#to like. living centuries later and seeing the social progress of acceptance and celebration of the queer community

[hawkfuller]

modern day loustat will get to live their love in the open now wtf they'll have seen two complete opposite eras of acceptance for queer couples together

[in-flagrante]

Michelle Dockery reveals ‘responsibility’ of taking Downton Abbey to Hollywood

By Richard Aldhous | August 28, 2019

MiNFOOD exclusive: ‘Never go back’, they say. And yet, in the case of Michelle Dockery, as a fan first and an actress second, the yearning to unveil the next chapter of the Downton Abbey narrative was simply too great to resist.

For five years from 2010, television drama Downton Abbey ascended, almost imperiously, to the point of attaining cult status, as did its characters.

Perhaps it was the mystery, the intrigue, perhaps just the accessibility, or maybe, quite simply, in the social and economic climates of chaos that have enveloped us over the course of the past decade, we all just needed a generous dose of wild escapism.

Whatever the reason, a global fanbase was able to witness actress Michelle Dockery’s whirlwind elevation from British TV also-ran to arguably the ultimate doyenne of period drama dynamism.

‘A responsibility’ to return

Returning feels strange for Michelle Dockery, who admits she had already spent a large amount of time grieving Downton’s passing.

“When we completed filming at Highclere Castle after the final series the sadness swept over me,” she admits.

“It was profound. It really felt like we were giving the house back to the owners and it was the final time we would ever get to enjoy it. It was an emotional ride but I suppose we always hoped there might be something more.

“When the offer to do it again came along it still wasn’t something I could just accept straight away,” she admits.

“Yet I very quickly I realised that, In many ways, I am a fan of Downton as well as a character in it. It’s down to all of us to keep things moving and to see where the story goes next, and that’s a pretty big responsibility to have.”

Already, it seems clear Downton’s rebirth won’t just stop at an elongated version of the TV series. Even before press interviews for the new movie, creator Julian Fellowes let slip that a sequel was already in the offing. “I haven’t killed off half the cast in a Coronation Street-style crash, so a follow-up is a definite possibility,” he admitted.

Downton Abbey is back – what to expect

What we know of the new movie is that the aristocratic Crawley family find themselves reuniting with their downstairs staff when the Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) is told George V and Queen Mary will be visiting.

It’s 1927 and the house has been forced to tighten its purse strings, but former head butler Charles Carson returns to reassemble familiar faces, ensuring the iconic home’s hosting duties are undertaken impeccably.

Filming took the form of 143 scenes across 50 days, with Dockery – as Lady Jane (later Talbot) – and creator Julian Fellowes both admitting in interviews that the passing of time made it difficult to readily bring together a considerable cast, many of whom had progressed on to new projects in different corners of the world.

They needn’t have worried.

Despite many having tried to pigeon-hole Downton’s appeal, it is one of those dramas that just works, and it draws people in, just as it did right the way back to its refreshingly accessible debut series in 2010.

While period dramas and British television go hand-in-hand, Highclere Castle’s ability to shift further into the realms of intrigue, betrayal and lust saw its popularity soar way

Downton Abbey lives on

And it is that ability to shake up the period drama concept that is ultimately what has forged its success.

In its TV version it used soap opera actors in serious drama, enveloped fast-paced storylines with longer-running ‘slow burners’, and even embraced an advert-interrupted Sunday night broadcast slot.

All of these were moves staunchly against the typically sluggish BBC fayre that had dragged this genre across British screens for decades.

As a concept, it proved that modern producers could cast drama of any subject to a thirsty audience if the presentation and delivery was strong.

And while top-ranking celebrity fans of the ilk of Julianne Moore, Tom Ford and Gary Oldham have all clamoured over Downton’s beauty, so too has its accessibility crossed over as many varying social classes as you’d find present at Highclere Castle itself.

“I worked with Julianne on Non-Stop and every time I came on set she was tapping me up for information,” Dockery laughs. “I have always been in such awe of Julianne, and for her to be a fan of the show, it was just brilliant.

“Gary Oldman was another one. It was at an event in New York and I was standing there with Laura Carmichael and he strode over and just launched into how much he loved the show. That was amazing.

“I was blind-sided too by Tom Ford, before I even got to tell him how much I loved his clothes! He was like, ‘Great work on Downton!’ I know, as a proud actress, you’re meant to just brush these things off, but there are times when you just have to take the praise and be glad of it.”

While as a TV entity, it was felt in 2015 that Downton had run its course, the way American audiences embraced the concept fuelled the prospect of a film version, and in Tinseltown reality is never far behind concept.

Downton: A global love affair

Consider as well the clamour to get access to The Exhibition. Its opening in New York followed Singapore’s lead, and while the recreation of Downton sets, from Lady Mary’s bedroom to Mr Carson’s pantry to the servants’ quarter provided an incentive to visit, what people were paying to see essentially amounted to a museum of early 20th century stately home artefacts. Regardless, the touring showcase proved hugely popular. Its next stop was Florida and this year it arrived in Boston.

“I think when America fell in love with Downton, that’s when we realised just how big the whole thing had become,” the 37-year-old actress admits. “You can’t really get any bigger than that, so much so that The Exhibition almost felt like it was at home even though it was several thousand miles away.”

Taking on the big screen

Downton now joins an exclusive list of TV dramas that have been reinvented in film.

From Sex and the City to Charlie’s Angels, Miami Vice to Mission: Impossible, The Addams Family to South Park, the opportunity very often proves itself worthy of outweighing the risk.

In this instance, Dockery believes the movie’s success will come down to scriptwriting expertise, just as it did its TV predecessor. “Unless you have something totally solid in script and in plot, you have nothing.

“Julian Fellowes is such a remarkable scribe who can give 23 different characters full-bodied, soulful profound funny storylines – it is all testament to his talent. He’s extraordinary.”

What Downton ultimately offers audiences is a connection to the past and a place at the top table of old-fashioned England, at a time when so much of what we know now was being created, from the Industrial Revolution, post-Edwardian sensibilities and the gradual blurring of social class boundaries.

“I think people are comforted by it,” she says. “They love the nostalgia for the show, the period… a time when life seemed much simpler, and it’s probably the last time it was like that. People back then just got on with it and went about their lives in relatively straightforward ways. Perhaps there was a lot to be said for that, after all.

“What Downton offers to its audience is a really solid outer shell of society, but delve inside and people will tell you they watch it for this character or that… they watch it for Maggie’s one-liners, they watch it for the costumes. It’s whatever everyone feels.

“Almost right from the start, Downton struck a chord with people and we would never have expected it. It was a wonderful opportunity to do the show, and the movie gives me exactly the same great feeling.”

While Lily James and Sue Johnston appear to have missed out, Dockery’s involvement in the project was absolutely pivotal – and the lure of Downton was irresistible, despite the negative publicity that can accompany actors winding back the clock to revive past glories.

“It is an amazing thing to be a part of but it doesn’t define us entirely, just as other seminal dramas and films don’t exclusively define other actors and actresses. It’s not something I worry about – though I appreciate the hesitation some feel towards going back to an old project.

“I am comfortable because I have done a lot of work outside of period dramas, from TV to stage productions, so I am clear of my motives and incentives.”

By the same token, Dockery, who almost quit in 2013, never especially sought out roles since the cessation of the TV series, instead taking time away from major projects.

She admits there was a sense of freedom, but she missed the security. “With Downton, you knew you had something to do every year, and losing that was a little terrifying… I’m a working actor, after all,” she laughs. 

Perhaps it was more the tragic, untimely passing of her fiancé John Dineen in December 2015 that left her with an inherent yearning to re-centre.

Her work schedule was rebuilt via a sensational portrayal of Diana Christiansen in Network, in London’s West End, and for a long time that was commitment enough.

“Through everything though, I don’t think that there was a day that went by where someone didn’t ask if there was going to be a film of the TV series made.

“To get this movie made means, for a short time at least, the questions will stop!”

https://www.mindfood.com/article/michelle-dockery-reveals-responsibility-of-taking-downton-abbey-to-hollywood/

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Marina Abramovic in Belgrade

Jasmina Tesanovic:

I have always liked Marina Abramovic, from her earliest works to the latest ones.

   Many who knew her in the legendary early years of bitter struggle now resent her grand fame and success. They consider her commercialized, cosmopolitan, a celebrity artist recycling proven successes, but they're all wrong.  This is mere snob activity.

  It's possible to be the cliched, true artist who is permanently poor, pure, and out of touch with the entire material world, but art snobs never notice or praise these people.  They're too busy attacking Marina for not being like that.  Oscar Wilde used to point out that snobs are a useful motor of society, propelling the fame machine by loudly including, excluding, over-praising and denouncing.  Women artists might even get snobbishly confined to small pedestals and defined as muses rather than real artists.

  But snobs will always lack Marina's creativity and painful brilliance.  I appreciate Marina’s direct and sharp attitude towards fame, glory, wealth, the female body and universal death.   She confronts complex issues directly, in the world as it is, instead of accepting trends at face value.  Her work will be noticed, disciples will follow her, but by that time she will already be elsewhere.

    The grandma of performance art, as she calls herself, will soon be playing Maria Callas, the diva of opera, in her most famous death scenes. At Maria's age, and with the portfolio and life-histories of Marina-and-Maria, I feel sure that is not only the best way, but the only way.  Marina Abramovic and Yoko Ono are my role models for female living artists who have transcended the many threats of fame and glory, and prevailed over suffering.

    So, Marina is returning to Belgrade

In September, after 45 years of exile, like a much-condemned heretic witch finally accepted as a goddess. At long last, a proper, large-scale show in the museum of modern art on the Danube, with a welcome from plenty of celebrities, friends and of course politicians.  Naturally her long-time local foes and critics will be there to wave national flags.

   This show will be a performance in and of itself: life is art and art is life, the conceptualist credo.  In this case, a kind of Warhol ghost of the art-is-life of the former Yugoslavia, the Belgrade of Marina's youth, that  underground stage like an art-factory, neglected, obscure, weird, where three artists performed for an audience of two, and all recording was forbidden... This show will have the melancholy grandeur of the last volume of Proust's memoirs of lost time.

      Will these artists recognize others, see themselves after the wars, the gossip, the death of a nation, of a lost social order?  Will they have the courage to say hello and goodbye to their past?

We will see!

      I will be there, watching from the second row, while Marina will perform the story of her life, as she always does. When I last met her in Torino Italy, she offered a deeply sentimental speech which ended in tears, about her artistic credo.  She said: I believe in telepathy, not in technology. Today she is doing some tech art, so I wonder how things have progressed with the telepathy.  I am willing to trust her instinct even when she is wrong! Creatives are never exact, they are just daring.

    In her recent public "Letter to Serbia,” the cover story for a local magazine, she says: I worked and lived in Belgrade for 29 years. I was coming back only to visit family. My last personal show here was 45 years ago. Now almost half a century later, I want to show, especially to the new generations, what I did all these years. And I want them to understand through my work how important it is to risk, how important it is to have seen the big picture and to have big dreams, notwithstanding everything.

    In that public letter, she speaks about the importance of failed projects in order to find the path as an artist, about the need not to abandon the impossible. (I was already making a list of favorite projects that "failed," the second-prize winners of shows that I curated.  How often, with time, the second-prize reveals itself to be more prescient, more forward-looking and inventive, than the first prize that seemed such a clear winner).

   Marina talks about her luck in discovering early on that performance is her way through art, either once, for a small public, or, today with an attentive worldwide audience. Especially, long performances can have the transformative energy of life itself. Performance is a living art, not a recording, like video or text.  A performance can be re-enacted by other people, but they will be living it, not creating the artwork.

    Marina says if she paid attention to what was written about her all these years, she would never have left her room.  At age sixty, though, she proved that all she needs is a room, along with a couple of chairs.  That was the famous performance "The Artist is Here" at the Museum of Modern Art, where she sat in a room and registered her presence, eye to eye, with her public. For days on end that other chair was never empty.

The Marina Abramovic show in Belgrade will be her biggest retrospective ever, and she is close to a popular sensation in contemporary Serbia.   After decades of studiously pretending that she didn't exist and had no significance, everybody knows and quotes her name, from politicians to the handyman. She and Novak Djokovic are the queen and king of the updated Serbian national image.

   This art and sports mania may have an unhealthy air of Serbian royalty above the common unwashed herd, but I think we should embrace good news about Serbian culture, when it occurs.  The Museum of Modern Art on the Danube has been a decaying ruin for years, but is recently re-opened as a beautiful space and place.  So why not enjoy the Marina Olympics?  

    I happen to be a Serbian expatriate myself, the notorious activist and artist of a wretched Balkan country beset with too much history, but I can cheerfully admit that Marina Abramovic is global art-world royalty, and even Novak Djokovic can really whack a tennis ball. Who knows what the next, still-nameless Marina Abramovic is doing right now in her overlooked niche-space, somewhere in the cracks of the walls of our 21st century? In Belgrade a street artist can be a fairy queen, and only from  the outskirts one can see the center. Only from a distance one can hit the target.

https://boingboing.net/2019/09/06/marina-abramovic-in-belgrade.html

[shakespearesglobeblog]

Shame. 

George Nichols is the Assistant Director for Edward II and After Edward. He is writing a blog series about the processes and ideas in these two plays.

Edward II, written by Christopher Marlowe will be directed by Nick Bagnall. After Edward, a contemporary response to Marlowe's piece was written by Tom Stuart and will be directed by Brendan O'Hea. Tom will play Edward in both productions. The cast will be the same for both plays.

