy– each need being met concurrently as we develop through childhood and continue into adulthood” (50). As aforementioned, victims of CPA are more likely to mistreat children themselves because their needs have not been met and haven’t reached self-actualization. However, if those children are successfully reparented and they do reach self-actualization, that likeliness to perpetuate maltreatment is significantly decreased not to mention that they are provided the care that they deserve. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy with the original caretaker would stem the need for reparenting and allow for successful primary caretaking, and it can dramatically improve foster carer’s ability and effectiveness to successfully reparent their foster child without perpetuating abuse.

Though PCIT is effective at treating the short-term effects like behavioral problems of CPA, it is aimed at families with young children to improve the future of their relationship. As adults of CPA, different therapy is required to treat the long term effects of physical abuse. For adults who grew up in abusive households, they may benefit from a Gestalt-derived imaginal confrontation intervention. This intervention is a type of therapy in which clients are asked to recall their abuse and express their feelings and thoughts surrounding the abuse. Gestalt therapy usually consists of question and answer discussion with the psychologist, usually with the psychologist within view of the client (as opposed to Freudian therapy). A study conducted by Sandra C. Paivio at the University of Windsor of predominantly white (91%) females (81.8%) that suffered from a variety of abuse examined the effects of therapy of self-reports of therapy. The main measure of effectiveness was Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), but others were included such as the Symptom Checklist, The Impact of Event Scale, The Inventory of Interpersonal Problems, The Resolution Scale, etc. The subjects underwent a Gestalt-derived imaginal confrontation intervention and through the CTQ and exit-interviews, the following results were found: 1. 89% identified increased self-empowerment, selfconfidence, and sense of control 2. 85% identified increased separation and detachment from the abuser and abuse 3. 83% identified increased self-acceptance, selfesteem, or reduced self-criticism 4. 83% identified reduced avoidance of feelings and memories associated with the abuse 5. 63% identified increased self-understanding and awareness

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6. 83% identified increased acceptance of and less anger toward the other 7. 70% identified increased understanding or more differentiated perspective of the other 8. 67% identified holding perpetrators responsible and less minimization of harm This indicates that this type of therapy is effective in the resolution of child abuse issues including symptomatology, distress, self-blame, minimization, avoidance, etc. This does not follow the strict definition of reparenting, but it does reframe some of the perspectives surrounding the abuse.

In therapies like this, the therapist can take on the parental role necessary for reparenting. Take the story of one June, who presented as well-put-together and successful, but one day, after months of cognitive-behavioral therapy, she impulsively crawled into the therapist’s lap, like a child. Many of her following sessions continued as such. (Imes 186). A touch-deprived child grows into a touch-deprived adult, falling into the arms of the caretaker who is reparenting.

Reparenting is necessary for sexual abuse victims, just as it is for CPA victims and touch-deprived individuals; many sexually abused children were violated by parents or parental-like figures such as uncles, grandparents, etc. For young sexual abuse victims, group therapy, art or otherwise, is a very effective tool when addressing this type of abuse.

“Group art therapy is often the most effective method because interaction with other abused children lessens feelings of isolation and helps victims share their experiences … Not being believed can be more traumatic than the actual abuse By sharing sexual abuse experiences in a group, children receive support and confirmation” (Dufrene 7).

Other therapies may be required for sexual abuse victims especially when they are out of early childhood and into adolescence. Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT), was rated as a level-1 “well supported and efficacious” intervention in the Office for Victims Crime’s Child Physical and Sexual Abuse: Guidelines for Treatment (Saunders, Berliner, & Hanson 2004). “TF-CBT is an evidence-based treatment … a structured, shortterm treatment model that effectively improves a range of trauma-related outcomes in 8-25 sessions with the child/ adolescent and caregiver” (tfcbt.org).

However, reparenting is never explicitly introduced into these methods. Thinking back to Ellen, a patient of Suzanne Imes, who couldn’t recognize the boundary between herself and her abusive mother; Ellen was treated with “Gestalt therapy theory” (Imes 179), and in this, her therapist, Suzanne, took on this role of reparenting. Suzanne made it explicitly clear that she would never be sexual with Ellen and respected her boundaries at all times- this addressed Ellen’s safety needs. Then, Ellen was asked to describe the difference between good and bad touch during therapy.

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The following four were emphasized as important: 1. Touch avoids contact with sexual areas 2. The client is in charge of the touch (can choose to stop it) 3. Touch springs from the client’s need, not the therapist’s 4. Touch facilities the healing process rather than impeding it (182).

Ellen regressed to childhood learning of good and bad touch, and her therapist was the parent in this performance, guiding her to her eventual self-actualization. Other clients of Imes, like the aforementioned Barbra, defined good touch similarly as “solely for the benefit of the client” and “done with the clear understanding that the client is ultimately in charge of the touch” (185). Ellen’s experience with “regressive work in individual therapy, group therapy…”

(183) may not be taken as representative of a standardized treatment method, instead of as anecdotal evidence presented to speak for reparenting and addressing needs as well as treatments for sexual abuse survivors.

The role of reparenting doesn’t necessarily need to be fulfilled by a licensed professional, and it can be anyone who reaffirms safety, love, and esteem needs to the abused child.

Friends, other family members, and foster parents can all take on these roles to help rehabilitate abused children into adults who could one day guide other children through all of their needs. This is important abstract research in the exploration, understanding, and application of reparenting in the treatment and healing of childhood abuse victims.

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American Psychological Association. “What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.” apa.org.

Baker, Amy J.L., and Mel Schneiderman. Bonded to the Abuser: How Victims Make Sense of Childhood Abuse. Ed. Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. Google Books.

Child Trends. “Child Maltreatment.” Child Trends, 7 May 2019.

Covitz, Joel. Emotional Child Abuse: The Family Curse. Sigo Press, 1986.

Dodge, K. A., Pettit, G. S., & Bated, J. E. (1997). How the experience of early physical abuse leads children to become chronically aggressive. Developmental perspectives on trauma: Theory, research, and intervention (Vol. 8, pp 263-288). Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.

Dufrene, Phoebe. “Art Therapy and the Sexually Abused Child.” Art Education, vol. 47, no. 6, 1994, pp. 6–11. JSTOR. Endriga, M. C., Jordan, J. R., & Speltz, M. L. (2003). Emotion self-regulation in preschool-aged children with and without orofacial clefts. Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 24, 336- 344.

Fitz-Gibbon, Jane Hall, and Andrew Fitz-Gibbon. Welcoming Strangers: Nonviolent Re-parenting of Children in Foster Care. Transaction Publishers, 2016.

Fletcher, Jenna. “What are the effects of emotional abuse?” Medical News Today, 21 Nov. 2019.

Hall, Melissa, and Joshua Hall. “The Long-Term Effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Counseling Implications.” VISTAS Online, 2011.

Herschell, Amy D., and Cheryl B. McNeil. “Theoretical and Empirical Underpinnings of ParentChild Interaction Therapy with Child Physical Abuse Populations.” Education and Treatment of Children, vol. 28, no. 2, 2005, pp. 142–162. JSTOR. Imes, Suzanne. Touch in Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice. Edited by Edward W.L. Smith and Pauline Rose Clance, The Guilford Press, 1998.

McLeod, Saul. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. 2020. “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,” by Saul McLeod.

Simply Psychology, 20 Mar. 2020.

Paivio, Sandra C. “Stability of retrospective self-reports of child abuse and neglect before and after therapy for child abuse issues.” Child Abuse & Neglect, vol. 25, no. 8, Aug. 2001, pp. 1053+. Science Direct,.

Psychology Wiki. “Critical Period.” Psychology Wikia, Wikia.org.

Stewart, Susan. Poetry and The Fate of The Sense. The University of Chicago Press, 2002.

Therapist Certification Program. “What is TF-CBT?” TF-CBT. Traina, Cristina L. H. Erotic Attunement: Parenthood and the Ethics of Sensuality between Unequals. The University of Chicago Press, 2011.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Child Protection in Families Experiencing Domestic Violence.” 2003.

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Anti-Blackness, Culture Appropriation, Colorism, and Racism in Japan and South Korea Alexa Dwomoh

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lack culture dominates global culture. Hip-hop and R&B artists like Travis Scott or H.E.R hold world tours with many concerts in Asian countries. However, with this admiration comes fetishization and even a certain dislike.

It comes with fans often changing their styles to a “hiphop” or “swag” style such as cornrows, braids, or sagging pants; it comes with people obsessively using tanning products; it comes with people changing the way they walk or talk to fit the stereotype they believe they are filling.

Conversely, it comes with people refusing to sit next to a black person; it comes with parents refusing to let their children play with mixed children just because one of their parents is of the African diaspora; it comes with refusing to serve black or mixed people at a restaurant or a hotel.

The extreme contradictions of this behavior towards black people and their culture in Japan and South Korea is a topic that interests me, as it is something that is quite common.

There are people who are disgusted by people of color, and there are the people who love black people because of stereotypes. South Korean pop idols use black culture as a concept, oftenputting the darkest member of the group in various black hairstyles such as locs or cornrows. But this copying of black culture also poses a question of the importance of why this is done. If it comes from a place of love and admiration, does it make it any better? Or worse?

