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hellomynameisbisexual · 4 years ago

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As a nonbinary bisexual, I’m no stranger to people erasing me and telling me that I’m something I’m not. With the rise of terms like “pansexuality” and “omnisexuality,” many people unfamiliar with the true nature of bisexuality now think that it’s transphobic or otherwise binary — some go so far as to claim bisexuals only believe in two genders.

People assert that, while bisexuality allegedly means “attraction to two genders,” pansexuality and omnisexuality, unlike bisexuality, denote “attraction to all genders.” It’s easy to think this way if only examining the terms at face value, but this comparison is an outright lie. Some others say that new labels were a response to transphobic exclusion from the bisexual community — this is similarly not the case. (I’ll be compiling a piece on the history of the “pansexual” label at a later date.) Using this “reasoning” to separate bisexuality from these other terms is woefully inaccurate and disrespectful to bisexual and transgender people.

While there are cissexist definitions of bisexuality, that holds true for “gay” and “straight,” too. Bisexuals have also described our orientation as attraction regardless of gender¹ for decades — at least fifty years or so — and we still do. Before words like “transgender” and “nonbinary” came about, bisexuals still often saw themselves as attracted to people beyond gender.

Androgyny and gender-nonconformity are also a staple in bisexual culture. Major bisexual icons throughout history explored and embraced it. Look at bisexual chic, especially the glam rock era. Some bisexual activists and organizations have historically included and allied with transgender and nonbinary people, and many of us are transgender or nonbinary ourselves.

Below are just a few examples of the hidden secret of our gender-expansiveness. (Including a quote here does not equal my approval of what was said. Keep in mind the times during which they were recorded as well as the footnotes.)

Sources without links can be downloaded for free from ZLibrary, borrowed from the Open Library, or found wherever you purchase or borrow physical books. Sources without a year next to them are those for which I could not find the publish date.

“…the very wealth and humanity of bisexuality itself: for to exclude from one’s love any entire group of human beings because of class, age, or race or religion, or sex, is surely to be poorer — deeply and systematically poorer.”

— Kate Miller (1974)

“It’s easier, I believe, for exclusive heterosexuals to tolerate (and that’s the word) exclusive homosexuals than [bisexuals] who, rejecting exclusivity, sleep with people not genders…”

— Martin Duberman (1974)

“Margaret Mead in her Redbook magazine column wrote an article titled ‘Bisexuality: What’s It All About?’ in which she cited examples of bisexuality from the distant past as well as recent times, commenting that writers, artists, and musicians especially ‘cultivated bisexuality out of a delight with personality, regardless of race or class or sex.’”

— Janet Bode, “From Myth to Maturation,” View From Another Closet: Exploring Bisexuality in Women (1976)

“Being bisexual does not mean they have sexual relations with both sexes but that they are capable of meaningful and intimate involvement with a person regardless of gender.”

— Janet Bode, “The Pressure Cooker,” View From Another Closet (1976)

“A sex-change night club queen has claimed she had a bizarre love affair with rock superstar David Bowie. Drag artiste Ronny Haag said she lived with the bisexual singer while he was making his new film, “Just a Gigolo,” in Berlin. […] Ronny says: ‘I am a real woman.’”

— Kenelm Jenour, “I Was Bowie’s She-Man!”, Daily Mirror (1978)²

“[John] reacted emotionally to both sexes with equal intensity. ‘I love people, regardless of their gender,’ he told me.”

— Charlotte Wolff, “Early Influences,” Bisexuality, a Study (1979)

“On Saturday, February 9, San Francisco’s Bisexual Center will conduct a Gender/Sexuality Workshop. ‘We will explore the interrelationships of gender feelings and sexual preference… We will discuss sexuality and whether we choose to play out the gender role assigned to us by society or whether we can shift to attitudes supposedly held by the opposite gender, if those feel good to us. We will deal with the issue of the TV/TS [transvestite/transsexual] in transition and how sexuality evolves as gender role changes. We will attempt to present a summary of the fragmented and confusing information on gender and sexuality.’”

— The Gateway (1980)

“J: Are we ever going to be able to define what bisexuality is?

S: Never completely. That’s just it — the variety of lifestyles that we see between us defies definition.”

— “Conversations,” Bi Women: The Newsletter of the Boston Bisexual Women’s Network (1984)

“Bisexuality, however, is a valid sexual experience. While many gays have experienced bisexuality as a stage in reaching their present identity, this should not invalidate the experience of people for whom sexual & affectional desire is not limited by gender. For in fact many bisexuals experience lesbianism or homosexuality as a stage in reaching their sexual identification.

— Megan Morrison, “What We Are Doing,” Bi Women (1984)

“In the midst of whatever hardships we [bisexuals] had encountered, this day we worked with each other to preserve our gift of loving people for who they are regardless of gender.”

— Elissa M., “Bi Conference,” Bi Women (1985)

“I believe that people fall in love with individuals, not with a sex… I believe most of us will end up acknowledging that we love certain people or, perhaps, certain kinds of people, and that gender need not be a significant category, though for some of us it may be.”

— Ruth Hubbard, “There Is No ‘Natural’ Human Sexuality, Bi Women (1986)

“I am bisexual because I am drawn to particular people regardless of gender. It doesn’t make me wishy-washy, confused, untrustworthy, or more sexually liberated. It makes me a bisexual.”

— Lani Ka’ahumanu, “The Bisexual Community: Are We Visible Yet?” (1987)

“To be bisexual is to have the potential to be open emotionally and sexually to people as people, regardless of their gender.”

— Office Pink Publishing, “Introduction,” Bisexual Lives (1988)

“We made signs and slashes. My favorite read, ‘When it’s love in all its splendor, it doesn’t matter what the gender.’”

— Beth Reba Weise, “Being There and Being Bi: The National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights,” Bi Women (1988)

“…bisexual usually also implies that relations with gender minorities are possible.”

— Thomas Geller, Bisexuality: a Reader and Sourcebook (1990)

“Many objections have been raised to the use of [“bisexual”], the most common being that it emphasizes two things that, paradoxically, bisexuals are the least likely to be involved with: the dualistic separation of male and female in society, and the physical implications of the suffix ‘-sexual’.”

— Thomas Geller, Bisexuality: a Reader and Sourcebook (1990)

“Bisexuality is a whole, fluid identity. Do not assume that bisexuality is binary or duogamous in nature: that we have ‘two’ sides or that we must be involved simultaneously with both genders to be fulfilled human beings. In fact, don’t assume that there are only two genders.”

— The Bay Area Bisexual Network, “The 1990 Bisexual Manifesto,” Anything That Moves (1990)

“Bisexuality works to subvert the gender system and everything it upholds because it is not based on gender… Bisexuality subverts gender; bisexual liberation also depends on the subversion of gender categories.”

— Karin Baker and Helen Harrison, “Letters,” Bi Women (1990)

“I tell them, whether or not I use the word ‘bisexual,’ that I am proud of being able to express my feelings toward a person, regardless of gender, in whatever way I desire.”

— Naomi Tucker, “What’s in a Name?”, Bi Any Other Name (1991)³

“Some women who call themselves ‘bisexual’ insist that the gender of their lover is irrelevant to them, that they do not choose lovers on the basis of gender.”

— Marilyn Murphy, “Thinking About Bisexuality,” Bi Women (1991)

“Results supported the hypothesis that gender is not a critical variable in sexual attraction in bisexual individuals. Personality or physical dimensions not related to gender and interaction style were the salient characteristics on which preferred sexual partners were chosen, and there was minimal grid distance between preferred male and preferred female partners. These data support the argument that, for some bisexual individuals, sexual attraction is not gender-linked. […] …the dimensions which maximally separate most preferred sexual partners are not gender-based in seven of the nine grids.”

— M W Ross, J P Paul, “Beyond Gender: The Basis of Sexual Attraction in Bisexual Men and Women” (1992)

“[S]ome bisexuals say they are blind to the gender of their potential lovers and that they love people as people… For the first group, a dichotomy of genders between which to choose doesn’t seem to exist[.]”

— Kathleen Bennett, “Feminist Bisexuality, a Both/And Option for an Either/Or World,” Closer to Home: Bisexuality and Feminism (1992)

“The expressed desires of [female bisexual] respondents differed in many cases from their experience. 37 respondents preferred women as sexual partners; 9 preferred men. 21 women had no preference, and 35 said they preferred sex with particular individuals, regardless of gender.”

— Sue George, “Living as bisexual,” Women and Bisexuality (1993)

“Who is this group for exactly? Anyone who identifies as bisexual or thinks they are attracted to or interested in all genders… This newly formed [support] group is to create a supportive, safe environment for people who are questioning their sexual orientation and think they may be bisexual.”

— “Coming Out as Bisexual,” Bi Women (1994)

“It is logical and necessary for bisexuals to recognize the importance of gender politics — not just because transsexuals, cross-dressers, and other transgender people are often assumed to be bisexual… […] I have talked to the bisexual practicers of pre-op transsexuals who feel they have the best of both worlds because their lover embodies woman and man together.² Is that not a connection between bisexuality and transgenderism? […] Some of us are bisexual because we do not pay much attention to the gender of our attractions; some of us are bisexual because we do see tremendous gender differences and want to experience them all. […] With respect to our integrity as bisexuals, it is our responsibility to include transgendered people in our language, in our communities, in our politics, and in our lives.”

— Naomi Tucker, “The Natural Next Step,” Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, and Visions (1995)

“The first wave of people who started the Bi Center were political radicals and highly motivated people. The group was based on inclusivity… for example, in the women’s groups, anybody who identified as a woman had the right to be there, so a lot of transgender people started coming to the Bi Center.”

— Naomi Tucker, “Bay Area Bisexual History: An Interview with David Lourea,” Bisexual Politics (1995)

“[B]isexual consciousness, because of its amorphous quality and inclusionary nature, posed a fundamental threat to the dualistic and exclusionary thought patterns which were — and still are — tenaciously held by both the gay liberation leadership and its enemies.”

— Stephen Donaldson, “The Bisexual Movement’s Beginnings in the 70s,” Bisexual Politics (1995)

“If anything, being bi has made me hyper-aware of the sexual differences between [men and women]. And I still get hot for both. But I do experience something that is similar to gender blindness. It’s this: being bisexual means I could potentially find myself sexually attracted to anybody. Therefore, as a bisexual, I don’t make the distinction that monosexuals do between the gender you fuck and the gender you don’t.”

— Greta Christina, “Bi Sexuality,” Bisexual Politics (1995)

“[A]nd too / I am bisexual / in my history / in my capacity / in my fantasies / in my abilities / in my love for beautiful people / regardless of gender.”

— Dajenya, “Bisexual Lesbian,” Bisexual Politics (1995)

“The bisexual community should be a place where lines are erased. Bisexuality dismisses, disproves, and defies dichotomies. It connotes a loss of rigidity and absolutes. It is an inclusive term. […] Despite how we choose to identify ourselves, the bisexual community still seems a logical place for transsexuals to find a home and a voice. Bisexuals need to educate themselves on transgender issues. At the same time, bisexuals should be doing education and outreach to the transsexual community, offering transsexuals an arena to further explore their sexualities and choices. Such outreach would also help break down gender barriers and misconceptions within the bisexual community itself. […] If the bisexual community turns its back on transsexuals, it is essentially turning its back on itself.”

— K. Martin-Damon, “Essay for the Inclusion of Transsexuals,” Bisexual Politics (1995)

“As bisexuals, we are necessarily prompted to come up with non-binary ways of thinking about sexual orientation. For many of us, this has also prompted a move toward non-binary ways of thinking about sex and gender.”

— Rebecca Kaplan, “Your Fence Is Sitting on Me: The Hazards of Binary Thinking,” Bisexual Politics (1995)

“And so we love each other and wish love for each other, regardless (to the extent possible) of gender and sex.”

— Oma Izakson, “If Half of You Dodges a Bullet, All of You Ends Up Dead,” Bisexual Politics (1995)

“Similarly, the modern bisexual movement has dissolved the strict dichotomy between ‘gay’ and ‘straight’ (without invalidating our homosexual or heterosexual friends and lovers.) We have insisted on our desire and freedom to love people of all genders.”

— Sunfrog, “Pansies Against Patriarchy,” Bisexual Politics (1995)

“In the bisexual movement as a whole, transgendered individuals are celebrated not only as an aspect of the diversity of the bisexual community, but because, like bisexuals, they do not fit neatly into dichotomous categories. Jim Frazin wrote that ‘the construction and destruction of gender’ is a subject of mutual interest to bisexuals and transsexuals who are, therefore, natural allies.”

— Paula C. Rust, Bisexuality and the Challenge to Lesbian Politics: Sex, Loyalty, and Revolution (1995)

“Is bisexuality even about gender at all? ‘I don’t desire a gender,’ 25[-]year-old Matthew Ehrlich says.”

— Deborah Block-Schwenk, “Newsweek Comes Out as Supportive,” Bi Women (1995)

“One woman expressed the desire to elide categorical differences by reporting that she finds ‘relationships with men and women to be quite similar — the differences are in the individuals, not in their sex.’ Others expressed their ideal as choosing partners ‘regardless of gender…’”

— Amber Ault, Ambiguous Identity in an Unambiguous Sex/Gender Structure: The Case of Bisexual Women (1996)

“Most conceptual models of bisexuality explain it in terms of conflictual or confused identity development, [r-slur] sexual development, or a defence against ‘true’ heterosexuality or homosexuality. It has been suggested, however, that some individuals can eroticize more than one love object regardless of gender, that sexual patterns could be more variable and fluid than theoretical notions tend to allow, and that sexual desire may not be as fixed and static in individuals as is assumed by ‘essential’ sexual categories and identities.”

— E.Antonio de Moya and Rafael García, “AIDS and the Enigma of Bisexuality in the Dominican Republic,” Bisexualities and AIDS: International Perspectives (1996)

“I’m bi. That simply means I can be attracted to a person without consideration of their gender.”

