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Tangible Artifacts: The Unicorn Horn

May 212013

A good story has the power to change the world. Take the case of the unicorn: elusive yet ever present, the it has tantalized the hearts and minds of the Western world for over 2,000 years. It appears in the Bible, in art, myth and story, and was, until the seventeenth century, considered to be as real as pigs and sheep – if a little more difficult to witness in its natural habitat than a common farm animal. While the appearance of the unicorn has varied over its extended mythological career, physical ephemera from the beast have always been ascribed magical or medicinal powers.These artifacts were all harvested from once living animals, particularly the ibex and narwhal. Although the horn’s physical origins were commonplace, the marketing of narwhal horns as originating from the non-corporeal unicorn allowed the Western populace to have a tangible link with the mythic. Thus transformed through story and belief, the narwhal horn transcended its humble origins to become a holy and magical artifact.

The Unicorn: Origins and Magical Properties

The unicorn myth has excited humanity’s creative consciousness for thousands of years. The first written documentation of a unicorn-like creature was jotted down by one Ctesias of Cnidus around the year 398 BCE (Lavers, Hunt). Ctesias was a physician of some note, and served the Persian court for much of his career, where he had ample opportunity to conduct research on far away places and wonders heretofore unknown to the Grecian world. When he finally returned to his homeland, he published the Indica, a “rich and strange mish-mash of Eastern geography, zoology, botany, medicine, anthropology and nonsense” (Lavers, 5). One of the entries in this fabulous work spoke of the horned wild asses which populated the far-off lands of India. These creatures were as large as horses, predominantly white, had a horn perhaps a foot and a half in length. They were fierce, fast, and incredibly protective of their young. While the flesh of the animal was inedible, the horn and ankle-bone were efficacious remedies to a variety of diseases.

From its earliest introduction to the Western world, the unicorn was known for its healing properties – the horn in particular. Additionally, the horn also symbolized masculine virility (Hunt), a holdover from its origins in tribal myth. When later co-opted into Christian mythos, the unicorn, particularly when paired with a maiden, became an allegory for Jesus and the Virgin Mary (Gotfredsen). This piling of holy, medical and magical significance, one on top of the other, galvanized the unicorn myth into something spectacular, where physical artifacts of the legendary creature became “worth a city” (Shepard, 3).

These fetish objects were harvested from more pedestrian animals, most often by people native to the regions in which the creatures resided. They were then sold to European travelers and merchants, and from there introduced to the Western market as objects of holy value. The unicorn’s horn, crowning artifact of a wealthy Church’s treasure vault, had a far more common origin than its mythos would lead us to believe.

Physical Manifestations of Non-Corporeal Beings: The Unicorn Horn

In most cases, artifacts purported to originate from the unicorn were instead horns from two creatures: the ibex and the narwhal. The ibex are herbivorous mountain goats who reside in the European Alps, and are characterized by their large horns. It is probable that the unicorn myth originated or was influenced by the oral traditions of the area’s indigenous peoples, who were primarily hunter-gatherers and show evidence of a unicorn-like creature in their oral history (Hunt) – likely derived from the ibex. The social characteristics ascribed to the unicorn are very similar to the herd characteristics of the ibex: gender specific groupings except when breeding, and a fierce regard for their young. When viewed in profile or artistically represented in profile, the ibex could also be taken as a unicorn, given the sprightly body and distinctive horn. Driven almost to extinction by the nineteenth century, the ibex has been successfully reintroduced to its native habitat, with a current population estimated at somewhere upwards of 20,000 (iucnredlist.org). While the ibex population has stabilized, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) notes that conservation is necessary to ensure the species does not again become endangered.

The narwhal, on the other hand, is a marine animal and nearly as elusive as the unicorn. Indeed, it is often known as the Monoceros or Unicorn Whale, owing to the single, spiraling canine which extends from their upper left jaw which reach up to ten feet in length. Long thought to have crowned the middle of their brow, this tooth is most commonly referred to as a horn, although it is not, strictly speaking, one. Medium sized whales, they are migratory in nature, and have high site fidelity, which can be problematic given the trespassing of modern industry on territories. The current narwhal population is estimated at somewhere around 80,000 worldwide, with a likelihood of qualifying for endangered species status within the next five years (iucnredlist.org) if current trends of hunting, industrial activities, and climate change continue. While the narwhal has historically been hunted by the Inuit for its blubber, ivory and as a food source, it is currently largely sought out for the horn as a source of ivory by hunters in native communities, Canada and Greenland.

Narwhal horns were likely first introduced to Western Europe in the early twelfth century, although there is evidence that some few horns had made their way to the Roman Empire as early as 200 CE. They came primarily from Norsemen who hunted the waters around Greenland, where the narwhal often teemed during the summer months. In most cases, however, it is likely that narwhal horns came from native Inuit people (Pluskowski), as narwhal hunting was a dangerous task.

The twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Western Europe provided a fertile market for the narwhal horn, given its extreme rarity.. Marketed as originating from a unicorn, it was much prized by the wealthy, the Church, and the aristocracy for its medical properties: particularly its efficacy in preventing poison and working as a cure-all for a wide variety of ills. Hildegard of Bingen, a noted scholar and theologian of the day, notes the horn’s powers, upon which her contemporaries agree (Gotfredsen). Belief in the medicinal properties of the narwhal-as-unicorn horn persisted even until the eighteenth century, finally relegated to the realm of old wives’ tales with the rise of science and advent of modern medicine.

So prized were these horns that bits were used as medication – in the case of Martin Luther, as he lay dying, ground unicorn horn was administered (Gotfredsen). Horns were also used in part to decorate over eating areas, known for their efficacy against poison, or otherwise used as a raw material, as demonstrated by collection of Charles the Bold, the last reigning duke of Burgundy (1433-1477). His collection included several whole unicorn horns, as well as a small pieta carved from unicorn horn and a sword of which the scabbard, hilt, and pommel were adorned with narwhal tusk (Pluskowski). In all cases, the narwhal horn was valued for its magical qualities and association with the unicorn.

Conclusion

Unicorns bridge the divide between the physical and spiritual realms. Their form is realistic enough, and well documented enough in Western history to have granted them a lasting place in our collective mythos. While they do not exist in a corporeal sense, artifacts – like the narwhal horn – have been harvested and appropriated as originating from the unicorn, thus perpetuating the myth with physical proof. Furthermore, these otherworldly creatures have frequently been linked with divinity, especially with the virgin-as-Mary and unicorn-as-Christ allegory which manifested in Western Europe and persisted through the fifteenth century (Gotfredsen). To touch a unicorn horn was to touch God, and to possess one was indicative of the favor of Heaven. Thus, through story and belief, the narwhal tusk transcended its humble origins as the extended canine of an arctic whale, gaining pride-of-place as an artifact of legendary qualities.

Works Cited

“Capra Ibex.” iucnredlist.org. International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2012. Web. 03 Mar. 2013. <http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/42397/0>.

Gotfredsen, Lise. The Unicorn. New York: Abbeville, 1999. Print.

Hunt, David. “The Association of the Lady and the Unicorn, and the Hunting Mythology of the Caucasus.” Folklore 114.1 (2003): 75-90. Print.

