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The Almost Forgotten Feminism of the Italian Renaisance:
A Look at Poets, Playwrights, and Prostitutes
Ava LaGressa
HI490: Senior Thesis
Dr. Smith
December 14, 2022
�LaGressa 1
During the sixteenth-century, feminist ideas flourished. The main factor of this trend was
the Italian Renaissance. The Renaissance was an incubator for new ideas, as a result, society
became more open to different voices in art; and women’s voices entered the intellectual sphere.
The Renaissance opened a door for women to establish themselves in intellectual society.
Through this trend, women created and produced art through their wealth, creativity, and
individualization. Examples of these women include Veronica Franco, Moderata Fonte, and
Isabella Andreini. This paper will delve into feminist writing during the sixteenth-century and
investigate the notions of societal female equality shared by Renaissance women.
The term Renaissance Feminism has been defined in many ways by historians in the
field; one of the best interpretations of Renaissance Feminism looks at feminism through three
different lenses. The first form of Renaissance Feminism is “Explicit Feminism,” a critique of
male supremacy. Explicit feminists believed that a womens place in society did not correspond
with natural law. Explicit feminism explores the idea of female community and articulates the
woman’s desire to have a public voice and platform.1 The second form of Renaissance feminism
is “Celebratory Feminism,” which places an emphasis on female scholars and their status as
such. This feminism strengthened the thought that women could be seen as intelectuals.2 Finally,
“Particapatory Feminism,” notes that women who complete the same authorial work as men shall
be regarded as equal in matters of the mind. Whether or not the woman addresses this fact does
not change the reality, which is that she is equal. This type of feminism challenges judo-christian
misogyny.3 These models of the feminist argument provide clear definitions of what categories of
feminism existed during the sixteenth-century.
1
Sarah Gwyneth, Ross. The Birth of Feminism: Woman as Intellect in Renaissance Italy and
England. Harvard University Press (2009), 132.
2
Ross, Feminism,132.
3
Ross, Feminism,132.
�LaGressa 2
Renaissance feminism was born in the home, successful females benefited from their
families legitimacy. This domestic paradigm was a major contributor that made room for female
voices; specifically during a period of extreme male dominance in the fields of literary, artistic,
and musical exchange.4 Once female voices entered the sphere, their messages were spread and
eventually, critiques of literary misogyny and the patriarchal system began to follow. This led to
a more active call for female participation in male dominated fields. The continued praise of
female participation ultimately proved that the literary world was listening, which prompted a
growth of female literacy.5
It is important to note the role of patrons in the career of writers. All Renaissance writers
published work with the aid of their patron who would supply funds. This was true for not only
female writers, but male writers as well. But does this devalue the work of the authors?
The role of patrons does not devalue the work of authors. Yes, writers were given
opportunities because of their patrons. In the case of female writers, the patron may have been
their father or husband, in other cases, a sexual partner or mentor.6 This is true for all three of the
Renaissance women I will be studying: Veronica Franco, Isabella Andreini, and Moderata Fonte.
Veronica Franco entered the intellectual sector of society after meeting her patron and client
Domenico Venier.7 Moderata Fonte made a name for herself through the collective effort of her
grandfather Prospero Saraceni and family friend Niccolo Doglioni.8 Isabella Andreini
exemplified a new range of possibilities for literary women but was able to do so with the help of
4
Ross, Feminism, 133.
Ross, Feminism, 133.
6
Ross, Feminism, 133.
7
Margaret, T. Rosenthal. The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in
Sixteenth-Century Venice. University of Chicago Press (1993), 5.
8
Ross, Feminism, 195.
5
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her husband Francessco Andreini.9 Without their patrons, these women would not have been
heard during their time, and they may not have been discovered today. It is imperative to note
that all writers needed patrons to support their work, regardless of gender.
Women of the Renaissance should not have their work, effort, or status as feminists
diminished because they were supported by men.10 These women used men as a stepping stool of
opportunity, and the men believed in them. These feminist writers were feminist because of what
they wrote. Regardless of their male patrons, the work they produced were acts of feminism. And
men can also be feminist, these patrons serve as an example of that; otherwise, why would they
have supported womens work? The men had faith in their writers, they understood the value of
the writers work.
When an opportunity presented itself to spread a message of equality, these women were
not going to ignore it. And in every single case, the men were close relatives and friends of the
females. Therefore, the women were taking the chance they received to further their literary
careers. And within their work they were able to spread messages of equality. Their work
popularized ideas of female equality in education and politics, which in turn spread support for
the cause among willing readers. Readers who were educated in literacy were able to consume
this information, and possibly became inspired by it. If a feminist sentiment is spread in order to
create support, then the author must be a feminist.11
Female writers used the power of their pen to shed light on their unequal treatment in
everyday life. One of the main issues women faced was the perception of their intelligence by
men; which was often negative. The Pre-Renaissance Period looked different for both men and
9
Ross, Feminism, 212.
Ross, Feminism, 314
11
Ross, Feminism, 314.
10
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women when it came to education. Men were often educated and women were not. However,
elite class women proved to have more opportunities than lower class women when obtaining
education. In fact, they were more than able to attain an education which put them on an
intellectually equal level with men. Therefore, the education of women depended heavily on
their social status; and their status was contingent upon either their families or husbands wealth
and popularity.12
Social class was a large factor in the everyday lives of Italian citizens. Peasant women
worked with their husbands typically in farm work, later they would return home and take care
of their children and the household. If they were the wife or daughter of a middle-class merchant,
they would have assisted their husband within the business and taken care of their children and
home. Upper class Renaissance women had a better chance at receiving an education. Upper
class Renaissance women had two career choices; marriage or become a nun.13
One of the females studied in this paper chose neither of these options. Instead, she
became a courtesan; which was not necessarily a career option however, it was a role that existed
in society. A courtesan is a modern day prostitute. Courtesans would perform sexual favors on
men for money. Typically these men would be wealthy enough to pay for such acts. These
women were not necessarily highly respected for their work. They were especially not respected
by the church and by wives of men who spent nights with courtesans. This career was a way to
avoid a life of devotion to a man; the men being both God and a husband. It is important to note
however that most women who had the option of becoming courtesans were upper class women.
If they chose not to, they would likely be married off or sent to the nunnery.
12
Virginia, Cox. A Short History of the Italian Renaissance. London, I.B. Tauris, (2015), 167.
Virginia, Cox. A Short History of the Italian Renaissance. London, I.B. Tauris, (2015), 172.
