#indigenous knowledge as 'these groups have been living on this land and living w it and its inhabitants for centuries n developed a vast

[grecoromanyaoi]

also the divide between leftists who believe in indigenous liberation bc they believe in the liberation of all oppressed groups in the world and ppl who believe in "indigenous liberation" bc they believe that indigenous ppl have a magical almost cartoonish connection to The Land

[lavendermenaceexhibition]

Lavender Menace, a term first rooted in the American lesbian women’s movement for inclusion within feminism, now allows two pairs of Indigenous artists to gather, connect, and nourish each other’s growth to thrive as natural beings in ever-changing, estranged, rigid, urban environments. 

Lavender Menace brings together Metis artist, Chanelle Lajoie, in mentoring ten-year-old Ella Greyeyes in photography, capturing medicine and bodies amongst varying landscapes. Lavender Menace also brings together Anishinaabe artist, Kiana Compton, in mentoring Sadie Hudson-Constant, 12 years old, in painting, referencing the natural and native elements of the nearby location. The two artists painted floral patterns and Thunderbirds directly within the developed and concrete landscape of the skatepark.

This public exhibition allows Lavender Menace to blossom with the inclusion of Indigi-queer bodies occupying space on land, space in feminism, and space in queerness. Lavender existing as medicine reflects the medicine that two-spirit, femme, non-binary, and Indigi-queer individuals embody within our homelands. 

Witness our existence. 

Celebrate our growth. 

Heal alongside us.

The group public art exhibition, Lavender Menace, included a mentorship aspect, where two pairs of artists would meet at the skatepark, the location of the exhibition, and relating that location with being a gathering place for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people alike for millennia. The meetings included intergenerational knowledge sharing between artists and this included not only skill sharing in the mediums of photography and painting but included nature walks which connected the artists with each other, as well as to the land as Indigenous beings.

My name is Chanelle Lajoie, my pronouns are she/her, I come from here on treaty one territory, commonly known as Winnipeg Manitoba. My role in the project with Lavender Menace was a mentor to Ella in photography. I’ve been making art for as long as I can remember but what stands out most was when I participated in the youth outreach program at Martha Street Studio, and with my line of work, I would encourage participants to engage with Graffiti Art Programming. The medium I am most comfortable to work in is photography., but I’m now exploring filmmaking and I am really excited about that.

My name is Ella Greyeyes, and I go by she/her, I am from Winnipeg and my family is from Pegius. My role is a photographer, being a mentee. I started photography 2 months ago. My favourite art is mostly photography because I like picturing something and taking a photo of it and when other people see it I hope they feel happy inside.

My name is Kiana Compton, I go by she/her. I am Ojibwe, Cree, and Blackfoot. My spirit name is Woman in the Heavens Standing, I work at Art City, I was born and raised in Winnipeg. I was one of the mentors, I mentored Sadie and we did the painting. My uncle, Carl used to babysit me and he lived with me at one point and he would make me do art because he was a painter. And then I was a powwow dancer growing up and we were too poor to buy regalia so my mom got us to make our own. I like painting the best, I used to be a beader but I just feel like painting is more me, it’s chill I like just listening to music and painting whatever I want.

My name is Sadie Hudson-Constant, I go by she/her, my spirit name is Loud Thunderbird Woman. Born and raised in Winnipeg but my family comes from Peguis. I like to sketch a lot. I do a little bit, whenever I can. I like to sew and bead for regalias for my powwow dancing.

Annie: Lavender Menace means so many different things to different people. To each of us individually, we all come together from different upbringings, whether we are beginners, emerging, or semi-established, we have all come together to create something that gives back to our communities. It has resonated with us all differently, so for our artists, what does Lavender Menace mean to you?

Ella: Felt like I was part of the team, I felt like really happy doing this project because I just love taking photos and everybody that worked on this project was just so nice.

Kiana: I guess taking up space that's rightfully meant for us reclaiming space.

Sadie: I don't know it was really cool to be a part of this. This is the first time I got to show my art off.

Annie: The group public art exhibition Lavender Menace included a mentorship aspect where two pairs of Indigenous artists would meet at the skatepark, the location of the exhibition, relating that location with being a gathering place for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people alike for millennia. The meaning of secluded intergenerational knowledge-sharing between artists in this not only included skill sharing in the mediums of Photography and Painting but also included nature walks, connecting the artists to each other as well as the land as Indigenous beings.

Knowing the history of this location The Forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, what did it mean for our artists to be gathering, connecting, and making art, here at this location?

Chanelle:  I hope that Indigi-queer folks feel regognized on lands that are inherently theirs, and I also hope that folks that do not identity as Idnigenous or Queer recognize its meant to offer space to indviduals who have been underrepresented for most of their lives here. I hope that when people are engaging with the artwork, settling into having conversations that might be challenging and understanding that those challenging conversations may mean we have to give space to these people who are on display. 

Ella: I hope they feel happy inside and happy wherever they go.

Kiana: I hope they know the roots of it and that its Indigenous, Indigo-queer, and that it makes this space more inclusive to all.

Sadie: I hope they know what the Thunderbirds do, I know there are people who don’t know but it’d be really cool if they could kind of get an idea.

Annie: Yeah, and what is the idea that your Thunderbird says?

Sadie: Everytime it rains, especially around this time, it’s the time when Thunderbirds are giving Mother Earth water to heal her, so it’s not a bad thing to get those storms.

Annie: The mentorship aspect of this exhibition project played such a huge role, for all of us, learning from each other in new experiences, in new ways, and under new circumstances with social distancing. What did our artists learn from this project that they hope to apply in the future?

Chanelle: I think the number one thing that stood out to me was that the ways in which intergenerational knowledge sharing can also be a creative endeavor. I learned a lot from Ella in our mentorship as a mentor, I think I was also in the position of a mentee, and I think it’s important that we recognize and celebrate all of the important teachings that youth carry with them because they are our future and I look forward to what Ella has ahead of her.

Ella: It was mostly learning photography and both, learning to be on a team with you guys, and doing this photography thing.

Kiana: Being a mentor, usually I’m not going out there and doing my thing with the intention of being a mentor, but it is what it is. As a young person, you are going to be a mentor to other young people because they are always looking up to you and doing what you do so I guess realizing that role and continuing it.

Sadie: I learned not to be scared to go to things like this, it took away some of the anxiety I have to meet new people, so it helped me a lot.

Annie: The show focused on creating an environment to allow Indigi-queer, Two-Spirit, non-binary, femme, queer individuals to thrive, to gather as community, and to take up space, in a space that has always been ours. Lajoie said the show at The Forks is meant to start a conversation about representation of Indigenous LGBT and Two-Spirit people in a space so deeply rooted in Indigenous histories.

In line with the fall solstice, the opening event of Lavender Menace took place September 20, 2020 from 5-7 at The Forks Skatepark. It was an outdoor distanced event with Queer Skate Wpg and Board Broads invited to skate. We had the Gago Brothers B-Boy Dance crew. Kilusan, Maribeth, and Tessa Chartrand as DJs, our DJ set included a live Instagram feed on Graffiti Art Programming’s Instagram account, and encouraged those who were staying home to be a part of the celebrations to encourage healthy communities. It was an open skate, participants and guest got to bring their boards, bike, blades, as well as mask, and be together to recognize and celebrate each other through art.

[freespiritsou]

Iu-Mienity. 7 Series.

The Iu-Mien, who are also identified by non-Mien’s as Yao, are one of the hundreds of indigenous ethnic groups between Southern China and Southeast Asia. As an indigenous people of Asia, their status of statelessness has left them vulnerable to persecution, assimilation, and cultural extinction. The expansion of the Chinese state over the Mien occurred during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) and transitioned into the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Ultimately, the process of state expansion has contributed to the division of various indigenous communities, leading to the historical displacement of the Iu-Mien from their native land. Although some were able to maintain peaceful interactions with the Chinese and retain their cultural traditions, some of the Iu-Mien who remained in China with resistant attitudes towards the government were forced to sacrifice their land and culture, or ultimately executed.  For the thousands of Iu-Mien who chose to escape the governance of China, they first migrated towards the mountains of Vietnam and eventually Laos and Thailand. In Laos, the Mien experienced colonization under the French and Japanese. However, it was not until the United States’ attempted intervention against communism in Southeast Asia that the Mien became entangled with the Vietnam War, becoming mercenary soldiers and spies for the CIA. Because of the wars that ensued, over 70% of the Mien-Laotians sought refuge in Thailand, eventually resettling in America between 1975-1990’s.

Table of Contents

HomeAwayFromHome.

noLand.

newHome.

RefugeeButterflies.

RefugeeUnsettlement.

myStory.

12PieceOxHorn

(Odds (1,3,5,7) = Haiku

Evens (2,4,6) = Free Versed)

one. HomeAwayFromHome. (dis/place/ment) 

Native land, stolen,

Home away from home, China..

Migrate with the Wind.

two. noLand. (state.less.ness.)

With nations there are borders,

Countries outlined to alienate

The Indigenous and “Others.”

The Iu-Mien, Hmong, Khmu, and those alike,

All oppressed by state expansion.

Lost Native Lands, becoming Refugee Butterflies.

Statelessness is distasteful, it imposes hunger.

Marginalized onto Mountaintops,

Almost forgotten about, but our distinctions are unforgettable.

Displaced, Stateless.. Literature dissolves through centuries,

Of persecution. We survive in breaths, outweighing the texts

Of what is written in early history, telling the narrative of Chinese dynasties.

three. newHome. (mi/gra/tion)

The Forced Migration,

Led to Southeast Asian soil,

New forests, new Home.

four. RefugeeButterflies. (w/a/r/)

“States make wars, wars make states - massively - makes migrants.”

To be without a Nation, leaves “Others” vulnerable to empires.

The Chinese, French, Japanese, and U.S. forces,

Had forced us to lose lives, use opium, be taxed, and fight wars outside of our knowledge.

