Women's Wit

What is it about Women’s Wit that separates it so completely from that of men’s, leaving an almost gulf of communication lost not only in the past, but also in the present?  As I was reading the assignment I found myself considering not just the topics being discussed but how those topics are still prevalent within this present time, perhaps even more so.  Perhaps we do not have sewing circles or meeting houses as emphasized within Frances Whitcher’s carefully crafted satirical sketches; and yet we can turn back the hour glass in order to understand and find common ground with Fanny Fern as she pours irony through her descriptive monologue and letters, giving life to everyday chores and relationships with partners and children.

As I sat and read Whitcher’s “Aunt Maguire Continues Her Account of the Sewing Society,” I could not help but reminded of two things, one of the present and one of the past.  The first that came to mind was how Hillary Clinton, herself, has used irony and humor throughout her campaign to emphasize various issues and to help alleviate stress.  She is not the only woman in the present that has been known to use similar such tactics as was found in the 19^th to help bring attention to women plight.  In today’s society the more prevalent names are Ellen DeGeneres, Tina Fey, Barbara Walters, The ladies of The View, The Talk, and The Real, a more modern day version of the 19^th century sewing circle as depicted by Whitcher in her short story.

Whitcher reminded me also of another character from the same time period with her description of Miss Samson Savage.  I was so caught up in this tale and shaking my head, laughing at her descriptions as I recalled there was a movie of a very similar lady from 1964 “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” based upon Margaret Brown, who left her mountain home, and was uneducated but sought a wealthy husband and survived the sinking of the Titanic.  Whitcher describes Miss Savage in such a way I felt she was describing Molly “She was always a coarse, boisterous, high-tempered critter, and when her husband grow’d rich, she grow’d pompous and overbearin’.  She made up her mind she’d rule th roast, no matter what it cost—she’d be the first in Scrabble Hill.  She know’d she wa’n’t a lady by natur nor by eddication, but she thought mabby other folks would be fools enough to think she was if she made a great parade.  So she begun by dressin’ more, and givin bigger parties than any body else.” (Witcher 77)

It is lessons for today’s women to look back and realize the past may have lacked the technological advances we are gifted with in modern society, but the humor is still there… When Fanny Fern moralized “It isn’t every man who has a call to be a husband,” (Fern 48) how was she to know this was a lesson that would mark the sheaves of time itself for truer words ever to be written?  Ladies take heart and learn, never let the past fade far away…

Cite:

Walker, Nancy A., and Zita Dresner. Redressing the Balance: American Women's Literary Humor from Colonial times to the 1980s. Jackson: U of Mississippi, 1988. Print.

Humanism

The study of the humanities, or “studia humanitatis” in the classical Latin format, helped to bring about the intellectual movement during the late 14^th century.  Unlike other movements during the Renaissance and Reformation periods, humanism did not conform to systematic logic and thought process.  Instead this movement, through newly reformatted education and scholarship endeavors, promoted growth of the mind and intellect through various liberal pursuits.  As noted by Wilcox “humanist eventually found themselves involved in politics, literature, law and even philosophy and theology.” (Wilcox, Ch. 5, pg. 75) While looking into the historical impact and how it might be interpreted Wilcox presents us with three notable interpretations by distinguished men and students of the Renaissance humanism: Paul Oskar Kristeller, Eugenio Garin, and Hans Baron.

Paul Kristeller, (Born May 22, 1905 – Died June 7, 1999) a renowned historian and student of the Renaissance, was also a philosopher who sought to show how humanism and philosophy developed as two separate intellectual movements.  Through his studies and research, Kristeller published several noteworthy works:

The Philosophy of M. Ficino. New York, 1943.
The Classics and Renaissance Thought. Cambridge (Mass.), 1955.
Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters. Rome, 1956.
Renaissance Thought, vols. 1–2. New York, 1961–65. (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia)

As Kristeller developed his platforms, he focused on the teachings and approaches to the two different movements, using technical approaches to analyze and interpret both.  He was able to define humanism and philosophy as individuals and yet not nearly so separate; unfortunately, his approach disallowed for the concept of emotional and personal equation towards humanism, leaving many seeking further definitions.