‘You can marry, you can adopt, you can say you’re gay in the workplace, but what about the things we haven’t had to time to deal with? The insidious things like shame that affect us silently every day?’

It’s the first week of rehearsals for After Edward, a production that will be performed in tandem with Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. After Edward is a new play, written by Tom Stuart (who will be playing Edward) and featuring a cast that will run across both productions. We’re talking a lot about the relationship between Tom’s play and Marlowe’s and what unites them across a void of 400 years and what makes them so important for audiences today.

Some background. Edward II, the central character of Marlowe’s play, has a same-sex romantic relationship with, among others, Piers Gaveston. It’s an amazing play, not least for what it tells about gender and sexuality in the Renaissance period in which the play was written, and the earlier 14th century when the play was set. A big question we’re grappling with this week is what connects the experiences of Edward II, Marlowe and a gay man living in the modern era?

Each of these different periods has a vastly different perspective on gender and sexuality (something we’ll cover in the next blog) and so each of these people will have had a vastly different experience. In fact, in the era the play was written people weren’t labeled because of the acts they committed; all people were considered capable of all things and so an act didn’t define an individual. Yet one thing that remains true across the last 700 years is that at no point has the preference for same-sex relationships been a societal norm. Whether homosexuality has been accepted, tolerated, persecuted or hidden the society we live in has primarily been designed with white heterosexual men in mind.

The effect that living up to a hetero-normative ideal has on the individual that doesn’t fit is something that resonates throughout these plays. That effect is, among other things, shame.

We’re fortunate that our company is made up of people with different personal perspectives on gender and sexuality. At some point though, we can all attest to having felt shame of some kind at being unable to live up to an ideal that is thrust upon us.

Despite the progress that can be said to have been made in the 21st century, for the plethora of people who do not identify with heterosexual ‘norms’ it can be impossible to see oneself in the surrounding cultural and social environment. Just think of something like the couplings on Strictly Come Dancing or the way the sex education in schools is almost entirely based around the heterosexual experience. Not seeing yourself in the world can have the impact of making you feel that the life you want to live is not only abnormal but wrong.

Later in the week, we talk to Dr. Will Tosh from the Globe’s Research Department about how some productions eschew the homosexuality within Edward II entirely and make Gaveston and Edward’s relationship platonic. We agree this is a shame. One of the great connections we have found with both Edward II and After Edward is how important they both are for allowing people to see themselves in the culture around them. As one of the company says, with regards to their first reading of After Edward: ‘I wish I had seen this play when I was growing up’.

Tom began this week by telling us a story of him standing in Berkley Castle, where Edward II was executed, and looking around and thinking ‘this is where it happened, this is where he was, he would have seen this light and felt this darkness’. In After Edward, the characters often come back to the idea that they are just one part of a long and never-ending line; from the pornographic petroglyphs unearthed by archaeologists to Edward II himself. In the modern world, we live in it is important that these lives and stories are shared and celebrated, and that we make the world a place where no one feels shame for who they are or the life they lead. It’s essential that this belief is a guiding principle of the work we create and the culture we share.

[snarkywrites]

Restructuring Through Chaos to Find Empathy

As most of you might be aware, there is a concentration of planets in the sign of Capricorn. The sign ruled by Saturn forces structure and changes which can make us all feel restricted and it makes us not want to take a leap. Pluto is here as well and this planet focuses on transformation, endings and how we shape new beginnings. Capricorn represents business, government and money. Relating Astrology to current events, we have all seen people in Government being arrested for abuse in power, case in point, Roger Stern’s arrest by the FBI earlier this morning as well as Manafort’s sent to jail.

Saturn in the sign of Capricorn is in it’s full power, it is in it’s domain and it is taking action. With these current events, it serves as a good reminder why we have to watch for karma, especially when Saturn is involved. 2018 taught us all how to reclaim or how to delegate our power. If we work against Saturn, we will be taught one way or another. People fear these transits because they are harsh but it all comes down to accepting the mantle and working with the energies. If we are willing to apologize, to learn and be compassionate, these transits will not be as stressful. Change can begin anyday, all we have to do is get in the mindset and start doing what is right.

At times, we may not be aware of how we deal with power and control, this is why these transits open our eyes as well as a window in our mind or hearts that we have ignored. This is forcing us to see our faults and make a choice as to whether or not we are willing to change. Astrology promotes change, transits promotes growth but we have to learn to be more accepting, to see the harsh realities and work to do good.

We have another round of Saturn to go until it enters the sign of Aquarius. Although Aquarius is ruled by Saturn it will not be as potent and as unforgiving. In Aquarius societal progression is encouraged as well as scientific innovations. After the destruction of Saturn in Capricorn, we will have to renovate our world and restructure our thoughts. A major Saturn in Capricorn influence is the Government Shutdown in the United States. We see how the abuse of power is impacting the lives of many people. There is a tug of war going on in the White House all over money, power and control, all Capricorn/Saturn themes.

Pluto will still remain in Capricorn, shaping and remaking. For Cardinal signs (personal placements) in the third decan, things will intensify for you as you feel the last wave of Pluto before he moves into Aquarius. This has been a much needed transformative phase for Cardinal Signs since you have shed your skin or a version from you in the past and can now look onto the future.

But back to current events, another interesting thing we witnessed that usually has not as many mentions, are the Lunar Node shifts in the signs of Cancer and Capricorn which shifted November 6th, 2018. This week, I’ve seen on Twitter how Huffington Post has let go a lot of their staff on HuffPo Opinion. I also noticed that the ones posting about it were mostly women. This represents the North Node. The Cancer Node is generally defined by Cancerian traits, mothering, nurturing and the Moon. The impact of the January 21st, Lunar Eclipse in the sign of Leo most likely triggered these events several days later since Cancer rules the Moon. However, there have been positive things from the Node shifts as well. We have witnessed women acquiring positions of power, especially in Government. Alexandria Ocasio proving to be a powerhouse and a polarizing figure. Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand both announcing they will be running for the presidency. Even Cardi B. taking in the spotlight by pointing out the issues and inherent problems involving the Government Shutdown. These are all influences of the Node shift in the sign of Cancer, women taking in the spotlight and those in Government forcing for changes to society. This will be interesting to see how it all unravels because we get more information each day.

We are living through a moment of history that will be remembered by many. The events that are occuring may seem like something out of a dystopian fiction or a horror story. What makes it even more astonishing is the influence and power of social media. Not only do we get to see what those in our inner circles think, but we get to understand where certain celebrities stand with these issues since it impact them as well. With the Brexit situation, I noticed J.K. Rowling was very vocal about it. Celebrities post on social media about topics that we never would have gotten to see/read/hear thirty years ago. This also makes me excited for Pluto and Saturn to shift into revolutionary Aquarius. What will hold for the future will be jaw dropping.

It has been fascinating to link Astrology and history to current events. Astrologers have linked the past to the present, how Uranus was last in Taurus during World War 2 (1934-1942) to read more interesting articles on this (Astrologer Anne), follow the link here or listen to Jessica Lanyadoo’s podcast on it here: (Episode 27) to see what she opines on everything for 2019 (she is also pretty damn awesome!). Astrology is a study that is constantly growing, evolving and we can usually utilize it as a tool for referencing. This is a subject that has been around since the ancient times dating back to the 1st Century. To see the impacts of it, you just have to use a free tool, the internet and the library to uncover, compare and learn.

In Numerology the number 3 is associated with 2019 and it gave me a sense of hope. Even Though it might feel chaotic and restricting, I am sure there is a brighter road and a healthier future for us all on the horizon. This all begins with the self and how we can apply current events to our experiences. We need to learn to be better, be more kind and practice it. 2016-2018 have taught me that the world needs compassion and it starts with us. We witnessed the separation of families, the chant for useless wall to promote discord/violence/chaos and it’s all because people in power have lost touch with empathy. But the younger generation fights and many people are more vocal about their outrage, which gives me hope that there will definitely be a better tomorrow for us all.

[arcticdementor]

The college-admissions cheating scandal of 2019 has provided plenty of opportunities for schadenfreude at the expense of the lower-upper class: hangers-on and minor celebrities who needed a bit of lift to get their underachieving children into elite colleges. (The true upper class does not struggle with educational admissions; those are negotiated before birth, and often involve buildings.) The fallout has stoked discussion, internet-wide, about social class in the United States.

…

Is this our society’s biggest issue? Hardly. Rich parents do all sorts of unethical things– often, completely legal ones– to give unfair advantages to their progeny. It has been going on for centuries, and it will likely continue for some time. College admissions fraud is a footnote in that narrative. I am glad to see the laws enforced here, but there are bigger issues in society than this.

Instead, I want to talk about the problem exposed by this scandal. See, it’s not enough for the American rich to have more money than we do, and all the material comforts that follow: bigger houses, speedier cars, golden toilets. They have to be smarter than us, too. But God did a funny thing: when She was handing out talents, she didn’t even in look in the daddies’ bank accounts. So, here we are. We live in a world where people make six- and seven-figure incomes helping teenagers cheat on tests. This isn’t new, either.

As a society, we suffer for this. Having to pretend talentless people from wealthy backgrounds are much more capable than they are, as I’ll argue, has major social costs. It keeps people of genuine ability in obscurity, and it leads to bad decisions that have brought the economy to stagnation. It would be better if we were rid of such ceremony and obligation.

…

I want to talk about “the idle rich”, the aristocratic goofballs who don’t amount to much. They get a bad rap. I don’t know why.

They’re my favorite rich people, to be honest about it.

I don’t much like the guys (and, yes, they’re pretty much all “guys”, because our upper class is not at all progressive) at Davos. They do significant damage to the world. We’d be better off without them. Their neoliberal nightmare, a 21st-century upgrade of colonialism, has produced unwinnable wars, a healthcare system that has exsanguinated the middle class, and an enfeebled, juvenile culture that has lain low what was once the most prosperous nation in human history.

…

I don’t especially want to “eat the rich”. I don’t even care that much about making them less rich (although the things I do want will make them less rich, at least in relative terms, by making others less poor). I want our society to have competent, decent, humane leadership. That’s what I care about. Eradicating poverty is what matters; small differences and social status issues, we can deal with that later.

American society seems to have a time-honored, historic hatred for “idle rich”. Why? It does seem unfair that some people are exempt from the Curse of Adam, often solely because of who their parents were? It’s hard to accept it, that a few people don’t need to work while the rest are thrown into back-breaking toil. From a 17th-century perspective, which is when the so-called puritan work ethic formed, this attitude makes sense. It was better for morale for communities to see their richest doing something productive.

In the 21st century, though, do these attitudes toward work apply?

…

We already afford a minimal basic income to people with disabilities, but most of these people aren’t incapable of work, and plenty of them even want to work. They’re incapable of getting hired. There’s a difference. Furthermore, as the labor market is especially inhospitable to the unskilled and young, it is socially acceptable for people of wealth to remove their progeny from the labor market, for a time, if they invest in education (real or perceived).

…

The second problem with the everyone-even-rich-people-must-work model is that it fails to create any real equality. Let’s be honest about it. “Going to work” is not the same for all social classes. Working-class workers are treated like the machines that will eventually replace them. Middle-class workers have minuscule autonomy but are arguably worse off, since it is the mind that is put into subordination rather than the body. For the rich, though, work is a playground, a wondrous place where they can ask strangers to do things, and those things (no matter how trivial or humiliating) will be done, without complaint. The wizards of medieval myth did not have this much power.

In other words, the idea that we are equalizing society by forcing the offspring of the rich to fly around in corporate jets and give PowerPoint presentations (which their underlings put together) is absurd. It would be better to let them live in luxury while slowly declining into irrelevance. When rich kids work difficult jobs, it’s toward one end: getting even richer, which makes our inequality problem worse.

Third, when we force rich kids to work, they take up most of the good jobs. There are about 225 million working-age adults. Whatever one may think of his own personal brilliance, the truth is that the corporate world has virtually no need for intelligence over IQ 130 (top 2.2%). We could debate, some other time, the differences between 130, 150, 170 and up– whether those distinctions are meaningful, whether they can be measured reliably, and the circumstances (of which there are not many) where truly high intelligence is necessary– but, for corporate work, 130 is more than enough to do any job. I don’t intend to say that no corporate task ever existed that required higher intelligence; it is, however, possible to ascend even the more technical corporate hierarchies with that much or less. So, using our somewhat arbitrary (and probably too high) cutoff of 130, there are still 5 million people who are smart enough to complete any corporate job. For the record, this is not an implication of corporate management’s capability. A manager’s job is to reduce operational risk and uncertainty, and dependence on rare levels of talent is a source of risk.

…

The European aristocrats, to their credit, were content to be rich. Our ruling class has to be smarter than us.

I don’t mind that the corporate executives fly business class and I don’t. I do mind being forced to indulge their belief that their more fortunate social placement is a result of their being (intellectually speaking) what they think they are but are not, that I actually am. That galls me. If these people could admit to their mediocrity and step aside, it’d be better for all of us. The adults could get to work; everyone would win.

[ucflibrary]

Every October UCF celebrates Diversity Week. This year’s dates are October 15 – 19, and the theme is A New Day Dawns. University-wide departments and groups champion the breadth and culture within the UCF community, and work to increase acceptance and inclusion for everyone at UCF and the surrounding communities.

