Moorings 2020

Moorings

Mount St. Mary’s University’s Journal of Liberal and Performing Arts May 2020

Artwork Color in Baltimore John Bauerle Logo Courtesy of Sasanthi Fernando, Class of 2017 Moorings 1

CONTRIBUTING DEPARTMENTS Core Curriculum English History Visual and Performing Arts

EDITORIAL STAFF Senior Editors-in-Chief Kelley Northam Katherine Stohlman Co-Editors-in-Chief Jonathan Gilbert Matthew McDonald Miltiadis Papadopoulus Editors Hannah Barber Hannah Burns Elizabeth Busch Lily Chandler Margaret Hoover Joseph Staub Faculty Advisors Dr. Sean Lewis Dr. Andrew Rosenfeld Dr. Elizabeth Strauss

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Authors’ Biographies ...................................................................................................................... 4 Letter From The Editors.................................................................................................................. 5 The Looming Darkness in Comedy: Where’s the Joy? .................................................................. 6 Kaitlyn Heintzelman Pornography: A Right or a Risk? .................................................................................................. 15 Rebekah Balick Pretty in Pink: The Expectations of Women in Rome .................................................................. 25 Haley Bodner To Be Well-Versed in the Language of Calamity ........................................................................ 34 Kaitlyn Heintzelman Beauty is in the Eye of the Audience ............................................................................................ 39 Scott Korte Black Motherhood: Why are the Black Babies Dying? ................................................................ 48 Elizabeth O’Hare The First Blast Against the Writings of John Knox: An Investigation of John Knox’s Forms of Argumentation Against Female Monarchy ................................................................................... 57 Kelley Northam When You Witch Upon a Star: An Analysis of the Relationship Between Perceptions of Early Modern Witches and Portrayals of Disney Witches ..................................................................... 67 Kelley Northam “Come, Heavy Sleep”: Elizabethan Melancholy in the Works of John Dowland and William Byrd............................................................................................................................................... 78 Joseph Staub “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing”: Frank Zappa and Postmodernism......................................... 87 Joseph Staub

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AUTHORS’ BIOGRAPHIES Kaitlyn Heintzelman- Kate Heintzelman is a 2019 graduate who spent the year as an ETA in Luxembourg on a Fulbright grant. She will be studying religion and literature at Yale Divinity School in the Fall.

Rebekah Balick- Rebekah Balick is an International Studies and History double major who also thoroughly enjoys writing and literature. Her passions include art, music, philosophy, and traveling, and when not waist-deep in books or art supplies, she can be found spending time with family or hiking. She is greatly honored to share her work with Moorings and hopes that readers come away inspired to contemplate the world more deeply.

Haley Bodner- Haley Bodner is from Brick, NJ and a current sophomore majoring in social studies education and Italian. She is a member of the Mount St Mary’s swim team, environmental club, and astronomy club.

Scott Korte- Scott Korte is a Biology Major with two Minors in Chemistry and Fine ArtsMusic. He is the Concertmaster and 1st Chair Clarinet of the MSMU Wind Ensemble, as well as being a member of the Beta Beta Beta and Gamma Sigma Epsilon honor societies. He hopes to enter into a Ph.D. program in Molecular Biology & Regenerative Medicine following graduation.

Elizabeth O’Hare- Elizabeth (Liz) O'Hare graduated from Mount St. Mary's University in May 2019 with her B.S. in biochemistry and biology. While at the Mount, she was involved in FOCUS, Mount Students for Life, Health Professions Club, peer tutoring, the honors program, and the biology, physics and philosophy honors societies. Liz is very passionate about maternalfetal medicine and interned at Johns Hopkins Medical Institute, where she shadowed and observed pediatric and fetal surgeries, while also conducting pediatric and fetal research. She is currently teaching high school biology and physics in Montebello, CA while earning her M. Ed. from the University of Notre Dame through the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

Kelley Northam- In addition to having the privilege of being an editor-in-chief of Moorings, Kelley Northam is senior double majoring in Communication and History. After graduation, she will be attending Carnegie Mellon University for an M.A. in Professional Writing.

Joseph Staub- Joseph Staub is a Senior History major with English and French minors. Some of his favorite topics include World War II, American History, particularly the Civil War era, film study, and music history, particularly the twentieth century.

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LETTER FROM THE EDITORS Dear Reader, It is with great pride that we present to you the 2020 edition of Moorings humanities journal!

Within these pages is a unique collection of essays written by Mount students and recent alumni that showcase the extraordinary caliber of the Mount’s liberal arts curriculum.

There are many people that have contributed to the success of Moorings and are deserving of far more praise than we could possibly fit onto this page. First, we would like to extend the utmost gratitude to Provost Boyd Creasman, Dean Peter Dorsey, the College of Liberal Arts, and the University Office of Marketing and Communications. Without their flexibility and assistance amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the publication of this journal truly would not have been possible. We would also like to thank our advisors Dr. Andrew Rosenfeld, Dr. Elizabeth Strauss, and Dr. Sean Lewis for their guidance and expertise along the way. Finally, we must acknowledge our amazing editorial staff who have been lending their time and skills since the summer of 2019 to turn this journal into a reality.

The following ten essays were chosen from one of the largest submission pools Moorings has ever received. They are shining examples of the interests and talents of the 2018-2019 Mount community. Topics cover the entire spectrum; the included essays discuss the roles of women in Ancient Rome, postmodernism in music, the tone of poetry written by Elizabethan-era Catholics, sexism in Reformation-era leaders, the darker side of the stand-up comedy industry, and Disney’s portrayal of witches in comparison with real-life witch hunts, among others. And though the authors’ points of interest may be varied, their abilities are not. Each essay reveals the thoughtfulness, insight, and creative dexterity to be found in a student of the humanities.

We are proud to share with you the hard work of our authors and editors in the 2020 edition of Moorings. We hope you take the time to read and admire these essays and find them as enjoyable as they are enlightening.

Happy Reading, Kelley Northam and Katherine Stohlman

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Prize-Winning Essay

The Looming Darkness in Comedy: Where’s the Joy? Kaitlyn Heintzelman At first glance, comedy appears to be a positive force in society. After all, comedy is a safe place where no one is safe: every religion, ethnicity, and race is mocked, analyzed, and everyone is taught to not think so seriously. There is something liberating and joyous about letting go of one’s stereotypes and beliefs and finding humor in the ridiculousness that is in everyone. Yet, there is an undeniable habit of discontent found in comedians. By analyzing the lives of an array of successful comedians, it is evident that many comedians struggle with a turbulent personal life. Perhaps comedians chase after joy and laughter because there is a dark underbelly in their life. There is an underlying presence of darkness in comedy, commonly caused by the “tears of a clown” affect of childhood trauma and mental illness, correlating with the comedians’ search for a transcendent experience.

The dark undertones of comedy are, perhaps, rooted in its vaudeville beginnings.

Vaudeville comedians “…struggled for attention, as naked women were the main draw” (Nesteroff 6). At this point in time, there was not a place for comedians – they did not belong in a select venue or work for a certain audience. Essentially, comedy struggled to find a home in American society. Numerous times in history comedy has been paired with the sexualization of women, first with Burlesque strippers, and later during the era of the Playboy mansion, which was, incidentally, the most prestigious venue and “the most significant circuit for stand-up comics in the 1960s” (213). Even as an independent entity, comedy was seen as something dirty dangerous that cannot occur during the light of day. Perhaps comedy at this time was merely misunderstood, but it is more likely that comedy was deemed detrimental to “normal society”

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because it shook cultural norms. Today, it is evident from exploring the last fifty years of comedy in America that this art form attracts the broken, which is to say, everyone.

Shecky Greene was a comedian who performed in the nightclubs of a newly birthed Las Vegas during the 1950s and 60s and who exemplifies the idea of darkness in comedy. Although he is considered “…one of comedy’s great nonconformists,” his wild behavior in the nightclubs does not initially seem congruent with his personal struggles. Greene “…suffered from anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder in an era when such things weren’t diagnosed” (146). As a result of his demons, Greene was terrified to go onstage in front of an audience and self-medicated with alcohol to calm his fear. In fact, “Greene was not a drinker until he landed in Vegas, where he discovered that booze quelled his anxiety” (147). These habits escalated to the point where he “…drove his Cadillac into the fountains at Caesars Palace” (147). What truly stands out in Greene’s story is that none of his peers or surrounding influences in Vegas meant to stop Greene, instead; they would laugh and encourage him to do the dangerous things he was doing. Greene, as the human being, was considered entertainment off the stage as well. Here lies the crux of the matter: Greene was a haunted man who could not find peace of mind. Others took advantage of this weakness and exploited it for entertainment at the expense of his health and happiness. One could argue that Greene would have been discontent in any career he pursued, but this seems unlikely as his struggles were brought to the surface and addressed through the alcohol addiction he formed in Vegas, causing Greene to become the worst version of himself. Although he “…sobered in later years” he is still considered by contemporaries such as Marty Ingels as “…underground’s number one guy” (148). In other words, Greene epitomizes the notion that there is a dark “underbelly” to comedy, that comedy itself can be used as self-medication and a way for the comedian to escape the troubling place from which he or she is running.

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Richard Pryor is a crucial aspect of the shift in comedy during the 70s, as he embodies self-expression and honesty as a standup comedian, but he, too, seems to use comedy as a way to make sense of difficult life events. To begin, Pryor was a successful comedian “…with major cocaine habits” (316). Although this was not necessarily unusual for the time nor was he the only comedian dealing with addiction, Pryor did have reason to want to escape. Pryor was “…raised in his grandmother’s brothel, [he] experienced rape at the age of six and molestation by a Catholic priest during catechism. He watched his mother perform sexual acts with Peoria’s mayor” (Richard Pryor Biography). This childhood trauma undoubtedly affected his comedy career, as Pryor would make jokes that refer to his being raised by his grandmother, but it also gave him encouragement to be authentic in comedy. Pryor addressed taboo topics such as African American street life, sex, drug use, and even an incident in which Pryor accidently set himself on fire. Yet even without all of this, Pryor gave a voice to the marginalized and vulnerable. His willingness to address subject matter that no other comedian was reacting to at the time provided a transcendent experience for the audience and himself. Through his comedy, Pryor freed himself from his childhood shackles and used his pain and warped it to make something good come from it. Additionally, Pryor allowed his developing life experience to affect his comedic act; as Pryor learned more of the world, his act reflected the change. For instance, after a life-altering visit to Kenya in 1979, he condemned the use of the n-word, something that had been a staple in his act before. Although “…his abandonment of the word in his stage performances attracted death threats, hate mail and attacks on his home from some deranged former fans…he stuck to his beliefs, never losing any of his funny” (Richard Pryor Biography). This change in Pryor signifies a deeper truth of himself and his comedy: he is not a comedian solely intent on shocking people. The intention for his comedy is not to be outlandish,

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but to ooze truth. Consequently, Pryor overcoming childhood trauma and using his pain to show an authentic picture of society, all the while maintaining his physicality and expletive-laced style, creates a transcendent experience in that it is not limited to his pain but rather explores the joy that comes from being subject to the human condition.

Steve Martin’s success, beginning in the 70s, is unparalleled with any other comedian and is known by most Americans, yet his complicated relationship with his father and his struggles with anxiety are not as notoriously known. This relationship, however, reinforced Martin’s decision to pursue comedy. Martin notes of an experience when his father “…pulled his belt out of its loops, and inflicted a beating that seemed never to end” (Martin 28). He goes on to say that he has “…heard it said that a complicated childhood can lead to a life in the arts” and that he is telling the reader this story of his father “…to let you know I am qualified to be a comedian” (29). This poignant revelation reveals Martin’s acceptance of a troubling childhood that affected his life’s progression, and that, had Martin not endured this, he might not have pursued comedy. Later in his memoir, Martin and his dying father repair their relationship. When his father tells him that he wants to cry, Martin asks, “What do you want to cry about?” I said.

“For all the love I received and couldn’t return…you did everything I wanted to do.”

“I did it for you,” I said. Then we wept for the lost years. I was glad I didn’t say the more complicated truth: “I did it because of you” (197).

It is evident from this revelation that Martin suffers from the “tears of a clown” affect.

Martin pursued comedy because he was searching for meaning and purpose in his life that his

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father never gave him. Martin is a comedian because it allowed him to leave part of himself in an outer-worldly way and allowed him to find peace without the love and support from his father.

Performing onstage is a way for Martin to find validation of his worth. It can perhaps be compared to a religious experience. Much like the divine, comedy fulfills something in Martin that no human being can.

Naturally, the dark underbelly of comedy is not confined to male comics but extends to female comics as well. For instance, Roseanne Barr’s schtick is the burnt-out housewife, but she also embodies personal demons that identify her as a victim of “tears of a clown.” As a child, Barr’s parents conveyed the horrific truth of the Holocaust to the point of traumatizing her. She reveals, “…the only time they talked to me was to tell me that the Nazis used to shoot little girls right through the head in front of their parents” (Barr 386). Her Jewish heritage had a profound impact on her mental health, as it caused her to never feel safe and to distrust those around her.

Barr was also abused by her father who would “…sneak up behind you while you’re biting your nail and crack you in the back of the head so hard that your knuckles would go straight up your nose and stuff. He hit me in the head constantly” (389). Even in her own home, Barr did not experience comfort. Although she does not seem necessarily resentful of her parents’ negative affect on her mental and physical state, she acknowledges that they are much of the reason why she feels the need to be funny. Barr uses comedy to find relief from her demons: “I’ve had severe mental illness my whole life. A devastating, dissociative identity disorder – MPD, it used to be called…plus I have Tourette’s” (390-391). As a person who experienced childhood trauma and battles mental illness, Barr is an ideal example of someone who pursued comedy to escape.

When Barr was discovered, she was actually living the life that would become her famous act – that of a housewife who is discontent. Similarly, to Steve Martin, Barr’s therapist reminds her:

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“Don’t say you’re funny because of abuse; it’s in spite of” (390). Essentially, Barr found success despite the fact that demons have weighed on her throughout her life. When Barr makes fun of her own situation – her husband, her children, her sex life, being a “domestic goddess,” – she takes the power from the things that make her feel powerless. This is her transcendence: Barr takes her common societal role and humanizes it, thus giving her the ability to transform the mundane into the extraordinary.

Maria Bamford is another successful female comedian who uses her “tears of a clown” to create art. Bamford suffers from depression and OCD and admits, “I had a relatively good – maybe a great – childhood, but I started to get anxious about any negative, unwanted thoughts I had” (Bamford 494). Essentially, even though Bamford has the support of her family (rather unlike the comedians previous mentioned), Bamford still grapples with a pain that is nearly impossible to articulate. Although any battle with mental illness is difficult, Bamford uses her relationship with depression and anxiety and turns it into the basis of her act, even using it to provide validation and understanding to those who are affected by it, as best seen in her “anxiety song”: If I keep the ice cube trays filled no one will die. As long as I clench my fists at odd intervals then the darkness within me won’t force me to the do thing inappropriately violent or sexual at dinner parties. As long as I keep humming a tune I won’t turn gay…it can’t get you if you’re singing a song (Bamford, 2010).

Bamford does something that is not an easy feat: she describes a misunderstood and hard to describe illness that plagues many people, but is still not always accepted by society. Similar to

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Richard Pryor, Bamford addresses and subtly critiques issues in society in her self-deprecating way as not to offend people but rather inspire a sense of community and shared experience.

Although many comedians seem to be in pain, there is an undeniable pull that attracts these struggling souls to comedy – this is the joy of the funny. One of the most tragic stories in comedy is that of Robin Williams, a dynamic comedian. Four years after Marc Maron, also a comedian, interviewed Williams and they discussed his fight with mental illness, Williams committed suicide. Maron said after his death: There was a humanity to Robin Williams. The spirit of pure comedy ran through this guy…There’s never been a comedic artist like this guy. And there’s no more painful realization that the other side of whatever comic genius is – is sometimes this. That with that sensitivity, that with that perception, that with that empathy, that with that love, that with that mental agility, comes a heart too heavy to live (Maron 356).