— E. Grace Noonan, “Out on the Job: DEC Open to Bi Concerns,” Bi Women (1996)

“BiCon should accept transgender people as being on their chosen gender, this includes any single gender events.”

— BiCon Guidelines (1998)⁴

“The probability is that your relationship is based on, or has nestled itself into something based more on the relationship between two identities than on the relationship between two people. That’s what we’re taught: man/man, woman/woman, woman/man, top/bottom, butch/femme, man/woman/man, etc. We’re never taught person/person. That’s what the bisexual movement has been trying to teach us. We’re never taught that, so we fall into the trap of ‘you don’t love me, you love my identity.’”

— Kate Bornstein, My Gender Workbook (1998)

“Transsexuality and bisexuality both occupy heretical thresholds of human experience. We confound, illuminate and explore border regions. We challenge because we appear to break inviolable laws. Laws that feel ‘natural.’ And quite possibly, since we are not the norm or even average, it is likely that one function we have is to subvert those norms or laws; to break down the sleepy and unimaginative law of averages.”

— Max Wolf Valerio, “The Joker Is Wild: Changing Sex + Other Crimes of Passion,” Anything That Moves (1998)

“From the earliest years of the bi community, significant numbers of TV/TS and transgender people have always been involved with it. The bi community served as a kind of refuge for people who felt excluded from the established gay and lesbian communities.”

— Kevin Lano, “Bisexuality and Transgenderism,” Anything That Moves (1998)

“A large group of bisexual women reported in a Ms. magazine article that when they fell in love it was with a person rather than a gender…”

— Betty Fairchild and Nancy Hayward, “What is Gay?”, Now that You Know: A Parents’ Guide to Understanding Their Gay and Lesbian Children (1998)

“Over the past fifteen years, however, [one Caucasian man] has realized that he is ‘attracted to people — not their sexual identity’ and no longer cares whether his partners are male or female. He has kept his Bi identity and now uses it to refer to his attraction to people regardless of their gender.”

— Paula C. Rust, “Sexual Identity and Bisexual Identities,” Queer Studies: A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Anthology (1998)

“Bisexual — being emotionally and physically attracted to all genders.”

— The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, “Out of the Past: Teacher’s Guide” (1999)

“There were a lot of transvestites and transsexuals who came to [the San Francisco Bisexual Center in the 1970s], because they were not going to be turned away because of the way they dressed.”

— David Lourea, “Bisexual Histories in San Francisco in the 1970s and Early 1980s,” 2000 Journal of Bisexuality

“Respondent #658 said that both are irrelevant; ‘who I am sexually attracted to has nothing to do with their sex/gender,’ whereas Respondent #418 focuses specifically on the irrelevance of sex: I find myself attracted to either men or women. The outside appendages are rather immaterial, as it is the inner being I am attracted to. […] Respondent #495 recalled that “the best definition I’ve ever heard is someone who is attracted to people & gender/sex is not an issue or factor in that attraction.” […] As Respondent #269 put it, “I do not exclude a person from consideration as a possible love interest on the basis of sex/gender.” […] For most individuals who call themselves bisexual, bisexual identity reflects feelings of attraction, sexual and otherwise, toward women and men or toward other people regardless of their gender.”

— Paula C. Rust, “Two Many and Not Enough: The Meanings of Bisexual Identities,” 2000 Journal of Bisexuality

“Giovanni’s distinction between what he wants and who he wants resonates with the language of many of today’s bisexuals, who insist that they fall in love with a person, not a gender.”

— Marjorie Garber, Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life (2000)

“The message of bisexuality — that people are more than their gender; that we accept all people, regardless of Kinsey scale rating; that we embrace people regardless of age, weight, clothing, hair style, gender expression, race, religion and actually celebrate our diversity — that message is my gospel. I travel, write, do web sites — all to let people know that the bisexual community will accept you, will let you be who you are, and will not expect you to fit in a neat little gender/sexuality box.”

— Wendy Curry, “Celebrating Bisexuality,” Bi Women (2000)

“But really, just like I can’t believe in the heterosexist binary gender system, I have difficulty accepting wholeheartedly any one spiritual tradition.”

— Anonymous, “A Methodical Awakening,” Bi Women (2002)

“But there are also many bis, such as myself, for whom gender has no place in the list of things that attract them to a person. For instance, I like people who are good listeners, who understand me and have interests similar to mine, and I am attracted to people with a little padding here and there, who have fair skin and dark hair (although I’m pretty flexible when it comes to looks). ‘Male’ or ‘female’ are not anywhere to be found in the list of qualities I find attractive.”

— Karin Baker, “Bisexual Basics,” Solidarity-us.org (2002)

“Bisexual: A person who is attracted to people regardless of gender (a person does not have to have a relationship to be bisexual!)”

— Bowling Green State University, “Queer Glossary” (2003)

“The bisexual community seems to be disappearing. Not that there won’t always be people around who like to have sex with people of all genders, the community, as I’ve discussed in this book, is a different matter altogether.”

— William Burleson, Bi America: Myths, Truths, and Struggles of an Invisible Community (2005)

“Although bisexuals in general may or may not be more enlightened about gender issues, there has been, and continues to be, in most places around the country a strong connection between the transgender and the bisexual communities. Indeed, the two communities have been strong allies. Why is this? One reason certainly is, as I mentioned earlier, the significant number of people who are both bisexual and transgender.”

— William Burleson, Bi America: Myths, Truths, and Struggles of an Invisible Community (2005)

“Amy: […] But my friend’s question got me thinking: given the fact that so many bisexual friends and community members reject the idea that gender has to have a relation to attraction and behavior, why should I reject the bi label? Why did her question even come up? How relevant is gender to the concept of bisexuality? If bisexuals like me don’t care about gender the way monosexuals do, why would my identity label exclude my lovers’ gender variations?

Kim: …Like you, I’m a bi person who sees gender as fluid rather than fixed or dichotomous… I’ve also felt outside pressure to reject my bi identity based on the idea that it perpetuates the gender binary: woman/man. However, this idea reduces bisexual to ‘bi’ and ‘sexual’ and disregards the fact that it represents a history, a community, a substantial body of writing, and the right of the bisexual community to define ‘bisexuality’ on its own terms. Most importantly, this idea disregards how vital these things are for countless bi people. Identifying as bi doesn’t inherently mean anything, and it definitely doesn’t mean a person only recognizes two genders. However, to assume that bi-identified people exclude transgender, gender nonconforming (GNC), and genderqueer people also assumes they are not trans, GNC, or genderqueer themselves, when in fact, many are.”

— Kim Westrick and Amy Andre, “Semantic Wars,” Bi Women (2009)

“The [intracommunity biphobia] problem is very serious, because bisexuals, along with trans folks, are the rejects among rejects, that is to say, those who suffer from discrimination (gays and lesbians) discriminate against bis and trans folks. It is for this reason, at least here in Mexico City, that Opción Bi allies itself with transsexuals, transgender people and transvestites, and works together with them whenever possible. It seems to me we are closer to the trans communities than to the lesbian and gay ones.”

— Robyn Ochs, “Bis Around the World: Myriam Brito, Mexican City,” Bi Women (2009)

“I introduce myself as bisexual, because I am attracted to people, across gender lines, and ‘bisexual’ comes closest to explaining that.”

— B.J. Epstein, “Bye Bi Labels,” Bi Women (2009)

“Bisexuality is not some kind of middle-ground between heterosexuality and homosexuality; rather I imagine it as a way to erode the fixed systems of gender and sexual identity which always result in guilt, fear, lies[,] and discrimination.”

— Carlos Iván Suárez García, “What Is Bisexuality?”, Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, Second Edition (2009)⁵

“To me, bisexuality is a matter of loving and accepting everyone equally — seeing the beauty in the human soul, rather than in the shell that houses it. Being transgender, I know firsthand that love between two people can transcend — even embrace — what society regards as taboo. Bisexuality is a mindset of revolution, a mindset of change. We’re creating a brave new world of acceptance and love for all people, of all the myriad genders and methods of sexual expression that this world contains.

— Jessica, “What Is Bisexuality?”, Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, Second Edition (2009)

“Bisexuality (whatever that means) for me is about the ability to relate to all people at a deep emotional level. It is an openness of the heart. It is the absence of limits, especially those that are defined by the other person’s sex.”

— Andrea Toselli, “Coming Out Bisexual,” Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, Second Edition (2009)

“Considering my personal preferences, calling myself ‘bisexual’ covers a wider territory regarding my capacity to fall in love and to share the life of a couple with another person without taking into consideration questions of gender.”

— Aida, “Why Bi?”, Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, Second Edition (2009)

“I’m sure I’m bisexual because I can’t ignore the allure and loveliness of a wide spectrum of people — differentiating by gender never seemed attractive or even logical to me. […] For me bisexuality means I don’t stop attraction, caring or relationship potential based on gender; I can have sex, flirtation or warm ongoing love with anyone (not everyone, okay? That part’s a myth). […] And we have enough trouble splitting the human race into two halves, assigning mandatory characteristics, and then torturing people to fill arbitrary roles — I consider that a wrong and inaccurate way to understand human potential, and that’s also why I’m bi. Men and women are different? Honey, everyone I’ve ever met has been different. I think being bisexual lets me see each person as an individual.”

— Carol Queen, “Why Bi?”, Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, Second Edition (2009)

“But to hell with respectability: the real point about being bisexual, a friend pointed out, is that you’re asking someone other than ‘What sex is this person?’”

— Tom Robinson, “Bisexual Community,” Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, Second Edition (2009)

“Being bisexual… allows us to love each other regardless of our gender…”

— Jorge Pérez Castiñeira, “Bisexual Community,” Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, Second Edition (2009)

“‘Hello, my name is Jaqueline Applebee… if you want to see me later, or just want a kiss, let me know as I’m bisexual, and you’re all gorgeous!’ […] I have loved men, women, and those who don’t identify with any gender.”

— Jaqueline Applebee, “Bisexual Community,” Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, Second Edition (2009)

“[T]here’s nothing binary about bisexuals. Bi is just a provisional term reminding us, however awkwardly, that when it comes to loving, family and tribe, margins and middle intertwine.”

— Loraine Hutchins, “Bisexual Politics,” Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, Second Edition (2009)

“My bi identity is not about who I am having sex with; it is not about the genitals of my past, current, or future lovers; it is not about choosing potential partners or excluding partners based on what is between their legs. It is about potential — the potential to love, to be attracted to, to be intimate with, share a life with a person because of who they are. I see a person, not a gender… I demand to be free to legally marry anyone without regard to their gender.”

— Rifka Reichler, “Bisexual Politics,” Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, Second Edition (2009)

“To me, being bisexual means having a sexuality that isn’t limited by the sex or gender of the people you are attracted to. You just recognize that you can be attracted to a person for very individual reasons.”

— Deb Morley, “Bi of the Month: An Interview with Ellyn Ruthstorm,” Bi Women (2010)

“Q: Which gender person does a bisexual love? A: Any gender she wants.”

— Marcia Deihl, “Do Clothes Make the Woman?”, Bi Women (2010)

“While the bisexual manifesto being written following a workshop at London BiCon is still being worked on, the tweeters set to work on a shorter, snappier alternative… ‘Love is about what’s in your hearts, not your underwear.’ […] ‘We aren’t more confused, greedy, indecisive or lustful than anyone else. We like people based on personality not gender.’ ‘[W]e believe that lust is more important than anatomy.’ ‘What you have between your legs doesn’t matter. What you have between your ears does[.]’”

— Jen Yockney, “#bisexualmanifesto,” Bi Community News (2010)

“As briefly mentioned above and interlinked with the notion of ‘importance of individuality’, the binary concepts of gender and the stereotypes surrounding these is a notion which each of the [bisexual] women interviewed fundamentally reject. The participants here were keen to distance themselves and their experiences of romantic relationships from any notion of hetero-normative gender boundaries, although they did agree that unfortunately these gender boundaries still exist in contemporary society. Most participants do not link gender boundaries with concepts of romantic love; it was stated that although sometimes gender boundaries can be seen in romantic relationships this is primarily down to socialisation and the unnecessary importance that hetero-normative society places on gender roles. Therefore, gender boundaries seen in romantic relationships are not constrained by gender but instead are a product of gendered socialisation. For these women, claiming their bisexual identity and their romantic relationships illustrates the futility of binary concepts of gender as it is about individual preference or style rather than gendered norms values and expectations.”

— Emma Smith, “Bisexuality, Gender & Romantic Relationships,” Bi Community News (2012)

“And anyway, I’m generally not sexually attracted to men or women. I’m into all sorts of things, but a person being a man or a woman isn’t a turn-on. Certainly not in the same way it’s a turn off to a gay or straight person. I’m never going to think “Wow, Zie is really sexy, shame they’re a ____” because what turns me off isn’t gender.”

— Marcus, “What makes a bisexual?”, Bi Community News (2012)

“I am bisexual. That does not depend on my dating experience or my attraction specifications. It is not affected by my dislike for genitals (of any shape). All it describes is how gender affects attraction for me: it doesn’t. I am attracted to people regardless of gender, and I am bisexual.”

— Emma Jones, “Not Like the Others,” Bi Women (2013)

“I’m generally okay with ‘attraction to more than one gender’ [as a definition of ‘bisexuality’]. I think that the ‘more than’ part is important because there are definitely more than two genders. Some people like the definition ‘attraction regardless of gender’ and I like that too because it suggests that things other than gender can be equally, or more, important in who we are attracted to. I like to question why our idea of sexuality is so bound up with gender of partners. Why not encompass other aspects such as the roles we like to take sexually, or how active or passive we like to be, or what practices we enjoy? Why is our gender, and the gender of our partners, seen as such a vital part of who we are?”