One of the fantastic things about UCF is the wide range of cultures and ethnicities of our students, staff, and faculty. We come from all over. We’re just as proud of where we are from as we are of where we are now and where we will be heading in future.

UCF Libraries will be offering a full slate of Diversity Week activities. To learn about the upcoming events visit: guides.ucf.edu/diversityweek

Join the UCF Libraries as we celebrate diverse voices and subjects with these suggestions. Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the featured UCF Celebrates Diversity titles suggested by UCF Library employees. These 16 books plus many more are also on display on the 2nd (main) floor of the John C. Hitt Library next to the bank of two elevators.

And thank you to every Knight who works to help others feel accepted and included at UCF!

Before We Visit the Goddess by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Sweeping across the twentieth century, from the countryside of Bengal, India, to the streets of Houston, Texas, Before We Visit the Goddess takes readers on an extraordinary journey through the lives of three unforgettable women: Sabitri, Bela, and Tara. As the young daughter of a poor rural baker, Sabitri yearns to get an education, but schooling is impossible on the meager profits from her mother’s sweetshop. When a powerful local woman takes Sabitri under her wing, her generous offer soon proves dangerous after Sabitri makes a single, unforgiveable misstep. Years later, Sabitri’s own daughter, Bela, haunted by her mother’s choices, flees to America with her political refugee lover—but the world she finds is vastly different from her dreams. As the marriage crumbles and Bela decides to forge her own path, she unwittingly teaches her little girl, Tara, indelible lessons about freedom and loyalty that will take a lifetime to unravel. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of race, a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

 Black Protest and the Great Migration: a brief history with documents by Eric Arnesen During World War I, as many as half a million southern African Americans permanently left the South to create new homes and lives in the urban North, and hundreds of thousands more would follow in the 1920s. This dramatic transformation in the lives of many black Americans involved more than geography: the increasingly visible “New Negro” and the intensification of grassroots black activism in the South as well as the North were the manifestations of a new challenge to racial subordination. Eric Arnesen’s unique collection of articles from a variety of northern, southern, black, and white newspapers, magazines, and books explores the “Great Migration,” focusing on the economic, social, and political conditions of the Jim Crow South, the meanings of race in general — and on labor in particular — in the urban North, the grassroots movements of social protest that flourished in the war years, and the postwar “racial counterrevolution.” Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

 Call Me American by Abdi Nor Iftin The incredible true story of a boy living in war-torn Somalia who escapes to America--first by way of the movies; years later, through a miraculous green card. Suggested by Katie Kirwan, Acquisitions & Collections

 Flesh and Bone and Water: a novel by Luiza Sauma In deeply affecting prose, debut novelist Luiza Sauma transports readers to a dramatic place where natural wonder and human desire collide. Cutting across race and class, time and place, from London to Rio to the dense humidity of the Amazon, Flesh and Bone and Water straddles two worlds with haunting meditations on race, sex, and power in a deftly plotted coming-of-age story about the nature of identity, the vicissitudes of memory, and how both can bend to protect us from the truth. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas Funny in Farsi chronicles the American journey of Dumas’s wonderfully engaging family: her engineer father, a sweetly quixotic dreamer who first sought riches on Bowling for Dollars and in Las Vegas, and later lost his job during the Iranian revolution; her elegant mother, who never fully mastered English (nor cared to); her uncle, who combated the effects of American fast food with an army of miraculous American weight-loss gadgets; and Firoozeh herself, who as a girl changed her name to Julie, and who encountered a second wave of culture shock when she met and married a Frenchman, becoming part of a one-couple melting pot. Suggested by Cindy Dancel, Research & Information Services

 Invisible: how young women with serious health issues navigate work, relationships, and the pressure to seem just fine by Michele Lent Hirsch Lent Hirsch weaves her own harrowing experiences together with stories from other women, perspectives from sociologists on structural inequality, and insights from neuroscientists on misogyny in health research. She shows how health issues and disabilities amplify what women in general already confront: warped beauty standards, workplace sexism, worries about romantic partners, and mistrust of their own bodies. By shining a light on this hidden demographic, Lent Hirsch explores the challenges that all women face. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 It All Falls Down by Sheena Kamal The brilliant, fearless, deeply flawed Nora Watts—introduced in the atmospheric thriller The Lost Ones—finds deadly trouble as she searches for the truth about her late father in this immersive thriller that moves from the hazy Canadian Pacific Northwest to the gritty, hollowed streets of Detroit. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

 Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart In 1915, lady cops were not expected to chase down fugitives on the streets of New York City. But Constance Kopp never did what anyone expected. Based on the Kopp sisters’ real-life adventures, Girl Waits with Gun introduced the sensational lives of Constance Kopp and her sisters to an army of enthusiastic readers. This second installment, also ripped from the headlines, takes us farther into the riveting story of a woman who defied expectations, forged her own path, and tackled crime along the way. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

 Not Here by Hieu Minh Nguyen Not Here is a flight plan for escape and a map for navigating home; a queer Vietnamese American body in confrontation with whiteness, trauma, family, and nostalgia; and a big beating heart of a book. Nguyen’s poems ache with loneliness and desire and the giddy terrors of allowing yourself to hope for love, and revel in moments of connection achieved. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

 The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson An uplifting story about two teenagers set in the modern day in the United Kingdom. The author was inspired to write this novel after working in England's national health service, in a department dedicated to helping teens who are questioning their gender identity. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

 The Diversity Index: the alarming truth about diversity in corporate America and what can be done about it by Susan E. Reed Based on award-winning journalist Susan E. Reed's groundbreaking study of Fortune 100 companies, The Diversity Index considers the historical reasons we went wrong, taking a close look at the "Plans for Progress" protocol developed in 1961, which defined the steps of affirmative action. It was initially considered a failure for not providing immediate results. This book analyzes the long-term, wide­spread effectiveness of the plan, and reveals the stories behind the few companies that have made a difference, breaking down the 10 simple steps you can take at your own organization to fully develop integration, keep it growing, and empower your employees to develop new products and markets.  Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

 The Promised Land: the great black migration and how it changed America by Nicholas Lemann A New York Times bestseller, the groundbreaking authoritative history of the migration of African-Americans from the rural South to the urban North. A definitive book on American history, The Promised Land is also essential reading for educators and policymakers at both national and local levels. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

 The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined. But maybe Rose isn't so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) crushing on her is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad’s business. What if taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind? With Maurene Goo's signature warmth and humor, The Way You Make Me Feel is a relatable story of falling in love and finding yourself in the places you’d never thought to look. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

 When They Call You a Terrorist: a black lives matter memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele When They Call You a Terrorist is Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele’s reflection on humanity. It is an empowering account of survival, strength and resilience and a call to action to change the culture that declares innocent Black life expendable. Suggested by Katie Kirwan, Acquisitions & Collections

 White kids: growing up with privilege in a racially divided America by Margaret A. Hagerman Featuring the actual voices of young, affluent white kids and what they think about race, racism, inequality, and privilege, White Kids illuminates how white racial socialization is much more dynamic, complex, and varied than previously recognized. It is a process that stretches beyond white parents’ explicit conversations with their white children and includes not only the choices parents make about neighborhoods, schools, peer groups, extracurricular activities, and media, but also the choices made by the kids themselves. By interviewing kids who are growing up in different racial contexts—from racially segregated to meaningfully integrated and from politically progressive to conservative—this important book documents key differences in the outcomes of white racial socialization across families. And by observing families in their everyday lives, this book explores the extent to which white families, even those with anti-racist intentions, reproduce and reinforce the forms of inequality they say they reject. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

[thesimplyluxuriouslife]

211: How to Stay Relevant in Our Ever-Changing World & Embrace Each Year More than the Last

~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #211

~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate: iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio | YouTube

In America we have the story that ... your sex drive evaporates. ... Nobody wants to sleep with you, but you don't want to sleep with them either. ... And it turns out that that is really much more of a cultural story than a biological story, and ... people's behavior responds to this cultural story. ...

In France there's a slightly different narrative. ... Women in their 50s and 60s in France are much more sexually active than women in America are. So I don't think you can ... snap your fingers and switch cultural narratives. But just knowing that it's not biologically inevitable I think gives you some power over it." —Pamela Druckerman, author of the new book There Are No Grown-Ups: A Midlife Coming-of-Age Story (read the entire NPR interview here)

Over the past four or five years I have taken notice of how women step into each year of their life after forty. Whether women who are in my inner circle or women in the media spotlight, I listen to how they speak about their physical capabilities, their physical beauty, their curiosities, their chapters in life, the roles and careers they wish to stay or become a part of. As someone who is 39 and has truly let my age just be a number, not centering my identity around my age as it is one detail I cannot control (sometimes I forget my age, does that happen to anyone else?), I am intrigued in the shift in what is expected of women by women - and thus society -  as they age through the decades. Because our message to each other has power, and that message in large part tells the world what will be accepted or ignored. As someone bringing up the tail-end of Generation X and partially straddling into the Millennial Generation, I certainly have seen a shift in the knowledge and thus attention to good health when it comes to fitness and well-being as opposed to my grandmother's generation. A tremendous shift in society in the late 20th century brought to our attention what our bodies and minds are truly capable of so long as we care for them well. I think of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her whip-smart, savvy prowess on the Highest Court in the country at the age of 85. I think of Dame Helen Mirren who at the age of 72 continues to playfully immerse herself in her acting career and her life as she explores the world. I think of 52-year old Oscar winning actress Viola Davis and her determination and talent on the big screen and small screen, as well as her physical good health and Sandra Bullock as well as Cate Blanchett and Michelle Obama and Diane Keaton and and and and . . . the list goes on. Each one of these women marries knowledge with curiosity and applies it to their mental as well as physical health. Physical maladies can certainly befall us due to genetics, but there is far more health obstacles that are avoidable so long as we provide ourselves with the information and live in such a way to be preventative. Two situations happened over the past couple of years that found me responding in frustration internally, but saying nothing in the moment. The first was a situation with my own mother and my young pre-teen niece in which my mother said something about what was physically inevitable when you hit "her age". In actuality, what she shared was false, and I later did say something in private to my mom as I am someone who has heard such "untruths" from older women when I was young. I know now that what they shared was their ignorance regarding how the body grows and ages, but I didn't want my niece to have to navigate toward to the truth when the knowledge was readily available. The second situation is an ongoing one as I have a dear friend who refuses to say her age or acknowledge her birthday as her husband told me she is "sensitive about her age". While I respected this wish, I also want her to know how much I want to celebrate her because I think she is absolutely amazing, talented and uber intelligent. The truth is if we as women will let go of identifying ourselves with our age, then half of the world will stop seeing us through the narrow lens of assumption regarding what "should be" happening at a particular point. We all know that with different people, different things happen at different periods of our lives. Case in point, actress Rachel Weisz is pregnant at 48, yet press in the U.K. is fearful it may be nearly too late for Meghan Markle to conceive. Are you kidding me? What we consume or accept as a culture can either limit us or liberate us. What we allow to be accepted because we do not contradict it when we know it is utterly false will continue to be perpetuated. We can either speak up or act in such a way that demonstrates the falsehoods are indeed false. Each of us will choose what is most comfortable for us - speaking or acting, but I implore you to not shrink to fit inside the limiting box that society would have women at any age stay within. Part of the difficulty with staying relevant, man or woman, is staying apprised of the dynamic world we live in. With each year we are layering more information on top of what we already know and in so doing we become acutely aware of how much we still have to learn. It can become overwhelming. It happened this year as a teacher who began teaching at 22 and knew how to relate culturally with the students - the music, the films, the colloquialisms, each far simpler to grasp and understand because I was partially still in their bubble - that I acknowledged and took note that I could be considered two generations removed from my students. While I still understood some of the references made by students, there were cultural allusions that no more my students grasped (the 80s hit sitcom Cheers, for example). While some cult classics are returning and being devoured by teenagers thanks to Netflix and YouTube - FRIENDS, The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross on PBS, etc. - but after listening to different podcasts my students will bring my attention to or music my students will mention in class, I am reminded that we all live and will always live in a dynamic world. And the key is to understand how to remain involved, knowledgable and curious instead of quailing, shrinking or removing ourselves due to fear or confusion or exhaustion.

How to remain a part of the ever-changing world:

1. Build a social network of all ages

One of the benefits of teaching is that there is youth everywhere each and every year. While yes, it's kind of like Groundhog's Day (the film), the benefits far outweigh the negatives as I am reminded that learning is always available if we choose to seize the knowledge and therefore change is perpetually constant. Progress is always possible and staying the same is never a good idea if we wish to reach our full potential. And so why not build friendships, acquaintances, mentor or mentee relationships with individuals of all ages? When we do and do so with an open mind, our perspective is broaden, our understanding deepens and we come to appreciate where we've been, how far we've come or become even more excited about where we are heading.

2. Refrain from ageist comments (younger or older) 

The quickest way to shut-down an opportunity to get to know someone is to make assumptions about what is expected at a certain age. When we do this, instead of seeing the individual and being patient enough to get to know the individual, we are telling them (consciously or unconsciously), who they truly are and who they are capable of becoming is not all that important to us. As well, when we make ageist comments we perpetuate limitations that we ourselves will eventually be subjected to. In other words, we have the power with the words we do or do not utter to change how society views anyone at any age.