It is a difficult truth to stomach, but inevitably it must be accepted that sometimes laughter can hide a fallacious façade. For an unknown reason, comedy provides relief for hurting comedians, like Robin Williams. On the one hand, he appeared to be bright and positive. He enchanted others with his energy and genius. In reality, he did not see himself the way others did. He succumbed to mental illness because even comedy could not save him. And yet, it seems that comedy perhaps did save him and is the reason why Williams fought for so long. Nesteroff asserts that “The manic presence Williams had onstage was that of a man burning off all those anxieties, all the depression, all that fear” (Nesteroff 357). It now becomes clear that comedy was a safe haven to Williams. Essentially, comedy saved him from himself.

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There is a strange power in joy and in the idea that a joke can transcend a person out of himself or herself and take them to a place that is more authentic and safe. In his interview with Judd Apatow, Jon Stewart mentions the hardships one endures by being a comedian, the difficulty of the craft and the lifestyle specifically. Despite this he notes: “I will say this: Through it all, I have always retained the ability to feel the joy of the funny. When somebody comes up with something really funny or we hit a jag where it’s clicking, that still feels like that wave you’ve been chasing. It can still make me jump up and down like a little kid. That’s what you chase” (Jon Stewart, 237).

The joy of the funny, therefore, is all about this chase. It is about finding a reason to love life despite the hardships and sickness and heartache. It is a search for meaning in one’s life and a way for comedians to leave their mark on the person in the audience. Making another person laugh in it of itself is a transcendent experience because it means something was so funny, so vivacious, that they need to open their mouth and inhale more air, and therefore more life. Joy and laughter make people want to live. Although these comedians struggle internally, they are giving a gift to the American community that they themselves so need.

Comedy is a positive force in society, but that does not mean that there is not a serious brokenness embedded in it. The number of successful comedians whose vibrant personalities hide a shockingly tragic interior is shocking. Merely looking at Shecky Greene, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Roseanne Barr, Maria Bamford, and Robin Williams, who are all household names, could experience such pain, but articulate it so candidly, is stunning. It is apparent that comedy is about both pain and joy, and above all, that no matter the pain, somewhere hiding inside is joy.

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Works Cited Anxieties. By Maria Bamford. The Laugh Factory. 2010. Performance.

Bamford, Maria. Interview. Sick in the Head. 2016: 493-508. Print.

Barr, Roseanne. Interview. Sick in the Head. 2014: 382-400. Print.

Maron, Marc. Interview. The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels and the History of American Comedy. 2015: 356. Print.

Martin, Steve. Born Standing Up. New York: Scribner, 2007. Print.

Nesteroff, Kliph. The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels and the History of American Comedy. New York: Grove Press, 2015. Print.

“The Official Biography of Richard Pryor.” Richard Pryor. Web. 26 Nov 2018.

Stewart, Jon. Interview. Sick in the Head. 2014: 226-237. Print.

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Pornography: A Right or a Risk?

Rebekah Balick Today’s society has an enormous capacity to ignore—to look the other way. Everyone, it seems, understands that there are certain aspects of adults’ private lives that the rest of society does not ask about or interfere with—after all, what business is it of theirs? Watching pornography, the viewing of material containing sexually explicit content intended for sexual arousal, is one such aspect. It is a subject that people do not discuss in polite company, yet one that invades many people’s lives. While some outright defend it, and even those who do not tend to simply ignore its existence, further research into the topic shows that pornography can be incredibly mentally and even physically harmful both to those who view it and to those involved in its production. In the first case, the harm lies in the strong addiction that affects the mind of the viewer; in the second, there are countless sources detailing the mental and physical abuse that actors and actresses in the industry are subject to. Many deny the harm that it causes, with reasons ranging from defending pornography as free speech or simply urging others to accept its existence and leave it alone. Yet as evidence revealing the harm that pornography causes mounts, indifference no longer remains an option. Once a product becomes harmful to society as a whole, it is no longer “none of our business”: it begins to affect everyone, and society must decide if it will allow the product to persist. As evidence of pornography’s detrimental effects becomes apparent, humanity inherits the responsibility to stop the spread of pornography because of the damage that it causes to those who produce it, those who consume it, and the entire society under which its presence festers.

Pornography is a product, and though many will deny it, the process of producing it causes vast amounts of harm for those involved. A popular defense of pornography is that the

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industry is safe; the actors are perfectly protected and participate because they want to and choose to. Yet evidence continues to come to light revealing the abuse and corruption within the industry. The website “Fight The New Drug” has compiled multiple testimonies of former porn stars who, now out of the industry, are able to voice their experiences (“10 Popular Ex-Porn Performers”). Disproving the claim that these performers “do it because they like to do it”, former star Elizabeth said she repeatedly “lied to [her] fans” and “led them to believe [she] lived a fantasy life”. In reality, however, her life and work were far more brutal than she let on, and she cited multiple instances in which she was forced into situations that she had not agreed to.

Another actress, Jenna, stated that her experience was “torture for seven years” during which she was “miserable”, lonely, and suicidal. Multiple girls cite instances of being “hit,” “choked,” and “beaten half to death” on set. Yet all of this abuse is denied by the industry. In February of 2018, the porn industry hosted its “Oscars of Porn” to celebrate the industry’s accomplishments and “progress” (Romero). This particular year, however, the porn stars in attendance had to honor the lives of five female porn actresses who had committed suicide since their previous award show (Romero). The “wave of tragedy” had “generated global headlines” as many interpreted the suicides as evidence of the evils of the porn industry. However, the industry has implied that they attribute the deaths to “cyberbullying…from outside the industry”, dismissing the idea that perhaps the industry itself had caused the victims’ depression (Romero). Ironically, this same award ceremony also faced scandals regarding the rampant sexual abuse occurring on porn filming sites, even having to ban certain directors and stars from the proceedings for “groping”, “harassment”, and even violence toward performers (Romero). Suppression of other scandals, such as HIV outbreaks and sexual disease statistics, are incredibly common in the industry, as evidenced by former stars who testify that there “are a lot of cover-ups going on” (“10 Popular

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Ex-Porn Performers”). The fact that an industry this powerful can deny any blame for the pain— physical and emotional—that these women experience is sickening and concerning. With this evidence proclaiming the evils of the industry, one ought to find it abundantly clear that this business is not akin to any other private business: it is one that demeans, harms, and violates.

In addition to the physical and psychological damage that pornography brings to the actors, viewing of porn also has drastic effects on those who consume the content. A 2014 study on Indian male migrant workers concluded, after extensive research, that those who view porn frequently have a much higher risk of HIV infections and are more likely to spread sexually transmitted diseases to others (Mahapatra). The study suggests that this link may be due to the fact that the participants who viewed porn were far more likely to engage in premarital and extramarital sex, to favor multiple sex partners as opposed to one, to drink before engaging in intercourse, and to frequent brothels (Mahapatra). Another statistic of the 2014 study reports that pornography viewers were more likely to practice violent sexual behavior—an alarming statistic that is supported by studies performed in other nations. Evidence indicates that Western porn viewers are more likely to have multiple sex partners and report sexual aggression levels that are “four times higher than those who do not consume pornography” (Mahapatra). And indeed, evidence exists of violent acts relating to pornography consumption; in 2005, a woman by the name of Jane Longhurst was brutally murdered by a man who had been consuming “violent pornography” online for years (Pasanen). Other sources show that “exposure to… pornography results in increases in both attitudes supporting sexual aggression and in actual aggression” (Dines). The same studies show that even in cases where the porn is not “violent”, those who view it frequently still experience disruption in their emotional connections with real-life partners and disappointment because their partners cannot “perform” like porn stars (Dines).

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Overall, exposure to pornography jeopardizes the healthy sexual development and education of those who use it and harms their ability to create healthy connections and relationships.

Another way in which pornography harms its consumers is through the formation of a powerful addiction. Though the industry discredits claims of pornography’s addictive qualities, organizations and support groups are appearing more frequently to help those struggling with an “addiction” to pornography (Jenkins). Journalist Howard W. Jenkins Jr. cites Dr. Mark Laaser as saying that “sexual fantasy and activity, because of naturally produced brain chemicals, has the ability to create brain tolerance to sex” and turn people into “sex addicts”. Multiple instances have been cited of pornography addictions disrupting marriages and relationships and of people being fired for viewing pornography while at work (Jenkins). The fact that pornography can become so addictive reinforces the fact that it is more than harmless entertainment; it is a real problem that is drastically affecting the lives of those exposed to it. Mary Eberstadt, in her article “Is Pornography the New Tobacco?”, compares the rise of pornography to the prevalence of tobacco use in the 1950s and 60s. Pornography, she states, is reaching the same levels of consumption that tobacco smoking did in the past, and gaining just as many ardent defenders.

Just like tobacco users of the past, pornography consumers create justifications and use nearly identical rationales for their right to continue in their addiction. They extol its benefits: stress relief, pleasure, a form of relaxation that does not interfere with their personal lives. They cite that it causes no harm, that everybody is using it, and that, at the very least, they are not consuming something worse. These rationales are incredibly similar to the defense of tobacco that existed in the past, as people passionately debated for the right to smoke and “experts” refuted the claims that smoking caused physical harm. Eberstadt suggests that just as the tobacco addiction clouded smokers’ judgement of its potential dangers, the addiction to pornography is

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blinding consumers to the harm that it causes in society. While not conclusive, Eberstadt’s claim regarding the striking similarities between these two phenomena ought to raise concern as to the nature of pornography’s addictive quality and questions as to whether the addiction is preventing a discussion about the mounting evidence of pornography’s harm.

One of the most popular arguments in favor of pornography is that it is a form of expression and free speech protected by the First Amendment. Currently, the US government has in place free speech restrictions on obscene content that “appeals to prurient interest” and “lacks serious value” (Downs). However, “obscene” remains difficult to define; the specifications currently in place are broad enough that proponents could easily argue that “virtually any pornography has ‘value’ ”, thus complicating the restriction process (Curtis). Some praise its existence just as much as they praise controversial political material, defending it because pornography challenges the established social morality and “invites you to think” (Carol). Critics of pornographic censorship have argued that censorship in this area is too much of a slippery slope to censorship in other areas (Curtis). Yet this argument is far less convincing when the nature of pornography is considered in more detail. Firstly, the notion that pornography is “of value” to society is highly contestable. Secondly, pornography is far more complex than mere “offensive speech.” The difference between pornography and other kinds of censorship is that pornography does not merely “challenge” the established morality: it threatens the entire moral compass of society and directly harms individuals. Professor Catharine MacKinnon laments that “pornography is defended as only words… even when the means of writing are women’s bodies, even when a woman is destroyed to say it” (qtd. in Pasanen). Pornography is not mere words or speech; it is a practice that causes harm and therefore much more difficult to defend.

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Another defense of the industry is that the depictions of sex are no more dangerous than depictions of violence in other media. Yet this assumption is refutable for a very clear reason: pornography is different from other forms of entertainment media. Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., has stated after years of research that “pornographic sexual images are quite different from entertainment sex and violence: they are real. They are processed differently.” He even distinguishes pornography from sex scenes in TV shows or movies, saying that these scenes “don’t play on the powerful chemical signals that real sexual stimuli activate”, thus showing that porn is processed in a way totally different from other forms of “entertainment.” Other studies reveal that pornography has direct effects on cognition because of the way that “media images shape our cognition and behavior” (Dines). Humans “build our sexual identities, norms, and values from the images and messages that pervade our culture”, and if pornography is the media through which one is receiving “sexual education”, then it will certainly warp and distort one’s view of sex and human relationships in a way that is harmful for everyone (Dines). Pornography is not divorced from reality the same way that other fictional media is; it is real, it is portrayed as real, healthy, and desirable, and its prevalence only reinforces the harmful tendencies it displays.

In addition to harming both consumers and producers, pornography also poses a substantial threat to society as a whole. Mika Pasanen, in discussing pornography’s social impact, states that pornography’s “primary rule is transgression” against the standard norms and contexts of sexual behavior. In his discussion, Pasanen emphasizes the role of the family unit in sexual education of young people, stating that “the family produces the boundaries of… good, licit sex” by demonstrating “monogamy, marriage, and procreative sexuality as the norm.” Yet pornography seeks to obliterate these barriers and, as it gains traction, usurp the role of the family in teaching sexual morality. If it succeeds, young people will begin to believe that sex in

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the real world takes place in the same context as pornography—namely, that it takes place outside the bond of love, that it is permissibly violent and abusive, and that women and men in real life will “perform” the same way that porn stars do. Researchers fear the possibility that “behavior on the screen will be internalized” and “representations of violent sex [will] incite consumers to act it out” (Pasanen). According to Gail Dines, pornography affects young people, especially young boys, by “robbing them of their right to develop sexually in ways that are… developmentally appropriate.” Pornography, rather than “[promoting] sexual freedom… constrains our imaginations and desires” (Dines). Even more frightening is the way in which pornography teaches people to use one another. With the way it depicts sex, pornography turns people into objects that may be used for selfish personal pleasure and profit, thus tearing away their inherent dignity. Such a practice ought to be incredibly concerning since demeaning the human dignity of anyone inevitably leads to the disregard for the human dignity of others. If sex comes to be viewed in this light—as an act that is available for personal pleasure with little to no mention of consent—it will break apart marriage, perpetuate rape and violence, increase the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and demean the dignity of the human person.

Yet what can be done to stop it? Unfortunately, many scholars, despite their negative views of pornography, believe that the “genie is out of the bottle”—that pornography is here to stay (Eberstadt). Pasanen argues that the “ ‘pornographic imagination’ cannot be limited by law as it inherently feeds on such prohibitions;” in other words, laws that outlaw extreme pornography will only lead to increased levels of eroticization in pornography because the very “forbidden” nature of pornography is part of its appeal. Creating and passing official legislation that restricts pornography is all-too-often criticized as “policing the behavior of consenting adults” and trespassing on the right to free speech (Jenkins). As a result, the government has

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done little, the pornography industry has grown immeasurably, and many believe that it cannot be stopped. Still, other solutions remain. Just as popular opinion, education, and openness to factual information changed the smoking trend, a shift in societal attitudes may be the best way to prevent pornography’s precedence (Eberstadt). If individuals refrain from using it and do not waste opportunities to condemn it in our societies, listening to victims and telling of its evils, society will have much greater success in ending pornography’s influence. The Supreme Court has ruled in the past against material that poses a moral threat to society (Downs). If a public body can succeed in proving its harm, the government will be more willing to put an end to it. In other words, if public policy cannot stop it, perhaps the people can.

In conclusion, pornography as a form of media ought to be outlawed for the harm that it causes to those who produce it, those who consume it, and the society as a whole. Reliance on governments to fix the issue is not enough; rather, the public must become more aware of its consequences and work to rid society of its evils. Pornography disrupts one’s perception of the dignity of others; this fact alone ought to be enough to show that it should never to be upheld or supported. Society has a duty to use its powerful voice to keep such material out of communities, homes, and families. Never before has the public had such a powerful voice in the government or law, and as such, it must use its knowledge and belief in dignity to oppose those who seek to debase human sexuality and those who remain indifferent. Pornography is an evil, and once its evil is removed from society, the ideals of human dignity and healthy sexuality may be rebuilt and promoted once more. Only by standing up for human dignity do humans fulfill their moral responsibility to society and to each other; only then does humanity succeed.