Our indigenous bodies, trained by militancy,

The US, couldn’t bear with communism, so they engaged us into their rivalry,

The Secret War of Laos, The Vietnam War,

Wars we were forced to fight in, we had no true reason for,

We were once a peaceful people, with a sense of autonomy,

Now we live in many homes, many lands, with no sense of authority,

Because of wars, we are more than migrants,

Refugee embodiments of butterflies, we search for peace in villages,

Because of wars, we are more than migrants,

Refugee movements, we search for peace in Thai refugee camps,

Because of wars, we are more than refugees,

Human in the flesh, we search for peace in the U.S.

five. RefugeeUnsettlement. (re.settle.ment)

A new horizon,

A breath of fresh air, US

A, dream or nightmare?

six. myStory. (2nd gen. perspect.)

Refugee bloodline.

In the City of Oakland, I inherit that state of mind.

I feel that sense of pride, that do-or-die,

That representation matters,

So I rep my hood like,

How white Americans rep that flag.

So I rep my blood like,

How police officers rep that badge.

So I represent my history like,

How white historians write their facts.

I represent me like,

How I represent DAMN…

When I was a child, I noticed differences.

By the age of 5 I experienced racism.

Mexicans at school would bully us,

Call us Chinese gay kids, they tried to ruin us.

They tried to emasculate us,

Not knowing, that we shared the same parents.

Migrant, refugee. Parents.

Born in Amerika, we are second generation. Kids. Students.

When I was a child, I noticed differences.

By the age of 11, I was jumped on the first week of school because... I’m Asian.

There was no explanation.

These two black boys in P.E. class,

Attacked me from the back, walked away, and started laughing..

I sat there crying, wondering for an explanation,

And no teacher or school administrator could tell me that it was because “I Was Asian...”

They tried to break me down, to flex that they were superior,

Not knowing that I felt so small, like how they once felt inferior.

When I was a teen, I noticed differences.

By the age of 13 I realized that there were so many different Asians.

The Chinese kids, I saw as rich.

Always showing off their Lunar New Year money, the money I didn’t get.

The Vietnamese kids, I saw as both rich and poor.

Some were nerdy, but the ones I befriended knew of the streets and all.

The Cambodian kids, I saw as poor.

Similar to me and the Mien’s in Oakland,

With dark skin, we were hood affiliated,

Academically deviated,

We were the ones that knew that through school,

We would never make it.

From ASW to OMC,

Even if we weren’t in gangs, we knew of people that was indeed.

Fast Forward..

When I came to UC Berkeley, I understood the differences.

My lived experiences, tells me that I come from humble beginnings.

I represented these fragments, like how incarcerated men still represent their block.

I represent these fragments like that, but it has simmered down.

Because I now represent so much more, I represent growth.

I embody tragic events from the history before me and lived upon me, I am hope.

I represent the latter, that you have yet to discover,

I’ve organized lives through what I’ve been through, to make the world better.

seven. 12PieceOxHorn (alter/native space)

Miens reunited.

Diaspora within one.

Connected by Sea.

[laresearchette]

Friday, November 25, 2022 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)

WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?: FANTASY FOOTBALL (Paramount +) ¡QUE DELICIOSO! (The Roku Channel) A ROYAL CORGI CHRISTMAS (W Network) 8:00pm JEFF DUNHAM: ME THE PEOPLE (CTV Comedy) 8:00pm WE’RE HERE (HBO Canada) 10:00pm

WHAT IS NOT PREMIERING IN CANADA TONIGHT? STEPPIN’ INTO THE HOLIDAY (Premiering on December 04 on CTV Life at 8:00pm) THE CROODS: FAMILY TREE (TBD - YTV) DESTINATION FEAR (TBD - DTour) FATAL FAMILY REUNION (TBD - Lifetime Canada) HOW DO THEY DO IT? (TBD - Science)

NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:

AMAZON PRIME CANADA EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE MEET CUTE

CBC GEM CALL THE MIDWIFE SEASON 10 HOLIDAY SPECIAL LIVING WILD: HOW TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE (Season 1a)

CRAVE TV THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN DOULA DRAGON THE FLINTSTONES THE FAMILY MAN LOONEY TUNES: RABBITS RUN MISTLETOE TIME MACHINE NEIGHBORS PANHANDLE (Season 1) TEEN MOM UK (Season 8) THREE NIGHT STAND   WE’RE HERE (Season 3)

DISNEY + STAR THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY HOLIDAY SPECIAL THE HIP HOP NUTCRACKER

NETFLIX CANADA BLOOD & WATER (Season 3) GHISLAINE MAXWELL: FILTHY RICH

FIFA WORLD CUP SOCCER (TSN/TSN3/TSN4/TSN5) 4:45am: Wales vs. Iran (TSN/TSN3/TSN4/TSN5) 7:45am: Qatar vs. Senegal (TSN/TSN3/TSN4/TSN5) 10:45am: Netherlands vs. Ecuador (TSN/TSN3/TSN4/TSN5) 1:45pm: England vs. USA (TSN/TSN5) 8:30pm: Match of the Day

NHL HOCKEY (SN) 2:00pm: Flames vs. Capitals (TSN2) 2:00pm: Habs vs. Blackhawks (TSN4) 2:00pm: Leafs vs. Wild (TSN5) 3:00pm: Sens vs. Ducks (SN) 5:30pm: Penguins vs. Flyers (SN) 8:00pm: Blues vs. Lightning (TSN3) 8:30pm: Jets vs. Stars

PULSE (APTN) 7:00pm: Meet The Ukwehuwe Connection, a dance troupe from the Oneida Nation that showcases traditional Haudenosaunee dances. The group was formed by Frazer Sundown to raise awareness of his culture and show that the Oneida people are still here and still strong.

A GINGERBREAD CHRISTMAS (CTV Life) 7:00pm: Hazel goes to spend the holidays in her hometown, where a romance begins to bloom with a local contractor who has been helping her father with their family bakery.

NCAA FOOTBALL (TSN2) 7:30pm: Florida vs. Florida State

NBA BASKETBALL (TSN4) 7:30pm: Cavaliers vs. Bucks (SN NOW) 8:00pm: Lakers vs. Spurs (SN1) 8:00pm: Pelicans vs. Grizzlies (SN1) 10:30pm: Nuggets vs. Clippers

MARKETPLACE (CBC) 8:00pm: Testing the sizing of jeans; putting the safety of motorcycle helmets to the test; and eco-friendly alternatives to balloons.

RODEO NATION (APTN) 8:00pm: The Ponoka Rodeo is the last chance to qualify for the world championships in Las Vegas; veteran Bill T. Head knows what it takes to win, and his son tries to carry his legacy.

MEMORIES OF CHRISTMAS (Super Channel Heart & Home) 8:00pm: When Noelle inherits her mother's house, she finds out that for the past few years her aging mother had been hiring professionals to decorate it for Christmas. Noelle tells the decorator that the deal is off, but he refuses to take no for an answer.

TRAVEL MAN: 48 HOURS IN… (CBC) 8:30pm:  DJ, broadcaster and podcaster Alice Levine joins Richard for a 48-hour fling round the Estonian capital Tallinn. Over two maxxed out days, Richard and Alice rip round the city’s most see-able sights, summit the country’s highest structure, nosh at its top Restaurant and stroke Sean Connery’s face.

STORIES FROM THE LAND (APTN) 8:30pm: A chef and a knowledge keeper make traditional corn soup, and pass on the story of why corn soup is so culturally significant to the Indigenous people of southern Ontario.

THE PASSIONATE EYE (CBC) 9:00pm: The Climate Baby Dilemma: For a growing number of young people, the climate crisis is affecting decisions about whether or not to have kids

TRANSPLANT (CTV) 9:00pm

THE PROOF IS OUT THERE: SKINWALKER EDITION (History Canada) 9:00pm (SERIES PREMIERE):  Tony Harris travels to Skinwalker Ranch, a place known for strange alien encounters, while experts scrutinize some of the most compelling video evidence of UFOs.

DOULA (Crave) 9:00pm:  A couple reluctantly hire a male doula to help them navigate the joys and pitfalls of modern pregnancy.

CANADA'S DRAG RACE: CANADA VS. THE WORLD (Crave 2) 9:00pm: Are you ready for the Snatch Summit? With an EXTRA special appearance by Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.

A PERFECT ENEMY (Super Channel Fuse) 9:00pm: An architect's strange conversation with a mysterious young woman soon turns into something sinister and deadly.

CRIME BEAT (Global) 10:00pm: Detectives investigate leads in what they believe was a targeted killing; reporter Mark Carcasole reveals the twists and turns in the plot to kill Davis, and just how close to home it was.

BLOOD IN THE SNOW FILM FESTIVAL (Super Channel Fuse) 12:05am: The Devil Comes at Night:  A washed up boxer searching for his inheritance must fight for his life when he is trapped in his deceased father's farmhouse by a local cannibal cult.

[tlatollotl]

The fortress of Kuelap, popularly known as 'the Machu Picchu of the north,' dominates the landscape at an elevation of 3,000 meters. Credit: Chiara Barbieri

The Chachapoyas region was conquered by the Inca Empire in the late 15th century. Knowledge of the fate of the local population has been based largely on Inca oral histories, written down only decades later after the Spanish conquest. The Inca accounts claim that the native population was forcibly resettled out of Chachapoyas and dispersed across the Inca Empire. However, a new study in Scientific Reports, by an international team including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, uses genetic evidence to reveal that despite Inca conquest, the population of Chachapoyas has remained genetically distinct, and not assimilated with that of the Inca heartland.

Despite their spectacular achievements, from the first cities of the Americas to the Inca Empire, the indigenous peoples of the Andes left no written histories. One legacy that can now be read, however, is the genetic diversity of their descendants today, especially when taken together with the rich archaeology of the Andes and the prehistory of its native languages. This is the approach taken in a new study in Scientific Reports to test the demographic legacy of the Incas.

The study emerges out of a collaboration between research institutes in Peru and in Germany, including the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. The focus is on a key region in the cloud-forest transition between the Andes and Amazonia in northern Peru. Here the Incas encountered fierce resistance from the "Warriors of the Clouds," the Chachapoyas culture, noted particularly for its distinctive body-shaped sarcophagi and the monumental fortress of Kuelap, the "Machu Picchu of the north." Particularly to punish and to secure control over such rebellious lands, the Incas are thought to have resettled millions of people across the "Four Quarters" of their empire, Tawantinsuyu. Chachapoyas was reportedly singled out for such treatment, making it an ideal case for using genetics to test the accuracy of Inca oral histories, which were not written down until almost a century later, by the Spanish conquistadors.