This paper will extensively explore the anti-blackness, cultural appropriation, colorism, and racism in South Korea and Japan through the analysis of photographs, articles, and various articles and anecdotes.

As a result of the Korean War, many foreigners began to temporarily reside in South Korea. During this time, the presence of American soldiers stationed in South Korea resulted in the birth of around 40,000 honhyeol (halfKorean) children, the majority of them born as a result of prostitution. Additionally, many American soldiers returned to the US, leaving the mothers on their own. Life as a half-Korean was extremely difficult during the 1950s and 1960s: many of children grew up in poverty if they were not put up for adoption, and the majority of them experienced harsh financial struggles due to grandparents who disowned their mothers, or because of the poverty that had led their mothers into prostitution in the first place.

Although all honhyeol children were teased growing up, the discrimination towards honhyeol children who were half North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

Biracial orphans of the Korean war, 1960s (“1960년대”)

black was substantially worse than children who were half white. Koreans living near the many base camps witnessed the obvious power dynamic amongst the black and white soldiers, and the Koreans started to emulate this mindset.

Prostitutes who slept with white soldiers were seen as better and less dirty than prostitutes who slept with black soldiers; these latter prostitutes “were beaten or experienced damage to their business” (South Korean NGO Coalition).

Generally, black soldiers were believed to have caused “more trouble than ‘the Americans’” (Kowner 288).

Biracial orphans of the Korean war, 1960s (“1960년대”)

Insooni, a well-known half-black half Korean singer, was one of the many honhyeol children born during this tough time period. Insooni, whose real name is Kim In-soon, was born on April 5, 1957. Insooni grew up in poverty; her mother’s family disowned her mother when she refused to

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give Insooni up, and her father left before Insooni was even born. Insooni was subject to harsh teasing while growing up and used to think that she was “dirty compared to my classmates” (“Insooni”). The racism and discrimination she received throughout her adolescence along with the financial struggles she and her mother faced stopped her from pursuing a high school education, and she never graduated. Nevertheless, her mother always supported her. In an interview, Insooni talked about how her mother “didn’t let me starve and helped me build a good character … She made me understand what it means to be human and helped me follow a good, moral path, which I’m very grateful for” (“The INNERview - Ep95C03 About Insooni’s family”).

Another honhyeol, Jang Yeon-hee, was born to an American soldier and a South Korean mother. Her father left for America soon after and never talked to Jang or her mother ever again. All she knows about her father is that “either his middle or last name is McDonald or MacDonald” (Herald). Just like Insooni and many others, Jang and her mother lived in poverty. Her mother even moved to a town where nobody would know or recognize her because “‘... she suffered too much … Her life was filled with sadness’” (Herald). Because of their financial situation, Jang was forced to work in different factories after elementary school. Her half-brother—her mother had another child with a different American soldier—dropped out of middle school so he could work in factories as well. On top of their financial struggle, both Jang and her brother were bullied in school for being mixed race. Jang even mentions how her own husband would call her slurs whenever they fought, saying that she “‘came from the lowliest of roots’” (Herald).

Born to an African-American father and a Korean mother, Kang Hwa-sim is another honhyeol who had a terribly laborious life. Similar to Insooni and Jang, she grew up without her father; and like Jang, all she knows is his last name: “Echo” (Herald). Her story is the same as the other women: constantly bullied in school for her appearance and always struggling for money. Her mother would live with multiple American soldiers who would help financially support them, even becoming a dancer for the US military to rake in as much money as possible. As a child, Kang would get spit on by her classmates and called slurs, including the n-word. Kang was told by her mother that an acquaintance urged Kang’s mother to throw Kang in the river when she was born because she was half-black. Kang heard that there were “‘many half-black babies that were just relinquished in the mountain or the river shortly after they were born’” (Herald). Although Jang, Kang, and Insooni were able to stay with their mothers, many children were not as fortunate and were put up for adoption. Sometimes it was because their mothers wanted to marry Korean men, and they had to give up their mixed-race child to do so. Or, the child’s grandparents would not allow the child’s mother to have a honhyeol child. In some cases, the mother herself

did not want the child. This adoption process started in 1954 when South Korea’s “ministries of justice, welfare and foreign affairs collaborated with private adoption agencies to send mixed-race children to the U.S. and other countries” (Herald). This was one of then-president Syngman Rhee’s “‘one nation, one people’ policies, which emphasized on ethnic homogeneity” (Herald). Along with these policies, the influx of mixed-race Korean babies in the 1950s and 1960s brought about the discrimination and prejudice towards mixed-race, and specifically towards black Koreans and foreigners.

Post War Japan did not produce many mixed-raced children, but the effects of American racism were still present during this time. One instance of this is the production of a blackface doll: Dakko-chan (ダッコちゃ ん). Dakko-chan was created in 1960 under a popular toy company Takara—the creators of the Transformers—and its popularity soared; so much so that it reached American shelves. The company sold “2.4 million of the round-faced dolls” after its release. Japanese girls strolling around with Dakko-chan attached to their arms were a regular sight: “Tokyo department stores were filled with scrambling, stumbling, shoving teen-agers fighting to spend 180 yen (50¢) for a squeaking, winking, black-skinned dakkochan … doll” (TIME). It was meant for just toddlers, but customers

“A Japanese girl with a dakkochan doll on her arm, Tokyo, Japan, 1960.”

(Twitter)

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of all ages were sporting this blackface doll. One novelist Tensei Kawano commented on the immense popularity of the Dakko-chan during this time, saying, “‘a Negro culture wave seems to be sweeping Japanese youth. … In a way we are like Negroes, who have a long record of oppression and misunderstanding, and we feel akin to them” (TIME). On the other hand, Shusuke Kubota, a spokesman for Takara, claimed that the Dakko-chan dolls were not based on black people, but were in fact “a Japanese child whose skin has darkened from being out in the sun all summer long” (“Japanese Company”). John Russell, a African-American historian based in Japan, disagrees, saying, “Although Takara [Shusuke Kubota] insisted that the doll depicted ‘a healthy sun-tanned Japanese child,’ … such an explanation would not suffice to justify the doll’s grass skirt, a ‘standard signature used to signify the black primitive’” (Salamone 150). To many, to declare that the doll was not based off of black caricature, as Shusuke Kubota attempted to do, was seen as ridiculous. It’s big red lips, grass skirt, and pitch-black skin convey otherwise. Even so, to declare that the Japanese understand and went through the many years of oppression as blacks did is incorrect. Eventually, the company decided to come out with a new doll in the early 2000s called “21st Century Colorful Dakko-Chan,” a new version of Dakkochan which sported multiple colors, including black. Similar to Korea, Japan seemed to assume the racial views held by white soldiers towards the black soldiers during World War II, but this later shifted with the emergence of hip hop and R&B in Japan and its subsequent popularity.

By the 1970s, South Korea was still trying to deal with its “problem” of half-Koreans. To solve this problem, the Korean government created job recruitment programs to encourage mixed-race Korean men to leave the country.

In 1972, they then even went so far as to exempt mixedrace men from the commonly mandatory Korean military service so they would leave the country at a quicker and higher rate. In 1982, a survey showed that “95 percent of … mixed-race Koreans in Korea said they wished to move to the U.S., … Some children even volunteered to be adopted by U.S. parents even if it meant being separated

“Head guest reporter Kang Yu-il interviewing the two actors, who finished the 200th Play, Seo In-seok (left) and Yi Seung-ho on the top of the stage” (네이버 뉴스 라이브러리)

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from their birth mothers. The main reason was social alienation and racism” (Herald). In addition to racism towards mixed-race Koreans, South Korea discovered blackface. In 1978, two actors of a play were in blackface, portraying black convicts. During this time, the general Korean population thought nothing was wrong with this, believing it was simply an actor portraying a role. In 1984, there was a popular play being shown across South Korea titled Roots. Roots, originally a novel written by esteemed author Alex Haley, tells a story about a slave named Kunta Kinte who is taken from his village and sold into slavery, following his new and highly unfortunate life in America.

“Yu In-chon dressed up as Kunta Kinte (left) with Yoon Bok-hee playing Kiji, and Chu Song-woong as Chicken Georgie (right)” (네이버 뉴스 라이브러리)

To play Africans, the actors decided to paint themselves in dark paint. The newspaper describes all the work they had to do in preparing for this role: “...for a month and eight hours a day rolling and jumping and shrieking …” (네이버 뉴스 라이브러리). After this, complaints about incomplete blackface started to emerge—in a 1981 article, a KBS detective drama titled “Nigerian Dream” is mentioned, featuring a complaint from a viewer who was angry about the actor’s hands being white. He only had black paint on his face; his blackface was incomplete. “Incomplete blackface” is quite an interesting term. To properly fulfill the role of a primarily black character, one has to completely paint themselves black—if one is going to be racist, at least do it fully. Subsequently, in 1985, an article highlights how hard two actors worked to get people interested in their play based in South Africa; one of them even went so far as to dress in blackface as they passed around flyers.