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Works Cited “10 Popular Ex-Porn Performers Reveal The Brutal Truth Behind Their Most Famous Scenes.” Fight the New Drug, Fight the New Drug, 27 Oct. 2017, fightthenewdrug.org/ 10-porn-stars-speak-openly-about-their-most-popular-scenes/. Accessed 12 December 2018.

Curtis, Michael K. "Critics of 'free speech' and the uses of the past." Constitutional Commentary, Spring 1995, pp. 29-65. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/ apps/doc/A16889326/OVIC?u=msmu_gvrl&sid=OVIC&xid=2f7e22b8. Accessed 12 Dec. 2018.

Carol, Avedon. "Pornography Should Not Be Censored." Pornography, edited by Helen Cothran, Greenhaven Press, 2002. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010158243/OVIC?u=msmu_gvrl&sid=OVIC&xi d=35031335. Accessed 12 Dec. 2018.

Dines, Gail. "Pornography Contributes to Sexual Violence." Sexual Violence, edited by Amanda Hiber, Greenhaven Press, 2014. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010163404/OVIC?u=msmu_gvrl&sid=OVIC&xi d=2d144ff8. Accessed 12 Dec. 2018. Originally published as "Congressional Briefing on the Harms of Pornography," Gaildines.com, 26 June 2010.

Downs, Donald A. "Freedom of Speech: Obscenity and Pornography." American Governance, edited by Stephen Schechter, et al., vol. 2, Macmillan Reference USA, 2016, pp. 308311. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX36291002 89/OVIC?u=msmu_gvrl&sid=OVIC&xid=5c76eb80. Accessed 12 Dec. 2018.

Eberstadt, Mary. "Is pornography the new tobacco?" Policy Review, no. 154, 2009, p. 3+.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A198361524/ OVIC?u=msmu_gvrl&sid=OVIC&xid=9cb28ee7. Accessed 12 Dec. 2018.

Jenkins Jr., Holman W. "Pornography, Main Street To Wall Street." Policy Review, 2001, p. 3.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A70741314/ OVIC?u=msmu_gvrl&sid=OVIC&xid=ca406153. Accessed 12 Dec. 2018.

Mahapatra, Bidhubhusan, and Niranjan Saggurti. "Exposure to Pornographic Videos and Its Effect on HIV-Related Sexual Risk Behaviours among Male Migrant Workers in Southern India." PLoS ONE, vol. 9, no. 11, 2014. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A417793724/OVIC?u=msmu_gvrl&sid=OVIC&xid =3f4c1f1b. Accessed 12 Dec. 2018.

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Pasanen, Mika. "Visual violations: the ban on extreme pornography, politics of representation, and the discursive creation of 'docile bodies'." Journal of International Women's Studies, vol. 12, no. 2, 2011, p. 16+. Global Issues in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A260493693/OVIC?u=msmu_gvrl&sid=OVIC&xid =1a6ed331. Accessed 12 Dec. 2018.

Romero, Dennis. "Porn industry reckons with assault allegations and a string of deaths."

Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2018. Global Issues in Context, https://link.galegroup.com /apps/doc/A527809161/OVIC?u=msmu_gvrl&sid=OVIC&xid=dfef3cc2. Accessed 12 Dec. 2018.

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Pretty in Pink: The Expectations of Women in Rome Haley Bodner Ancient Rome was a hotbed of masculine ideals, an empire built on the military triumphs and the powerful ambitions of men. However, often forgotten to history are the women who stood beside their fathers, husbands, and sons throughout their military and political careers.

Women, often confined to the household and rearing of children in many other ancient societies, had a prevalent role in Ancient Rome. Their responsibilities changed from the time of kings to the time of emperors, but what was expected of their personalities remained constant. The purity and grace of a daughter, the loyalty of a wife, and the kindness and knowledge of a mother were all essential qualities for women throughout Rome’s history as is shown through the works of Livy and Ancient Roman funeral descriptions.

The instrumental role played by women in the founding of Rome is quite clearly evident even from its first origins; their significance is seen through the actions of the Sabine women.

When Romulus founded Rome, he invited the exiles of the surrounding towns. These men wished for a new start, which Romulus offered them in his new city on the hill. However, a glaring problem struck the new Romans. A lack of women would result in their city dying out in the generation. Romulus’ legacy was to find a great city, not one that would succumb to fading out in his lifetime. To remedy this problem, Romulus called on the neighboring cities to join Rome in the festival of Consualia, a festival honoring a deity of the harvest and stored grains. Recently snubbed by the Sabines, Romulus’ plan primarily targeted them. As Livy tells it,

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“The show began, and nobody had eyes or thoughts for anything else. This was the Roman’s opportunity: at a given signal all the able-bodied men burst through the crowd and seized the young women” (Livy 41). This is the story of the first women of Rome and how their actions would make a lasting impression on the expectations of women for centuries to come.

To ease the worries of the taken women, Romulus moved among them and assured them that married women would share in the fortunes of Rome. The men themselves echoed Romulus’ sentiments, speaking sweet words and promising that love had prompted their offense. These words touched the women’s hearts and prompted them to forget their anger and forge proper bonds with their new husbands. The frustrations of their fathers and brothers were not so easily talked away, however. The Sabines, along with several of the neighboring tribes, attempted to wage war against the Romans, ending in a series of military defeats for the challengers.

Meanwhile, Rome grew stronger and improved their own reputation with their military victories.

The final advance of the Sabines was led by Mettius Curtius, who suffered humiliation from the Roman’s charge. However, the battle was never completed.

Seeing the slaughter of their fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons, the Sabine women stepped into battle. In Livy’s words, “With loosened hair and rent garments they braved the flying spears and thrust their way in a body between the embattled armies” (Livy 45). While separating their warring families, the women begged their fathers, protesting that “our children are your sons- your grandsons: do not put on them the stain of parricide…turn your anger against us. We are the cause of strife…we would rather die ourselves than live on either widowed or orphaned” (Livy 45,46). Moments after this call for

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peace, the rival captains stepped forward to officially outline the terms of peace. These brave women united the two cities, doubling Rome’s population with their plea.

As one can see in the story of the Sabines, women were influential in Rome from the time of the city’s foundation. The women had sway over their husbands and fathers, showing that their opinions must have been valued by the men at that time. The bravery and loyalty exhibited by the Sabine women remained crucial traits to women in Rome. They were expected to defend their husbands’ and fathers’ honor while still remaining loyal to their husbands.

These virtues of bravery and loyalty are once again praised in the first century BC, as seen in funeral inscriptions made by husbands to their wives. Most notably, in the “Praise of Turia” a mourning husband recounts his wife’s bravery throughout the turbulent civil wars.

While her husband was absent, Turia persecuted those who wished to steal her inheritance. After her parents were murdered, she defended her and her husband’s claim to the inheritance “with so much dedication, even if we [her husband and brother-in-law] had been present, we could not have presented a better case than you did” (Inscriptions 453). As a result of her strong arguments, the case was dropped against her. As told by her husband, “you had succeeded in the task you had taken entirely upon yourself, namely to defend obligation to your father, your familial duty to your sister, and your loyalty to me” (Inscriptions 453). This source was written several hundred years after the Sabine women ended the war of their fathers and husbands, thus exhibiting that Roman men continued to value the women in their lives.

In the “Praise of Turia,” her husband outlines the significance of her bravery and courage.

He dedicates several paragraphs of her funeral speech to outlining the amazing deeds she did.

Additionally, he highlights other praised virtues that she had in common with other women. Her modesty, religious dedication, wool working, and general kindness are all admired by her

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husband (Inscriptions 453). These virtues were also praised in other funeral speeches to mothers, wives, and daughters, showing how widely these qualities were desired in the society.

Although many of these funeral inscriptions are shorter than “Praise of Turia”, they convey the same raw emotions of grief and love. Children wrote of their mothers so that they could “recall her many great deeds, as a way of healing the terrible wound of grief that gnaws at our hearts” (Inscriptions 470). In these speeches and engravings, people praise the other significant virtues that Turia’s speech breezed over. A father highlights his daughter’s superior beauty along with her skills in wool-spinning and singing. Grieving children remember their mother’s truthful nature, reverence for the gods, good sense, fertility, and chastity (Inscriptions 469).

While many of these virtues expected of women originate from the Sabines, the expectations of chastity can be traced back to the founding of the republic. Under the reign of King Tarquin the Proud, the princes decided that they would have a contest of wives. One soldier claimed that Lucretia will win without a doubt. When they met her, she is spinning wool while the other wives were engaged in a gluttonous feast (Livy 100). Sextus Tarquinius fell in love with her at first sight and made plans to take her.

When night fell, Sextus snuck into Lucretia’s room and threatened her with death. She did not fear death but succumbed to his threat of dishonoring her and allowed Sextus to have his way with her. In the words of Livy, “even the most resolute chastity could not have stood against this dreadful threat” (Livy 101). Lucretia wrote to her father and husband, urging them to come to her immediately with a trusted friend. Upon arrival, she explained what had happened. All three men

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claimed she was innocent of the sin as “it was the mind…that sinned, not the body: without intention there could never be guilt” (Livy 102). Despite this, Lucretia committed suicide after they promised that Sextus would be punished. The trusted friend, Lucius Brutus, swore on her blood that he would avenge her. Returning to Rome, Brutus and the others present drove the Tarquin family out of the city by turning the population against the tyrant.

Lucretia’s chastity was valued among women throughout Rome’s history. Adulterous actions were punishable by death or banishment for women. At the fall of the Republic, the loyalty and chastity of a man’s wife had significant ties to the man’s reputation as well. Gaius Julius Caesar divorced his second wife, Pompeia, on the suspicion of adultery with a Roman politician (Suetonius 3). The suspected action led to a judiciary inquiry into the politician and Pompeia, thus beginning the Bona Dea scandal. However, this same code of conduct was not held to men as Julius Caesar became known as “every woman’s husband and every man’s wife” (Suetonius 25). This emphasis on women’s loyalty was ingrained into many ancient societies, and Rome was no exception to this rule.

However, compared to many civilizations present in the Mediterranean basin and Middle East during this time, Roman women enjoyed many freedoms. The women of classical Athens were expected “to live secluded lives, out of the public eye, largely segregated from men and male social life” (Beard 307). In contrast, Roman women seemed to enjoy much more freedom in a more integrated society. The household was not divided into male and female spheres, and many women in Rome did assist their husbands in business. In an epigraph in dedication to his wife, a Roman man spoke of his wife as an “ally in [his]business dealings in Rome” crediting her with keeping the house safe. The epigraph also mentions that the wife helped her husband in

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advising him in business, showing that a women’s intelligence in business, and the home was valued among the populace (Inscriptions 471).

This involvement in business and more flexible household gender roles allowed for women in Rome to have much more freedom than their counterparts in other ancient civilizations.

Most shocking compared to other ancient civilizations is the right to property that women held. When married, a woman did not have to become the property of her husband or take his name, instead she had the choice to remain the property of her father, thus securing her inheritance. After her father’s death, a woman was entitled to an inheritance, buying and selling property in her own name, creating a will, and freeing her slaves, provided that she was still a member of his family (Beard 308). These rights were nearly unheard of in the ancient times, as the woman often lost her inheritance to her husband when she married. By giving women the choice to remain the property of their father’s family, Rome once again shows to be more progressive then other ancient civilizations. Not unlike other civilizations, Rome required women to have a guardian, known as a tutor, approve her decisions and transactions. When Augustus came into power during the early Empire, one of his reforms was to remove the required guardian for freeborn women who had three children; for women who were ex-slaves, four children were required. When Roman women fulfilled their womanly virtues, in this case having three or more children, they were granted additional freedoms. However, in other societies, these virtues were merely expected of the women. In these other societies, a woman’s virtues were not acknowledged in a political or social sphere.

As was custom in every ancient society, women in Rome were expected to marry and have children. When belonging to the higher classes, women had little control over whom they married. Their marriages were often to secure their father’s or brother’s political campaigns by

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using a marriage to gather allies. During the First Triumvirate, Gaius Julius Caesar married his daughter Julia to his ally Pompey to secure his loyalty. These political marriages were not always unhappy. Pompey and Julia were believed to have been deeply devoted to each other, to the point where her death led to the breakdown of Pompey’s and Caesar’s political alliance (Beard 310).

Through her marriage, the woman was expected to give birth to an heir for her husband.

A wife’s fertility was one of the many praised attributes in the epigraphs recovered from the Roman Empire. However, this expectation carried a large risk to a woman’s health during this time.

Childbirth was the biggest killer of young women throughout the ancient world, to which Rome was no exception. The lack of hospitals and modern medicine led to many deaths caused by hemorrhages, infections, and obstructions that are now preventable. Also lacking any form of reliable contraceptives, women spent a large portion of their lives pregnant. If they survived childbirth, women were still not guaranteed an easy life. As many as half of the children born in Rome died before reaching ten years old, creating a cycle of mourning for the family. Despite past speculation that the high infant mortality rate meant ancient parents did not create emotional attachment to their children, they in fact did mourn the loss of each of their children (Beard 317). Many touching epigraphs expressed the grief of fathers and mothers, one to an infant who left behind her “grieving mother and father” tells that they both “weep for her as she lies, little body enclosed in a marble tomb” (Inscriptions 472).

The expectation to bear children with terrible odds for their own survival while also having to overcome the depression that must follow losing a child, show that the women of the time were expected to be both mentally and physically strong.

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The expectations for Roman women span a wide spectrum of traits: bravery, courageousness, modesty, loyalty, chastity, intelligence, beauty, fertility, and strength. Despite the fact many ancient societies expected women to take a subservient role in society, the personality expected of Roman women clearly painted by Livy and the funeral epigraphs shows them in a brighter light. The women of Ancient Rome were valued for more than just their beauty and fertility, with many having to be the main breadwinner when their husbands were in political exile. The more diverse duties expected of a woman in ancient Rome also lead to a lengthier list of personality traits for an ideal woman, but with this came more freedoms than anywhere else in the ancient world.

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Works Cited Beard, Mary. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. New York: Liveright, 2015.

David, Jacques-Louis. “The Intervention of the Sabine Women.” 1799. Daily Art Magazine.

Musee du Louvre. http://www.dailyartmagazine.com/the-time-intervention-sabinewomen/.

“Inscriptions.” In Ancient Rome: An Anthology of Sources. Edited by Christopher Francese and R. Scott Smith. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2014.

Livy. The Early History of Rome. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. London: Penguin Classics, 2002 “Marble plaque showing parturition scene.” c.400BCE-300CE. Brought to Life. Science Museum London. http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/objects/display?id=92258.

Mazzanti, Ludovico. “The Death of Lucretia.” c.1730. Britannica. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lucretia-ancient-Roman-heroine.

Poussin, Nicolas. “The Rape of the Sabine Women.” Sartle. Louvre Museum. https://www.sartle.com/artwork/the-rape-of-the-sabine-women-nicolas-poussin.

Suetonius. The Twelve Caesars. Translated by Robert Graves. London: Penguin Classics, 2007.

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To Be Well-Versed in the Language of Calamity Kaitlyn Heintzelman H.P. Lovecraft is not a stranger to the particularly gruesome and horrific. In fact, his stories thrive in a forbidden, unnatural setting. Not only does he explore a world containing veiled knowledge, but also hints at the dangers of human curiosity, and above all, the danger of being a misinformed and weak human being. Despite the severity, Lovecraft manages to mold these feelings of horror in one phrase: “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!”. It is apparent that in his short story At the Mountains of Madness, Lovecraft uses the phrase “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!” for a twofold reason: it is both a cry of pain of oppression and a manifestation of fear uttered when one comes into contact with evil incarnate.

Lovecraft borrows the phrase “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!” from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. In the novel, Poe first associates the cry with natives dwelling in Antarctica where “with the strangest expressions of mingled horror, rage, and intense curiosity depicted on their countenances, and shouting, at the top of their voices, “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!”