Lavers, Chris. The Natural History of Unicorns. New York: William Morrow, 2009. Print.

“Monodon Monoceros.” iucnredlist.org. International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2012. Web. 03 Mar. 2013. <http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/13704/0>.

Pluskowski, Aleksander. “Narwhals or Unicorns? Exotic Animals as Material Culture in Medieval Europe.” European Journal of Archaeology 7.3 (2004): 291-313. Print

Shepard, Odell. Lore of the Unicorn. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1930. Print.

Just Keep Spin, Spin, Spinning: Queering Spinoza

Queerness, School, Spirituality and Religion 1 Response »

Mar 202013

A Treatise on Love

We are all manifestations of God’s love. This was Spinoza’s operating principle, and with this, he articulated a thread of commonality that is complimentary to the primary virtue of queer theory, which values every person’s experience, no matter how different they are. In this paper, I will briefly explore the ways in which Spinoza’s philosophy of love can be practically applied through the lens of queer theory.

Spinoza’s Philosophy of Self and God

According to Spinoza, God was the substance of all things. Rather than being a separate, personified deity with concrete beginnings and endings, God was that from which all things – rocks, trees, stars, bodies and minds – are created. In Spinoza’s vocabulary, nature was synonymous with God, and we are all ongoing, active extensions of God’s will. The only differences are external; at base, we are all the same substance. We are all made of God.

Spinoza’s take on the reading of holy books – particularly the Bible – was forward thinking for his time. Rather than treating this text as the literal and direct word of God, he felt that the Bible should be treated as a metaphorical theological work, to be read for the lessons it imparts – like Aesop’s Fables and other moral stories. To treat the Bible as a factual, scientific book is a mistake. In his work the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670), he echoes the sentiments of the ancient Grecian philosopher Xenophanes who said that if animals were possessed of logic they would cast the gods in their own image. Spinoza noted that the ancient prophets likewise created God to their understanding: “God has no particular style when speaking, but according to the learning and capacity of the prophet he is cultivated, compressed, severe, untutored, prolix, or obscure” (E I. 31, in Kenny 64).

However, this lack of understanding about the true nature of God – a mystery which the human mind cannot truly divine, according to Spinoza – does not keep the prophets from serving their purpose. That purpose is the transmission of the will of God, which is “to love God above all things and one’s neighbour as oneself – [that] is the true religion…” (Kenny 65). This held true for all other religions, as well – the message, finally, was to love everyone.

Queer Theory: The Myth of Normalcy

However, what does loving everyone look like in the real world? When we move beyond the fuzzy notion of countrywide group hugs and media messages to “be excellent to each other,” the application of this becomes more difficult, particularly because everyone has a different idea of what being excellent means. This difficulty is compounded by the myth of normalcy. The myth of normalcy creates this idea that there is some sort of mediocre standard to which we should all conform. Failure on part of an individual or group to conform to normative standards is often met with resistance, misunderstanding, or, sometimes, violence. In almost every case, the more visibly non-normative a person or group is, the more they are pressured to conform to normative standards, and shamed for their failure to do so.

In taking a closer look at normative standards, we can observe that they are always in flux. What is normal here and now may not be in another place or time. Gender roles, attitudes towards dress, what kind of sex is acceptable, drug use, religious practices, property rights, the rights of children and women and minorities are constantly shifting. Music that was popular sixty years ago may be considered antiquated by some people now, and in that same sixty years in the United States we have witnessed momentous steps forward in civil rights.

Nobody is one hundred percent normal, not the white, cisgendered, heterosexual stay-at-home housewife, nor her children, nor her high earning professional husband. Whether it is that she enjoys using power tools or that he has no hesitation in playing at teatime with his daughter and does not feel emasculated in doing so, they have both deviated from normative standards of their gendered roles. While they may never identify themselves or their behaviors as non-normative, such deviances from normative standards are queer acts.

These acts are queer not because of the identities of the individuals concerned but because of the fact that the acts themselves deviate from the idea of normal. In Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography, David Halperin elaborates: “Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant. There is nothing in particular to which it necessarily refers. It is an identity without an essence. ‘Queer’ then, demarcates not a positivity but a positionality vis-à-vis the normative” (62). The only thing required for queerness, then, is to be different.

Queer Ethics: Practical Applications of Love

Acknowledging the fact that we are all different brings us to an interesting conundrum. If I am not the same as you, the cashier in the store or the pop-music superstar gracing the cover of the tabloid as I wait in line for my groceries or the other people in line with me, how can we possibly understand one another? If I know that we are all different from one another, where do we find common points to create community, much less follow Spinoza’s philosophy to love each other?

In reality, of course, we have common points; in the case above, we are all shopping at the same store, and are all, to lesser or greater degrees, products of a capitalist, Western, consumerist, post-colonial society. Most importantly, we are all human. In spite of all our differences, the baseline of our shared humanity is a critical common thread uniting us all. In Queer Theories, Donald Hall notes that “it is possible to use strategic notions of interpersonal responsibility to achieve and even further a measure of health and well-being among disparate and diverse groups of people without locking ourselves into narrow and traditional forms of ‘morality’” (146). We can engage in and create communal systems for the welfare of all people while refraining from casting judgment on people who are different from us.

In order to do so, we need to step away from our own spheres of what is familiar and release our fear of those who are different. It means we must take responsibility for our own actions, “complicating one’s activities by recognizing one’s interpersonal ties” (Hall, 146). This means moving away from a dog-eat-dog world where every man is for himself. In acknowledging that we are here for one another, that we exist in a pluralistic, diverse world, and that it is incumbent upon us, as human beings to take responsibility for our actions, and refrain from judging those we perceive as different. By acknowledging that through interpersonal responsibility, we work towards creating a space where all people can simultaneously occupy their humanity and their difference without fear of recrimination.

Works Cited

Hall, Donald E. Queer Theories. Houndsmills, Basinstroke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Print.

Halperin, David M. Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography. New York: Oxford UP, 1995. Print.

Kenny, Anthony. The Rise of Modern Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.

And instead, I write about unicorns.

The Journey 2 Responses »

Feb 222013

I like unicorns.

Who doesn’t? They’re magical, their horns possess healing powers, and they poop rainbows. What could possibly be wrong with unicorns?

I can even tell you about the first documented case of the unicorn myth for Western minds (Ctesias of Cnidus, 398 BCE), how it came to stand as a symbol of purity, and elaborate on virgin-as-Mary and the unicorn-as-Jesus iconography. While I’m not a unicornologist, I’ve written a paper (or three) on them, and find myself writing more and more papers on these mythological creatures.

And I suppose that’s kind of neat.

But I’ll tell you what: when I get out of my undergrad program, instead of having a strong in-class guided educational tour of religion from a queer theology perspective, instead of being able to talk from in-class experience about the critical intersections of non-normative identity and faith, I’ll be able to tell you about unicorns. Because I can’t bring my full self to school, and it’s starting to gall me more than a little.

Why can I not have these critical dialogues? Because I have an advisor that doesn’t advise and has, in fact, compared me to a radical conservative Christian and said that I would not be fit for the M.Div program. Because at every turn the administration shuts down queer dialogues. Because they are silencing of spiritual, sex-positive, queer-positive, and kink-positive dialogues. Because if you ignore marginal identities, in good old Catholic fashion, eventually they will give up and go away, or be so silenced as to no longer be a problem.