Initially, blackface was used to portray characters who were black, but, but they started to evolve into comedic roles in 1986 with the arrival of sikeomeonseu (시커먼스).

Sikeomeonseu, a combination of “dark as coal” (시컿다, sikeota) and performance (퍼포먼스, peopomeonseu). They created the phrase “오늘도 시커먼스, 망했다 망했어” meaning, “Today’s sikeomeonseu, we’re ruined, we’re ruined” (“쇼 비디오 자키”). On a TV program, Lee Bong-won, the creator of this performance, described how Sikeomeonseu was so popular “that children who could not paint their faces black instead found another way -- and drove sales of coal briquettes up” (“Three Decades”). The comedic skit eventually ended with the arrival of the 1988 Olympics on account of the arrival of African athletes: they did not “‘want to denigrate black people … it would be better not to do it’” (“Three Decades”). Ironically, on that same program, they

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had one of the TV hosts in blackface as he danced with Lee Bong-won and another comedian, singing the popular Sikeomeonseu tune. This shows that they seemed to know that dressing and mimicking stereotypes of Africans and African-Americans was not necessarily a good thing, but then proceeded to do so in the name of comedy. Another popular show, Dooly the Little Dinosaur, featured a character named Michol, inspired by singer Michael Jackson. Michol had light brown skin, kinky hair, and huge round lips. Some claim that Michol is not racist because he is technically Korean, but that does not explain his stereotypically round lips, kinky hair, and name, Michol. In fact, it makes it worse—if Michol is actually a Korean, then Michol is either extremely tanned or in blackface. Furthermore, as a Korean, Michol is appropriating black hair, trying to fit into a race that Michol is supposedly not a part of. This theme of either knowing a certain action is not good but still doing it or being ignorant and doing that certain action was rampant for the next couple of decades.

so strong Sanrio decided to donate 600,000 dollars’ worth of toys to poor children in San Francisco since Sanrio was planning on opening a company building there. Although Sanrio seemed to understand—to a certain extent—the wrong in their doings, there were various responses to this situation both within and outside Sanrio: “‘Nobody in Japan regards this as racist,’ said Kenichiro Ide, spokesman for Sanrio Co., … Instead, … it should be seen as ‘humorous’ and ‘friendly’”; Michio Watanabe, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party expressed that “... American blacks weren’t ‘mature enough’ to be good businessmen and had no compunction against going bankrupt”; Tokyo business Mitsuhiko Iwaya made a similar response: “‘I feel Americans, especially black Americans, are just oversensitive to any kind of criticism or characterization” (“Making Amends”, Yates). The disconnect is clear in these responses: If it is not done with negative intentions, why are people seeing it as such? they all seem to ask. One response to this question is: racism does not always equal negativity. One can be racist without meaning to be, but at the end of the day, it is still a racist comment or action, or prejudice or discrimination.

However, this does not allow the act of denigrating AfricanAmerican responses to these racial insults, which occurs often. Although one may have intended no harm, that does not erase the historical knowledge born of long experience.

Therefore, apologizing and understanding the wrongdoing is the right response.

Michol (Janine)

Japan did not have to worry about trying to remove mixed Japanese men from their country; instead, they decided to show their appreciation for black people and their culture by dressing up like them. And one example of this is Rats & Star (ラッツ&スター), a Japanese blackface pop group influenced by doo-wop music. Every performance and album cover featured the group members in blackface.

This type of musical group was unique in Japan, making the Rats & Star hugely popular: their first single “Me-Gumi no Hito,” released in 1983, was an immediate hit, selling over 800,000 copies. There was another blackface R&B group, the Gosperats, who were even inspired by Rats & Star. In Japan, nobody found a problem with it—it was just men showing their love of black culture. Blackface in Japan is generally said to be done out of “love” or “respect,” meaning that it is not racist. This is seen in the many responses to the backlash Sanrio, a Japanese toy-making company—the creators of Hello Kitty—received after their release of toys named Sambo, Hanna, and Bibina that sported pitch-black skin, kinky hair, and gigantic red lips. The backlash was

Rats & Star (ギャソグ)

But with the nineties came the spread of hip-hop and black culture into many countries, and South Korea was no exception. J. Y. Park, whose birth name is Park Jinyoung, is one of the biggest and most popular Korean celebrities. J. Y. Park debuted in 1994, and his career is still active today, with acting, songwriting, producing, and entertainment label CEO—one of the biggest, most popular, and most successful labels in South Korea—under his belt. But alas, J. Y. Park made a few mistakes in his prime. In 1996, J. Y. Park released a popular track, “She Was Pretty.” In a 1997 performance, Fifth World

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the backup dancers were in blackface with big afros, wearing seventies-style clothing. Now, this poses a question: why? Is it because he sampled music from black artists into his song?

Does it make him stand out? Or maybe it adds authenticity to the song and performance? Another example of this can be seen in the song “T.O.P. (Twinkling of Paradise)” by an immensely popular nineties Korean group, Shinhwa. In this song, Eric Mun, the lead rapper of this group, says a problematic word: “What you gonna do? What I gotta do? / This is how we do it, you n****s better know” (Shinhwa).

Another extremely popular nineties group, H.O.T., did the exact same thing in their song “You Got Gun?”: “Strictlyflex as you can’t flex or test / thebest thewestside n****r coast the boast themoast / I filla flow for sure you n****r’s know” (H.O.T.). Now, throughout the 90s, many groups who were considered the kings or queens of K-Pop were formed. H.O.T. and Shinhwa were the Korean equivalents of NSYNC or the Backstreet Boys, along with Seo Taiji and the Boys. American hip-hop was also very popular at this time, and so these K-Pop groups implemented hip-hop into their songs. Rappers in the group wrote and performed the raps as they wore baggy clothing and spoke mainly English in a stereotypical “hip-hop/black” style. The rappers were also given a “black hairstyle,” commonly dreadlocks or cornrows, to make them stand out and highlight their role in the group: the rapper. The n-word in the songs was used in the same way. The 90s entertainment industry in South Korea, while fundamental in paving the way for the South Korean entertainment business of today, also gave birth to the heavy appropriation of black culture.

Hip-hop was also extremely popular in the 90s in Japan.

Similarly, this produced many Japanese rappers influenced

by American hip-hop culture. This influenced the manner in which they talked, dressed, and walked. They started enforcing hip-hop stereotypes, like “crip walking” or constantly saying words like “swag,” “respect,” “homie,” or “brotha.” Many Japanese hip-hop fans tanned their skin and wore afros, dreadlocks, or braids. A term was even used, burapan, to describe the “‘fashion sensibilities of all black wannabes’” (“Japanese Hip Hop”). However, this word also has a negative meaning: it is a combination of the word bura from burakumin, the people who were generally on the bottom of the Japanese caste system, and pan, from bread, a word used to describe prostitutes during World War II. Together, burapan was used to describe girls who slept with black American soldiers. As in South Korea during the Korean War, prostitutes who slept with white soldiers were treated better than prostitutes who slept with black soldiers.

The use of this derogatory term shows that there are many Japanese who disagree with this way of using blackface as an attempt to show appreciation for “black” culture. However, some Japanese teens saw it as a way of rebelling, if to rebel is to identify with “the hegemonic racial structure that exists in the United States” and “issues on a global level” (“Japanese Hip-Hop”).

An example of this is the gyaru and ganguro trend. A gyaru (ギャル, a transliteration of the English word “girl”) is “used to define a [street] fashion subculture in Japan” (“Gyaru”), and under this concept is the ganguro (ガングロ) trend, which started in the late 1990s. This trend was started by Japanese teens who were tired of the ideal standard of beauty—white skin and dark hair—and decided to do the exact opposite of this by tanning their skin, wearing radical makeup, and

Seo Taiji and the Boys (Fyeahhistory).

“Ganguro” (Gyaru Wiki)

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dying their hair with bright colors. There were extreme versionsof ganguro girls as well, called manba (まんば) and yamanba (やまんば), which literally means “old mountain hag”; they were the more extreme versions of ganguro who were “regarded by Japanese civilians as improper or even dirty” (“Gyaru”). The gyaru trend was so popular that there were clothing shops, magazines, cafes, mangas, animes, and groups dedicated to the many subcultures of gyaru.

However, there are many mixed reviews about gyaru girls, specifically ganguro, manba, and yamanba. Many claim it is blackface—they are tanning themselves to make themselves look darker than they usually are. “Ganguro” literally means blackface: gan meaning “face” or “to great extents” and guro meaning the color black (“ganguro”)—there were ganguro girls who would use black culture as a way to express themselves with their now extremely tanned skin color.

Regardless of the many explanations, ganguro, manba, and yamanba can easily be seen as problematic and wrong: these trend followers were darkening their skin color.

Although South Korea did not have trends based on the excessive tanning of one’s skin, blackface was extremely prominent. In 2003, the Bubble Sisters decided that since they did not have the looks, they decided they had to stand out in other fashion—and this was through the usage of blackface. There were various reactions to this. Some people were infuriated, stating that “it was racially discriminating to depict black people as ‘ugly and fat’” (“MBC under fire”).