Eugenio Garin, (Born May 9^th, 1909 – Died Dec. 29^th, 2004) approached the concept of humanism through a different path, though also being a scholar, philosopher and student of the Renaissance.  Where Kristeller’s approach was more technically pragmatic, Garin had a more grounded, humane approach based upon two assumptions: “First, the ancients should be studied as men living in a certain historical time; second human knowledge proceeds less by abstract speculation than by communication of personal perspectives and points of view. “ (Wilcox, pg. 77)

Our last of the three scholars, Hans Baron (Born June 22, 1900 – Died Nov. 26, 1988) believed a crucial turn of events took place in Florence around 1400 that lead to a dramatic shift in intellectual and scholarly pursuits during this period.  It is due to this shift in education and scholarship the humanist movement came to be, and can be seen not only in the historical value of intellectually stimulating documents but also the arts.  By approach the movement from such a varied path than the other two, Baron was able to “identify so clearly the developing patterns of thought and values in this small period… This generation of humanists pursued classical studies with a new vigor and intensity; they were aware of the unique position of Florence in fostering the revival and were firmly convinced of the superiority of the active life.” (Wilcox, pg. 79.)

In having studied and taken the time to consider each of these men’s approaches, along with the question of which one I favor, I came to the conclusion that I favor none and all.  My reasoning for this is the concept that each historian / philosopher is noteworthy within his own, but at the same time they each lack something vital in order to be given an entire grounding in humanism.  Can one truly understand humanism simply by using nothing but practical, technical approaches?  Is it appropriate to look to the one who sees patterns and follows the intricate web of thoughts of the men of this time; or does one approach it more from an emotional, naturalistic point of view.  In the end I think it is more practical and fulfilling to try an equally balanced approached, taking something from all. 

References:

"Paul Oskar Kristeller." The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition. 1970-1979. The Gale Group, Inc. 20 Feb. 2016 http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Paul+Oskar+Kristeller

Wilcox, Donald J. In Search of God & Self: Renaissance and Reformation Thought. Second ed. Long Grove: Waveland, 1987. Print.

Theory

During the 19^th and 20^th centuries maleness theories and studies on female criminality were to become a topic of research conducted by well-known and established psychologists, including Cesare Lombroso, William Ferrero, W.I. Thomas, Sigmund Freud, and Otto Pollak.  Each of these men would establish their studies in the “grounded belief that biological determinisms accounts for female criminality: Whereas men are rational, women are driven by their biological constitutions.” (Belknap, pg. 26)

These men agreed that this classical way of thinking could be accounted for by four distinguishable characteristics:

1.      individual characteristics, not those of society, are responsible for criminal behavior

2.      Identifiable biological nature inherit to all women

3.      Offending women are “Masculine” which makes them non-feminine and more likely to break the law.

4.      Male and female criminality differs between sex, not gender.

Cesare Lombroso was a physician, psychiatrist, and criminal anthropologist in 19^th century Italy.  He spent his time studying the criminal minds and behaviors of both the convicted male and female; being referred to as the “Father” of criminology.  He delves first into the idea of maleness theory with his book, The Criminal Man, published in 1876, (originally in Italian and later translated into English by 1911, by his daughter.) with the idea of racial hierarchy, showing extreme separation of race, social class and intelligence between those with Black skin and those who were of White European descent.  Lombrosos was able to show that by “focusing exclusively on the physical and psychological makeup of the individual in determining criminal behavior, he dismissed the effects of socialization or social-structural constraints as important determinants of criminal behavior or the labeling of behavior as criminal.” (Belknap, pg. 27)

