Political Science and Law

Americaโ€™s Youth Suicide Crisis: How An Unprecedented Epidemic Spiraled Out of Control

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by Vignesh Subramanian, May 15, 2024

In 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published up-to-date data on suicide rates among American youth that stunned public health and medical professionals nationwide. The federal report, issued in June, found that the overall suicide rate among U.S. youth ages 10 to 24 had surged 62% over the prior two decades (2001-2021), after decades of prior decline (Curtin & Garnett, 2023). On average, 11 young Americans died by suicide out of every 100,000 each year during this period; for children ages 10-14, the suicide rate had tripled from 2007-2018 (from 0.9 to 2.9 people per 100,000); for adolescents ages 15-19, it rose 57% from 2009-2017 (from 7.5 to 11.8 people per 100,000); and for young adults ages 20-24, it rose 63% over the entire period (from 11.9 people in 2001 to 19.4 in 2021 per 100,000). The findings painted a stark picture of a nation in the throes of a full-fledged crisis, with millions of its young people suffering in silence and thousands compelled by circumstance to take their own lives.ย 

Yet this grim milestone was seen by many as preceded by years of warning signs. Well before the COVID-19 pandemic, CDC reports noted that suicide rates among U.S. youth ages 10-24 had jumped 57.4% from 2007-2018 (rising from less than 7 deaths per 100,000 to nearly 11), with even such states as New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts โ€“ widely viewed as having strong safety nets for at-risk youth โ€“ seeing increases in youth suicide rates ranging from 40% to 60% over that single decade (Curtin, 2020). The issue notably remained pervasive for young Americans of all ages. Between 2007 and 2019, the suicide rate among pre-teens ages 8 to 12 surged a disturbing 166% (Penfold, 2021), with 8.4% of children as young as nine and ten years old reporting suicidal thoughts and 1.3% even making attempts (Janiri et al., 2020). From 2018-2019, 18.8% of adolescents ages 12-17 seriously considered attempting suicide, with 15.7% making a suicide plan, 8.9% attempting suicide at least once, and 2.5% making an attempt that required medical treatment (Ivey-Stephenson et al., 2020), corresponding to around 1.24 million medically attended suicide attempts by American teenagers nationwide. This data came on the heels of separate studies finding that suicide rates more than doubled in the preceding decade (from approximately 2 deaths per 100,000 people in 2008 to 5 per 100,000 in 2018) for adolescents as young as thirteen and fourteen years old (Levine et al., 2023). And since 2019, emerging American adults ages 18-25 have demonstrated the highest prevalence of both serious suicidal thoughts (11.8% in 2019, rising to 13.6% by 2022) and suicide attempts made (1.8% in 2019, rising to 2.7% by 2021 before dropping to 2.1% by 2022) among adults across all age groups (National Institute of Mental Health, 2024; Richesson et al., 2022; Keating & Rudd-Arieta, 2021).

In 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published up-to-date data on suicide rates among American youth that stunned public health and medical professionals nationwide. The federal report, issued in June, found that the overall suicide rate among U.S. youth ages 10 to 24 had surged 62% over the prior two decades (2001-2021), after decades of prior decline (Curtin & Garnett, 2023). On average, 11 young Americans died by suicide out of every 100,000 each year during this period; for children ages 10-14, the suicide rate had tripled from 2007-2018 (from 0.9 to 2.9 people per 100,000); for adolescents ages 15-19, it rose 57% from 2009-2017 (from 7.5 to 11.8 people per 100,000); and for young adults ages 20-24, it rose 63% over the entire period (from 11.9 people in 2001 to 19.4 in 2021 per 100,000). The findings painted a stark picture of a nation in the throes of a full-fledged crisis, with millions of its young people suffering in silence and thousands compelled by circumstance to take their own lives.ย 

Yet this grim milestone was seen by many as preceded by years of warning signs. Well before the COVID-19 pandemic, CDC reports noted that suicide rates among U.S. youth ages 10-24 had jumped 57.4% from 2007-2018 (rising from less than 7 deaths per 100,000 to nearly 11), with even such states as New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts โ€“ widely viewed as having strong safety nets for at-risk youth โ€“ seeing increases in youth suicide rates ranging from 40% to 60% over that single decade (Curtin, 2020). The issue notably remained pervasive for young Americans of all ages. Between 2007 and 2019, the suicide rate among pre-teens ages 8 to 12 surged a disturbing 166% (Penfold, 2021), with 8.4% of children as young as nine and ten years old reporting suicidal thoughts and 1.3% even making attempts (Janiri et al., 2020). From 2018-2019, 18.8% of adolescents ages 12-17 seriously considered attempting suicide, with 15.7% making a suicide plan, 8.9% attempting suicide at least once, and 2.5% making an attempt that required medical treatment (Ivey-Stephenson et al., 2020), corresponding to around 1.24 million medically attended suicide attempts by American teenagers nationwide. This data came on the heels of separate studies finding that suicide rates more than doubled in the preceding decade (from approximately 2 deaths per 100,000 people in 2008 to 5 per 100,000 in 2018) for adolescents as young as thirteen and fourteen years old (Levine et al., 2023). And since 2019, emerging American adults ages 18-25 have demonstrated the highest prevalence of both serious suicidal thoughts (11.8% in 2019, rising to 13.6% by 2022) and suicide attempts made (1.8% in 2019, rising to 2.7% by 2021 before dropping to 2.1% by 2022) among adults across all age groups (National Institute of Mental Health, 2024; Richesson et al., 2022; Keating & Rudd-Arieta, 2021).

Surges in suicidal ideation and attempts among young Americans subsequently contributed to sharp increases in long-running trends of associated emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations. From 2011-2020, pediatric ED visits by children, adolescents, and young adults ages 6-24 nearly doubled nationwide (from 4.8 million visits, or 7.7% of all pediatric ED visits, to 7.5 million, or 13.1% of all visits), even as the overall number of pediatric ED visits for all causes decreased (Bommersbach et al., 2023). This spike in visits included a five-fold increase in the number of pediatric ED visits for suicide-related symptoms (from 0.9% of all visits in 2011 to 4.2% in 2020), which now make up an average of 5% of all visits by this age group. This alarming trend has been substantiated by other large national studies examining related healthcare data. Analyses of insurance claims for 24.5 million youths ages 1-21 found that mental health-related inpatient hospital admissions surged 61% among this population between 2016-2021, alongside a 45% increase in mental health-related ED visits and a 74% increase in ED visits for suicidal ideation, attempts, and self-harm by 2022, with the increases being most pronounced for adolescents and young adults (Clarify Health Institute, 2022; Clarify Health Institute, 2023). A review of 4.8 million pediatric hospitalizations from 2009-2019 at U.S. acute care hospitals revealed that a diagnosis of suicide or self-injury made up 64% of all mental health-related hospitalizations (Arakelyan et al., 2023). Other studies have found that all mental-related pediatric ED visits among youths ages 3-17 rose 8% annually from October 2015 to February 2020 (compared to an average increase of just 1.5% for visits for other reasons) (Cushing et al., 2022), with 13% of all patients revisiting within 6 months, and that from 2019-2020 โ€“ the last full year before the pandemic โ€“ the overall number of behavioral health cases for youth under 18 increased 30%, with pediatric ED cases of suicide attempts and self-injury in particular having jumped 50% (Childrenโ€™s Hospital Association, 2023).ย 

It was this already escalating crisis that proceeded to become severely exacerbated by the pandemic: in 2021, the first full year of the pandemic in the United States, the national suicide rate among youths 10-24 years old returned to 2018 highs after two years of moderate declines (Stone et al, 2023; Curtin et al., 2022). The stressful impacts of the period were acutely felt by young Americans of varied educational levels. The CDC found that 22% of U.S. high school students โ€“ including roughly a third (30%) of female students (Gaylor et al., 2023) โ€“ had seriously considered suicide the previous year, with 18% making a plan and 10% attempting at least once (drastically up from 16%, 13%, and 8% a decade prior, respectively) (CDC, 2023b). Separate reports also noted that three months into the pandemic, roughly a quarter (25.5%) of young people ages 18-24 โ€“ the largest age demographic on college campuses โ€“ had seriously considered suicide in the prior 30 days (Czeisler et al., 2020), and a Healthy Minds Survey found that 15% of U.S. college students surveyed during the 2021-2022 school year had seriously considered suicide, the highest rate in the surveyโ€™s 15-year history (Eisenberg et al., 2023). The CDC further found that beginning in April 2020 โ€“ shortly after the start of the pandemic in the United States โ€“ and proceeding through October of that same year, the proportion of mental health emergency-related visits among all pediatric ED visits surged 24% for children ages 5 to 11 and 31% for those ages 12 to 17 relative to 2019 levels (Leeb et al., 2020). In the second full year of the pandemic (from March 2021 to February 2022), pediatric mental health-related ED visits for youths ages 5-17 collectively jumped another 7%; the percentage of their ED visits resulting in psychiatric inpatient admission rose 8%; and the mean length of their stay increased 4%, with youth in both years of the pandemic more likely to spend two or more nights experiencing prolonged boarding (Overhage et al., 2023).ย 

Overall, amid the pandemic, U.S. youth and young adults ages 10-24 began to represent 15% of all suicides nationally, and demonstrated exorbitantly high rates of ED visits for mental health emergencies and self-harm in particular, with 354.4 such visits per 100,000 members of this population in 2020 (compared to 128.9 visits per 100,000 people for middle-aged adults) (CDC, 2023a). Adolescent girls were noted to be at particularly high risk, with the proportion of ED visits for suicide attempts among those ages 12-17 jumping 50.6% from February-March 2019 to February-March 2021 (compared to just a 3.7% increase for boys and young men of the same ages) (Yard et al., 2021). Girls and young women ages 10-24 overall demonstrated a 43.6% increase in visits for suicidal ideation over the past two decades (Overhage et al., 2023), as well as an associated ED visit rate in 2021 measuring roughly double that of boys and young men (though the latter themselves consistently report some of the largest increases in suicide rates, including an 8% increase among those ages 15-24 in the same year) (CDC, 2023a; Curtin et al., 2022). Even more stark disparities in suicide rates have been discovered among other marginalized groups โ€“ with over a quarter of LGBTQ+ youths reporting attempting suicide in 2021, a significantly higher rate than that of their peers (Jones et al., 2022); higher percentages of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youths experiencing suicidality than any other race or ethnicity that same year; Latina adolescents consistently being twice as likely to attempt suicide than their peers of the same race (Ivey-Stephenson et al., 2020); Black youths experiencing the largest percentage increases in suicides among any racial group in recent years (Stone et al., 2023); and Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) adolescents and young adults being the only racial group to have suicide rank as their leading cause of death (CDC, 2018) โ€“ that merit an entirely separate article beyond the limitations of this paper.