(Poe 125). Immediately the phrase connotes an air of fear and revulsion. Though it is unclear whether the phrase comes from the speaker’s native language or merely a name invented for this unnamed entity, it is evident that this phrase wields power. One does not say it lightly or without purpose. In other words, one only utters this phrase when encountered with evil. Poe later connects the phrase to enigmatic white birds: “The darkness had materially increased, relieved only by the glare of the water thrown back from the white curtain before us. Many gigantic and pallidly white birds flew continuously now from beyond the veil, and their scream was the eternal Tekeli-li! as they retreated from our vision” (139). In this sense, the phrase escalates to the knowledge one has from spending time “beyond the veil,” as in the afterlife. And more than Moorings 34

this, the afterlife is horrific; whatever was seen “beyond the veil” caused the birds to fly away from it desperately. This is Lovecraft’s starting place with the phrase “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!” – it is a phrase that transcends the physical world and also perhaps contains racial undertones.

Lovecraft’s protagonist, Dyer, thinks of Poe’s novel as he explores the forbidden tunnels and hears “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li” being uttered (Lovecraft 331). Like Poe, Lovecraft associates the phrase with whiteness as Dyer and Danforth hear the “sound behind the advancing white mist” (331) and birds as an “insidious musical piping” (332). It soon becomes evident that the repeated phrase is coming from shoggoths, “a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train” (335). Though these shapeless entities are monstrous, Lovecraft makes clear that they are not the evil implied nor do the shoggoths utter the phrase out of fear because they are in the presence of evil. Rather, the shoggoths cry “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li” out of imitation for their creator, the Elder Things. Dyer discovers this truth “at last when [he and Danforth] remembered that the daemoniac shoggoths – given life, thought, and plastic organ patterns solely by the Elder Things ( or Old Ones), and having no language save that which the dot-groups expressed – had likewise no voice save the imitated accents of their bygone masters” (335). In one instance, then, the cry symbolizes a pain that comes from oppression or slavery. Though the shoggoths are now free of the Elder Things and most likely caused the Elder Things to retreat to the ocean, they still do not possess consciousness or intelligence. Even free, they still have to rely on their masters because the only language they know comes from their enslavers. This creates a daunting reality for anyone enslaved: is there ever really freedom? Furthermore, at the end of the short story when either the speaker or Danforth cries “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li” one reading could be that the speaker is now a slave to the Elder Things, and therefore a victim of evil itself.

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Though “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li” can express the pain of being enslaved, it also implies even darker possibilities. It is plausible that fear is manifested in “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li” when one comes into contact with evil itself. At the end of the short story Danforth succumbs to madness from staring at evil through human eyes. Danforth did not see shoggoths from the plane because he and Dyer had already seen them during the chase (335), therefore, what Danforth did see must either be another monster or the dwelling place of evil. In this light, the shoggoths could be attracted to the evil present and cry “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!” because they want to be enslaved by the unknown evil. At the same time, the shoggoths could be the creators of the unnamed evil, thereby being evil incarnate. Regardless, when Danforth in his madness cries “Tekeli-li! Tekelili!”(340) he has become one with the horror, not only a victim but also part of the calamity.

Truly, when one comes into contact with evil, the only way to express the fear and the absolute horror of what one has seen is through “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!” When one utters this, it is because they have seen “beyond the veil,” and that person contains a knowledge forbidden to humanity.

Admittedly, “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!” is frustratingly unexplained and one can only guess at Lovecraft or Poe’s true intention. At the same time, this aspect only adds to the power and horror of the phrase. Though “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!” is used both as a cry of oppression and a manifestation of evil, it seems evident that this phrase is only used as a manifestation of evil, for matters of oppression sit under the heading of evil. Perhaps this is unintended by Lovecraft, who exhibited racist tendencies himself, regardless, “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!” is congruent with all sorts of evil, which includes matters of fear, oppression and racism. Evil or not, shoggoths were slaves. They were made to be unthinking and unfeeling, yet the Elder Thing’s scheme did not take into account the desire for freedom that can be born even in the darkest of places. Shoggoths

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release evil out of despair, and if this is true, then perhaps the world, in all its brokenness, is deserving of the calamities it causes.

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Works Cited Lovecraft, H.P. “At the Mountains of Madness.’ The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories. Ed. S. T. Joshi. New York: Penguin Books, 2001. 246-340. Print.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Generic NL Freebook Publisher.EBSCOhost,msm.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.as px?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1086012. Accessed 16 Feb. 2019.

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Beauty is in the Eye of the Audience Scott Korte Theatre as an art form is meant to communicate something, anything, that a playwright is trying to say. The playwright may intend for a message of social rebellion, one of familial love, or one of simple retrospect. However, that message, no matter how apparent, is not always the same clear-cut focal point when looked at by audiences from different cultures. Arthur Miller’s play describing the life and fall of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman is no different than any other play in this regard. When viewed by audiences and performed by actors outside of its native culture, as seen in Britain and China, Death of a Salesman will place emphasis on different aspects of the show’s subtext than originally intended by Miller, while still managing to retain its core themes and finding commonalities in other cultures.

At home, Death of a Salesman is a classic work of the Twentieth century that finds its way into most, if not all, high school English programs. American culture has long introspected on itself, arriving at the same questions time and time again: What is the American dream about, who does it benefit, and how far is one willing to go in order to attain it? Most will argue that the play is about the exhibition of the “American dream” in its most raw form, with Willy constantly combating the specter of success that many around him have achieved; fortune, a stable family setting, success for their children, and respect above all. Additionally, many people believe that Willy is representative of the millions that try to reach that success, and his eventual death highlights the realities that many faced in order to try and reach it. Not everyone is able to achieve dreams, no matter how hard they work, and the failings of this dream are evident in the play. Once this point is made about the Loman family, however, the intricacies of the play are

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lost to most Americans and any secondary themes beyond the impact of the American dream are frequently lost in discussions.

However, secondary themes are truly what give Salesman the depth and brilliance that push it into the spotlight. Reducing Miller’s work to a dance around the American dream would be doing it a greater disservice than referring to Shakespeare as a simple poet. Miller understands the audience that he is writing to and wants to connect with them on a level deeper than a mere recognition of their economic desires. He is able to craft a character who is so obsessed with the success that has eluded him for a lifetime that he is willing to die in order to provide the fruits of that success to his sons. The Lomans are not simply struggling with a classic case of financial mismanagement, they are all wholly enveloped by their own lack of self-efficacy that dysfunction and miscommunication By exhibiting these flaws and ambitions side by side, Miller is able to show Americans just how much their “dream” really can cost, and the sheer depravation and desperation that can go along with it.

With nothing left to do but fumble over questions, then, the most important questions bubble to the top. For example, when a lifetime of expectations and hopes comes crashing down in the span of just a few hours, how does a human being react? When one is forced to reckon with a lifetime of failures and deferred happiness, the result is Willy Loman as we see him.

These questions form the crucible in which discussions of Death of a Salesman reside, propping up criticisms of American dreams of wealth and “success.” With all of that said, it is clear that Death of a Salesman is about so much more than just the American dream, and to reduce it to that is a gross underestimation of its powerful content.

This power is evident in the very first production of the play in 1949 at the Morosco theatre in New York City. With tickets running just under five dollars, anyone would have been

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able to get a seat to the performance outside of the regular reviewer crowd. (Death of a Salesman’s Dreams, Siegel) That night, Willy Loman’s plight was brought into the world for all to see. He was brought out in front of Americans, just like him, no more than ten or twenty miles away from where he lived. In no other place on earth would an audience be able to identify with Willy more than that night in Times Square. What Americans saw in that play was a man beaten down by the weight of his failures and the crippling phantoms of his past. Those watching in 1949 would have well remembered the same humiliation from not more than a decade past during the Great Depression and resonated with those same feelings themselves.

Reviewers such as Brooks Atkinson saw this and recognized it immediately, stating “He is Through. The phantom of his life has caught up with him. As literally as Mr. Miller can say it, dust returns to dust. Suddenly there is nothing.” (NY Times, At the Theatre). Through the years, this identification with Willy has made the play somewhat of an urban legend; a hallmark in the development of America’s collective consciousness about what exactly it is that makes them tick. For Willy, and for “some, especially men… bent forward covering their faces, and others… openly weeping” (Death of a Salesman’s Dreams, Siegel), it means the march towards success, however that be defined in spite of the phantoms it holds.

No matter how American Salesman is, it manages to find a home far away from its origin in New York City. The United Kingdom, for example, has found an audience for Miller’s work and has placed it on tour for decades. This is not wholly unexpected, as the UK and US have much in common with each other, and the themes of the play would not go unnoticed by the British. For centuries, they have been selling themselves to the rest of the world, and for centuries they have produced some of the most motivated salesmen on earth. After all, the founder of free-market thought, Adam Smith, hailed from the British Isles himself. All of this

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said, the UK certainly shares the appreciation of the entrepreneurial spirit that is apparent within Salesman’s DNA. However, when it comes to their reception to Salesman, the reaction is markedly different. Perhaps it is this attitude towards the free market that is the cause, but the British are not sympathetic in the same way to the failures of Willy Loman. Rather, they are sensitive to his economic realities separate from his personal self. Rather than a play about the familial failures of a man deluded in his quest for a better life, Willy Loman’s plight is one of stone-cold economic mismanagement and the consequences that come with it.

With this distinction in mind, the obvious suffering Willy and his family go through is still considered in the minds of British audiences. However, it is more common for initial reactions to center around Willy’s economic situation first and foremost. After all, the British have never had dreams of improving their lot, moving somewhere new, and throwing themselves into the arms of the free market in a chance for wealth in the same way Americans have. As Christina Odone writes, “My American friends may well ask, where is the British Dream. It would seem that there's never been one. And that it's too late now to even envisage.” (Why is there no British equivalent of the American Dream?). The British possess no equivalent cultural desire, no drive for a life that can only be found within their borders. Once upon a time, while the American dream was first beginning to from, the British had pride in their global empire, a pride which has collapsed in the wake of realities that empires are extinct.

This reframing of Willy Loman and, by extension, his family shifts the focus of the play away from the American discussion, while also keeping it in line with the same conclusions. The British will argue that, while Willy’s failures will ultimately crush him and leave his family in disarray, it was truly his economic state that ushered in his end. As reviewer Veronica Horwell states, “Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman (1949) is aware that there are too many salesmen

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for too few territories… Willy’s diminishing life and disappearing employment are attributed not to macroeconomic forces, but to his personal failure, age and declining energy, which anticipates the current neoliberal attitude – it’s all, always, your own fault.” (The Economics of Arthur Miller: salesmen, dockers, and gilded preachers), summing up the view succinctly. Economics drive this play say the British, but in the end Willy’s failures were his own and brought him to his end.

This end is highlighted in the centennial celebration of Miller in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production in 2015. With Antony Sher in the driver’s seat of the play as Willy, the play returns to the British Isles once again and offers another view into the tale of the broken Brooklyn salesman. Audiences to the debacle of the Loman family likely wonder how it is that Willy managed in such a business for so long and marveled at his lack of shame. Businessmen likely saw some of themselves in Willy, or perhaps even the wanderlust of Biff, and all of them would have been able to sympathize with the plight of a salesman who is left out to dry. Michael Billington writes of Salesman, “its combination of compassion for a deeply flawed individual with an attack on the debasement of the American dream that allows business success to be substituted for the noble ideal of equality for all” (Death of a Salesman five-star review). Coming back to the lack of an American dream for the British, it is easy to imagine that opinions such as this are common among audiences in the UK. Sympathy for the man remains, but in the end Willy Loman’s finances were his own fault.

Among all of the conversations about Willy’s financial ruin and its consequences, Salesman has the ability to drift away from economics and find a home in those whose focus is on the family unit. Seemingly antithetical to the collectivistic culture of the country, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is a firm fan of the play. In 1980 Arthur Miller himself was invited to

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Peking (Beijing) to direct the first Chinese production of the show, and he did so gladly. At a first glance, one would not envision an anti-capitalistic culture such as the PRC to appreciate, let alone understand, a play that revolves so heavily around the free market and monetary woes.

Such a collectivistic culture, one would imagine, would be baffled and galvanized by such a performance, thinking that it stands as a clear-cut example as to the reasoning why Communism would be favorable. However, such an expectation only scratches the surface of Chinese culture, which existed for many millennia before Communism took power in the middle of the Twentieth century.

In 1980 there certainly were businessmen in China. The Chinese have practiced commerce as we are familiar with it long before the modern mindset. With the onset of the civil war in the twenties this came to a halt under Communism, yet the spirit remained. More personal forms of sales still exist in the PRC, such as with food or crafts. China is linked with New York in this way, where “You go out on the street here on a Sunday… and you see hawkers and pushcart peddlers and it reminds you of the Lower East Side of Manhattan 40 years ago” (Arthur Miller says Chinese understand his ‘Salesman’). The spirit of the salesman is alive and well in China, but it is not a salesman that audiences see in Willy Loman.

However, the economic woes that Willy faces would have been a mystery to Chinese in 1980, as the man who could afford a home, a car, and appliances was unheard of in the largely agrarian economy of the PRC at the time. Instead, they would see the Loman family and the struggles that stem from them. Chinese culture centers around the concept of the family so strongly that any kind of economic issue that may have been encountered by Willy is overshadowed by his familial distress. Just as the Americans and British had, the Chinese would have looked at the familial dynamics of Willy and his kin and seen something worthy of pity and sympathy, while

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removing themselves from the argument of an economy that, to them, seemed to have rewarded Willy far more than it would ever would for them, at least in the meantime.

The audience of this production was not concerned with ideologies that surrounded Willy, but the more concrete reality of his relationships with his family. The core themes of family would not have escaped the minds of the Chinese audience and would have been at the foreground of any and all judgements that passed upon Willy. They would not have likely known anything regarding life insurance or the dynamics of American sales positions, but they would have been able to keenly feel the desperation of Willy for his life to be better, for his children to succeed, to be willing to die (no matter the futility of it) for his family’s better. After all, China’s economy did not transition to an industrial one until the early 1970s, and even then such capitalistic ventures would have been outside their scope for many years beyond that still.

There would also have been a keen understanding of age gaps between generations, as the issue was reaching a boiling point in China at the time. Gaps in birth rates between generations left a bourgeoning older generation to be in the care of an underprepared younger one, with tensions rapidly rising. The Willies and the Biffs of China would have looked to each other and found understanding, as well as a kind of hope, for the future despite the hostile spite.

The actor playing Willy, Zhu Lin, commented on this in particular, stating “Haven’t we heard enough of how parents pin their hopes on their children, and when their children fail, say, in college entrance exams, they maltreat their own flesh and blood?... That is why we can understand the feelings in this play” (Arthur Miller says Chinese understand his ‘Salesman’).

With a blatant climate of familial tension and abuse on the rise, the dynamic between Biff and Willy would have been a distinct calling card for the Chinese, who were forcibly divided between the old and the young.

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Three countries, three different kinds of audiences, three different frames of mind, and all of these audiences come away from Salesman with their own unique take on the play. Cultures and values will change no matter where someone moves to but, in the end, conclusions can be made that bear some semblance to those found elsewhere. All three of these cultures can look at the Loman family and find bits and pieces of themselves written within them. Any person in these countries can have sympathy for Willy and draw a personal parallel.

However, the economic realities and histories of these audiences results in them viewing Willy and his work in differing ways. Just as with a painting or sculpture that is placed in a museum for others to gaze upon and discuss, Salesman is a play that is placed in front of audiences all around the world and can be discussed multilaterally. The core themes of the play are always mentioned in each interpretation, as they are simply so apparent. However, many times there is a distinct differentiation between cultures on what exactly they see besides that, what they hold to be the most important aspects. The bonds between the members of a family, the financial ruin which plagues a family, and the dreams that family share are just a few specific examples which could represent the many interpretations of Death of a Salesman across the world.