Lombroso delves once more into his theories with the female this time as his subject of one his books in 1893’s “The Female Offender.”  (This translated two years later into English print in 1895.)  Within this book we first encounter the theory of Atavism.  Atavism, as explained by Lombroso, is “a concept that views some deviant behavior as a “throwback” to an earlier evolutionary stage in human development. “ Belknap, pg. 27) 

With this train of thought and Lombroso’s theory in practice, criminals and deviants were less evolved along the evolutionary chain than your average human.    With today’s science we know men like Lombroso and his son-in-law, William Ferraro theories about women being less evolved than men, and yet in their time period their theories were not only accepted they were considered cutting edge research.  They used prostitutes to show women were not having less degeneration then men and therefore less evolution then men. 

W.I. Thomas used Lombroso’s work as a stepping stone for his own, though he personally was more of a liberal when it came to his own personal tone and point of view.  When it came to his own theories he chose to define criminology as “ a socially induced pathology, rather than a biological abnormality.” 
            Again he tended to agree with Lombroso when it came to the male vs female aspects of what made one a criminal: sex vs gender rather than society and the restrictions placed upon one by that time period you lived within.  “Thomas’s analyses of class and sexuality are overly simplistic concerning the links between gender, sexuality, class, and crime.  According to Thomas, middle-class women are invested in protecting their chastity and thus commit very few crimes; poor women, on the other hand, long for crime in the manner of a new experience.  In fact, he believed that delinquent girls manipulate males into sex as a means of achieving their own goals.  Thus, Thomas favors psychological over economic motivations to explain female criminality.  Given that Thomas was writing in an era of mass illness and starvation, the choice to ignore economic deprivation as a potential cause of female crime is rather remarkable.” (Belknap, pg. 29)

Our greatest psychiatrist on this list, and probably most well-known out of the bunch would be Sigmund Freud.  His theories are many and center on the ideas that women are inferior to men, though his most famous would be his infamous “penis envy” approach to explaining female behavior.  Within this concept a perfectly healthy women would experience a heterosexual response, only she is the receptor in this… and in doing so she is receiving pain and the male is aggressive and giving pain…

Thus in the end the female will only be truly satisfied if she can have a penis of her own to inflict the same kind of pain.  Freud’s theories are often found filled with classism, racism, and heterosexism, not to mention they help promote the deviant role of a woman and encourage perversion.  One thing Freud does not encourage is equality, whether amongst gender or sex.

Otto Pollak uses his study, The Criminality of Women, in order to repeat Thomas, Lombroso, and Ferraro’s ideas with his own about the biological and physiological make-up of the female criminal.  He also makes a point of emphasizing that the female criminal has managed to stay masked within the justice system due to “chivalrous or lenient treatment of women in the crime-processing system.  But Pollack’s main point is that women are better at hiding their crimes.  He emphasizes the “deceitful” nature of women, using as supporting evidence females’ ability to hide the fact that they are menstruating or having orgasms and their inactive role during sexual intercourse.” (Belknap, pg. 30) Unlike his previous researches, who based their studies on a great deal of facts gathered over time, Pollak’s were based upon a lot of assumptions in which he failed to take into account the imbalance between men and women, instead jumping in head first  and pushing forward with his own opinions.

Gisela Konopka, a more modern theorist from the 1960’s and 70’s, who wrote The Adolescent Girl in Conflict chose to base her theory upon the idea that girls become criminals out of loneliness and sexuality, leading to eventual other emotional problems.  Vedder and Sommerville use maladjustment to explain delinquency in their book The Delinquent Girl, but then Cowie, Cowie and Slater counter it with Delinquency in girls by tstating that to use masculinity, femininity, and chromosomes are what are needed to help explain criminality.  “In this perspective, the female offender is different physiologically and psychologically from the ‘normal’ girl,  in that she is too masculine; she is rebelling against her femininity.” (Belknap, pg 31)

Though these were only some of the theories to be attributed to criminality, many others can be attested to this to including Robert Merton’s Strain Theory, Cloward and Ohlin Opportunity Theory, or Edwin Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory, or otherwise known as DAT.    Though at the time each of these were well established and researched theories in criminality they would not hold up in today’s modern society or with today laws.  Today’s society is not a society based upon sex or a society in which women find themselves less evolved, even if they are convicted.