For several years, U.S. lawmakers have demonstrated a propensity to pin the blame for the countryโ€™s youth suicide crisis entirely on the pandemic โ€“ despite such claims not covering the full story (Warner & Zhang, 2022). It is clear that this crisis had already reached epidemic proportions by the time COVID-19 took hold in early 2020. Yet even if this myopic view of its origins is genuinely held by those in elected office, it has failed to translate into substantive policy reforms that might address the widespread and life-threatening struggles with mental health currently faced by millions of young Americans. Nearly two full years into the pandemic (in October 2021), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Childrenโ€™s Hospital Association joined together to issue the unprecedented declaration of a national state of emergency in childrenโ€™s mental health (AAP et al., 2021). The declaration took into account โ€œdramatic increasesโ€ in rates of pediatric suicidality and ED visits for mental health emergencies, and called upon โ€œpolicymakers at all levels of government and advocates for children and adolescents to join usโ€ in working to institute a series of reforms, including securing sustainable funding for mental health screenings, establishing suicide prevention programs and risk assessments in schools and primary care, and addressing acute care needs in hospital settings by expanding access to adequate numbers of beds, step-down programs from inpatient units, and short-stay stabilization units, among other measures (Hua et al., 2024). Less than two months later, the U.S. Surgeon General echoed these calls, issuing an advisory highlighting the scope of the youth mental health crisis and outlining recommendations for governments and private healthcare organizations to collaborate to support childrenโ€™s emotional and social well-being (Office of the U.S. Surgeon General, 2021), and roughly a year later, the AAP and over 130 other healthcare organizations explicitly called upon the Biden administration to declare a federal national emergency in childrenโ€™s mental health (AAP et al., 2022). Yet despite these high-profile calls to action, no comprehensive federal legislation has been passed to support crisis identification, prevention, and intervention services for youth in either community or hospital settings (Roubein & Beard, 2022), and President Biden has yet to declare a national emergency in youth mental health, neglecting an opportunity to mobilize the full leverage and resources of the federal government to address the crisis.

At the state and local levels, attempts to contend with the youth suicide crisis have hardly fared better. As of June 2023, while half of all U.S. states and D.C. have enacted laws over the past decade that uniformly require their K-12 schools and school districts to adopt suicide prevention and intervention policies and guidelines outlining how staff should respond to students exhibiting suicidal ideation, 25 states have still not done so, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP, 2023). Furthermore, while 13 states uniformly require K-12 school personnel to be annually trained in such prevention and intervention protocols, a plurality of states (24, plus D.C.) do not mandate such training to occur every year โ€“ raising the risk that recall of key protocols may be poor in an emergency โ€“ and another 13 states do not require training at all. 22 states also uniformly require schools to develop curricula for student education in either suicide awareness and prevention and/or mental health more generally, but a majority (28, plus D.C.) continue not to do so. Statewide policy is even less consistent at the collegiate level, with 22 states having enacted laws uniformly requiring colleges and universities to adopt various specified suicide prevention policies โ€“ ranging from printing hotline numbers on student ID cards and publicizing student mental health resource information to adopting institutional awareness programs or prevention and intervention strategies โ€“ while the majority of states (28, plus D.C.) lacked any laws establishing a uniform standard of preparedness for higher education institutions as of December 2022 (AFSP, 2022). The resulting patchwork of policies, fragmented across thousands of campuses and communities, fails to offer a comprehensive response to the nationwide youth suicide crisis that transcends their outskirts and borders. Meanwhile, conflicting guidelines on the ages at which youths are recommended to be screened early in childhood for suicide risk (the AAP recommends those ages 12 and up be universally screened annually, with those ages 8-11 screened when clinically indicated, while the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force argues there is insufficient evidence to justify screening any asymptomatic youths for suicide risk) continue to confuse localities and providers seeking to address the root causes of such ideation (Jenco, 2022). Hospitals and inpatient facilities are also becoming overwhelmed by surging numbers of suicidal young adults, adolescents, and increasingly younger-aged children who arrive in EDs already at their crisis point (Richtel & Flanagan, 2022), with no end to this epidemic in sight as of yet.

Today, suicide is the third leading cause of death among young Americans ages 15-24 and the second leading cause of death among those ages 10-14. The United States loses far more of its young people to suicide than any other developed nation each year, with the total number of lives lost representing a disproportionately large segment of its youth population (Doran & Kinchin, 2020). For every young person lost to suicide, roughly 1,000 others are estimated to be considering and struggling with the idea of attempting (National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2024) โ€“ but every one of these suicides is preventable. Despite having an abundance of options with which to act, the nationโ€™s leaders have collectively and inexcusably allowed this crisis to spiral out of control, and in so doing, have left millions of vulnerable children, adolescents, and young adults at risk. We must act swiftly and decisively to change course, advancing reforms that will reshape national policy to confront these harsh clinical realities โ€“ and ultimately save lives.ย 

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How the Rajapaksa Administrationโ€™s Poor Trade, Fiscal, and Monetary Policies Led Sri Lanka Into a Severe Economic Crisis

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by Vinod Kripalani, October 4, 2022

The recent Sri Lankan crisis is one of the biggest corruption scandals in the world with the Rajapaksa family inappropriately using tax-payersโ€™ money, resulting in a severe economic crisis that caused Sri Lanka to go bankrupt and the general population unable to afford basic necessities (Koop). The Rajapaksas are a family who have been involved in Sri Lankan politics since the 1950s. In Sri Lanka, they were known as saviors for their efforts in ending the three decade civil war in 2009 (Sirilal and Aneez).

Corruption is not the only contributing factor to Sri Lanka’s current condition. Citizens have been victims of economic hardship due to financial corruption and inflation. Sri Lankaโ€™s hardships are also due to poor trade and fiscal policies that can be traced back more than 10 years ago (Koop). In 2009, Sri Lanka was fresh out of a civil war. Then current president Mahinda Rajapaksa wanted the country to be more economically developed and encouraged Sri Lankan companies to increase domestic production and lower exports (Koop). This caused Sri Lankaโ€™s trade deficit to increase to 123 million USD in July 2022 (โ€œSri Lankaโ€ฆโ€).

To combat the ongoing crisis, one potential solution is to have Sri Lanka adopt a system of progressive tax, which is now required for Sri Lanka to do according to their new agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (Jayasinghe). This has also been recommended by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Jayasinghe). Put simply, progressive tax involves taxing the rich more heavily than the poor (โ€œProgressiveโ€ฆโ€). One of the biggest revamps in this deal with the IMF is a major reconstruction of the central bank, which is responsible for Sri Lankaโ€™s monetary policy (Jayasinghe).ย 

The crisis in Sri Lanka gives other states a warning to revisit and potentially revise trade, fiscal, and monetary policy, as well as measures to curb corruption. A state that should heed this advice is Pakistan. Currently, Pakistan is in a severe debt deficit due to similar trade policies that Sri Lanka utilized (Peshimam). 

Works Cited

Sirilal, Ranga, and Shihar Aneez. โ€œSri Lankaโ€™s President Wins Victory in Native South.โ€ Reuters, 11 Oct. 2009, www.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-43071820091011. 

โ€œSri Lanka Balance of Trade – September 2022 Data – 2002-2021 Historical.โ€ Tradingeconomics.com, tradingeconomics.com/sri-lanka/balance-of-trade#:~:text=Narrows%20in%20July-. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.

Jayasinghe, Uditha. โ€œSri Lanka Gains IMFโ€™s Provisional Agreement for $2.9 Bln Loan.โ€ Reuters, 1 Sept. 2022, www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/sri-lanka-imf-reach-preliminary-agreement-29-billion-loan-2022-09-01/.

โ€œProgressive Tax | What Is a Progressive Tax?โ€ Tax Foundation, taxfoundation.org/tax-basics/progressive-tax/#:~:text=A%20progressive%20tax%20is%20one.

Peshimam, Gibran Naiyyar. โ€œExplainer: How Worried Should We Be about Pakistanโ€™s Economy?โ€ Reuters, 30 Sept. 2022, http://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/how-worried-should-we-be-about-pakistans-economy-2022-09-30/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.

The Judgement of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson: Its Implications and An Analysis of the Future of the Supreme Court

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by Abbie Cawser, April 26, 2022

One of the most recently reported-on events are the confirmation hearings of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, as she becomes the first ever African American female nominee to the United Statesโ€™s highest judicial court. Her hearings are currently being discussed everywhere from mainstream news shows to TikTok, highlighting the trend of increased public interest in the Supreme Court and increased personality politics that have breached the Court in recent years.

Unlike many similar institutions around the world, the Supreme Court of the United States is an inherently political one, where Justices are easily placed on the Liberal-Conservative scale. It is now seen as an accomplishment of the President to place someone on the benchโ€“ not because it is an opportunity for greater education and stronger debate, but because it increases the likelihood of the Presidentโ€™s policies passing easily through the judicial branch. Retirement of Justices is now strategically planned, with Justices of a certain political leaning delaying or expediting their retirement in order for it to occur under a President they support, so that their replacement would be of a similar ideology. When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away, Republicans rushed to pass Justice Amy Coney Barrettโ€™s appointment, as it was just a month before the 2020 election and former President Donald Trump risked losing the opportunity. This is an inherent risk with lifetime appointments, as electing Justices of roughly similar ages means that there are often multiple vacancies opening up all at once, and some Presidents are given the opportunity to appoint multiple Justices. In four years, Presidents Trump and Richard Nixon appointed three and four SCOTUS Justices, respectively, whereas both Presidents Barack Obama and George Bush Jr. each appointed just two in their eight years (and no vacancies opened up during President James Carterโ€™s term). The opportunity to elect a Supreme Court Justice was a rare one, so Presidents needed to take the chance to appoint someone who will support as many of their policies as possible.

Never before has such scrutiny been placed on a Supreme Court nominee as that on Ketanji Brown Jackson. Her initial naming was controversial, as many took issue with President Joseph Bidenโ€™s campaign statement that he would appoint โ€œthe first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court,โ€ with some claiming that this undervalued the Court, arguing that โ€œa nomineeโ€™s race or gender should not play a role in Bidenโ€™s selection process.โ€ However, this argument is not unique in 2022, as in 1980, President Ronald Reagan made a promise to elect a female Justice, stating that he would appoint โ€œthe most qualified woman [he] can possibly find.โ€ Whilst he failed to do so, with the first female Justice coming 13 years later with President William Clintonโ€™s appointment of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Reaganโ€™s campaign promise was not dissimilar to Bidenโ€™s, as it suggests nomination based on an underrepresented demographic (in this case gender). It is also important to remember that Reaganโ€™s statement crosses party lines, and whilst not all of the outrage against Bidenโ€™s statement came from Republicansโ€™, they were certainly the leading voice. Parties have become so polarised that they are now disagreeing with issues that their own party championed just 40 years ago, and this has concerning implications for the future of bipartisanship.

However, the arguments over Bidenโ€™s decision limits Judge Brown Jacksonโ€™s candidacy to a discussion just about race. Senator Ted Cruz questioned her on childrenโ€™s books such as โ€œAntiracist Babyโ€ by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, asking questions such as her opinion on critical race theory and if she โ€œthought babies were racist.โ€ Whilst critical race theory is a widely debated issue across the country right now, it is important to note that neither Justices Brett Kavanaugh nor Amy Coney Barrett were questioned on this topic, and certainly neither of their confirmation hearings involved scrutiny of childrenโ€™s books. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would vote against Brown Jacksonโ€™s appointment, as she has refused to comment on the issue of adding seats to the Supreme Court, in agreement with Justice Coney Barrett, as she too had refused to comment on the issue. However, when speaking of Amy Coney Barrett, Mitch McConnell stated that she was an โ€œincredibly impressive jurist and highly qualified nominee.โ€ Whilst it is far from surprising that a Republican leader would denounce a Democratic pick for the Supreme Court, it is vital that the arguments made against her are scrutinised and understood, just as those made against Republican picks must be as well. In a similar vein, there has been little discussion within mainstream news of how she is the most qualified lawyer of all those sitting on the Court. The following graphic has gone somewhat viral on social media, which compares Judge Brown Jacksonโ€™s legal history with the 9 other Justices.

Whilst there is no expectation of having to agree with Judge Brown Jackson, and indeed it would be both problematic and damaging to democracy if the Court only contained members who represented one ideology, experience is something which cannot be misrepresented or denied. In the same debate speech in which he announced his intention to elect a Black woman, Biden stated that โ€œif I were Black, my success would have been a lot harder to achieve. And I know a lot of black people that if they were White it would have been a lot easier for them.โ€ Not only does Judge Brown Jacksonโ€™s race not undermine her experience, but it may actually show more experience; she has worked in so many areas of the legal system because she was unable to skip stages, due to barriers in place due to her race. It would be unjust to minimise her nomination to a mere diversity pick with little standing, as her experience outweighs any discussion of her race.