So instead, I’m writing about unicorns. Because I’m a senior, because I don’t know ofany university where I can do this – in an undergrad program – that wouldn’t involve me picking up and moving, which I don’t want to do. Because I’m not sure that the malarkey of transferring schools is worth it, and because, sometimes, there are allies – at least on the queer identity, though they may not even know where to start.

I don’t need anyone to come along and fix this for me, but I do need to get it out of my head so I can think about it and what it means. I’m not bringing most – or even a significant part of myself – to school at this point. I’m ducking and getting through, and that’s kind of fucked up. And because of this, I’m pretty checked out: just going through the motions somewhere out on the fringe, writing about unicorns and getting through the day.

Intentionality and Appropriation

School, Spirituality and Religion 1 Response »

Apr 102012

I originally wrote this as a post for a class I am taking about Native American religious and spiritual practices. A component of this class includes an expectation that students experientially engage in individual rituals to deepen their understanding.

I’ll start by saying that I’m probably the person that gets pegged as “PC-er than thou” more often than not; I believe strongly in the power of words and that their usage, no matter the intent, can reify a negative paradigm or dominant structure when utilized by people who have no ownership of the term as a way of organizing their identity (e.g. people using pejoratives like gay or retarded to describe something as sub par.) And it’s that ownership thing that I’m struggling with in process to this class. I don’t have any ownership of Native American spirituality or identity.

Therefore, taking this class to enrich my intellectual, spiritual, emotional/empathic understanding of people of Native American identity or experience is important and relevant – both from a personal standpoint and, ultimately, professionally. However, the piece that I’m working on is the co-opting piece: experientially engaging in Native American spiritual practices, as they do not have the cultural, historical and personal significance to me that they would someone raised in that identity. I am especially cautious around co-opting or appropriating practices from traditionally oppressed cultures.

My privilege of being a Catholic-raised white man is that I do not get assumptions thrown at me on the basis of my skin color or gender or religious/spiritual upbringing, unless they are generally positive. Appropriating the practices of an oppressed culture is not understanding; it is often tokenizing, an eroticization of the “exotic” and discarding of a larger understanding of the complex issues, judgements and consequences of being perceived or identifying with an oppressed identity.

While this most certainly does not mean that I feel that I (or any other person) should remain in identity-exclusive spaces (much to the contrary!) it does make me cautious about approaching matters of such deep personal significance as spirituality and religion. This past Saturday, I went to a Seder for the first time in my life, and enjoyed it immensely. Through six hours, four cups of wine and more tasty vegan and gluten free food options any Portlander could shake a stick at, I was blessed to witness and participate in a ritual which was equal parts community building, laughter, religion, and testament to the importance of social activism.

On the way home, a friend and I briefly touched on the subject of appropriation. They mentioned that they, as Jewish person, had a rosary, and wondered, half-seriously, if that meant they had to get rid of it. I responded that would mean that I would have to get rid of my Buddha statues. And I think that’s the correct answer – for me, in this case. However, the issue becomes more complex when dealing with a people whose identities and ways of life have been fundamentally oppressed. I don’t know that I would be comfortable owning, for example, a dream catcher without putting some very intentional thought into why I felt I needed it and what significance, if any, it held in my spiritual practice.

There’s certainly more to say about the issue, but I’m curious on your take – how do you feel about entering into and engaging in the spiritual practices of traditions other than your own? How do you best do it in a mindful and intentional way? What are your thoughts on appropriation?

Where We Find Ourselves

The Journey No Responses »

Feb 102012

I’m packing to move – again – (this is a life ever on the move, it seems, nomadic in so many ways) and as I put my books in milkcrates borrowed from a friend, I keep a small stack aside. I’m assembling the list of books that I own that have shaped my understanding of open relationships. Essays, chapbooks, sex books from the sixties, stuff by Carol Queen and Pat Califia and Tristan Taormino; a bibliography of polyamory. It’s a nice little stack, although the titles, I think are not ones which generally grace the bibliography of an academic paper.

But then, it’s not often that I write about the deeply personal parts of my identity in an academic paper. I’m used to being the representative queer trans guy, and that’s fine, and I attempt to approach my papers from a queer perspective whenever possible. But the poly stuff: that’s deeper into my identity, personal in a way that talking about gender isn’t. And it concerns other people; the people I relate to or have some kind of intimate relationship with, however casual it may be.

So I get cagey around talking about this in an academic setting. I’m already the queer queer; that nerdy, slightly awkward guy that people sometimes slip pronouns on. I’m weird, but in the bounds of normal. Unless I start talking my love life and all that attaches to that… so I don’t. And that’s okay – in fact, that’s great, because I don’t want to have to explain that the way I do open relationships is not representative of the ways everyone else does open relationships, and that yes, I’m single, but that doesn’t mean I don’t see people and that they don’t mean something to me.

But however a person seeks to cover parts of their identity, it will come up in funny ways. This term, it’s through this class where I write about my life experience and tie it to academic theory for college credit. I could write my papers divulging this about myself, but it would be leaving a big chunk of my identity in the cold and a large bit of my personal experience.

And it would be a lie. I would be silencing myself out of shame for what other people might think about me. So I’m writing about practicing open relationships because this is my truth, and as I manifest myself into the person I want to be, it is a person that is not ashamed of who they are.

Which got me to thinking, as I pulled these books from my shelf to prove I’d done some reading (as that is how we prove we know things in academia) about polyamory – it got me to thinking about the ways in which us non-normative folk see ourselves reflected. Because this part of my identity certainly isn’t in the mainstream consciousness as anything but perverse… but my first exposure to non-monogamous relationships wasn’t through this stack of academic books and essays. It was in fantasy and science fiction. Mercedes Lackey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Guy Gavriel Kay were my teachers, hinting at ways to live and love outside of a monogamous pairing, and how to do it with honor, consideration and compassion. It was in fantasy that I first saw my role models for my reality.

Queerly Allied

School, The Journey No Responses »

Jan 122012

Have you ever been in the situation where your identity makes you the automatic authority on all things related to that facet of yourself? It’s something I experience fairly often at school, as the resident openly queer queer. I’m certainly not the only one there, but the on-campus presence is small enough that I am often the most vocally (and arguably radically in certain aspects) queer-identified individual present. Between that and a belief in enacting the change I want to see in the world, this means that I can’t let myself bitch about the lack of infrastructure for support of queer people and let it go at that. I’ve got to do something about it.

And it’s not because my school is not accepting and welcoming; that is far from the case. There are more non-gendered single occupancy bathrooms on campus than you can shake a stick at — and if you think this is unrelated, just consider what it’s like to go into a public bathroom as a transgendered person in fear of assault from people policing your gender when all you want to do is pee in peace. The university, while being Catholic, is also progressive, rooted in social justice, dialogue and active acceptance of a diversity of perspectives.

The problem is that none of this is explicitly stated where queer people are concerned. There exists support for students with disabilities, veterans, returning students, older students — there is a food pantry, a prior learning program, ESL integration, and the list goes on — but nothing for queer students. Nothing.