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Works Cited Atkinson, Brooks. “At The Theatre.” The New York Times, 11 February 1949, https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/11/12/specials/millersalesman49.html?module=inline.

Billington, Michael. “Death of a Salesman five-star review – Antony Sher is extraordinary.” The Guardian, 2 April 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/apr/02/death-of-a-salesmanreview-antony-sher-harriet-walter-arthur-miller-rsc.

Dahlby, Tracy. “Arthur Miller Says Chinese Understand His ‘Salesman’.” The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1983/05/01/arthur-miller-says-chineseunderstand-his-salesman/aad51bb6-5c01-4e77-b362cd757cb7fe77/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.158342bfc17e#comments.

Hornwell, Veronica. “The economics of Arthur Miller: salesman, dockers and gilded preachers.”

The Guardian, 2 March 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/mar/02/economicsarthur-miller-view-from-the-bridge-salesman.

Odone, Cristina. “Why is there no British equivalent of the American Dream?” New Statesman America, 17 September 2001, https://www.newstatesman.com/node/154131.

Siegel, Lee. “Death of a Salesman’s Dreams.” The New York Times, 2 May 2012, p. A31.

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Black Motherhood: Why are the Black Babies Dying?

Elizabeth O’Hare For many women, pregnancy is an exciting time for awaiting and preparing for their child. But, for black mothers, this time of excitement may be filled with great fear because of the risk and uncertainty of pregnancy. Black women may be four times more likely than white women to die from complications in pregnancy and their infants are two-and-a-half times as likely as white infants to die before one year of life (Strait 39-53). Complex socioeconomic factors most certainly play a role in the significant health inequalities between white and black mothers and their children, but these factors alone provide an incomplete picture of this disparity.

Authors have proposed the theory of “weathering� to describe the premature aging of black women that contributes to disparities in maternal and infant health among races.

Black Americans are more likely than white Americans to suffer and even die from multiple health complications, such as heart attack and diabetes and are increasingly suffering from chronic illness (Division of Reproductive Health). Simons, et al describe that past studies attribute the black-white health disparity to socioeconomic factors, proposing to resolve this inequality by addressing the causes of poverty through humanitarian efforts and education. But Simons, et al propose that although these efforts work in white communities, they have been unsuccessful for improving black health. It is not only impoverished black Americans who are affected, but even those in the middle and upper classes, indicating that the issue is not rooted in economic standing alone and cannot be eradicated only through increased resources, although these are necessary. The answer to this inequality can be isolated by looking specifically at prenatal care and infant health for black Americans. As John Strait describes, infant mortality is often used to compare health between demographics because it is indicative of social progress, Moorings 48

there are still large racial disparities in infant health and mortality, and the racial gap of infant health has grown along with the concentration of extremely poor blacks into specific communities (39-53). Therefore, studying maternal and infant health is beneficial to understand racial inequalities as a whole.

The New York Times released a story in April 2018 about Simone, a black mother of 2 boys, as well as a girl with whom she was pregnant. When Simone began experiencing severe headaches, fatigue, and swelling, all symptoms of pre-eclampsia, she informed her doctor, who repeatedly prescribed her to take copious amounts of Tylenol to make these symptoms go away.

But they persisted regardless of the Tylenol, and her doctor did not seem concerned. Although doctors are not expected to recognize and properly treat every disease state in a patient, preeclampsia has recognizable symptoms and is considered highly preventable (Nat’l Partnership for Maternal Safety). Pre-eclampsia is a medical condition in which a pregnant woman has newonset high blood pressure beginning after 20 weeks of pregnancy (Delivery Hospitalizations). If not properly treated, it can develop into eclampsia and the woman suffers from seizures, which may lead to comatose and serious health complications, or even death, for both the mother and baby (Delivery Hospitalizations). Simone’s doctor should have recognized her symptoms as something more than “par for the course” of pregnancy, but he did not seem to care enough to show her compassion and provide her needed care. Although Simone sought out medical help, she did not receive adequate attention and care, as so many other black mothers similarly experience.

A 2017 study of Baltimore County hospitals found that there was a significantly higher risk for black mothers (p<0.022), and those with eclampsia (p<0.017) or high blood pressure during pregnancy (0.001) to give birth to low birth weight (LBW) infants (Low Birth Weight). A

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recent statistical brief in the healthcare cost and utilization project reported that black women are almost 60% more likely than white women to develop pre-eclampsia and eclampsia during pregnancy, at a rate of about 70 per 1000 deliveries (Delivery Hospitalizations). Not only are black women more likely to suffer from these conditions, but their diagnosis is often likely to be more severe, leading to harsher symptoms and a greater chance of morbidity and mortality (Delivery Hospitalizations). Therefore, black mothers are not only more likely to give birth to LBW infants because they are at greater risk for pre-eclampsia/eclampsia, but also simply because of their race. Similarly, the former study also found a significant correlation between LBW infants and poor maternal education. In 2000, it was recorded that blacks are three times more likely to live in “extremely poor neighborhoods” and experience long-term negative effects from their impoverished conditions (Strait 39-53). It is not only unemployed and uneducated blacks who live in these impoverished communities, but also those who are employed and welleducated (Strait 39-53). And Witt, et al found that, independent of other factors, the neighborhood environment in which a black mother lives has an effect on birth weight and preterm birth, as well as maternal health (1044-1051). Many black mothers, regardless of education, are concentrated in the black impoverished communities and so are more likely to give birth to LBW infants.

Returning to Simone’s story, the effects of black motherhood and racial healthcare inequality are evident. Simone’s doctor repeatedly brushed aside Simone’s complaints of her severe symptoms and ultimately gave her the option of delivering her baby six weeks early by Csection, seemingly only to conveniently fit his own schedule. In response, Simone felt that “it was like he threw me away” (New York Times). It is not uncommon for black women to have Csections, since they have an escalated risk of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia and about 60% of

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pregnancies with these complications are delivered by C-section, almost double the rate of Csections for pregnancies without pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (Delivery Hospitalizations). But delivering a baby six weeks early for convenience without clear justification for early delivery is absurd. After turning down this offer, Simone returned home to her sons and abusive boyfriend, the father of the child. Only 5 days later, her high blood pressure due to her (still undiagnosed) pre-eclampsia caused the placenta of her daughter to detach from her uterus and sent Simone rushing to the hospital with blood pouring from her cervix.

After giving birth to her still-born daughter, Simone said, “I felt like someone had taken something from me, but also from them,” referring to her two sons who had lost their sister (New York Times). The healthcare system continues to fail to provide proper prenatal care to black mothers. Simone’s words ring true for so many who have been failed by the healthcare system, especially black mothers, who not only receive inadequate prenatal healthcare, but are encouraged to seek abortions to end the life of their children because they feel that they have no other choice. A recent study conducted by the Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood’s research wing, found that black women are almost three times more likely than white women to obtain an abortion (Guttmacher Institute). Although this may be in part because of inadequate healthcare and resources, Jason Riley, a writer for Wall Street Journal, suggested that the main reason abortion rates are so much higher among black women is because of unwed pregnancy. In fact, in 2016, the CDC reported that 69.8% black births were to unmarried women, compared with 28.5% to white women. Like almost three-fourths of black mothers, Simone had to raise her children and go through pregnancy without a husband, although she had an abusive boyfriend in and out of her life during her pregnancy. Many black mothers feel that they have no choice other

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than abortion because they lack the support and necessary resources to raise their children due to unwed pregnancy, among other factors.

Furthermore, unwed pregnancy is not only increasing the fatalities of preborn black babies, but also of black infants. A 2002 study conducted by the CDC indicated that the two biggest contributing factors to black infant mortality were unwed motherhood and teenage pregnancy [4]. In 1850, the black infant mortality rate was 340 per 1000, more than 50% higher than that of white infants, which was 217 per 1000 [2]. The 2002 study reported that a black infant is two-and-a-half times more likely to die before the first year of life than a white infant, irrespective of maternal education, income, or other variables (Strait 39-53). As for age, the percentage of births to black teenagers (29.3%), 15-19 years of age, was more than double that for white teenagers (14.3%) [5]. Amongst these women, 59.6% of black mothers received WIC food during pregnancy, compared to 26.2% of white mothers and 63.3% paid for their delivery with Medicaid, compared with 30.3% of white women, indicating differences in socioeconomic standing between races (Natâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;l Vital Statistics). Yet, even in light of differences in healthcare payment and economic standing, a 1997 study found that higher maternal income did not have a direct impact on black infant mortality, whereas white infant mortality decreased with higher family income (Strait 39-53). Although this study did not account for all variables and is somewhat incomplete, according to Strait, it is, nevertheless, significant that increased income had no clear positive effect on black infant survival as it did for white infants. This indicates that there is more to account for in assessing black infant death than family income alone.

It is well-known that infant morbidity and mortality increase significantly with pre-term birth and low birth weight (LBW; <2500 g) or very low birth weight (VLBW; <1500 g) [6,8]. In fact, LBW in the U.S. is one of the leading causes of infant death, with mortality 24 times higher

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in LBW infants than those of normal weight (>2500 grams) (LBW Deliveries). Studies have also shown that black women and impoverished women are at greater risk for pre-term delivery and for giving birth to LBW/VLBW infants (Maternal Weathering, Neighborhood Disadvantage).

The risk for pre-term delivery is highest in adolescents and older women, significantly increasing with age. In her theory of “weathering” or “accelerated aging,” Geronimus hypothesized that not only does reproductive ability decline as a woman’s health declines with age, but also that black women are more susceptible to early aging and health decline because of intense socioeconomic pressure and discrimination. Simons, et al describe that, “The weathering hypothesis views the elevated rates of illness and disability seen among Black Americans as a physiological response to the structural barriers and daily slights, stereotypes, and other threats to one’s identity that comprise the Black experience.” They propose that the unremitting racial discrimination experienced by black Americans leads to chronic inflammation, which is highly correlated with chronic illness. Therefore, black women face pregnancy complications such as mortality and LBW earlier and more often than white women because they age sooner as a result of the intense stress, pressure, and discrimination to which they are constantly subjected. Various other factors attribute to this early aging, among which are inadequacies and inequalities in healthcare for black women and infants, obstacles to healthy living, exposure to environmental pollutants, and stress imposed by the woman’s environment (i.e. abuse, discrimination, and lack of support) (Maternal Weathering).

Holzman, et al conducted a study to test the weathering hypothesis by comparing preterm delivery rates among mothers of different races and high-risk behaviors (smoking during pregnancy): non-smoking black mothers, smoking black mothers, non-smoking white mothers, and smoking white mothers (Maternal Weathering). They used smoking as an indicator of high-

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risk behavior not only because it is dangerous for fetal health, but also because they assumed it may be used as a coping mechanism for mothers in difficult situations, and therefore potentially suggestive of other high-risk behaviors and unhealthy lifestyle. They found that black smoking mothers had significantly higher rates of pre-term deliveries and aged at accelerated rates, therefore supporting the weathering hypothesis and indicating that black women are more likely to have pre-term deliveries because of premature aging. This premature aging puts both the mother and her children at much higher risk for pregnancy complications associated with age.

The premature aging of black women due to chronic stress and discrimination is a clear example of the pervasive racism that still exists within the United States, and in many other parts of the world. Black mothers and their babies are dying because of a racial inequality that is so intense it causes their bodies to break down sooner and age more rapidly than white women. This weathering cannot be explained only by socioeconomic factors, although these do play a significant role in maternal and infant health, but speaks to a greater problem of racism and discrimination. Black mothers who endure the increased risk of death in pregnancy then face a greater risk of losing their infants, and so often turn to abortion to escape these risks and the burdens of unwed motherhood. Addressing the disparities between black and white mother and infant mortality will require dramatic changes to provide the necessary resources for childrearing and to lower the many contributors and stressors that cause weathering in black women.

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Works Cited “Abortion rates continue to vary by race and ethnicity.” Guttmacher Institute. October 19, 2017.

(Accessed via web December 13, 2018). https://www.guttmacher.org/infographic/2017/abortion-rates-race-and-ethnicity.

D’Alton ME, Main EK, Menard MK, Levy BS. The National Partnership for Maternal Safety.

Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2014;123:973–7.

Fingar, KR (IBM Watson Health), Mabry-Hernandez, I (AHRQ), Ngo-Metzger, Q (AHRQ), Wolff, T (AHRQ), Steiner, CA (Institute for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente), Elixhauser, A (AHRQ). “Delivery Hospitalizations Involving Preeclampsia and Eclampsia, 2005–2014. HCUP Statistical Brief #222.” April 2017. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. Harvey EM, Strobino D, Sherrod L, et al. “Community-Academic Partnership to Investigate Low Birth Weight Deliveries and Improve Maternal and Infant Outcomes at a Baltimore City Hospital”. Maternal Child Health J 2017;21:260-266.

Holzman C, Eyster J, Kleyn M, Messer L, et al. “Maternal Weathering and Risk of Preterm Delivery”. American Journal of Public Health, 2009;99(10):1864-1871.

Martin JA, Hamilton BE, Osterman MJK, Driscoll AK, Drake P. Births: Final Data for 2016.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: National Vital Statistics System.

January 31, 2018. (Accessed December 13, 2018). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr67/nvsr67_01.pdf.

“Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System”. Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Published August 7, 2018. (Accessed December 14, 2018).

Riley, J. “Let’s Talk About the Black Abortion Rate”. The Wall Street Journal. July 10, 2018.

(Accessed via web December 13, 2018). https://www.wsj.com/articles/lets-talk-aboutthe-black-abortion-rate-1531263697.

Simons RL, Lei MK, Beach SRH, et al. “Discrimination, Segregation, and Chronic Inflammation: Testing the Weathering Explanation for the Poor Health of Black Americans.” Developmental Psychology 2018;54(10):1993-2006.

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Strait, JB. “An Epidemiology of Neighborhood Poverty: Causal Factors of Infant Mortality Among Blacks and Whites in the Metropolitan United States.” Association of American Geographers 2006;58(1):39-53.

Villarosa, L. “Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis”. The New York Times Magazine. April 11, 2018. (Accessed December 5, 2018). https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/magazine/black-mothers-babies-death-maternalmortality.html?mtrref=www.google.com.

Witt WP, Park H, Wisk LE, Cheng ER, et al. “Neighborhood Disadvantage, Preconception Stressful Life Events, and Infant Birth Weight”. American Journal of Public Health 2015;105(5):1044-105.

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The First Blast Against the Writings of John Knox: An Investigation of John Knox’s Forms of Argumentation Against Female Monarchy Kelley Northam To say that in the year 1558 Europe was experiencing turmoil in reconciling religion, gender, and the monarchical rule would be a gross understatement. Two queens, Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I, sat upon thrones that had been predominantly occupied by men for centuries. Like their predecessor, Mary I, these women challenged various conventional conceptions of gender that had long been tied to both Catholicism and Protestantism simply through their rule alone, leaving sixteenth-century Europe questioning the validity and moral ramifications of female monarchy. Amid England’s questioning, one sixteenth-century Protestant reformer, John Knox, attempted to answer such questions and remedy the monstrous feminine quagmire that he perceived to be damning all of Europe. This paper examines the writings of John Knox, specifically The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women and his corresponding letter to Queen Elizabeth I. This paper will primarily argue that Knox attempted to undermine female monarchy through a prejudiced exegetical argumentation relating to his theological interpretation of the nature of women, their inferiority in regards to wielding political power, and what defines an “exceptional” woman in the eyes of God. Theological historians such as Geddes MacGregor suggest that dedicating energy to a critical analysis of the inflammatory language against women found in The First Blast… illustrates not only an “ignorance of the historical background but a profound misunderstanding of Christianity” (MacGregor 20). Others, like A. Daniel Frankforter, who have thoroughly examined Knox’s correspondences with women makes a point to appraise how Knox uses such language as he “was convinced of the inferiority of women” (Frankforter 120). This paper aligns itself with Frankforter’s interpretation of how one should analyze Knox’s writings. Furthermore, Moorings 57

it attempts to advance a comprehensive discussion of how Knox’s highly misogynistic language and argumentation has shaped perceptions of gender, politics, and theology in the Sixteenth century and beyond.