3. Master your mind and cultivate a positive mindset

“When it comes to staying young, a mind-lift beats a face-lift any day.” ~Marty Buccella

Providence, St. Joseph Health shares, "Negativity saps vitality and creates stress, which affects your health and well-being." So literally, by being cynical, negative or close-minded, we are exacerbating the aging process and making ourselves physically older unnecessarily.

4. Let go of the word "should"

Whether speaking to others and expressing what you think they "should" be doing or the internal dialogue that runs through your head saying you "should" be doing something in your life at any given point, stop. Nobody wants to hear what they should be doing. Instead inspire others to do something with how you live your life or simply let them navigate their way in their own way.

5. Seek out diverse experiences that stretch you

Whether with the places you travel to, the food you eat, the books you read, the podcasts you listen to or the people you engage with in conversation, let your curiosity be fed. Often the reason individuals regress into what they've known and the "way it has always been" or "when I was younger" constructs and wish to stay there is because they are fearful of the unknown. What they know is comfortable, and we all somewhere along the continuum want comfort. However, too often, when we don't know about a particular culture, a particular way of life that becomes more prevalent in society due to news coverage or a change in economic structure, until we explore, prompts people to make limiting assumptions that shrink our world. The world is big, vast, amazing and from my experience here on the blog and in my own travels meeting people from around the world, the majority of us are seeking contentment, love and peace. This may sound over-simplified, but truly, our general goal is the same, it is a matter of having the courage to keep asking questions, keep making ourselves vulnerable and recognize that we do not have all the answers and respecting all people as they too are trying to figure it out.

How to enjoy each passing year more than the last:

1. Learn something new regularly

“For the unlearned, old age is winter; for the learned, it is the season of the harvest.”   ~Hasidic saying

I have seen the deterioration of one's mind in late age when a particular octogenarian who prided himself on having only read one book in his life gradually sees the quality of his life diminish. Knowledge is power in not only understanding how to live, but in keeping ourselves vibrant and able to engage with the world fully. Studies have recently been shared that regular cognitive challenges - problem-solving, learning a new skills, in other words brain exercises - are good for brain health. It is something we keep alive or by not giving it "homework" passively let wither away. Once we have the knowledge and understand how to continue to acquire it as we move through life, then we can apply it and see the benefits of the efforts we've made - thus the harvest. So keep planting seeds and continue to see your harvest become richer and richer with each passing year.

2. Choose to understand the world

Providing context as to why events happened, why people made the decisions they made and why people reacted as they did deepens not only our understanding of the world but also how to move and live successfully in it so as to live a life we are proud to share with the world as well as reflect upon.  Never settle for one person's version of events, explore, ask questions, pick up a biography of someone else who lived in that time, read a historical account from multiple perspectives and come to understand that the world isn't simple, events aren't a singular cause and effect, but more often a confluence of causes that create the outcome that after some time has passed becomes simplified into a singular soundbite. As well, come to understand the social sciences - psychology and sociology and how people interact with others, how our minds work, how our bodies work regarding hormones, endorphins, adrenaline, etc. Choosing to understand the full human experience paired with the events of the world that led us to where we as a world are today is empowering and can assist us as we figure out how we wish to move forward.

3. Contribute to the world 

In another study, it demonstrated that we must live in such a way that goes beyond giving, or "feeling useful"; we must take action so as to do something that leaves the world better than when we found it. Taking action will be different for each of us, but just giving of our time to help the next generation isn't enough (it's a start). Sometimes taking action will not be comfortable for those around us. Sometimes it will not be comfortable to us as we will have to push ourselves to learn something new, shift our views and understanding about something we had become accustomed to but now we realize we were wrong, misled or misinformed. But when we find a purpose that fuels us, that we truly have a passion for, we will find the fuel to push forward. And in pushing forward, the example we share with the world will potentially alter how society comes to understand what is possible at any given age. 4. Let go of negative stereotypes and stop perpetuating them regardless of your age

“Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.” ~Jackie Joyner-Kersee

A study conducted at Yale revealed that "older adults who held more positive age stereotypes lived 7.5 years longer than their peers who held negative age-related stereotypes". Not only should we shift away from negative age stereotypes we should stop burdening others with these beliefs as well. Whether it is our observation and commentary about strangers on the street, in the store or mere acquaintances, refrain from defaulting to ageist remarks (about those older or younger than you). When we assume, we limit what we are willing to explore as we get to know people, and I am confident none of us would want to be limited.

5. Revel in each year

“The trouble is, when a number—your age—becomes your identity, you’ve given away your power to choose your future.”  ~Richard J. Leider

Right now I am soaking up all that the remainder of my third decade on this glorious planet will share with me. As well, I am excited to enter into my fourth. When we choose to be present in our lives, we create memories that will always be with us. No we cannot go back and relive them literally, but we can in our memories and that is a gift we can take with us for any age we reach down the road. Each year has the opportunity to be your singular definition of what it is to be [pick a number]. And it is important to remember that that is your definition and yours alone. To place it on someone else and expect them to live the same as you is to limit what they may be curious about. On the flip side, embrace what you are curious about each year. Embrace what the universe has given to you in this particular year and drink it up like it was water in the desert. When you revel, you enliven your being and you share with the world your exuberance. That is how we shift age stereotypes.

6. Take the risk

Maybe you've had a dream in your mind for years, but you have never known anyone who took such a risk. At least not anyone in what you perceive to be your "situation". Let go of needed a model to follow. Let go of thinking the dream shall remain a dream and instead take the risk. Do the necessary homework and then give yourself permission to get so absolutely excited about living the life you have dreamed about. Yes, you can live that life. And that will enliven you like you never could have imagined. From time to time I will catch myself pushing back against progress when it finds me quite comfortable with where I am in my life (a state that is not always easy to attain for any one of us as we strive toward goals), and then I poke myself. It is at that moment that I remind myself that progress is good as it demonstrates to all of us that we are alive, the world is alive and has the capability of improving. Even when we think we are comfortable (as I have felt in those moments), we often are limiting what we understand to be possible in the quality of our lives. Often I do think part of the push back to progress is exhaustion (which is why it is imperative to get a regular night's sleep - I kid only slightly). Perhaps not physical, but emotional exhaustion as we have seen and experienced and worked for so much and we don't know if we have the energy to continue to strive, shift and improve like we have in the past. But that is when we need to seek out others who see the world and all of its potential as we do, and then we can find the energy we think has been lost. Thus another reason to build a social network of all ages. The world is greater with more diverse voices, lives and experiences. And with each year of our lives we deepen what we bring to the world so long as we continue to truly live each year we are given. ~SIMILAR POSTS FROM THE ARCHIVES YOU MIGHT ENJOY:

~Learn How to Truly Savor Everyday Moments & Watch It Elevate Your Life, episode #163

~26 Ways to Create the Life You Want

~Why Not . . . Extinguish Self-Doubt?

Petit Plaisir:

~fresh seasonal fruit, in my case most recently - Oregon strawberries

Recipes to try:

A fresh strawberry tart

Strawberry & Rhubarb Tartlet (or tart)

Homemade Ricotta Mousse with fresh strawberries (or your berry of choice)

~SPONSORS of Today’s Episode:

Troos skincare & apothecary – www.troosskin.com

promo code: SIMPLE for 30% off your purchase

Images: TSLL's Instagram

Tune in to the latest episode of The Simple Sophisticate podcast

[pamphletstoinspire]

Padre Pio and Raffaelina Cerase

With Image:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/padre-pio-raffaelina-cerase-harold-baines/?published=t

First Spiritual Child of Padre Pio (Caption for linked image)

Story written by: Marianna Iafelice

Lellina Cerase was born in Foggia, the capital of the Capitanata region in the autumn of 1868 during the office of the very popular conservative mayor Lorenzo Scillitani. Lellina, which is the diminuitive for Raffaelina, was born into a family of southern Italian nobility, typical of her time. Her father Michele, active in local politics, was listed as a landowner in the city's administrative council of 1875.

Up to the age of seven, Lellina was entrusted to an aunt, a nun in a Carmelite monastery that ran a school in the nearby town of Lucera. Here she received her first schooling. Then from the age of 7 to 21 she lived, as she would later tell Padre Pio, in "the world!…blind and deaf and wicked" neglecting her spiritual life, "extremely fond of profane books and novels." In short, out to enjoy life as a woman of her social position could in those times.

However, the little world of Raffaelina's family, like all families, comparing it with the alteration of the seasons, had its good as well as its difficult times.

Difficulties between Raffaelina and her brother Matteo began as soon as her elderly and saintly father, who had always taken care of his children, died at the age of 84. The loss of the most important family member who kept the family together, and the children's inability to come to an agreement over the inheritance was, as so often happens in any age, the cause of the family's breakdown. Squabbles and divisions began in the family that would affect Raffaelina and her sister Giovina deeply. In fact, because of these disagreements the two sisters were forced to leave the family home and to rent a house, which for Raffaelina was a great suffering, because in the eyes of society this was considered to be a disgrace, but even more so because it meant that she was cut off from all those family ties that were for a single woman, at the beginning of the last century, so important. It was in the middle of this family discord that Raffaelina began, thanks to Father Agostino of San Marco in Lamis, her correspondence with Padre Pio, who was living then in Pietrelcina. In fact, Father Agostino had already recommended the Cerase sisters, without naming them, to the holy friar's prayers in June 1913.

Raffaelina would immediately take advantage of this opening given to her by Father Agostino and on 24 March, she sent her first letter to Padre Pio, and so becoming the Capuchin friar's first spiritual child. In these letters that today make up the second volume of Padre Pio's Letters, Raffaelina gives us an insight, almost in diary form, of a woman's conversion. Her writings are inspiring and in fact give one a wonderful and comprehensive glimpse into her spiritual life. Raffaelina was able to transfer to Padre Pio, all her fragility as an unmarried woman living alone, in a time when a woman living alone was something still unacceptable and meant almost a rejection from society.

What the essayist Richard Steele wrote in the 18th century that "a woman is a daughter, a sister, a wife and a mother, a mere appendage of the human race," was still true in southern Italian society in Raffaelina's time.

For Raffaelina the loss of her father had transformed the Cerase home into an empty shell and deprived of the protective walls of her home she suffered greatly. It was because of this that her relationship with her brother Matteo, with whom she had never felt very close, came to an end. Raffaelina was never able, as the normal custom of the time, to accept her brother as the new head of the family. She was never able to see him as a protective figure, something she would find from now on only in Padre Pio's capable and charitable spiritual direction.

Raffaelina in her letters would frequently feel the need, almost physically, to describe her difficult relationship with her family and her nostalgia for a reality that had once existed and wished perhaps in some way to hang on to.

She confided to Padre Pio all her personal inner weaknesses: "I do not know how to pray, I do not know how to recollect myself, I like completely the gift of meditation, of the presence of God," and discovered in him that guide that she had been unable to find.

And Padre Pio, even though very young and sick, was extremely kind to Raffaelina, familiarizing himself with the personal characteristics and circumstances of her soul, a trait, as it has been pointed out before, of his spiritual direction, and presenting to Raffaelina in his letters, the quest for Christian perfection as perhaps the most difficult but nevertheless the most lofty of all goals. And he urged her almost at once to search for Jesus through Our Lady and encouraged her continuously to imitate and follow Mary's example.

Padre Pio, even though he had no previous experience in spiritual direction, knew Raffaelina needed guidance and that he gave her, and also a lot more. In my opinion (Matianna), he deliberately directed Raffaelina to the Mother of God, and held her up to her as an exemplary model for her to follow because she was a woman who was both strong and gentle, but above all a woman who, with the loss of her Son (Jesus), had experienced the greatest loss and suffering possible to a woman, and who had transformed this into life in the most definite and perfect way possible.

The spiritual trials, material hardships, and also illnesses that she experienced later on in her life would become for Raffaelina an agony of love, and it would be her older sister Giovina, the only family member who would remain close to her, who would look after her like a "second mother." Spiritually however, it was Raffaelina who took on the protective role, being to Giovina her discreet counselor and sensitive intimate friend, and always worrying about her poor health and state of soul. Raffaelina's spiritual progress under Padre Pio's guidance, was full of difficulties, doubts, and faltering as well as great misunderstandings, and the Padre would not hesitate to tell her that she was "still a rather capricious daughter and someone unmanageable," and in his letters often told her off severely: "Now, you complain that you went some distance away from your native town to enjoy a little peace and that you didn't find this even outside the four walls of the convent. I sympathize with you, because you are not fully aware of what you are saying. If you mean peace according to your own imagination as worldlings understand it, then you are right. You left Foggia in search of an improvement in your beloved sister's health and unfortunately you did not find it according to your own taste and your own very foolish judgment. The Christian soul looks very differently at God's providence for His creatures."

Raffaelina though, was determined in her search for Christian perfection. She desired with all her heart to "belonged wholly to Jesus," and following the Padre's advice she gave up her modern worldly novels and dedicated her time instead to reading books on the saints. "Help yourself mainly doing this period by reading holy books," the Padre advised during the summer of 1914, when writing to her. "I earnestly desire to see you reading such books at all times, for this reading provides excellent food for the soul and conduces to great progress along the path of perfection, by no means inferior to what we obtain through prayer and holy meditation. In prayer and meditation it is we ourselves who speak to the Lord, while in holy reading it is God who speaks to us."