Now, this is not unusual for a university of this size, especially considering that it is a non-residential private university with religious roots whose primary student population is over the age of thirty and often resides at distance. In fact, one of the ways in which the school I go to is unique is that it does not bar or place restrictions on an LGBTQ Alliance. There is, in fact, an officially recognized – but presently inactive – LGBTQ Alliance in existence at the school. So the difficulty lies more in the fact that not enough students have consistently voiced a need for actively queer-accepting support and resources or that perhaps no one has assembled a tool kit of existing community resources and made them available to the student population at large.

In early October, I showed up to the first student governance meeting. While I’m sure that there were other queer-identified people there, I was the most vocal about making sure queer perspectives were included. By virtue of that fact, I became the Resident Queer Activist almost by default. I’ve spent the intervening time between now and then looking at the areas that the university could offer support and considering what that would look like. There is definitely room for positive change – and the good thing is that it seems that the student population is interested in helping make it happen.

Today, I spent the afternoon being a professional homo (in the I’m volunteering my time sense) at a Club Rush event for my school. It was pretty epic, as we were without power for the first half of the event, and only got lights back as it was too dark to see and we were ready to pack it up. I saw two students who were unaffiliated with any clubs during the entire time, but both of them were interested in the as yet non-existent LGBTQ Alliance Club.

Even with such a light turnout, I am actually cautiously optimistic about the club – or at least creating *some* sort of infrastructure that is explicitly welcoming and supportive of queer students. There were some fabulous activist-minded folks affiliated with other groups and the Student Leadership Council, and there is definitely room to build something that will be self-sustaining as a resource for queer students – and, possibly just as importantly, the communities and families from which they come.

Every person who came by my table had a story to tell: a relative who was transitioning despite a desperately conservative and deeply religious family; a gay daughter expecting her first child; friends, cousins and siblings who were queer. Every person who came by the table today identified as an ally, and every person evidenced a desire for the presence of a club or something queer-focused so that they would have a safe space to learn and help create positive social change. And while the queers were not out in force today, they have responded via an interests survey. It is clear to me that there is a need for something to serve not just the queer population at my school but also our allies – something which is inclusive, and provides a space for education, dialogue, and support.

In fact, it may be our allies who need this resource the most: people whose children have just come out, or whose co-worker is in transition. While not queer themselves, these are people who still experience an identity shift; they have to change the way they think about a person, and it may bring up issues around religion, politics and morality. There’s a lot of change that happens when a person that comes out of the closet, and a lot of it happens in the community in which the person lives. Their friends, acquaintances and loved ones have to learn new ways to think about the world.

Where, though, exists the safe space for people to learn about what a queer or transgendered identity means? The university is a natural choice; it is a place of learning which welcomes a diversity of experience and works to foster positive social change through dialogue and mutual respect. The university has the potential to provide space to learn in a safe way that doesn’t involve finding the nearest gay friend and asking them potentially inappropriate or disrespectful questions. Given the unique considerations of my school, queer visibility and support is crucial not just for the LGBTQ populations but for their allies as well.

A Brief Analysis of Feminine Expression in the World of the Belgariad

Gender, School No Responses »

Nov 092011

Born in Spokane, Washington in 1931, David Eddings was an author most noted for his work in the fantasy genre. The work he is perhaps most known for is an epic fantasy twelve books in length. This epic is comprised of two five-book series, the Belgariad and Malloreon, and two prequels, Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress. The two series detail a rather formulaic high fantasy arc wherein the primary protagonist and his unlikely companions undertake a quest to save the world from a fate worse than death. There are princesses, nations at war, magic, peril, prophecies and intrigue. In the end, the hero, against unspeakable odds, saves the world from the brink of destruction.

So what makes this any different from any other post-Tolkien fantasy tale? When Eddings first pitched the idea of the series to Ballantine Books in the early eighties, strong female characters in fantasy were almost non-existent. They existed as accessories to the hero; pristine ivory tower beings who were decorations and trophies to be won. The other most common manifestation of females was that of the female Conan; a mightily muscled, bronze-bikini clad Amazonian terror as monosyllabic as her male counterpart and completely sexless. As Eddings notes in a 1994 interview by Stan Nicholls for Interzone Magazine, “part of Tolkien’s heritage is a certain prudishness. With one or two possible exceptions there aren’t any female hobbits, and his heroines end at the neck; you have the beautiful hair and eyes but that’s about it.”

Eddings sought to change that. His work is notable for a certain grittiness that is lacking in many earlier fantasy novels; characters have a need to eat, they get saddle sore and stink after a week on the road. Likewise, Eddings worked to create memorable female characters who were integral to the plot. In the interview with Stan Nicholls, he goes on:

I’m having a great deal of fun pushing against those boundaries of prissiness and inserting an erotic element into my work.

This ties in with recognizing the fact, and disliking the fact, that people in America are absolutely convinced the melody for Greensleeves is a Christmas hymn. It was composed in praise of a prostitute, of course. Come on, I’ve read Chaucer, I know there were prostitutes in the Middle Ages. And if I’m dealing realistically with the Middle Ages I’m going to have to have pickpockets, I’m going to have to have thieves, and I’m going to have to have prostitutes. I think the third character who appears in the Elenium is a prostitute, a little streetwalker being rained on. I introduced her to establish that it’s a real world, and to establish that, despite its preconceptions theologically, medieval society had probably at least as many prostitutes as it had knights whose strength was as the strength of ten because their hearts were pure.

While the Elenium is placed in a universe different from that of the Belgariad and Malloreon, Eddings’ desire to accent the reality of his fantasy settings holds true. In the universe of the Belgariad, a number of strong female characters hold key positions in the development of the plot. Notable among these are the protagonist’s Aunt Polgara, a sorceress who lives for thousands of years and who has a direct hand in his raising. The protagonist’s wife figures no less prominently, maturing from a spoiled imperial princess into a fiery leader who successfully raises a vast army to battle the forces of evil.

However, while these female characters provide a strong female presence within the epic fantasy genre, the do it from purely within the bailiwick of feminine identity. Polgara’s highest goal is to get married and have children, and likewise for Ce’Nedra, the protagonist’s wife. Never, in the scope of twelve books, are Ce’Nedra or Polgara to be found in men’s clothing. The only exception to this rule is when Polgara adopts the national female dress of the enemy when engaging in an act of subterfuge: close-fitting black leather pants, boots and vest, the garb of which is described as anything but mannish. In adopting the national dress of the Nadraks, Polgara still conforms to the cultural norms of femininity by acting in a way which is in keeping with the dominant social expectations of how a woman should act and dress.

While the series’ primary female characters reflect normative cultural values, some of the supporting characters reveal insight into a world which is more complex than the monogamous beliefs prorogated by the main storyline. One such character is Bethra, a beautiful and accomplished courtesan. She appears three times in the series for less than a dozen pages total. In sheer numerical significance, such a character is hardly worth mentioning when the series itself spans over three thousand pages. However, the very inclusion of a sex worker who operates openly at the highest levels of society – and includes among her clients the Imperial Emperor of Tolnedra, the country in which she resides – suggests a culture in which casual sexual relations may be more acceptable than the primary female characters of Polgara and Ce’Nedra may first indicate. Bethra’s secondary profession as a broker of information and sometime spy further reinforces this; while she is, by her own admittance in Guardians of the West, “[m]ost definitely not a lady,” (187) she is nevertheless a woman of great complexity who operates with grace outside the boundaries of normative feminine roles.