13
�LaGressa 5
In the Renaissance Period, marriages were far from the idea of love. They explicitly dealt
with personal matters of family prosperity, loyalty, alliances, and civic institutional support.
marriages were a form of currency and diplomatic exchange. Marriages reflected order and
influence on society in each class; and only certain women could marry certain men within their
social class. Typically, the young woman would be a child below the age of 20 and the man
would be older around his 30s. The couple would be paired based on age in order to ensure the
virginity of the young lady; of course, the man’s virginity did not matter. A match would be
identified by a broker or influential family member who had connections to the groom’s family.14
But, before a woman could be married off she must present a dowry to her groom.
A dowry was a sum of value placed on a marriage. A dowry consisted of goods such as
clothing, jewelry, property, and money. And families who wished to elevate their status would
pay large dowries in order to marry their daughter off to a wealthy groom. Dowries were a
substantial investment and if a family could not pay one then their bride could not be married
off.15
Traditionally, one woman from a family would be able to marry; if she had sisters, they
would likely become nuns but this was not always the desired choice. One young woman per
family could reasonably be married off, otherwise it would be too expensive. Most, if not all
families would not be able to afford another marriage dowry. This is because the dowry
depended on the wealth of the bride’s family. If the family wished to gain mobility, they would
pay a large dowry to a groom of higher status. No woman would marry into a significantly less
wealthier family, the ultimate goal was to marry richer. The richer the suitor, the more expensive
the dowry would be. However, it is important to note that in order for a woman to become a nun,
14
Virginia, Cox. A Short History of the Italian Renaissance. London, I.B. Tauris, (2015), 178.
Virginia, Cox. A Short History of the Italian Renaissance. London, I.B. Tauris, (2015), 179.
15
�LaGressa 6
a dowry would also be paid. This dowry would be significantly less expensive than a marriage
dowry. Traditionally, socially upward families would use this strategy.16
Veronica Franco
Veronica Franco was the most famous Venetian courtesan in history. Franco’s family
could not afford a respectable marriage dowry and she refused to join the nunnery, therefore, she
became a courtesan. Franco born in 1546 Venice lived a very illustrious life as both a poet and
courtesan.17 Franco was born into a prestigious family with a venetian coat of arms; because of
her family’s nativeborn status they belonged to the professional caste that made up the
government bureaucracy in Venice. Her parents were Paola Fracassa and Francessco Franco.
Franco was the only daughter of her parents and was married to Paolo Panizza, although, not
soon after, she separated from him. Franco birthed six children from all different men with only
three children surviving beyond their infancy.18
Due to the circumstances Franco was born into, her intellectual life began at a young age.
She was very fortunate compared to the other women of the time. She shared her brothers
education by being present for their private tutor sessions.19 She continued her education in her
later life by attending literary gatherings of writers and painters. In the late 1560s Franco began
her life as the Cortigiana Onesta.20 She began to provide men with physical favors in exchange
for money; this is when her career as a poet flourished.
As a courtesan Franco captured the interest of Domenico Venier, head of the most
renowned literary academy in Venice.21 Venier was a well respected poet; and one of Franco’s
16
Virginia, Cox. A Short History of the Italian Renaissance. London, I.B. Tauris, (2015), 182.
Edited by Margaret F. Rosenthal and Ann Rosalind Jones. “Veronica Franco” in Poems and
Selected Letters. University of Chicago Press (1998), 2.
18
Rosenthal and Jones, Poems and Letters, 2.
19
Rosenthal and Jones, Poems and Letters, 4.
20
Rosenthal and Jones, Poems and Letters, 3. Translation: Honest Courtesan
21
Rosenthal and Jones, Poems and Letters, 7.
17
�LaGressa 7
clients. Franco often visited him at his private library. Venire would later become Franco’s
reader, protector, and patron; after which, her work began to be published. By Franco’s mid
twenties she was requesting to publish her sonnets that commemorated men of the Venetian
elite.22 Nine of her sonnets were published in a volume named Rime di diversi eccellentissimi
autori nella morte dell’illustre sign; she was also selected to edit this work. In the same year,
Franco published her own volume of poetry, Terze Rime.23
Franco took her opportunity as a courtesan and wrote about the situation of courtesans as
well as everyday women. Franco wrote about women not only in her work but also in her private
life. She spoke of practical economic concerns for a woman like herself in her two wills.24 A
common practice for women in the Renaissance was creating wills when they became pregnant.
This was done in order to provide for their family in the possibility of death during childbirth.
Franco left two wills, the first in 1564 when she was 18 years old. This was the first time that she
was pregnant. In this will she left money for a dowry for her child if her child were a girl. She
also left money to her female servants, and two poor unmarried Venetian women eligible for a
charitable donation through her will.25 Her second will was completed in 1570 and showed
similar concern. In this will she left money for the marriages of two other Venetian women.26 She
wanted to assist other women who were not fortunate enough to have a dowry and who would
ultimately lead lives as nuns or worse.
Franco was very open about her career as a courtesan in her poetry. And this is because
people knew her for being a courtesan meretrice sumptuosa. A courtesan meretrice sumptuosa
22
Rosenthal and Jones, Poems and Letters, 7.
Rosenthal and Jones, Poems and Letters, 5. Translation: Rhymes of various excellent authors in
the death of illustriousness and Third Rhymes.
24
Rosenthal and Jones, Poems and Letters, 4.
25
“Veronica Franco” in her will. University of Southern California, Dana and David
Dornsife,College of Letters, Arts and Sciences (2013), will 1.
26
“Veronica Franco” in her will, will 2.
23
�LaGressa 8
was a way of calling her a dirty prostitute. Therefore she had nothing to hide in her work. She
celebrated her sexual enterprise rather than being ashamed by it.
Through her work, Franco challenges masculine discourses. She often directed her poems
to particular men whom she requested responses from. An example of this is her work Capitolo
16. In this poem, Franco directly responds to a man who challenges her. Franco mainly defends
herself against insults penned by Maffio Venire. Yes, Venire as in Domenico Venier, Franco’s
patron; Maffio was the nephew of Domenico.
“And blade in hand, I learned warrior skills, so that, by handling weapons, I learned that women
by nature are no less agile than men. So devoting all my efforts to arms, I see myself now, thanks to heaven,
at the point where I no longer fear harm from anyone…when we women, too, have weapons in training, we
will be able to prove to all men that we have hands and feet and hearts like yours; and though we may be
tender and delicate, some men who are delicate also are strong, and some, coarse and rough, are
cowards.27”
Franco was not afraid to challenge men through her poetry and work. She challenged
traditional masculine ideas of strength and knowledge. She valued herself and other women
higher than most men. She understood that women and men could be on the same level. In fact,
she states that if men and women were given the same amount of opportunity, then they would
be regarded as equals. She challenged men who challenged her. She told her challengers that
women are no less agile than men in matters of the mind.28 She knew that on an intellectual level
she was more capable than a men; and she was not afraid to let this be known.