The Supreme Court as an institution works best when it is diverse and varied. At its very core, its function is to scrutinise the workings of the government, and this will never work when unbalanced and biased. Whilst legal systems in other countries work with the core foundation of neutrality, the entire government of the US was created with the idea of ambition challenging ambition. Every Justice, just like every President and every Congressman, has their own personal views, and the system operates best when each opinion is challenged and picked apart by an equally represented, but opposite opinion. The presence of Brown Jackson, as a left-leaning voice on the Court, would merely replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who is leaving the Court, and therefore the Court would still be politically unbalanced, with six of the nine Justices – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and John Roberts – representing Conservative ideals. Whilst it would be politically beneficial for Biden to appoint a liberal Justice as he has done, it will still have little effect on the Courtโ€™s overall ideology. What Judge Brown Jackson does provide, however, is a wealth of knowledge and experience, and this can only improve the Court, as the healthiest thing in a democracy is well-educated representatives. Whilst her race undoubtedly allows her to have an important voice for a consistently underrepresented group, it would be unjust and unrealistic to say that she represents the views of every Black woman, just as it would be incredulous to think that race places a role in every decision she would make on the Court, especially considering the wide range of issues they rule on each year.ย 

The intention of this essay is not to suggest that Ketanji Brown Jackson is a perfect candidate, or even that scrutiny of her should be easy. Senate confirmation hearings are supposed to be of great substance and hard questioning, as this is the only way to achieve the most accomplished Court possible. However, the questioning placed upon one Judge should be equal to that of another, and this is not being done. President Bidenโ€™s criticism that race should not be important when choosing nominees can only remain valid when it coexists with fair treatment under questioning, and therefore Judge Brown Jacksonโ€™s questioning should not be entirely centred around her race. By asking questions about antiracist babies and asking her to rate her religion on a scale of 1-10, we dismiss the real debate that should be occurring in regards to the Supreme Courtโ€“ by having a highly politicised Court in which Presidents can only effect change in the instance of retirement or death, are we rendering the judicial branch of government inoperable and imbalanced, and how can we protect the Court from this? Will set term limits allow for a more structured and less random appointment process, so that Presidents use their appointing powers in equal measures, or will this defeat the Foundersโ€™ intentions when creating an effective Court?

Bibliography

Barabak, Mark Z. โ€œColumn: The architect of Reaganโ€™s pledge to put a woman on the Supreme Court says it was all political.โ€ Los Angeles Times, Feb 2022

Burtt, Kristyn. โ€œKetanji Brown Jackson Faced Some Astonishingly Stupid Questions About Racism From Ted Cruz.โ€ SheKnows, March 2022

CBS News. โ€œFull Transcript of the South Carolina Debate.โ€ CBS, Feb 2020

Kaslovsky, Jaclyn and Andrew Stone. โ€œBiden vowed to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. It might be good politics.โ€ The Washington Post, Feb 2022

McMillion, Barry J. โ€œSupreme Court Nominations 1789 to 2020.โ€ Congressional Research Service, March 2022

Mitch McConnell Senate Website. โ€œMcConnell Praises Judge Barrett and Denounces Attacks on Judicial Independence.โ€ The Newsroom Remarks, Sept 2020

Quinn, Melissa. โ€œMitch McConnell says he opposes Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination.โ€ CBS News, March 2022

Schwarz, Frederick A. โ€œSaving the Supreme Court.โ€ Brennan Center For Justice, Sept 2019

The American Left/The Worldโ€™s Center๏ฟผ

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by Abbie Cawser, November 29, 2021

In recent years, America has seen the emergence of โ€œradically leftโ€ politicians, who introduce ideas such as universal healthcare and green climate policies. Politicians such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (also known by her initials as AOC) and Senator Bernie Sanders have been described as โ€œsocialist superstarsโ€1 and โ€œStalin sympathisers,”2 and have been criticised by both moderate Democrats and the Republican Party as being too radical.

Reflecting back on history, it is easy to see why this divide has emerged. America is one of the few countries that was founded on and rooted within capitalism, an economic system that is inherently much more closely aligned with right-wing ideology than with left-wing ideology. Additionally, the Cold War bred the โ€œRed Scare” mentality (an Anti-Communist movement that targeted more liberal figures in the 1950s due to fears of connection between the Soviet Union), and therefore the impact of USSR Chairman Joseph Stalin is long-lasting. Due to this, America has always aligned itself more with the right side of politics than the left, symbolizing a continuing and everlasting form of the Red Scare even today. Therefore, when candidates such as Sanders, who promote left-wing values, start to come into mainstream politics, the outlook and public opinion is that they are too leftist, as history has told modern day Americans to fear left-wing figures. 

The irony of these criticisms is that in the grand, world-wide scheme of politics, Sanders and AOC are far from radical. Progressive candidates in the US push for reforms that strongly resemble the norm within many other countries, and it is only within the US-centric view of politics that they appear radical. While this is a perfectly understandable reason to critique or analyse them within American politics, applying terms such as โ€œradical socialistsโ€ is far from correct. Candidates such as Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader in the UK, and Marie-Noรซlle Lienemann, a French MEP for the Party of European Socialists, are much more characteristic of more extreme left-wing candidates. Corbyn championed nationalisation for a wide range of industries, a huge tax increase for the wealthiest in order to pay for welfare services, and even more of an investment in the scope of the National Health Service. In much the same way, Lienemann fought for Socialist ideals such as freezing the private sector and raising the minimum wages across the public sector. It would be inconceivable for a candidate to run with the outright name of socialist (as Corbyn and Lienemann did) in the US due to the everlasting Red Scare, and even Sanders faced criticism for being a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, an ideology much less extreme and palatable than actual Socialism. Whilst Corbynโ€™s views are pertinent to similar issues as Sandersโ€™ views, theyโ€™re taken to much more extreme measures, whereas Sanders and AOC have to operate within a much more restrictive system. 

One way to illustrate the USโ€™s restriction on leftist ideology expression is through the policies that Sanders and AOC vote for. Sanders lists the following on his website as his key ideas: a move to renewable energy, national health insurance, and more humane and greater tolerance for immigration.3 On AOCโ€™s website, she calls for greener climate reforms, criminal justice reform, and tackling income inequality.4 All of these issues are seen as radically left in the US, but are consistent with almost every major left-wing party outside of the US, and even in many centrist or right-wing parties. For example, the Conservative Party in the UK generally reaches a consensus that their National Health Service is important, highlighting an agreement between the far-left of America and the right-wing of the UK. With this point, it is clear that the ideas of Sanders and AOC are so often dismissed in the US for being too radically left, but they are the consensus between major parties outside of America. Another example is criminal justice reform policies, which aim to grant prisoners the right to vote – a concept that is the norm in many European countries, or at the very least, an issue at the forefront of the attention of major parties. Overall, Americaโ€™s major left-wing party is more indicative of a centrist party elsewhere, which means that actually traditional left-wing politics are seen as radical-socialism, resembling the political beliefs of Stalin.

A reason for why this disillusion has occurred is because of the general right-wing bias that the US operates under. The consensus of the Democratic Party is one of moderate, even centre-right politics, in the grand scheme and yet is branded as a left-wing party. Democratic Presidential candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden would undoubtedly be part of the centrist or right-wing parties in other countries. Their policies, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, are similar to those argued for by the UK Conservative party. Biden, along with other Senate Democrats, wouldn’t commit to the Green New Deal, a progressive and expansive Climate aid program, which the European Parliament, a currently centrist/right-leaning body, supported. Additionally, one such argument often made in favour of calling Biden a left-wing politician on a global stage is his opposition to Brexit, Britainโ€™s exit from the EU, a typically left-wing policy. However, this is also an issue supported by two Conservative former Prime Ministers: in short, Bidenโ€™s more left-leaning ideas are also those supported by right-wing parties elsewhere. Even within Canada, the election of 2020 was seen as an opportunity to decide between โ€œRepublican and Democrat: The choice between two right-wing parties.”5 While the Democrats are the left-wing party of the US, it is important to realise that almost all of American politics operates on a right-shifted spectrum, and when translated into global terms, it is very much a case of centrist/right versus far-right, with the โ€œradicalโ€ voices merely representing actual left-wing policies. 

What is important to recognise, however, is that the goal of pointing this out is not to suggest that Sanders and AOC are not hugely influential, or to criticise their politics. They are politicians who are actually left-wing, and this is hard to come across within the US political platform. Their emergence in Congress, and the effect they are having on political debates are a positive thing. The US is an inherently right-wing country, so any movement to the left, no matter how minimal on the global stage, is progress for the left-wing voters. By shifting some of the debate to left-wing issues and by challenging those in the centre to take a stance on issues they have previously stayed silent on, the nature of American politics is revealed, and it is evident that elected officials have limited scope. If enough support is gathered for the progressive branches of the Democratic party, such as Sanders and AOC, perhaps a clear left-wing alliance may arise, and the consensus will shift to one many other countries have: an โ€œactualโ€ left-wing, and an โ€œactualโ€ right-wing, instead of continuing with one party having the label of left, and the other having the label of right, but continuing to vote on centrist and far-right policies respectively.

  1. Don McIntosh, โ€œTalking Socialism: Catching up with AOC,โ€ March 19, 2021, https://www.dsausa.org/democratic-left/aoc/.
  2. David Brooks, โ€œNo, Not Sanders, Not Ever,” The New York Times, February 27, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/opinion/bernie-sanders.html.
  3. โ€œIssues,โ€ Bernie Sanders Official Website, accessed November 1, 2021, https://berniesanders.com/issues/.
  4. โ€œIssues,โ€ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Official Campaign Website, accessed November 1, 2021, https://www.ocasiocortez.com/issues.
  5. Donald Cuccioletta, โ€œRepublican and Democrat: The choice between two right-wing parties,โ€ Canadian Dimension, October 31, 2020, https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/republican-and-democrat-the-choice-between-two-right-wing-parties.

Bibliography

Brooks, David. โ€œNo, Not Sanders, Not Ever.โ€ The New York Times. February 27, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/opinion/bernie-sanders.html.

Cuccioletta, Donald. โ€œRepublican and Democrat: The choice between two right-wing parties.โ€ Canadian Dimension. October 31, 2020. https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/republican-and-democrat-the-choice-between-two-right-wing-parties.

โ€œIssues.โ€ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Official Campaign Website. Accessed November 1, 2021. https://www.ocasiocortez.com/issues.

โ€œIssues.โ€ Bernie Sanders Official Website. Accessed November 1, 2021. https://www.ocasiocortez.com/issues.https://berniesanders.com/issues/.

McIntosh, Don. โ€œTalking Socialism: Catching up with AOC.โ€ Last modified March 19, 2021. https://www.dsausa.org/democratic-left/aoc/.

The Hate We Give: A Defense of the Misguided

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by Hassaan Qaiser, April 17, 2021

Trumps’ presidency has finally come to an end. As we look forward to the new policies Biden will introduce in 2021, it’s important to reflect on the state of the country as it is. Trump was very open during his term and never held back on his beliefs. Ever since the capital attack on January 6th, the hate for Trump supporters has only grown and enraged other liberal-leaning parties. However, it’s important to answer the question as to whether or not the hate some of these Trump supporters receive is justified?