However, many thought otherwise. On a Korean streaming music site, Melon, many people held different opinions on the Bubble Sisters and their blackface: At first, I thought, ‘are all these comments people being uncomfortable after seeing the album cover?’ and it turns out I was right. Why are people freaking out over an album cover that came out in 2003? Don’t act out please. It’s been a good album for over 10 years, so let’s not create problems … Why are people acting out over an old album cover … What’s so wrong about just simply dressing up as a black person? It’s the same thing as white people pulling their eyes. Expressing an Asian feature can’t be a bad thing. Also, somebody looking at the album jacket [cover] and complaining about Koreans at that time and saying it’s disgracing them; it’s just pure innocence. Even if I don’t know what it really means to make fun of black people and cursing them even if you just look at it [the album cover] it’s obvious they aren’t. (“Bubble Sisters”) The Bubble Sisters eventually released their first CD of the album without blackface in 2003 (although they were still wearing afros and braids). And then, in 2006, the TV program Global Talk Show had a segment where comedians were dancing with two women on stage, one of them black.

As this performance was ending, a singer put on a Rasta wig and started shouting the famous sikeomeonseu line. Korean netizens called out his behavior, calling it inappropriate and racist—especially since he did all this in front of a

black woman. Thereafter, in 2007, the comedian creators of sikeomeonseu reunited on Gag Concert to perform sikeomeonseu once more. 2007 also included the strangest usage of blackface: Raelians promoting clitoraid for Kenyan women by painting themselves black and wearing wigs.

“여성할례에 고통받는 아프리카 여성들을 도웁시다!. [Let’s help the Africans suffering from female circumcision!]” (“여성”)

Japan in the early 2000s was full of hip hop culture fans.

There were many shops and hair salons that provided Japanese teens with the clothes and hairstyles that represented their idea of black culture. One of these shops was baby Shoop (ベ イビー シュープ). baby Shoop is a Japanese shop dedicated to black culture and its clothes—its motto is even “BLACK FOR LIFE = BLACK FOREVER” (baby Shoop). This shop is an example of the B-style, the black style. People who are B-stylers are people who dress like black people by tanning their skin, wearing black hairstyles, and dressing like black people. An example of this is Hina, an avid fan of b-style who was interviewed by VPRO Metropolis, a YouTube account dedicated to updating their viewers on the world and its news. In their video, Hina, with her tanned skin, braids, and chains around her neck, is the epitome of a B-styler.

She and her many b-styler friends claim that they love black people and their style; black culture is cool, and they want to show that through their appearance. Hina’s mother was also included in this interview, and she did not mind; it was

“b-style tanned skin” (The Japans).

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just a phase in her eyes: “Sooner or later it will get boring” (“Black lifestyle in Japan”). For many, b-styling was just that, a cool fashion trend that they like to follow before it eventually dies out. This is where a potential problem lies.

Imitating black culture without a solid understanding of the history, and without regard to the racism black people face daily due to the color of their skin, makes “blackness” a simple fashion trend. For black people, they cannot get rid of their skin color or hair type. Black people are stuck with the way they look, and the consequences that come with it. However, b-stylers can just take out their hair, wear their usual clothes, and stop tanning—black people are just a fashion trend to b-stylers, and b-styling is just stereotyping black culture. B-stylers dress in the way they assume black people dress, walk the way they think black people walk, and talk the way they think black people talk as they group an entire race into one small box titled “Hip-Hop.” In the 2010s, K-Pop in South Korea was soaring in popularity. With the rise of K-Pop groups and their attempt to reach foreign music industries, they decided to emulate different cultures into their music. They did this by producing their music in Japanese and Chinese, and incorporating English into their song lyrics. They also did this through hip-hop, which meant dressing their rappers in “b-style” with dreadlocks. And along with appropriation of black culture, many idols were also in blackface, while still trying to appeal to American audiences. An example of this is seen in ex-BEAST member Lee Gi-kwang. On a Korean television show, he dressed up as Michol, the character from Dooly. He had brown paint on his face while wearing a kinky wig and eating watermelon. The other celebrities featured in the video laughed as he completed his mimicry of Michol complete with an “American dance” which was him grinding and dancing sexily on the ground. The video ends with him embarrassed, sitting on the ground. Another K-Pop idol, Chen from EXO, was doing a live video when another EXO member painted his face brown. Chen, excited, compared himself first to Michol, then to Kunta Kinte. Fans were outraged from both of these incidents, but there was no apology from either of these celebrities.

“[Happy Time...]” (MBCentertainment).

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This ignorance and appropriation of black culture stayed prominent in K-Pop for a long time. Taeyang, a member of BIGBANG, once wrote in an album description about how he wished to have experienced the pain that many black people felt so he could also get that soul so many black singers seemed to have (Angela). This trivialization of black pain makes it undeniable that Taeyang does not really understand the history of black people in America, nor has he bothered to research it; instead, he seems to believe that the Middle Passage or the violent exploitation of the plantation zone or the white supremacist terrorism of Jim Crow or the dangers of jogging while black in America would legitimate him as a performer. Taeyang, just like G-Dragon, was not one to shy away from appropriating black culture and wore black hairstyles multiple times. Other BIGBANG members, Seungri and T.O.P. did the same with cornrows, dreadlocks, and even Bantu knots. Ironically, while attempting to become a part of a culture, Seungri managed to diss it as well. In a radio interview, he stated his fear of black people, commenting on how scary he thought they were. Another artist under the same company as BIGBANG, CL, is an avid user of black culture. In one of her music videos, she donned grills and gold chains. In another one of her music videos, her backup dancers had tanned skin and cornrows as they danced erotically.

“G-dragon in blackface dressed up as Andre 3000” (Owning-My-Truth)

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YG Entertainment was founded by Yang Hyun-suk, a member of the popular 90s hip hop group Seo Taiji and the Boys. As a former rapper, the majority of the artists under YG are heavily hip-hop influenced, meaning, there is an abundance of cultural appropriation. Many members of iKON and WINNER, boy bands under YG Entertainment, have sported dreadlocks or “hip-hop” clothes. But this is not a phenomenon just under YG; many other entertainment labels in South Korea have used black culture as a concept.

Zico, a popular Korean rapper who is also a member of the K-Pop group Block B, is known for heavily appropriating black culture. In his many music videos, he wears grills, tattoos, hip-hop outfits, and is surrounded by twerking tanned dancers in braids or cornrows. Moreover, BTS, a remarkably successful K-Pop group that managed to break into the American entertainment industry, winning American music awards like Billboard or Teen Choice, also had their fair share of ignorance during their debut. Rap Monster, the rapper of this group, is a prime example of this.

Rap Monster always showed that he was a great admirer of black culture, and to do this, he would show it. One way he would do this was by vocally imitating a black person. On a radio show, he showed this “talent” as said words like “yo,” slurred his words together, threw in curse words here and there, and cut the “g” off of words ending in “ing.”

South Korean rapper Zico sporting grills, gold chains, and tattoos (Napthesoul).

Wendy of popular girl group Red Velvet did the same on a radio show as she showed how a white and black girl talked.

To show how a black girl talked, she rolled her neck and snapped her fingers, emulating the stereotype of a loud and angry black girl. Many fans were horrified, especially seeing as how Wendy grew up in Canada before moving to South Korea as a teenager to pursue K-Pop idol training. Jooheon, one of the rappers in the K-Pop boy band MONSTA X, also imitated a black person on a television show, stating that he had always wanted to be black ever since he became a hiphop fan. And so to do this, he perfected the art of talking like a black person and dressing like one as well. Yuri from Girls’ Generation, one of the most popular K-Pop girl groups, imitated a black person as she said “Yo! You die”

and proceeded to act tough, like a gangster (“천하 무적 청소년”). She continued this act as she did the same thing as Wendy—rolled her neck and snapped her fingers.

What South Koreans see are black people on TV acting tough, playing mainly gangster or criminal roles. In music, they see the hip-hop side of black culture, with black girls in small clothes and black rappers surrounded by these girls in their sometimes-baggy clothing. On screen, black girls and women are portrayed as sassy, loud, and angry. As how this is what they see, as the idea of black people such explains their imitation of a gangster or a sassy black girl. When it comes to wearing black hairstyles, Kai from EXO, another popular K-Pop boy group is also notorious for doing so.

Kai generally has darker skin compared to the rest of the members in EXO, so he was the member who got the hiphop influenced hairstyles. In one of their earlier songs, Kai was in cornrows with a bandana tied around his forehead, and in a track a couple years ago, Kai sported dreadlocks.

EXO’s Kai with dreadlocks (Resnikoff).

Many other K-Pop idols also sported dreadlocks in the past couple of years, just like the old groups from the nineties—to solidify the rapper’s role in a group. Korean hip-hop rappers do the same thing. They wear dreadlocks, cornrows, or any other stereotypical black hairstyle complete with chains, a grill, baggy clothes, and a change in their expressions and walking. The Korean hip-hop show, Show Me the Money, is full of wannabe rappers who think that to be a rapper, one has to act black. In the female equivalent to this program, Unpretty Rapstar, a contestant named Truedy claimed to be from New York, altered her Korean so it had an American accent, darkened her skin tone, and wore heavy makeup with a black hairstyle. Although a decent rapper, her usage

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of pretending to be a race she was definitely not did not help her popularity and was even called out on it in a rap battle by a fellow contestant. However, as usual, more international fans found this performance a problem than did Korean fans.