— Robyn Ochs, “Around the World: Meg Barker,” Bi Women (2013)

“It may sound crazy but I’d never thought that carefully about the ‘bi’ part of the word meaning ‘two’. I’d always understood bisexuality to mean what Bobbie Petford reports as the preferred definition from within the UK bi communities: changeable ‘sexual and emotional attraction to people of any sex, where gender may not be a defining factor’. […] Participants in the BiCon discussion rejected the ‘you are a boy or you are a girl…binary’ (Lanei), all arguing that they were not straightforwardly ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’.

[…] Because they discarded the dichotomous understanding of gender, participants rejected the ideas that they were attracted to ‘both’ men and women, arguing that they did not perceive gender as the defining feature in their attraction. Kim said: I don’t think actually gender is that relevant…gender is like eye colour, and I notice it sometimes, and sometimes it can be a bit of a feature it’s like “oo, that’s nice” and I have some sorts of gender types, but it’s about as important as something like eye colour.

[…] As I came to realise that you can actually be bisexual…your desires and your attractions can wax and wane as time goes on, I realised that there was a parallel to gender: you don’t have to clearly define, you don’t have to cast off the male to be female and vice versa. Despite the fact that the conventional definition of the word ‘bisexual’ could be seen as perpetuating a dichotomous concept of gender, being attracted to both sexes, Georgina concluded that it could challenge conventional understandings of gender…”

— “Bisexuality & Gender,” Bi Community News (2014)

“My fellow bisexuals… I stand before you as an unapologetic, outspoken, bisexual activist who has intimately loved women, men and transgender persons throughout my life span of 72 years…”

— ABilly S. Jones-Hennin, “If Loving You is Wrong, Then I Don’t Want to be Right,” Bisexual Organizing Project (2014)

“Coming out as bisexual in the late 80s, when I first came across the label pansexual it didn’t involve any kind of gender nuance: it was how someone explained their bisexuality feeling interwoven with their Pagan beliefs. Back then the ‘bi’ in bisexual didn’t get talked about as having some great limiting weight of ‘two’, it was an “and” in a world that saw things as strictly either/or. As I was pushing at boundaries of discussion around gender and sexuality with people in the 90s I’d sometimes quip that I was ‘bisexual, I just haven’t decided which two genders yet’. When I started to come across people saying that bi was limiting because it meant two, a bit of me did think: oh lord, were they taking me seriously?”

— Jen, “Bi or Pan?”, Bi Community News (2015)

“Pansexuality is sometimes defined as attraction to people of all genders, which is also the experience of many bisexual people. More often than not, however, people define their pansexuality in relation to bisexuality. In response to the question: ‘What does pansexual mean?’ I’ve seen countless people reply: ‘I’m attracted to people of more than two genders. Not bisexual.’ The implication is that bisexual means binary attraction: men and women only.

Since I came out in the late 90s, I haven’t seen one bi activist organisation define bisexuality as attraction solely to men and women. Bi and trans* issues began to grow in recognition at the same time. When I use ‘bi’ to refer to two types of attraction, I mean attraction to people of my gender and attraction to people of other genders. […] …it’s so upsetting to see internalised biphobia leading many pansexuals, many of whom until recently identified as bisexual, telling us we’re still not queer enough. Gay and straight people aren’t being pressurised into giving up the language they use to describe their attractions and neither should they be. As usual it’s only bisexuals being shamed into erasing our identities and our history.

The most frustrating thing to me about the current bi vs pan discourse is that it’s framed as a cisgender vs genderqueer debate. This has never been the case. In reality, many genderqueer people identify as bisexual… To say bisexuality is binary erases the identities of these revolutionary bisexual genderqueer activists, and it erases the identity of every marginalised genderqueer bisexual they’re fighting for.”

— Sali, “Bi or Pan?”, Bi Community News (2015)

“Currently some pansexual people argue that bi is ‘too binary’ and that bisexuals are focused on conventional male/female gender expressions only. This is then taken to mean that bisexuals are more transphobic, whereas pansexuals aren’t locked into a binary so they are open to all gender expressions. However we believe this is not the case since bisexuals: ‘… do not comply with our society’s imposed framework of attraction, we must consciously construct our own framework and examine how and why we are attracted (or not) to others. This process automatically acknowledges the artificiality of the gender binary and gendered norms and expectations for behavior. Indeed, the mere act of explaining our definition of bisexual to a nonbisexual person requires us to address the falsity of the gender binary head on.’

We do not deny that in actuality some bisexuals are too bound by traditional binary gender assumptions, just as many gay, lesbian, and heterosexual, and some trans people are too. Bisexuals, however, have been in the forefront of exploring desire and connection beyond sex and gender. When anyone accuses bisexuals, uniquely, as more binary and more transphobic than other identity groups, such targeting is not only inappropriate but is also rooted in biphobia — a fear and hatred of bi people for who we are and how we love.

Confusing the issue are the definitions in resource glossaries defining bisexual, most surprisingly in newly released books including textbooks. [...] These definitions arbitrarily define bisexual in a binary way and then present pansexual as a non-binary alternative. This opens the doorway to a judgment that pansexual identity is superior to bisexual identity because it ‘opens possibilities’ and is a ‘more fluid and much broader form of sexual orientation’. This judgmental conclusion is unacceptable and dangerous as it lends itself to perpetuating bisexual erasure. The actual lived non-binary history of the bisexual community and movement and the inclusive nature and community spirit of bisexuals are eradicated when a binary interpretation of our name for ourselves is arbitrarily assumed.”

— Lani Ka’ahumanu and Loraine Hutchins, “Bi Organizing Since 1991,” Bi Any Other Name (New 25th Anniversary Edition) (2015)

“Herself a bisexual woman, [Nan Goldin] found that drag queens, to her a third gender, were perfect companions. By transgressing the bounds of the binary, they had created identities that were infinitely more meaningful.”

— Alicia Diane Ridout, “Gender Euphoria: Photography, Fashion, and Gender Nonconformity in The East Village” (2015)

“It is the job of those of us with links to children to continue to promote the language of bisexuality and validity of attraction to all genders — especially when that attraction changes over time.”

— Bethan, “Practical Bi Awareness: Teaching and LGBT,” Bi Community News (2016)

“The persistent use of the Kinsey Scale is another issue. Originally asking about the genders of people you have had sex with, more recently it gets deployed in more sophisticated ways which distinguish between sexual attraction, romantic attraction, and sexual activity. Nonetheless it is woefully inadequate in accounting for attraction to genders other than male and female — a key part of many bisexual people’s experience.”

— Milena Popova, “Scrap the Kinsey Scale!”, Bi Community News (2016)

“Robyn Ochs states where the EuroBiCon also stands for: bisexuality goes beyond the binary gender thinking. There are more genders than the obsolete idea of two: male and female.”

— Erwin, “Robyn Ochs: ‘Bisexuality goes beyond the binary gender thinking’,” European Bisexual Conference (2016)

“I call myself bisexual because it includes attraction to all genders (same as mine; different from mine).”

— Rev. Francesca Bongiorno Fortunato, “Label Me With a B,” Bi Women Quarterly (2016)

“Loving a person rather than a man or a woman: this is Runa Wehrli’s philosophy. At 18, she defines herself as bisexual and speaks about it openly. […] She believes that love should not be confined by the barriers put up by society. ‘I fall in love with a person and not a gender,’ she says. […] Now single and just out of high school, she is leaving the door open to love, while still refusing to give it a gender.”

— Katy Romy, “‘I fall in love with a person and not a gender’,” Swissinfo (2017)

“I’m bisexual so I can’t really come out as gay. When I’m gay I’m very gay. And when I’m with men then, you know, I’m with men. I don’t fall in love with people because of their gender.”

— Nan Goldin for Sleek Magazine (2017)

“I use the word bisexual — a lot / I’ve marched in the Pride parade with the Toronto Bisexual Network / I post Bi pride & Bi awareness articles all over social media / I’m seeking out dates of any and all genders / (not to prove anything to anyone, but simply because I want to)

— D’Arcy L. J. White, “Coming Out as Bisexual,” Bi Women Quarterly (2017)

“BISEXUAL — Someone who is attracted to more than one gender, someone who is attracted to two or more genders, someone who is attracted to the same and other genders, or someone who is attracted to people regardless of their gender. […] Other words with the same definition of bisexual, though they have different connotations, are ‘pansexual,’ ‘polysexual,’ and ‘omnisexual.’”

— Morgan Lev Edward Holleb, The A-Z of Gender and Sexuality: From Ace to Ze (2018)

“In the heat of July [2009], and finally equipped with a word for “attracted to people regardless of gender”, I bounded out of Brighton station with that same best friend. At the time, I didn’t know that we bisexuals have our own flag…”

— Lois Shearing, “Why London Pride’s first bi pride float was so important,” The Queerness (2018)

“Being bisexual does not assume people are only attracted to just two genders. Bisexuality can be limitless for many and pay no regard to the sex or gender of a person.”

— “The Bi+ Manifesto” (2018)

“I realized I was bisexual at age fifteen, but although I am attracted to folks of any gender, I’ve always had a preference for men.”

— Mark Mulligan, “Fight and Flight: ‘Butch Flight,’ Trans Men, and the Elusive Question of Authenticity,” Nursing Clio (2018)

“Bisexuality just became, to me, about that openness — that openness to anything, and any potential to any type of relationship, regardless of gender. Gender is no longer a disqualifier for me. It’s about the person.”

— Rob Cohen, “Where Are All the Bi Guys?,” Two Bi Guys (2019)

“Oh no, Mom. I’m not a lesbian. Actually, I’m bisexual. That means that gender doesn’t determine whom I’m attracted to.”

— Annie Bliss, “Older and Younger,” Bi Women Quarterly (2019)

“A bisexual woman, for example, may have sex with, date or marry another woman, a man or someone who is non-binary. […] If you think you might be bisexual, try asking yourself these questions: …Can I picture myself dating, having sex with, or being married to any gender/sex?”

— “I Think I Might Be Bisexual,” Advocates for Youth

“Although it’s true that people have all kinds of different attractions to different kinds of people, assuming that all bisexuals are never attracted to trans or genderqueer folk is harmful, not only to bi individuals, but to trans and genderqueer individuals who choose to label themselves as bi.”

— “Labels,” Bisexual Resource Center

“My own understanding of bisexuality has changed dramatically over the years. I used to define bisexuality as ‘the potential to be attracted to people regardless of their gender.’ […] Alberto is attracted to the poles, to super-masculine guys and super-feminine girls. Others are attracted to masculinity and/or femininity, regardless of a person’s sex. Some of us who identify as bisexual are in fact ‘gender-blind.’ For others — in fact for me — it’s androgyny or the blending of genders that compels.”

— Robin Ochs, “What Does It Mean to Be Bi+?”, Bisexual Resource Center

“… bisexual people are those for whom gender is not the first criteria in determining attraction.”

— Illinois Department of Public Health, “Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Youth Suicide”

“Bisexuality is sexual/romantic attraction to people regardless of sex or gender.”

— “Bisexual FAQ,” Kvartir

“Please also note that attraction to both same and different means attraction to all. Bisexuality is inherently inclusive of everyone, regardless of sex or gender.

In everyday language, depending on the speaker’s culture, background, and politics, that translates into a variety of everyday definitions such as:

Attraction to men and women

Attraction to all sexes or genders

Attraction to same and other genders

Love beyond gender

Attraction regardless of sex or gender”

— American Institute of Bisexuality, “What Is Bisexuality?,” Bi.org

“This idea [that bisexuality reinforces a false gender binary] has its roots in the anti-science, anti-Enlightenment philosophy that has ironically found a home within many Queer Studies departments at universities across the Anglophone world. […] Bisexuality is an orientation for which sex and gender are not a boundary to attraction… Over time, our society’s concept of human sex and gender may well change. For bis, people for whom sex/gender is already not a boundary, any such change would have little effect.”

— American Institute of Bisexuality, “Questions,” Bi.org

Gender-expansive (or -fluid, or -blind) descriptions of bisexuality are nothing new — and with the exception of the Getting Bi quotes, the above compilation is just what I was able to find online. Arguably, the concept of excluding genders never even crossed the mind of many twentieth-century bisexuals — not just because “nonbinary genders hadn’t entered the mainstream” — but simply because many bisexuals understand bisexuality itself as “beyond” gender. Go to any bisexual organization and they’ll tell you bisexuality is broad and can include anyone.

Of course, the above quotes do not reflect the beliefs of every bisexual — no single quote can do that. These quotes were certainly not the only variation of bisexual-given definitions of bisexuality. I’m only pointing out that the “both” descriptions are similarly not the only ones that exist.

Even then, before wider knowledge of and language for nonbinary identities, attraction to “both” men and women was attraction regardless of gender. “Both” does not purposefully keep anyone out; it only (mistakenly) assumes how many groups there are. Gender not being a make-or-break, or not caring about gender in general, doesn’t depend on how many genders there are.⁶

Not to mention, all sexualities automatically include some nonbinary people — “nonbinary” isn’t merely a third gender. The mere notion that someone could just “not be attracted” to nonbinary people as a group completely misunderstands nonbinary identity.

Some bisexuals “see a person, not a gender,” while others, like me, see a person with a gender (that doesn’t stop us from finding them attractive), if they have one. Being bisexual has made me see people in more gender-neutral ways. Our experiences are far too vast to pin down, and there’s immense beauty in that vagueness.

Also, while bisexual activism and transgender activism have frequently overlapped, plenty of cisgender bisexuals are transphobic. But this is because all sexualities have transphobes. Even if we coined a sexual identity that only transgender people could use, some identifying with it would still likely be transphobes. Why allow transphobic bisexuals to erase the attitudes of all the bisexuals before and after them?

I find it incredibly odd that people now task bisexuals with proving our inclusivity considering that, for decades, we never had to. We had always (i.e., consistently throughout history, not as in every bisexual) been warping gender norms, but it was never to debunk a myth or make ourselves look good; it was just how we were. That hasn’t changed.