Another such character is that of Liselle, a young lady whose primary occupation is espionage. She makes her appearance in the second series, the Malloreon, and becomes a member of the protagonist’s party on his quest to save the world. Her previous sexual exploits are never explicitly mentioned, but it can be inferred that she has engaged in premarital sex as she successfully seduces another member of the party – an inveterate bachelor – and ultimately weds him. Liselle, as one of the questers out to avert evil, shows perhaps the greatest breadth of non-normative behavior without ever having her femininity called into question or become irrelevant. Through the course of the Malloreon, Liselle is crucified, traverses sewers, kills several men and works as her country’s most secret covert operative, never sacrificing the ability to look stunning in a dress of lavender satin.

It is worth noting that the one documented occasion when she puts on pants is in the direst of circumstances. On the morning of the confrontation between good and evil, Liselle is described in The Seeress of Kell: she “had shocked them all when she entered the cabin a half hour earlier. She wore tight-fitting leather clothing…. it was peculiarly masculine garb and bleakly businesslike” (246). It is noted in the text that her dress is similar to female Nadrak costume. However, when Nadrak women or costume is mentioned, it is always with a qualifier that such clothing serves to emphasize a woman’s physical attributes. In this case, Liselle’s clothing is specifically noted to be both masculine and businesslike, implying function over form. It is only in preparation for the final battle that Liselle’s identity as a woman is superseded by her avocation as assassin. The only time where Liselle’s femininity ceases to be a factor is on the day the world might end, in which case such identifiers become largely superfluous.

When considered in the context of the fantasy genre as it was in the early eighties, Eddings’ work in the world of the Belgariad did a great deal to lay the framework for a wider breadth of female characters. However, when considered against contemporaries such as Marion Zimmer Bradley and Guy Gavriel Kay, Eddings could have gone a great deal further without sacrificing the story. Where Marion Zimmer Bradley was exploring the politics of feminist identity and same-sex love in a patriarchal feudal fantasy setting, David Eddings never once acknowledged the possibility of anything other than heterosexual love, however tacitly. Guy Gavriel Kay’s books brim with complex characters, including feminine-expressing men who are portrayed as intelligent and powerful. In the world of the Belgariad, feminine-expressing men only manifest as eunuchs, and are considered to be grotesque, scheming, and petty. In Eddings’ work, any man who gives up his masculine privilege is quite literally emasculated. Thus emasculated, such a person becomes a parody of femininity, no longer worthy of trust and only earning our pity and scorn.

While Eddings did, to some degree, move away from Tolkien’s legacy of prudishness, he did not escape it altogether, nor as thoroughly as he may have hoped. The world of the Belgariad is one with very strong ideas about gender appropriate ideas and expressions. Women always act in accordance with the social expectations of their gender to a greater or lesser degree. Similarly, men perform likewise, and those who do not become creatures of derision to the world at large. Ultimately, the world of the Belgariad is a binary one which falls short of Eddings’ goal. His female characters may not end “at the neck” but they do not, for the most part go more than skin deep.

Bibliography

Eddings, David. Guardians of the West. New York: Random House, 1987. Print.

—. The Seeress of Kell. New York: Random House, 1991. Print.