Franco stated that she would pick up her weapon and she would strike it down upon any
enemy.29 Her weapon was her pen and she would use it through writing. She boasted her
intelligence and stated that she could write in multiple dialects of Italian. She goes so far as to
27
Rosenthal and Jones, Poems and Letters, 163.
Rosenthal and Jones, Poems and Letters, 166-7.
29
Rosenthal and Jones, Poems and Letters, 166-7.
28
�LaGressa 9
say that her competitor could choose the dialect they write in. For she would be equally happy
with them all, because she learned the dialects for the purpose of dueling intellectually with a
man.30 She was confident that she would win in a joust of words not only because of her
education but because of her character and truth as a woman.
Franco’s confidence in dueling male poets was something never before seen during the
Renaissance Period. No female poet had ever challenged a male in such a public way. It was a
true medieval duel, except instead of swords and blood the knights/writers used pens and ink.
Franco’s ability to ascend into upward nobility through her career as a courtesan is unlike any
trajectory seen from the time period. Franco was able to propel her career as a poet through her
career as a courtesan. She made a name for herself and was able to accrue enough money to
support herself without a husband or father present in her adult life.
She served as an inspiration to other women although she did not always want other
women to follow in her footsteps. When friends reached out to her for guidance in beginning
their daughter’s career as a courtesan, Franco warned them against the unpleasantries of the
job.31 In a letter to her friend she stated “Although it is mainly a question of your daughter’s
well-being, I’m talking about you, for her ruin cannot be separated from yours… if she should
become a prostitute, you would become her go-between and deserve the hardest punishment.”32
She put women before men and she was open about her feelings about this during her lifetime.
So much so that later in her life she began to receive a lot of hate. Which would allegedly
attribute to her near death experience with the Venetian Inquisition in 1580.
30
Rosenthal and Jones, Poems and Letters, 166-7.
ARTH 470. “Franco and the Women of Venice.” University of Mary Washington, (2008).
https://venice.umwblogs.org/exhibit/veronica-franco-courtesans-and-venuses/franco-and-the-wo
men-of-venice/.
32
ARTH 470. “Franco and the Women of Venice.”
31
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Franco, accused of practicing magical incantations was pardoned after providing her
own defense against these accusations.33 After living a long life of 45 years Franco died
impoverished after the plague and the trial took all her monetary worth from her. But, Franco
lives in time as the wealthiest woman of the Renaissance in regards to her historical significance.
Her mere existence as a courtesan who served as an example to others at a time where women
were regarded as less than, proved to be true act of feminism that is still relevant today.
Moderata Fonte
Moderata Fonte, also known as Modeste Pozzo, was an Italian writer of the
sixteenth-century. Fonte, another Venetian citizen, was born to a family of elite professional
class. Her family was wealthy and privileged but her parents passed away of the plague a year
after her birth in 1555.34 Fonte’s situation is quite unique; her possessions and money were
subject to a lengthy court process following her parents death. Due to this, her marriage was
delayed well into her twenties; because she did not have a proper dowry. Fonte went on to live
with her grandparents.35
While women did not have access to formal education Fonte, similar to Franco, received
education through home tutors. Her step grandfather was a present force in her life that
encouraged reading and writing; which would later inspire her career as a writer. Fonte’s career
took off in her early twenties when she began to live with her uncle Niccolò Doglioni; Doglioni
became her guardian and he was also married to her childhood friend Saracena. Doglioni was
well connected with the literary elite of Venice and pushed for Fonte to publish her work.36
33
Marylin, Migel. Veronica Franco in Dialogue. University of Toronto Press, 2022.
Virginia, Cox. Biography of “Moderata Fonte (1555-1592).”University of Chicago Library,
2004. https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/IWW/BIOS/A0016.html.
35
Cox, Biography of “Moderata Fonte.”
36
Cox, Biography of “Moderata Fonte.”
34
�LaGressa 11
Her work would be well received by many, so much so that her dialogues were performed
for the Venetian Doge. Fonte, like the two other women studied in this paper, authored volumes
of verse dedicated to kings and Venetian noblemen.37 These types of works were very important
for writers to produce at the time because it would earn them respect.
After gaining respect as a writer Fonte became most known for her publication: The
Worth of Women. Her writing soley centered on the role of male dominance over women in
society. When The Worth of Women focused on the life of women rather than commemorating
the life of the man.
The Worth of Women is a fictional dialogue between seven Venetian noblewomen that
takes place over the course of two days.38 Though fictional, this may have been a discussion that
took place in real life during the time. On the first day, the seven women debate whether men are
good or bad. They discuss the dignity of women and the traditional job and role women had in
society. On the second day, the women review their general knowledge of natural history and
culture. They relate this back to their discussion on the sexes. In The Single Self by Virginia
Cox, the author focuses on the female arguments made by Moderata Fonte; she specifically
narrows in on Fonte’s emphasis on women challenging their role in society. Rather than arguing
that a woman is better than or equal to a man Fonte focused on the empowerment of Renaissance
females.39 Cox believes that this was extremely clever. She states “a significant indicator of this
seriousness is the fact that unlike previous ‘defenders of women’…(Fonte) dictate[s] some of
[her] energy to contemplating ways in which women might rouse themselves from their ‘long
37
Cox, Biography of “Moderata Fonte.”
Virginia, Cox. “The Single Self: Feminist Thought and the Marriage Market in Early Modern
Venice.” Renaissance Quarterly 48, no. 3, 1995, 514.
39
Cox, “Single Self,” 516.
38
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sleep’ and use their energies to free themselves from their dependence on men.”40 Cox indicates
that the tone behind Fonte’s ideas suggest that she should be taken seriously. Fonte was
genuinely and openly criticizing male supremacy.41
Fonte conveys thoughts of an armed female uprising through her character Lenora. Again
while fictional, these were thoughts that Fonte and other women may have had during the time.
Her more realistic aspirations centered on improved educational and public life participation
opportunities.42 Furthermore, Moderata Fonte’s use of character development in the second part
of her book reinforces the idea that women are and could be intellectually equal to a man.43 In
the second part of the book the women have discussions on topics such as geography,
meteorology, politics, law, and medicine. Not only was Fonte conveying female intelligence
through her characters but, she was vicariously showing the readers that she had knowledge on
these areas. Cox states, “the ‘official’ theme of the second day’s discussions… was the question
of whether and by what means men could be persuaded to abandon their misogynist views.”44
This was an extremely controversial dialogue to put in a work that would inevitably be read by
thousands during the time. Especially due to the fact that Fonte had made a name for herself
before releasing The Worth of Women. Nonetheless, she did so without holding back.
It is more than clear that Fonte’s work directly opposed the traditional values of society.