Map of sampling locations and approximate distribution of sub-branches of the Quechua language family, as traditionally classified. Red dot 1 marks the sampling locations in the Amazonas region (Chachapoyas City, Luya, Huancas, Utcubamba South, La Jalca); red dot 2 marks that in the San Martín region (Lamas, Wayku neighbourhood). The inset zooms in on the sampling locations in Amazonas. Credit: Barbieri et al. Enclaves of genetic diversity resisted Inca impacts on population history. Scientific Reports, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-17728-w.

"By targeting various linguistic indicators, we were able to pinpoint a genetic signal in Chachapoyas that turned out to be far more diverse than we expected, especially in the male line, from father to son," explains Chiara Barbieri, a geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, and lead author of the study. "First of all, there's still a strong surviving Native American component, despite all the admixture with European genes ever since the Spanish conquest. What's more, here the native component is quite different from the main genetic network in the highlands of central and southern Peru. This is where the Inca Empire and its predecessors originated, and their conquests, road networks and empire-building ended up homogenizing the genetic make-up here." The current study reveals how the people of Chachapoyas, by contrast, remained relatively isolated. "So it seems that some genetic legacy of the Chachapoyas did indeed resist Inca impacts, all the way through to today," explains Barbieri.

Two Peruvian geneticists, José Sandoval and Ricardo Fujita of the Universidad San Martin de Porres in Lima, Peru, also took part in the study. "These latest samples are part of a wider genetic coverage of Peru that we've been building up for years. It's these groups like the Chachapoya, culturally and linguistically highly distinctive, who have the most to tell us about our ancestors: where they came from, where they migrated to, what interactions they had with each other, and so on. Also, the Chachapoyas culture left such extensive archaeological remains that there are good prospects for recovering ancient DNA, to complement the modern picture."

Paul Heggarty, a linguist and senior author of the study, also of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, was first motivated to launch this project after unexpected results from a linguistic fieldwork trip to Chachapoyas. He was able to find a few remaining elderly speakers of an indigenous language that most assumed was already extinct in this region. "Quechua is one of our most direct living links to the people of the New World before Columbus. It still has millions of speakers, more than any other language family of the Americas - but not in Chachapoyas anymore. There are only a dozen or so fluent speakers now, in a few remote villages, so we need to act fast if we're to work out its real origins here."

The body-shaped sarcophagi of Karajía contained the remains of high-ranking Chachapoya ancestors. The inhabitants of Chachapoyas today may in part descend from these pre-Inca populations. Credit: Chiara Barbieri

The Chachapoyas form of Quechua has usually been classified as most closely related to the Quechua spoken in Ecuador, but the new DNA results show no close connections between the Quechua-speakers in these two areas. "Linguists need to rethink their traditional view of the family tree of Quechua languages, and the history of how they spread through the Andes," notes Heggarty. "It seems that Quechua reached Chachapoyas without any big movement of people. This also doesn't fit with the idea that the Incas forced out the Chachapoyas population wholesale."

Jairo Valqui, another linguist co-author from the National University of San Marcos in Lima, adds a further perspective on an even earlier language layer. "Once Quechua and Spanish arrived, the local Chachapoyas languages died out. Recovering anything from them is a real puzzle and a challenge for linguists. They left very few traces, but there are some characteristic combinations of sounds, for example, that still survive in people's surnames and in local placenames, like Kuelap itself."

Valqui, himself a Chachapoyano, also makes a point of taking these genetic results back to the local population. "For Peruvian society today, this matters. There's long been an appreciation of the Incas, but often at the cost of sidelining everything else in the archaeological record across Peru, and the diversity in our linguistic and genetic heritage too. As these latest findings remind us: Peru is not just Machu Picchu, and its indigenous people were not just the Incas."

[ckoerner]

Farhad Fatkullin, 2018 Wikimedian of the Year, looks back on his successes and forward to what’s next

One year ago, Farhad Fatkullin was at home gifting his time to simultaneously translating the speeches being given at Wikimania, the annual conference that celebrates Wikipedia, the Wikimedia projects, and the volunteers who contribute to them.

Up on stage for the closing ceremony was Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia who at each year gives out an award for the Wikimedian of the Year, someone whose achievements exemplify the vision and mission for Wikimedia that we all share: Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.

As Jimmy spoke, Farhad translated. And then Jimmy read out Farhad’s name.

• • •

Farhad lives with his wife and two children in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, one of Russia’s over 80 federal subjects. For the last nineteen years, he’s been a freelance conference interpreter, primarily translating between Russian and English but capable of handling another four languages when required, including Tatar.

On Wikimedia projects, he is what Jimmy last year called the “bridge” between several different language communities. Farhad focuses on translating global messages, usually in English, into Russian, which is understood by the members of smaller language Wikimedia communities within the Russian Federation.

“I happen to speak a number of languages and I want my world and that of future generations to be multilingual and multicultural,” he told me. “I am bored by living in one or two linguo-cultural worldviews. Once you have food on the table and safety, we want quality of life—and that’s about creating and experiencing diversity. I love supporting those who help make our world more colorful.”

He added:

Thanks to my great love for the languages and cultures of the world, … I am deeply convinced that “the sum of all knowledge” includes every human language and related cultural knowledge. Unfortunately, we are living in the period of possible mass extinction of languages and loss of cultural diversity. Closing our eyes and letting all this wealth of accumulated knowledge vanish by not making it work for today’s and tomorrow’s generations would be like having only the choice of McDonald’s and other fast-food restaurant chains for catering.

Farhad first learned about the Tatar Wikipedia in 2008, back when he was a United States State Department-sponsored intern within the Tennessee General Assembly, but did not begin to consistently edit the encyclopedia until 2012.

Inspired by his daughter, who was at that time about to start in a Tatar-language elementary school, Farhad said that as the smallest Wikipedia out of the languages he knows, editing it “was clearly the best application of my energy.” It also provided a “gym” where he could exercise and practice his command of the language.

Farhad also quickly became a fixture in Russia’s Wikimedia communities. Across the largest country in the world, many federal subjects choose to recognize a co-official language alongside the principal Russian, including Tatarstan’s Tatar. Farhad’s actions inspired both those communities, which represent nearly thirty Wikipedias, and the overarching Wikimedia Indigenous Languages group, whose mission is to “support and encourage efforts to develop specific Wikimedia projects in small and endangered languages.”

It was for contributions like those that Farhad was given the 2018 Wikimedian of the Year award. Over the past year, he said that the award had “changed his life in an unexpected manner,” although that came with some period of stress as well.

In the wake of the award, Farhad was thrust into being a public face for the Wikimedia communities in Russia, and was able to convert this new-found status into getting audiences with high-ranking officials in the region and country.  For instance, Farhad landed a meeting with Tatarstan’s deputy prime minister, and through that contact worked with the government to freely license their official website and establish a permanent Wikimedia working group.

An enthusiastic supporter of expanding access to education, Farhad also met with the former president of Tatarstan and the UNESCO Special Envoy for Intercultural Dialogue. Through these individuals, he was able to get additional backing for the Selet WikiSchool project, which organizes Wikimedia trainings for Tatar-speaking students. Finally, Farhad’s new contacts allowed him to present his “Wiki-Smart Region” project to Russia’s deputy prime minister, among other politicians. The project is aimed at engaging everyone, young and old, into shaping the  digital information society, thus both  encouraging the adoption of lifelong learning and developing local economies.

As Farhad looks out over the next few years, he’s looking forward to continuing his education-focused work. “All of my plans will take both effort and time,” he says, “but it’s worth it. Tatarstan’s authorities are interested in helping make them happen and advertising them around Russia and beyond, so I believe we should try to develop a reasonable roadmap and showcase it to them.”

You can catch Farhad on stage at the closing ceremony at this year’s Wikimania, taking place from 14–18 August in Stockholm, where he and Jimmy Wales will pass the torch to the next Wikimedian of the Year

Ed Erhart, Senior Editorial Associate, Communications Wikimedia Foundation

https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2019/08/14/farhad-fatkullin-2018-wikimedian-of-the-year-looks-back-on-his-successes-and-forward-to-whats-next/ via News – Wikimedia Foundation

[wendyimmiller]

Superb Wine Chaser–The Gaura-Oenothera Connection

Collage by Mary Vaananen

Mary Vaananen returns for her latest Guest Rant with some thoughts on the varying ways plants are anointed with their names.

I am fascinated by the stories around the naming of plants.

How is it that humans have come to know and name plants? From the beginning, we had a relationship with the natural world…a very deep relationship considering that we relied on plants for sustenance, shelter, and medicine …for our very lives. We could not live without them therefore we had to be very in tune with the plants around us. They were considered persons in their own right, having their own being-ness, individuality and personality. We still cannot live without plants–that has not changed– but our relationship to them, has.

Indigenous peoples named the plants in their communities for their appearance, behavior or what the plant gave to them. Those names are not often translate-able in terms of English and varied from tribe to tribe, just as common names still do today.

Portrait of C.S. Sargent, Francis Skinner and George Engelmann taken at a studio in Monterey, California during their trip in the summer of 1880 to examine trees and forests of the American West for the Tenth Census of the United States. Photo by I.W. Taber courtesy Gray Herbarium Archives.

When the Europeans discovered this land for themselves, they too had an interest in plants…plants sustained their lives too, but as they were a more “advanced” society they brought a different system of naming…the binomial nomenclature of Linnaeus, based in the father of so many languages, Latin.

Many of the names given to the plants they discovered (plants that already had names within the tribes) were in honor of a human colleague, perhaps the first to document or publish in a journal, or a famous botanist (crony-nomial nomenclature?). Although names were many times a mash up of descriptive and devotive, this was a next level…somewhat removed from the deep relationship the indigenous had with the plants. This system did establish a common language of plants which was and still is most useful for us.

Gaura lindheimeri ‘Summer Breeze’ photo courtesy Jelitto Staudensamen GmbH

Gaura lindheimeri won the Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society….apparently the gardening elite saw something aesthetically wonderful there. Europeans have reintroduced or selected many North American native plants, fiddled with them and handed them back to us as we became proper ornamental gardeners.