John Knox was born around 1514 at Giffordgate in Haddington, Scotland. It is speculated that he received a conventional regional education and later pursued higher learning at St. Andrew’s University, though he did not receive an official degree (Dawson 1). Upon receiving this education, he began to explore his vocation of becoming a minister and was ordained a priest in the late 1530s. He did not begin preaching until around 1547 while hiding in St. Andrew’s Chapel because of his ties to George Wishart, a Protestant reformer who was condemned as a heretic and executed (Dawson 1-2). It was during Knox’s first sermon, where he vehemently denounced the authority of the Pope, as Knox believed him to be the Antichrist depicted in the Book of Revelation, where Knox began to develop his aggressive preaching style. Mainly, Knox interpreted present events through a critically apocalyptic lens by drawing from both the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation (Dawson 2).

As Knox’s Protestant convictions grew stronger, his prose did as well, so much so that he caught the eye of the young Protestant King Edward VI, who appointed him to be the royal chaplain in 1551 (Dawson 5-6). However, due to Edward’s premature death, Knox’s direct ministry to the monarchy was short-lived after his staunchly Catholic half-sister, Mary Tudor, ascended to the English throne following his death. Unsurprisingly, Mary exiled Knox at the end of 1553 and he then relocated to Geneva, Switzerland with his tail between his legs (Dawson 810). Nevertheless, Knox continued to preach against Mary Tudor’s rule, frequently referring to her as an English “Jezebel” because he perceived her as leading England away from the true religion through feminine vice (Dawson 8). This is quite an insult against a staunchly Catholic

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queen because, in the First Book of Kings, Jezebel not only led her husband, King Ahab, away from worshipping Yahweh but also persecuted those who worshiped Yahweh. This is an obvious analog to Mary’s attacks on Protestantism and is Knox’s way of accusing Mary Tudor of leading the realm astray from its previous godliness obtained by former Protestant kings. As Mary’s reign continued, Knox came to further realize that while England had previously been right with God through its embrace of Protestantism, it had become similar to the Israelites by regressing to Catholicism and “had refused full obedience to divine commands. Therefore, God had punished England by replacing its godly prince [Edward VI] with an idolatrous female tyrant [Mary I]” (Dawson 8). In addition, Knox believed that there was more disorder to come from this feminine regime, and was prepared to stop this offense against God in whatever ways he could (Dawson 8).

In addition to the persecutions of his fellow Protestants in England, Knox’s exile and perceived humiliation at Mary Tudor’s Catholic hands can be viewed as a precursor to his heavily misogynistic language that condemned female monarchy. One of the most egregious examples of this language can be found in The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. In his first section of The First Blast… he opened by stating his first main argument against female reign: “O promote a woman to beare rule, superioritie, dominion, or empire… is repugnant to nature, constumelie to God, a thing most contrarious to his reuled will and aproued ordinance, and finallie it is the subuersion of good order, of all equitie and iustice” (Knox 11). Here, Knox disavowed female political authority in all capacities as he believed it to be contrary to the laws of nature established by God. Moreover, Knox’s argument insinuates that this distortion of natural law is because of feminine authority prohibits the justice and equality that only a male monarch can attempt to provide to his subjects.

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In his first premise arguing against women ruling due to their nature, Knox did not take the strictly biblical route as to be expected due to his strong theological convictions, but made use of Aristotle’s thoughts on women. Aristotle’s main argument for human flourishing rested on his idea of the golden mean, which is a perfect balance between excess and deficiency resulting in appropriate virtues. Following this, an individual who has achieved this mean would most likely be the best candidate to govern the masses. However, Aristotle believed that women were unable to achieve this golden mean and lacked the capacity for virtue. Knox honed in on this by specifically citing Aristotle’s argument that women ruling would result in the imbalances inherent of the female sex, such as intemperance, vanity, and pride, being passed along to those subjects under the woman’s rule, sparking utter chaos (Knox 14).

Knox drew on Aristotle’s warning against feminine rule to come to the conclusion that, because of the imbalances and weaknesses of women by virtue of their sex, men have been “illuminated onlie by the light of nature, haue seen and haue determined, that it is a thing moste repugnant to nature, that women rule and gouerne ouer men” (Knox 14). By stating this, Knox not only continued to undermine women’s capacity for political office but also implied that the male sex is the only sex to have the intellectual capacities to recognize the flaws of a feminine political regime by virtue of their superior nature. Furthermore, Knox’s claim would mean that women are not only incapable of ruling, but also intellectually incapable of recognizing their own inferiority. Therefore, they lack the intellectual capacity to challenge any kind of political ideology, rendering them utterly voiceless and dependent on the male political vision. This conveniently removed the possibility of women raising objections to his claim, as Knox would have been able to dismiss them as lacking the capacity to comprehend his political ideas, let alone object to them.

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However, in his second portion regarding the nature of women, Knox took a purely theological approach, based on the second creation account found in the Book of Genesis and selective teachings on women from St. Paul. After referencing St. Paul’s claim that because “man was not created for the cause of the woman, but the woman for the cause of man, and therfore oght the woman to haue power vpon her head,” Knox concluded that “in her greatest perfection woman was created to be subject to man” (Knox 15). This statement further denounces autonomous female rule as it states that a woman’s only vocation is one in servitude to men by virtue of their creation. Knox continued this point by diving further into the Biblical account of the Fall by emphasizing that women became completely dependent on men at God’s command after the Fall out of sheer necessity due women lacking the abilities to think and survive independently (Knox 15-16). Consequently, female monarchs show a sinful contempt for God’s decree following the Fall, as they are not dependent on the will of a man as was commanded by God. Moreover, Knox argued that female monarchy would “defile, pollute and prophane…the throne and seat of God, whiche he hath sanctified and apointed for man onely…to occupie and possesse as his ministre and lieutenant: secluding from the same all woman” (Knox 33). This argument implies that female monarchs are going directly against the natural order established by God and, by definition, would therefore be sinning.

A large hole in Knox’s gendered interpretation of the Fall exists in the fact that the Fall acknowledges both men and women’s capacity to think, reason, and act on their own accord.

Knox stated in his early argumentation that by virtue of their nature, women lack the intellectual capacities to make decisions and hold any type of political authority. Yet, Eve showed a capacity for reason through her God-given free will as she chose to eat the apple from the Tree of Knowledge, as does Adam. While lacking in faith, Eve’s choice is not an irrational one either as

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she is not directly pursuing vice, but rather knowledge. It is not the action itself of Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge that results in their exile from Eden, but rather that they disobeyed God’s direct command to refrain. Putting aside the consequences of Eve’s choice that the narrative depicts, the fact that she had the ability to choose to pursue knowledge, a virtue, acknowledges her capacity to make rational decisions like Adam. Therefore, his argument that is rooted in his interpretation of the Fall, that women lack the capacity for reason, is actually undermined by the narrative of the Fall, which Knox attempted to reverse and use against female political authority.

It comes as no surprise that due to Knox’s explosive claims about the natural and theological illegitimacies and ineptitudes of female monarchs, Queen Elizabeth refused to grant Knox permission to travel through England on his way home to Scotland in May 1559 (Dawson 16). In response to this Knox composed an explanatory letter about three months later addressed to one of Elizabeth’s advisors, Sir William Cecil, entitled: “John Knox’s apologetical Defense of his First Blast &c. to Queen Elizabeth,” as a guised attempt to seek Elizabeth’s clemency after penning The First Blast…. However, early on in his letter, Knox highlights that he is not “mynded to retract or to call any principall point or proposition of the same[e], till treuth and veritie do farther appear” nor does he claim to understand why Elizabeth “should be offended at the aucthor of such a work” (Knox 58). In true Knox fashion, this statement did not retract the inflammatory content found within The First Blast… but addresses Knox’s concerns that Queen Elizabeth I misinterpreted the contents of his work by responding negatively against him and refusing him passage through England, potentially insinuating that her decision is rooted in intemperate feminine rashness based of his previously discussed interpretation of Aristotle’s conception of virtue. In his insinuation that Elizabeth misinterpreted the contents of his work,

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Knox subtly shifted the blame onto Elizabeth for not fully grasping his claim, further belittling her intellectual capacities as a female monarch. This is consistent with Knox’s previously discussed claim found within The First Blast… that women are unable to intellectually engage in political thought by virtue of their sex. Knox takes it upon himself to act as the male translator to Elizabeth as he believes her to be unable to correctly comprehend the contents of The First Blast… without his intellectual guidance. In this case, this guidance comes in the form of an apologetical letter.

This cloaked belittlement continued well on into the letter as Knox characterized Elizabeth as an “exceptional” woman chosen by God alone and for God alone. Knox began this breakdown of Elizabeth’s power by calling out her sinfulness and urging her to “forget your byrth and all tytill which thervpon doth hing[e], and considder deaplie how for feir of your lyfe ye did declyne from GOD, and bow till Idolatrie. Lett it not appear a small offence in your eyis that ye haue declyned from CHRIST IESUS,” drawing attention to how Elizabeth has neglected God’s will in the past (Knox 59). However, Knox claims that despite her sinfulness “God hath covered your foormar offence,…hath exalted and raised yow vp not onlie from the Dust, but also from the portes [gates] of death to reull above his people for the confort of his kirk” (Knox 60).

Knox skillfully separated Elizabeth from her birthright and reduces her to a mere sinner, specifically an idolater. It is only through God’s power and for God’s people (Protestants) that she was raised up from her sinfulness and was fit to govern. While some may interpret Knox’s “exceptional” woman argument as legitimizing Elizabeth’s rule via special providence, his argument remains a sexist one as male monarchs did not need to be considered “exceptional” to rule but rather could rule through birthright alone. Furthermore, the classification of an

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“exceptional” woman rests entirely on subjective perspectives of mortals, like Knox, and not God. Nonetheless, Knox’s claim that Elizabeth was an “exceptional” woman is most apparent when he described Elizabeth’s rule as being dependent on “the dispensation of His mercy which onelye mackethe that lauthfull to your grace Which nature and law Denyeth to all woman” (Knox 59). Here, Knox directly subverted Elizabeth’s right to rule and ruling abilities by staying consistent in his premise that God’s nature and laws prevent women from wielding political office. Additionally, towards the end of his letter, he further attempted to remind Elizabeth of her reign’s dependence on divine providence by saying that by, “the eternall prouidence of Hym who contrar[y] to nature, and without your deserving hath thus exalted your head,” meaning that God is the only one capable of allowing Elizabeth to break God’s own laws and paradigms (Knox 60). Even though he hid behind crafty language in his letter to Elizabeth, he actual furthered his previous thesis found in The First Blast… that women are incapable of ruling independently and need a male figure. In Elizabeth’s case, this male figure would be God as to provide proper governance over herself and the realm, as Knox perceived God as male. Knox’s argument rested on the assumption that God is male, which because God the Father is not human, cannot be correct because God does not have a gender or sex.

In present day, some would claim that John Knox’s claims bear little-to-no weight, as the political-religious turmoil of sixteenth-century Tudor and Stuart Britain has withered like a rose.

However, Knox’s claims regarding the nature of women, how they lack the ability to govern, and “exceptional” women, still haunt both religious and political affairs today, monarchal or not.

Examining The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women and the corresponding letter to Queen Elizabeth I holistically highlights the ways Knox attempted to

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manipulate Scripture to undermine those women whom he saw as a threat to the religious, social, and political orders. Nevertheless, these women persisted in spite of those attempting to slow them down and paved the foundations for future women to blossom in the realm of politics.

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Works Cited Dawson, Jane E.A. “Knox, John: (c. 1514-1572).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2008, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/15781.

Frankforter, Daniel A., “Elizabeth Bowes and John Knox.” Church History, vol. 56, no. 3, September 1987, 333-347, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3166062.

Knox, John. The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, 1558, edited by Edward Arber, London, Edward Arber, 1878, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/012290206.

Knox, John to Sir William Cecil, 12 July 1559. “John Knox’s apologetical Defense of his First Blast &c. to Queen Elizabeth.” In The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, edited by Edward Arber, London, Edward Arber, 1878, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/012290206.

MacGregor, Geddes “John Knox, the Thundering Scot.” Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society (1943-1961) vol. 38, no. 1, 1960, 13-25, https://www.jstor.org/stable/23325258. .

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When You Witch Upon a Star: An Analysis of the Relationship Between Perceptions of Early Modern Witches and Portrayals of Disney Witches Kelley Northam In Disney’s 1992 animated film, Aladdin, the villainous Jafar manically says; “Trust me…you’ll get what’s coming to you” (Aladdin). Though set in a thoroughly historically inaccurate Middle Eastern country, complete with magic carpet rides, talking animals, and a schizophrenic, all-powerful Genie, Jafar’s dialogue could have been easily taken directly from an Early Modern witch trial record, for many accused Early Modern witches were burned alive for uttering those same words. This paper outlines the perceptions, classifications, and intricacies surrounding accused Early Modern European witches as defined in Brian P. Levack’s book, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. Then, after identifying and examining the witch or witchlike characters in the following animated Disney films: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Aladdin, and Frozen against these classifications, it is determined that Early Modern perceptions of witches strongly resemble the portrayals of witches in Disney films, suggesting that not only are these Early Modern perceptions of witches alive and well in Post-Modern media but that an innate human enchantment with witchcraft and the occult continues to shape and influence mainstream society hundreds of years later.

The infamous European witch-craze or witch-hunt, from approximately 1450- 1750, thousands of Early Modern people, the vast majority of them women, were tried for practicing witchcraft (Levack 1). Many historians have analyzed this intriguing historical phenomenon from a variety of lenses to attempt to identify a leading cause of these trials. Historians, such as Holmes, strongly contend that the rise in witchcraft accusations during this period is due to women breaking conventional, feminine gender roles and subsequently being tried by a Moorings 67

patriarchal authority (Holmes 140). However, intellectual historians, such as Clark, argue that the language surrounding the demonic and situations of misrule highly influenced the witch-craze (Clark 87). While not necessarily arguing for or against the claims of these historians, the focus of this paper is not to attempt to determine a specific causation of the spike in witch trials in European history. Rather, it aligns itself with Levack’s main methodology of ascertaining what exactly an Early Modern witch was to gain a more thorough understanding of the Early Modern society and mind. Furthermore, this paper applies Levack’s research to Disney films as means of understanding the similarities of Disney witches and Early Modern accused witches and why Early Modern perceptions of witches continue to titillate the Post-Modern mind.

For Early Modern Europeans, there were two prevailing definitions of witchcraft. The first definition was the most conventional as it was “the practice of harmful, black or maleficent magic: the performance of harmful deeds by means of some sort of extraordinary, mysterious, occult, preternatural or supernatural power,” also known as maleficarum (Levack 3-4). Examples of this would be any supernatural event that would negatively affect Early Modern society and values, such as crop failure, miscarriages, or a sudden death. Furthermore, maleficarum would not have been considered beneficial in any scenario and its intent was always to inflict harm or misfortune. Nor would it have been fueled by any type of religious catalyst as “religion uses the art of persuasion in attempting to realize its goals, and since it deals with superior beings, it is more capable of filling the people who practise it with a sense of awe,” verses maleifcarum which was always accompanied by a sense of fear or pain (Levack 4).