Nicholls, Stan. “Prime U.S. Beef: An Interview with David Eddings.” Interzone. Interzone Magazine, July 1994. Web. 06 August 2011.

~~~~

This paper was originally written for Intro to Queer Studies, taught by Mike Randolph at Marylhurst University, Fall Term 2011.

Passing (How It Looks Right Now)

Gender No Responses »

Oct 262011

Today, self care looks like taking an hour out of a day which is already very long to make space for myself. Job one is done for the day, and school finished, and now I’m fixing a good hot meal so I have something more than almonds, caffeine and adrenaline running through myself. The other part of that is to take a moment and reflect on what passing means right now, what it meant five minutes ago, and five minutes before that.

In one of my classes, I pass as a guy – queer, certainly, but cisgendered, no questions asked. I apparently also pass as christian, which made for an interesting conversation when a classmate mentioned an organization they worked with was looking for someone to run a Christ-focused men’s support group. My faith practice, as it is, is loosely spiritual, and not Christ-centric – nor deific in any sense. The dialogue between spirituality and religion and faith is an ongoing one, especially at a Catholic university.

The day progressed, as it is wont to do, and I traded this informal setting for a large formal one: a student governance meeting where I acted in the role of online student advocate for the day. Whether it was the fact that I wore more form-fitting clothing than I usually do – a cute argyle sweater which I think screams gay (male) geek – or the fact that I was in a supporting (albeit vocal) administrative position, I corrected people on pronouns more there than I have in quite some while. It wasn’t an issue, as I would say “I’m not a girl” and generally get an apology, but I still find myself reflecting on the ways in which I “failed” at passing, and what I could do to fix that. It was, however, interesting to note the percentage of people I perceived to be non-normative who showed up to the student governance meeting in contrast to what I would observe to be the overall percentage of the student population; it was certainly higher.

Following the student governance meeting, I transitioned (pun intended) directly to my queer studies class, two doors over. My university is Catholic, but it is also progressive and liberal, so there is a queer studies class – although the university is small enough that there is only one queer class offered per academic year, and that at an undergrad level. From the first day, I was out as trans, having been referred to by feminine pronouns by the one other queer student in the class right off the bat. While my gender identity – nor my “coming out story” – was not something I’d planned on bringing up right away, that incident informed my approach, even though I generally pass as male in all my other classes.

Conversation in class today was around gender and what it looks like – the performativity of gender (ah, Butler) and whether there is an essential “self” (Nessbaum and so on). Our professor asked us to list some ways in which we performed gender, and breathing came in at the top of my list. It’s either this – performing a gender with each breath, with many thoughts, with a great deal of intention – or not being here. But what it looks like from moment to moment, the way I inhabit my gender or my body or my self can change radically depending on the context.

Sustainability: Little Actions, Big Change

School No Responses »

Aug 222011

Introduction

As an American living in the green-conscious city of Portland, OR, I see the words “sustainable”, “green” and “eco friendly” perhaps dozens of times when I go shopping at my locally owned grocery store. But are products wrapped in excess packaging which have traveled possibly thousands of miles from their point of origin where they were mass produced in a large industrial facility really sustainable, green, or eco-friendly? What about products which are grown locally but which may not be organic? While recycling is great, wouldn’t it be better to eliminate the need to recycle in the first place by getting rid of the need for disposable containers? Can a person live a truly sustainable lifestyle while still being an active member of a consumerist society? In this paper, I shall discuss the concept of sustainability as a holistic approach, encompassing all aspects of life: social, economic and ecological by considering the city of Portland, Oregon as a model for sustainable development.

What is Sustainability?

So what does sustainability mean? Some part of the definition can be found in popular slogans like “reduce, reuse and recycle” and “think globally, act locally.” But is it just a matter of recycling and buying things with post-consumer recycled content in the packaging? Callum Hill illustrates in An Introduction to Sustainable Resource Use: “Using a natural fibre-reinforced polymer in a car makes almost no difference to the environmental impact associated with its manufacture. However the use of natural fibre-reinforced composites may make us feel a little less guilty when we purchase the car” (188). While some parts of a product may be environmentally conscious, if all parts of the process are not equally conscious, the overall result may be negligible. As a word, sustainability evokes ideas of longevity and wisely managed usage. In a sustainable system, usage of any given product never exceeds its healthy output; in other words, nothing is used to exhaustion or driven to extinction.

When applied to the aggregate of this earth and everything on it, sustainability encompasses every aspect of life, not just ecological concerns. Hill elaborates:

In 1974, the World Council of Churches held a conference on the subject of the use of science and technology for human development, at which they proposed a definition of a sustainable human society and examined what sustainability meant (Dresner, 2008). The key issues were:

There should be an equitable distribution of physical resources between all the peoples of the planet.
All people should have the opportunity to participate in social decisions.
The global capacity to supply food should exceed demand.
Emissions of pollutants should not exceed the carrying capacities of ecosystems.
The use of non-renewable resources should never exceed the increase in availability due to technological innovation.
Human activities should not be negatively influenced by variations in global climate.

These show the necessity for human development and human concerns as an essential component in any definitions of sustainability. Without addressing these human needs, environmental concerns were seen as a luxury (3).

The goals of sustainability are first and foremost focused on the betterment of humanity as a whole. Ecological concerns aside, sustainability means improving the quality of life for every person now while also providing for generations to come. But how do we do that in a consumerist society? It is unlikely that rich people will give up their wealth or that we shall all suddenly wake up tomorrow and find that all debt has been erased, all people have enough to eat and all have access to equal education. How do the lofty ideals of a sustainable world translate to a capitalist framework?

Business Practices: Triple Bottom Line

Traditional business practices in a capitalist framework focus exclusively on profit as the bottom line. This means that manufacturers attempt to create or source products in the least expensive way possible and sell them for the greatest profit, often with little or no concern for the quality of the items, the probable harm of the processes themselves, or the welfare of the workers who manufacture the products. Businesses are encouraged to exploit every possible angle, which can be detrimental in the long term, leading to possible exhaustion of available resources, labor pools and the resultant loss of profit.

A sustainable business may adopt a triple bottom line. Instead of profit as its sole goal, the focus is broadened to three equally important facets: people, profit and planet. In this model, businesses look for the welfare of not only themselves, but to the betterment of all facets of the process. Ensuring that employees have fair wages and access to health care and education assistant programs, the business invests in a workforce who becomes motivated, loyal, happier and more productive. In taking care that the processes which produce the product are not detrimental to the planet, businesses make certain that the resources of which the products are comprised will be available over the long term. By investing in the people and the planet, businesses invest in their continued success as a profitable enterprise.

Sustainable Living: Keeping Portland Green

The city of Portland, OR provides a concrete example of the ways in which sustainable ideals can be constructively harnessed in a capitalist framework to improve the quality of life for all citizens. Even with a struggling economy, Portland remains a destination city for people who want to live a more ecologically friendly lifestyle. Where the sprawl of car-centered American culture has strung cities out into endless suburbs, strip malls and housing developments, the city government has made it a priority to reclaim Portland from the cars and instead focus it on the people who live there. Under the auspices of the Climate Action Plan, which originated in 1993, the city plans on eliminating eighty percent of greenhouse emissions by the year 2050.

The solution to this ambitious goal will be reached through a variety of approaches. As of the 2009 Climate Action Plan, it is worth noting that although the population of Portland had increased by thirty percent, emissions had already been reduced to one percent below 1990 levels (Climate Action Plan, 7). Some of the other current results of this project include: the highest concentration of LEED certified buildings in the US per capita; highest hybrid vehicle ownership; mass transit ridership up eighty-five percent, bike commuter numbers quadrupled and vehicle total miles traveled down seven percent since 1990, resulting in a thirteen percent reduction of gasoline sales per capita (Deisner). There are eight areas that the Climate Action Plan targets. The first area is that of buildings and the energy they produce. Goals include reducing building energy use, encouraging buildings to produce more on-site renewable energy, and creating and retrofitting buildings which can adapt to a changing climate. To this end, one of the programs initiated was Clean Energy Works, which provides low cost financing for home energy efficiency upgrades. The pilot program retrofitted 500 homes, and when successful, was adopted as a state program with a 26M dollar revolving loan fund. As a result of this program, 1,300 metric tons of CO₂ have been saved, or the equivalent of emissions from 3,023 barrels of oil. Loans from the program are paid back via the utility bill, making the program accessible for all home owners and ensuring maximum loan repayment success.