In 2016, Trump had just under 63 million votes (โ€œ2016 Election Resultsโ€). While in 2020, he had increased his voter base to  over 74 million (Lindsay). Thirteen million more people had decided that Trump was worth their vote and should continue his presidency into a second term, but were these people always conservative? Conservative groups have been on the rise ever since 2016, and more people find themselves lost in conspiracy theories (Page). Groups such as QAnon continue to mislead countless Americans as to what liberals and the Democratic Party actually do.

There have been many stories about family members reading articles online, becoming infatuated with and lost in conspiracy theories. When they try to reach out to their family members, they are ultimately cast out, because what they believe is unrealistic. An uncle, a distant cousin, a grandmother can fall victim to many of these ideas and find themselves voting for Trump based on the “legitimate” articles they read. Ultimately, I believe that many Trump supporters are just unsatisfied with the position that their life is in. These conspiracy theory blogs and articles give hope to people struggling with their lives that they matter and they have a greater purpose. This is especially prevalent among Trump supporters because they are very passionate about their beliefs. Despite this, these people have only been inspired with false passion because they want to believe they can actually control something in their lives. It’s almost a form of acceptable brainwashing.

Asides from the shame and humility, the people exposed to these groups are in greater danger than they think. The first step to getting indoctrinated into these ideas is social media, but eventually they evolve into protests. It wonโ€™t be surprising if these misguided Americans get together to host another capital attack for the sake of another conspiracy posted online. The worst case for these supporters is when they encounter something they cannot get back from, as is the case of Rosanne Boyland, a Trump supporter in the capitol riots that was trampled to death. Many liberal-leaning parties are quick to make jokes about the sign โ€œDonโ€™t Tread On Meโ€ she was carrying, while the conservatives hold her up as a martyr, but thatโ€™s not who she was (โ€œWoman Trampled in Capitol Riots Had ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ Flagโ€). Ms. Boyland was a wife, a sister in law, a daughter, and a sibling. Her family โ€œbegged her not to goโ€, but the conspiracy she found online was enough to grip her soul (Thanawala). What she thought was right, was merely misinformation: an idea that she needed to hear to make sense of the world. As the new generation of parents, teachers, and academics, we need to make sure people like Ms.Boyland are not alone, spending time with them, making sure they donโ€™t find themselves looking for meaning on the dark corners of the internet. If we don’t, it’s only a matter of time before they fall even deeper into the sea of lies.

Works Cited

โ€œ2016 Election Results: President Live Map by State, Real-Time Voting Updates.โ€ Election Hub, POLITICO, 13 Dec. 2016, 1:57 PM, www.politico.com/2016-election/results/map/president/.

Lindsay, James M. โ€œThe 2020 Election by the Numbers.โ€ Council on Foreign Relations, 15 Dec. 2020, 5:00 PM, www.cfr.org/blog/2020-election-numbers.

Page, Clarence. โ€œColumn: The Rise of QAnon Isn’t Surprising. Americans Have Long Been Sucked into Conspiracy Theories.โ€ Chicago Tribune, 20 Oct. 2020, www.chicagotribune.com/columns/clarence-page/ct-column-qanon-trump-pizzagate-page-20201020-vsthh5uotfdyno2x44t5otvvgq-story.html.

Thanawala, Sudhin, et al. โ€œRosanne Boyland, Trump Supporter Who Died, Followed QAnon Conspiracy, Family Says.โ€ USA Today, 13 Jan. 2021, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/01/09/rosanne-boyland-trump-supporter-who-died-followed-qanon-family/6608289002/.

โ€œWoman Trampled in Capitol Riots Had ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ Flag.โ€ Opera News, www.dailyadvent.com/news/08e870a26375c58cdebe405a58e917d5-Woman-trampled-in-Capitol-riots-had-dont-tread-on-me-flag.

Colleges Pressure Students Away from the Humanities

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by Cassandra Skolnick, March 7, 2021

The emphasis on STEM-related majors at colleges and universities has been aggressively fueled by the growing influence of educational systems and political propaganda (Wright). Job seeking websitesโ€”including Monster.comโ€”stated that when it came to the highest-paid industries, โ€œ…No surprise, STEM majorsโ€”science, technology, engineering, and mathโ€”came out on topโ€ (Monster.com). Based on salary figures from 2020, STEM-related careers earned on average 26.45% more than humanities-related careers (Monster.com). It makes sense that young people would be persuaded towards pursuing STEM related careers. But are there external factors pressuring college students away from the humanities?

In June 2020, the Australian government announced an economic reform package that was directed to lower the course fees associated for โ€œjob-relevantโ€ courses, while at the same time, doubling the cost of programs in the humanities (Duffy). This raise puts the cost of humanities programs at the same level as medical schools; med school programs saw a 46 percent decrease, while humanities programs saw a 113 percent increase (Duffy). The Australian government stated that this economic reform package is aimed at increasing the employment rate for graduates, with employment growth in STEM-related fields expected to be significantly higher post-pandemic (Sears and Clark).

Australia is not the only country influencing the career track of college students. George Washington Universityโ€™s (GW) president, Dr. Thomas LeBlanc, announced in 2019 that he planned to increase enrollment in STEM-related majors from 19 to 30 percent (Rich and Schwartz). As the undergraduate population shifts to STEM related programs, the number of STEM programs and courses will also have to increase in order to accommodate the increasing number of students. Katrin Schultheiss, chair of GWโ€™s history department, worries that โ€œ…the changes will necessitate reductions in funding for non-STEM departments and result in a โ€˜radical shifting of resources away from non-STEM fieldsโ€™โ€ (Rich and Schwartz).

This push for STEM programs and graduates comes from a fear of losing the race for high-tech supremacy to China (Herman). Where does this fear originate from? In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said, โ€œ…Think about the America within our reach: A country that leads the world in educating its people. An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobsโ€ (Archives.com). We can theorize that this fear derives from the American perception of the โ€œChinese Threat,โ€ a fear that China will conduct โ€œ…brazen cyber intrusionsโ€ (FBI.gov) or continue to saturate our economy with global exports (Mack). Fear of the โ€œChinese Threatโ€ did result in a significant increase in the number of STEM degrees; however, according to a 2016 Census Report, only 74 percent of those college graduates pursued STEM-related careers following graduation (Mand Labs).

Now, elementary schools are introducing STEM curriculums, including hands-on learning to promote STEM skills, hiring and retaining well-trained experts as teachers for STEM curriculums, and working to eliminate the gender pay disparity (Mand Labs); hoping to further increase enrollment in higher education STEM degree programs to meet the growing demand of STEM related careers. Whether or not these new strategies will be effective remains to be seen. What does the continued push for STEM degree programs mean for the humanities, in a world where humanities are needed more than ever? Increasing costs of attending humanities programs, coupled with budget cuts following the 2008 financial crisis, โ€œ…have resulted in some schools eliminating courses and degrees in subjects, such as foreign languages, art, and historyโ€ (Mullin). Deborah Fitzgerald, a professor of the history of technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says state schools are the first to eliminate humanities curricula: โ€œ…Their boards just donโ€™t think they are important anymoreโ€ (Mullin).

References

โ€œThe China Threat.โ€ FBI.gov, FBI.gov, 10 July 2020, http://www.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/the-china-threat.

 โ€œCurrent State of STEM Education in the US: What Needs to Be Done?โ€ Mand Labs, Mand Labs, 6 May 2020, http://www.mandlabs.com/current-state-of-stem-education-in-us-what-needs-to-be-done/.

Duffy, Conor. โ€œHumanities Degrees to Double in Cost as Government Funnels Students into ‘Job-Relevant’ Uni Courses.โ€ ABC News, ABC News, 19 June 2020, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-19/university-fees-tertiary-education-overhaul-course-costs/12367742.

Herman, Arthur. โ€œAmerica’s High-Tech STEM Crisis.โ€ Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 10 Sept. 2018, http://www.forbes.com/sites/arthurherman/2018/09/10/americas-high-tech-stem-crisis/?sh=32a6c48bf0a2.

Lawler, Moira. โ€œCollege Majors with the Highest Starting Salaries.โ€ Monster Career Advice, Monster.com, http://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/best-paid-jobs-by-major.

Mack, Graeme. โ€œPerspective | Why Americans Shouldn’t Fear China’s Growing Economy.โ€ The Washington Post, WP Company, 24 Apr. 2019, http://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/04/24/why-americans-shouldnt-fear-chinas-growing-economy/.

Mullin, Rick. โ€œBehind the Scenes at the STEM-Humanities Culture War.โ€ C&EN, C&EN, 16 July 2019, http://cen.acs.org/education/undergraduate-education/Behind-the-scenes-STEM-humanities-culture-war/97/i29.

Rich, Alec, and Ethan Schwartz. โ€œPush to Grow STEM Majors May Mean Cuts Elsewhere, Faculty Say.โ€ The GW Hatchet, The GW Hatchet, 30 Sept. 2019, http://www.gwhatchet.com/2019/09/30/push-to-increase-stem-majors-could-prompt-cuts-in-non-stem-departments-faculty-say/.

Sears, Alan, and Penney Clark. โ€œStop Telling Students to Study STEM Instead of Humanities for the Post-Coronavirus World.โ€ The Conversation, The Conversation, 19 Jan. 2021, http://theconversation.com/stop-telling-students-to-study-stem-instead-of-humanities-for-the-post-coronavirus-world-145813.

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Wright, Joshua. โ€œStem Majors on the Rise as Humanities Decline Across the Country.โ€ Emsi, Emsi, 20 Mar. 2016, http://www.economicmodeling.com/2016/03/20/stem-programs-humanities-in-each-state/.

Mapplethorpe’s Riveting “Rosie”: Exposing America’s Naked Truths and Prejudices

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by Sophia Garbarino, February 9, 2021

The following article is a revised version of the original piece and does not include all photos. The full original article with all accompanying photographs can be viewed by downloading the PDF below (recommended, but viewer discretion advised).

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Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait, gelatin silver print, 1980, ยฉ Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe shocked the international art community in 1988 with The Perfect Moment exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati, Ohio. Against politiciansโ€™ desires, the CAC decided to display Mapplethorpeโ€™s work even though the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. cancelled the same exhibit only a few months earlier (Tannenbaum). The majority of Mapplethorpeโ€™s photos were labeled obscene and pornographic, leading to criminal charges pressed against the CAC and its director at the time, Dennis Barrie. One of the most shocking was Rosie (1976), a photograph featuring a friendโ€™s three year-old daughter sitting with her legs open, revealing her nude body beneath her dress. The trial took over a year, ending in acquittal and the public display of Mapplethorpeโ€™s work at the CAC in 1990, just over one year after his death in 1989 (Mezibov).

Nude photography was one of Mapplethorpeโ€™s specialties. Several of his portfolios featured the S&M and LGBTQ* communities in New York City, particularly in nude portraits (โ€œBiographyโ€). Many believe his intense focus on the nude body was an expression of his homosexuality. Rosie however, was one of only two photographs of nude childrenโ€”the other, Jesse McBride (1976), featured a fully nude five year-old boy sitting on a chair. Both photos were taken with the childrenโ€™s mothersโ€™ permission but still received heavy backlash and criticism for being โ€œpornographicโ€ (Mezibov).

Ultimately, Mapplethorpeโ€™s Rosie (1976) was not meant to be pedophilic, but rather a response to increasing radical American conservatism during the 1970s and 1980s. Its showcasing in The Perfect Moment exhibition (1988) challenged the limits of censorship and artistic freedom, reflecting the growing social phenomenon of hypersexualization that continues to define American media today.

Robert Mapplethorpe, Embrace, gelatin silver print, 1982, ยฉ Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

Senator Jesse Helms and Homosexuality

Mapplethorpe lived in the heart of LGBTQ* activism in New New York in the 1970s. It was during this decade that the gay community began seeing representation in mainstream media, including movies that featured gay characters and the establishment of Gay Pride week. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association stopped recognizing homosexuality as a mental illness, and the corporate world started prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination (Rosen). The LGBTQ* community saw tremendous strides in equality and justice advocacy.