The name Gaura is attributed to Linnaeus originating from the Greek meaning: superb. Of course, the Brits had it right! The Lakota tribe named the scarlet Gaura  “on s’unk oyu’spapi” which translates to “they use it to catch a horse with”.  Apparently, the plant was chewed and rubbed on the hands before horses were rounded up. So, for them, it probably was superb, and one guesses, sticky and alluring.

Recently, Gaura lindheimeri has been placed in the clade Oenothera sect. Gaura subsect. Gaura by Onagraceae experts Warren L. Wagner and Peter C. Hoch.

5a. Flowers opening near sunrise; plants clumped perennial, usually branching from the base, villous throughout and usually glandular puberulent in the distal parts; southeast Texas and Louisiana.

Portion of a Bayesian tree of Oenothera sect. Gaura https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3881414/

Welcome to Cladistics. Now plants are being named and categorized by microscopic genetic patterns/markers in their DNA. This system is a method of classification of animals and plants according to the proportion of measurable characteristics that they have in common. It is assumed that the higher the proportion of characteristics that two organisms share, the more recently they diverged from a common ancestor. This is a new approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (“clades”) based on the most recent common ancestor.

Curiously, Oenothera, the name we know evening primroses by and also named by Linnaeus, comes from the Greek name onos theras meaning donkey-catcher or wine seeker, two very different translations that taxonomists cannot quite agree on. But the Lakotas, Linnaeus, the Greeks, and Wagner/Hoch were all in tune on this one…. they use it to catch a horse with. Delightful!

Ferdinand Lindheimer courtesy New Braunfels Conservation Society

I have already gone on Garden Rant record as being a wine seeker. According to letters written to colleague Georg Engelmann in the mid-1880s, Ferdinand Lindheimer, a German–born botanist and the anointed father of Texas botany was quite fond of the sweet native grapes growing around his home in New Braufels, TX.  Old world grapes brought with the influx of German settlers did not take well to the Texas climate.

Vitis mustangensis https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12351402

Lindheimer was superb in his own right. He was a European who forged friendships with the Lakotas and other tribes in and around Texas. He respected their ways and knowledge, and in return was able to travel with them to territories most white men could not go. Lindheimer’s gatherings of plant samples that were sent on (with painstaking perfection) to Engelmann and Harvard Professor Asa Gray were the first to be documented and named in the region. Engelmann surely thought Ferdinand superb, as he named the Gaura after him.

Lindheimer served as the first editor of the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung, a bilingual German-English newspaper that lasted more than a century. He published the newspaper from his house and included his own sometimes controversial writings. He was involved in local education and served as the county’s first Justice of the Peace. He surely was deeply rooted in his community.

Lindheimer house 2008 By Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5299427

I wonder if he ever dreamed of plant categories based on the unseen stuff of matter. Technological advances now allow this kind of deep look into the physical matrices of the world. We are getting good at determining how plants have evolved from common ancestors…tracing the paths and forks in the evolutionary road. Does this allow a deeper connection with these plants? Is this next, more advanced stage of classification and discovery allying us more closely to the world?

Gaura flower in hand

I say, let the scientists do their science. 23 and Me can give you a hazy map of where your bits came from, but it cannot tell you why you have a deep penchant for the grape.

I like that we repay the honor by naming our children Iris, Holly, Daisy, Hyacinth and Rose.

Names are a human construct….they fall way short of representing the essence of the thing.

As with any relationship, we can go deeper into alliance with plants. Let’s get to know them beyond their name, hair color, and wardrobe. That’s the challenge today, and in the years to come.

Mary Vaananen lives and gardens in Louisville, KY. She is the North American manager for Jelitto Perennial Seeds, headquartered in Germany.

            Superb Wine Chaser–The Gaura-Oenothera Connection originally appeared on GardenRant on May 13, 2020.

The post Superb Wine Chaser–The Gaura-Oenothera Connection appeared first on GardenRant.

from Gardening https://www.gardenrant.com/2020/05/superb-wine-chaser-the-gaura-oenothera-connection.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

[drtanstravels]

Anna and I came to a conclusion recently — She needs to relax more and take more holidays. Yes, we do go on a lot of trips and we have plenty coming up this year, but it is almost entirely for her work so she doesn’t really get to take a break. When we went to Thailand and a resort in Indonesia recently, she was a completely different person and got to unwind properly for the first time in about a year. We did go to Turkey late last year, but it was on the tail-end of a conference that Anna had put in a lot of work for, plus it was an extremely hectic trip anyway, hardly any time for relaxation. That’s why we decided to take part in the world’s largest annual human migration and get away at Chinese New Year this year; it’s a relatively quiet time for her at the Eye Centre as few people in Singapore want to have surgery done during this period and the timing of Chinese New Year meant that Monday, February fourth was a half-day public holiday, while the fifth and sixth were full days off. We wanted to go somewhere neither of us had been before and initially considered Taiwan, but it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to go there during Chinese New Year as everything would be closed and we kind of wanted to escape the stress of being in a Chinese environment during those celebrations, because constant drums, chanting, and fires aren’t conducive to a relaxing weekend. Instead, we opted for Sri Lanka, a place neither of us really knew a whole lot about. My knowledge of Sri Lanka was limited to what was shown when singer Kamahl did advertisements for teabags in Australia and the fact that their cricket team was abysmal when I was growing up. Well, here are the basics on Sri Lanka:

Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, located in the Indian Ocean to the southwest of the Bay of Bengal and to the southeast of the Arabian Sea. The island is historically and culturally intertwined with the Indian subcontinent, but is geographically separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the commercial capital and largest city, Colombo.

Sri Lanka was known from the beginning of British colonial rule as Ceylon. A nationalist political movement arose in the country in the early 20th century to obtain political independence, which was granted in 1948; the country became a republic and adopted its current name in 1972.

The island is home to many cultures, languages and ethnicities. The majority of the population is from the Sinhalese ethnicity, while a large minority of Tamils have also played an influential role in the island’s history. Moors, Burghers, Malays, Chinese, and the indigenous Vedda are also established groups on the island.

‘Colombo,’ not ‘Columbo’

Sounds like it could be an interesting place to spend a few days so the plan was to fly out on Friday evening and stay the night in Colombo, catch a train to Galle and spend Saturday and Sunday night in the Fort area there, meeting up with our Australian friends from Singapore, Tom Cargill and Leonie Brown, whom it happened would be in the same place at the same time, and then come back for a final night in Colombo before flying out very early Wednesday morning. There was, however, the issue that I had had an epileptic seizure a few days prior to leaving that would require me to get my head stitched up in hospital, but wasn’t expected to put our trip in any jeopardy. Let’s see if all went to plan.

Friday, February 1, 2019 Anna finished work early on Friday afternoon so we packed, took Kermit to the dog hotel, and then got a cab to the airport. Our flight was at 7:30pm and it would take three-and-a-half hours to touch down in Colombo, however, Sri Lanka is two-and-a-half hours behind Singapore so it was barely 9:00pm by the time we landed. Getting through immigration wasn’t too much of an issue, although I did get a few sideways glances from officers because of my rather impressive black eye, but we were soon through the gate and one thing became abundantly clear; A lot of people landing at Bandaranaike International Airport must purchase fridges on impulse! Sure, there was the regular duty free store selling alcohol, cigarettes, perfume, and the usual stuff that you encounter in any international airport, but this was surrounded by endless shops selling duty free white-goods — refrigerators, washers, dryers, ovens, vacuum cleaners, and everything else any complete home requires were all available and all tax-free at any of the countless electronics and homewares stores in the arrivals area. I think Harvey Norman may have to rethink their business model, I’m not kidding, there are tons of these stores so they must be selling something, take a look around for yourself:

Anna looking a little confused

Just a couple of the stores

Looking from the standard duty free section

Even more

We managed to resist the urge to pick up a reasonably priced chest freezer and walked down to the taxi rank. Initially we thought that maybe we should’ve requested a hotel transfer, but we had nothing to worry about, getting a taxi without getting ripped off wasn’t a problem as there was a fixed-priced taxi counter. Now onto our home for almost the next 24 hours, Colombo:

Colombo is the commercial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo metropolitan area has a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 in the city proper. It is the financial centre of the island and a popular tourist destination. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to the Greater Colombo area which includes Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, the legislative capital of Sri Lanka and Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia. Colombo is often referred to as the capital since Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is within the urban area of, and a suburb of, Colombo. It is also the administrative capital of the Western Province and the district capital of Colombo District. Colombo is a busy and vibrant place with a mixture of modern life and colonial buildings and ruins. It was the legislative capital of Sri Lanka until 1982.

Due to its large harbour and its strategic position along the East-West sea trade routes, Colombo was known to ancient traders 2,000 years ago. It was made the capital of the island when Sri Lanka was ceded to the British Empire in 1815, and its status as capital was retained when the nation became independent in 1948. In 1978, when administrative functions were moved to Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, Colombo was designated as the commercial capital of Sri Lanka.

To make matters even better, we were staying at the legendary Galle Face Hotel. Just have a click around that website and you’ll see why we were excited to be staying there or if you’re too lazy, just read a portion of what Wikipedia has to say about our humble abode for the night:

The Galle Face Hotel, founded in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1864, is one of the oldest hotels east of Suez. It is listed as one of the “1000 Places to See Before You Die” in the book of the same name.

Celebrity guests include Mahatma Gandhi; the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin; John D. Rockefeller; former British Prime minister Edward Heath; Princess Alexandra of Denmark; Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; First Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru; Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India; journalist Eric Ellis and photographer Palani Mohan; future British RAF officer and MI6 agent F. W. Winterbotham; Prince Sadruddhin Aga Khan; then-Prince Hirohito of Japan; Roger Moore; Carrie Fisher; Richard Nixon, US President; Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma; Noël Coward, English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer; Josip Broz Tito, Marshal of Yugoslavia. In January 2018 Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex stayed at the hotel during their five day official visit.