When on 17 February 1916, Padre Pio came to live in Foggia at the St. Anne friary, the cancer that had been found in Raffaelina, the summer before, had worsened considerably and Padre Pio on 27 February wrote to father Agostino: "the poor invalid is in a very bad way, pray and get others to pray for this poor patient." Padre Pio assisted and visited her every day in her home until her last day in this world, 25 March 1916. The same day, her young spiritual director wrote a letter the Father Agostino telling him the news: "Let us exult in the Lord with tears! This morning at 4 o'clock we gain another intercessor at the throne of the Most High. Raffaelina has finished the course, she has celebrated the nuptials with her divine Spouse. She fell asleep in the Lord with a smile of contempt for this world. Lucky soul! I leave you to imagine what is going on within me. For the past 16 days, since the Lord was pleased to manifest to me and to herself what was to happen this morning. I had been preparing myself for this divine will. I envy her choice and may it please God through the intercession of this elect soul to grant also to me the repose of the just. I am weary of life, dear Father; I detest this world as much as a soul belonging to Jesus can detest sin."

[samanthaviolet]

your final paper

I took a history of american television class in the spring, and after turning in my final paper, my TA emailed me with an email whose subject was “your final paper.” My heart sank as I opened an email that I was sure was going to be bad news, and she said something along the lines of how she was super impressed with it and that if I wanted to get it published, I probably could. 

now, I don’t know how valid that is, nor do I care too much to go into the detail of how to achieve actual, real life publication. But, i do know that I can copy and paste it here, and that throws it out into the world and reaches the potential that Victoria saw in me. 

This one’s for you, Vicki. 

LADIES WHO LAUGH: Exploring Feminist Progress in Saturday Night Live 

“Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” These seven words explode from the mouths of varied celebrities and comedians at 30 Rockefeller Center into the homes of millions across the nation, always at the same time each Saturday night. Saturday Night Live, the late night sketch comedy show created by Lorne Michaels and produced by NBC (commonly referred to as SNL), has been entertaining audiences since its premiere in 1975. With over thirty years of sketches, political commentary, and social spoofs, the show has been a breeding ground for discussions on representations in the world and workplace, specifically with regards to gender. Through an analysis of casting and a variety of show content, this paper will prove Saturday Night Live’s reflection of the women’s movement, effectively portraying women’s changing societal roles during the thirty-two years it has been on the air.

The format and structure of Saturday Night Live has stayed relatively in tact from the first episode to present day. Having a show primarily driven by the cast, beginning with seven members and getting all the way to sixteen by Season 42, an additional celebrity host appears on each episode. The ratio of male to female cast members is fairly close (in fact, they made it a point from the beginning for it to be equal among the genders, even though they have strayed from this ideal in recent years), but the number with regards to the hosts is startling and gives a good insight on which gender mainstream audiences. Over the forty years of SNL, there were 370 men as hosts and only 175 women (Baskin). Women have always been seen as the outcast with regards to entertainment, especially comedy, and this statistic proves that SNL was not doing much to break that. They had to give the people what they wanted in order to keep their ratings up, and instead of using their platform for good, they used their platform to perpetuate the inequality of women in entertainment.

These gender dynamics are not only seen on stage, but in the writer’s room as well. Saturday Night Live organizes the content of its show on a week-by-week basis — pitches happen on Mondays, table reads happen on Wednesdays, and material that worked from these move on to the shows on Saturdays. The weekly process weeded out all the ideas until only the best remained for the live airing on Saturday night. For sketches to proceed to the actual show, they had to be “funny in the room.” The problem is, is that most of the people in the room were men. Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad state in Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live that “a lot of the women writers’ sketches weren’t making it on the air, and the women performers were getting too many secretary and receptionist parts, written by the men” (Murphy). The gender binary was alive and well in the writing room, but of course, it was alive and well in every aspect of professional work, even in the wake of second-wave feminism. This misogynistic environment wasn't actively being worked against, either. Original SNL cast member John Belushi is often cited with his claim that “women aren’t funny.” His stunts to get women off the show included sabotaging table reads and even pressuring executive producer Lorne Michaels. He also refused to appear in the sketches written by women writers (Miller). This attitude toward women existing, as well as being tolerated by network executives, dominated for most of SNL life in the 20th century.

From the beginning of the show, the male-dominated aura of production prevailed. Women, as stated before, were cast as receptionists, nurses, makers of the household, and waitresses. Besides their actual roles on the show, they were also commonly seen solely as the objects of the male cast members. A great example of this is seen in the recurring sketch “The Festrunk Brothers,” featuring SNL greats Dan Aykroyd and Steve Martin. In this sketch from the third season, debuting on September 24, 1977, the duo try to pick up two women played by fellow cast members. The lines they give to the women are outlandish and supposed to garner some laughs, but causes more of a head-turning reaction than they probably intended. After some small talk, they lead into, “You know, you American girls have such big breasts all the time! Well, I guess you must like us by now, so please give us the number of your apartment so we can go up and have sex with you right now.” The antics between the two pairs continue until the end of the sketch (Baskin). Of course, it leaves live audiences and the people at home laughing at the absolute ridiculousness of the interaction. But, why would it be acceptable to be saying that to a woman at all, especially on national television? In a textbook on arts analysis, scholar Mark Fortier defines feminist theory as “profoundly concerned with the cultural representation of women, sometimes as a strictly masculinist fantasy with no relation to real women, sometimes as the appropriation of women and women’s bodies to masculine perspectives” (Fortier 72). This sketch violated both of these ideas by simply having the women in the sketch portrayed as the object of the men’s desires. Until the turn of the century, this is what plagued the women of the highest rated comedic variety show since the inception of television. Women already have the lower hand with regards to their legitimacy on screen (in both television and film), and portraying them in this light does not lend itself to improving this situation.

By 2000, SNL was dealing with some low ratings and trying to keep the show fresh and interesting after 25 years on the air, and to combat this, they began to flip societal expectations. In 2002, Newsweek proclaimed: “For most of its 27 years, Saturday Night Live has been comedy’s premier boys club. But not anymore.” This sudden influx of women increased the amount of women performers seen on screen and the show was carried with show-stopping females. It led into the time of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Kristin Wiig, the women who have made names for themselves in the entertainment world, using SNL as a springboard. This is directly related to the increase of women and women’s power in the writing room (Murphy).

As the years went on, there was increase of women on the production side, which correlated to an increase and improvement of female representation on the performance side. While of course it wasn’t perfect, there were not only were more women included in the acts, but the way that they were represented did not always align with traditional gender roles. For the first time ever, there were sketches entirely comprised of female cast members, without leaning on the stability of a man. “The Women of SNL” parody sketch (spoofing The Real Housewives) is a 2010 special from Season 36 that premiered on November 1, 2010, featuring women cast members and alumni. Seeing a couch full of just women was a sight that was not commonly seen, and relying on each other for the comedic effect was particularly successful. The fact that this special could stand alone separate from the season speaks volumes. Even so, women had to fight to get on. For example, comedian Rachel Dratch (famous especially for her hilarious “Debbie Downer” persona) took multiple auditions to get on the show. After her first audition, she recounted that “I didn’t get it that year...they said, ‘we’re not taking any women this year. But maybe next year.” She got casted three years later (Itzkoff).

Reporters began to claim at the beginning of the 21st century that women had moved from “saucy sidekick to stand-alone stars.” Helmed as the “Tina Fey” era, this is when cast members such as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler began to be known as the faces of the show as a franchise, both on screen and off screen. Here is when sketches such as “Debbie Downer” and

“Target Lady” became recurring, and women sketches took up a bulk of the program time. Another big marker of women’s progression on Saturday Night Live was the addition of female anchors on the weekly segment “Weekend Update.” A spoof on current events, “Weekend Update” features commentary and satire in the middle of each episode, usually led by a male cast member who is presented as themselves (rather than as a character). Jane Curtin was the first female anchor in the second season of the show. While it was great that she was at the desk, the treatment she received from aforementioned John Belushi contradicted any kind of advancement that the presence of a woman created. Belushi would scream and raise fists in the air, telling Jane to calm down. Of course, the famous phrase “Jane, you ignorant slut!” proclaimed by co-star Dan Ackroyd resulted from her stint on “Weekend Update” during an episode premiering on May 26, 1979. Lorne Michaels did nothing to stop these slanderous and misogynistic ad-libs. In an interview with Curtin, she stated, “Lorne didn’t help, because that isn’t what Lorne did. Oh, it was ridiculous. It was just insane...you just have to learn to live with it, [and] plod on” (Miller). After Curtin’s departure in 1980, a woman didn’t sit behind the desk until twenty years later, with Tina Fey’s addition in 2000. In the beginning of Tina Fey’s reign as “Weekend Update” anchor (co-anchor with Jimmy Fallon), there was a part of the segment entitled “Women’s News,” in which Fey commented on issues such as reproductive rights and women’s roles in the home and at work (this is seen in a Season 28 episode from 2002). This direct dealings with issues of women was a direct result as Fey’s appointment of head writer. The progress of Tina Fey’s work on “Weekend Update” compared to Jane Curtin’s shows the amount of progress that SNL took in the women’s movement on television.

Broadly looking at television in the 1970s, the medium was struggling itself with its identity just as the female population of the United States was. As Kirsten Lentz says in her essay, “Quality versus Relevance,” “If 1970s feminism, broadly speaking, sought to champion the ‘rights’ of women, drawing attention to the inequities of gender role socialization and attempting either to revalue or to eschew femininity, 1970s television was similarly enmeshed in an attempt to resist its inferior status in relation to other media (especially cinema) and to revalue or reverse its associations with femininity... Scholars of television and feminism have tended to assume that the relation between the television industry and the feminist movement is primarily a negative one. According to this model, television has generally acted to distort, trivialize, or erase feminist issues and the women’s movement” (Lentz). However, as time goes on, to its credit, Saturday Night Live did do a lot to help progress the movement. Seeing women on TV and talking about women’s issues became a normal thing for the American household, making the feminist movement less of a political craze and more of something that every citizen can take part in. And this quality is what makes SNL so popular and a show that hasn’t gotten old for the forty plus years it has been on air —it reflects an ever changing society and challenges old- school ways of thinking.

However, that’s not to say that Saturday Night Live is perfect in the representation game by any means. Minority women, especially LGBTQ women and African American women in particular have always faced adversity in the entertainment industry, and Saturday Night Live has not properly used its platform and clout to change this. In its entire history up until 2013, there have only been four African-American women featured. After Maya Rudolph’s departure in 2007, there were none. Long-time cast member Kenan Thompson has had to cross-dress to impersonate several women, from Maya Angelou to Jennifer Hudson. In an interview with TV Guide, Thomspon made statements refusing the show’s request to portray black women, hoping that his resistance would prove to the network that advancements have to be made. Sasheer Zamata being hired was the first African American to be hired since Rudolph, and still stands as the only African American woman on the show today (Weisman).

By analyzing Saturday Night Live with a feminist lens, viewers can view the show as a program that did a lot for women in the entertainment industry, yet still is not reaching its full potential in what it can do for women as a whole. Women will always have the lower hand in regards to equality in entertainment, however, seeing the progress in the past gives hope that it will continue to improve, on Saturday Night Live and beyond.

[loughlinpatrick]

Make Mental Health a Part of the Discussion This International Women’s Day

On Friday, let’s talk about mental health. Photo by Timothy L Brock on Unsplash

On the 8th of March, people around the world will acknowledge International Women’s Day – a day to celebrate the achievements of women and call for further progress toward gender parity.

Since the first IWD gathering over a century ago in 1911, the event has been a time for action, for unity, and for reflection. This has led to a lot of discussion about women’s experiences and struggles, but one thing that appears to be left out of most of these discussions is mental health.

Historically, mental health and discussion around it has been extremely stigmatised – especially when it comes to gender. In fact, the term “hysteria,” a mental disorder thought to have manifested in women that experts have thankfully left in the past, actually comes from the Greek words for uterus: “hystera.”

Pictured: you after finding out the term “hysteria” was used unironically by experts until 1980. Photo by Gabriel Matula on Unsplash

This stigma is exactly what we here at Minds in Tune try to tackle every week on our radio show, and that’s why our host Diya invited her friend Nancy on our latest episode for a very special segment – and a very important discussion.

Key points:

Gender contributes to mental health; women are more likely to have poor mental wellbeing. (Health Europa, 2018; Mayo Clinic, 2019; World Health Organisation, 2019)

Our cultural attitudes lead to underreporting of poor mental health amongst all genders. (BBC News, 2016; Beyondblue, 2012)

“Unequal sharing of care responsibilities” and online abuse are key contributors toward poor mental health in females. (Mental Health Europe, 2018; Mental Health Foundation, 2018)

Domestic violence and sexual assault are also risk factors, but are under-detected by mental health services. (Agenda, 2016)

Diya did some reading of her own beforehand, and brought a shocking statistic to the table to open our #IWD2019 discussion. According to Mayo Clinic, women are twice as likely as men to have depression and anxiety. On top of that, Nancy added that they’re also more likely than men to report their health as “poor.”

Gender is a critical determinant of mental health and mental illness.

When it comes to mental health, more women are struggling. Photo by Nick Owuor (astro.nic.visuals) on Unsplash

The World Health Organisation also acknowledges that there is a gendered disparity in mental illness rates. “Gender is a critical determinant of mental health and mental illness,” states their website. “[It] determines the differential power and control men and women have over the socioeconomic determinants of their mental health and lives, their social position, status and treatment in society and their susceptibility and exposure to specific mental health risks.” In essence, men and women can have different levels of control over their exposure to certain mental health risk factors.