The second area is urban form and mobility. As mentioned earlier, most American cities today are focused on cars instead of people, with wide streets, fast lanes and ample parking everywhere. The city of Portland is committed to giving the city back to the people, and has an objective of making certain that ninety percent of city residents can easily walk or bike within their neighborhood to meet all basic daily non-work needs, including businesses, shopping and entertainment. With this in mind, the city has plans in motion to increase the availability of mass transit. As of the writing of this paper, crews are even now laying track in the streets of Portland to extend the light rail out to the southern reaches of Portland by 2015. There are also plans to increase the streetcar system, and increase the city’s bike-friendliness. The city plans on making it safer for all people to bike, thereby increasing total ridership twenty-five percent by the year 2030. To do this, there will be fifteen more miles of greenways – or streets whose main traffic is bikes – created, the installation of more bike lanes, and bike parking made more readily accessible (Deisner).

Consumption and solid waste reduction comprise the third area targeted by the Climate Action Plan. Goals include: a reduction of total solid waste generated; an increase in the use of things which are re-usable, durable and repairable; and a reduction of materials that go to waste, including food. The city intends on recovering ninety percent of all the remaining waste generated, and to do it in a way which minimizes what will go to the landfill. A food scrap and composting program is currently being piloted in the Portland metro area, and should be rolled out city-wide by early 2012. This shall result in a marked reduction in landfill waste, and has been successfully implemented in other cities, including Seattle and San Francisco.

The fourth area of focus is that of urban forestry and natural systems. In addition to being aesthetically pleasant, trees are also very useful: their root system protects dirt from being leached away, and their large, shady boughs provide a measure of climate control, cooling the area in hot months, thereby cutting down on the need for energy expenditure with air conditioning and fans. One of the peculiarities of cities is that almost all of the ground area is non-permeable; that is, that water cannot pass through into the earth, as it is covered by pavement and buildings. The earth provides a natural filtering system, removing impurities from the water, but most water in an urban environment does not go through this process. Instead, it goes directly into the sewers. This excess water then causes the sewer to overflow into the river, polluting the existing ecosystem with human waste. The Climate Action Project is combating this by creating more permeable surfaces like eco-roofs, bioswells and introducing more trees to the urban environment. One of these initiatives is the “Tree Project”, a code project which removed barriers and plants trees in their place. Other actions include tree stewardship classes and the planting of 100,000 new trees and shrubs.

Closely tied to these environmental concerns is the fifth area of focus: that of food and agriculture. Decreasing carbon-intensive foods and increasing dependency on local food options will both be better for the environment and the local economy. Carbon intensive foods are those which have a high carbon-output as the result of the process from their raw state to finished food product. The most carbon intensive foods are red meats, with beef being the single largest culprit. The environmental cost involved in the production of each pound is notable – from the cost of the upkeep of the cow through its life, resultant slaughter and processing, transport to the grocery and ultimate destination with the consumer. Poultry and game meats are less carbon-intensive, with produce being the least carbon intensive products. Pre-packaged and highly processed goods also often have a very carbon-intensive output. Purchasing locally produced, minimally processed foods minimizes the carbon footprint of the food we eat. To facilitate this, the city has created 225 new community garden plots (Deisner), and is developing a zoning code project which addresses barriers to urban food production.

The sixth area of focus is that of community engagement, and finding ways to encourage people and businesses to change their behavior in ways that reduce carbon emissions. A non-traditional approach called community-based social marketing has made Portland successful in affecting sustainable measures. As illustrated in the case with the Clean Energy Works, by making projects accessible to the general population and focusing on the money a home owner might save, the ease of loan repayment and making the entire process as easy as possible, the end goal of carbon emissions is reached in a manner profitable to all involved. While educational messages of environmental stewardship are utilized, they are not the only approach. In Fostering Sustainable Behavior, Doug McKenzie-Mohr notes that “numerous studies document that education alone often has little or no effect upon sustainable behavior. As a consequence, programs that make use of information intensive approaches, such as bill-stuffers, flyers, and direct mail have very little likelihood of changing behavior” (McKenzie-Mohr 3).

Instead of harping on the environmental problems, the Climate Action Program focuses on concrete projects which create real change in improving the lives of the population. While lessening carbon emissions is the ultimate goal of the program, it is almost superfluous to the individuals who engage in the projects. Their first concern is their quality of life, and if they byproduct of this is a cleaner environment, then so much the better. Author Doug McKenzie-Mohr further explains the process behind community-based social marketing:

Community-based social marketing is an attractive alternative to information-intensive campaigns. In contrast to conventional approaches, community-based social marketing has been shown to be very effective at bringing about behavior change…. This approach involves: carefully selecting the behavior to be promoted; identifying the barriers and benefits associated with the selected behavior; designing a strategy that utilizes behavior-change tools to address these barriers and benefits; piloting the strategy with a small segment of a community; and, finally; evaluating the impact of the program once it has been implemented broadly (8).

Seventh of the areas of focus is that of climate change preparation. The climate is in a period of change which has been exacerbated by human waste output. Even if we stopped polluting waste practices right now, the climate would still change because of the damage that has already been done. In the area of Portland, it is probable that summers will become hotter and winters more temperate, resulting in more rain and less snow pack. There is likelihood that there will be an increase in severe storms and a higher risk of forest fires. It is unknown what the ultimate effects will be, so the city is addressing the issue with an eye to habitat restoration and flexibility. As noted in the foreword of An Introduction to Sustainable Resource Use, “human beings have proven to be amply capable of exploiting natural resource supplies while ignoring the finite nature of those resources, thus leading to a misplaced sense of security” (Goodell and Howe, vii). That security is misplaced, and needs to be disregarded so that we may effectively plan for unexpected future challenges. Finally, the eighth area of focus is that of local government operations. By reducing carbon emissions from city and county operations to fifty percent below 1990 levels and reducing solid waste production by seventy-five percent by 2030, the government will successfully demonstrate their expertise as a leading model of sustainable development.

As Hill notes, “human ingenuity is the most powerful tool we have at our disposal, but that ingenuity needs to be empowered with financial backing and the necessary conditions have to be created by governments to educate people with the appropriate skills and do encourage this entrepreneurship to flourish” (183). When the considerable resources of the existing governmental infrastructure are brought to bear on the issue of sustainability, real change can be made. The act of shifting from an exclusively profit-driven model to one of people, profit and planet results in the betterment of life for everyone.

Conclusion

Capitalist business practices which focus on profit to the exclusion of all else have proven detrimental to the earth and the human population. As our population continues to increase, it is more crucial than ever to integrate sustainable ideals into the existing capitalist framework. As shown in the example of Portland, Oregon, sustainable practices and profit are not mutually exclusive. By addressing social justice and ecological integrity, economic security is assured. In 2000, Governor John Kitzhaber of Oregon said: “Imagine, if you will, three overlapping circles: one representing economic needs, one representing environmental needs, and one representing community social needs. The area where the three circles overlap is the area of sustainability, the areas of livability – the area where the threads of quality of life come together. If we are to ‘have it all’ we must recognize that these three circles are not separate, unrelated entities” (Kheirabadi). It is our responsibility – to ourselves and to future generations – to ensure that we create the best world possible. And it is our actions which make the difference, each little action providing the basis for big change. Whether it is walking to work in the morning, composting, or buying locally grown products, each of these actions contributes to something greater. The more sustainable actions and ideals that we incorporate into our lives, our businesses and our society, the better the end result will be for us all.

Bibliography

Deisner, Kyle. Climate Action in Portland. Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. Marylhurst University, Portland, OR. 23 July 2011. Guest Lecture.

Goodell, Barry and Jeffrey Howe. Forword. An Introduction to Sustainable Resource Use. By Callum Hill. Washington DC: Earthscan, 2011. vi-vii. Print.

Hill, Callum. An Introduction to Sustainable Resource Use. Washington DC: Earthscan, 2011. Print.

Kheirabadi, Masoud. Sustainable Development: A Global Approach. Marylhurst University, Portland, OR. 22 July 11. Lecture.