Hoya, a rapper in K-Pop group INFINITE, has said the n-word on many occasions and in an interview stated how he wished he was black: The name of the dance team I used to be in was ‘BK’.

The letters stood for ‘Black Korean’. Because AfricanAmericans have good physical bodies, good elasticity/ flexibility during dancing, and good vibrations while singing, I was jealous and purposely went to go eat hamburgers with my hyungs who danced and learned slang that African-Americans use. It was to the point that once during puberty, I asked my mom, “Why aren’t I African-American?”. My mom’s answer? “Because I’m not African-American. Recently while filming the music video for ‘She’s Back’, I got a natural tan. Everyone didn’t like that they got burned, but I was the only happy one. I can almost say that my role models are AfricanAmericans. ({NEWS}) His fetish for black people is held by many, and it shows ignorance as well as the inability to properly learn a culture before trying to imitate it.

In the 1950s, many Korean people, agreed with then president Syngman Rhee, whose political goals were to make South Korea as homogenous as possible: “‘Our homogeneity is a blessing,’ said … critic Lee Sung-bok, a bricklayer who said his job was being threatened by migrant workers. ‘If they keep flooding in, who can guarantee our country won’t be torn apart by ethnic war as in Sri Lanka?’”

(Choe). In South Korea nowadays, a European person is preferred over anybody who is not European or has a tanned skin tone. Hahn Ji-seon was interrogated by her family for being friends with Bonogit Hussain, an Indian man. While her cousin, who married a German, was envied and praised by the family (Sang-hun). Unlike the 1950s, where no matter the race the majority of foreigners were looked down upon, it has now become okay to be white, American, or European, but anything else is frowned upon.

For instance, “In 2014, a pub in Seoul put up a sign saying ‘We apologize But, Due to Ebola Virus we are not accepting Africans at the moment. … When a Caucasian told the workers at the pub that he was South African, however, they allowed him to enter” (Yi). It is quite evident that by African, they meant black people; the white man was South African. His white skin allowed him to enter the pub. At a Korean sauna, a black, white, and Korean women attempted to enter. However, Korean women inside the sauna blocked the black woman from entering. Although the Korean woman and the manager of the sauna tried to stop this and let black woman enter, it was no use and the black woman eventually left the sauna (South Korean NGO Coalition).

There are many racist and discriminatory cases like this in North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

South Korea, and although some people are recognizing the wrong in this, there are still many who do not. With the influx of foreigners in South Korea, many are hoping this will help lower the discrimination foreigners of color face while in South Korea. Perhaps music will someday help.

Both South Korea and Japan have come a long way since the 1950s. South Korea now has a half-Nigerian and halfKorean model, Han Hyun-min, who walks many esteemed runway shows. He even appears on various South Korean entertainment programs and has built up a vast fan base through his social media accounts. There are many halfKorean models finding their path, thanks to Han Hyun-min and his success in the Korean fashion world. The percentage of foreigners now living in South Korea is 8.6 percent and is steadily growing. The younger generation in South Korea is a lot more accepting of different identities, races, and ethnicities. While there are many South Koreans who either love to tan and dress in black hairstyles and clothing, or many South Koreans who refuse to accept black people, South Korea is slowly growing. Japan is also slowly growing as a country, as many of the younger generation are gaining exposure to foreigners. A lot of the younger generation recognizes the problems within Japan as well, and work to speak up about it. While anti-blackness, racism, colorism, and cultural appropriation in both Japan and South Korea are still active, there are many more people who note this problem and work to combat it. A political identification with the continuing struggles of peoples of the African diaspora for freedom and equality is necessary for an understanding of the multicultures of the diaspora. Otherwise, “blackness” is reproduced as a signifier for all manners of artificial rebellions against a power structure dependent upon racist exploitation of African peoples around the world.

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“[RADIO STAR] 라디오스타 - Joohun showed black man style english 흑인이 되고 싶던 주헌, ‘흑인st 영어’ 20150722.” YouTube, uploaded by MBCentertainment, 22 Jul. 2015.

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Racial Disparities in Disciplinary Procedures at American Public Schools Simran Bhatia

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merica has had a turbulent history of racism, segregation, and stigmatization, especially when it comes to minority communities such as the AfricanAmerican, Latino, American-Indian, and disabled communities. In America, race was constructed in a way that gave power and privilege to certain members of society who belonged to the state and took away this same power from those who did not. Race was never biological. Instead, it was created to solidify a system of economic, social, and political superiority. Currently, our society has created an illusion that this system is gone because everyone seems equal, and that race is created by simply the difference in our skin tones and our ancestry. However, the long turbulent history of racism that sustains the concept of “race” is not yet gone.

In American public schools, data shows that minorities face harsher punishments when compared to their white peers.

These punishments include expulsions, long-term out-ofschool suspensions, referrals to law enforcement, and arrests on campus. The issue is fueled by stigmatization of minority students based on age-old stereotypes that originated before the Civil Rights Movement. These stereotypes produce a bias, one that may not even be intentional, in the minds of faculty, teachers, and administrators, that can result in harsher punishments for minorities, even for minor infractions.

Many of these racial disparities can be blamed on the zero-tolerance policy. The zero-tolerance policy was created as a response to concerns regarding an increased amount of drugs and violence in schools. It required a change from a preference of in-school suspensions to harsher punishments, including out-of-school suspensions and expulsions. Its onesize-fits-all design, however, created potential for abuse and disproportionate application, leading to the racial gaps in discipline. The zero-tolerance policy has evolved into a term that is used to cover all unfair disciplinary policies; however, very few schools in the country actually have a rule in the student handbook that is explicitly labelled “zero-tolerance.”

This implies that while the policy is part of the problem and most likely, an origin of the racial gaps that are plaguing American public schools today, it is not the whole problem.

Mending these gaps is going to require more than complete abandonment of the zero-tolerance policy. The policy originally had good intentions—children should be kept safe in schools. They should be kept away from drugs and North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

violence because school is a place of learning and every child deserves the right to an education. Major infractions such as violence, drugs, or weapons on campus, should continue to be met with harsh consequences; however, the issue arises when minor infractions are dealt with inconsistently between minority students and their white peers. In order to truly mend these gaps, discipline must be looked at again as a whole and it must be evaluated for its potential for racial bias.

The use of increasingly exclusionary disciplinary policies has become extremely prevalent in American Schools due to the use of the zero-tolerance policy. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, schools shifted their reliance from in-school suspensions to out-of-school suspensions. The use of inschool suspensions previously had made it more difficult for schools to implement exclusionary discipline policies; however, with the increased reliance on out-of-school suspensions, they could overlook those previous restrictions and limitations. As schools grew more comfortable with out-of-school suspensions, a new policy began to form, the zero-tolerance policy (“Exclusion, Punishment, Racism and Our Schools”). The Zero Tolerance Policy first came about during the Reagan Administration as a result of the “War on Drugs.” It was a response to growing fear surrounding gun violence, gang activity, and an increased presence of drugs.

The original policy targeted drugs under the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which laid out certain punishments for drug offenders. The policy was introduced into schools and required predetermined, severe consequences in response to certain types of behavior, “regardless of the context or rationale of the behavior” (“Zero Tolerance”). Most violations of the policy were set to result in expulsion or long-term suspension, which have been proven to have a significant impact on a student’s life in and beyond high school. In 1989, the Zero-Tolerance policy became law when Congress passed the Drug-Free Schools and Campuses Act, which banned the possession, distribution, and use of all substances, including alcohol, on school campuses. This Act did not make the policy absolutely mandatory but it did threaten schools that did not set proper disciplinary sanctions for violations with loss of federal funding. Later, the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 was added, requiring states to expel students who bring firearms to school with no consideration for the rationale behind the action for a

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minimum of one year, unless the student had a disability under the Individual with Disabilities Act (in this case, the expulsion could only be 45 days). The Zero-Tolerance policy then added more severe offenses such as gang activity or selling drugs to keep American schools safe and children away from drugs, gangs, and weapons.

T he systematic discrimination against minorities was not something that developed overnight or was purely coincidental as part of this policy. The large differences in rates of punishments, suspensions, and expulsions between races cannot be chalked up to differences in rates of misbehavior. Instead, much of these disparities can be traced back to a very long, extensive history of strategic racial discrimination apparent throughout America. In American history, race has never been “socially and legally constructed neutrally.” Instead, it was constructed in a way that gave power and privilege to those who belonged to the state and society and degraded those who did not belong. Critical Race Theory offers a model about the origins and construction of racism in American society and schools. In Step 1 on the model shown below, the decision maker, whether that be a teacher, principal, or other member of administration, assigns a race to the student based on various factors such as phenotype, dress, culture, accent/language, ancestry, etc. The race assigned to the student by the decisionmaker is evaluated in terms of its social meaning, whether that be “Racial stigmatization, stereotyping, and implicit biases” that are based on “a long history of racial prejudice in the United States” (“Exclusion, Punishment, Racism and Our Schools”).