In fact, it was an open challenge; the very name The Worth of Women proves this point. Fonte
essentially stated that women are worth more than society believed them to be; this is especially
on the intellectual level. In Fonte’s work she writes about things that she learned in a modern
40
Cox, “Single Self,” 521.
Cox, “Single Self,” 526.
42
Cox, “Single Self,” 520.
43
Cox, “Single Self,” 525.
44
Cox, “Single Self,” 524.
41
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education, such as politics and medicine. These are the topics that she may have learned as or
been inspired to learn from her home tutors and step grandfather as a child. Fonte used herself as
an example through the voices of her characters in her pastoral drama. Ultimately, Fonte held the
knowledge that she wrote into her female characters. This drama would inspire those that were
able to read it. Her play exemplified her life experiences and showed other women that it was not
normal for women to be considered less than. It placed emphasis on the female education and
mind; it displayed the true worth of women.
Isabella Andreini
In Italy during the late sixteenth-century, the genre of pastoral dramas began to become
increasingly popular. Additionally, during this time professional theater took up roots on the
stage, in the amphitheater, and in the streets. Women began to act on the stage rather than men
acting out female roles. This helped advance theater as more and more people became devout
followers, mostly because there were females on the stage. Females empowered and enabled the
expansion of the theater. And with the introduction of women to theater, came Commedia
dell’Arte which focused around romantic plot points between two characters, the innamorati.
These innamorati scenes drew heavily from the Petrarchan model. The pastoral theater drama
drew inspiration from Commedia dell'Arte and pastoral writing. It emerged from poetry that
idealized nature and rural life. Pastoral dramas put an emphasis on romanticizing the lives of
country folk. Isabella Andreini, the first feminist we are taking a look at in this paper,
revolutionized the pastoral drama during her time.
Isabella Andreini was born in Padua to Venetian parents in 1562. Andreini became very
well known for her work as a Commedia dell’Arte actress.45 Andreini was extremely famous for
45
Ilana, Walder-Biesanz. “Writing Pastoral Drama as a Woman and an Actor: Isabella Andreini’s
Mirtilla.” Italian Studies 71, no. 1, 2016, 49.
�LaGressa 14
her work as an actress and writer. She published two major works in her lifetime and her patron
helped publish two final works after her death in 1604. Her first and most famous work was
Mirtilla, 1588. In this work Isabella used her first-hand experience as an actress to rewrite the
traditional pastoral play Aminta by Torquato Tasso with a feminist twist. She inverted and
satirized a standard patriarchal work into her own. The second work she became known for was
Rime, 1601.46 Published over 10 years later in 1601 Rime reflected ideas in both Mirtilla and in
Andreini’s life. In this work Andreini demonstrated her awareness of literacy and the dramatic
process.
In the same year Andreini noted in a letter to a friend that she had begun a third literary
project; a collection of letters. The work would not be released until three years after her death in
1607. The piece was called Lettere di Isabella Andreini padovana comica gelosa, and although
the name alludes to a collection of “letters,” it was a collection of monologues. The work was
published under Andreini’s name by her husband and patron Francesco Andreini.
A final project would be released in 1620, again with the assistance of Francesco
Andreini; although this time, Andreini did not prepare for the piece to be published. Instead, it
was released by Flaminio Scala in order to commemorate her life’s work.47 The literature was a
collection of dialogues that Isabella had created after her experience in the Commedia dell’Arte
theater space. It was titled Fragment di alcune scritture della signora Isabella Andreini comica
gelosa e accademia intenta.48
It is important to note that all of Andreini’s works centered around the thing she loved
most: theater. Each of them incorporated her experiences as an actress in Commedia dell'Arte.
And most of them were satirized versions of Commedia dell'Arte which was a play form that
46
Walder-Biesanz, “Writing Pastoral Drama,” 51.
Walder-Biesanz, “Writing Pastoral Drama,” 51.
48
Walder-Biesanz, “Writing Pastoral Drama,” 52.
47
�LaGressa 15
ironically served as a comedy. The traditional list of Commedia dell'Arte characters includes the
innamorati. The Innamorati are the two main characters in love. One of the most notable uses of
the innamorati are Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Andreini took these
traditional characters and turned them on their heads. Andreini would expertly display how these
classic stylized compositions of love and relationships focus on the man rather than the woman.
She showed how the woman was an object of the man’s desire.49 Andreini was able to show this
stylistically by having two characters, a male and female, played by one person. This was a style
that Andreini herself was famous for on her own; as one of the skills her most notable acting
skills was adopting a hermaphroditic stage presence.50 And by doing this, she became popular for
her work not just as an actress, but as a writer.
Part of what distinguishes Andreini from the other female playwrights of her time was
how popular she was when her first play came out. Her performances were seemingly unlike any
other. While men enjoyed watching women in the theater, they often regarded actresses as less
than. But, Andreini was able to gain the respect of many; so much so that her first play La
Mirtilla, sold out rather quickly. The play was re-printed nine times, issued in both Paris and
Italy for a two and a half decade period.51
The plot of La Mirtilla is rather complicated but that was the point of pastoral dramas.
The play centers around love entanglement. A man named Igilio is in love with Filli and Filli
loves Uranio who is also loved by Mirtilla but, Uranio is in love with Ardelia and Ardelia wants
49
Walder-Biesanz, “Writing Pastoral Drama,” 54.
Walder-Biesanz, “Writing Pastoral Drama,” 54.
51
Walder-Biesanz, “Writing Pastoral Drama,” 56.
50
�LaGressa 16
to love no one. By the end, a man named Tirsi falls in love with Mirtilla, Igilio wins the love of
Filli, and Uranio gains the love of Ardelia; all through threats of suicide of course.52
The feminist ideas shine through in Andreini’s reflection scene. This scene centers
around Ardelia, it aims to inspire the audience by holding up a mirror to the character; this is
why it is the reflection scene.53 Whereas in the original drama this character fails to self-reflect,
in Andreini’s version, she successfully does so. In the height of the dramatic love entanglement
Andreini’s character Ardelia finds out she is the romantic victim of her own reflection.54
Andreini undermines the purity of the Petrarchan model by shifting the traditional view of the
audience from the male gaze into a much more poetic understanding of the character.55 And
although this does not fully eliminate the male gaze from the character Ardelia, it essentially
satirizes the excesses of it. Andreini takes her character Ardelia and allows her to speak for
herself during the reflection scene. She draws on classical models of knowing one’s self and
echoes lines of metamorphosis.56 Ardelia states “spero che si come ho rinnovato, di narciso
infelice il crudo scempio, così a guisa di lui debba fortuna, dar fine al mio dolor con la mia
morte.57” This self-awareness shows the audience that Ardelia sees what the audience sees. She
understands the mockery of it all; and what the audience would have been laughing at during the
52
Edited by Valeria Finucci and Julia Kisacky. Isabella Andreini: Mirtilla, A Pastoral. Iter Press,
2018.