I guess I can now name two hotels in which Richard Nixon has stayed. Anyway, once we had arrived we checked into our room and then went down to King of the Mambo, a Cuban-themed bar and restaurant within the hotel, right on the water. We pulled up a seat, ordered a couple of drinks and just started chatting while a Latin band played in the background when, before long, a couple on the next table, an Italian man and an Indian woman, must’ve overheard us say something about Singapore and asked if we were “Jacu’s friends.” It turned out that they both live in Singapore too and knew someone there whose friends were also traveling to Sri Lanka this weekend as well. We told them that we were from Singapore, but didn’t know a Jacu. I later had a look at Facebook and saw that there were comments on my friend’s page tagging me as traveling to Colombo, as well as another couple. This particular friend doesn’t use his real name on Facebook and I thought that maybe I had just forgotten his name as he is someone I only know from the pub so I showed his photo to the couple on the next table. “Yes, that’s Jacu!” they replied, so we settled in, ordered some food and got chatting with them. Not only did we have the mutual friend we knew of, but it turned out that the Indian girl, Adita, also went to university and is friends with one of Anna’s best friends, Roshini. To quote the comedian Steven Wright, “It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to have to paint it.” Here’s a look around our room in the Galle Face Hotel and King of the Mambo that night, although we didn’t get one our new drinking buddies:

Looking toward our bed

looking away from it

toward our bathroom

Out our window

Getting a bit rough on the way to the bar

Part of the view of King of the Mambo from our table

Looking along the shore

Inside the bar

Another area

Part of the skyline in the background

Saturday, February 2, 2019 We were still operating on Singapore time so we were up pretty early by our holiday standards. One thing that we didn’t realise was that Sri Lankan National Day, or Independence Day, also happened to fall during our trip, being celebrated on the Monday so there were thousands of soldiers rehearsing for the National Day parade when we left the hotel in the morning. Our plan for Saturday was to catch a train down to Galle, however, first-class trains only departed at around 6:30am, which wasn’t an option for us. Instead, we could get an express train at 3:50pm, but we would only be able to get either second or third class tickets with unreserved seating. You’re probably thinking, “Oh, poor Tim and Anna, can’t get first class tickets, boo-hoo,” but anyone who has ever caught public transport anywhere on the Indian subcontinent would understand that even first class could be deceptive in definition, second class with unreserved seating could mean absolutely anything, and third class with unreserved seating may possibly resemble something like this:

Still, we had a few hours to kill so we hit the street, taking in some of the military rehearsals along the way. We began walking toward the centre of town along Colombo-Galle Main Rd. when we were almost immediately approached by a very well-dressed, albeit extremely sweaty, local man who burst into a power-walk to catch up to us. Sri Lanka is famous for its gemstones and this dodgy guy insisted on taking us to a gemstone museum and then a shop afterward. We’re used to dealing with scammers overseas so we made it clear that we weren’t interested and that’s when the bullshit began. “Today is National Day so nothing else will be open anyway, as you can see by the parade on the beach.” We explained to him that we were more than aware that National Day was on Monday, the shops were clearly open, and that the parade on the beach was a rehearsal, but he wasn’t deterred. “I work at your hotel, what sort of representative would I be if I didn’t show you the best of Colombo?” We then pointed out that it was one of his alleged coworkers that told us about the rehearsals and he wasn’t dressed like any of them, but still he insisted we see the gemstone museum, going on and on about it as we sped up, him struggling to keep pace. It was finally when he called over a tuk tuk for us and told the driver where to take us that we both finally snapped, telling him that we saw through his bullshit and that we were doing something somewhere else. He kept talking, but soon realised he wasn’t getting anywhere, muttered something under his breath, and walked away. We were expecting to meet hustlers like this after the time we’ve spent in India and the first person we encountered on the streets of Colombo was exactly that, but fortunately we wouldn’t meet too many more.

We continued exploring, but everyone we know that has been to Sri Lanka told us beforehand that there wasn’t a whole lot to do or see in Colombo, just tons of construction, and Galle was where the real action was. Still, we had a look around, grabbed a decent lunch, and then soon we had to head back to the hotel to grab our luggage in order to catch our train. A look around our hotel and the surrounding area of Colombo:

A panoramic view from our balcony

Inside the lobby of the Galle Face Hotel

Our doorman about to let us out

Looking across the road

The parade rehearsals from a distance

Part of the exterior of the Galle Face Hotel

Part of where we had spent the previous night

More of the parade action on the beach

The local police station

A building that seems to be missing a roof and some walls

One of many construction sites

A cool mural on a building on our way to lunch

These photos may not paint a particularly beautiful picture of Colombo, but it is really nice, just the area we stayed on that first night may have been a little less aesthetically pleasing. After lunch we walked back to the hotel, got our luggage and checked out, and then we were on our way to the train station. The train station wasn’t far away, but we had to get there about an hour early in order to get halfway-decent tickets for our two-and-a-half hour journey to Galle. Anna read online that if we wanted to get a seat on the train, it was best to go to the first station on the trainline, but the concierge at our hotel said it was too far out of the way and we only needed to go to the nearest station. We got our first tuk tuk in Sri Lanka, negotiated a decent price due to the fare metre still being sealed in its original packaging, and rode in our three-wheeled deathmobile, weaving recklessly through traffic, all the way to the station. Anyone that has ever ridden in a tuk tuk before knows that you never feel all that safe in one and that’s not including the time a tuk tuk driver in Pondicherry, India (the vehicle called an “auto” there) made a piss-poor attempt at kidnapping me! These things are completely unstable, you’re not secured into the vehicle in any way, the drivers just throw caution to the wind, and in some countries they’ll do anything to screw you over to make an extra buck or two. Only some of them in Sri Lanka have a fare metre, but they are never used so you just have to haggle first and fortunately we never had any drivers try to scam us. Tuk tuks are the cheapest, and sometimes only, option, but all the ones we encountered on this trip could be trusted. We soon arrived at the train station and I watched the bags while Anna bought our tickets and then we walked down to platform 5 where our train would eventually be arriving. We managed to get second class tickets with unreserved seating, which meant that the process for getting a seat was first in, first served when entering the carriage, however, our carriage would have ceiling fans. When we saw a train arriving on another platform, we realised exactly what this meant; the carriages in both classes were extremely crowded with people getting on and off while the train was still moving, others just hanging out of the doors as the only convenient place to stand in third class. After we saw this, I decided to ask someone on our platform where to board the second class carriage. I approached a friendly-looking young woman, only for her to let out a little scream and grab her handbag. Train stations around the globe are generally seedy areas so I guess when a female is approached by a rather large man with a black eye and facial stitches, she needs to be on her guard. I apologised, explained our situation, and she advised us to wait in the middle of the platform, as that is where the second class carriages would most likely be.

Our train soon arrived and we boarded, and although I wasn’t expecting complimentary champagne, we were also unable to get a seat despite how proactive we were, instead relegated to standing in the centre of the carriage, the end nearest to us only having two of the seven ceiling fans operating. Initially the carriage was overcrowded, people even sitting in the open doorway, legs hanging outside the train. There were handles hanging from bars from the ceiling, but it was easier for me to hold the bar, Anna grabbing a handle, and we were soon on our way. Sri Lanka is infinitely cleaner than India, but as we were departing we crossed a river that could almost be tasted as we passed, the horrendous stench of raw sewerage hanging in the air. None of the locals really reacted to fragrant aroma of human waste, but almost every foreigner on the train instantly gagged. I’ve also heard awful rumours about the toilets on trains in this part of the world, essentially just a seat with a hole that drops turds directly onto the tracks, the room ending up ankle deep in human waste. How much truth there is to those stories can really be neither confirmed nor denied for me, but we both decided it was best to clench for the next couple of hours and take in the scenery. Any photos from inside the train were captured as it was still moving, the view almost always obstructed by another passenger’s arm gripping a handle or pole:

In a tuk tuk en route to the station (note the sealed metre)

Looking down at Anna on our platform, early for our train

Inside the station

An earlier train that would resemble ours

Not sure what class this is, but it looks like it’s going to a concentration camp!

Our train has finally arrived

A gentle reminder not to rub your nuts on seated passengers

Looking one way up our carriage at a worried-looking European tourist

And we’re off!

The other way down our carriage

This guy sat like this for the bulk of the journey

Crossing the festering river

Some of the scenery out of the door was beautiful

Some not so much

Going behind some houses

Location, location, location

You also shouldn’t rub your nuts on standing passengers

Trying my best to blend in while onboard

That bar was a little dirty

Finally made it to our destination

Our ride only stopped four or five times en route to Galle, but for the last ten minutes or so enough people had exited the train so Anna could have a seat and I could sit on the table in front of her.

Me with some of our dinner

Once we arrived in Galle we took a tuk tuk to our hotel, The Bungalow in Galle Fort, and by that time it was already about 7:00pm so we decided to hit the town. The first plan of attack; get some hoppers. Hoppers are kind of like a bowl-shaped pancake made from fermented rice flour and coconut milk, generally eaten with curry and sambol. Not long after we had walked out the door and around the corner, we stumbled upon a small store simply called Hoppa so we pulled up a seat and ordered what we had come for. We got some egg hoppers and cheese hoppers, as well as some curried prawns and black curry pork and Anna later ordered some dessert hoppers that came with treacle. To be honest, I could happily eat hoppers for every meal daily, but I don’t know how my waistline would handle it. After dinner we walked down to the Old Dutch Hospital, one of the oldest buildings in Galle, dating back to the 17th century Dutch occupation of Sri Lanka when the building actually functioned as a hospital. Now it serves as a shopping and dining precinct so we sat down in a bar, ordered some drinks and a shisha, but it wasn’t going to be a long night as it turns out most, if not all, bars in this town shut at 11:00pm, even on a Saturday. Oh well, it had been a packed day so we really weren’t complaining.

This concludes the first part of our Sri Lankan adventure, stay tuned for the second half when we spend more time wandering around Galle and getting into a couple of weird situations before returning to Colombo again for a final night.

Chinese New Year in Sri Lanka, pt.1: Colombo to Galle Anna and I came to a conclusion recently -- She needs to relax more and take more holidays.