The differences in the social meaning of the two races can be a deciding factor between if a student was dangerous or harmless, disrespectful or respectful, a troublemaker or just having a bad day.

Social Construction of Race in the Context of School Discipline

This evaluation based on the social meaning of a race is usually what puts minority students at a disadvantage when it comes to the zero-tolerance policy. The racial stereotypes that have been backed by a long, turbulent history of

segregation and racism in the United States play a factor in modern-day disciplinary decisions and usually result in minority students being suspended at higher rates compared to their white counterparts. To end the cycle, or maybe just start a new, more vicious cycle, students subjected to longterm out of school suspension or expulsion usually feel inferior and lose the feeling of belonging at school.

The first time the zero-tolerance policy was recognized as discriminatory was when the Advancement Project released a study in 2000 which suggested that while the zero-tolerance policy is supposed to be neutral, it is being “disproportionately applied to students of color” (20 Years of Policy Advocacy Against Zero Tolerance). The claim was investigated by the American Bar Association (ABA) in 2001. As a result, the ABA passed a resolution stating that it were against the application of the zero-tolerance policy where students were expelled, suspended, or referred to juvenile or criminal court without a proper understanding of the student’s history, circumstances surrounding the offense, and nature of the offense in order to remind schools that students retained the right to a fair trial, even in schools. As a way to continue advocating against the zero-tolerance policy, the ABA gathered stories exposing incidents where the policy was applied to systematically discriminate against students of color through suspensions, expulsions, and referrals to law enforcement in order to “criminalize school-based misbehavior” (20 Years of Policy Advocacy Against Zero Tolerance). The ABA was able to conclude that the policy’s fundamental “one-size-fits-all” design violates students’ right to due process because it refuses to take circumstances surrounding the situation into consideration. While strong disciplinary action is necessary against serious infractions such as bringing a weapon to school, harming another student, possession of drugs, or other illegal activities, the problem arises when this onesize-fits-all policy begins to chip away at the futures of young minority students because of minor infractions in a school setting where student rights should be protected during the disciplinary process. However, despite continued criticism of the zero-tolerance policy and work by the ABA and other advocacy groups, disparities in disciplinary procedures at American public schools have only seemed to have gotten worse over the past few decades.

In 2014, the Obama administration came out as against the zero-tolerance policy while acknowledging that larger infractions that involve illegal activities do require more severe punishments; however, the policy was being broadened to incorporate smaller infractions, unfairly placing minority students, including Black, Latino, and disabled students at a disadvantage. Under the administration, the US Department of Education released new voluntary guidelines as a proposed solution to the zero-tolerance policy issue. The new proposed guidelines suggested more conflict resolution training for teachers, administration, faculty, and security personnel, and methods Fifth World

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to determine whether a student poses a threat to the safety of others or is simply acting out. The guidelines specifically responded to data collected by the federal government during the 2010-2011 school year, which showed that of the 3 million total suspensions and expulsions, 250,000 of those students were referred to law enforcement even though approximately 95% of the suspensions/expulsions were a result of non-violent infractions. Additionally, of these 3 million total students, 7 out of every 10 students was either Black, Latino, or disabled. The purpose of the guidelines was to protect minorities in schools and decrease the amount of annual suspensions and expulsions throughout the US. The guidelines were also heavily supported by the ABA who believed that they would “help reduce unnecessary suspensions and put school officials on notice” (20 Years of Policy Advocacy Against Zero Tolerance).

Then, under the Obama administration, another report was released regarding racial disparities in school discipline.

This data was from the 2015-2016 school year and contained information from over 96,000 American Public Schools. The general trend of the data showed that when compared to their white counterparts, Black, Latino male, and AmericanIndian students face harsher discipline, including higher rates of suspension, expulsion, and referrals,. 13.46% of Black students received out-of-school suspension—almost four times greater than White students at 3.5%. While the number of total suspensions decreased from the original 3 million during the 2010-2011 school year to 2.7 million during the 2015-2016 school year, the number of referrals and arrests on school property increased by almost 5,000 when compared to data from the two previous years, for a total of 291,000. Black students accounted for only 15% of the student body, yet made up about 31% of the total arrests, indicating that they were being disproportionately singled out and discriminated against purely due to race. This was also an increase when compared to data from two years before, when Black students made up 16% of the student body but 27% of the total arrests. The report also revealed that students affected by disabilities were about 12% of the student body but 28% of referrals to law enforcement and arrests, falling into the same pattern as AfricanAmerican students. While it was clear that minorities were overrepresented in harsh disciplinary proceedings, what was even more surprising was that these patterns remained consistent in most public schools, regardless of location, type of disciplinary action, level of poverty, or type of public school. The data showed that even in 2015, racism in schools was thriving despite efforts by the Obama administration to make faculty more aware of these racial disparities. A number of researchers studying these disparities in discipline have proven that they cannot simply be ascribed to differences in behavior between the races (Balingit). While the guidelines presented by the Obama administration in 2014 were able to curb the amount of total suspensions, they still were not able to ensure that minority students were being treated North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

fairly and were protected at school despite warning schools that they could potentially be violating Civil Right Laws if the administration found extreme racial disparities in the school’s discipline. The data from the 2015-2016 survey made it clear that not enough was being done to regulate discipline in schools.

In 2016, however, administrations changed, and the Trump administration took the White House. The Trump Administration organized a federal panel on school safety in March as a response to the Parkland School Shooting in February 2018. The panel, led by the Education Department Secretary, Betsy DeVos, decided to rescind the guidelines set forth by the Obama Administration in 2014 because they believed that while it was “well-intentioned,” it was decreasing school safety. The Education Department asserted that those who are potentially violent threats to safety were not reported to the police or proper law enforcement because the respective schools were too scared to use harsher punishments. The panel also stated that the guidelines overstepped federal authority and school discipline is the responsibility of schools and local governments (“Trump Officials Cancel Obama-Era Policy on School Discipline”).

While the theory behind the rescission is interesting, the guidelines were specifically directed towards minorities and their experiences with overly harsh disciplinary processes.

The Education Department ignored the fact that the language presented in the guidelines was meant to protect minorities; instead, it generalizes everyone’s experience, which is simply not the case in American Public Schools.

This increased usage of excluding students, specifically minority students, from school campuses can lead to a plethora of negative outcomes, including “decreased academic achievement and dropout” (“School-to-Prison Pipeline”). That is not all, however. The zero-tolerance policy also increases the incidence of a phenomenon known as the school-to-prison pipeline. The school-to-prison pipeline is a term that refers to the national trend where students, mainly minorities or disabled, are “funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems” (“School-to-Prison Pipeline”). Due to the presence of law enforcement on public school campuses and the onesize-fits-all implementation of the zero-tolerance policy, even minor infractions that would have typically been handled in school, are criminalized. Additionally, many suspended and expelled children are left unsupervised and can gravitate towards illegal activities, resulting in an increased likelihood that they will be pushed all the way through the pipeline into a juvenile detention center or the criminal justice system. The lack of supervision can also cause the student to fall behind on coursework or graduation requirements, which leads to an increased rate of dropping out and disengagement. Also, children who have been removed from school as a result of discipline and are left unsupervised can begin to associate with others who are already involved in criminal activities rather than interact

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with teachers and peers who would be a good influence. An increased presence of law enforcement on campus, typically police officers who have little to no experience working with students, has increased the number of school-based arrests throughout public schools in America for non-violent offenses such as disruptive behavior. Access to a reliable education in the criminal justice system is scarce, resulting in a higher rate of high school dropouts among minorities.

The vast majority of students funneled through the schoolto-prison pipeline are never able to graduate high school. A reason for this harsher punishment can be traced back to a lack of resources and funding.

Schools have become more over-crowded with fewer resources to be distributed among a larger student body.

Therefore, pushing kids out using harsh disciplinary proceedings has become common to decrease the burden on the school.

The criminalization of students by teachers, administration, law enforcement, and other authorities on campus has led to a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” Children who are labeled as misbehaving, or criminal, and who are then treated in accordance with this label, often tend to change their behaviors, accelerating the school to prison pipeline by making increasingly poor decisions. In his book “Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys,” sociologist Victor Rios speaks of how increasing surveillance on the lives of these minority populations to control “at-risk or deviant youth can ultimately foster the very criminal behavior they are intended to prevent.” The theory behind this phenomenon is that the label of a criminal or deviant can strip any student of the respect they deserve, and overlooks their personal issues to focus on the potential for misbehavior. As a result, these criminalized individuals tend to act out as a form of rebellion against their institutional identification while confirming the label even more. Many schools fail to understand that a child who is acting out is most likely doing so due to stressful situations present in their household, or community. The school experience, however, is the second most formative environment that a child can be a part of, after their own household. This is where they learn social norms, learn how to behave in public

settings, and socialize and relate to other children going through similar experiences. The harsh disciplinary policies that accelerate the school-to-prison pipeline removes at-risk children from this environment, and from the supervision of peers, teachers, and administrators, putting them at higher risk to act out which can hurt their development and future even more (Cole et al.).