53
Alexia, Ferracuti. “Reflections of Isabella: Hermaphroditic Mirroring in Mirtilla and Giovan
Battista Andreini’s Amor nello specchio.” Escholarship.org
https://escholarship.org/content/qt4br8n5zs/qt4br8n5zs_noSplash_e8a8b6555e28afe23d041f8dc
dff90bb.pdf?t=ntbubx.
54
Finucci and Kisacky. Mirtilla, Scene 4, The Nymph Ardelia.
55
Walder-Biesanz, “Writing Pastoral Drama,” 56.
56
Finucci and Kisacky. Mirtilla, Scene 4, The Nymph Ardelia.
57
Finucci and Kisacky. Mirtilla. Scene 4, The Nymph Ardelia 2601-4, 212-213. Translated: I
hope that just as I have renewed the cruel havoc of an unhappy narcissus, so, like him, fortune
should end my pain with my death.
�LaGressa 17
entire play. It even adds a note of tragedy to her life because the play becomes more serious as a
result of this reflection.
So what exactly makes Isabella Andreini a feminist? How does her work as a playwright
an actress attribute to proto-feminism during the Renaissance Period? Andreini’s rewriting of
traditional play styles like Commedia dell’Arte and the pastoral drama creates a new level of
satire theater. She helped raise the professionalism of female actresses as well as aiding the
transition of presentational and representational styles of theater. Not only this but, Andreini was
already famous when she published her first play La Mirtilla; as stated, she was well known for
her acting. She pushed the boundaries of what a woman was able to do in the theater while also
remaining well respected in her community. This was because she successfully filled her societal
gender roles. She was a woman who fulfilled her motherly and wifely duties in the home and
maintained a perfect reputation. And with this, she could on stage transgress most acceptable
forms of femininity. She played with gender, she crossed lines, she pushed the envelope and she
did more so than any other woman during her time. Andreini revolutionized the theater by
changing theater gender expectations of her time. She blazed a valuable future for female
playwrights and actresses to come.
So much so, that her work was published even after her death; and by men nonetheless.
Her work that challenged the male gaze and Petrarchan ideas was published by men after her
death. They chose to posthumously honor her because they knew how innovative her work was.
This displays how Andreini was able to successfully make a name for herself and create a new
platform for women in the theater space.
Franco, Fonte, and Andreini each made waves in their own ways during their time.
Franco, born in Venice built a life on the wealth she accumulated in her career as a courtesan.
�LaGressa 18
She used her career as the cortigiana onesta to advance her writing in Venetian society. Through
her role as a courtesan, she met her patron Domenico Venier who helped her grow her career as a
poet. She was well respected and well known for her talents as a courtesan. So much so that King
Henry III chose her to bed. Once the plague hit Venice, the church took a much larger role. The
Inquisition accused Franco of witchcraft. This was a front, they had believed prostitutes like
Franco, angered God which caused him to send the plague. They argued that Franco was a witch
because she bewitched so many men, especially married ones. Although Franco survived her
trial, it took her money and reputation. While her life comes to an unfortunate end, one can not
help but be inspired by her story. Franco put other women before men, even though she had sex
with men all the time. It is interesting because she ultimately benefited from the relationships she
had with men as a result of her job. She used being a courtesan to her advantage. Not only did
she make money bedding men but she made a name for herself, and met her patron through
being a prostitute. And while all of this is true, she also warned others about the courtesan
lifestyle, she knew it was not a sufficient way to live. Ultimately, she wanted to change the world
so that courtesanship would not have to be the best option that young women had to live
independently.
Moderata Fonte expertly defined the worth of women in her play The Worth of Women.
Ironically, women were not worth much in society. However, what Fonte displays in her work is
that women were worth so much because of their dowries. She made others question why
dowries were so expensive, especially if women were not worth much in society. It made people
reflect on the worth of women, which of course forced them to understand that women were
worth a lot. In fact, they were worth just as much as men; not only metaphorically but
intellectually. Fonte rightfully held up a mirror to society and said “look.”
�LaGressa 19
Finally, Isabella Andreini liberated women in the field of acting. She set new precedents
in the career. She used gender and sex as a way to make change; and she did this by playing both
men and women on stage. She used her talent as an actress to bring hermaphroditic characters
played by women to the acting world. Not only that but she used her popularity as a well
established and respected woman to her advantage when she published her first play Mirtilla.
Mirtilla would also serve to change the world of theater. This is because it brought a level of self
awareness to a comedic play structure, one where the woman would often be depicted as
clueless. This new level of consciousness proved to pull back the curtain on the traditional
understanding of women in society. It showed that women were in fact not clueless, they were
not simply searching for love, and they could be as intelligent as men.
Each of these womens publishing’s were a testament to the thoughts of Italian women
during the Renaissance. A great portion of females were thinking like Franco, Fonte, and
Andreini. Female liberation was at the forefront of society, even feminist men were getting on
board with the thought. These women were the pioneers of feminism in Italy. They wrote the
blueprints for females to come. Without these women, society would not have advanced as much
as it did, although, it is a shame that female liberation did not occur sooner.
For centuries, women have been separated from education and from one another in order
to discourage connectedness. These writings were a way for women to communicate; and the
three women in this paper were all alive for a certain amount of years at the same time. Veronica
Franco 1546 to 1591, Moderata Fonte 1555 to 1592, and Isabella Andreini 1562 to 1604. These
women were living amongst each other for 29 years. However, the chance that they knew or read
each other’s work is low. Franco’s poetry was released in the mid 1570s and early 1580s,
Andreini’s was released in the late 1580s, and Fonte’s most famous work was published in 1600
�LaGressa 20
after two of their deaths. Although I would love to imagine a world where Franco and Fonte
attended a performance of Andreini, I am a realist and I understand that the likelihood of this is
little to none. There are certainly no surviving accounts of this happening. However, I can not
help but think to myself: what if these women were releasing work at the same time? It would
most certainly serve as a form of communication between them. In fact their writing may have
gotten even more “radical” as they played off each other’s ideas. Now I pose the question, if
these three women sat down together in a room, what conversations would they have had?
If these women were in a room together there would be an incredible flow of ideas and
imaginative visions of a utopian society. The society of course would be one where women were
regarded as equal to men. I imagine that their conversations would have mirrored those described
in The Worth of Women. These conversations could have been an explosion of feminist ideals.