One of the predominant stereotypes is still that we’re indiscriminate sluts willing to sleep with anyone, but somehow there’s a new wave of folks insisting that we require our partners to obey the gender binary. I have a severely hard time believing this conclusion is based on reality. Almost all attempts to redefine bisexuality as binary come from people who don’t identify as such.

Imagine if we performed this revisionism with the word “gay.” For this example, I’ll use “gay” to describe gay men in particular.

“Gay” only means exclusive attraction to men, so the people who use that word only like cisgender men. I’m androsexual, which means I like cisgender, transgender, and nonbinary men.

Doesn’t that sound ridiculous? So why do we only apply this rhetoric to bisexuals? (It couldn’t possibly be because of biphobia, could it?)

While it’s obviously unrealistic to say that no bisexual person has ever been transphobic, bisexual orientation is not, and never has been, about exclusion. Considering that bisexual activists were seldom (if ever) focused on the prefix in the word “bisexual,” this recent fixation people have on trying to find a way to use “two” in its definition is misguided.

Begging to differ is ignorant and arrogant, contradicting not only history but many current bisexuals who understand bisexuality as all-encompassing. Acting like it’s uniquely binary or inherently limited in any way is indisputably false and biphobic. Please stop speaking over us and erasing our history. It, like the bisexual community itself, is bountiful, beautiful, and never going away.

Here’s one final quote that, while a bit unrelated to the rest, I particularly enjoy:

“I understand bisexuality not as a mixture of homosexuality and heterosexuality as Kinsey did, nor as a particular sexuality on an equal footing with homosexuality and heterosexuality, but as a holistic view of human sexuality, in which all aspects related to human sexuality are taken into account.”

— Miguel Obradors-Campos, “Deconstructing Biphobia” (2011)

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a-dinosaur-a-day · 5 years ago

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Balaeniceps rex

By Olaf Oliviero Riemer, CC BY-SA 3.0

Etymology: Whale Head

First Described By: Gould, 1850

Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoromorpha, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostaylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Ornithurae, Neornithes, Neognathae, Neoaves, Aequorlitornithes, Ardeae, Aequornithes, Pelecaniformes, Balaenicipitidae

Status: Extant, Vulnerable

Time and Place: Within the last 10,000 years, in the Holocene of the Quaternary

The Shoebill is known from eastern central Africa

Physical Description: There is no other dinosaur quite like the Shoebill. It is one of the most visually distinctive creatures, with traits monstrous and familiar that make it difficult to really understand exactly what you’re looking at. They stand up to 140 centimeters in height, which yes, is the height of a human being on the shorter side. They can even reach 152 centimeters tall - the same height as a 5 foot tall person. They have very long, skinny legs, with giant toes on their feet that are widely splayed out. Their bodies are huge, with short tails and bulky torsos. Their backs are grey, and their belly feathers are white. Their necks are a lighter grey, and there is some dark speckling all over their wings and right beneath their necks. Their heads continue that light grey coloration, and have small tufts of feathers as a crest on the back of the head. Shoebills also happen to feature yellow, unblinking, perfectly circular eyes, which is unsettling at best. They have heavy eyebrows of feathers over their eyes, giving them a look like they’re always glaring at you - which is even more disconcerting considering the giant, wide, scoop-shaped bill that the Shoebill is named for. The bill is orange, and ends in a small hook, just in case you weren’t terrified enough.

By Peter Halasz, CC BY-SA 2.5

Diet: Shoebills feed mainly on fish - especially lungfish, though most large fish are acceptable. Amphibians, young crocodilians, water snakes, rodents, and young waterfowl are also fed upon by these giant terrifying creatures.

By Snowmanradio, CC BY-SA 2.0

Behavior: Shoebills are calculating bastards - they’ll hover around lakesides and swamps with low oxygen in the water, which forces lungfish to come up to breathe - so that the Shoebill can then lean down and scoop them up. They are loners during the hunt, carefully taking each step as they make sure to not sink too far into the mud and weeds where they live. Their lunging after food is hard to miss - their mouths open wide, revealing how huge those bills really are, and giving it a sinister smile. These lunges are usually startling, as the Shoebill is usually still for a very long time before it goes after prey. It is as if a statue had suddenly come to life. This is especially disconcerting when the Shoebill opts for standing on floating vegetation - just casually going down with the current as though they were a giant Jacana. They tend to defend territories for food, at least somewhat, not coming closer than twenty meters to another Shoebill during feeding. They don’t sense their prey with feel, but entirely by sight - making them very unblinking and focused, adding to their strange aura. Shoebills are also usually silent, which just makes their entire aesthetic even more terrifying. When they do dare to make sounds, they make very raucous cries - usually while they fly.

By Petr Simon

Yes, yes they can fly. Shoebills are some of the largest flighted birds today, which does not help. They hold their wings flat, pulling in their necks to their bodies to aid in making their flight more efficient. They have some of the slowest flaps of any bird, at 150 flaps per minute. They fly only a few meters at a time, and usually prefer to glide as much as possible. The farthest any Shoebill as traveled at one time seems to be 20 meters. As such, Shoebills are not very mobile birds, and they usually only move from place to place based on food availability.

By African Parks/Bengweulu Wetlands Photography

Shoebills begin breeding depending on the water levels of their habitat at a given time. They lay their eggs when the rains begin to end and the waters start to recede; as such, the chicks hatch and fledge late in the dry season. They nest alone, though there are possible reports that they may form some breeding colonies in South Sudan. They make nests out of grass in a mound that is three meters wide, usually placed on a small island or on floating vegetation amongst dense papyrus. They lay two eggs that are incubated for a month. The chickare cute, fluffy, and grey, with tiny regular sized bills. They then fledge a little more than three months later and, what’s more, usually only one chick survives. The chicks and parents will make whining and mewing to each other to get attention and beg for food. Sometimes, the young will make hiccups as begging calls. The parents are constantly with the young for the first forty days of rearing, only briefly leaving to get food and water or nest material. As the chicks age, the parents spend more and more time away, but they still bring food regularly. The chicks, after fledging, remain dependent on the parents for food for a few more years. They reach reproductive age at around three to four years. Displays often including mooing and bill clattering, which can be accompanied by the shaking of the head from side to side, which is quite the undertaking for a bird with such a large head. Breeding pairs stay together for the season, and break up when the chicks leave the nest. Shoebills can live up to fifty years, which is aided by the fact that they tend to not have predators after reaching full size.

By Hans Hillewaert, CC BY-SA 3.0

Ecosystem: Shoebills stick to marshes, especially papyrus marshes and those with reeds and cattails. They will also gather around marshy lakesides, especially near Lake Victoria. They go wherever they can find floating vegetation to stand upon, including ricefields. They tend to go where animals such as hippopotamus go, since the hippo can dredge up food that the Shoebill can then feed upon.

By Fritz Geller-Grimm, CC BY-SA 2.5

Other: Shoebills are currently considered vulnerable to extinction, with 5000 to 8000 birds thought to be remaining in the wild (though that may be low and there may be as many as 10,000). The reasons for this decline in population is partially due to habitat loss - the Shoebill is dependent on papyrus swamps and other wetland habitats, which are targeted by drainage schemes and other development activities. Animals being brought across these swamps and trampling their young also majorly contributes to population decline. It is a very unique bird and a very popular one, so luckily there are some conservation efforts ongoing, especially in zoos. Some hunting is also contributing to population loss. Despite these conservation efforts, only once has the Shoebill been successfully bred in captivity.

~ By Meig Dickson

Sources under the Cut

Elliott, A., Garcia, E.F.J. & Boesman, P. (2019). Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Guillet, A (1978). "Distribution and Conservation of the Shoebill (Balaeniceps Rex) in the Southern Sudan". Biological Conservation. 13 (1): 39–50.

Hackett, SJ; Kimball, RT; Reddy, S; Bowie, RC; Braun, EL; Braun, MJ; Chojnowski, JL; Cox, WA; Han, KL; et al. (2008). "A phylogenomic study of birds reveals their evolutionary history". Science. 320 (5884): 1763–8.

Hagey, J. R.; Schteingart, C. D.; Ton-Nu, H.-T. & Hofmann, A. F. (2002). "A novel primary bile acid in the Shoebill stork and herons and its phylogenetic significance". Journal of Lipid Research. 43 (5): 685–90.

Hall, Whitmore (1861). The principal roots and derivatives of the Latin language, with a display of their incorporation into English. London: Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts. p. 153.

Hancock & Kushan, Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World. Princeton University Press (1992),

Houlihan, Patrick F. (1986). The Birds of Ancient Egypt. Wiltshire: Aris & Phillips. p. 26.

Jasson, J.; Nahonyo, Cuthbert; Lee, Woo; Msuya, Charles (March 2013). "Observations on nesting of shoebill Balaeniceps rex and wattled crane Bugeranus carunculatus in Malagarasi wetlands, western Tanzania". African Journal of Ecology. 51 (1): 184–187.

Mayr, Gerald (2003). "The phylogenetic affinities of the Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex)". Journal für Ornithologie.

Mikhailov, Konstantin E. (1995). "Eggshell structure in the shoebill and pelecaniform birds: comparison with hamerkop, herons, ibises and storks". Canadian Journal of Zoology. 73 (9): 1754–70.

Muir, Allan; King, C.E. (January 2013). "Management and husbandry guidelines for Shoebills Balaeniceps rex in captivity". International Zoo Yearbook. 47 (1): 181–189.

Stevenson, Terry and Fanshawe, John (2001). Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi. Elsevier Science.

Tomita, Julie (2014). "Challenges and successes in the propagation of the Shoebill Balaeniceps rex: with detailed observations from Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo, Florida". International Zoo Yearbook. 132 (1): 69–82.

Williams, J.G; Arlott, N (1980). A Gield Guide to the Birds of East Africa. Collins.

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artbookdap · 4 years ago

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Details from 'Home Stories: 100 Years, 20 Visionary Interiors'—a mammoth, 320-page history of interior design and the way it shapes our lives, in 500 color reproductions—published by @vitradesignmuseum and one of our Top 5 Holiday Gift Books for Design Devotees, 2020!⠀ ⠀ Our homes are an expression of how we want to live; they shape our everyday routines and fundamentally affect our well-being. Interior design for the home sustains a giant global industry and feeds an entire branch of the media. However, the question of dwelling, or how to live, is found increasingly to be lacking in serious discourse.⠀ ⠀ This book sets out to review the interior design of our homes. It discusses 20 iconic residential interiors from the present back to the 1920s, by architects, artists and designers such as Assemble, Cecil Beaton, Lina Bo Bardi, Arno Brandlhuber, Elsie de Wolfe, Elii, Josef Frank, Andrew Geller, IKEA, Finn Juhl, Michael Graves, Kisho Kurokawa, Adolf Loos, Claude Parent, Bernard Rudofsky, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Alison and Peter Smithson, Jacques Tati, Mies van der Rohe and Andy Warhol. Including historic and recent photographs, drawings and plans, the book explores these case studies as key moments in the history of the modern interior.⠀ ⠀ Penny Sparke provides a concise history of the discipline of interior design, @alice.rawsthorn investigates the role of gender, and Mark Taylor discusses the discourse on interior design in the 21st century. Adam Štech @okolo_architecture offers insights into the use of color in residential interiors and @matteo.pirola offers a detailed and richly illustrated chronology of significant events in the history of interior design. In a portfolio of photographs selected exclusively for this book, @jasper.morrison explores what makes a good interior. In addition to interviews with contemporary interior design practitioners, experts in the fields of the sociology of living and psychology provide further insight. This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in interior design.⠀ ⠀ Edited with text by @mateokries & @jochen_eisenbrand⠀ ⠀ Read more via linkinbio!⠀ ⠀ @josephgrima @nachoalegre @ch_herrero Ilse @sevilpeach #home https://www.instagram.com/p/CIMDvdWJ8q_/?igshid=ihf8mvnse4yf

#home

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elixms · 5 years ago

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˛ ʿ hiiiiii !! i’m clara (she/her) bringing you this beacon of light (even tho she’s far from it lol) buuut she’s a character i wanted to play for quite some time! so without further ado under the cut you’ll find out more if you have the energy to read all my rambles written at exactly 2:23am!<3

is that ELISSA DVORCEK? wow, they do look a lot like JOSEFINE PETTERSEN. i hear SHE is a SEVENTEEN year old JUNIOR who originally attended LUXOR academy. word is they are a REGULAR student. you should watch out because they can be SARCASTIC and ALOOF, but on the bright side they can also be LOYAL and COURAGEOUS. ultimately, you’ll get to see it all for yourself.

𝓬𝓵𝓪𝓼𝓼 𝓼𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓭𝓾𝓵𝓮 !!

✦ shakespearean studies

✦ french

✦ advanced algebra

✦ advanced psychology

✦ pilates

✦ advanced ballet

✦ world history

𝓮𝔁𝓽𝓻𝓪𝓬𝓾𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓬𝓾𝓵𝓪𝓻𝓼 !!

national honors society

book club

𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓫𝓪𝓬𝓴𝓰𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓭 𝓲𝓷𝓯𝓸 !!

✦ first things first, elissa actually comes from a wealthy family, just not that noble. her norwegian mother was a nobody while her american father was a self-made businessman. their love was unexpected given their different social & finacial backgrounds which resulted in her mother’s move to nyc. but they were happy ; and that happiness was only maximized with the birth of their daughter.

✦ with her father’s growing hotel business, it was safe to say that elissa grew up with everything her heart could’ve possibly desired, however, she was far from being the typical rich girl. while kids in her position would take advantage of her parent’s financial situation and live like kings, this little girl was self-reliant from day one and aimed to achieve her own dreams in life.

✦ and that dream was... *drum roll pls* figure skating ! it was a full time, year-around commitment but with intense training, strict diet plan and hard work, huge talent and drive the little girl became an athlete her parents were more than proud of which was the main reason why they enrolled her into luxor academy. especially after the dean promised that for the right amount of money, he’ll make sure elissa got all the private tutors and trainers her heart desired. so when she won her first U.S. champion title he made sure the whole world knew he was the one responsible (aka he bragged so much even the old ladies rolled their eyes).