The Great Schism

The Great Schism

The year was 1378, and Pope Paul Gregory XI was in the process of returning the church’s home back to Rome.  It had spent the last 73 years as a “guest” in Avignon since 1305 when the king of France had applied influence to have the papacy transplanted to Southern France, thereby placing the church within the French king’s control.  The French king saw opportunity to use the Pope in his struggle for power against the English in his own war.  This 73 year time period became known as the Babylonian Captivity, resulting in the pope losing his tax revenue, thereby charging fees and dues for services provided.  The parishioners viewed him as “greedy and materialistic.” (mini-lecture, Paul Trela, 2013)

Though Gregory was unable to see the fruit of his labor and the end result of his efforts, he was successful in moving the church back to Rome in 1378, though this was the beginning of “The Great Schism” as it would come to be called.  Soon after the move back to Rome, Pope Gregory XI passed away.  At that time the Sacred School of Cardinals chose to elect an Italian or Roman pope, looking to towards the Archbishop of Bari to fulfill this role, in hopes that he would be what the populace was demanding.  Unfortunately, upon election the archbishop of Bari, or as he became to be more properly known Urban VI was overly hostile to those around him and was not as easily controllable as they had previously believed.  (Great Western Schism, Encyclopedia Britannica)

An election  was enacted in order to remove Urban VI and vote for a new pope, unfortunately Urban was not willing to step aside for a new pope and now the church found themselves with two popes, though technically Urban was the legitimate elected head.  The new pope Robert of Geneva, now known as Clement VII, was one of the Cardinals Urban has previously had issues with.  Clement and his new papacy would remove themselves to Avignon, making this their home base of power for their line.  (Encyclopedia Britannica, September 2014)

In 2014, the Conciliar Movement, “a theory that a general council of the church has a greater authority than the pope and may if necessary, depose him.” (Enc. Brit. Sept. 2014) This was not the first time such a movement had been put into practice as such an occurrences had taken place in the 12^th- and 13^th- centuries amongst the canonists, during the period of time when they attempted to set juridical limitations on the papacy.   With the 15^th- century and the Great Schism we have the Council of Constance in Sweden (1414-18)  in order to end the 73 year turbulence and disruption within the church. 

This finally came to an end with the election of Cardinal subdeacon Oddone to the esteemed highest seat within the church.  He would become known as Martin V, and upon his election the others would relinquish their claims to the papacy.  He refused the French their offer of Avignon, choosing instead to make Rome and Italy his home.  He also worked to mediate the Hundred Year War, attempting to bring peace between the English and the French.  He also worked to once more bring back to the Papal authority all matters ecclesiastics, and help to subvert the crown to that of the church.  Once more the church was back in power in the reign of Martin V, paving the way for the oncoming reformation and for men like Luther and Calvin.

References:

1.      Sectarianism and schism in Europe. [electronic resource(video)] : Christianity in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. (2007). New York, N.Y.: Films Media Group, [2007], c1999.

2.      Conciliarism. (2014). Encyclopoedia Britannica,

3.      Western Schism. (2014). Encyclopoedia Britannica,

4.      Martin V. (2014). Encyclopoedia Britannica,

5.      Oakley, F. (1990). The great papal schism. Christian History, 9(4), 23.

6.      Trela, P. (2013, July 17). Church in Crisis. Retrieved February 7, 2016, from https://moodle.esc.edu/mod/page/view.php?id=1218424

Female Offender

Have your attitudes and perceptions about female crime changed since reading statistics comparing gender differences in the frequency and nature of criminal behavior?  What myths and/or stereotypes about girls and women and crime did you hold prior to the readings and how have the readings thus far affected your understanding of the realities of female crime trends?  What role does the media play in shaping myths about the "new" female offender?  Please reflect on the readings and use/incorporate the assigned readings to inform your response to this discussion question. 