But is gender really the main thing impacting these numbers… or is it something else?

To answer that question, we have to acknowledge the cultural context surrounding both mental health and gender. This means accepting that we do live in a society where men and boys are often pressured to bury their emotions, and thus they may be less likely to report symptoms of mental health if they do occur.

This could skew those statistics, however, it’s also symptomatic of the gender roles that pervade our daily lives. Until we achieve greater gender parity and tackle the stereotype that links showing emotion with femininity despite this not being the case, there will always be at least some disparity in the numbers.

However, that isn’t the whole picture, as underreporting surrounding mental health issues isn’t an issue that only affects males. As Diya brought up later in the discussion, there are many women and girls who live their lives on the autistic spectrum, but are never diagnosed or are diagnosed late in life.

Life without a diagnosis can feel extremely isolating. Photo by Molly Belle on Unsplash

The UK has an organisation called the National Autistic Society who present a number of theories on why this could be on their website, including that the diagnostic tests for autism don’t quite work for females, and that women and girls are better at “masking or camouflaging their difficulties.” Coincidentally, the NAS’s website crashed recently after popular game show personality Anne Hegerty – “The Governess” on the Chase Australia – opened up about her late diagnosis with Asperger’s syndrome during her time on the British version of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

So, all up, there are several facets of our cultural views surrounding mental health that could be impacting those statistics aside from the actual prevalence of mental illness. However, our culture also contributes to underreporting of mental illness in women, so it evens out. In fact, as stated in the quote from the World Health Organisation earlier, this very culture could be leading to the actual increased prevalence of mental illness among females in the first place.

Diya and Nancy brought up several of these cultural risk factors in their discussion, and shared an important quote from Maria Nyman, the director of Mental Health Europe. “Each of us may experience mental distress for our own unique reasons,” Maria explains, “but women are more likely than men to experience stress, and unequal sharing of care responsibilities is very common: that’s why work-life balance measures can really make a difference for mental health and gender equality.”

Brisbane’s biggest cricket ground wouldn’t have enough seats for all the women in Brisbane who’ve been impacted by extensive violence.

Other contributing factors to the gendered mental health disparity are domestic violence and abuse, with online mediated spaces (such as social media platforms or comment sections) playing an increasingly bigger role in this area. According to the Mental Health Foundation, evidence “generally suggests” that our online culture contributes to the disparity, but more research needs to be conducted. This would make sense in the context of the many anecdotal reports surfacing that indicate new digital platforms and technologies – especially in the Internet of Things – are also creating new ways to exert control and power over one’s partner.

Away from screens, the situation isn’t looking much brighter: Diya and Nancy also discussed a report from Agenda called Hidden Hurt that includes many more disheartening statistics. The report found that one in 20 women have experienced “extensive” violence, and that over 75% of those women have experienced “life-threatening trauma.” Putting those figures into some real-world numbers, that would mean over 57 thousand women living in Brisbane, Australia – where Minds in Tune is based – have been impacted by extensive violence. To put that into further context: if they all decided to go to the Gabba – Brisbane’s biggest cricket ground – there wouldn’t be room for over 15 thousand of them.

The Gabba still wouldn’t have enough room for all the victims. Source: Wikimedia Commons

We’ve established that the facts are grim, but what is being done about it? Unfortunately, mental health services, which are already under a lot of pressure, aren’t doing as much as they should for women, as domestic violence isn’t detected by them as much as it should be. That’s likely because – as the Hidden Hurt report from Agenda indicates – only half of the mental health trusts they questioned had a policy on asking women about domestic violence. Furthermore, only one trust had a women’s mental health strategy.

So, our culture is contributing to a gendered disparity in mental illness rates amongst males and females, and our mental health services need to improve to better aid the women who need them, but this International Women’s Day, you can help. Why not check in with your friends and family to do your bit in breaking down the mental health stigma – armed with some last advice from Diya and Nancy?

Time for a check in. Photo by Farrel Nobel on Unsplash 

“It’s really hard to ask these kinds of questions,” shares Diya, “especially if [your friend] isn’t ready,” so it might not be the easiest conversation to have. If your friend doesn’t want to share what’s going on with them, that’s completely okay. On the other hand, don’t panic if your friend starts sharing some heavy experiences with you. “Just be there and support them,” suggests Nancy, “so they know that someone cares.”

If you’re not feeling up to a personal conversation, there’s another conversation you can be having, too. You could continue Diya and Nancy’s conversation, and spread greater awareness about how mental health impacts women. After all, every conversation gets us all one step closer to creating a #BalanceforBetter.

Enjoy your International Women’s Day — however you choose to spend it!

Loughlin is the executive producer of Minds in Tune. When not working on this project, writing for his personal blog, or making films, he can be found on Instagram. His handle is: @loughlinptrck.

Keep up with the blog to read more of our Women’s History Month articles, and tune in on radio to new episodes of Minds in Tune every Friday at 6 p.m. AEDT on SYN Nation — or catch up in your preferred podcast app. For more Minds in Tune content, check out our posts from @mindsintune on most social media platforms.

P.S. To the people who will ask: yes, there is an International Men’s Day, it is acknowledged on the 9th of November, and we’ve produced a discussion for that one as well. See you then!

[antisemitism-eu]

Europe: The drumbeat against Jewish ritual sounds once more

Via The Algemeiner (Ben Cohen):

This past week, Jewish ritual observance came under attack in both Belgium and Norway. (...) both speak to an ingrained tendency in Europe that dismisses these core requirements for Jews as no more and no less than cruelty of a particularly Jewish sort.  

On May 8, the environment committee of the parliament in Wallonia — a French-speaking region accounting for more than half of Belgium’s territory and a third of its population — voted unanimously to ban shechita on the grounds that the practice involves cruelty to animals; the decision will take effect in September 2019. On the same day, the annual convention of Norway’s Progress Party — a libertarian, anti-immigration party that is a partner in the country’s ruling coalition — passed a resolution urging a government ban on ritual circumcision for boys under age 16, on the grounds that it is a violation of human rights. Jews, as is well-known, circumcise their sons eight days after birth, in accordance with the biblical covenant between God and the patriarch, Abraham. You may say that these developments are about many things. You might even make the case that antisemitism is a minor factor here. There are many more Muslims than there are Jews in Belgium, Norway and pretty much every other country in Western Europe — and they, too, circumcise their sons for religious reasons and consume ritually slaughtered halal meat. That certainly explains why right-wing populists like the National Front in France and the United Kingdom Independence Party have made halal slaughter a primary focus of their broader campaign against what they see as social acceptance of Islamic sharia law-based rites. (...) 

(...)  for more than a century, antisemites have demonized Jewish rites with the same enthusiasm as their Church forebears. One of the first acts of the Nazis after they came to power in Germany in 1933 was to ban shechita. The famous Nazi propaganda film Der Ewige Jude (“The Eternal Jew”) portrayed shechita as a gruesome Jewish celebration of animal suffering. 

(...) contemporary advocates of the shechita and brit milah bans angrily deny that they are motivated by antisemitism — in much the same way, and for the same reasons, that anti-Zionists present the cause of eliminating Israel as a legitimate human rights campaign. It is, of course, tiresome for them to have to deal with the charge of antisemitism every time they take aim at Jews as a collective, so they flip the equation by depicting themselves as victims of a malicious reputational smear. The sad thing is, this approach often works. It feeds into the sentiments of those segments of the European public who regard antisemitism as a censorship tool — preventing them from protecting animals, babies and national reputations unfairly soiled during World War II — and the right to condemn Israel for alleged human rights abuses. (...)

For 2,000 years in the Diaspora, Jewish identity was preserved by adherence to these religious commands. This, in turn, bred the resentment of supersessionist Church theologians and, later on, universalist Enlightenment philosophers. Both despised Jewish separateness even as their rulers enforced it through ghettoization and other discriminatory measures. From Martin Luther to Karl Marx, the imperative of ending the conditions for a separate Jewish existence — through means varying from outright persecution or conditional emancipation — has been a binding thread in European thought.

It follows logically that even in a modern democracy, a ban on the core rituals making Jews Jewish — and Muslims Muslim — effectively ends the conditions for a separate existence as a Jewish community. It’s true that many Jews don’t keep kosher, but virtually all Jewish males are circumcised, regardless of their family’s degree of religious observance. Ending the right to engage in those practices poses a choice: stay if you are willing to obey the law, or leave if you are not. 

Norway and Belgium are not the only countries where political battles over Jewish rites have erupted. Shechita is outlawed in Poland, New Zealand and Switzerland, among others, while nasty public campaigns against circumcision have been seen in San Francisco on one half of the globe, and Oslo on the other. The campaign advances in fits and starts, but it is always there, and is present among liberals and nationalists alike. 

American Jews are fortunate to live with a constitution clearly demarcating religion and state. European Jews don’t have such clear guidelines, and therefore become hostages to the fortunes of political clashes in which their freedom of worship is just one consideration among many.

read more The New Antisemite: http://ift.tt/2pKwEaH

[blackkudos]

Carter G. Woodson

Carter Godwin Woodson (December 19, 1875 – April 3, 1950) was an African-American historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Woodson was one of the first scholars to study African-American history. A founder of The Journal of Negro History in 1915, Woodson has been cited as the father of black history. In February 1926 he launched the celebration of "Negro History Week"; it was the precursor of Black History Month.

Background

Carter G. Woodson was born in Buckingham County, Virginia on December 19, 1875, the son of former slaves, James and Eliza Riddle Woodson. His father helped Union soldiers during the Civil War and moved his family to West Virginia when he heard that Huntington was building a high school for blacks.

Coming from a large, poor family, Carter Woodson could not regularly attend school. Through self-instruction, Woodson mastered the fundamentals of common school subjects by age 17. Wanting more education, Carter went to Fayette County to earn a living as a miner in the coal fields. He was able to devote only a few months each year to his schooling.

In 1895, at the age of 20, Woodson entered Douglass High School, where he received his diploma in less than two years. From 1897 to 1900, Woodson taught at Winona in Fayette County. In 1900 he was selected as the principal of Douglass High School. He earned his Bachelor of Literature degree from Berea College in Kentucky in 1903 by taking classes part-time between 1901 and 1903.

Career in education

From 1903 to 1907, Woodson was a school supervisor in the Philippines. Later, he attended the University of Chicago, where he was awarded an A.B. and A.M. in 1908. He was a member of the first black professional fraternity Sigma Pi Phi and a member of Omega Psi Phi. He completed his PhD in history at Harvard University in 1912, where he was the second African American (after W.E.B. Du Bois) to earn a doctorate. His doctoral dissertation, The Disruption of Virginia, was based on research he did at the Library of Congress while teaching high school in Washington, D.C. After earning the doctoral degree, he continued teaching in public schools, later joining the faculty at Howard University as a professor, where he served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Convinced that the role of African American history and the history of other cultures was being ignored or misrepresented among scholars, Woodson saw a need for research into the neglected past of African Americans. Along with Alexander L. Jackson, Woodson published The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 in 1915.

Carter G. Woodson stayed at the Wabash Avenue YMCA during visits to Chicago. Dr. Woodson's experiences at the Y and in the surrounding Bronzeville neighborhood inspired him to create the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915. The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History), which ran conferences, published The Journal of Negro History, and "particularly targeted those responsible for the education of black children". Another inspiration was John Wesley Cromwell's 1914 book, The Negro in American History: Men and Women Eminent in the Evolution of the American of African Descent.

Woodson believed that education and increasing social and professional contacts among blacks and whites could reduce racism and he promoted the organized study of African-American history partly for that purpose. Woodson would later promote the first Negro History Week in Washington, D.C., in 1926, forerunner of Black History Month. The Bronzeville neighborhood declined during the late 1960s and 1970s like many other inner city neighborhoods across the country, and the Wabash Avenue YMCA was forced to close during the 1970s, until being restored in 1992 by The Renaissance Collaborative.

He served as Academic Dean of the West Virginia Collegiate Institute, now West Virginia State University, from 1920 to 1922.

In addition to his first book, he wrote A Century of Negro Migration, which continues to be published by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). He studied many aspects of African-American history. For instance, in 1924, he published the first survey of free black slaveowners in the United States in 1930.

He once wrote: “If you can control a man’s thinking, you don’t have to worry about his actions. If you can determine what a man thinks you do not have to worry about what he will do. If you can make a man believe that he is inferior, you don’t have to compel him to seek an inferior status, he will do so without being told and if you can make a man believe that he is justly an outcast, you don’t have to order him to the back door, he will go to the back door on his own and if there is no back door, the very nature of the man will demand that you build one.”

NAACP

Woodson became affiliated with the Washington, D.C. branch of the NAACP, and its chairman Archibald Grimké. On January 28, 1915, he wrote a letter to Grimké expressing his dissatisfaction with activities. Woodson made two proposals:

That the branch secure an office for a center to which persons may report whatever concerns the black race may have, and from which the Association may extend its operations into every part of the city; and

That a canvasser be appointed to enlist members and obtain subscriptions for The Crisis, the NAACP magazine edited by W. E. B. Du Bois.

W. E. B. Du Bois added the proposal to divert "patronage from business establishments which do not treat races alike," that is, boycott businesses. Woodson wrote that he would cooperate as one of the twenty-five effective canvassers, adding that he would pay the office rent for one month. Grimke did not welcome Woodson's ideas.