✦ with her busy (and definitely personalized) schedule her social life in luxor was basically... non existent. even when she did have the time to socialize or actually do something like a teenager would, she preferred to stick to her small circle of trusted friends or just watch a good movie.

✦ as for her love life, the girl.... well, given the fact she barely has time for anything and even when she does she’s not exactly sociable, she’s definitely somewhat inexperienced. however, it wasn’t something people noticed due to her high level of confidence. nobody dared to question whenever or not she even had a boyfriend, yet alone had sex when she gave them a glare that could’ve easily start another ice age. overall, it wasn’t something she was open about ; nor particularly cared.

𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓼𝓸𝓷𝓪𝓵𝓲𝓽𝔂 !!

✦ positive traits: loyal, ambitious, self-reliant, courageous

✦ negative traits: stubborn, sarcastic, opinionated, aloof

✦ talents: gymnastics, ice skating, playing the piano (not everyone knows)

✦ fears: heartbreak, losing someone she loves, that she’ll have to stop skating

✦ loves: coffee, chai and green tea, celine dion, banana-flavored muffins, scented candles, horror movies, people who make her laugh, cinnamon hot chocolate, sunrises and sunsets, being in control, cold weather, prada, knitted sweaters, old disney movies

✦ hates: animal cruelty, distractions, bad manners, noises when trying to sleep, when people she’s not close to get in her personal space, oatmeal raisin cookies, feeling weak or helpless, brussels sprouts, when someone is bossing her around, bigotry

✦ &&& more about her personality !! honestly, this girl is so stubborn she can probably go without eating just to prove a damn point. and tbh, she kind of has a problem with being in control too? she likes things in order and being in charge which is probably the main reason why she absolutely HATES failing. she also doesn’t easily trust people which explains why she comes across as somewhat cold and distant but do not be fooled ! she has a v sharp tongue & won’t hesitate to throw a sarcastic comment your way!

✦ overall, it takes time for her to open up, but when she does that soft and goofy side of her comes out that only her closest friends get to see. she’s very motherly and protective over her friends (momma bear alert y’all!) and would even out herself in danger for them. also loyal to the very core so if you landed her as a friend you definitely won’t be sorry !

𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓬𝓾𝓽𝓮 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓭𝓬𝓪𝓷𝓸𝓷𝓼 !!

✦ her favorite perfume has a scent of orange&honey which reminds her of christmas.

✦ monica geller & kat stratford are her spirit animals!

✦ has a passion for wearing knitted sweaters as soon as it’s cold outside and probably owns like a hundred in all shapes, sizes and colors. + red lipstick ? her trademark.

✦ christmas is her favorite holiday & she loves everything revolving it ! the decorations, the food, the corny christmas movies, snow, spirit.... so she always decorates her room way too early and leaves the decorations in way too late.

✦ due to her strict diet that involves a lot of healthy food and no alcohol, she’s a lightweight but WILL argue differently. she’s too proud to admit two glasses of wine can get her drunk.

✦ cried like a baby when mufasa died and susan forgot about narnia.

✦ completely indifferent (a little bit amused) by the rivalry between two schools.

✦ cleans when frustrated!

✦ has a private, very strict coach that lives in close proximity of campus.

✦ practices every day for at least four to five hours which includes on ice training and off ice (like ballet, gym & pilates)

✦ adores og horror movies like psycho, the shinning, halloween, jaws, the silence of the lambs...

✦ her biggest goal in life is to go to the 2022 olympics and get that gold !!!

✦ and last but not least (TW: DRUG USE), she suffered through a p nasty fall on live tv during her competition two months ago when she tried to land a triple axel (a big overachiever what can i say) which resulted in a p nasty knee injury which meant she had to take ‘time off’ but she’s too stubborn to listen to her doctors so she pushes herself and takes painkillers to ease the pain. (lowkey addicted by now)

:))

𝓪𝓼 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝔀𝓬𝓼 !! 𝓲 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓪 𝓹𝓪𝓰𝓮 HERE 𝓫𝓾𝓽 𝓲𝓯 𝓪𝓷𝔂𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝓱𝓪𝓼 𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓲𝓭𝓮𝓪𝓼 𝓸𝓻 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽𝓼 𝓽𝓸 𝓫𝓻𝓪𝓲𝓷𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓻𝓶 𝓲’𝓶 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓲𝓽 !

#luxorintro #tw: drugs #tw: injury

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anthropolos · 6 years ago

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Feminist Anthropology Guide

I created this syllabus for a class last year. It isn’t doing any good in my drive, so I figured if anyone is interested in learning feminist anthropology (and archaeology / bio ant) on their own - given that many departments do not teach it - this can serve as a valuable resource. Enjoy!

WEEK 1 – EARLY WOMEN IN ANTHROPOLOGY

This week is designed to introduce students to how women’s perspectives became a topic of inquiry in the 1970s and 1980s. Week one explicitly includes readings where key women in anthropology called out male bias in the discipline.

Lamphere, Louise. 2004. “Unofficial Histories: A Vision of Anthropology from the Margins.” American Anthropologist 106 (1): 126-39.

Spender, Dale. 1982. “Putting it in Perspective: Margaret Mead (1901-1978).” In Women of Ideas and what Men Have Done to Them: From Aphra Behn to Adrienne Rich, 716-9. New York: Routledge.

Walker, Alice. 1979. “Looking for Zora.” In I Love Myself When I am Laughing: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader, edited by Alice Walker, 297-312. New York: The Feminist Press.

Recommended for Professor: Read the introduction, "Zora Neale Hurston: A Woman Half in Shadow,” by Mary Helen Washington in the Zora Neale Hurston Reader, p. 1-19. This gives a comprehensive background of her life and work for lecture during week one.

Slocum, Sally. 1975. “Woman the Gatherer: Male Bias in Anthropology.” In Towards an Anthropology of Women, edited by Rayna R. Reiter, 36-50. New York: Monthly Review Press.

This week’s learning objectives and outcomes:

Women were typically not included in ethnographic studies, with the idea being that men’s perspectives captured the whole truths of a culture.

Who we consider today to be accomplished women who helped shape the beginning of the discipline, such as Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Zora Neale Hurston, were women who were not given recognition while they were alive, and were denied elevated positions in universities and tenure.

There are more women in anthropology than just Mead, Benedict, and Hurston; anthropology is a field dominated by unrecognized, uncited, and disregarded women.

Men, who received much notoriety in anthropology, had very male-centric points of view on culture and the ‘natural’ subordination of women cross-culturally.

This week should show students how anthropology is still male-centric, and how it came to be that anthropologists study women. Students should also get an idea of the histories of important women figures in anthropology.

WEEK 2 – FEMINIST ANTHROPOLOGY

Week two introduces students to how feminist methodology was reconciled with traditional methods in anthropology and ethnography. Each reading for week two discusses the ways that anthropology and ethnography can recognize and incorporate feminist methodology.

Abu-Lughod, Lila. 1990. “Can There be a Feminist Ethnography?” Women & Performance 5 (1): 7-27.

Stacey, Judith. 1988. “Can There be a Feminist Ethnography?” Women’s Studies International Forum 11 (1): 21-7.

Behar, Ruth. 1995. “Introduction.” In Women Writing Culture, edited by Ruth Behar and Deborah A. Gordon, 1-23. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Davis, Dána-Ain, and Christa Craven. 2016. “How Does One Do Feminist Ethnography?” In Feminist Ethnography: Thinking Through Methodologies, Challenges, and Possibilities, 75-98. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

This week’s learning objectives and outcomes:

Address the tension between feminism and its principles and anthropology’s main method of data collection: ethnography.

Overview how feminist anthropology went from incorporating women into studies to more serious feminist concerns of objectivity, self/Other imbalance, and abuse of power.

Students should get an idea of how feminist anthropology is an oxymoron from Abu-Lughod's (1990) and Stacey's (1988) readings. Students should read Behar's (1995) introduction because it outlines how feminist anthropology became what it is today. Finally, Davis and Craven's (2016) chapter gives an overview of how feminists approach ethnographic methods and theories. Their chapter also gives students examples from other famous feminist anthropologists as examples.

WEEK 3 – DOING FEMINIST ETHNOGRAPHY

Week three includes examples of works in anthropology and ethnography that utilize a feminist methodology. Each reading is representative of the way feminist principles and approaches have been used in the discipline.

Lewin, Ellen. 1995. “Writing Lesbian Ethnography.” In Women Writing Culture, edited by Ruth Behar and Deborah A. Gordon, 322-38. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Nader, Laura. 1972. “Up the Anthropologist – Perspectives Gained from Studying Up.” In Reinventing Anthropology, edited by Dell Hymes, 285-311. New York: Pantheon Books.

Kincaid, Jamaica. 1991. “On Seeing England for the First Time.” Transition 51: 32-40.

McClaurin, Irma. 2001. “Theorizing a Black Feminist Self in Anthropology: Toward an Autoethnographic Approach.” In Black Feminist Anthropology: Theory, Politics, Praxis, and Poetics, edited by Irma McClaurin, 49-76. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

This week’s learning objectives and outcomes:

There are many different ways that feminist anthropologists have tried to modify the ethnographic method to accommodate for feminist principles.

Students should be asked to think about whether Kincaid’s (1991) ethnographic vignette, Nader’s (1972) methods of studying up, Lewin’s (1995) lesbian ethnography, or McClaurin’s (2001) autoethnography could be considered feminist ethnography. Are they hitting at the core issues addressed by Stacey (1988) and Abu-Lughod (1990)?

Students should learn that there are other ways of doing ethnography than traditional, male-centric, objectifying methods typically taught in anthropology classrooms.

WEEK 4 –FEMINIST ANTHROPOLOGY OUTSIDE OF CULTURE

The readings for week four are meant to introduce students to the ways that feminist methodologies have been utilized across sub-disciplines. They are a reinforcement of what feminist principles/methodologies are, and how they can be adopted outside of social science research.

Kakaliouras, Ann. 2006. “Toward a (More) Feminist Pedagogy in Biological Anthropology: Ethnographic Reflections and Classroom Strategies.” In Feminist Anthropology: Past, Present, and Future, edited by Pamela L. Geller and Miranda K. Stockett, 143-55. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Wekker, Gloria. 2006. “’What’s Identity Got to Do with It?’: Rethinking Identity in Light of the Mati Work in Suriname.” In Feminist Anthropology: A Reader, edited by Ellen Lewin, 435-48. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.

Wylie, Alison. 2007. “Doing Archaeology as a Feminist: Introduction.” Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 14: 209-16.

Dowson, Thomas. 2006. “Archaeologists, Feminists, and Queers: Sexual Politics in the Construction of the Past.” In Feminist Anthropology: Past, Present, and Future, edited by Pamela L. Geller and Miranda K. Stockett, 89-102. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

This week’s learning objectives and outcomes:

Feminism is a theory, a lens, a way of seeing the world that is applicable to more than just cultural anthropology.

Each student in the class can leave the unit knowing how feminism has been used to address their field of study. Such as:

Biological or physical anthropology students should see the ways that constructions of gender, race, and sexuality impact our interpretation of human biology. They should also get an idea as to the ethical concerns with analyzing indigenous remains.

Archaeology students should foremost recognize that cultural theories surrounding issues of patriarchy and gender have ramifications in their work. Like biological and cultural anthropology students, archaeology students should question the ethics of their work with indigenous remains and artifacts.

Sociolinguistic anthropology students should get an idea as to how local concepts surrounding gender, race, and sexuality impact language.

Projects

Unit Project/Assignment Option #1:

Have students read the blog posts cited here:

Watt, Elizabeth. 2018. “Why #MeToo is Complicated for Female Anthropologists.” The Familiar Strange, March 1. Retrieved from https://thefamiliarstrange.com/2018/03/01/why-metoo-is-complicated/

Hernandez, Carla. 2018. “Queer in the Field.” Queer Archaeology, February 21. Retrieved from https://queerarchaeology.com/2018/02/21/queer-in-the-field/

The first post talks about the sexual harassment and abuse women anthropologists face when they do field work, and how this impacts their view of the contemporary #MeToo movement. The second post talks about being a queer woman archaeologist in the field and facing both sexism and heterosexism. Have students read these blog posts and either write a short response paper, work together in groups, or present their standpoints to the class. These options depend on how much class time can be given to student presentations.

Unit Project/Assignment Option #2:

Students should write a short response paper based on their subdiscipline. Cultural anthropology students can decide whether feminist ethnography is possible, while sociolinguistic, archaeology, and biological anthropology students reflect on whether their methods can be feminist. This can be required on the final day of the unit, after students have an opportunity to read week four’s readings on feminist approaches in other subdisciplines. This can also be an opportunity for students to begin working on their undergraduate theses and write about how their thesis can accommodate for feminist principles. This can be informal and short, or a part of their final project for the course.

If unit could be extended, or if professor is seeking other readings to swap out or to offer to students for optional reading, incorporate the following pieces:

Abu-Lughod, Lila. 2000. “Locating Ethnography.” Ethnography 1 (2): 261-7.

Abu-Lughod, Lila. 2002. “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others.” American Anthropologist 104 (3): 783-90.

Conkey, Margaret, and Janet Spector. 1984. “Archaeology and the Study of Gender.” Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 7: 1-38.

Jones, Stacey Holman, and Tony E. Adams. 2010. “Autoethnography is a Queer Method.” In Queer Methods and Methodologies: Intersecting Queer Theories and Social Science Research, edited by Catherine J. Nash and Kath Browne, 195-214. New York: Routledge.