The second definition of witchcraft, also known as white magic, was the inverse of maleficarum, as its purpose was to “bring about some benefit to oneself or another” (Levack 5).

White magic would have been classified as inherently productive, therapeutic, or protective and

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would have always been beneficial to the norms of Early Modern society, such as spell to increase a woman’s fertility or provide a bountiful harvest. However, it is important to note that though the usage of white magic was viewed positively, it is not synonymous with the occurrence of miracles as those would have been in the religious domain. Nevertheless, the lines between maleficarum and white magic are easily blurred based on the situations surrounding their usage. Supernatural powers used in self-defense, love, or sexual relations were highly subjective in how they were perceived, thus creating a gray area of magic (Levack 7).

A further distinction in the usage of magic in the Early Modern period is that it could have been considered high or low, regardless if it was harmful or beneficial. High magic would have been considered to be a “speculative art that requires a certain amount of education” (Levack 7). A knowledge of alchemy, astrology, necromancy, scapulimancy, or dactylomancy would often fall under this definition of high magic and, due to the amount of education or training required of these practices, would often be associated with the higher class. Though not without exceptions, high magic was often considered to be white magic. Low magic, however, was the magic most often practiced by accused witches in the Early Modern period because “the overwhelming majority of witches came from the lower levels of society” (Levack 7).

An undeniable factor in witchcraft classifications and allegations during the witch-craze is the connection to the demonic. Witches accused of practicing maleficarum were thought to have made obscene, sexual pacts with the devil, not only giving “the power to perform maleficia but also initiated them into the Devil’s service” (Levack 27). Furthermore, upon completion of this rite, the devil was thought to have given them “careful instructions for the performance of their maleficent work, equipping them if necessary with the potions, unguents and images they would need to ply their trade” (Levack 27). Often times, these tools of the trade were thought to

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be used during the witch’s sabbath where hundreds of witches, along with the devil and his demons, would “perform a series of blasphemous, obscene and heinous rites… sacrifice children to the Devil, feast on the bodies of these infants and on other unsavoury dishes, dance naked, and engage in sexual intercourse” (Levack 27). Finally, Early Modern witches were believed to have the power of flight (or some means of supernatural transportation) and metamorphosis to change themselves, or others, into beasts. (Levack 41-45).

Finally, it is paramount to discuss the social dynamics surrounding Early Modern witches. Though the existence of records that specifically discuss these dynamics are few and far between, inferences can still be made about the social factors affecting witchcraft accusations.

The most egregious one is that in most regions of Europe accused female witches exceeded 75 percent, demonstrating that the witch stereotype was largely a feminine one (Levack 128).

Nevertheless, this stereotype, though socially pervasive, did not prevent men from being viewed as having the capacity for maleficarum. Men were often tried for political sorcery as it was a prevailing belief during the Middle Ages that “men had actually practised ritual magic in order to advance their political careers” (Levack 130).

The social circumstances that put women on trial, however, appear to be more complex and varied than male witch trials. A contributor to women being the majority in witch trials was the fact that women were thought to be more vulnerable to demonic forces than men because they were considered morally weak and were inherently lustful (Levack 132). Nonetheless, an arguably more impactful factor was the fact that common women’s social roles made them an easy target for witch accusations as they “generally served as the cooks, healers and midwives, and each of these functions made them vulnerable to the charge that they practised harmful magic” (Levack 133). Midwives, lying-in maids, and any woman tasked with caring for another

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woman’s child were extremely susceptible to witch accusations as they would have been accused of being “the inverse of both the good wife and the good mother,” if any harm came to the baby in the woman’s care (Levack 134).

By examining the various facets of what defined witchcraft in the Early Modern period, one can conclude that accusations of witchcraft were highly complex and dynamic due to social, religious, and economic norms. How these intricacies surrounding the classifications of witchcraft have far outlived thousands of Early Modern accused witches, however, remains an ongoing historical question. From witches being feared, reviled, and scorned in Early Modern society, people of all ages now pay money to see these witches come alive on their television or movie screen by watching Disney movies, or they take budget-breaking trips to Disney resorts where they can wait hours in line just to ride a witch-themed amusement ride that is likely to break down half-way through. For example, the witchlike character is pivotal in Disney’s defining 1937 animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as it still remains Disney’s most profitable animated film as, when adjusted to inflation, it grossed over 996 million dollars (Opio). Although Disney films certainly cannot be relied on for historical truth, the historical likeness that popular Disney witch characters have to Early Modern witches, cannot be ignored.

As previously mentioned, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has had the largest economic impact on Disney’s success. Though she is not the main character, the film’s witch character, the Evil Queen, plays a key role in its plot. In a nutshell, the protagonist, Snow White, is a beautiful, young princess. When Snow White surpasses the Evil Queen in beauty (fairness) according to her magic mirror, the vain queen orders a huntsman to kill Snow White. However, the huntsman cannot kill the pure-hearted princess and urges her to flee from the jealous queen.

Once she finds out that Snow White is still alive, the Evil Queen takes matters into her own

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hands and transforms herself into an old, ugly peddler and crafts a poisonous apple for Snow White that would induce a sleep like death. Snow White does, in fact, take a bite of the apple but is later revived by a prince whose kiss breaks the spell and they ride off into the sunset together, causing the filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s resolution. Conversely, the Evil Queen meets her demise by falling off a cliff while being chased by the seven dwarves.

The Evil Queen almost uniformly matches what Early Modern people thought of as malicious witch. Her name alone is indicative of the fact that she practices maleficarum or evil magic. Even before her ill intentions are revealed, she has a connection with the supernatural through her all-knowing magic mirror, which she then uses for the maleficent purpose of figuring out where Snow White is to kill her so that she can be the most beautiful in the land.

The Evil Queen also breaks female gender roles, as a common duty of a queen was to care, nurture, and instruct a princess. She does the complete inverse of this as she wants to kill Snow White; a youthful, beautiful, and virginal princess entrusted to her care. Her maleficarum continues as she crafts a transformative disguise for herself and the poisonous apple through alchemy. The maliciousness of this alchemy is extremely obvious, not only because of the nefariousness of the queenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s intent, but the fact that in her workroom she has a whole shelf of books that are titled; Astrology, Black Arts, Witch Craft, Black Magic, Disguises, Sorcery, and Poisons (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). Though it was rare for an Early Modern witch of higher status to practice high maleficarum, it is interesting to note that the Evil Queen literally transforms herself to someone of a lower social status, specifically an old, ugly peddler, once she harnesses this evil magic.

However, the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella who appears on screen 13 years later, is the inverse of her dark, witchy predecessor. After living a life of miserable servitude to her

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stepmother and stepsiblings, Cinderella is visited by her fairy godmother, who uses magic to provide her with a beautiful gown, glass slippers, and carriage so that Cinderella may go the Prince’s ball. Cinderella dances the night away with the Prince but abruptly leaves him without revealing her identity due to the Fairy Godmother’s magic wearing off promptly at midnight. As she flees, Cinderella loses one of her glass slippers which the Prince then uses to conduct a search all throughout the kingdom to find the maiden who stole his heart. The plot resolves with Cinderella and the Prince reuniting, getting married, and living happily ever after despite her stepfamily’s attempts to keep them apart.

The Fairy Godmother, though she only appears once, is crucial Cinderella’s happy ending. Like the Evil Queen, her name alone is indicative of that fact that she is a white witch, as she calls herself a godmother which implies that she has nurturing and feminine qualities. When the Fairy Godmother appears to Cinderella who is weeping in the garden, she quite literally materializes while physically and verbally comforting her. The Fairy Godmother then announces that Cinderella will be going to the ball. Additionally, she remarks that “even miracles take a little time,” further reinforcing the positive aspects of her magic as she compares her magical abilities to a Christian miracle (Cinderella). This statement also distances her magical abilities from any demonic connection that could be assumed. As the Fairy Godmother’s magic is entirely beneficial as it comforts and provides joy to Cinderella, results in a marriage to nobility, and reinforces the traditional idea of a good maternal figure, there is no question that she would be considered a white witch by Early Modern standards as she is the inverse of a witch practicing maleficarum.

Disney filmmakers have also not ignored the existence of male witches, as the antagonist Jaffar in the 1991 film, Aladdin, arguably bears the most similarity to a truly evil Early Modern

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witch. The action of the movie begins when Jafar, the Royal Vizier, disguises himself as an old man to get the protagonist, Aladdin (notably also male), a local street rat, to enter the mystical Cave of Wonders to find the mystical Genie-in-the-lamp. Once Aladdin does retrieve it, Jafar unsuccessfully attempts to snatch the lamp and trap him in the Cave of Wonders. However, Aladdin escapes and uses one of his three wishes given to him by the Genie to become a prince to woo princess Jasmine. Meanwhile, power-hungry Jafar wants to marry Jasmine and uses his magic scepter to hypnotize the Sultan into giving him permission to marry her. Eventually, Jafar seizes the Genie and uses his wish to become the most powerful sorcerer in the world. With his newfound power, he imprisons Jasmine and attempts to kill Aladdin once again. His ambition gets the best of him, however, as Aladdin convinces him to use his last wish to become an allpowerful genie, eternally confining him to his own lamp. With Jafar gone, the movie ends with Aladdin freeing the Genie and marrying Jasmine.

The most jarring similarity between Jafar and an Early Modern witch is that his use of maleficarum serves to entirely benefit his political career as the vast majority of male witches were thought to do. The more dark magic he harnesses, the more his political ambition grows.

Aladdin is able to exploit Jafar’s hubris and defeat him only by reminding him of his political inferiority by saying, “face it Jafar, you’re still just second best,” which convinces Jafar to make the mistake of becoming a genie with “phenomenal cosmic power,” but with “itty bitty living space” (Aladdin). Jafar also breaks traditional male gender roles as, at times, he is as lusty as female witches were thought to be, as is shown when Jasmine attempts to seduce him so that Aladdin can seize the magical lamp fueling Jafar’s power. Not only would Jafar’s harmful use of the supernatural have Early Modern people fleeing in terror, but his political ambition and lecherous nature would too.

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The most recent Disney witchlike character that would have both intrigued and angered Early Modern people is Queen Elsa from Frozen. As suggested by the title, Elsa was born with the supernatural power of being able to freeze things. However, after she accidentally harms her little sister Anna with her powers, Elsa becomes a recluse until her coronation. Nevertheless, her coronation goes horribly wrong, as upon Anna’s engagement announcement, Elsa exposes her powers in anger. She then flees the castle, but freezes the entire kingdom in her wake. Anna attempts to later reunite with her sister, but again Elsa loses control and strikes Anna in the heart with an icy blow, causing Anna’s entire body to eventually become frozen. Elsa is eventually brought back to the castle and is almost killed by the movie’s power-hungry antagonist, Prince Hans, but Anna attempts to sacrifice herself for her sister, conveniently right before she becomes frozen. However, as Anna acted out of love, her icy heart is thawed, and the two sisters finally reconcile. Elsa then realizes that love is key to controlling her powers and unfreezes her kingdom.

As was previously stated, the lines between maleficarum and white magic were easily blurred by the situations surrounding them in Early Modern Europe. For Queen Elsa, it is difficult to place her in either category, as the intent of her supernatural actions is quite varied.

On the one hand, she would have been considered evil as she almost kills Anna, her sister, multiple times, freezes the entire kingdom causing major geological damage, and is unapproving of her sister’s marriage. Moreover, she abandons her sister and neglects her duties as a queen and motherly figure. Elsa also almost kills Prince Hans as well as two other men out of self-defense.

The thing that convinces her to spare their lives is Hans’ urging her not to be “the monster they fear you are” (Frozen). However, she does eventually realize that love should guide her powers.

Upon this realization, she unfreezes the kingdom and makes peace with her sister. Although

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Elsaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s character arch may resolve positively in the film, the changes that occur in regard to her behavior and use of magic are consistent with the grayness surrounding occult powers in certain Early Modern situations.

The Early Modern period has long ended, however, its fascination with witchcraft and the supernatural continues to cast a spell upon Post-Modern minds. By understanding the characteristics of an Early Modern witch, it can be determined that Disney films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Aladdin, and Frozen reap the benefits of digitalizing Early Modern witches almost down to the letter. While some may think that humanity has evolved from its former suppositious tendencies, the fact that these witchlike characters are still incredibly popular disproves this theory. In the present day, people still go to see witches. Not to see them die a fiery death on a stake, however, but to see them come alive on a screen.

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Works Cited Aladdin. Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, Disney, 1992.

Clark, Stuart. “Inversion, Misrule and the Meaning of Witchcraft.” Past & Present, vol. 87, 1980, www.jstor.org/stable/650567.

Cinderella. Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wildfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske, Disney, 1950.

Frozen. Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, Disney, 2013.

Holmes, Clive. “Women: Witnesses and Witches.” Past & Present, vol. 140, 1993, https://www.jstor.org/stable/651213.

Levack, Brian P. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. 4th ed., Kindle Edition, New York, Routledge, 2016.

Opio, David. “Which Disney princess made the most at the box office?.” Digital Spy, https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a871265/disney-princesses-box-office-ranked/.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Directed by William Cottrell and David Hand, Disney, 1937.

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“Come, Heavy Sleep”: Elizabethan Melancholy in the Works of John Dowland and William Byrd Joseph Staub “Come, heavy Sleep, the image of true Death/And close up these my weary weeping eyes” (Dowland 23). This lyric opens the twentieth piece in John Dowland’s First Book of Songs, “Come, Heavy Sleep,” highlights the overall gloom that characterized the lives of underground Catholics in Elizabethan England. The compositions of William Byrd echo this sentiment, as most of them express some form of sadness or penitence. Byrd, among other original compositions in his “Psalms, Sonnets, and Songs of Sadness and Piety,” sets ten psalms to music that are very indicative of this melancholic theme. Unlike Dowland, though, Byrd has a sense of hope that perhaps through faith, the pain and sadness of Catholics will be relieved.

Dowland does not appear to share this hopeful sentiment, instead choosing to wallow in his sorrow. These two early modern composers appropriately illustrate the deep-rooted melancholy of Catholics living in Elizabethan England but differed on their outlooks; Byrd expressed hope for the future while Dowland did not.

There are many theories as to the cause of the rampant feeling of melancholy in early modern England. Humourism, a theory of medicine derived from Ancient Greek and Roman practices, asserted that melancholy was one of four main human temperaments caused by an excess of a certain bodily fluid, in the case of melancholy, an excess of black bile produced in the liver. The melancholic temperament was characterized by introversion, self-reliance, thoughtfulness, and sensitivity. Because of these characteristics, it was often thought that most artists and musicians were in possession of a melancholic temperament (White). It was not until Humourism went out of style in the mid to late-nineteenth century that historians began to discuss why musicians and artists in particular experienced melancholy under Elizabeth.

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Historians have argued that Elizabethan melancholy was pervasive throughout the era, especially in artistic sectors of society such as musicians. Regarding John Donne’s feeling of cosmic unease in his poem “The First Anniversarie”, Renaissance scholar Robin Hedlam Wells argues that “Few creative minds of the period seem to have been immune to the feelings expressed in these verses. Not only in poetry, but in painting and in music too, the spirit of melancholy became one of the age's most characteristic features.” David Mateer narrows his scope to recognize this melancholy at work in the compositions of William Byrd, saying, “William Byrd’s output during his so-called middle phase is characterized by a gloom and despondency not wholly attributable to his merely technical interest in the expressive text-setting of his Continental contemporaries.” Kirsten Gibson and Rosemary Manning detect similar melancholy in the works of John Dowland, but neither come to a conclusion on the source of his sadness. As historians slowly began to discover the existence of underground Catholicism in England during the Protestant Reformation, theories emerged that connected the feeling of melancholy to artists and musicians who were known to be secretly Catholic. This connection would prove to be an important step to uncovering a possible theory as to why the compositions of John Dowland and William Byrd expressed the melancholic sentiment common to most of their works. Following this tradition, I argue that the melancholy experienced by musicians such as Dowland and Byrd finds its roots in the repressive treatment of Catholics during the Elizabethan era.