Responding to Grimke's comments about his proposals, on March 18, 1915, Woodson wrote:

"I am not afraid of being sued by white businessmen. In fact, I should welcome such a law suit. It would do the cause much good. Let us banish fear. We have been in this mental state for three centuries. I am a radical. I am ready to act, if I can find brave men to help me."

His difference of opinion with Grimké, who wanted a more conservative course, contributed to Woodson's ending his affiliation with the NAACP.

Black History Month

Woodson devoted the rest of his life to historical research. He worked to preserve the history of African Americans and accumulated a collection of thousands of artifacts and publications. He noted that African-American contributions "were overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of history textbooks and the teachers who use them." Race prejudice, he concluded, "is merely the logical result of tradition, the inevitable outcome of thorough instruction to the effect that the Negro has never contributed anything to the progress of mankind."

In 1926, Woodson pioneered the celebration of "Negro History Week", designated for the second week in February, to coincide with marking the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The week of recognition became accepted and has been extended as the full month of February, now known as Black History Month.

Colleagues

Woodson believed in self-reliance and racial respect, values he shared with Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican activist who worked in New York. Woodson became a regular columnist for Garvey's weekly Negro World.

Woodson's political activism placed him at the center of a circle of many black intellectuals and activists from the 1920s to the 1940s. He corresponded with W. E. B. Du Bois, John E. Bruce, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, Hubert H. Harrison, and T. Thomas Fortune among others. Even with the extended duties of the Association, Woodson made time to write academic works such as The History of the Negro Church (1922), The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933), and others which continue to have wide readership.

Woodson did not shy away from controversial subjects, and used the pages of Black World to contribute to debates. One issue related to West Indian/African-American relations. Woodson summarized that "the West Indian Negro is free." He observed that West Indian societies had been more successful at properly dedicating the necessary amounts of time and resources needed to educate and genuinely emancipate people. Woodson approved of efforts by West Indians to include materials related to Black history and culture into their school curricula.

Woodson was ostracized by some of his contemporaries because of his insistence on defining a category of history related to ethnic culture and race. At the time, these educators felt that it was wrong to teach or understand African-American history as separate from more general American history. According to these educators, "Negroes" were simply Americans, darker skinned, but with no history apart from that of any other. Thus Woodson's efforts to get Black culture and history into the curricula of institutions, even historically Black colleges, were often unsuccessful. Today African-American studies have become specialized fields of study in history, music, culture, literature and other areas; in addition, there is more emphasis on African-American contributions to general American culture. The United States government celebrates Black History Month.

Woodson's legacy

Carter G. Woodson died suddenly from a heart attack in the office within his home in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, DC on April 3, 1950, at the age of 74. He is buried at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland.

That schools have set aside a time each year to focus on African-American history is Woodson's most visible legacy. His determination to further the recognition of the Negro in American and world history, however, inspired countless other scholars. Woodson remained focused on his work throughout his life. Many see him as a man of vision and understanding. Although Woodson was among the ranks of the educated few, he did not feel particularly sentimental about elite educational institutions. The Association and journal that he started in 1915 continue, and both have earned intellectual respect.

Woodson's other far-reaching activities included the founding in 1920 of the Associated Publishers, the oldest African-American publishing company in the United States. This enabled publication of books concerning blacks that might not have been supported in the rest of the market. He founded Negro History Week in 1926 (now known as Black History Month). He created the Negro History Bulletin, developed for teachers in elementary and high school grades, and published continuously since 1937. Woodson also influenced the Association's direction and subsidizing of research in African-American history. He wrote numerous articles, monographs and books on Blacks. The Negro in Our History reached its eleventh edition in 1966, when it had sold more than 90,000 copies.

Dorothy Porter Wesley stated that "Woodson would wrap up his publications, take them to the post office and have dinner at the YMCA." He would teasingly decline her dinner invitations saying, "No, you are trying to marry me off. I am married to my work". Woodson's most cherished ambition, a six-volume Encyclopedia Africana, lay incomplete at the time of his death.

Honors and tributes

In 1926, Woodson received the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Spingarn Medal.

The Carter G. Woodson Book Award was established in 1974 "for the most distinguished social science books appropriate for young readers that depict ethnicity in the United States."

The U.S. Postal Service issued a 20 cent stamp honoring Woodson in 1984.

In 1992, the Library of Congress held an exhibition entitled "Moving Back Barriers: The Legacy of Carter G. Woodson". Woodson had donated his collection of 5,000 items from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries to the Library.

His Washington, D.C. home has been preserved and designated the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site.

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante named Carter G. Woodson on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

Wikipedia

[xeford2020]

Woman’s Suffrage Started with Women’s Rights

This 1867 music sheet (00.4.183) was dedicated to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, George Francis Train, Lucy Stone, and other “advocates of female suffrage.” / THF93144 We often hear the names of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in connection with the early struggle for “woman’s suffrage,” which we know more commonly today as “women’s suffrage”—the right of women as American citizens to vote. What is lesser known is that the early woman’s suffrage movement began within the context of the broader struggle for women’s rights and it involved many more people—men as well as women, Black as well as white. This scene of domestic bliss from an 1880 trade card (89.0.541.1270) for parlor stoves belies the fact that women at this time lacked basic rights. / THF224913 Women’s Rights, Denied Into the early 20th century, women were not considered entities with rights separate from men. They could not vote, serve on a jury, testify in court, or hold public office. If married, it was illegal for women to sign contracts, inherit property, keep or invest their own earnings, have automatic rights to their children (even after a divorce or if their husband died), or make a will without their husband’s consent. It was very difficult for them to get divorced from an abusive husband or have a profession other than that centered around home and children. Furthermore, they were expected to stay out of public matters—centering their lives around family and home, obeying their husbands, and behaving at all times in a refined, polite way. Abolitionist literature like The American Anti-Slavery Almanac for 1840 (2005.0.17.1), produced by and for northern abolitionists, often featured provocative covers depicting the brutality of slavery. / THF7209 Breaking Early Barriers During the early 19th century, a few strong women began expressing their views about the rights of women as separate from men. Many of the early women who spoke out were white, educated, middle-class members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers. Members of this religious sect not only accepted women as equals to men but also saw it as their duty to seek justice for all. Lucretia Mott, one of the organizers of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, was Quaker. Susan B. Anthony, who joined the movement a bit later, also had a Quaker upbringing. Many of these women had also long championed the abolition of slavery. In this they found allies in men as well as Black women. It was as advocates for this movement that these women got practice attending and speaking out at meetings. They paved the way for other women. The title of this ca. 1851 oil painting (59.124.1) is “The Temperance Pledge,” referring to an important component of the temperance movement that involved signing a document in public promising to abstain from alcohol. / THF119917 Some of the early women’s rights advocates also championed temperance reforms—that is, an organized effort to encourage abstinence from, or at least moderation in, the consumption of intoxicating beverages—especially hard liquor. Excessive drunkenness, especially by men, was threatening the stability of many families (in 1830, consumption of alcohol was three times the current norm) and women led the charge to battle this. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were both temperance movement reformers before they became women’s rights advocates. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a leader in the struggle for women’s rights and an early advocate for woman’s suffrage (98.94.18). / THF6584 A Few Voices Lead to Many The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was the first official public forum for discussing women’s rights. But suffrage was never the main or the only goal there. Lucretia Mott met Elizabeth Cady Stanton (who had recently married abolitionist Henry Stanton) at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in Great Britain in 1838, just as that country had ended slavery. They found they shared similar views and kept in touch after that. During a conversation when Mott visited Stanton’s hometown of Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, Stanton’s feelings of oppression as a wife and mother came tumbling out. The two decided to call “a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious conditions and rights of Woman.” In July 1848, Mott, Cady Stanton and nearly 300 other attendees—men as well as women—gathered in Seneca Falls, including well-known self-emancipated orator and editor Frederick Douglass. James Mott, Lucretia’s husband, chaired the meeting, as women felt they lacked the experience as well as the knowledge of parliamentary procedure. Cady Stanton, possessing a gift for writing, had drafted a Declaration of Sentiments for the meeting, not unlike those presented and discussed at anti-slavery conventions at the time. But it was her genius to use the language and legitimacy of the Declaration of Independence, modifying the phrase “all men are created equal” to “all men and women are created equal.” Self-emancipated abolitionist Frederick Douglass was an early champion for woman’s suffrage (96.68.1). / THF210623 At the meeting, the attendees discussed the 18 grievances and 11 resolutions that Cady Stanton had drafted in her Declaration. But it was the resolution “that it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise,” that led to the longest debate and greatest opposition. To most people at the meeting—women as well as men—the idea of women voting seemed far-fetched, ludicrous, even illogical. Cady Stanton defended it, claiming (what seems so obvious to us today) that women needed political rights to be able to make other gains through legal means. The resolution almost failed, until Frederick Douglass spoke fervently in its favor. It passed by a small margin—the only resolution adopted that was not unanimous. Emancipated orator Sojourner Truth championed women’s rights along with abolition (96.72.1). / THF121160 The Seneca Falls Convention gave rise to numerous other women’s rights conventions that emerged over the next decade, in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Massachusetts. It was in Akron, Ohio, in 1851 that emancipated orator Sojourner Truth—best known for speaking out against slavery—gave her first known speech on women’s rights. She would continue to appear at many women’s rights conventions and give valiant service to the movement. It was also during this time that Susan B. Anthony assumed a leadership role in the women’s rights movement. These conventions gave women practice in airing grievances, building consensus, and establishing alliances and friendships. Abolitionist support dominated these discussions, as the slavery issue heated up through the decade. There was no consensus about woman’s suffrage. In fact, woman’s suffrage was barely an issue on the table at convention after convention. This 1867 cover of Harper's Weekly (2005.16.2) shows Black freedmen lining up to cast their ballots. Congress had recently approved measures allowing African Americans the right to vote—a right later ratified in the 15th Amendment. / THF11673 An Unfortunate Split Only after the Civil War did woman’s suffrage become the primary goal of the women’s rights movement. However, two factions split over how to achieve it. According to Angela P. Dodson in “Remember the Ladies”: Celebrating Those Who Fought for Freedom at the Ballot Box (2017), this “fissure” sundered alliances, strained relationships, diffused energies, squandered resources and stalled progress, and it took decades to heal. The Revolution (2005.14.1), a newspaper distributed by the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, featured essays supporting NWSA’s agenda. / THF277269 Although many women’s rights advocates supported the passage of the 13th Amendment formalizing emancipation, the dissension started with passage of the 14th Amendment (guaranteeing equality to all “male citizens”) and especially with the passage of the 15th Amendment (giving Black males the right to vote). In retrospect, it seems obvious that Black enfranchisement in the South was in peril if lawmakers didn’t act quickly and it was simply not judicious to fight for two difficult causes at the same time—Black freedmen’s rights and women’s rights. However, some women, including the vocal Elizabeth Cady Stanton, did not see it that way. These women felt they had fought long and hard for both abolition and women’s rights, and they felt they deserved their due. It was at this time that women realized they needed to advocate for a national amendment calling for “universal suffrage” and began referring to themselves as suffragists. This would have been the perfect time for a national organization to push this agenda, and one was attempted at the 1866 National Woman’s Rights Convention, led by Susan B. Anthony. But there was almost immediately a division in the ranks—leading to two competing organizations. Stanton and Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), working specifically for the enfranchisement of women and opposing the 15th Amendment. At the same time, women’s rights advocate Lucy Stone organized the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) in support of the 15th Amendment and working toward a broader coalition (her group ultimately received more support). These two groups competed for allies and support for the next 25 years, weakening each other’s success and forcing each of them to work harder for state-by-state support rather than working together to fight for a federal amendment. During the struggle for woman’s suffrage, many men and some women strongly opposed the notion of women voting, as evidenced by this ca. 1910 button (2004.117.1). / THF8518 In 1869 and 1870, respectively, the Wyoming and Utah territories granted women the right to vote (primarily to attract settlers), while an amendment granting women the right to vote was finally brought to Congress beginning in 1878. But none of these actions engendered wider support, and many people (both men and women) continued to oppose woman’s suffrage on many fronts. During the early 20th century, suffragists often appealed to potential voters by distributing items with symbolic imagery, such as this ca. 1910 button (2004.116.1). / THF155862 A New Generation Takes Charge It would take a new generation of women, lacking the painful memories of the reason for the rift in the first place, to take up the fight. These women reunified the group by forming the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1890 (NAWSA) and creating new strategies for state and national support. This was also a time for Black women—who had played a modest role in the previous organizations—to form their own organizations that could champion women’s rights and woman suffrage, including the National Association of Colored Women in 1895 and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Prominent leaders like Ida Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell arose to lead other Black women in support of these causes. Unfortunately, white suffragists did not always welcome their help—in fact, some were willing to sacrifice this support to pacify Southerners and court their support for the ballot. Alice Paul’s extremist tactics included aiming strong messages directly at President Wilson, as seen in this small handheld flag (2005.3.1) from about 1916. / THF8533 Two different kinds of leaders emerged during the early 1900s, for the final push to the 19th Amendment—Carrie Chapman Catt, the lobbyist, and Alice Paul, the agitator. Catt and Paul strongly disagreed with each other’s tactics, but neither would have succeeded without the other. Their different strategies offered women from all walks of life a way to get involved—organizing parades, printing flyers, and getting people to sign petitions. Victory was not easy to achieve, but on August 26, 1920—72 years after the Seneca Falls meeting—the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote was added to the Constitution. During the Jim Crow era, most southern states had adopted poll taxes to keep Blacks from voting. The person who wore this button (2005.9.8) protested the injustice of paying to vote, which was finally abolished with the passage of the 24th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution (1964) and subsequent court rulings (1966). / THF 96541 Afterward Unfortunately, the 19th Amendment did not guarantee equal voting rights to women. Racist laws and practices kept African American women as well as women of other disenfranchised groups—including Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian American women—from voting for decades. Voter suppression is, in fact, still an ongoing issue today. The Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.) finally passed both houses of Congress in 1972, but it was not ratified in enough state legislatures for approval (2001.76.1). / THF153507 Returning full circle to the larger issue of women’s rights, an Equal Rights Amendment was drafted in 1923—only three years after the 19th Amendment was ratified. Although it received much attention in the 1970s and early 1980s, it has never passed. The struggle for women’s rights, including women’s right to vote, continues today. Donna R. Braden is Senior Curator and Curator of Public Life at The Henry Ford.