The Zero-Tolerance Policy, however, is not the only thing causing racial disparities in school discipline. The term “Zero-Tolerance Policy” has been adopted as a term that covers any type of disciplinary policy that produces inequality as an end result. This is misleading because only about 15% of all American Public Schools have a rule in their student handbook identified as a “Zero-Tolerance Policy.”

Additionally, very few states have “explicit zero tolerance laws.” Many of the tougher rules that have resulted as part of the Federal Guns-Free Schools Act of 1994 are directly targeted towards weapons on school property, assault, and/or drugs. While racial gaps exist throughout school discipline, the majority of these gaps are prevalent throughout rules that do not fall under the zero-tolerance policy. Therefore, a problem does exist, but it exists in a form that is not heavily publicized in the media. In order to fix this problem, activists, schools, the government, need to focus on the bigger picture, not just the zero-tolerance policy. All rules should be evaluated for potential discrimination, not only the tougher ones that require harsher punishments (Curran).

There are many potential solutions that could aid in decreasing the racial gap. The first is to recognize that often a pattern of misbehavior throughout a student’s academic career begins at a young age. Smaller infractions at a younger age that are not handled in an effective way can encourage a pattern of behavior that leads to more serious infractions during high school, resulting in suspensions or expulsions, especially for students who identify as minorities. Therefore, training faculty who teach in elementary and middle schools is equally as important as training those who teach in high school. While the type of infractions differ, as do the punishments, teaching children the consequences of their actions and the importance of a good education early on is an important preventative step to take in order to promote good behavior in high school and beyond.

Another solution to mend this gap is to randomly re-sort minority populations into schools that are predominantly White. The largest racial disciplinary gap occurs between Black and White students because Black students are non-randomly sorted into schools with higher rates of suspensions and expulsions due to the location of their home. This location is heavily impacted by a family’s household income, so students who are at a socioeconomic disadvantage are the ones attending schools where minorities are more likely to get mistreated. Because these schools have higher rates of suspensions and expulsions, they are likely to have a higher presence of law enforcement Fifth World

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on campus, which accelerates the school-to-prison pipeline discussed above by criminalizing minorities for minor infractions. Schools with higher law enforcement presence are also more likely to hand out harsher punishments when an infraction does occur. A study showed that by re-sorting minorities into predominantly white schools with lower expulsion and suspension rates, the black-white racial gap would drop by 11-25% and overall suspension rates would decrease. However, even if this were to occur, racial gaps among schools are still affected by many other factors such as disciplinary history and the district in which the school is located. Therefore, many other factors would have to be controlled for a real change to occur. Additionally, the nature of these gaps suggests that even if minorities are randomly distributed among schools, African-American students will still have higher rates of longer suspensions and expulsions implying change is more likely to make a difference if it is implemented at a smaller level such as in schools, rather than at larger district, or state-wide levels (Gopalan and Nelson).

A fairly simple solution to this problem could include training teachers to seek out and prevent implicit and explicit bias in schools. Regardless of the rules, it is important for staff members to prevent and resist biases as much as possible to protect students from being thrown into the school-to-prison pipeline and encourage education (Curran). At schools, faculty can be held responsible and accountable for changes that the school implements and face consequences for continuing to be biased in their disciplinary processes (Curran).

A feasible solution that has been gaining a lot of popularity in the media is restorative justice as a substitute for suspensions and expulsions. Restorative justice originated in the criminal justice sector in the 1970s. Its purpose was to arrange a meeting between the victims and offenders to come to an agreement on reparations and help the offender grow more understanding as to why what they did was wrong and why it should not be done again. This can be applied in educational scenarios as an alternative to harsh disciplinary proceedings and usually involves an adult mediator working with students to mediate and resolve their conflicts. Its foundation consists of “healing rather than hurting, moral learning, community participation, respectful dialogue, forgiveness, responsibility, apology, and making amends” (“The Promise of ‘restorative Justice’ Starts to Falter under Rigorous Research”). Using restorative justice, the offender is able to mutually agree on how to mend the harm that was caused by the offense and how to “reintegrate” back into society. It works on correcting misbehavior using techniques that exclude expulsion, suspension, and referrals to law enforcement through “reconciliation” and helpful dialogue. Restorative justice has been proposed as a solution to the racial gap because it takes into account the feelings of all the people involved in the incident and also has a greater focus on accountability and inclusion rather than exclusion.

North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

When restorative justice was put into play in the early 2000s, schools reported that it worked—there were fewer suspensions. In fact, in one school in West Oakland, California, suspensions decreased from 50% to 6%. Students that were part of the program had positive feedback too—they reported fewer fights, and stronger, healthier relationships between peers. Denver public schools also began using restorative justice in the early 2000s, and in the three years of its use, they reported an average of a 10% decrease in suspensions per 100 students. High schools in Pennsylvania, and Minnesota reported similar results— more developed social skills, decreases in out of school suspensions, even increased timeliness among students.

Many believe that restorative justice will give minorities in school a voice to stand up for themselves. Critical Race Theory Scholars have shown that minority students are more aware of racism and bias because it is part of their daily existence, a commonplace of life in an American public high school, while white students look at racism as a once-in-a-blue-moon type of event—an unusual departure from what is normal or welcome. White students seem to always be colorblind to reality. Many teachers and faculty have adopted this “colorblind” perspective as well, leading to missed racism and implicit bias occurring in schools because the colorblind perspective can affect an individual’s “very definition of racism” and prevent them from seeing a reason to change their own decision-making processes.

The encouragement of discussion and redemption under restorative justice may help both students and faculty accept different perspectives to recognize racism when it occurs and identify misunderstandings within the disciplinary processes. Through this, there will be an increased amount of discussion within administrators and students, and students who typically do not have a voice will receive one. Through discussion, students and teachers can assess different perspectives of behavior and analyze why an event occurred, as well as what caused it. Restorative Justice also helps fight stigmatization, as it puts stories to the face and provides answers to the root of the problem-- whether that be problems at home, or other stressors. This removes the idea that someone only misbehaved or messed up because of their race, gender, or disability.

While restorative justice provides all students, especially minority populations, with many benefits, it does have issues still. From the late 2000s to more recent years, more schools began to implement restorative justice, as it was highly publicized in the media and was reported to have great outcomes on students. However, as more sophisticated research trickled in, loopholes in restorative justice began to make themselves apparent. Studies at two schools in Pittsburgh and Maine showed that while overall suspensions did decrease, police arrests on campus remained the same, which implies that restorative justice did not slow the school-to-prison pipeline, or if it did, the impact was very minimal. Additionally, academic performance in

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middle schools began to worsen as teachers focused more on training for restorative justice. While teachers reported that the system was helping, many students reported that the teacher was losing control of discipline in the classroom, which means that disruptive behavior in the classroom or time dedicated to restorative justice was taking away from quality of education (“The Promise of ‘restorative Justice’ Starts to Falter under Rigorous Research”). While there is clearly a problem with discipline in American public schools, the question that remains is how to fix it.

The zero-tolerance policy was not an ill-intentioned policy. At its foundation, it was a policy designed to keep schools secure and to protect the learning environment for children of all ages and races. It was born as a response to fear for children’s safety at school, but it can be argued that this fear only applied to white students at the expense of minorities. Racial gaps are not simply due to an increased rate of misbehavior among minority students. Racial gaps are brought upon by inconsistencies within the disciplinary system that cause minority students to be treated differently than their white peers. Zero tolerance is, from this perspective, another version of the historical intolerance directed at people of color; it is meant to protect people from what they have done to others, while continuing to punish the others for what they might do. However, the main goal of the policy should be kept. Although, the application of this policy turned its back on minority communities, completely abandoning it will not mend the racial gaps in school discipline. All levels of the government have the responsibility to keep students safe by working with schools on rules and proper consequences to match infractions.

Larger infractions such as drugs, other substances, violence, gang activity, or any other illegal activity on campus should be met with expulsion, out-of-school suspension, and in extreme cases, referrals to law enforcement or arrests because that is what it takes to keep students safe—real consequences. However, if students do suffer extreme consequences, they should not be left at the hands of the criminal justice system. Their fate cannot be sealed because of a mistake in high school. Students who become a part of the school-to-prison pipelines need to be seen back into schools, or at least into a system that promotes education and allows them to receive a diploma and pursue a career in the future. Pushing students into prisons to relieve the burden on public schools only increases the burden on prisons. It also points to another major problem—public schools are underfunded.

The underfunding causes resources to be stretched to the very maximum with teachers underpaid, counselors handling more than 100 kids at a time, and not enough textbooks or other materials to go around. It also means that teachers do not have time to do more than teach because they are already pressed for resources and time. This limits the restorative approach to justice. Other solutions, like deliberately assigning students to schools in order to make

educational opportunities more equal, also pose problems because while they may decrease some suspensions, they do not solve the larger racial gap present. Therefore, to mend these gaps, it is impossible to use just one solution.