McKenzie-Mohr, Doug. Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2011. Print.

“Climate Action Plan 2009.” Portlandonline.com. Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, City of Portland, OR, 2011. Web. 15 Aug 2011.

The World Bank. The World Bank Group, 2011. Web. 15 Aug 2011.

A Brief Examination of the MPAA’s Attitudes Toward Queer Sexuality

School 1 Response »

Feb 132011

The Motion Picture Association of America was founded forty-two years ago by its longtime head, Jack Valenti. Since then, the MPAA’s standards for rating sexuality in movies have not changed significantly. American cultural values, on the other hand, have shifted and subjects which were once verboten are now considered blasé. Violence is rampant in the media: we see it on the television, in the news, in video games and splashed large across two story screens to the rat-a-tat beat of semi-automatic guns in movie theatres. Human intimacy, on the other hand, is dealt with almost shamefully, in cut scenes and R or NC-17 ratings. Two individuals engaging in a consensual pleasurable act is considered pornographic whereas an action movie hero’s stunningly high body count as he shoots, strangles, and slices life from person after person with no apparent remorse is considered appropriate for most audiences. It is clear that bias exists on the part of the MPAA against displays of sexuality, and queer sexuality especially.

Consider the MPAA’s treatment of movies which include queer sexuality. As noted in Censuring the Censors, the documentary “This Film Is Not Yet Rated splits its screen to show similar sexual scenes, with gay ones on the left side, straight on the right…. Each time, the gay scenes received an NC-17 rating while the straight scenes got an R.” The MPAA is biased against displays of queer sexuality, which reinforces the antiquated notion that queer sexuality is shameful. Queer sexuality is therefore rarely even touched upon, and it is even rarer still that a movie about queer sexuality gets wide distribution and rave reviews. When was the last time you saw a feel-good boy-meets-boy movie with an all-star cast?

The MPAA’s primary concern appears to be how much money a given movie will bring in. As Richard Corliss says in Censuring the Censors:

All national film ratings systems are supposedly created to protect impressionable children from adult content. But the U.S. scheme differs from the ones in other countries in several major ways…. The U.S. system, founded in the mid-’60s, is controlled not by a government agency but by the very industry that manufactures the product — to be precise, by the six major studios that constitute the MPAA.

The MPAA is unique in that it is an advisory board which is not comprised of neutral outsiders but is instead controlled by those who are most intimately concerned with the outcome of the ratings – the major movie studios. The Motion Picture Association serve as gatekeepers to the American public; if film makers produce material which the MPAA considers especially objectionable, it is rated NC-17, which means that the movie will not be seen in most movie theatres, will not be advertised in newspapers and will be denied exposure to the American audience at large – thus denying the ability of film makers to make the same kind of profit they would if their film were rated R. Film makers know this, as do the producers who back them and whose bottom line is the profit a film turns.

When the MPAA was first founded in the 1960s, its primary goal was not to advise parents as to whether a movie was appropriate for their children or not. Instead, its focus was on the censorship boards which still existed in many cities across America. These censorship boards had the power to ban any media which they considered immoral, and the movie ratings system was imposed by the movie studios to give the censorship boards an idea of what kind of material the movies contained. Censorship boards no longer exist, yet the MPAA is still going strong. Since the original purpose of this organization is extinct, it is curious that the MPAA has not been taken over by an outside party but instead remains in the hands of the studios who are not so much concerned with whether a movie is appropriate for a given audience but with how much they can profit from its release.

Money is a driving force for the MPAA’s rating system, and the MPAA has determined that displays of sexuality would not garner them as large a profit as violence. Their initial categorization of queer sexuality as shameful has not changed notably since its foundation over forty years ago. In Valenti Defends the Movie Rating System, the MPAA’s founder Jack Valenti speaks to its definition of appropriate intimacy, saying the following:

When I designed the rating system in 1968, I retained two social scientists from different universities. I asked them to put to paper the precise demarcations between rating categories so we would have specific guidelines. For example, what is too much violence for each of the categories? Much as the Supreme Court to this hour cannot define “pornography,” these professors were unable to mark precisely where the lines should be drawn. Like Justice Potter Stewart’s musing about pornography, the raters can say, “I can’t define it but I know what it is when I see it.”

Time and again, the raters define queer sexual acts as pornography where comparable heterosexual scenes are labeled as appropriate for mass distribution. In this again the MPAA differs from its foreign counterparts. Corliss reports that “in Europe, scenes of sexuality that would be proscribed in the U.S. often get a pass…. Conversely, foreign ratings boards are tougher on the most extravagant forms of movie violence, to which the MPAA board is so famously indulgent.”

Why is sexuality met with such stiff resistance, when the portrayal of violent acts against other human beings is not? There exists in this country a fear of sexuality which becomes outright terror when the word queer is tacked on to it. This can be seen across the board: from the stiff resistance on the part of conservatives towards gay marriage to the ban of queer couples adopting in several states, avenues where queer sexuality may be displayed, whether overtly or not, are met with prejudice. The MPAA reflects these regressive attitudes, and one might say that they are only upholding the status quo. However, is it not also the responsibility of the MPAA to be open to helping engender positive change? As the self-proclaimed guardians of what is appropriate for the movie-going American, shouldn’t the MPAA’s first concern be the message delivered by the movie? Roger Ebert calls out the Motion Picture Association, saying that “the MPAA should have changed its standards long ago, taking into account the context and tone of a movie instead of holding fast to rigid checklists.” It is clear that the MPAA needs to revise their standards of appropriateness and consider the entire message of a movie instead of getting hung up on whether a girl having sex with another girl is morally acceptable.

The Motion Picture Association could make a beginning in this by revising their rater selection and training process. Criteria for serving on the deciding board for the MPAA include marriage and children under the age of seventeen. While This Film Is Not Yet Rated noted that these criteria are not always followed, the majority of the members have children, and all but one of the members as of filming of the documentary were in heterosexual marriages. The film also mentions that the board’s chair, Joan Graves, who is a registered Republican, has a personal hand in hiring every member of the MPAA rating board. Given that the stiffest resistance to queer rights comes from the Republican Party, and given that Graves would be most likely to hire those who would best reflect her interests, is it any surprise that the MPAA displays a homophobic bias?

The training of movie raters, Corliss notes what a former rater for the MPAA has to say about the process in This Film Is Not Yet Rated: “‘there was no rater-training process,’ Jay Landers, a former member, tells Dick. ‘People were hired, they were put into the screening room, put into the rating chair and started rating films.’” Entirely lacking a set of standards, raters are left to arbitrarily decide based on their feelings of what is appropriate. Criteria for rating movies based on previous judgments are entirely absent. Training that might positively expose movie raters to different social or cultural values does not exist. Instead, the criterion used – which is kept secret by the MPAA – is presented to the rater while the film rolls, and the public suffers for it. Instituting some form of training for raters which includes cultural and social awareness training would be a positive step to changing the ways in which queer sexuality is viewed. As the raters gain a deeper understanding of people different from themselves, they will be less likely to judge queer sexual acts as immoral. By giving scenes of queer intimacy the same consideration as their heterosexual counterparts and rating them by the same criteria, they improve the public’s access to positive portrayals of queer individuals. As the public’s positive exposure to queer people and queer sexuality increases, so will their attitude change for the better.

The Motion Picture Association of America is the gatekeeper for the positive portrayal of queer people in film. As long as they continue to treat queer sexuality as shameful, they will impede the acceptance of queer people in society. This Editorial is Not Yet Rated notes that “an MPAA spokesperson said in “This Film Is Not Yet Rated”: “We don’t set the standards, we just reflect them.” I challenge the MPAA to step up and take responsibility for the message they’re sending. Stop engaging in biased rating practices towards queer sexuality. As the deciding board for all mass-distributed films in the United States, the MPAA, however flawed and self-interested the board is, has the power to be an arbiter of positive social change. It is their civic responsibility to stop being part of the problem and start being part of the solution of genuine acceptance for every person, regardless of their sexual orientation.

Works Cited

Corliss, Richard. “Censuring the Movie Censors.” TIME.com. 2 Sept. 2006. Web. 8 Feb. 2011.

Ebert, Roger. “Getting Real About Movie Ratings.” The Wall Street Journal. 10 Dec. 2010. Web. 08 Feb. 2011.

“This Editorial Is Not Yet Rated.” The Los Angeles Times. 14 Oct. 2006. Web. 8 Feb. 2011.

Valenti, Jack. “Valenti Defends Movie Ratings System – Latimes.com.” Los Angeles Times – California, National and World News – Latimes.com. 18 Oct. 2006. Web. 8 Feb. 2011.

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This paper was originally written for Professor Denning’s Writing 223 E class at Marylhurst University, Winter Quarter 2011.

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