Both Franco and Andreini have sexual undertones in their work. Franco played off of her
role as a courtesan in her writing. She did not hide this part of her life from her readers, she
embraced it. And Andreini’s performances were very sexual as female actresses were often
thought of as sexual beings. Therefore, I imagine sexually liberating discussions from these two
women. They would have certainly talked about sex and dominance; especially the power that
can come along with sex and the sexual being.
Moderata Fonte and Veronica Franco both had sufficient childhood educations and both
resided in Venice. This is not to say that Andreini was not of their caliber, but, I believe the two
women would have connected on this front and begun to discuss topics in literature, science, and
the humanities. Perhaps they would have discussed the piloted ideas of the scientific revolution
which began in 1543.
�LaGressa 21
Andreini and Fonte may have talked about mens hostility towards women. This is
specifically because both of their famous works focus on the relationships between men and
women; especially the love and hate between the two.
Ultimately, together, the three women would have discussed the way in which women
could make advancements in society to be considered equal to men. Again, their conversations
may have mirrored ideas in The Worth of Women. They may have discussed their ambitious
individual work and how they sought to elevate the status of women to that of men; of course
these ideas were presented through their writing. They would have argued amongst themselves
that women had the same innate abilities as men, especially when similarly educated; Fonte and
Franco could have attested to this. And one example of women being equal to men were the
cases of widows. From this point the women would discuss dowries.
Dowries implied that women were a burden, so much so that a man would be paid to
marry a woman. However, this opened the door for women to reclaim this wealth in the case of
death. If a woman’s husband and father both passed, then she would be the sole owner of her
dowry. In this case, the woman would be in charge of her own life as she had jurisdiction over
her money and property. The women would have discussed this idea and how it could lead to
females becoming more aware of their societal worth. I believe that Fonte, Franco, and Andreini
would have played upon this and used it as a tool to educate other women about how powerful
they could be in society. If widows were able to claim this power, then the average woman could
as well.
Marriage in general was a practice that focused on eliminating all moves for female
equality. Marriage was, in its basic form, a transfer of property between a woman’s father and
husband. The biggest issue is that women did not have much of a choice Franco, Fonte, and
�LaGressa 22
Andreini knew this and would have examined the role of marriage and work in female lives.
They would have argued for more choices for women especially when it came to work. They
would have focused their efforts for equality on social and educational equality. And my reason
for believing so is because neither of them brought this up in their work. Instead however, they
focused on the social equality of women and their arguments centered around education. If
women were as intelligent as men then why were they not equal? Why were they powerless in
choosing their destiny?
While, women were seemingly powerless, they had one extremely powerful tool: their
voices; and these women knew how to use their voices to ignite feminism in others. This is
something that they would have collectively understood and respected about one another.
Therefore, they may have strategically found ways to do this together. Perhaps they would have
joined forces to create a collection of letters, poems, or dialogues which would have been
published. If this were the case women from all over Italy would have seen it and possibly acted
upon it. For all we know there could have been a feminist uprising in the late sixteenth-century
that had everything to do with these three powerful women getting together. This is exactly what
men were afraid of and why they took such great lengths to isolate women from one another.
Because, if women were able to have these intellectually stimulating conversations with each
other, then the world would have looked much different. Gender equality would have been
achieved considerably sooner than it was; and in the same breath I will say that women are still
fighting for equality today.
If these women were able to congregate and have intellectual discussions in a room
together, they would have more than likely been able to ignite a feminine uprising. It is without a
doubt that female liberation would have been achieved sooner. These three women are more
�LaGressa 23
alike than not, and this can be said about most women during the Italian Renaissance; mostly
because they shared one thing in common: suppression. The strive to equality was a large goal to
reach but it ignited a passion within and together, these women would have been unstoppable at
reaching such a goal.
Ultimately, the path to equality is a constant struggle. So much so that women are still
feeling the effects today. And it is no secret that women are as capable and in some cases
superior to men. So why is it that equality is still a goal being strived for not only in Italy but all
over the globe? It is our history that often defines us; so let these women serve as an example of
what was and let their writing serve as an example of what should be. They held the torch that lit
the way for women to come. This is a constant struggle but a struggle nonetheless; and they
would be proud to see the strides made today. But, women will not stop fighting for equality
until equality is achieved. Therefore, we must use women like Veronica Franco, Moderata Fonte,
and Isabella Andreini as examples of women who stood up against oppression in a time where
women were not supposed to stand; and we as women must be inspired to blaze a new trail
ourselves.
�LaGressa 24
Bibliography
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(2008).
https://venice.umwblogs.org/exhibit/veronica-franco-courtesans-and-venuses/franco-and-the-wo
men-of-venice/.
Benson, Pamela Joseph. The Invention of the Renaissance Woman: The Challenge of Female
Independence in the Literature and Thought of Italy and England. Pennsylvania State University
Press, 1992.
Brizio, Elena and Piana, Marco. Idealizing Women in the Italian Renaissance. Victoria
University, University of Toronto, 2022.
Cox, Virginia. A Short History of the Italian Renaissance. London, I.B. Tauris, 2015.
Cox, Virginia. Biography of “Moderata Fonte (1555-1592).” University of Chicago Library,
2004. https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/IWW/BIOS/A0016.html.
Cox, Virginia. The Prodigious Muse: Women's Writing in Counter-Reformation Italy. Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2011.
Cox, Virginia. The Single Self: Feminist Thought and the Marriage Market in Early Modern
Venice. Renaissance Quarterly 48, no. 3, 1995. 513–81. https://doi.org/10.2307/2862873.
Cox, Virginia. Women's Writing in Italy, 1400-1650. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
Finucci, Valeria and Kisacky, Julia. Isabella Andreini: Mirtilla, A Pastoral. Iter Press, 2018.
Franco, Veronica. Will 1 and 2. University of Southern California, Dana and David Dornsife,
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, 2013.
Garrard, Mary D. “Here’s Looking at Me: Sofonisba Anguissola and the Problem of the Woman
Artist.” Renaissance Quarterly 47, no. 3, 1994. 556–622. https://doi.org/10.2307/2863021.
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Journal 11, no. 1, 1999. http://www.jstor.org/stable/823768.
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Oxford University Press, 2016.
�LaGressa 25
MacNeil, Anne. Selected poems of Isabella Andreini. The Scarecrow Press Inc. 2005.
Migel, Marylin. Veronica Franco in Dialogue. University of Toronto Press, 2022.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctv2hvfjjs.
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(the Other Voice in Early Modern Europe). University of Chicago Press, 1998.
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England. Harvard University Press, 2009.
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&site=eds-live.
Viglionese, Paschal. Italian Writers of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. McFarland &
Company, Inc. 1998.