The entirety of discipline as a whole must be evaluated and modified, outside of the zero-tolerance policy.

20 Years of Policy Advocacy Against Zero Tolerance: A Critical Review. Accessed 31 Oct. 2019.

An In-Depth Look at Zero Tolerance Policies and Racial Biases – De/Re Segregation: The Schoolto-Prison Pipeline.

Balingit, Moriah. “Racial Disparities in School Discipline Are Growing, Federal Data Show.”

Washington Post. Accessed 30 Apr. 2019.

Cole, Nicki Lisa, et al. “What You Need to Know About the School to Prison Pipeline.” ThoughtCo. Accessed 31 Oct. 2019.

Curran, F. Chris. “Reducing Racial Disparities in School Discipline Requires More than Eliminating ‘Zero Tolerance’ Policies.” Accessed 1 May 2019.

“Exclusion, Punishment, Racism and Our Schools: A Critical Race Theory Perspective on School Discipline.” UCLA Law Review, 31 Jan. 2014.

Gopalan, Maithreyi, and Ashlyn Aiko Nelson. “Understanding the Racial Discipline Gap in Schools.”

AERA Open, vol. 5, no. 2, Apr. 2019, p. 2332858419844613. SAGE Journals.

Gordon, Nora. “Disproportionality in Student Discipline: Connecting Policy to Research.”

Brookings, 18 Jan. 2018.

“How Activists Are Fighting Racial Disparities in School Discipline.” WTOP, 10 Dec. 2018.

“Obama Administration Has Little Love For ‘Zero Tolerance.’” NPR.Org. Accessed 1 May 2019.

“Race and School Discipline.” Chicagotribune.Com. Accessed 1 May 2019.

“Racial Bias Associated with Disparities in Disciplinary Action across US Schools.” Accessed 1 May 2019.

“School-to-Prison Pipeline.” American Civil Liberties Union. Accessed 31 Oct. 2019.

“Suspensions Are Down In U.S. Schools But Large Racial Gaps Remain.”

“The Promise of ‘restorative Justice’ Starts to Falter under Rigorous Research.” The Hechinger Report, 6 May 2019.

“Trump Officials Cancel Obama-Era Policy on School Discipline.” US News & World Report.

“Zero Tolerance.” NCSSD, 30 Oct. 2013.

Zero Tolerance.

Fifth World

An Afterword to Volume Five “Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!”

The theme for this year’s prom had to do with The Great Gatsby, which is essentially a novel about a party gone bad. (When class ineradicably becomes race—when people who come from “no family” cannot marry into “the family,” no matter how many houses they build or nice shirts they own—then the good times gutter, like so many cars in ditches, horns blaring in the dark.) With three of my colleagues in humanities, I was somehow persuaded to pose for photographs that were to serve as publicity for the prom, accepting the greater challenge as the devious Nick Carraway. Like all else, however, the prom was cancelled and the photographs destroyed, I hope. My own image of our lost spring might now be better likened to the moment when Nick, having fled the disastrous finale of Gatsby’s party, looks back across the dark summer lawn towards the house. “A sudden emptiness,” we are told, “seemed to flow now from the windows and the great doors, endowing with complete isolation the figure of the host who stood on the porch, his hand up in a formal gesture of farewell.”

So it was that, looking across already green Watts lawn on the late afternoon of March 13, I beheld our beloved Chancellor Roberts, his hand up as he waved farewell to the buses leaving the circle with our students. As I remember the scene almost two months later, the gesture is endowed not with “complete isolation,” but with loss. Nick requires that Gatsby be isolated from the world because he wishes to protect his image of Gatsby from the world, to keep alive the “eternal reassurance” of a smile that “understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.” Nick’s refusal to mourn preserves that smile and the self it sustains, or rather, it encrypts them, saving the image but at the cost of the warm world it repudiates. If grief requires us to understand in its specificity what has been lost in order to live again with courage and with hope, then we must also refuse the melancholy desire to return to the lost past, facing instead the world before us. It is a terrible opportunity that we have been given, an opportunity to live again in a world different from the one that we knew, or thought we knew. Nevertheless, we must live, and we must know how to live.

This is the fifth volume of Fifth World, which will be published during the pandemic that stole the last trimester of their senior year from the writers of this journal and their friends at NCSSM. My remarks for the previous volumes were composed in Watts Hall, where, as I would write at

my desk, I could hear the laughter of students outside my window, keeping unseen company with them in the glad spring night, listening as their voices drew near, their arrivals announced by the clanging of the heavy outside doors, the sounds growing louder, then subsiding to distant murmurs down the corridors and again into the night, the faint laughter drifting back on the fragrant breeze. There is in the spring a lovely lightness to our days and nights, as if the gravity of the academic year had been lifted and the life that the seniors had made for themselves individually and collectively over the long months were at last liberated from the incessant pressures of classes and college decisions. This is what was lost to our students and to us, the faculty who have come to love and admire them: for the class of 2020, the opportunity to live in the world that they had made, and for us, the joy of listening to them. If we cannot recover that life, we can and we must find within our lost spring the knowledge we need for new seasons of hope and love.

COVID-19 places us under the obligation to understand that which “we cannot absolutely not know, in one way or another”—the “real,” as Henry James famously describes it.

We know, for instance, that “natural” disasters expose even as they exacerbate the continuing social emergency of the “slow violence” that has long been at work in the areas most affected by flood and disease, making visible the conditions to which the poor have long been all too vulnerable. We also know that such vulnerability is historical, not natural, and that this history necessarily includes the continuing wrong of racism. “Race” was invented in the plantation zone as a means to protect more privileged bodies from the environment; in other words, bodies marked as “black” and condemned to labor by law were placed between “white” bodies and a nature altered by an emergent agricultural-industrial capitalism, protecting the planters’ bodies from biological uncertainty. To know the lowland truth of the levees along the Mississippi is to understand the contemporary language of walls along the border, the fear and need of “foreign” bodies. It is also to recognize that all too much of the risk assumed in the last months by service workers, including the custodians at our school and the workers in our cafeteria, is inseparably related to historical injustice. Although it might seem that life at NCSSM is insulated from the larger world, our insulation is maintained by innumerable others, to whom we are profoundly indebted.

Indeed, our experience of the virus further reminds us that we are part of an unimaginably vast and complex social whole, Not only are we the beneficiaries of enormous everyday injustice (again, we are relatively protected from the conditions in which all diseases are most immediately

dangerous), but we are also vulnerable to this whole, which now appears as a pandemic. There are many ways in which this “whole” is imagined, with the nation as its most common form. The global nature of the pandemic requires us, however, to connect our sense of ourselves and our fates with the lives of those who are not our fellow citizens, whether they live within or outside the United States.

There is an environmental ethics implicit in this, for as posthumanism teaches us, we are as much ecologies as entities, our bodies made out of other creatures, primarily bacteria, vulnerable like all animals to the violence inflicted by our species upon the world, suffering like them and unlike them the effects of the continuing catastrophe of human life. (We are also cyborgs, embedded in technological environments that we have made; but that is another story.)

It is our human animality, our common though unequally shared vulnerability to suffering, which ineluctably binds us together—binds us most to those whom we know least, or not at all. At the same time, however, even as we must place the boundary between human and non-human (or other than human) under intellectual pressure, we must insist upon our capacity to recreate ourselves and our world through language and labor, and upon our consequent responsibility (not least, to the other than human world) to recreate the world as a place where all creatures, living and non-living, can realize their being freely. This capacity distinguishes us from other beings insofar as we are the author of the fictions in which we would live. Only humans can promise or betray promises; only we can renew the broken or betrayed promises of happiness upon which our nation was founded.

What the reader will find in these essays is work passionately committed to the truths of our nature.

This is the work of the humanities at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. For if it is our nature to transform ourselves through labor and language, then what are the works and the words that might allow us to imagine and, perhaps, to participate in the revolutionary transformation of social life? These questions require both a rigorous scientific investigation in human nature and a critical inquiry into the nature of that investigation which science cannot give. If truth is not independent of contexts, then neither are we, as in the urgency and confusion of the present moment we search, with the others we do and do not know, for the life that escapes. These are students upon whom nothing is lost. There is much to be gained, then, from their emergence as writers, scientists, and artists. As their teachers, we at NCSSM seek, as the late Eve Sedgwick so beautifully described it, “to keep faith with vividly remembered promises made to ourselves in childhood: promises to make invisible possibilities and desires visible; to make the tacit things explicit,” lest the silence lead to death. To those readers who are uncomfortable with the explicit subjects of some of these essays, I say this: Find comfort in the courage of these students, for they refuse to know nothing about what matters most to them. Not only are they undaunted by intellectual difficulty—to the contrary, they relish it—but they are unafraid to remain with their subjects, searching out the elusive secrets of a life often imagined before known. Here, then, are works that not only reward our faith, but that keep faith with a world worthy of humans. Their writings cannot but encourage and cheer the spirit even in times when optimism is difficult to summon. Reading their work, it is difficult not to believe that the good will eventually win out. The new world lies before us, not in the darkness behind.

David Cantrell May 12, 2020 Durham, North Carolina