Diana Davies, Men holding Christopher Street Liberation Day banner, 1970, ยฉ New York Public Library Digital Collections.

It was during this time that Mapplethorpe became an icon for LGBTQ* folks. According to his friend and writer Ingrid Sischy, Mapplethorpeโ€™s works purposefully focused on homosexuality in order to draw attention. His unapologetically direct photographs helped turn homosexuality from a shameful secret into a proud identity (Sischy).

Senator Jesse Helms, n.d., ยฉ United States Senate Historical Office. 

However, the AIDS epidemic soon heightened homophobia in the 1980s. Mapplethorpe heavily focused on black male nudes, a clear expression of his homosexuality, making him a prime target for censorship. Republican Senator Jesse Helms was especially offended by Rosie and hyperfocused on Mapplethorpeโ€™s homosexuality, AIDS-related death, and interracial photographic subjects (Adler, Meyer). In 1989, Helms convinced the deciding congressional committee to pass a bill prohibiting the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) from funding the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), which organized the original Perfect Moment exhibit, for five years (Adler, Tannenbaum). He did so by lying about the photographs he saw firsthand at The Perfect Moment and distributing copies of four of them to the other committee members (Meyer).

Robert Mapplethorpe, Derrick Cross, gelatin silver print, 1982, ยฉ Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

At the time, Senator Helmsโ€™ arguments reflected those of a growing conservative movement. His outrage about Rosie was less about the photograph itself and more about the artist. Furthermore, his push for censorship was less about Rosieโ€™s exposed body and more about silencing the LGBTQ* community, including proudly gay folks such as Mapplethorpe. In his attempts to โ€œcordon off the visual and symbolic force of homosexuality, to keep it as far as possible from [himself] and the morally upstanding citizens he claim[ed] to represent,โ€ Helms ironically brought even more attention to it (Meyer 134).

Some supported censoring Mapplethorpeโ€™s work by claiming he was a pedophile and child abuser, but neither Jesse nor Rosie recall him as such. As adults, both reflected on their portraits proudly (Adler). As censorship lawyer Edward de Grazia wrote regarding the Mapplethorpe case, โ€œart and child pornography are mutually exclusiveโ€ฆ no challenged picture of children having artistic value can constitutionally be branded โ€˜child pornographyโ€™ or โ€˜obsceneโ€™โ€ (de Grazia 50). Though it was ultimately deemed non-pornographic after the Mapplethorpe trial, Rosie was only the beginning of a political push to seize funding from the arts, particularly the radical works such as Mapplethorpeโ€™s, following several rising liberal and conservative movements in the previous decades.

Robert Mapplethorpe, Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter, gelatin silver print, 1979, ยฉ Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

Historical Context: Radical Conservatism and the Sexual Revolution

During the 1970s, the LGBTQ* community became more vocal, allowing gay men such as Mapplethorpe to be more openly accepted in the art world. In response, movements such as the New Right and the Christian Right emerged, led largely by American evangelicals claiming that homosexuality was morally sinful (โ€œThe New Rightโ€). Mapplethorpeโ€™s very existence contradicted traditional conservative values, and he could never align with socially-accepted heteronormative culture.

In fact, the Rosie controversy emerged during a new wave of conservative outrage that began a few years earlier in 1987, when Andres Serranoโ€™s Piss Christ was awarded $15,000 by the partially NEA-funded Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (Meyer). Along with many other Republican Christians, Senator Helms was deeply offended and embraced the opportunity to denounce another artist who defied traditional conservative values when The Perfect Moment debuted in 1988. At that point, Helmsโ€™ focus shifted from Serranoโ€™s critique of religion to Mapplethorpeโ€™s expressions of homosexuality, repeatedly calling his photographs โ€œsickโ€ (Meyer 137). In doing so, Helms used the art as a larger metaphor for homosexuality and AIDS, which he believed were plaguing and contaminating Christian-American society.

Andres Serrano, Piss Christ, Cibachrome print, 1987.

As a gay man, Mapplethorpe was not sexually attracted to females at all, so it would have been much easier for Helms to use Jesse McBride rather than Rosie in his rhetoric. It was the ongoing sexual revolution, which also contributed to the rise of far-right conservatism, that put Rosie in the spotlight instead. Rosie, then, can be interpreted as Mapplethorpeโ€™s way of challenging traditional ideologies and aligning with the sexual liberation movement. Where he saw an innocent child, many conservatives such as Senator Helms saw the bare sexuality of a young girl. Movements such as the New Right could not view her as anything other than sexual with her genitalia exposed. Therefore, it was not Mapplethorpe who sexualized the child but the audience who saw her, revealing a culture deeply rooted in traditional domestic roles and gender spheres.

The 1960s and 1970s saw a rapid increase in womenโ€™s and sexual liberation. Nonheterosexual sex was brought to national attention as well, especially after the Stonewall Riots in 1969 (Kohn). Much of Mapplethorpeโ€™s work reflected this new spotlight. Rosie, though, was unlike his trademark photographs of an interracial S&M community, yet it still gained significantly more attention. Despite the portrait subject being a White child, Rosie was one of the four photographs that Senator Helms distributed to his fellow Congressmen and Senators. The others were Mark Stevens (Mr. 10ยฝ) (1976), Man in Polyester Suit (1980), and Jesse McBride (Meyer). There were several other photos of naked men in The Perfect Moment, many considered far more pornographic than Rosie and Jesse McBride could ever be, but Rosie was not chosen by mistake. She reflected a different, but not unrelated, threat to Christian-American tradition: womenโ€™s liberation.

Robert Mapplethorpe, Ken Moody and Robert Sherman, platinum-palladium print, 1984, ยฉ Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

After the birth control pill hit the market in 1960, sexuality and sexual expression were no longer taboo subjects. Rates of premarital sex increased significantly while books such as Alex Comfortโ€™s The Joy of Sex normalized conversation about sex (Kohn). For many, Rosie represented a new generation of sexually-liberated women. For conservatives like Senator Helms, this was an intolerable break from traditional gender roles, where men and women had defined, separate roles in society. The New Right movement believed the sexual revolution was destroying the American family structure, leading little girls like Rosie from domesticity to radicalism (โ€œThe New Rightโ€). Rosie, then, was the epitome of everything wrong with womenโ€™s liberation for Helms. In distributing her photograph, he attempted to defy the new wave of feminism.

Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait, gelatin silver print, 1980, ยฉ Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

Censorship and Artistic Freedom

However, despite its many controversies, the Mapplethorpe censorship case was most defiant of artistic freedom. Following the case, American art critic Robert Storr wrote that โ€œthere are no โ€˜laws of decencyโ€™; certainly none that have any juridical standing with respect to artโ€ (Storr 13). He further argued that censorship itself is the manifestation of widespread mistrust of the publicโ€™s ability to draw their own conclusions. In a nation founded on freedom of speech and expression, art essayists like Hilton Kramer, who deeply criticized Mapplethorpeโ€™s work, and politicians like Helms ironically believed that common people should not and could not discern what was acceptable, particularly regarding art (Storr). Helms and Kramer used censorship to impose their own beliefs onto the general public, serving as a microcosm of strong conservative attempts to minimize the voices of non-traditional values.

Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition, 2018, Gladstone Gallery, 515 West 424th Street, New York, NY 10011

 When such defiances of conservatism emerged, they were immortalized in the form of art through Mapplethorpe and other โ€œradicalโ€ artists like Serrano. In the heat of Americaโ€™s changing society, Rosie became a monumental representation of true freedom: freedom of artistic expression, freedom of sexual expression, and the freedom of perspective. Politicians, however, disagreed over what freedoms should receive public funding. Helms and his fellow White Christian American conservatives believed that the NEA should not fund art that offended them based on โ€œtheir assault on social constructions of sexuality, race, and spiritualityโ€ (Atkins 33). Once again, the majority group was attempting to impose their beliefs on the rest of society, a perfect example of censorship at its core.

Diego Rivera, Proletarian Unity from Portraits of America, mural panel, 1933, ยฉ Nagoya City Art Museum.

Mapplethorpeโ€™s case was significant but not the first. Works by LGBTQ* folks, people of color, and those with โ€œdangerousโ€ political views have been consistently marginalized. For example, Diego Riveraโ€™s Portrait of America mural at Rockefeller Center was destroyed in 1933 because its center featured Vladimir โ€œLeninโ€ Ulyanov, former leader of the communist Soviet Union (Atkins). In 1934, Paul Cadmusโ€™ The Fleetโ€™s In was removed from the Corcoran Gallery of Artโ€”the same gallery that cancelled The Perfect Moment in 1988โ€”because the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration requested it (Atkins). This was only a small part of FDRโ€™s anti-gay legacy: during his time as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, FDR helped run a sting operation in Newport, Rhode Island in 1919, resulting in the arrest of over 20 Navy sailors for homosexual activity (Loughery). In 1981, after strong advocacy from Hilton Kramer and other conservative critics, the NEA stopped funding individual art critics because many of them were leftist (Atkins). Clearly, the Mapplethorpe case followed decades of conservative attacks on art.

Paul Cadmus, The Fleetโ€™s In!, tempera on canvas, 1934, ยฉ United States Navy.

Hypersexualization

Some believe the most pressing issues surrounding Rosie were Rosieโ€™s age and exposed body. There were certainly multiple other artists photographing naked women at the time, like Don Herron and his Tub Shots series, who received little criticism for the nudity. In fact, nudity itself has never been an issue in art; some of the most famous and public classical works portray naked Romans, Greek gods, and biblical figures, like Michelangeloโ€™s David and Sistine Chapel ceiling. In fact, nude boys were not an issue either, as seen in works like Thomas Eakinsโ€™s Boy nude at edge of river (c. 1882) and John Singer Sargentโ€™s A Nude Boy on a Beach (1925).

John Singer Sargent, A Nude Boy on a Beach, oil paint on wood, 1925, ยฉ Tate.

The fact that Rosie was a girl was not the most significant factor either. During the 1970s, when the Rosie photograph was taken, the United States saw a rapid increase in explicit advertisements, particularly those with women only partially dressed or in full nude. One 1993 study revealed that the number of purely decorative female roles in ads increased from 54 percent to 73 percent from 1959 to 1989 (Busby and Leichty). A 1997 study found that over a 40-year period, 1.5 percent of popular magazine ads portrayed children in a sexual way, and of those ads, 85 percent depicted sexualized girls, with the number increasing over time (Oโ€™Donohue et. al). Even in the 1970s and 1980s, the sexualization of young girls was certainly nothing new. Advertising industries had been doing this for decades before the Rosie controversy started in 1988. In fact, they still do.

โ€œLoveโ€™s Baby Soft. Because innocence is sexier than you think,โ€ magazine advertisement, 1974โ€“1975.

The hypersexualization of both women and children in the media is quite common now. As National Womenโ€™s Hall of Fame activist Dr. Jean Kilbourne reveals in So Sexy So Soon, corporations use sex and sexiness to advertise to children at increasingly younger agesโ€”and they are alarmingly successful. Dangerously unhealthy standards of beauty define sexiness as the most important aspect of a womanโ€™s identity and value. The sexual liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s has turned into a hypersexualized culture, where children as young as Rosie are exposed to sex in songs, TV shows, advertisements, and social media (Kilbourne and Levin). Like the conservativesโ€™ reaction to Rosie in 1988, young girls are now seen in a sexual way before they are seen as simply children.

Original Cuties film poster, 2020, ยฉ Netflix, Inc.