Wojciehowski, Dolora Chapelle. “Veronica Franco vs. Maffio Venier: Sex, Death, and Poetry in
Cinquecento Venice.” Italica 83, no. ¾, 2006. 367–90. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27669097
�
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The Almost Forgotten Feminism of the Italian Renaisance: A Look at Poets, Playwrights, and Prostitutes
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Text
Study of Nutritional Status in Bamyan, Afghanistan:
Malnutrition and Its Underlying Causes
Ayoub – July 2019-Present
�Background
Nutrition
World Health Organization reports that undernutrition endangers millions of lives
around the world.
Factors such as social class, natural hazards, economic policy and gender
inequality lead to short- and long-term undernourishment.
Wasting (disproportionally thin relative to her/his age)
Stunting (disproportionally short for her/his age)
�UNICEF, WHO, World Bank 2019
�Afghanistan
Problem Statement
The world bank’s National
Nutrition Survey in Afghanistan
(2004-2005) reported 54% of
children below age five
chronically undernourished and
39% underweight with their
body mass under 18.5.
(World Bank 2004-2005)
�Challenge I
Lack of
Accessibility
Diversity in diet
The staple crop – wheat,
diminishes the diversity of
food sources. Households
with food insecurity,
heavily rely on cheap
calories consisting 75%
wheat and other cereals.
Typical food in rural Afghanistan
Halva
Bread
�Challenge II
The Baba Mountain Range Reaches The Greatest
Height: 5,142 M
Accessibility
The mountainous geography of
Afghanistan makes it difficult for the
health providers to bring aid.
Geopolital Future 2019
�Challenge II
Dominance
Accessibilityof Male
over the Resources
Dominance of Male
over the Resources
The typical activities of
Afghan women are weaving,
embroidery, weaving carpets,
and rendering chickens. Such
activities kept female
population away from
participating in large scale
farm labor.
Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) 2018
�Research Site
Bamiyan Province
Central Highland
Hazara ethnic group
Mountainous
Agricultural Products:
Wheat, barely (40%),
potato (46%), fruits (2%)
and fodder (11%)
Fotolia 2019
�Hypothesis I
Women’s Engagement in
Agriculture
If women’s lack of engagement in agricultural production is decreasing
their access to resources, then I would expect to see those women with
less engagement outside their homes to lack more nutrients.
�Hypothesis II
Lack of Diversity in Diet
If people in Bamyan eat more diverse food, their families will
be healthier. Growing variety of crops can increase sources of
protein and vitamin in their diet
�Hypothesis III
Women’s
Lack of Diversity
Increasing
Engagement in accessibilityDiet
in
Agriculture
If the lack access to health services is one of factors that impacts ,
I expect rural families who are blocked by the harsh weather and
have less access to transportation will appear more vulnerable to
undernourishment
�Research
Methodology
Participant Observation
Qualitative Interview
Food Diary
Biological indicators
�Participant Observation
The participants will consist of both male, and female, primarily mothers, and
children below age of five. I intend to examine their nutrition status relative to the
aforementioned factors.
I will alternate my stay with different household who are wealthy and poor in
order to see both sides of the coin in one village.
Participant as an Observer
Observer as a Participant
(Sauro 2015)
�Qualitative Interview
I will conduct structured interviews
with the local villagers, officials,
Department of Health and the Office
of the Governor to learn about the
location, seasonal weather, closest
health centers/clinics/hospitals,
means of transportation, land
ownership, non-agricultural
activities.
(Sauro 2015)
�Food Diary
I will keep a food diary of
myself during my research and
will select a subset of my
informants to record their diet
on daily basis.
Food Diary 2013
�Biological indicators
Weight-for-age
Height-for-age
Mid upper arm circumference
Head circumference
WW USA 2019
�Significance
Significance
Raise awareness
Improve policies and programs
Collect evidence
�Implementation
Significance Phase
�Implementation
Significance Phase
����
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Study of Nutritional Status in Bamyan, Afghanistan: Malnutrition and its Underlying Causes
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Anthropology
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71063475d9383956da5fb9849653680a
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National Collegiate Athletic Association Eating Disorders in Female
Athletes
Bailey R. Eaton WCSN, Erin L. Kerstetter WCSN, Erin C. Weisert WCSN
Wagner College, Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing
Proposed Solution
Introduction
Nutritional Counseling Assisting Athlete (NCAA)
• The National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) is the organization overseeing collegiate
sports in the United States. There is a community of
approximately 500,000 student-athletes that compete
in college athletics (1).
• The development of an eating disorder has negative
effects on an athlete's physical and mental wellbeing.
Currently, there is no NCAA mandated program for
eating disorder education and prevention leaving
female student-athletes at risk.
Community Assessment and Analysis
• In 2018-2019 there were 498,691 student-athletes from 1,098
colleges. 56% are male and 44% are female (1).
• From 1982 to 2016 there was a 13% increase in female
participation in the NCAA (2).
• Many student-athletes rely on an athletic scholarship to pay for
college tuition, which adds pressure to perform well athletically
(2).
• Money allocated towards athletic scholarships and resources—
such as having a sports psychologist, a certified nutritionist, or
informational programs regarding mental health— vary by
school and sport as each school spends their budget differently.
• The most common physical issue among NCAA athletes are
orthopedic injuries. Many athletes who experience long term
injuries begin to display signs of depression, anxiety, feelings of
isolation and changes in eating behaviors(3).
• One notable reaction to injury by student-athletes is restricting
caloric intake because of the belief that because they are not
participating in sports they do not deserve to eat. This behavior
can increase risk for disordered eating in a population that is
already susceptible to eating disorders (3).
• Inequality in educational resources regarding eating disorders
puts athletes without these resources at a higher risk for the
development of eating disorder.
(11)
Nutritional Counseling Assisting Athletes is the new
innovative solution to decreasing the probability of eating
disorders.
The Nutritional Counseling Assisting Athletes would mandate
that all NCAA schools that participate in athletic programs have
a sports psychologist and nutritionist as part of their individual
athletic departments. Prior to each semester, athletes will have
to participate in interactive modules and screenings in order to
prevent eating disorders and screen for those at risk.
In this program athletes will:
Problem in the Community
• Athletes are 2-3 times more likely to develop eating disorders than non-athletes (4).
• The American College of Sports Medicine defined disordered eating as a “wide spectrum of
harmful and often ineffective eating behaviors used in attempts to lose weight or achieve a
lean appearance” (5).
• Some ways of achieving this lean appearance could fall under the category of anorexia
nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating, avoidant/restrictive food intake and even pica (5).
• Athletes hold themselves to such high standards that increase the risk of negative self and
body assessments (5).
• Different sports have different “sport stereotypes” that lead the athlete to think that is the
ideal shape they should look like (5).
• Whether it is male or female, athletes are more perfectionists than non-athletes (6).