In order to properly analyze Elizabethan melancholy, as seen in the works of Dowland and Byrd, it is important to detail the history of Protestant/Catholic relations in England during the period from 1527 until 1558. When King Henry VIII broke ties with the Catholic Church in 1527, he began an extended period of hostile relations between Catholics and Protestants in

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England that exists to this day. Henry VIII, along with his advisor Thomas Cramner, passed several laws that dissolved monasteries, declared the Supremacy of the Ruler of England over the Church of England, and rewrote the theology of English Churches. It was not until 1547, in the reign of King Edward, Henryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s son, however, that English theology became markedly Protestant. Being a minority ruler, Edward was greatly influenced by his largely Protestant advisors to adopt many of the European changes to traditional theology in order to further separate the Church of England from what was viewed as the corruption that existed in the Catholic Church. In 1553, when Edward died, his half-sister Mary assumed the throne. Having been raised by Henryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first wife Catherine of Aragon who was originally from Spain, a highly Catholic country, Mary was a devout Catholic who, upon assuming the throne, reversed all of the religious reformation that had been put in place over the previous 25 years. She also greatly persecuted those Protestants who defied her statutes, putting many of them to death. It is in this context that we understand the persecution of Catholics during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. When Queen Elizabeth took the throne in England in 1558, she followed 30 years of religious conflict between Catholics and Anglicans. As Elizabeth began her reign, there were many people in England remained Catholic following the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I. Because of this, Elizabeth passed several religious laws to cement the legitimacy of her claim to the throne. These included a new Act of Supremacy that declared Elizabeth the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, the Act of Uniformity which required compulsory attendance at Anglican Services by all English citizens, and recusancy laws which allowed punishment for violations of the Act of Uniformity. These laws, while not directly outlawing Catholic worship, were meant to discourage Catholics from continuing to openly express their

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faith. Because of this, many Catholics went underground, holding secret Masses while appearing to follow the law by attending Protestant services.

One of these underground Catholics was a composer and lutenist named John Dowland.

Dowland converted to Catholicism in the 1580s while traveling across continental Europe composing pieces for royals in many countries such as Denmark and France. When he returned to England near the turn of the century, he made several attempts to become a court musician for Elizabeth. He was repeatedly denied the position and began to claim that his faith kept him from being given the position. By the time he published his First Book of Songs in 1597, he was experiencingin his eyes, quite depressing existence. Compositions such as “Burst forth my teares,” “Go cristall teares,” and “Come heavy sleep” reflect this melancholic theme, with sorrowful lyrics and minimal instrumentation. The lyrics of “Burst forth my teares” express an especially melancholy sentiment while possibly containing a deeper symbolic interpretation;

“Burst forth, my tears, assist my forward grief, And show what pain imperious Love provokes.

Kind tender lambs, lament Love's scant relief And pine, since pensive Care my freedom yokes.

O pine to see me pine, my tender flocks.

Sad, sad pining Care, that never may have peace, At Beauty's gate in hope of pity knocks.

But Mercy sleeps while deep Disdain increase, And Beauty Hope in her fair bosom locks.

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O grieve to hear my grief, my tender flocks.

Like, like to the winds my sighs have winged been, Yet are my sighs and suits repaid with mocks.

I plead, yet she repineth at my teen.

O ruthless rigour harder than the rocks, That both the shepherd kills and his poor flocks” (Dowland 11)

In this piece, the speaker repeatedly describes his sighs of grief that have been carried off on the winds, mocking being the only reply. In the first stanza, Dowland uses the word “imperious” to describe a kind of love that gives him pain. The Oxford English Dictionary gives two key definitions for “imperious.” The first is “Having the rank of, or belonging to or befitting, an emperor or supreme ruler” and the second is “Overbearing, domineering, dictatorial” (OUP).

To an underground Catholic, both of these definitions fit the perception of Queen Elizabeth I, who declared herself Supreme Governor of the Church of England and was described as overbearing and dictatorial. In the piece, the speaker sighs and weeps in order to show the type of pain that a supreme, domineering overseer causes. Dowland was torn between his duty to God and his duty to Queen and Country, symbolized by the words of the speaker in “Burst forth my teares.” He feels a deep love for his country and, by extension, Queen Elizabeth but experiences pain and sorrow because of the inability to express his Catholic faith outwardly.

William Byrd experienced similar emotions, having converted to Catholicism around the same time as Dowland and suffered many of the same persecutions under Elizabethan law. In fact, around the time that Byrd published his collection of psalms, he was indicted for recusancy

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several times, although there are conflicting reports concerning his punishment (Mateer 12). In his early career, Byrd wrote many pieces for Anglican services and set excerpts from the English translation of the Bible to music, appearing to all to be a devout Anglican. But on his own time, Byrd attended Catholic Mass and wrote pieces in Latin to be performed at these Masses. Byrd’s conflicting faith can be seen especially in his choice of psalms in his collection Psalms, Sonnets, and Songs of Sadness and Piety, published in 1588. Of the ten psalms for which Byrd composed pieces, nine involve themes of oppression, remorse, or sadness. These psalms present an interesting dichotomy between the outwardly Anglican but inwardly Catholic Byrd. While Byrd uses the translations of the ten psalms found in the Book of Common Prayer, a tenant of the Church of England, he them to make a statement about the oppression of Catholics by the Anglican government.

The lyrics of many of the psalms that Byrd set to music convey this feeling of oppression that Byrd shared with many of his fellow Catholics in England: “For they in counsel do conspire/to charge me with some ill/So in their hasty wrath and ire/they doe pursue mee still,” (Byrd 3) “The mightie proud men of the world/that seekes us to oppresse/have fild our soules with all contempts/and left us in distresse,” (Byrd 4) “For the destruction of the just/and such as bee opprest/And for the mournings of the poore/that likewise bee distrest,” and “In misty clouds of troubles dark/Which do the just oppress/The Lord in mercy send them light/And easeth their distress” (Byrd 9,10) Moorings 83

These verses reflect the situation that Catholics faced under the rule of Elizabeth. The psalms that Byrd selected appear to help Catholics oppressed by Elizabeth find strength in their faith, that God will deliver them from their enemies and that they will not suffer in vain.

This feeling of hope is visible in all ten of the psalms that Byrd composed for, harkening back to the hope of the Israelites in the Old Testament. Just as the Israelites, especially King David who is credited with writing many of the songs, express hope for forgiveness by God and deliverance from religious oppression, the Catholics living in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I expressed hope for an increase in religious toleration and an end to their persecution.

This hope is most visible in lines such as “Beehold even as the servants eyes/Upon their master waite/And as the maide her mistris hand/with carefull eye and straite/Attends: So wee O Lord our God/thy throne with hope and griefe” and “But in thy mercie Lord I trust/for that shall mee defend/My heart doth joye, to see the help/which thou to mee wilt send/Unto the Lord therefore I sing/and do lift up my voice/And for his goodnesse shew’d to mee/I will alway rejoyce” (Byrd 4,7).

in which the speaker expresses their continued devotion to God even in times of oppression and sorrow. Byrd’s choice of psalms and his decision to arrange them á cappella in order to highlight the lyrics show his intention to compare the Catholics persecuted under Elizabeth to the Israelites of the Old Testament who, although continually oppressed, maintained hope that God would deliver them from their trials.

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John Dowland does not seem to share Byrd’s hopes though, as very few of the pieces in Dowland’s First Book of Songs seem to have any positive connotation and the ones that do are nothing but simple love songs without any expression of deeper meaning. The most affecting of Dowland’s pieces are usually those in which there appears to be some deeper nuance that is commonly negative. Pieces like “Come, heavy sleep” and “Burst forth my teares” seem to reflect Dowland’s true feelings whereas pieces like “My thoughts are wing’d with hopes” seem more like attempts to duplicate the love poems like Shakespeare’s sonnets that were popular at the time. Where the psalms chosen by Byrd contained both statements of melancholy and statements of hope, Dowland’s main compositions include only statements of melancholy, reflecting two different positions on the phenomenon of Elizabethan Melancholy and response to this experience.

John Dowland and William Byrd are two of the foremost examples of Elizabethan melancholy in music and both approach this melancholy in different ways. While Byrd sees hope for a resolution to the situation that he and his fellow Catholics face under Queen Elizabeth, Dowland does not express any hope, instead wallowing in the nagging sadness that continued to haunt him throughout his life. Both Dowland and Byrd express melancholic tendencies throughout a majority of their compositions, with much of Dowland’s First Booke of Songs in particular displaying a feeling of reservation and sadness common to many Catholic composers and artists of the era.

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Works Cited Byrd, William. “Psalmes, Sonets, & Songs of Sadnes and Pietie, Made into Musicke of Fiue Parts Whereof, Some of Them Going Abroad among Diuers, in Vntrue Coppies, Are Heere Truely Corrected, and Th [Sic] Other Being Songs Very Rare & Newly Composed, Are Heere Published, for the Recreation of All Such as Delight in Musick” (1588), 3-10.

Dowland, John. “The First Booke of Songs or Ayres of Foure Parts with Tablature for the Lute” (1597), 11.

“Imperious, Adj.,” OED Online (Oxford University Press), accessed November 25, 2018, http://www.oed.com.msm.idm.oclc.org/view/Entry/92297.

Mateer, David. “William Byrd’s Middlesex Recusancy,” Music & Letters 78, no. 1 (1997): 12.

White, Alexander. The Four Temperaments (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1895).

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“The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing”: Frank Zappa and Postmodernism Joseph Staub “Mr. America, walk on by your schools that do not teach. Mr. America, walk on by the minds that won't be reached.” This is the line that opens the Mothers of Invention’s debut album Freak Out!, released in 1966. It is the first of countless examples of postmodern criticism evident in the compositions of Frank Zappa, the leader of the Mothers of Invention who would go on to release a repertoire of 62 albums before his death in 1993. Zappa, who believed that music is always a commentary on society, spent his entire career satirizing and commenting on the problems he saw in American society. In the lyrics mentioned above, taken from a song entitled “Hungry Freaks, Daddy”, Zappa is making a criticism of both hippie culture and the society that it was rebelling against. Through criticisms like these and the way that they are integrated into the overall compositions on the 1969 Mothers of Invention album Uncle Meat, it is apparent that lyrics and music of Frank Zappa exemplify the idea of postmodern music.

The idea of postmodern music is complex, featuring many individual aspects that are not all present in every composition that could be called postmodern. There are, however, two major themes that are common among postmodern music that are important in order to categorize a piece as postmodern. The first is a constant shift or fluctuation in styles accompanied by an overlap of these styles, which combined is known as polystylism or stylistic pluralism. The other is a critique of some aspect of society that the composer finds issue with, usually in an attempt to influence or incite change. According to music theorist and cultural historian Leonard B. Meyer, music in the postmodern era, which he defines as beginning in 1945, consists of many different styles existing at once but in constant fluctuation in terms of commercial popularity and use by artists (Meyer 227). The idea of postmodern music as criticism began in earnest with the rise of Moorings 87

the hippie movement in the late 1960s, which shared many ideological positions with the punk movement of the 1970s. These movements sought to take music from being simply entertainment to a form of protest and political and social commentary.

The career genesis of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention occurred around the same time as the hippie movement began to take hold in America, and Zappa mirrored much of the postmodern criticism that came out of the hippie movement. Having come from the same society that influenced the launch of the hippie movement, Zappa saw many of the same problems in society that were being protested by hippies. Zappa, however, placed himself somewhere between “normal” society and the hippie movement, constantly commenting on and criticizing both entities. This is especially apparent on his compositions released in the 1960s, a time where there was great conflict between everyday society and various counterculture movements. Zappa and the Mothers recorded ten albums during that time, and none is more representative of that conflict and postmodernism than Uncle Meat, the Mothers’ fifth album.

Even before examining Zappa’s lyrics, one can discover an interesting use of postmodern criticism that many listeners may not recognize. When discussing Uncle Meat, music theorist James Borders states that “by juxtaposing different musical genres, Zappa, who considered himself a composer foremost, was attacking the entrenched critical and academic establishments whose members distinguished categorically between art and popular music, particularly as regards structural and tonal complexity” (Borders 119). This quote firmly entrenches Uncle Meat in the ideological territory of postmodernism by describing how Zappa uses the idea of stylistic plurality as a societal critique, fulfilling both major themes of postmodern music. The way in which Zappa, aware of the dichotomy between “art music” and popular music that was pervasive at the time, uses polystylism to integrate the two recognized categories of music is a unique use

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of postmodern criticism without even using words. By blending various styles throughout the album, Zappa, who constantly presented himself as both a rock star and a knowledgeable art musician (Grier 78), metaphorically thumbs his nose at the elite circles of both “art music” and popular music who believed that the two categories would never be able to mix in any meaningful or effective way.

Zappa’s use of polystylism is not the only societal critique present on Uncle Meat. When one examines the lyrics of the album, they appear at first glance to consist mainly of gibberish and random phrases. Because much of the album is instrumental, when there are lyrics, one would normally expect them to tell a story or make a statement about society, as Zappa was usually one to do. Zappa songs like “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow,” “Bobby Brown Goes Down,” and “Would You Go All the Way?” are examples of the former while “Who Are the Brain Police?,” “America Drinks & Goes Home,” and “Who Needs the Peace Corps?” are examples of the latter. It is in the lack of traditional lyrics on Uncle Meat, however, that Zappa makes one of his most interesting critiques, a critique of the listener themselves. Zappa purposefully subverts the normal expectation of the listener lyrical content in order to change the way that music is listened to and what is expected of music. At the same time, Zappa is also criticizing the seemingly mindless and naïve lyrics of rock songs from the 1950s and 60s that audiences have come to expect from popular music. “The songs retain certain stylistic mannerisms of the period, specifically the vacuous lyrics and the vocal timbres, but set them in a new harmonic context” (Grier 86). Grier notes that Zappa is combining these mannerisms of the period with the aforementioned stylistic pluralism to create something unique that continues to overturn audience expectations in a very postmodern way.

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Frank Zappa’s use of stylistic pluralism and other forms of societal critique on the 1969 Mothers of Invention album Uncle Meat make the album an important example of postmodern composition and represent the larger postmodern implications of Zappa’s overall work. On the album, no two songs sound the same, and Zappa uses every note and every word to present some form of critique, sometimes, as in the case of the lyrics, very visibly, and sometimes, as in the case of his use of stylistic pluralism, much more subtly. In Zappa’s own words, “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing,” a sentiment which Zappa echoed throughout his career as he continued to use various styles and forms of music to comment on an ever-changing society.

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Works Cited Borders, James. “Form and the Concept Album: Aspects of Modernism in Frank Zappa's Early Releases.” Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 39, No. 1, 2001, pp. 118-160. https://www.jstor.org/stable/833535 Grier, James. “The Mothers of Invention and "Uncle Meat": Alienation, Anachronism and a Double Variation.” Acta MusicologicaI, Vol. 73, No. 1, 2001, pp. 77-95. https://www.jstor.org/stable/932810.

Meyer, Leonard B. “from Music, the Arts, and Ideas.” Strunk’s Source Readings in Music History, Volume 7, edited by Robert P. Morgan, New York, W.W. Norton, 1998.

Zappa, Frank. Lyrics to “Hungry Freaks, Daddy”. Genius, 2018. https://genius.com/Frank-zappahungry-freaks-daddy-lyrics.

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