[lodelss]

Soraya Roberts | Longreads | January 2019 | 8 minutes (1,974 words)

Covington Catholic High School, St. Michael’s College School, Georgetown Preparatory School. All three are Catholic, mostly white, mostly rich, all-boys, and all three have recently made the news. At Covington, student Nick Sandmann went viral after a video emerged showing him, surrounded by a bunch of white classmates in the same glaring MAGA hats fresh off the same anti-abortion rally, mocking Native American Indigenous Peoples March attendee Nathan Phillips. At St. Mike’s school — Canadian, suggesting we may be less nice than we are similar — several students were charged after a video appeared on social media in which their fellow classmates were assaulted, one with a broomstick. Eight boys were eventually expelled after several incidents were investigated, all, according to reports, involving football and basketball players. Georgetown Prep, meanwhile, made the news when Christine Blasey Ford accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of assaulting her when they were teenagers while fellow Georgetown student Mark Judge watched. “Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter,” she said. The quote reverberated across social media once again after the Covington video went viral.

“I’d think it important to consider the presence of the peer group, since for boys and young men that’s often the crucial public in shaping the enactment of masculinities,” says University of Sydney Professor Emerita Raewyn Connell, an Australian sociologist and one of the first to carve out men’s studies as discipline in the 1970s. She is referring to the Covington video but could just as well be talking about any of the other schools, or any other all-boys school in America, really. She says that “collective bullying behaviour” can target anything from gender to sexuality to race. Same-sex environments can be particularly noxious, Connell explained in a 2003 report: “Some institutions designed for boys, such as sporting clubs and boys’ schools, define a strongly-marked, even exaggerated, masculinity in their organizational culture.” These days we would call that toxic masculinity, but back in the ‘80s, Connell, who wrote the seminal 1995 book Masculinities, called it something else.

“Hegemonic masculinity” was first coined in 1982 by Connell and co-authors Dean Ashenden, Sandra Kessler, and Gary Dowsett in Making the Difference: Schools, Families and Social Division. The Australian government had released a report in 1975 — “Girls, School and Society” — which prompted the 1982 study, in which students, teachers, and parents in local schools were interviewed in order to explore social inequality. They did their field work in the late ‘70s, an era in which questions of sex were in vogue following the women’s liberation movement and subsequent feminist critiques of the patriarchy. “It wasn’t that gender hierarchies had become more pronounced,” Connell tells me, “but that debate about them had become more intense.”

Though certain elements of “hegemonic masculinity” were later heavily critiqued, the fundamental concept persists, which is that of a dominant masculinity in any given situation that supersedes all other masculinities around it. “Because the concept of hegemonic masculinity is based on practice that permits men’s collective dominance over women, it is not surprising that in some contexts, hegemonic masculinity actually does refer to men’s engaging in toxic practices — including physical violence — that stabilize gender dominance in a particular setting,” Connell and James W. Messerschmidt wrote in their 2005 reevaluation of the original theory. That same year, these “toxic practices” were dubbed elsewhere by another academic as “toxic masculinity,” marking the term that 14 years later has become so pervasive its origins have been almost entirely lost.

* * *

One of the first appearances of toxic masculinity in the mainstream press was in a 1990 New Republic article by Daniel Gross. “The Gender Rap: ‘Toxic Masculinity’ and Other Male Troubles” focused on a new-age movement that appeared to resonate with a healthy number of American men (the first annual Men’s Studies Conference had launched the year before). Gross credited Shepherd Bliss — who preferred the term “mythopoetic” to “new age” — with coining toxic masculinity as a phrase “to describe that part of the male psyche that is abusive.” Bliss comes from a military family and says his authoritarian father embodied the term he defines to me as “behavior that diminishes women, children, other men.” He still has a men’s group, which he separates from “negative” men’s rights groups, and he emphasizes that the expression he invented is “not meant to condemn all males.”

The California-based retiree is surprised his ‘80s neologism has gotten so much attention lately, considering no one really seemed to notice it before. Bliss couldn’t recall exactly when or where he first uttered “toxic masculinity,” but claims it was around the time he named his men’s group. That would have been in 1986, when he was a contributing editor of Yoga Journal and wrote about how the mythopoetic movement “seeks to learn from ancestors and retrieve wisdom from the past that can be applied to the lives of men today.” The man he proposed was the opposite of the urban industrial model; he lived more primally, with stronger father-son connections, male bonding, and a close relationship with the land. Bliss held $200 healing retreats that were attended by about 50,000 men looking to get back to literal nature, but also the figurative nature of man. “I use[d] a medical term because I believe that like every sickness, toxic masculinity has an antidote,” he told TNR. (In practice, this antidote, according to one attendee, involved “farting, crawling around on all fours, wrestling, crafting animal masks, and butting heads.”)

So, yes, technically toxic masculinity was coined in the mid-’80’s, but Connell had already recognized the concept. And there are reasons Bliss’ version didn’t really take off outside of that side-eyeing TNR article. This was the era of the feminist backlash, so there wasn’t much room for a backlash against men outside the minutiae of academia. And Yoga Journal hadn’t exactly cracked the mainstream — the ‘80’s were, ironically, not a very radical time — and even if it had, toxic masculinity would have still been bathed in a vague fanciful hippie-ish light. Not to mention that Bliss’ definition of his own term was itself a little airy-fairy. No, masculinity was too impervious for yoga — we needed science.

Scholars point to psychiatrist Dr. Terry A. Kupers as the source of “toxic masculinity” as we now know it, particularly his definition in a 2005 prison study: “Toxic masculinity is the constellation of socially regressive male traits that serve to foster domination, the devaluation of women, homophobia, and wanton violence.” Kupers has been studying incarcerated masculinity for most of his career (his most recent book is Solitary), but in the ‘80’s he was involved in the pro-feminist men’s movement and realized he could integrate his knowledge of gender with his knowledge of prisons. Kupers found that Connell’s hegemonic masculinity, when applied to prisons, was in fact toxic masculinity — which is to say prison is toxic masculinity in its “pure form.” He points specifically to black men who are disproportionately (along with Hispanic men) incarcerated by America’s “justice” system. These are men for whom institutionalized racism has shut them off from “positive ways” of expressing masculinity — excelling at school or at work, for instance — causing them to resort to “negative ways” like crime. In prison the lack of authority is complete, so the toxicity is equally complete. “I don’t think it’s a matter of them being inclined to fight with each other and gain dominance; they’re not,” Kupers says. “Rather they’ve been deprived of all the more positive avenues to get ahead so they choose to maintain their manhood in the prison yard.”

What does this have to do with a bunch of white upper crust school boys? “My sense was that what we see in prison, the sort of tough guy on the yard kind of thing, where prisoners buff up and fight each other for dominance and where sexual assault is the ultimate humiliation,” Kupers explains, “my sense was that that’s not that different from what men do out in the world.”

* * *

“[Y]oung men use crime as a means of constructing the kind of stereotypic masculinity that helps them traverse their adolescence and win the acceptance of peers, as well as fathers, coaches, and other hypermasculine role models,” writes Kupers. This is where stealing a car, joining a gang, bragging about rape — or confronting a Native American, groping a girl, assaulting a boy — becomes a way of being a man. This is also where privileged white boys are divided from other boys. While the kids at Covington and St. Mike’s and Georgetown Prep are acting out in their adolescence, they have the opportunity to graduate to a more socially acceptable adulthood of building a career (a Supreme Court position, maybe?) and a family. Without the same opportunity, the boys who are not white, who are not privileged, sidestep from the school yard to the prison yard.

Without his friends around him, sitting in front of NBC interviewer Savannah Guthrie, Nick Sandmann, the Covington teen from the viral video, looks like he’s soiling himself. Unblinking, speaking in a slow monotone, he is the opposite of how he looked in the video — smug, shameless, full of power. He is emasculated, as ineffectual as Brett Kavanaugh’s red-faced temper tantrum as he testified after Christine Blasey Ford. Yet both have arrived: Sandmann’s voice in the media has drowned out that of Nathan Phillips, and Kavanaugh is comfortably installed in the Supreme Court. And St. Mike’s, though none of its students have spoken publicly, has reinstated a Varsity team in which police say members participated in the assaults. These young men have successfully used crime as a means of constructing the kind of stereotypic masculinity that helps them traverse their adolescence and win the acceptance of peers, as well as fathers, coaches, and other hypermasculine role models.

This is the reason Gillette’s latest ad shows, among other aggressive male behaviors, a group of boys chasing another, and asks, “Is this the best a man can get?” Men who thought the ad was portraying them — yikes — believed they were being made to feel toxic just for existing. They responded with the hashtag #gilletteboycott and dumped Gillette’s products en masse. A week after the ad went up, Toronto writer Audra Williams posted a vintage image of Kris Kristofferson comforting Sinead O’Connor on stage at Madison Square Garden in 1992. It was two weeks after she had ripped up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live to protest abuse in the Catholic Church, and the audience would not quiet down. Kristofferson had been tasked with removing the 25-year-old singer from the stage, but instead he held her until she was ready to perform. “The recent Gillette ad has started/furthered a lot of conversations about what alternatives to toxic masculinity look like,” Williams tweeted. “This is it.”

The recent Gillette ad has started/furthered a lot of conversations about what alternatives to toxic masculinity look like. This is it. pic.twitter.com/xATL9KUr9K

— Audra Williams (@audrawilliams) January 20, 2019

“There’s a very strong confrontation between the two ends of the spectrum right now and in it I think there’s the potential to form a new idea about masculinity,” says Kupers. On the right side there is the President and his hatred of the other, whether it be a woman or literally anyone else who is not like him. That is to say, the loudest voice in America “is giving permission to the most reactionary, the most racist, the most homophobic tendencies in people to be expressed.” On the left side, however, there are a growing number of others — women, women of color, LGBTQ people — in politics, there are campaigns like Gillette’s, there are fourth-wave feminists calling out oppression. So even though hatred may be freely expressed, it will no longer go without being challenged, and therein lies the option to change. “Masculinity is not a fixed entity embedded in the body or personality traits of individuals,” writes Connell. “Masculinities are configurations of practice that are accomplished in social action…” To paraphrase Kupers, they’re not bad kids, but it’s up to their parents, their role models, society as a whole, to ensure that they don’t grow up to be worse.

* * *

Soraya Roberts is a culture columnist at Longreads.