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[mxadrian779]

Avatar Liu: Info Document

Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender; The Legend of Korra.

Time: about 100-150 years after Korra.

Past Lives:

Wan

[...]

[...]

Yanesha: transgender, asexual, polyamourous; was one of few Avatars to energybend; was first transgender Avatar; trainers included prince of Northern Water Tribe, princess of Fire Nation, and an Earth Kingdom rogue; also first (and only) to have multiple partners. (In the old days, the teachers of the Avatar were specially selected, and were expected to be of highest pedigree, usually male royalty. Yanesha's fire and water trainers were royalty of their nations, but the first handpicked earth trainer did not work well with the Avatar, and they ended up finding a rogue to teach them—which was frowned upon in history, and especially caused conflict between the Earth Kingdom monarchy and the Avatar).

Lifespan: 155 years

[...]

[...]

Yangchen

Kuruk

Kyoshi

Roku

Aang

Korra: Lifespan: 38 years. Wed Asami Sato, had daughter Chenna [father: Bolin]. Chenna wed Ashiva, had three children: Yasuko, Kaona, Ryu. Yasuko had one daughter, Kaona had twin sons.

Batakh: Lifespan: ~80 years. Wed Mako's daughter Juna, had one daughter.

*Liu Lang: Lifespan: in progress. Weds Beifong. Descendant[s] unknown.

What happened since Korra: Korra wed Asami, and they had daughter Chenna (with help from Bolin). Because of her gay parents, Chenna was bullied, she retaliated, and grew up a bit aggressive. Korra was assassinated when Chenna was 11; she fell into depression, and her relationship with mother Asami became very strained. Much later, they grow closer, there's stuff going on in the world, they and a few others find and aid the next Avatar, Batakh, a young boy born into a well-to-do Emerald States (new name for Earth Kingdom) family. Chenna ends up with an old childhood friend, they have three kids: earthbender Yasuko, waterbender Kaona, and airbender Ryu (named for his father's late brother). Kaona, born male, starts coming into her feminine identity when she's eight years old; her identity is challenged and subsequently strengthened when she's twelve and starts a new school with gendered uniforms. Her older sister, Yasuko, is fast at her side, extremely protective and defensive. When Kaona is sixteen, grandmother Asami gifts her the betrothal necklace Korra had proposed with. Jealousy rips apart their close sisterly bond, as elder sister Yasuko believes she is the rightful inheritor of the Sato heirloom. It'll take years for them to heal the rift between them. Yasuko marries and has one daughter; Kaona marries a female airbender, and they have twin sons; baby brother Ryu's future is uncertain.

Much later, the next Avatar is born, Liu-yin Lang, into a large lower-middle-class Fire Nation family. Liu-yin was told of her Avatar status when she was sixteen, but the world didn't need her yet. The family, who's very close and protective, kept her until she was about 21, at which point she started some firebending training. Liu-yin grew frustrated with the slow pace, and left home two years later to join the Fire Navy. Liu-yin was always a tomboy, but when she finally gets away from her family and experiences freedom, something changes. When enlisting in the navy and asked for the recruit's name, Liu-yin starts to give the full name, but stops after "Liu." When asked for the gender, after a breath, Liu responds "male," and begins his transition. He serves a year in the navy and masters firebending and melee arts, sometimes under special tutelage of the Fire Nation prince, knew Liu's identity and watched over him in the military (and possibly may later come out as a transwoman, inspired by Liu). Liu leaves the military after a year, and sets out after the other three elements.

{Special note: every elemental leg of the journey will present a new trans character and identity. In Fire, we meet Liu, who is a transman, and the Fire Nation prince, who may be either genderfluid or a transwoman; in Air, we meet the Yaneshans, who are essentially agender; in Water, we find transwoman Kaona tending to transgender youth, and we meet Liu's waterbending teacher, whose gender presentation is slightly unusual; in Earth, we meet a nonbinary entertainer}

~Air: Liu meets up with the Yaneshans, an ancient transgender tribe named for the first transgender Avatar, Yanesha; historically, the Yaneshans were strictly Air Nation, and were extinguished in Sozin's war; centuries later, they were reborn with the help of Kaona, (trans) granddaughter of Avatar Korra, and became a multiracial society. The Yaneshans seek the highest spiritual enlightenment, and thus strive to live beyond gender, which they see as another earthly attachment.

Air proves very tricky, especially with an eccentric instructor like Manisha. She proves a valuable trainer, however, and is revealed to be a direct descendant of the original airbender family (Rohan's descendant).

Despite air being an ally element to Liu's native fire, he has a very hard time learning to airbend. After studying him, Manisha realises his problem: "You have to relinquish control." She notices the tense, forceful way Liu tries to airbend, and concludes that he's too focused on trying to harness power and control over airbending. "You're a control freak, just like every other firebender. But air isn't something to control." Liu: "So, I let it control me?" Manisha: "No. Stop thinking like a firebender. Air isn't about control—it's about freedom. Guide the air like it's your friend, not your subordinate. Loosen up. Free yourself, and let the airbending follow." Manisha might pull some airbending tricks, miniature tornadoes and such, to ruffle Liu's feathers in an attempt to loosen him up.

[Manisha: "The beautiful thing about airbending is that it's always there. You can put mittens on a firebender, put a waterbender in the middle of the desert, suspend an earthbender in the sky—but an airbender is never vulnerable. If you have air to breathe, you have air to bend."]

~~ Family:

mother, firebender (age 49)

father, nonbender (age 52)

-Liu, Avatar, age 24-

brother, nonbender (age 19)

brother, firebender (age 17)

sister, nonbender (age 14)

sister, firebender (age 8)

A year or two into his journey, Liu returns home for a visit. His family knew nothing about his identity, and takes it hard:

- mother is distraught; "I know she is not a boy; I gave birth to a girl."

- mother starts to come around when her family, and Liu in particular, is mocked by a snide acquaintance:

While on a family outing, mother runs into a particularly snobbish busybody, who, upon meeting Liu, proceeds to put down the mother and family (exact circumstances unclear). She runs down the list of the mother's children, from the rambunctious sons to the energetic "wild" youngest daughter to Liu. Citing Liu's other sister, the woman scoffs,

"Well, at least you still have one normal (or other adjective) child." Liu instinctively rises to his feet to challenge her, growling, "What did you just say?" His mother rushes to pull him back down to his seat, chides him—then rises herself to challenge the woman and defend her family—the Avatar in particular.

- father is shocked, but tries to keep to himself. will save it for a private conversation later.

- brothers (~17, 19) don't especially care. They're off doing their own things anyway.

- youngest (~8) sister asks what happened to his hair, hears "I cut it off," accepts it, and runs off.

- younger sister (~14) takes it hardest, feeling like Liu, with whom she was closest, abandoned and betrayed her:

"You were the big sister I could always look up to. It's like I don't even know who you are now...or what you are."

"We used to be sisters. We had each other. Now you're just like one of those idiots" (pointing to rambunctious brothers)

~Water: Liu wasn't really looking for a waterbending teacher at the moment; he just found himself checking out a surfing competition and caught his favourite athlete enhancing his surfing with waterbending. (Location: Northern Water Tribe?? Maybe an area in the northern Fire Nation?)

"Hey. You were pretty badass out there on the waves. Think you can teach me some of that?"

"Thanks." The waterbender stops to size up Liu. "No can do. You're a firebender."

Liu gives a smug look. "Yeah, I'm a firebender...and an airbender..."

Realisation mixed with awe flickers on his face. "You're the Avatar?!"

Liu winks. "Damn straight."

Liu ends up subtly flirting and subtly threatening to report him to the competition heads for cheating if he doesn't agree to train him.

Names: (Kalal, Halona, Hania Honani, Honon, Huyana, Howakhan ["Hoaqan"], Bisahalani ["Halani"], Cetanwakuwa ["Wakuwa"], Cha'tima, Chaska, Chavatangawunua [short rainbow], Cheveyo, Chesmu, Chogan, Chu'a, Ciqala, Chunta [cheating], Dasan, Dichali, Achak, Ahanu, Akando, Alona, Angeni, Annawan, Aquene, Avonaco)

~Earth: Liu's arrival to the Emerald States is well-received, with a banquet thrown in his honour by the Beifong family. Amidst the celebration and the revelry, Liu can't take his eyes off of an elegant Emerald woman in the crowd. He sidles up to her and asks her to dance, and she hesitantly accepts. He later learns that she is a member of the Beifong family, an ancient Emerald family and powerful ally to the Avatar. Liu becomes determined to have her teach him earthbending, but her parents forbid it, citing racial and social conflict (something about the fact that Liu is Fire Nation and lower-middle class, ignoring the fact that he's the Avatar). They decide to cultivate a friendship anyway, and the Beifong woman shows him some moves. Meanwhile, a widespread war had been growing behind the scenes, and now comes to the stage. Liu suddenly finds himself overwhelmed with enemies, and he, Beifong, and the waterbender are forced into hiding. The earthbender cuts her hair and sheds her extravagance; Liu cuts and restyles his hair ("I feel so bald now." "What do you mean? You only cut off an inch in the back!"), and changes the spelling of his name to Lu; the waterbender ties back his hair and finds an outfit nearly identical to his last.

One night while sheltering in an Emerald town, Liu awakens in a trance and wanders to the edge of the Emerald continent. His eyes start to glow as the same light envelops him, and he disappears. He awakens fully to find himself sitting under the banyan-grove tree in the foggy swamp. Before him, visions of his past lives stand in the mist. When Liu rubs his eyes and clears his vision, they fade away. He thinks he's hallucinating, until a deep chanting echoes throughout the swamp. The Avatar follows the chanting to the edge of the swamp, which he discovers has been sitting atop a lion-turtle for centuries. He decides to consult the ancient creature for advice about the war. The lion-turtle is clearly distressed about the continuing human greed and violence, especially in this technologically-advanced age. It easily remembers when its swamp was attacked and its spiritual energy harvested and corrupted. The lion-turtle decides that the human race must be punished, and it vows to withdraw the elements and close the spirit portals. Liu panics and begs the lion-turtle to reconsider its decision, claiming the elements and the spirits have lived with the humans for millennia; "you can't just take them away!" 'Why not? Humankind has no use for them anymore.'

~~ Shortly after meeting the Beifong girl, another character comes into Liu's picture. Quan is a thirtysomething, lithe, tan-skinned person with curly black hair and grey-green eyes who goes by "they" pronouns. They're mostly masculine-presenting, wear makeup, and have a sort of flamboyant, theatrical quality. Attracted to women. They're a local celebrity known for their androgyny, which they happily flaunt and capitalise upon (which irks Liu). Quan knows they're considered a public novelty, and they thrive on that while also using it to make a statement. Liu is mistrustful of Quan, considering them an impostor of sorts.

Quan: "Some people are women, some are men. I happen to be both." They see themselves as a performer in more ways than one, likening gender to a performance in and of itself. And, "sometimes it's not about being a man or a woman. It's about being you, and 'you' doesn't always fit into one of those two little boxes."

Liu: "You know, our struggles are real. There's a serious problem out there for people like me. The world doesn't have room for pretenders."

Quan: "Who's pretending? Who I am is as real as who you are. You couldn't conform to what you were assigned, and neither could I." and "People already see me as a freak show. I figure I might as well have some fun with it." When the tension between Liu and Quan reaches a boiling point: "You know what? I've had it. Avatar or not, if you can't respect me, then I'm done."

~~ Liu will tackle toxic masculinity. He refuses to prove his masculinity in ridiculous ways, i.e, through violence ("sometimes, being a man means knowing when to walk away from a fight"), vulgarity ("how does being disgusting make you a man?; "big deal, my younger sister can belch better than that"; might also tackle objectification of women). Liu is a refined breed, despite being surrounded by crude older brothers. He sometimes started to doubt his own masculine identity when he compared himself with his brothers.

~~ Western transgender concept and terminology does not exist in their world. At the time of Korra's granddaughter, Kaona, there was little awareness, and no terminology. At the time of Liu, it is slightly better known, usually not directly referenced, but when it is, it is called crossgender (derived from the concept of being spiritually aligned to one gender or the other, and, just as one crosses into the Spirit World, one may cross into the other gender; the Yaneshans, a transgender tribe with strong Air Nomad roots, throw out the concept of gender altogether, and find the crossgender concept insulting and spiritually incorrect because, as the Air Nomads teach, ultimate enlightenment and spirituality can only be attained by shedding all earthly attachments, including gender)