Kus, Susan. 2006. “In the Midst of the Moving Waters: Material, Metaphor, and Feminist Archaeology.” In Feminist Anthropology: Past, Present, and Future, edited by Pamela L. Geller and Miranda K. Stockett, 105-14. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Lewin, Ellen. 2002. “Another Unhappy Marriage? Feminist Anthropology and Lesbian/Gay Studies.” In Out in Theory: The Emergence of Lesbian and Gay Anthropology, edited by Ellen Lewin and William L. Leap, 110-27. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Lewin, Ellen. 2006. “Introduction.” In Feminist Anthropology: A Reader, edited by Ellen Lewin, 1-38. Malden: Blackwell Publishing. Only pages 18-26.

Newton, Esther. 1996. “My Best Informant’s Dress: The Erotic Equation in Fieldwork.” In Out in the Field: Reflections of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists, edited by Ellen Lewin and William L. Leap, 212-35. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Ortner, Sherry B. 1974. “Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?” In Woman, Culture, and Society, edited by Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere, 68-87. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Rodriguez, Cheryl. 2001. “A Homegirl Goes Home: Black Feminism and the Lure of Native Anthropology.” In Black Feminist Anthropology: Theory, Politics, Praxis, and Poetics, edited by Irma McClaurin, 233-55.

Rosaldo, Michelle Zimbalist. 1974. “Woman, Culture, and Society: A Theoretical Overview.” In Woman, Culture and Society, edited by Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere 17-42. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Rubin, Gayle. 1975. “The Traffic of Women: Notes on the Political Economy of Sex.” In Toward an Anthropology of Women, edited by Rayna R. Reiter, 157-210. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Syllabi sources that served as inspiration for authors to include:

http://www.anthropology.ua.edu/cultures/cultures.php?culture=Feminist%20Anthropology

https://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/soan/assets/SA_226_W13_Feldman_Savelsberg_syllabus__3_.pdf

https://anthropology.washington.edu/courses/2015/autumn/anth/353/a

http://home.wlu.edu/~goluboffs/275_2009.html

https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/files/mKWooKqSsg

http://anthro.rutgers.edu/downloads/undergraduate/236-378obrien2007/file

http://queeranthro.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/SexGender.pdf

#feminist anthropology #anthropology #archaeology #biological anthropology #physical anthropology #cultural anthropology #culture #feminism #reading list #reading suggestions

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gonnashakeit · 6 years ago

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Get to know me tag

I was tagged by: @swift-and-styles 💕

Rules: Tag 20 people & tell us about yourself

Name: Britt

Zodiac: Cancer

Height: 5′3

Languages: English

Nationality: Australian!

Fruit: Watermelon and Mango

Scent: Elie Saab (idk which one i can’t remember)

Colour: Black

Coffee, Tea or Hot Chocolate: COFFEE

Fictional Characters: Étienne St.Clair / Monica Geller / Jake Peralta

Dream trip: All of europe and america

Blog creation: Lmao like March 2011???

Last Seen Movie: Megan Leavey and sobbed the whole way (11/10 would recommend)

Songs on repeat: Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap, Dancing’s not a crime - P!ATD and basically the entire greatest showman track forever

Candy: sour worms!!!

Random Fact 1: I’m supposed to be studying right now but I’m three wines down and about to fall asleep

Random Fact 2: I am studying a double degree in psychology and public health policy and promotion

Random Fact 3: I am currently watching the vampire diaries and i am so over it but i can’t stop watching

Tagging: @craziers @tswiftyaussie @whonderstruck @in-her-wildest-dreams @iamonlymewhenimwithyou @treachreous @taylorswift (HAHAH PLEASE) @hashbrownswift @creekbedsweturnedup @screamingiminlovewithyou and i can’t thinkof anyone else i am so tipsy but i need to study so bad

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elanaspodstudiosem2 · 2 years ago

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READINGS - Painting, Parapraxes, and Unconscious Intentions by Jeffrey L Geller.

Geller, Jeffrey L. “Painting, Parapraxes, and Unconscious Intentions.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 51, no. 3, July 1993, pp. 377–87.

“Richard Wollheim in Painting as an Art analyzes paintings as parapraxes, near-actions motivated in part by unconscious intentions. His analysis is a variant of intentionalism, whose first principle is that artworks are products of human action. For the purposes of his study, Wollheim defines intentions as “desires, thoughts, beliefs, experiences, emotions, [and] commitments, which cause the artist to paint as he does” (p.19), this opening the door for inquiries into both conscious and unconscious intentions” (Geller 377).

“In his treatment of unconsciously motivated paintings, Wollheim shows that the explanatory poles of painter and painting can be reversed. The painting reveals the painter’s intentions, his analyses show, no less than the painter’s intentions illuminate the painting” (Geller 377).

“Both argue that the painter and the painting are to be understood in tandem, that the two are inseparable from the point of view of art history” (Geller 377).

“Difficulties arise when the spectator is asked to appreciate a work that exceeds the horizon of her experience and imagination” (Geller 378).

“Painters whose works are worth viewing tap into a common ground of shared human experience that facilitates spectatorial appreciation. The common ground shared by spectators, including the painter in her spectatorial capacity, is “human nature”, the universality of which is a resource for communication and a guide to the artist as to the parameters of receptivity” (Geller 378).

“...though it is a matter of decision or convention what is the specific range of elements that the artist appropriates as his repertoire and out of which on any given occasion he makes his selection, underlying this there is a basis in nature to the communication of emotion…” (Qtd in Geller 379).

“The basis in nature is the universal element necessary for successful artistic expression. The criterion the painter used to evaluate his work in this regard is his own spectatorial response to the painting” (Geller 379).

“Instead of celebrating and “autonomous” creativity that places virtually impossible demands on spectators (since the mental states of artists who have gone out of their way to cultivate alienation are difficult to recapture), Wollheim’s theory celebrates the painter who is skilled at discerning the common ground that makes reception possible” (Geller 379).

“Painting functions on the same principles as language, according to this view, in that both derive their meaning from conventional codes and the interrelations among signifiers rather than from extra-semiotic reality” (Geller 380).

“To explain how the meaning of painting originates outside of an order of linguistic or quasi linguistic signifiers, Wollheim relies heavily on psychoanalysis” (Geller 381).

“To the extent that a painting is motivated by unconscious intentions, it is simultaneously the carrying out and the discovery of the painter’s intentions: it is the disclosure of the intentions behind the painting” (Geller 383).

“The emergence of archaic “sensations of sense” and “sensations of activity,” which in a sense “ground” human knowledge, according to Wollheim, demonstrate the expressive power of the primitive part of the human psyche” (Geller 383).

“When unconscious mental contents are expressed, it is important that they express themselves. Bearing this consideration in mind, it is clear that the painter needn’t and shouldn’t concern herself with the degree of match between her unconscious intentions and her painting. Such concern would only obstruct the expression of these very intentions” (Geller 385).

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orbemnews · 4 years ago

Link

Psychiatry Confronts Its Racist Past, and Tries to Make Amends Dr. Benjamin Rush, the 18th-century doctor who is often called the “father” of American psychiatry, held the racist belief that Black skin was the result of a mild form of leprosy. He called the condition “negritude.” His onetime apprentice, Dr. Samuel Cartwright, spread the falsehood throughout the antebellum South that enslaved people who experienced an unyielding desire to be free were in the grip of a mental illness he called “drapetomania,” or “the disease causing Negroes to run away.” In the late 20th century, psychiatry’s rank and file became a receptive audience for drug makers who were willing to tap into racist fears about urban crime and social unrest. (“Assaultive and belligerent?” read an ad that featured a Black man with a raised fist that appeared in the “Archives of General Psychiatry” in 1974. “Cooperation often begins with Haldol.”) Now the American Psychiatric Association, which featured Rush’s image on its logo until 2015, is confronting that painful history and trying to make amends. In January, the 176-year-old group issued its first-ever apology for its racist past. Acknowledging “appalling past actions” on the part of the profession, its governing board committed the association to “identifying, understanding, and rectifying our past injustices,” and pledged to institute “anti-racist practices” aimed at ending the inequities of the past in care, research, education and leadership. This weekend, the A.P.A. is devoting its annual meeting to the theme of equity. Over the course of the three-day virtual gathering of as many as 10,000 participants, the group will present the results of its yearlong effort to educate its 37,000 mostly white members about the psychologically toxic effects of racism, both in their profession and in the lives of their patients. Dr. Jeffrey Geller, the A.P.A.’s outgoing president, made that effort the signature project of his one-year term of office. “This is really historic,” he said in a recent interview. “We’ve laid a foundation for what should be long-term efforts and long-term change.” Dr. Cheryl Wills, a psychiatrist who chaired a task force exploring structural racism in psychiatry, said the group’s work could prove life-changing for a new generation of Black psychiatrists who will enter the profession with a much greater chance of knowing that they are valued and seen. She recalled the isolation she experienced in her own early years in medicine, and the difficulty she has had in finding other Black psychiatrists to whom she can refer patients. “It’s an opportunity of a lifetime,” she said. “In psychiatry, just like any other profession, it needs to start at the top,” she said of her hope for change. “Looking at our own backyard before we can look elsewhere.” For critics, however, the A.P.A.’s apology and task force amount to a long-overdue, but still insufficient, attempt at playing catch-up. They point out that the American Medical Association issued an apology in 2008 for its more than 100-year history of having “actively reinforced or passively accepted racial inequalities and the exclusion of African-American physicians.” “They’re taking these tiny, superficial, palatable steps,” said Dr. Danielle Hairston, a task force member who is also president of the A.P.A.’s Black caucus and the psychiatry residency training director at Howard University College of Medicine. “People will be OK with saying that we need more mentors; people will be OK with saying that we’re going to do these town halls,” she continued. “That’s an initial step, but as far as real work, the A.P.A has a long way to go.” The question for the organization — with its layers of bureaucracy, widely varied constituencies and heavy institutional tradition — is how to get there. Critics operating both inside and outside the A.P.A. say that it still must overcome high hurdles to truly address its issues around racial equity — including its diagnostic biases, the enduring lack of Black psychiatrists and a payment structure that tends to exclude people who can’t afford to pay out of pocket for services. “All these procedural structures that are in place are helping to perpetuate the system and keep the system functioning the way it was designed to function,” said Dr. Ruth Shim, the director of cultural psychiatry and professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of California, Davis, who left the A.P.A. in frustration last summer. They all add up, she said, to “an existential crisis in psychiatry.” A racist history White psychiatrists have pathologized Black behavior for hundreds of years, wrapping up racist beliefs in the mantle of scientific certainty and even big data. The A.P.A. was first called the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, according to Dr. Geller, who last summer published an account of psychiatry’s history of structural racism. The group came into being in the wake of the 1840 federal census, which included a new demographic category, “insane and idiotic.” The results were interpreted by pro-slavery politicians and sympathetic social scientists to find a considerably higher rate of mental illness among Black people in the Northern states than among those in the South. In the decades following Reconstruction, prominent psychiatrists used words like “primitive” and “savage” to make the cruelly racist claim that Black Americans were unfit for the challenges of life as independent, fully enfranchised citizens. T.O. Powell, superintendent of the infamous State Lunatic Asylum in Milledgeville, Ga., and president of the American Medico-Psychological Association (the precursor to the A.P.A.), went so far as to outrageously state in 1897 that before the Civil War, “there were comparatively speaking, few Negro lunatics. Following their sudden emancipation their number of insane began to multiply.” Psychiatry continued to pathologize — and sometimes demonize — African-Americans, with the result that, by the 1970s, the diagnosis of psychosis was handed out so often that the profession was essentially “turning schizophrenia into a Black man’s disorder of aggression and agitation,” said Dr. Hairston, a contributor to the 2019 book, “Racism and Psychiatry.” Since then, numerous studies have shown that an almost all-white profession’s lack of attunement to Black expressions of emotion — and its frequent conflation of distress with anger — have led to an under-diagnosis of major depression, particularly in Black men, and an overreliance upon the use of antipsychotic medications. Black patients are less likely than white patients to receive appropriate medication for their depression, according to a 2008 report published in “Psychiatric Services.” Fixing the problem To change course, and serve Black patients better, organized psychiatry is going to need to make a higher priority of training doctors to really listen, said Dr. Dionne Hart, a Minneapolis psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist and an adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. “We checked a lot of boxes publicly,” she said in an interview. “Now we have to do the work. We have to show we’re committed to undoing the harm and working with all of our colleagues from all over the country to recognize trauma and acknowledge trauma where it exists and get people appropriate treatment.” Psychiatrists lean liberal, and many say that people with mental illness are a marginalized and underserved group. In 1973, the A.P.A. made history by removing “homosexuality” as a psychiatric diagnosis from the second edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. But the kind of soul searching that occurred around that decision has taken much longer with race. Psychiatry today remains a strikingly white field where only 10.4 percent of practitioners come from historically underrepresented minority groups, who now make up nearly 33 percent of the U.S. population, according to a 2020 study published in “Academic Psychiatry.” That study found that in 2013, Black Americans were only 4.4 percent of practicing psychiatrists. The discipline’s history of pathologizing Black people — to “regard Black communities as seething cauldrons of psychopathology,” as three reform-minded authors put it in 1970 in the American Journal of Psychiatry — has deterred some Black medical students from entering the profession. “Some people in my family, even now won’t say that I’m a psychiatrist,” Dr. Hairston noted. “A family member told me on my match day that she was disappointed that I had matched to psychiatry and not another specialty — it seemed like I was letting the family down.” The difficulty in finding a Black psychiatrist can put a damper on the willingness of Black patients to seek treatment. And psychiatric help is also strikingly inaccessible for patients without money. Psychiatry is an outlier among other medical specialties for the extent to which its practitioners choose not to participate in public or private health insurance programs. In 2019, a study by the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission found that psychiatrists were the least likely medical providers to accept any type of health insurance: Just 62 percent were accepting new patients with either commercial plans or Medicare, while an even more anemic 36 percent were accepting new patients using Medicaid. In contrast, across all providers, 90 percent reported accepting new patients with private insurance, 85 percent said they accepted those with Medicare and 71 percent were willing to see Medicaid patients. Many psychiatrists say they do not participate in health insurance because the reimbursement rates are too low. A 2019 study showed that, nationwide, reimbursement rates for primary care physicians were almost 24 percent higher than for mental health practitioners — including psychiatrists. In 11 states, that gap widened to more than 50 percent. The A.P.A.’s advocacy in this particular area of equity has focused on pushing for full insurer compliance with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, a 2008 law that requires health insurance plans that provide mental health care coverage to do so at a level comparable to what they provide for physical health care. While the profession hopes for higher reimbursement rates, the gap that affects patients, in the short term, is inequitable access to treatment. “The thing that’s always bothered me the most in the practice of psychiatry is, you can talk about your commitment to things like equity, but if you have a system where a lot of people can’t get access, so many patients are cut off from access to quality care,” said Dr. Damon Tweedy, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University and the author of “Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine.” “What are our values?” said Dr. Tweedy, who sees patients at the Durham Veterans Affairs Health Care System. “We might say one thing, but our actions suggest another.” Source link Orbem News #Amends #confronts #Psychiatry #racist