[clubofinfo]

Expert: It’s time for us as a people to come together, to form an understanding about our natural environment, and our connection to it. If we are to survive long into this century and beyond, our society will have to learn to re-indigenize itself. This will be a painful process for those dependent on creature comforts, on the electrical grid’s continuous power supply, on the streams of TV, Netflix, even the internet itself, on factory-made pharmaceuticals, etc. It will be difficult for those whose illusions are about to be shattered, for those who thought they could live for so long and have it so good at the expense of others and to the detriment of their natural, wild surroundings. We aren’t going anywhere. There will be no moon and Mars colonies to flee to. Isn’t it suspicious, though, how little talk there is about the parallels between the past colonialists of North America and the sci-fi dream of future colonies in space? Any potential future space colony wouldn’t be a glitzy affair: it would be similar to past and present immigrants and refugees streaming across continents, trying to escape death, privation, despair. In short, the dream of human habitation of the solar system exists because of the utter destruction of landscapes and the indecency of human societies in many parts of our planet. Imagine if we actually decided to collectively care for our own world instead of having day-dreams and wasting billions on rockets and gadgets to propel us towards the “final frontier”. Doesn’t that sound nice? Luckily for us, the resiliency of our planet towards habitat degradation is very, very strong. That is why a policy of rewilding must be introduced into mainstream thinking and politics. Coined by David Foreman, rewilding refers to conservation methods that strengthen and maintain wildlife corridors and large-scale wilderness areas, with an emphasis placed on carnivores and keystone species which act as linchpins for ecosystem stability. Rewilding leads to increased connectedness across previously fragmented habitat due to roads, railways, urban sprawl, etc. In the Americas, please consider educating yourself and others about these issues, and donating to a few of the fine organizations promoting wildlife corridors, such as: the Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative, the Paseo del Jaguar program led by Panthera, and the American Prairie Reserve. Strengthening our ecosystems will provide a higher quality of life for future generations, as well as your children and grandchildren. Now that’s a return on investment. Forget about yourself, your fragile ego, and your “standards of living”, for a moment. Western capitalism and colonialism has been degrading habitats for centuries, with benefits mostly accruing to white, older men. Only by giving back to the land, and in many cases, non-intervening and letting our soils and waterways heal on their own, will allow for a more equal distribution of wealth. It is natural resources, not money, which are the real inheritance we will leave behind to our youth. The distribution of the “common-wealth”, by the way, used to be far more equitable hundreds of years ago, when land was freely available for hunting, fishing, foraging, and farming. Yes, there is less abject poverty in Europe and the US today compared to centuries ago, but it has come at a steep cost: there is no self-reliance, no collectively and culturally stored traditions of farming, crafts, weaving, pottery, home-building. Corporations have swallowed all this, citing the “need” for specialized divisions of labor. Self-sufficiency and homesteading are looked upon with scorn, and we are told to buy everything we could ever need (and desire), instead of co-producing tools, clothes, food, and more. Sharing of community resources needs to be re-instilled in the populace. The average garage, shed, or extra closet of today’s Westerner is filled with useless crap used maybe a few times a year, all purchased from a few companies. Recycling usable equipment and renting for small fees throughout the communities will significantly decrease consumption and foster closer neighborhood ties. Today, the legal webs and labyrinths of “property laws” and low-wage work have imprisoned the average person. So has the spread of capitalism and unequal distribution of money, division of labor, separation of classes. The lives of masses of working people, the precariat, are just as unstable and misery-inducing as they were centuries ago, when Frederick Douglas said: Experience demonstrates that there may be a slavery of wages only a little less galling and rushing in its effects than chattel slavery, and that this slavery of wages must go down with the other. This all underscores the need for rewilding the American people, not simply expanding our National Forests and wildlife refuges. It calls for a transformation in consciousness, to promote understanding of different cultures, openness towards change, and advocating for compassion and peace. We can begin by starting to support a 15 dollar wage, to fight for climate science funding, to promote renewable energy. Yet there needs to be an understanding that those actions, while a good start, are simply a few first baby-steps towards re-orienting our culture. Ultimately, the longing for spiritual rejuvenation and community empowerment will break through the cage of modernity, if we are not first destroyed by ecological devastation and/or economic collapse. Longing, in all actuality, is too mild a term; actually, there is an intense craving for unique and authentic notions of identity, for belonging to a caring culture, for sharing and cultural blending. There is also, to an extent, evolutionary reasons and epigenetic possibilities for the deep desires, for instance, to want to sing and dance around a fire, to go on long walks to calm the mind, to talk to plants and animals, to feel the Earth’s joys and pains, to partake of psychedelic plants. It’s what our species has done for millennia, and no freeways, high-rises, fluorescent-lit malls, or gated communities can possibly make up for these urges. Inner calmness and contentedness, feeling joy at other’s successes, altruistic actions of bravery, spontaneity, the creative act, and trans-personal experiences all teach us that our egos are illusions. The drive of the ego is the drive of civilization, with all its life-denying baggage. It is this ego-based desire to dominate, to harness and pillage nature, which expands outwards to include all life-forms, including even our close loved ones. The judgments and pain inflicted on others are projections of our own, deep inner hurting. The ego shifts the blame, projecting, always outwards onto others, always disguising and rationalizing its selfish deeds.  Indigenous life is not without problems, but it recognizes and integrates the shadow-side of ourselves: there was no need for modern psychology until modern, Western man ramped up the process of destroying the world, all in order to fill the gaping void within the soul. Thus, rewilding our psyches will mean dissolving the ego, recognizing it as a small part of the mind, occasionally useful in survival-enhancing or problem solving situations, but not as an absolute master of our sense of self. In short, it must be acknowledged that there are many aspects to individual minds, spectrums of ways of thinking, just as specific brain-waves exist, and differing states of sleep and dreaming. Shrinking the ego will re-establish our commitment to protecting the Earth. As creator and protector of life, our planet, along with crops, animals, mountains and rivers, all have been venerated and deified across history. Thus, the sacredness of life and its continuity can be seen for the miracle it truly is. New spiritual and religious groups will be founded, with cross-fertilization and syncretism causing an explosion of kaleidoscopic cultures. Shrinking petty individual desires and grievances enlarges our view of nature: it allows for free living and amicable relations, promoting an idea of an Unconquerable World which can triumph over the capitalist-dominated, chaotic, absolutist, totalitarian impulses of modern life. This has serious implications. What cannot be used; i.e., extra physical products, food, and extra income must be given away to less fortunate countries. Open-source medicine and technology will have to be distributed to developing nations to stave off the worst symptoms of global warming and habitat degradation. In the wealthy West, the rich should look to the example of the indigenous, where in some tribes the chieftains distributed their personal wealth among their tribe, often to be rewarded in kind at a later ceremonial/seasonal time of the year. Companies that produce weapons or various useless waste will be forced to shut down. Education will be reoriented to focus on the potentialities of each individual student, not as a one-size-fits-all indoctrination mill, churning out damaged, submissive, domesticated youth. Green constitutions will have to be drafted to provide regulations to protect humans and wildlife from unnecessary pollution and production. It’s not just the West that will lead: the Chinese must realize, and be planning for, the eventuality that the demand for crappy plastic goods and gadgetry at big-box stores is going to decline, worldwide, in the coming decades. A new international order based on the UN, or otherwise, will be needed to uphold climate change commitments, speedily develop renewable energy tech, sustainable agriculture plans, and distribution of resources. Basically, this requires a shift from an anthropocentric outlook to an ecocentric outlook. This will require a global awakening, and a moral/spiritual transformation of consciousness. It is the only way for our societies to move forward. Adaptability and having a broad range of skills and a wider knowledge base will be preferred over the narrow, technological elitism we see today in the corporate world and reflected in culture and the media. Ultimately, rewilding ourselves means learning how to live free; i.e., unlearning what our consumer-based culture has brainwashed us into believing. I don’t intend to shy away from the hard political questions of what the world and the US could look like in the near future, if the above steps are taken. Most likely, the modern nation-state will perish, America included. Our national experiment has been blood-drenched and steeped in genocide, slavery, domination by capitalists, and structural racism from the very beginning. A new era of cooperation is called for, with true democratic consensus and citizen involvement in governance as well as the workplace. Smaller areas based on bioregionalism and the city-state will replace the nation-state (which Gore Vidal, among others, spoke out in favor of) and will be more likely to prosper, as they will be more likely to provide for their citizens. Climate refugees and nomadic ways of life will increase for those fleeing disaster, or simply seeking better opportunities. Decentralization of power as well as a closer connection to the land will foster a reawakening of the tribal ways of life, where tight-knit communities care for the sick, the elderly, disabled, and troubled souls, instead of shunting them into various soul-crushing institutions like jail, mental hospitals, etc. A new era of solidarity and care for the meek must begin. This will mean feeding the millions per year who die of starvation, drought, lack of medical care, etc. This will mean reprioritizing our lives, with no excuses. Radical egalitarianism and faith in the boundless potential of each and every person must be instilled in our societies. Some will denounce this as radical, utopian, unachievable. Those who say so are without hope, without faith, having been indoctrinated by mainstream media and enshackled by capitalist ideology. Recently, in an interview, China Mieville explained this quite well: We underestimate at our peril the kind of onslaught of received opinion from the media, from the sort of cultural establishment, basically kind of ruling out of court any notion of fundamental change. Ridiculing it as ridiculous, to the extent that, you know, when you start to talk about wanting a better world you see the eyes rolling. What kind of despicable pass have we come to, that that aspiration raises scorn? And yet that’s where we are, for huge numbers of the political establishment. What sort of ideology can replace this cynicism, this nihilism? What kind of world do we want to create? I defer to Carl Rogers: Let me summarize my own political ideology, if you will, in a very few words. I find that for myself, I am most satisfied politically when every person is helped to become aware of his or her own power and strength; when each person participates fully and responsibly in every decision which affects him or her; when group members learn that the sharing of power is more satisfying than endeavoring to use power to control others; when the group finds ways of making decisions which accommodate the needs and desires of each person; when every person of the group is aware of the consequences of a decision on its members and on the external world; when each person enforces the group decision through self-control of his or her own behavior; when each person feels increasingly empowered and strengthened; and when each person and the group as a whole is flexible, open to change, and regards previous decisions as being always open for reconsideration.1 * May, Rollo, et al. Politics and Innocence: A Humanistic Debate. Saybrook Publishers, 1986. http://clubof.info/

[lodelss]

The Classroom Origins of Toxic Masculinity

Soraya Roberts | Longreads | January 2019 | 8 minutes (1,974 words)

Covington Catholic High School, St. Michael’s College School, Georgetown Preparatory School. All three are Catholic, mostly white, mostly rich, all-boys, and all three have recently made the news. At Covington, student Nick Sandmann went viral after a video emerged showing him, surrounded by a bunch of white classmates in the same glaring MAGA hats fresh off the same anti-abortion rally, mocking Native American Indigenous Peoples March attendee Nathan Phillips. At St. Mike’s school — Canadian, suggesting we may be less nice than we are similar — several students were charged after a video appeared on social media in which their fellow classmates were assaulted, one with a broomstick. Eight boys were eventually expelled after several incidents were investigated, all, according to reports, involving football and basketball players. Georgetown Prep, meanwhile, made the news when Christine Blasey Ford accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of assaulting her when they were teenagers while fellow Georgetown student Mark Judge watched. “Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter,” she said. The quote reverberated across social media once again after the Covington video went viral.