Please post a response of approximately 350-400 words, and remember to respond to the posts of three others. Others need to see and have an opportunity to respond to what you say.  You will not receive credit if you post only in the last few days of the discussion period.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t believe my attitudes or perceptions concerning the gender differences within criminal behavior has changed dramatically.  If I had to point to one particular thing that showed difference was the concern I felt over the statistics provided and a curiosity in how many of these girls/women are not just criminals but are victims of the CLS and society around them. 

Belknap states “The majority of crimes are male gender-related but rape, homicide, and other violent crimes are especially so.  The most common example of a female-gender-related crime is sex work (mostly measured as prostitution).”(Belknap, pg. 111) Society then condemns the female, but the outcome of finding her guilty fluctuates, depending upon multiple factors such as race, wealth, SMS, with race being at the forefront…

A perfect example of this took place with the story of Cyntoia.  The young 16 year old committed murder, what has been viewed as a male gender-related crime, but before this act transpired, she was already a victim of an older male who brought her into prostitution and drugs.  (Cyntoia, 2004) Unfortunately for Cyntoia, she was both victim and criminal, with the crime overshadowing the victim.  Would Chivalry had taken place and a different sentence for a final judgement if Cyntoia had been “white?”  “Regarding race and gender, historical analyses of the United States indicate White female offenders were largely viewed as amendable to rehabilitation, whereas stereotypes of African American female offenders as “aggressive” and “virile” were used to justify their harsher punishments.” (Belknap, pg. 176)

I believe the strongest myth lies upon the idea of the “new” female offender.  How much is it that they are “new” or perhaps it is that the mask has been shed and the court system is being less chivalrous towards the female gender?  The media over the years has helped with this hype, from a 1993 Newsweek article entitled “Girls Will Be Girls” of which it is “noted some girls now carry guns.   Others hide razor blades in their mouths.” (Chesney-Linde, pg. 34) to article published in 2010 in the Las Vegas Review Journal stating “ten members of an all-female gang were arrested on robbery and burglary charges.” (Chesney-Linde, pg. 35)

One of the sites that can help with information and news articles concerning the gang activity in the United States is the National Gang Related Website: https://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Gang-Related-News.  This site helps to keep current news and media articles up to date as far as gang related issues within the United States.

Refernces:

Birman, D. (2015, September 12). Cyntoia's Story (Documentary). Retrieved February 11, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ek6sIcDb1Q

Chesney-Lind, M., & Pasko, L. (2003). The female offender: Girls, women, and crime (Third ed.). London: SAGE. Chapter 3, pg. 34 – 35

Belknap, J. (1996). The invisible woman: Gender, crime, and justice (Four ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth Pub. Chapter 4 pg. 111, Chapter 5 pg. 176

Gang-Related News Articles. (n.d.). Retrieved February 15, 2016, from https://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Gang-Related-News

It's Great to be Back

Upon having read Heinlein’s “It’s Great To Be Back” I originally was unsure what I would or could expect from this story.  I discovered myself to be pleasantly surprised, as the intro gave way to a bit of foreshadowing with its ominous depiction of Mr. and Mrs. Mac Rae’s homecoming. 

This also becomes a story of many layers, not only depicting regret and human nature when it comes wanting what you no longer have, but it also shows a form of segregation and though it may not be racist in the normal sense it does give visual and verbal clues of how the Mac Raes have to deal with the stigma of being “Lunatics” or “Looneys” as some of those around them describe the colonist who live within the moon. 

The concept of the “Golden Age” for theme shows up not only through the various progressions and technology used throughout the story, from the Lunar City and its modern technologies, to the express shuttle as used to get back to earth.  Once on Earth you discover terms such as “slide-walks” and “hover-cabs,” along with automatic delivery of food to their hotel suite. 