Therefore, like the basis of Helmsโ€™ original arguments, the outrage and controversy surrounding Rosie was less about the photograph itself and more about the artist and what the artist represented. Mapplethorpeโ€™s identity and lifestyle contradicted many traditional conservative values: he was homosexual, engaged in S&M, photographed interracial couples, and eventually died of AIDS. Rosie herself said she did not view her portrait as pornographic and could not understand why others thought it was. In fact, in a 1996 interview with The Independent, Rosie recalled her mother making her put on a dress just before the photo was taken, and immediately after, she took the dress off. Ironically, she noted that โ€œif it had been a small [nude] boy, maybe this furore would be justified; Robert [Mapplethorpe] wasnโ€™t interested in girls anywayโ€ (Rickey). Jesse McBride, which is exactly that, received even less backlash than Rosie.

Helms, then, used Rosie against Mapplethorpe not because he thought it was pornographic, but because of all Mapplethorpeโ€™s works, Rosie garnered the most conservative support for censorship. He could easily use the classic damsel in distress situation by painting Rosie as a helpless little White girl in need of protection from a dangerous gay man, with emphasis on Mapplethorpeโ€™s homosexuality. It wasnโ€™t Rosieโ€™s age, nor her exposed body, that angered Helms: it was Mapplethorpe.

Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait, platinum-palladium print, 1988, ยฉ Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

Final Notes

The Rosie controversy was just as relevant in 1988 as it is now. It continues to pose crucial questions, challenging the boundaries of art and the limits of censorship while highlighting the marginalization of LGBTQ* art, societal resistance to change, and hypersexualization of women and children. Ultimately, Rosie was not the creator of such outrage and conservative criticism, but the vessel exploited by powerful politicians to further their own agendas against Mapplethorpe and other LGBTQ* folks. The Mapplethorpe trial surrounding Rosie was the culmination of decades of liberal movementsโ€”including womenโ€™s liberation, the sexual revolution, and increasing attention to LGBTQ* voicesโ€”and the conservative responses to them. Despite the continuous controversy, critics consider Mapplethorpe, rightfully so, as one of the most influential American artists in the twentieth century. Rosie was last on public display in 2017 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

Works Cited

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de Grazia, Deward. โ€œThe Big Chill: Censorship and the Law.โ€ Aperture, 5 May 1990, pp. 50โ€“51. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24472936. Accessed 25 Jan. 2021.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and E.B. White: Controlling the Narrative with the Confidence of Their Readers

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by Ean Tam, January 3, 2021

***FALL 2020 CONTEST WINNER***

At first glance, it may seem odd to compare Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and E.B. White. Other than spending their childhoods in Westchester County, New York, what else do they have in common? Ocasio-Cortez is a current United States congresswoman, representing New Yorkโ€™s 14th district. For many, she is a symbol of change: she defeated her well-established primary opponent despite being outspent 18-1; she is the youngest woman to serve in the US Congress; she sponsors bills considered to be radical, such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for all; and she even has an asteroid named after her (Hajela; Mosher). On the other hand, White can be seen as a standard bearer, an idealistic image of an Ivy League-educated white male who came to age before any of the two world wars. Even during the Great Depression, White lived comfortably as a writer for the New Yorker (Heitman). As a co-author of the prolific style guide, The Elements of Style, White has set the bar for writers for decades. His books, Stuart Little and Charlotteโ€™s Web, have influenced countless children as they learn to develop their own styles of writing. Dr. Laura Lisbeth of Stony Brook University characterizes Whiteโ€™s influence as โ€œa tradition in Anglo-American literacy,โ€ for The Elements of Style โ€œcertainly turned the English language into a personal expression of his idiosyncratic preferencesโ€ (Lisbeth).

Comfortability would not be an accurate descriptor of Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s life. Despite rising from poverty and winning her own voice in the United States Congress, her troubles as a young, idealistic woman of color were far from over. On July 23, 2020, Ocasio-Cortez gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives. She reprimanded her colleague, Representative Ted Yoho, for his offensive remarks that he delivered to her personally on the steps of the Capitol Building. Ocasio-Cortez rebuked not only Yohoโ€™s remarks, but also Yohoโ€™s compliance with a culture that has served to the detriment of women throughout American history. In 1941, almost 80 years earlier, White made his mark in literary history and published his essay โ€œOnce More to the Lakeโ€ in Harperโ€™s Magazine. In the essay, he details his vacation to a lake in Maine with his son. White weaves in and out between the past and present, merging them together and revealing how some things never change.

As different as Ocasio-Cortez and White are, a common theme between these two works is the past and how it affects our present and future. Because the barrier between past and present is fluid for White, he uses the past as a way of telling the story of the present. Nostalgia would not be enough to describe Whiteโ€™s attachment to his childhood: he actively lives in both worlds. Ocasio-Cortez uses the past not as a point of nostalgia, but as a point of reference from which society should use to change the future. Unlike White, Ocasio-Cortez does not wish to live in the past. She would rather live up to her reputation and change the future for the next generations of women. Both White and Ocasio-Cortez share a common theme, but differ in how they examine the implications. Using rhetorical devices such repetition, parallelism, anadiplosis, and antimetabole, Ocasio-Cortez and White engage their readers with cohesive and rhythmic sentences that display the authorsโ€™ control over their narratives. By having this control, both writers can focus their readers to the details and emotions they wish to convey. In return, the readers have confidence in how each author interprets their relationships with the past.

Prominent rhetorical devices used by Ocasio-Cortez and White are parallelism and repetition. In the opening of Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s speech, she describes exactly what Yoho had said to her. She says, โ€œ[H]e called me disgusting, he called me crazy, he called me out of my mind, and he called me dangerousโ€ (00:14-01:43). The repetition of the opening, โ€œhe called me,โ€ creates an intensity that is palpable to the reader. Even to those in the audience who are already aware of the incident involving Yoho, there is an anticipation built up because of Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s wording. To those who are not aware of Yohoโ€™s remarks, this repetition would be even more enthralling: โ€˜He did what? He called her what?โ€™ This kind of excitement provides emphasis to Yohoโ€™s comments. There is particular stress on โ€œcrazyโ€ and โ€œdangerous.โ€ The parallelism allows the reader to find cohesion (Kolln and Gray 129, 152-153). The remarks Ocasio-Cortez relays to her audience are not broken up by different structures or introductions. She consistently states, โ€œhe called me.โ€ This, in effect, keeps the reader focused and attentive to the string of offensive remarks, instilling outrage and disappointment.

A second instance of repetition and parallelism in Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s remarks comes soon after the first. She denies that Yohoโ€™s comments hurt her personally. She says, โ€œBecause all of us have had to deal with this in some form, some way, some shape, at some point in our livesโ€ (01:43-03:11). As she repeats โ€œsome,โ€ she implies that Yohoโ€™s remarks are not an isolated event; rather, his remarks come in a long line of incidents that Ocasio-Cortez acknowledges she shares with โ€œevery woman in this country.โ€ Thus, her use of โ€œall of usโ€ and โ€œin our livesโ€ allows her to build a relationship with the women in the audience. When considered together, the two quotes accomplish three things: instill anger in the audience towards Yoho and disgust towards his remarks, imply Yohoโ€™s remarks are not isolated and are an unfortunate consistency throughout Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s life, and build a shared experience with Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s target audience, which is actually split. She is simultaneously addressing men and women to different effects: men are meant to feel guilty and responsible, while women are meant to feel sympathy.

In his essay, White observes his fellow campers and writes, โ€œThis was the American family at play, escaping the city heat, wondering whether the newcomers at the camp at the head of the cove were โ€˜commonโ€™ or โ€˜nice,โ€™ wondering whether it was true that people who drove up for Sunday dinner at the farmhouse were turned away because there wasnโ€™t enough chickenโ€ (3). Here, White exhibits parallelism in structure. His use of gerunds provide a sense of eloquence and activity. Given White wants to reminiscence in past experiences and merge them with the present, eloquence and activity are welcomed sentiments for the reader. White does not provide the kind of repetition that Ocasio-Cortez has. However, Whiteโ€™s objective of describing the experiences at the lake is made stronger without repetition. Although repetition does not imply the experiences themselves were repetitive, it may lead the reader to believe they were. Ocasio-Cortez uses repetition to make it apparent to her audience that Yohoโ€™s remarks have been a repeated occurance in her life. Thus, repetition may not serve White so well in this manner. After all, why would someone feel nostalgic about a camping experience that feels repetitive? Repetitive would be counter to Whiteโ€™s portrayal of activity and eloquence. Even though White and his son engage in almost routine activitiesโ€”fishing, swimming, boatingโ€”Whiteโ€™s recollection of his childhood negates any sense of the story being repetitive. He says, โ€œYou remember one thing, and that suddenly reminds you of another thingโ€ (1). He adds, โ€œI kept remembering everythingโ€ฆ. It was like the revival of an old melodrama that I had seen with childish awe.โ€ (4-5). By continuously remembering the first time he ever experienced these activities, White allows himself to reconnect to the โ€œchildish aweโ€ those first experiences instilled in him. He is not so much repeating activities, but instead repeating positive emotions. As for the reader, they can see a parallelism in his wording as well as the parallels between Whiteโ€™s past and present but without any perception of repetitiveness.

Both Ocasio-Cortez and White portray themselves as being in control of the narrative. Both of them make their statements from personal sentiments, but from different sources. White derives his purpose from the personal bonds he has forged with his son and his own childhood: years could not separate White from his affections for his childhood memories, sentiments he hopes to pass on to his son. Ocasio-Cortez makes it evident she derives her purpose and conviction from personal wounds: โ€œhe called me.โ€ Both Ocasio-Cortez and White build shared experiences. Ocasio-Cortez shares her experiences with the women in her audience. White shares the experiences with himself (past and present), his father, his son, and the other campers. 

The two works differ in how the reader assesses Ocasio-Cortez and White. The reader is meant to feel sympathy and reverence towards Ocasio-Cortez — sympathy for her years of being the recipient of offensive remarks, and reverence for her bravery and solidarity with her fellow women, a stance that many would argue is long-overdue. The reader feels more inclined to involve themselves with Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s narrative, whereas the reader may feel more inclined to โ€˜sit back and watchโ€™ the narrative being portrayed by White. Whiteโ€™s narrative is unique to himself not only because it is, of course, his personal story, but also because his story evades the circumstances of his time. As White and his son have a nostalgia-filled summer escape to the lakes of Maine, the world is in its second world war, and many sons are dying far away in unfamiliar places. White is afforded the privilege to take his reader for a ride as he navigates his way through past and present experiences that are out of the readersโ€™ control. Ocasio-Cortez, representing herself as a casualty of another personโ€™s privilege, wants to apply the past to the future. The future is never certain and she is addressing all generations of Americans, men and women as well. Ocasio-Cortez forces the reader to think with her about the implications of the past. She has a universal message, whereas Whiteโ€™s message is most definitely not shared amongst the readers of his time. 