“I’d think it important to consider the presence of the peer group, since for boys and young men that’s often the crucial public in shaping the enactment of masculinities,” says University of Sydney Professor Emerita Raewyn Connell, an Australian sociologist and one of the first to carve out men’s studies as discipline in the 1970s. She is referring to the Covington video but could just as well be talking about any of the other schools, or any other all-boys school in America, really. She says that “collective bullying behaviour” can target anything from gender to sexuality to race. Same-sex environments can be particularly noxious, Connell explained in a 2003 report: “Some institutions designed for boys, such as sporting clubs and boys’ schools, define a strongly-marked, even exaggerated, masculinity in their organizational culture.” These days we would call that toxic masculinity, but back in the ‘80s, Connell, who wrote the seminal 1995 book Masculinities, called it something else.

“Hegemonic masculinity” was first coined in 1982 by Connell and co-authors Dean Ashenden, Sandra Kessler, and Gary Dowsett in Making the Difference: Schools, Families and Social Division. The Australian government had released a report in 1975 — “Girls, School and Society” — which prompted the 1982 study, in which students, teachers, and parents in local schools were interviewed in order to explore social inequality. They did their field work in the late ‘70s, an era in which questions of sex were in vogue following the women’s liberation movement and subsequent feminist critiques of the patriarchy. “It wasn’t that gender hierarchies had become more pronounced,” Connell tells me, “but that debate about them had become more intense.”

Though certain elements of “hegemonic masculinity” were later heavily critiqued, the fundamental concept persists, which is that of a dominant masculinity in any given situation that supersedes all other masculinities around it. “Because the concept of hegemonic masculinity is based on practice that permits men’s collective dominance over women, it is not surprising that in some contexts, hegemonic masculinity actually does refer to men’s engaging in toxic practices — including physical violence — that stabilize gender dominance in a particular setting,” Connell and James W. Messerschmidt wrote in their 2005 reevaluation of the original theory. That same year, these “toxic practices” were dubbed elsewhere by another academic as “toxic masculinity,” marking the term that 14 years later has become so pervasive its origins have been almost entirely lost.

* * *

One of the first appearances of toxic masculinity in the mainstream press was in a 1990 New Republic article by Daniel Gross. “The Gender Rap: ‘Toxic Masculinity’ and Other Male Troubles” focused on a new-age movement that appeared to resonate with a healthy number of American men (the first annual Men’s Studies Conference had launched the year before). Gross credited Shepherd Bliss — who preferred the term “mythopoetic” to “new age” — with coining toxic masculinity as a phrase “to describe that part of the male psyche that is abusive.” Bliss comes from a military family and says his authoritarian father embodied the term he defines to me as “behavior that diminishes women, children, other men.” He still has a men’s group, which he separates from “negative” men’s rights groups, and he emphasizes that the expression he invented is “not meant to condemn all males.”

The California-based retiree is surprised his ‘80s neologism has gotten so much attention lately, considering no one really seemed to notice it before. Bliss couldn’t recall exactly when or where he first uttered “toxic masculinity,” but claims it was around the time he named his men’s group. That would have been in 1986, when he was a contributing editor of Yoga Journal and wrote about how the mythopoetic movement “seeks to learn from ancestors and retrieve wisdom from the past that can be applied to the lives of men today.” The man he proposed was the opposite of the urban industrial model; he lived more primally, with stronger father-son connections, male bonding, and a close relationship with the land. Bliss held $200 healing retreats that were attended by about 50,000 men looking to get back to literal nature, but also the figurative nature of man. “I use[d] a medical term because I believe that like every sickness, toxic masculinity has an antidote,” he told TNR. (In practice, this antidote, according to one attendee, involved “farting, crawling around on all fours, wrestling, crafting animal masks, and butting heads.”)

So, yes, technically toxic masculinity was coined in the mid-’80’s, but Connell had already recognized the concept. And there are reasons Bliss’ version didn’t really take off outside of that side-eyeing TNR article. This was the era of the feminist backlash, so there wasn’t much room for a backlash against men outside the minutiae of academia. And Yoga Journal hadn’t exactly cracked the mainstream — the ‘80’s were, ironically, not a very radical time — and even if it had, toxic masculinity would have still been bathed in a vague fanciful hippie-ish light. Not to mention that Bliss’ definition of his own term was itself a little airy-fairy. No, masculinity was too impervious for yoga — we needed science.

Scholars point to psychiatrist Dr. Terry A. Kupers as the source of “toxic masculinity” as we now know it, particularly his definition in a 2005 prison study: “Toxic masculinity is the constellation of socially regressive male traits that serve to foster domination, the devaluation of women, homophobia, and wanton violence.” Kupers has been studying incarcerated masculinity for most of his career (his most recent book is Solitary), but in the ‘80’s he was involved in the pro-feminist men’s movement and realized he could integrate his knowledge of gender with his knowledge of prisons. Kupers found that Connell’s hegemonic masculinity, when applied to prisons, was in fact toxic masculinity — which is to say prison is toxic masculinity in its “pure form.” He points specifically to black men who are disproportionately (along with Hispanic men) incarcerated by America’s “justice” system. These are men for whom institutionalized racism has shut them off from “positive ways” of expressing masculinity — excelling at school or at work, for instance — causing them to resort to “negative ways” like crime. In prison the lack of authority is complete, so the toxicity is equally complete. “I don’t think it’s a matter of them being inclined to fight with each other and gain dominance; they’re not,” Kupers says. “Rather they’ve been deprived of all the more positive avenues to get ahead so they choose to maintain their manhood in the prison yard.”

What does this have to do with a bunch of white upper crust school boys? “My sense was that what we see in prison, the sort of tough guy on the yard kind of thing, where prisoners buff up and fight each other for dominance and where sexual assault is the ultimate humiliation,” Kupers explains, “my sense was that that’s not that different from what men do out in the world.”

* * *

“[Y]oung men use crime as a means of constructing the kind of stereotypic masculinity that helps them traverse their adolescence and win the acceptance of peers, as well as fathers, coaches, and other hypermasculine role models,” writes Kupers. This is where stealing a car, joining a gang, bragging about rape — or confronting a Native American, groping a girl, assaulting a boy — becomes a way of being a man. This is also where privileged white boys are divided from other boys. While the kids at Covington and St. Mike’s and Georgetown Prep are acting out in their adolescence, they have the opportunity to graduate to a more socially acceptable adulthood of building a career (a Supreme Court position, maybe?) and a family. Without the same opportunity, the boys who are not white, who are not privileged, sidestep from the school yard to the prison yard.

Without his friends around him, sitting in front of NBC interviewer Savannah Guthrie, Nick Sandmann, the Covington teen from the viral video, looks like he’s soiling himself. Unblinking, speaking in a slow monotone, he is the opposite of how he looked in the video — smug, shameless, full of power. He is emasculated, as ineffectual as Brett Kavanaugh’s red-faced temper tantrum as he testified after Christine Blasey Ford. Yet both have arrived: Sandmann’s voice in the media has drowned out that of Nathan Phillips, and Kavanaugh is comfortably installed in the Supreme Court. And St. Mike’s, though none of its students have spoken publicly, has reinstated a Varsity team in which police say members participated in the assaults. These young men have successfully used crime as a means of constructing the kind of stereotypic masculinity that helps them traverse their adolescence and win the acceptance of peers, as well as fathers, coaches, and other hypermasculine role models.

This is the reason Gillette’s latest ad shows, among other aggressive male behaviors, a group of boys chasing another, and asks, “Is this the best a man can get?” Men who thought the ad was portraying them — yikes — believed they were being made to feel toxic just for existing. They responded with the hashtag #gilletteboycott and dumped Gillette’s products en masse. A week after the ad went up, Toronto writer Audra Williams posted a vintage image of Kris Kristofferson comforting Sinead O’Connor on stage at Madison Square Garden in 1992. It was two weeks after she had ripped up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live to protest abuse in the Catholic Church, and the audience would not quiet down. Kristofferson had been tasked with removing the 25-year-old singer from the stage, but instead he held her until she was ready to perform. “The recent Gillette ad has started/furthered a lot of conversations about what alternatives to toxic masculinity look like,” Williams tweeted. “This is it.”

The recent Gillette ad has started/furthered a lot of conversations about what alternatives to toxic masculinity look like. This is it. pic.twitter.com/xATL9KUr9K

— Audra Williams (@audrawilliams) January 20, 2019

“There’s a very strong confrontation between the two ends of the spectrum right now and in it I think there’s the potential to form a new idea about masculinity,” says Kupers. On the right side there is the President and his hatred of the other, whether it be a woman or literally anyone else who is not like him. That is to say, the loudest voice in America “is giving permission to the most reactionary, the most racist, the most homophobic tendencies in people to be expressed.” On the left side, however, there are a growing number of others — women, women of color, LGBTQ people — in politics, there are campaigns like Gillette’s, there are fourth-wave feminists calling out oppression. So even though hatred may be freely expressed, it will no longer go without being challenged, and therein lies the option to change. “Masculinity is not a fixed entity embedded in the body or personality traits of individuals,” writes Connell. “Masculinities are configurations of practice that are accomplished in social action…” To paraphrase Kupers, they’re not bad kids, but it’s up to their parents, their role models, society as a whole, to ensure that they don’t grow up to be worse.

* * *

Soraya Roberts is a culture columnist at Longreads.

from Blogger http://bit.ly/2WgHC8o via IFTTT