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skycmontgomery · 7 years ago

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SCREECHES at the top of my lungs as i barge onto the dash w my second chara. hlo. clears throat. it is i.....nai. i wnt ramble on too long bc u already kno me so! u know the drill like this or hmu for plots and u can find more abt skye underneath the cut. OH and p.s. here’s her pinterest board so u can get an idea of her Vibe

( lily collins / cis-female / she/her ). skye montgomery is a twenty two year old undergrad student studying art history. they are known for being charismatic and ambitious, but also being manipulative and domineering. it didn’t take long before everyone started to call them the sovereign. ( ooc: nai/ 21/ gmt/ she/her) she’s also!! the undergrad president of sigma epsilon chi, an attacker in women’s lacrosse, member of the student government and undergrad member of the elites social club

ok SO this is a rly old chara of mine tht i honestly lov to death. a true icon of her time.... tht im reviving from the great beyond

in terms of inspirations she’s loosely inspired by: blair waldorf, bree van de kamp, selina meyer, kathryn merteuil, lucille bluth and monica geller. honestly jst....a whole bunch of ppl tbh. all u rly need to kno is she thinks shes queen of the world n most of the time ppl treat her like it

her mum is HIDEOUS like jst... the most critical woman ull ever meet. whatever skye does isn’t good enough for her n no matter how hard she tries she never ever ever gets her approval. it’s probably most of the reason why she feels the need to try n b the best at everything bc she’s hoping somehow it’ll make her mum love her bt NEWS FLASH, LADIES! she won’t

their family is v v v wealthy. her mum’s an old money socialite / did a few campaigns way back when n her father is the heir to a rly wealthy real estate business tht caters all kinds of million dollar mansions to the stars. any old hollywood starlet w a big house u can almost guarantee skye’s dad/grandfather’s real estate company were the name on the transaction documents

grew up on the upper east side, v much living in that gossip girl culture where the kids all grow up way too fast n think they kno everything

skye was always.... p ruthless to say the least. she’ll do anything to get what she wants / to climb to the top of the social chain n she’s made herself a throne there p much since high school now

she was at the movies w her best friend indiana one time n she saw her dad getting into a car w a strange woman she’d never seen before. she ended up telling her mum n being like who the FACK was that n her mum said it ws nothing bt skye heard her crying later tht night locked in the bathroom. basically her father’s just....a completely chauvinistic pig tht has multiple affairs n her mum pretends not to notice / know anything abt it n drinks to cope w the heartbreak over it

bc of this skye pretty much.... hates romance. like she jst thinks love is disgusting n awful n destroys a person n tries to avoid it at all costs

she also!! had like a 3 yr long relationship w a guy called ethan kingsley who ended up cheating on her w one of her minions n it was just a whole Mess so she just. HATES men even tho she still loves them it’s all very Complex

models sporadically!!! listen. i kno lily is small irl but for the sake of Letting Me Live i’m saying she’s kind of taller so it makes sense bc models can b 5′6 smallest bt anyway. she’s done some runway work n tends to do that in fw season bt she predominantly does campaigns when she can schedule them in between schoolwork and other commitments (she has a rly full plate what with presidential duties n student government n women’s lacrosse)

she struggles w bulimia altho it only rly flairs up in times of extreme stress. she kind of has it under control fr the time being bt it’s never been something she’s been able to be rid of for good. she’s currently discharged from her treatment program for it n fingers crossed itll stay that way bc she lowkey Hates therapy n just... being vulnerable w anyone never mind a complete stranger

ull always catch her wearing some form of prada or balenciaga piece. she luvs her designer clothes n is a true Heaux for fashion. also adores red / dark red / plum lipstick n wears it like it’s war paint

ummmmMmmmmMMMM honestly i. cld go on forever bt ill save u reading it all.

in terms of connections!!!!! skye is the sort to hav.... like... not Minions per say bt i mean.... looks at the camera. minions. theyre mre jst. friends she bosses around a lot. id also like the connection of her ex bf!! obviously names r interchangeable n he doesnt hav to b called ethan kingsley or w.e bt basically he just ended up cheating on her n he was p big into coke n their relationship just.... went from something rly sweet to something rly Not. for other plots honestly just... anything u name it friends enemies i want it all go Wildt

#bu:intro #ed tw #eating disorder tw #alcoholism tw #on...her mums behalf #i think thts it for skye bt if i missed any lmk!

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morethanmylife93 · 7 years ago

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I was tagged by this little sunshine @rafaelsolanoes ... I am going to answer as clearly as possible ( and with only one answer :P )

1) Who is one fictional character (from any media) who you relate to on a deep personal and visceral level?

- Well the first one is always the hardest so here we go: I f I may make a combination of three characters cause I have traits from all of them... First I think I have some of Rebekah Mikaelson bc I too believe in love ( any kind of love ) and that no matter how many times you get disappointed you always have to try and find it no matter the form of it ( family, romantic, friendly ). Then it’s Amy Santiago cause she is such a big nerd and a dork like me which I looooove so much. And last one is Monica Geller simply bc we share so many OCDs such as cleaning and organizing our space with such detail ( lol ) but no srsl she is one of the very first tv characters I ever loved so yeah.

2) What does friendship mean to you?

Friendship is probably one of the most valued things in my life... I once read a very beautiful quote about friendship ‘’Friends are the siblings ( family if you want to say ) that we get to choose’’. This bond is one of the few ones that we probably cannot live without. The people we choose to make friends are the ones that we usually want to share important things of our life so it surely is very important.

3) Do you have siblings? If yes, are you close? If not, do you wish that you do?

- Yep, I have an older brother who constantly teases me :p whenever he angers me to the point where i want to bang his head with a bat he always does a funny face or says something ridiculous and I end up laughing my heart out... Yeah he is a pain but whatever I laugh at him.

4) What is one thing that you’d love to study and have a career if money were a non-issue?

- One of them would definitely be cultural development throughout the centuries ( how the human kind went from just hunting in order to survive to creating major cities and archeological buildings without this generation’s tools ) and the other one is probably the history of art ( meaning ancient greeks/egyptians to modern day paintings ).

5) What was the last book you read that resonated with you on a deeply personal level?

- It is probably the one that I am about to start reading called ‘’Askitiki’’ by the amazing Kazantzakis in which he raises questions about life/death/love/kindness and stuff like that... The best thing is that he puts these questions in such a simple and approachable way that any of us can sit and read it ( i know it bc I have already read a few chapters of it ).

6) Speaking of books, favorite genre?

- YA with mystery and supernatural in it such as Cassandra Clare’s books <3.

7) Who is your favorite painter?

- I will have to say Boticelli bc his paintings are heavenly masterpieces and Vincent Van Gogh bc even though his condition he managed to find an escape in painting thus giving us an insight to his mind and world.

8) What would *you* spend ten million dollars on?

- Easy one: First I’d buy a nice home for me and another one for my parents. Then I’d use a major part of it for traveling around the world and doing fun activities ( free fall, scuba diving etc ), another part in studying whatever the hell I wanted, buying things that I find interesting or beautiful without having to think about it twice, probably invest too...

9) Do you believe in an afterlife? If so, what does that look like for you?

- This may sound funny to some but hell yeah I believe in an afterlife simply bc we cannot possibly do all the things that we want in one. There will always be obstacles whether they are financial/social or personal so we all need another chance in making them real. Personally, I think that in my afterlife I will probably be spending my life either locked up in a university’s library studying my a$$ off or in a constant roadtrip exploring the world.

10) What is an unforgivable flaw to you? What would a person do that would make you completely erase them from your life?

- Treating me or other people in a crappy way. When someone doesn’t appreciate you and the traits that you have then that’s it for me. Don’t take anything or anyone for granted show them how much you care for them...be kind.

11) Is there an objective reality outside of our subjectivity?

- I think so yeah... reality is like a mirror: the further away you go from it the more you can see.

My questions:

1) If you could re-live a moment of your life which would it be and why?

2) What is the craziest thing that you want to do but you can’t bc of the money?

3) What do you like about your country?

4) If you could live in a different era which would it be?

5) Best quote you’ve heard/read/seen in a movie?

6) A movie that you didn’t like and thought it was a waste of time watching it?

7) What is the tv show you’d like to live in?

8) Has a friend/family member made you watch something and then became a big fan of it?

9) Perfect idea of summer vacation?

10) If you had an hour to talk with a famous person which one would be?

I am tagging: @queenkatofhell @robbmadden @meliorn @there-are-wolves-in-my-head @outofcoffee @icebluecyanide @ksjmygjhsknjpjmkthjjk

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abstractpainters · 5 years ago

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American abstract painter @david.stephen.johnson.art . . "Red Over Black" Acrylic and Oil On Canvas 84" x 108 " . . Bio David Stephen Johnson (b. Pittsburgh, 1949) is an abstract painter based in Connecticut. He was awarded a scholarship to college as a star quarterback, playing for South Dakota State, and later earned his BA in Business Administration at the University of Minnesota, Carlton School of Business. He lived in Chicago in the 1970s and shared a studio space with a sculptor at the Chicago Art Institute. He fostered his love for art while developing a series of paintings for his first show at Riverside Gallery. While raising his family, he continued a successful career in advertising between Miami and New York for the prestigious agency Lord, Geller, Federico, Einstein. He embraced his self-taught path in painting, building a deliberately unpublished body of work studying color and shape, partly influenced by post-war abstract expressionists. His natural athleticism and grace led him toward the great action painters. In 2017 he retired from the business to pursue his passion for painting. He joined The Silvermine Art Center in Connecticut, a prestigious institute for the arts created in 1908 by the sculptor Solon Borglum. Since then, he has participated in several juried shows, expanding his work to large-scale canvases. In 2019 he had his first solo show at Southport Galleries, CT and debuted at Miami Basel Art Week at Spectrum Art Fair, invited by ArtBlend Gallery. In September 2020 David will have a solo show at Pop'tArt Gallery in Westport, and October will see his participation in ArtExpo Show at Pier 94 in Manhattan. . . . #abstractpainters #abstractexpressionism #abstractogram #abstractobsession #abstractpainter #abstractpainting #abstractart #abstracto #abstraction #contemporaryartist #contemporaryart #modern #modernartist #painter #artoftheday #artnews #artcollector #artist #art #abstractartist #canvas #artwatchers #painting #artwork #artistsoninstagram #artgallery #gallery #canvas #americanartist #americanart https://www.instagram.com/p/CAqSR95nGOz/?igshid=v6f88xaiu92r

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bk-lostintranslation · 5 years ago

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ESSAY: The Law vs. Justice - A Troubling Dichotomy

"...Depictions of policemen – and recently, policewomen – as flawed but essentially courageous figures whose blatant disregard of rules should be forgiven because they care too much, fails to address a grim history of due process abuses by burying them beneath the facile premise of action-packed hijinks or zany comedy.”

In text or film, police stories run parallel to a mosaic of much-loved tropes and familiar cinematics: the steely-eyed officer staring down the barrel of a gun as he confronts the perp; the ubiquitous car-chase through a glittering metropolitan mise-en-scéne to the counterpoint of screeching tires and wild jazz; the athletic detective pursuing the antagonist through an urban maze of rooftops and stairwells, guns blazing and adrenaline pumping; the hard-edged police duo pummeling a snitch to a bloody pulp in a trash-strewn alleyway until he confesses to the information they're after. Genres switch from comedy to drama; protagonists evolve from stoic sleuths with a spotless badge and an unswerving mission to wisecracking cynics whose broken moral compass belies a heart of gold. Yet, as key figures in a discursive construction of culture, each character is elevated to near-sacrosanct levels of heroism for one reason: he will unflinchingly use violence to achieve his ends – not because he disregards the law, but because he has taken it upon himself to uphold justice. The dichotomy between the two, while incontestably age-old, is remarkable because the idea that one is an obstacle to achieving the other is a recurrent theme in law enforcement fiction – and because it appears to at once enable and ennoble police violence.

A cursory glance toward contemporary entertainment reveals how saturated it is with alternately gripping or poignant portrayals of the police – be they crime dramas, infotainment or film. Yet, when perusing a majority of these media-created depictions, it is also essential to note the dark skein of violence that runs through the narrative, framed as a necessity to maintain control within a gritty backdrop of urban decay (Deflem, 2010). From television shows like Law & Order, CSI Miami, The Wire and Chicago PD, which feature hard-nosed protagonists roughing up their suspects as par for the course, to critically-acclaimed films such as The French Connection (1971), Dirty Harry (1971), and Die Hard (1988), which showcase the ideal cop as a trigger-happy maverick willing to flout both institutional and legal safeguards to catch their perp, to more recent buddy-cop comedies such as The Heat (2013), where the quirky, would-be feminist twist attempts to call attention away from flagrant police abuses, there is a pervasive message that police brutality and misconduct are the panacea to clean up a city seething with crime.