In the use of parallelism, an author may feel inclined to also build up to a climax. The term climax used here should not be confused with the climax in a sequence of a story, but it does bear resemblance. Just as a story can develop to a critical moment for its plot, a sentence or set of sentences can end itself with a climax of ideas (Kolln and Gray 49-51). For example, observe how Ocasio-Cortez uses parallelism in this sentence: โ€œI could not allow my nieces, I could not allow the little girls that I go home to, I could not allow victims of verbal abuse and worse to see that, to see that excuse and to see our Congress accept it as legitimate and accept it as an apology and to accept silence as a form of acceptance. I could not allow that to stand which is why I am rising today to raise this point of personal privilegeโ€ (04:35-05:49). The parallel structure and repetition introduce a series of clauses with โ€œI could notโ€ฆ.โ€ The repeated use of the opening is an example of anaphora (Kolln and Gray 130). The parallelism builds up until Ocasio-Cortez reaches the climax: She could not allow that to stand, and she goes on further explaining her purpose before the House. The climax is the definitive statement. This is where all the repetition and parallelism has led to. This is the most important statement. This is โ€œwhy [she is] rising today.โ€

White also creates a climax in his sentence: โ€œWe caught two bass, hauling them in briskly as though they were mackerel, pulling them over the side of the boat in a businesslike manner without any landing net, and stunning them with a blow on the back of the headโ€ (2). White uses climax to narrate a specific instant with his son. This is another use of parallelism (continuous use of gerunds) that culminates with the climax of killing the fish. The reader is drawn into this action sequence that is resolved by a climatic finish. It is climactic both rhetorically and in terms of the sequence of events. Both Ocasio-Cortez and White create a climactic point to show their readers that they have reached a control over the ideas, and they are steering the readers toward an end goal. Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s climactic end goal is to show purpose for speaking. Whiteโ€™s climactic end goal is to finish an action sequence. 

Another way Ocasio-Cortez and White take an authority of their narrative is by using short sentences. In order to dispel Yohoโ€™s use of his daughter and wife as part of his apology for his behavior, Ocasio-Cortez issues this statement, โ€œI am someoneโ€™s daughter tooโ€ (05:49-07:12). She then goes on to claim she will not anguish herself waiting for Yoho to properly apologize: โ€œI will not do that to myselfโ€ (07:12-08:18). Short sentences gravitate more attention than longer sentences (Kolln and Gray 29-30). Here are clear instances of Ocasio-Cortez using that fact to her advantage. There is no surprise that both sentences begin with โ€œI.โ€ Ocasio-Cortez wants her reader to feel the impact of these short, yet meaningful sentences. What made her write such short sentences in the midst of her longer remarks? Obviously, it comes from personal conviction: โ€œI am…,โ€ โ€œI will….โ€ Similarly, White uses short sentences. When he describes the nature of the lake, he says, โ€œThere had been no yearsโ€ (3). White wishes to be firm and declarative to his readers in his recollection of events. He asserts with confidence that nothing has changed. The emphasis in the sentence falls on โ€œno.โ€ This strengthens the readersโ€™ trust in Whiteโ€™s narrative. Another short sentence by White is a deliberate fragment. Within his remembrance of the lake, he adds, โ€œPeace and goodness and jollityโ€ (4). White only wants to encapsulate the serenity of the experience. This serenity must not be shared with any other ideas because it is personally significant to White. Thus, a short sentence suffices. 

Both Ocasio-Cortez and White use short sentences to command authority from their audiences. Ocasio-Cortez obtains authority through justified defiance and strong will. White obtains authority through his confidence in detail and assessment. Of course, the authors do not blatantly say, โ€œI am defiant,โ€ or โ€œI am confident in my recollection.โ€ Good narrators will show, not tell. Through short sentences, Ocasio-Cortez and White show these sides of themselves without explicitly telling the audience. 

Throughout their respective pieces, Ocasio-Cortez and White enhance their writing with a play on words. The first device is anadiplosis. This is used when one clause ends and another begins with the same word or phrase (โ€œAnadiplosisโ€). There are two instances where Ocasio-Cortez uses it in her speech. When she begins a fiery condemnation of men using derogatory terms towards women, she says, โ€œIt happens when individuals who hold the highest office in this land admit, admit to hurting women and using this language against all of usโ€ (09:06). In the course of her speech, Ocasio-Cortez insinuates that Yoho has not only wronged her, but also wronged women across the country; he adheres to a terrible culture that has treated and continues to treat women so poorly. Insinuation is one thing, but now Ocasio-Cortez puts special emphasis on โ€œadmitโ€ by ending the first clause and beginning the second with the same action. In Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s mind, the act of Yoho admitting he has used derogatory terms towards women is not best served by saying it once. She needs to say it twice and add how Yohoโ€™s admission is an affliction towards โ€œall of usโ€ women. In the second clause, โ€œadmitโ€ is not the only word that has emphasis. โ€œUsโ€ also has stress on it, creating an even greater sense of solidarity with her female audience. 

Contrast her first use of anadiplosis with her second use of it: โ€œTreating people with dignity and respect makes a decent man, and when a decent man messes up as we all are bound to do, he tries his best and does apologizeโ€ (08:18-09:06). โ€œDecent manโ€ is clearly in the limelight of Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s sentence. This is another instance of showing, not telling. Ocasio-Cortez has branded Yoho as the opposite of a decent man because he admits to his actions but refuses to take the proper responsibility for them. Yoho is evasive and not forthcoming. Characterizing him as such without explicitly saying so can be created by Ocasio-Cortez’s use of anadiplosis. The emphasis and stress allow the reader to infer the intention behind her words. 

White uses anadiplosis in a manner similar to Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s second use of it. Towards the end of his essay, as White begins to make his final assessments of the camping experience, he states, โ€œThis was the big scene, still the big sceneโ€ (5). It is a conclusive statement, in which White reaffirms that the present lake and camping experience resembles the experiences from his childhood. There is emphasis on โ€œstillโ€ and, of course, โ€œbig scene.โ€ The reader can feel the confidence White instills in his statement. There is no uncertainty. An alternative way White could have written this sentence is, โ€œThis was the big scene, [and it] still [is] the big scene.โ€ We can see here how White uses ellipsis to leave out phrases that are understood (Kolln and Gray 132-133). This omission allows the sentence to be more precise and controlled by White. 

Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s use of anadiplosis is to uphold Yoho to his actions, turn her audience against him, and place herself on the moral high ground. White does not use anadiplosis to reflect badly on anyone else. Rather, he uses anadiplosis to reflect on his own ability to recall detail and connect to the past. Nonetheless, their uses of anadiplosis aid in their ability to command the narrative and direct the readers towards sentiments the two authors want them to feel. This is an indispensable tool, not only for politicians like Ocasio-Cortez, but also for storytellers like White. 

An additional rhetorical device involving repeating phrases is antimetabole. This time, however, the repeated phrases are in reverse. For example, Ocasio-Cortez explains the wife and daughter excuse is a fallacy: โ€œAnd so what I believe is that having a daughter does not make a man decent. Having a wife does not make a decent manโ€ (08:18-09:06). Ocasio-Cortez reverses โ€œdecent manโ€ and creates two different meanings. Her proposition can be more definitively stated as, โ€œHaving a daughter does not transform a man into decency. Having a wife does not show the decency of a man.โ€ The use of antimetabole is a witty way for Ocasio-Cortez to explain herself. The purpose of her speech is to condemn the idea that having a daughter or wife excuses inappropriate language towards women. The antimetabole accomplishes this and has the added benefit of being catchy and quote-worthy. Politicians are always searching for the one-liner or debate hook to jab at their opponents. It is evident to the audience that Ocasio-Cortez has found hers.

White also uses antimetabole but more subtly. White says, โ€œI began to sustain the illusion that [my son] was I, and therefore, by simple transposition, that I was my fatherโ€ (2). White has reversed โ€œwas Iโ€ from one clause to the other. The purpose of Whiteโ€™s essay is to illustrate how the imagery and sentiments of the lake remain constant, but the roles are transferable: he becomes his father, and his son becomes him. Whiteโ€™s use of antimetabole is an eloquent way of stating this occurrence. Recall how Whiteโ€™s repetition and parallel use of gerunds added an eloquence to his wording. The antimetabole reaffirms that eloquence and engages the reader with the abstract idea of transposition. 

Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s use of antimetabole puts her in a position to judge. Her moral high-ground gives her that responsibility. Her self-identification as a fellow victim gives her the right to confront the culprit. As stated earlier, White exhibits eloquence in his imagery and eloquence in how he describes such imagery. This duality adds to the fairy tale-aspect of his story. Fairy tales, or children stories, usually involve a lot of flowery language to charm the reader with the โ€˜magicโ€™ of the scene. White authored many childrenโ€™s books, but he may have excused this essay from that flowery diction. His use of antimetabole helps get similar ideas across to his audience. Without antimetabole, Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s idea would be more lengthy and less characteristic of a political speech, and Whiteโ€™s ideas would lose the essence of eloquence and charm he had been establishing throughout the essay. 

The last major rhetorical tool that Ocasio-Cortez and White share is the use, or lack of use, of conjunctions when creating a series. Polysyndeton is the excess use of coordinating conjunctions, while Asyndeton is the absence of coordinating conjunctions (Kolln and Gray 128-129). Ocasio-Cortez uses asyndeton as she depicts Yohoโ€™s actions as having greater repercussions than he may have assumed. She says, โ€œIn using that language in front of the press, he gave permission to use that language against his wife, his daughters, women in his community, and I am here to stand up to say that is not acceptableโ€ (07:12-0:8:18). The list is composed of wife, daughter, and women in the community. Ocasio-Cortez does not put โ€œandโ€ before โ€œwomen in his community.โ€ Ocasio-Cortez implicates Yohoโ€™s actions as an offense to a never-ending list of women in America. The asyndeton does not give any emphasis to each listed object (wife, daughter, women in community), but it implies the list of victims can go on and on. โ€˜Victimsโ€™ is a strong word, but given the circumstances, it would not be a far cry to assume Ocasio-Cortez wishes to portray women as victims of never-ending misogyny from men. This misogyny coincides with the use of the asyndeton: never-ending misogyny equates to a never-ending list of victims. 

White uses polysyndeton in his essay. In the beginning, he describes why he prefers to go to the lake than the ocean. He claims, โ€œI have since become a salt-water man, but sometimes in summer there are days when the restlessness of the tides and the fearful cold of the sea water and the incessant wind which blows across the afternoon and into the evening make me wish for the placidity of the woodsโ€ (1). Here, White uses an excess of โ€œand.โ€ The polysyndeton allows White to list three aspects of the ocean (restless tides, cold water, and wind) without sacrificing emphasis on any one of the three. The excess โ€œandโ€ adds rhythm to the sentence, as the reader bounces from one idea to another. The sentence is lengthy, but White can focus the readersโ€™ attention to the details he feels important to him. White begins his essay by describing a trip to the lake in Maine when he was a young boy, but now he has โ€œsince become a salt-water man.โ€ White is his own man now with his own preferences and judgements. He can go where he pleases. So what would compel him back to the lake? What would override his preferences that he has accumulated in the years since boyhood? Evidently, it is the restless tides, cold water, and incessant wind of the ocean. All three can be so brutally harsh that they convince White to turn his back on his own present-day preferences and return to the sanctity provided to him when he was a young boy: a sanctity from his past. 

Ocasio-Cortez and Whiteโ€”separated by decades, circumstance, and purposeโ€”show that rhetorical devices are not limited by genre or style. Kurt Vonnegut said, โ€œFind a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your styleโ€ (qtd. in โ€œQuotable Quotesโ€). Ocasio-Cortez and White, when writing their respective pieces, did not think to themselves, โ€˜I will use parallelism and anadiplosis to convey my ideas.โ€™ It was the passion that led them through their drafts: Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s passion for change and Whiteโ€™s passion to enjoy the memories of his childhood.

In a chapter of Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Craig Hulst writes, โ€œThe rhetorical situation of a piece of writing is everything surrounding itโ€”who the audience is, the purpose for writing it, the genre of the writing, etc.โ€ (88-89). The difference in rhetorical situation between Ocasio-Cortez and White is obvious, but the rhetorical devices they used empowered both authors to control the events around them and command the narrative. The reader trusts Whiteโ€™s recollection of his camping experience, and the reader understands how White jumps between past and present and realizes the end of his childhood and the beginning of his sonโ€™s. The reader can feel the frustrations in Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s speech. The reader grows disappointed with Yohoโ€™s poor excuse and the culture he perpetuates. The reader can focus on the implications of the issue Ocasio-Cortez addresses, and she engages them to think about how to prevent the future from being a repeat of the past. Some readers may believe Whiteโ€™s essay is an example of his privilege or that Ocasio-Cortezโ€™s judgement is incorrect, but there is no dispute that the correct rhetorical tools gifted the two authors with the means to make their case in the first place.