Once they remove them-selves to the farm things change and they are living a more survivalist retro lifestyle, without a lot of the advancements they were used to having right on hand.  Unfortunately along with this they come across the stigma and aggression from the local townsfolk, whom instead of welcoming the Mac Raes to their community, view them as intruders who have no right to take or benefit from the town itself, whether that be groceries or a simple hair cut at the barber shop. 

It is through this journey, which began with a need to return “home,” and home being Earth, from whence they originated, they actually discovered “home” was no longer where they fancied, but rather what they gave up.  Filled with longing and regret, having come full circle the Mac Raes work rapidly and with determination in order to return once more to Lunar City, the feeling of homesickness leaving as anticipation envelopes them. 

Samuel

As I was reading the story of “Samuel” by Grace Paley, and the afterword concerning short story structure, I found myself thinking about the story itself.  Throughout the reading of Short Stories it calls for us to examine and dissect the story, looking for the effect the writer intends with her/his words.  Paley states she wrote Samuel “to set you up for the “shiver of recognition” in her final sentence.  When you understand her intricate way she used language to create her fictional world, the story’s effect has an even greater emotional impact.”  (pg. 1671, Reading Short Stories)  What exactly is the "effect," or "shiver of recognition" Paley is aiming for?  In order to understand or perhaps look at it more in-depth and discover more there, I decided to decipher the concept of "effect" and how it played out in the story. 

If one was to consider the very definition of the word "Effect" and look it up in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, this is what you would find:

Effect (noun)

: A change that results when something is done or happens: an event, condition, or state of affairs that is produced by a cause: a particular feeling or mood created by something: an image or a sound that is created in television, radio, or movies to imitate something real.

With this definition in mind, and the concept of Edgar Allen Poe's "effect" on short stories and literature, as stated by Louis Menand's Essay "True Story: The Art of Short Fiction," one can draw the conclusion Grace Paley's short story "Samuel" is well suited to, as Poe stated " At the end there has to be the literary equivalent of the magicians puff of smoke, an outcome that is both startling and anticipated..." (pg. 1670, Reading Short Stories)

The story of Samuel takes place during a time period when subways trains were not automatic, such as in the 1970’s.  In today’s modern age a person would not find chains, such as the four boys held on to, or the emergency cord of which the man pulled, causing Samuel’s death.    Author Grace Paley managed to bring us back to an age when the NYC Subway was run by a Conductor.  The setting for the story was as important as the story itself, lending to the wishful, bygone, and feeling fleeting by, swiftly along the subway tracks, never to return in the same way it once was. 

Though the story is called Samuel, it is not actually about Samuel himself; rather the reader is given wistful and even angry glimpses of fellow passengers as they view the four young boys, playing and misbehaving.  The youths’ behavior causes memories and emotions of various degrees around them, though they are originally oblivious to the adults and what they are feeling due to their innocent antics.   You, the reader can feel the tension and anticipation building off two main players within this story, the man in his anger over his lost youth, and the woman who is afraid of becoming embarrassed in public. 

The story almost has a cause and effect syndrome to the outcome.  If the adolescents had never misbehaved and played upon the subway would the woman have felt the need to scold them for their antics on the platform?  Would the man have taken it upon himself to pull the emergency cord, hoping to teach the boys a lesson, and be a good citizen; never thinking his actions would cause the death of Samuel, one of the boys?  If the man had never pulled the cord would the mother of Samuel have to realize she could, and would, never replace her son? 

In the end Paley’s “shiver of recognition,” came for me in the fact that all actions have a reaction and we must think before doing.  Had the man never pulled that emergency cord, which is to say Samuel would have died such a harrowing death, ending his short life before it even had a chance to begin?  Though it is simply a story, Poe’s words of “effect” live and breathe in the emotions and imagery created by the idea of what could be if one simply reacted without thought.