The execution of this concept is certainly exciting from a storytelling standpoint. After all, there are countless instances where the law is stymied by historical framing, its message and purview a product of its times. Neither ironclad nor teleological, laws evolve according to their own methodology, not in smooth sequences but in messy, haphazard, often incoherent increments that reflect the protean nature of society itself (Hutchinson, 2005). However, the diegesis of law vs. justice becomes fraught with complications when it is used repeatedly to promulgate fictional constructs as truth – to frame violence as the only means to fight fire with fire, with the hero cop acting in the best interests of the underdog, against antagonists who will ultimately and most deservedly be trounced in a simplistic narrative arc of Good versus Evil (Geller, 1997; Jacobson, Picart & Greek, 2017). Unfortunately, what these formulas tend to overlook – either due to disingenuity or pure carelessness – is how they function as propaganda pieces for institutions already entangled in civil rights violations. More to the point, their depictions of policemen – and recently, policewomen – as flawed but essentially courageous figures whose blatant disregard of rules should be forgiven because they care too much, fails to address a grim history of due process abuses by burying them beneath the facile premise of action-packed hijinks or zany comedy.

To be sure, crime dramas have been a popular staple of entertainment for decades. In their work, Media and Crime in the U.S, criminologists Yvonne Jewkes and Travis Linnemann remark that crime films are "arguably the most enduring of all cinematic genres..." and that their attraction is rooted in the fact that they "reassure us that criminal behaviors can be explained and serious offenses can be solved. They offer immutable definitions of 'the crime problem' and guide our emotional responses to it" (2017, p. 173). But beyond the comforts of catharsis and closure, these films provide an intimate view into worlds that exist as ciphers to the general public. Research has repeatedly shown that viewers glean knowledge of law enforcement not from direct interaction with said entities, but from mass media consumption (Surette, 1998; Skogan, 1981; Mawby, 2003). While public opinions of policemen are, on the whole, encouragingly positive (Huang and Vaughn, 1996), it is imperative to ask ourselves whether these opinions are factual or colored by the glamour and gloss of mediated representations. In their work, Media Consumption and Public Attitudes toward Crime and Justice, Kenneth Dowler and Valerie Zawilski note that,

Presentations of police are often over-dramatized and romanticized by fictional television crime dramas while the news media portray the police as heroic, professional crime fighters. In television crime dramas, the majority of crimes are solved and criminal suspects are successfully apprehended. Similarly, news accounts tend to exaggerate the proportion of offenses that result in arrest which projects an image that police are more effective than official statistics demonstrate. The favorable view of policing is partly a consequence of police’s public relations strategy. Reporting of proactive police activity creates an image of the police as effective and efficient investigators of crime (2007, p. 3).

Of course, it would be simplistic to claim that all audiences imbibe and interpret media-constructed images of police in the same fashion. As Yvonne Jewkes remarks in the work Captured by the Media, "people are not blank slates who approach a television programme without any preexisting opinions, prejudices or resources" (2013, p. 145; Kitzinger, 2004). However, it is equally impossible to believe that these sources do not feed social constructions of law and order in its myriad forms. Indeed, the media's portraits of crime and justice are often pivotal in influencing both policy and day-to-day events. A large body of research devoted to the relationship between public attitudes and criminal justice policy has shown that representations of crime news catalyze public pressure toward harsher policing and more punitive sentencing. Additionally, a close appraisal of police-related television shows and films yields disturbing trends. Not only is there an overblown emphasis on offender-based violence, i.e. murder, rape, and robbery, but the offenders themselves are portrayed as cunning to an almost, if not outright, psychopathic degree. They can play the criminal justice system like a fiddle, and can run circles around the average police officer, whose by-the-book approach only leaves him/her mired in red-tape and frustratingly stultified by Internal Affairs. Instead, it is up to a tenacious few, with the guts and grit to transcend these bureaucratic impositions, to dispense justice towards offenders (Barille, 1984; Surette, 1998).

Given that the ontological divide between fiction and fact can often risk becoming disquietingly blurred, the study of sensationalist fiction's influence on criminal justice policy becomes doubly relevant (Potter & Kappeller, 2006). An example can be taken from 24, a hugely-popular Fox Network series that ran from 2001 to 2008. The show followed the exploits of counterterroist Jack Bauer, a resourceful anti-hero willing to resort to everything from mass property destruction to torture in order to save the American public. Bauer's legacy survived well beyond the screen, to the point where he was cited by the late Supreme Court Justice, Anton Scalia, as pertinent to constitutional jurisprudence and the use of torture: "Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles. ... He saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?" The fact that Bauer does not exist is beside the point; rather, it is the durable imprint his heroics left on the minds of the audience. For them, the thrilling, nick-of-time rescues and terrorist intrigues exemplified by 24 were not escapist fantasies, but a dire reflection of the national state of affairs (Lattman, 2006, p. 1).

Similarly, Clint Eastwood's wild card, Harry Callahan, immortalized by the 70s cult classic Dirty Harry, is portrayed as a ruthless but ultimately effective cop whose willingness to bend – or break – the rules guarantees fast results. What makes the film particularly noteworthy is its scathing criticism of the perceived hurdles beset upon law enforcement via the enactment of the Miranda warning in 1966, in addition to would-be obstacles such as the Exclusionary Rule. Whether or not the film's legal research is rooted in accuracy is, again, beside the point: its true premise is to question whether a system that gives precedence to the rights of offenders over victims is even worth upholding. In the film's closing scene, Harry, having broken the law by shooting the rampaging sniper, Scorpio, tosses his police badge into the water – an act as politically charged as it is defiant. Through Harry, not only is the upheaval of the period's political climate reflected, but the passions of the viewers enacted (Leitch, 2007). Indeed, the Dirty Harry Syndrome – also known as Noble Cause Corruption – is a term coined by the film, although the phenomenon understandably predates it. Jack R. Greene describes it as when "police are tempted to use illegal means to obtain justice... [even though] police ethicists and lawmakers hold that any gains that might be achieved by illegal means are not worth the miscarriages of justice and negative precedents that might result" (2006, p. 601). However, the film's enduring popularity is testament as much to its directorial finesse as to the resonance of its underlying message: that in order for justice to prevail, pragmatic vigilantism is preferable to the impractical hurdle of upholding civil rights. Like his modern predecessor, Jack Bauer, Harry Callahan's actions serve to anchor him within a timeless cultural bricolage: the everyman's avenger who occupies the liminal space between saint and rebel for his steadfast pursuit of justice.

In his work Encoding & Decoding in the Television Discourse, renowned cultural theorist Stuart Hall coined the term 'Circuit of Communication' to argue that, despite the assumption of meaning as a static agent, it is in fact a socially structured process that can either edify or delimit us through its visual language and representation (1973). Indeed, the meaning of any medium can be considered a sociopolitical and cultural discourse with its own style, syntax, structure and vocabulary – all of it pivoting on the audience as both the 'receiver of the message, and the 'source.' With that in mind, police films and dramas do not exist in a vacuum, but are in fact embedded in contingent social realities, many of which serve largely to either reflect or perpetuate specific modes of thought and conduct. One need only trace the complex evolution of law enforcement on-screen to observe how they establish specific notions of law vs. justice, good vs. evil, order vs. disorder, within a specific sociopolitical milieu.

For instance, the earliest film noir classics such as Double Indemnity (1936) were pivotal in bringing to life the postwar disenchantment and murky morality of the era, while touching upon gender politics, social mores, and their shocking subversions. Similarly, the besieged and troubled characters of Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) served almost as widgets fulfilling a critique on sexual politics and mass surveillance. The late 1960s relaunch of the genre-defining radio and television series Dragnet (1949-70) was designed to tout the impressive intricacies of LAPD procedurals, in an age characterized by anti-police sentiment and the infamous Watts Riots.

Later, the Nixonian legacy of the War on Drugs, and its subsequent Reaganite expansion, saw the rise of such Cop Booster classics as 48 Hours (1982) and Lethal Weapon (1989). More recent films such as Crash (2005), while attempting to touch thoughtfully upon racial tensions in the melting pot of LA, quickly became entangled in undercurrents of misogynoir and color-blindness by suggesting that the officer who committed digital rape on a black woman was redeemed by later saving her from a car crash, and by asserting superficial equality with the idealistic message that everyone across the racial spectrum has problems, while conveniently denying the reality of systemic racism in a white power structure (Hobson, 2008; Lott, 2006). Even the latest blockbuster, The Heat (2013), which aimed to subvert gender roles in law enforcement, unfortunately tripped over its own message by becoming not a paean to feminism but a stale, formulaic buddy-cop cliché that equated female empowerment with the same reckless disregard and gross misconduct vis-à-vis its male-centric counterparts.

At nearly every point, cop films and dramas appear to be a means to either challenge or embellish institutional authority. Yet no matter their superficial advancements, very few focus on the realities of police-work, such as preventive and proactive strategies, much less on efforts at rapport-building – or lack thereof – within the community they protect. Fewer still address blatant acts of police violence and misconduct not as effective tools, but as risky perpetuations of Hobbesian logic where good must vanquish evil by any means necessary.

However, it is imperative to understand how this rigid binarization circumvents meaningful and nuanced dialogue. By resorting to cursory labels that pit one 'side' against the other – and, indeed, create sides at all – it is dangerously easy to frame entire groups of people, policies, and phenomenon as irrational threats that can only be eradicated by extralegal and increasingly ruthless means (Parenti, 2003). Certainly, recent history has seen the expansion of law enforcement as justification to eradicate a 'newer, deadlier' breed of enemies beyond the scope of conventional legality. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, for instance, former President George W Bush denounced the tragedy as "a new kind of evil" that had to be fought "in the shadows." Constitutional safeguards therefore had to be set aside out of necessity, in order to protect the greater good. The outcome would lead to two wars, increasing governmental opacity, the establishment of the Patriot Act, mass domestic surveillance, and the unspoken sanctioning of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' on terror suspects (Graham, 2004; Nakashima, 2007; Purdum, 2001, p. 1).

While national security – internal and external – is certainly of prime importance, it is necessary to understand the risks of being engulfed and acclimatized to an atmosphere of terror, through which the media derive profit, politicians push insidious agendas, and financial systems subjugate and surveil public activities. Furthermore, into this commodification and mass consumption of terror, recent trends towards more egregiously aggressive cop shows, and the expansion of police power they reflect, deserve critical focus. In his book, The Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces, Radley Balko remarks that, "No one made a decision to militarize the police in America. The change has come slowly, the result of a generation of politicians and public officials fanning and exploiting public fears by declaring war on abstractions like crime, drug use, and terrorism. The resulting policies have made those war metaphors increasingly real" (2014, p. 42).

To decry the media as the sole instigator of fear-mongering would, of course, be unfair. But nor can it be denied that the media in all its forms plays a pivotal role in reinforcing the black-and-white paradigm of law vs. justice, with the heroes willing to achieve their goals at any cost, be it torture or deception (Rafter, 2006). While such narrative designs can be compellingly escapist and entertaining, they run the risk of becoming so entrenched into the social fabric and psyche as to seem factual. A no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners approach to law enforcement would seem ideal for convicting the indisputably guilty – but the fact of the matter is that the deliberate disregard of procedural law will only undermine the liberty interests of the innocent. Films and television shows that continue to push this agenda merely misrepresent police misconduct as a legitimate validator of heroism, and therefore of goodness. The protagonist is elevated to near-sacrosanct levels for one reason: he will unflinchingly use violence to achieve his ends – not because he disregards the law, but because he has taken it upon himself to uphold justice. Yet regarding the two as mutually exclusive is not only pandering to teleological delusion, but masking the reality of a deeply flawed justice system by redefining criminality as the darkest shade of evil, and police misconduct as the only means to take it down.

References

Balko, R. (2014). Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces. Perseus Books Group.

Barille, L. (1984). “Television and Attitudes About Crime: Do Heavy Views Distort Criminality and Support Retributive Justice?” In Ray Surette (ed.) Justice and the Media: Issues and Research. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas.

Deflem, M. (2010). Popular Culture, Crime and Social Control. Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Iii. doi:10.1108/s1521-6136(2010)0000014019

Dowler, K., & Zawilski, V. (2007). Public perceptions of police misconduct and discrimination: Examining the impact of media consumption. Journal of Criminal Justice, 35(2), 193-203. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2007.01.006

Geller, W. A., & Toch, H. (1997). Police violence: understanding and controlling police abuse of force. Choice Reviews Online, 34(08). doi:10.5860/choice.34-4799

Grahan, B (2004). As an issue, war is risky for both sides. Washington Post. Available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1575-2004Oct1.html. Accessed on September 21.

Greene, J. R. (2006). Encyclopedia of Police Science. doi:10.4324/9780203943175

Hall, S. (1973). Encoding and decoding in the television discourse. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.

Hobson, J. (2008) Digital Whiteness, Primitive Blackness. Feminist Media Studies, 2 (8), 111-126. doi: 10.1080/00220380801980467

Huang, Wilson W.S. & Michael S. Vaughn. (1996). “Support and Confidence: Favorable Attitudes Toward the Police Correlates of Attitudes Toward the Police.” In T.J. Flanagan and D.R. Longmire (eds) Americans View Crime and Justice: A National Public OpinionSurvey. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.

Hutchinson, A. C. (2005). Evolution and the common law. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Jewkes, Y., & Linnemann, T. (2017). Media and crime in the U.S. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

King, N., Picart, C. S., Jacobsen, M. H., & Greek, C. (2017). Framing Law and Crime: An Interdisciplinary Anthology. Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 46(5), 586-587. doi:10.1177/0094306117725085ff

Kitzinger, J. (2004). Framing abuse: media influence and public understanding of sexual violence against children. London: Pluto Pr.

Lattman, P. (2007). Justice Scalia hearts Jack Bauer. Wall Street Journal. Available at http://blogs/wsj.com/law/2007/06/20/justice-scalia-hearts-jack-bauer/. Accessed on September 21, 2017.

Leitch, T. (2007). Crime films. New York: Cambridge University Press.

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