Works Cited

โ€œAnadiplosis.โ€ Literary Devices, go.shr.lc/2Zia6Ul. Accessed 6 Aug. 2020. 

โ€œAntimetabole.โ€ Literary Devices, go.shr.lc/30RgT6D. Accessed 6 Aug. 2020. 

Hajela, Deepti. โ€œPolitical Novice Ocasio-Cortez Scores for Progressives in NY.โ€ AP News, The Associated Press, 27 June 2018, apnews.com/45eb9af59317402699b23c4826a8192c. Accessed 7 Aug. 2020. 

Heitman, Danny. โ€œThe White Pages.โ€ Humanities, 24 Jan. 2014, www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/januaryfebruary/feature/the-white-pages. Accessed 8 Aug. 2020. 

Hulst, Craig. โ€œGrammar, Rhetoric, and Style.โ€ Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, edited by Driscoll, Dana, Mary Stewart, and Matthew Vetter, vol. 3, Parlor Press, 2020, pp. 86-99. 

Kolln, Martha, and Loretta Gray. Rhetorical Grammar. 8th ed., Pearson, 2017. 

Lisbeth, Laura. Interviewed by Carolyn Cosentino, Sophia Hoss, Kathy La, and Patricia Paulynn Mallari. The Elements of Style, 26 July 2020, you.stonybrook.edu/elements/laura-lisabeth-interview/. 

Mosher, Dave. โ€œAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-Year-Old Who Defeated a Powerful House Democrat, Has an Asteroid Named After Her โ€” Here’s Why.โ€ Business Insider, 28 June 2018, www.businessinsider.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-asteroid-2018-6?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=topbar. Accessed 8 Aug. 2020. 

Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandria. United States House of Representatives floor, 23 July 2020, United States Capitol, South Wing, Capitol Hill, Washington D.C. Point of personal privilege. 

โ€œQuotable Quotes.โ€ Goodreads, www.goodreads.com/quotes/3247685-find-a-subject-you-care-about-and-which-you-in. Accessed 6 Aug. 2020.

White, E.B. โ€œOnce More to the Lake.โ€ Harper’s Magazine, 1941.

Dying Without Dignity: An Intersectional Analysis of Lhamoโ€™s Death and Domestic Violence in China

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by Sophia Garbarino, December 22, 2020

โ€œMore than 900 women have died at the hands of their husbands or partners since Chinaโ€™s law against domestic violence was enacted in 2016โ€

(CHEN, 2020).

Lhamo, a Tibetan woman and popular social media star living in southwestern China, was one of them. Two weeks after her ex-husband set her on fire, Ms. Lhamo died in the hospital, leaving her two sons and a rekindled wave of womenโ€™s rights protests behind. Her story, according to The New York Times reporter Elsie Chen (2020), reflects the Chinese government and law enforcementโ€™s inability, and perhaps lack of desire, to protect its women. However, there are several underlying factors influencing feminist politics in China that went unaddressed in Chenโ€™s report, along with the few other news reports covering the same story. Ms. Lhamoโ€™s tragic death is also a product of brutal, complex relationships between ethnicity, sexuality, and socioeconomic status, revealing minimal progress towards equality and justice despite written law.

Ms. Lhamoโ€™s family was well aware of her husbandโ€™s abuse, as she frequently fled her home with bruises and injuries over the course of their marriage. When she divorced him for the first time, he threatened to kill their children, forcing Ms. Lhamo to remarry him.

The local police further ignored her abuse complaints after this, allegedly telling her that because it was a โ€œpersonal family matterโ€ฆ there was nothing they could doโ€

(Chen, 2020).

While it may seem like a feminist issue on the surface, the authoritiesโ€™ ignorance actually reflects a much larger, deeper ethnic prejudice. As a Tibetan, Ms. Lhamo was a minority, and according to Human Rights Watch, her case โ€œillustrate[s] the Chinese governmentโ€™s long-running mistreatment of Tibetans,โ€ stemming from tense relations after the failed Tibetan revolt against Chinese occupation in 1959 (2020). Since 2006, the government has forcibly relocated and created โ€œnear complete restriction on the freedom of movementโ€ of over 2 million Tibetans (Minority Rights Group International, 2017). Even before any domestic abuse occurred, Ms. Lhamo was already a victim of injustice because of her national origin. However, Chenโ€™s report does not mention this, reflecting a broader lack of attention to ethnic individualities within the global feminist context.

As Syracuse University professor of Womenโ€™s and Gender Studies Chandra Talpade Mohanty writes in Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity (2003), โ€œsystems of racial, class, and gender domination do not have identical effects on women in Third World contextsโ€ (p. 55). As such, a Tibetan woman such as Ms. Lhamo would not receive the same treatment as a Han Chinese woman would because of her ethnicity (the Han ethnic group is the largest in China). Furthermore, she had lower socioeconomic status, producing additional challenges. For poor minority women like Ms. Lhamo, human rights have โ€œalways been mediated by a coercive, racist stateโ€ (Mohanty, 2003, p. 54). According to Chenโ€™s report,

โ€œin the countryside, where Ms. Lhamo was from, victims often lack social support networks and are less educated about their rightsโ€

(2020).

Even after โ€œshe sought help from All-China Womenโ€™s Federation, the government agency in charge of protecting womenโ€™s rights,โ€ Ms. Lhamo was denied justice โ€œwhen an official dismissed her injuries, saying other women were worse offโ€ (Chen, 2020). This prompted her to file for divorce a second time, after which the police did bare minimal investigation and let her husband escape any consequences yet again.

Ms. Lhamoโ€™s experiences and tragic death went unaddressed by the Chinese government, with the Communist body going as far as censoring social media hashtags like #LhamoAct (Chen, 2020). As Mohanty writes in Feminism Without Borders, โ€œChinese women โ€˜disappearโ€™ in popular and academic discourses on China, only to reappear in โ€˜case studiesโ€™ or in the โ€˜culture gardenโ€™โ€ (2003, p. 76). Ms. Lhamo is a clear example of this. Chinese feminist issues have gone largely unaddressed in Western media and academia, only resurfacing when case studies such as Ms. Lhamoโ€™s occur. Western feminisms often fail to incorporate the โ€œdiverse struggles and historiesโ€ of women from other countries, more commonly lumping them together to further their own agendas (Mohanty, 2003, p. 46). Like Mohanty, professor Amrita Basu of Amherst College recognizes the necessity of diversity inclusion, arguing that when feminist discourses fail to identify and consider cultural influences on womenโ€™s experiences, particularly regarding gender violence, womenโ€™s โ€œidentities as Bosnian, African American, or poor women may be mutedโ€ (2000, p. 76). These are only a few examples of the several aspects that comprise oneโ€™s identity.

To make any progress towards true gender equality in China, the diverse population and cultures must be considered. This includes diversity in sexuality, which Chen also does not address in her report. Like the United States, Chinaโ€™s political and social structures are based on heterosexism and homophobia. As feminist scholar Audre Lorde writes, heterosexism is the โ€œbelief in the inherent superiority of one form of loving over all others and thereby the right to dominanceโ€ (1985, p. 3). Currently, China’s Domestic Violence Law โ€œdoes not protect gay couples,โ€ and though it does protect cohabitating couples, Chinese government official Guo Linmao noted at a press conference that

โ€œfor homosexuals in our country, we have not yet discovered this form of violenceโ€ฆ it can be said that people who cohabit does not include homosexualsโ€

(Reuters Staff, 2015).

Essentially, he meant gay couples do not encounter domestic violence, which is untrue.

Chenโ€™s report echoes this false assertion, though perhaps not intentionally, quoting Chinese womenโ€™s rights lawyer Wan Miaoyan, โ€œBut why does it take a tragedy and a victim to sacrifice herself in such a bloody way before we make progress on law enforcement?โ€ (Chen, 2020). This statement assumes all domestic violence victims are women. However, according to the United States National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (2010), members of the LGBTQ+ community โ€œhave an equal or higher prevalence of experiencing IPV [intimate partner violence], SV [sexual violence], and stalking as compared to self-identified heterosexualsโ€ (CDC, p. 1). China is certainly not exempt from this pattern. In fact, a 2009 survey conducted by the Chinese organization Common Language found that of the 900 participating lesbian and bisexual women, โ€œ42.2 percent reported intimate partner violence with same sex partnersโ€ (UNDP, 2014, p. 28). In every aspect of injustice, LGBTQ+ folks continue to fight for recognition and support, especially when the government refuses to protect them. As a member of the heterosexual hegemony, this is one battle that Ms. Lhamo did not have to fight, which some may consider a privilege despite her tragic situation.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, instances of domestic and intimate partner violence have significantly increased due to lockdown and quarantine policies. According to another domestic violence report from The New York Times (2020), Chinese โ€œactivists, citing interviews with abused women, estimate the numbers are far higher, especially after millions were placed under lockdown during the pandemicโ€ (Wee). As Basu writes, โ€œWomenโ€™s movement activists have employed the term violence against women in describing diverse practices cross nationallyโ€ฆ in order to assert the global dimensions of a single problemโ€ (2000, p. 78). Unfortunately, partner violence is not a single problem. It is stuck in a web of complex, intersectional relationships between sex, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, and more. However, despite the multitude of experiential and cultural differences, women like Ms. Lhamo still share many similarities and often unite on these common grounds. Chinaโ€™s women are not alone, and like every country around the world, China has a long road ahead to achieving gender justice.

References

Basu, A. (2000). Globalization of the local/localization of the global mapping transnational womenโ€™s movements. Meridians, 1(1), p. 68โ€“84. https://doi.org/10.1215/15366936-1.1.68

CDC. (2010). NISVS: An overview of 2010 findings on victimization by sexual orientation. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/cdc_nisvs_victimization_final-a.pdf

Chen, E. (2020, November 15). Her abuse was a โ€˜family matter,โ€™ until it went live. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/15/world/asia/china-women-domestic-abuse.html

China: Tibetan woman dies in custody. (2020, October 29). Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/10/29/china-tibetan-woman-dies-custody#

Lorde, A. (1985). I am your sister: Black women organizing across sexualities. Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press.

Mohanty, C.T. (2003). Feminism without borders: Decolonizing theory, practicing solidarity. Duke University Press.

Reuters Staff. (2015, December 27). China passes first domestic violence law, gay couples excluded. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-lawmaking-family/china-passes-first-domestic-violence-law-gay-couples-excluded-idINKBN0UA08A20151227

Tibetans. (2017, November). Minority Rights Group International. Retrieved December 8, 2020, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/tibetans/

Two spirit. (2020). Indian Health Service. Retrieved December 7, 2020, from https://www.ihs.gov/lgbt/health/twospirit/

UNDP. (2014). Being LGBT in Asia: China country report. https://www.asia-pacific.undp.org/content/dam/rbap/docs/Research%20&%20Publications/hiv_aids/rbap-hhd-2014-blia-china-country-report.pdf

Wee, S. (2020, September 16). Her husband abused her. But getting a divorce was an ordeal. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/world/asia/china-domestic-abuse.html

Yang, H. (2020, April 1). Chinaโ€™s domestic violence law turns four. The Asia Foundation. https://asiafoundation.org/2020/04/01/chinas-domestic-violence-law-turns-four/