• Eating disorders can easily sabotage an athletes performance by feeling fatigue, light
headed and mentally/physically drained (7).
• By having the proper coaches, trainers, and tools, eating disorders can decrease and bring
awareness for the future athletes.
• Identify the physical and mental consequences of eating
disorders
• Discuss the resources for support if having thoughts or
difficulty with their nutrition or their mental health
• Initiate preventative actions to take in order to decrease the
risk of an eating disorder
• Identify proper nutritional intake
• Participate in mental health screenings
The goal of the Nutritional Counseling Assisting Athletes
program is that an athlete’s mental health will be taken as
seriously as their physical well being by NCAA athletic
departments. Athletes will learn to have a positive relationship
with their mind and body (8). They will do this using the
beneficial resources of a nutritionist and psychologist to help
maintain this relationship (9).
References
(10)
1. Meyers S. NCAA Demographics Database [Internet]. NCAA.org - The Official Site of the NCAA. 2020 [cited
2021Mar25]. Available from: http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/ncaa-demographics-database
2. Powell R. NCAA Scholarships and Grants [Internet]. NCAA.org - The Official Site of the NCAA. 2020 [cited
2021Mar25]. Available from: http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/ncaa-scholarships-andgrants#:~:text=In%20addition%20to%20the%20nearly,student%2Dathletes%20and%20member%20schools.
3. Rpowell. Mind, Body and Sport: How being injured affects mental health [Internet]. NCAA.org - The Official Site of
the NCAA. 2017 [cited 2021Mar25]. Available from: http://www.ncaa.org/sport-science-institute/mind-body-andsport-how-being-injured-affects-mental-health
4. Nagel DL, Black DR, Leverenz LJ, Coster DC. Evaluation of a screening test for female college athletes with eating
disorders and disordered eating [Internet]. 2000 [cited 2021Mar25]. Available from:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1323370/
5. Thompson RA, Sherman R. Reflections on athletes and eating disorders. Psychology of Sport and Exercise.
2014;15(6):729–34.
6. Galli N, A. Petrie T, Greenleaf C, J. Reel J, E. Carter J. Personality and psychological correlates of eating disorder
symptoms among male collegiate athletes. Eating Behaviors. 2014;15(4):615–8.
7. Maughan RJ. Nutrition in Sport. 2000;
8. Murphy R, Straebler S, Cooper Z, Fairburn CG. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Eating Disorders [Internet].
Psychiatric Clinics of North America. Elsevier; 2010. Available from:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0193953X10000468
9. Cook-Cottone CP. Incorporating positive body image into the treatment of eating disorders: A model for attunement
and mindful self-care [Internet]. Body Image. Elsevier; 2015 [cited 2021Mar25]. Available from:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1740144515000285
10. National Eating Disorders [Internet]. National Eating Disorder Association . 2018 [cited 2021]. Available from:
https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/eating-disorders-athletes
11. NCAA Logo [Internet]. Wikimedia. [cited 2021]. Available from:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NCAA_logo.svg
�
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Senior Presentations Archive
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This archive contains materials from Wagner’s annual ‘Senior Presentations.’ This event honors outstanding students from each discipline who completed their Senior Learning Community project with excellence. The work is representative of Wagner’s highest standards, and is exemplary of the diversity of subject matter, public-facing scholarship, and civic-minded professionalism our students have attained through their four years here. These students were specially invited to present their work in a formal setting, traditionally the day of Baccalaureate. Students are encouraged to present their work in a format appropriate for their discipline, and so, the presentations vary in their format. Some might be in the form of a short video, or paper abstracts, while others might be posters or music clips. We expect this archive to serve as a resource for generations to come. Congratulations to our Seniors!
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Bailey Eaton
Erin Kerstetter
Erin Weisert
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National Collegiate Athletic Association Eating Disorders in Female Athletes
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Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing
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Nursing
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Bethany Friedman
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Antigone Thesis
Antigone is a play about a spiritual quest for justice. A spiritual quest can be defined as a
search for the divine. Antigone’s search for religious justice is through her brother, Polynices. In
Ancient Greece, the gods were the most prominent source of power. The gods are the ultimate
creators of life and King Creon defied the laws of the gods by presenting an edict to the people
of Thebes that said that Polynices cannot have a sacred burial. This thesis argues that in pursuing
this edict, King Creon overstepped his role as a mortal king, attempted to enter into the realm of
the gods, and threatened to destroy the natural order of Greek society. Meanwhile, Antigone’s
motivation throughout the tragedy is to restore the natural order of Greek culture in which the
gods are on the top of the hierarchy--below these immortal creatures is mortal man. In order to
demonstrate the validity of this claim, this thesis begins by recounting a traditional, accepted
reading of Antigone. It is then divided into two parts. The first part provides evidence for the
claim that the play is about Antigone’s spiritual quest in restoring the divine order which Creon
has destroyed through his extreme hubris.The second part reviews alternate interpretations of
Antigone in order to indicate why they are flawed.
TRADITIONAL READING
After Oedipus went into exile, his two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, battled for his
Theban throne. Eteocles and Polynices end up killing each other in battle for the Kingdom of
Thebes. After this, Creon, Jocasta’s brother, becomes the king. Eteocles was declared the hero of
the battle with Polynices and given a sacred burial. Additionally, King Creon creates an edict that
says Polynices will not have a burial because he invaded Thebes and therefore is a traitor. He
1
�also declares that anyone who buries Polynices will be put to death for breaking his law.
Antigone, Oedipus’s daughter, knows that every mortal man that creates laws can be overtaken
by the gods because the gods are immortal and have full power. Traditionally, all must have a
sacred burial, but Creon makes a civil edict contrary to this tradition. Creon lacks wisdom, not
knowledge, when he creates this civil law. In this reading, Creon’s hubris and pride are what
cause him to challenge the sacred, divine law.
Antigone rebels against Creon’s edict and buries Polynices anyway. She is discovered
breaking the law and is brought before Creon in the palace. Antigone tells Creon that she
believes his edict is in conflict with divine law. In response, King Creon tells Antigone that he
cannot reverse the death penalty and the law he made because if he does this, he will lose the
trust of the people of Thebes. Antigone is set to marry Haemon, Creon’s son, but despite this,
Creon still punishes her for burying Polynices. Creon puts her in a tomb with a stone in front of it
and he intends to starve her to death. Haemon tries his best to be respectful to his father, but tells
him that people agree with Antigone and are too afraid to tell him because of his power. When
Haemon sides with Antigone, his father calls him a girly man. Haemon is insulted by this
comment and says that Creon will never see his face again. Initially, the chorus is afraid to tell
Creon that they agree with Antigone as well, but they finally tell him that he should change his
mind. Creon responds by saying that he never changes his mind, his fatal flaw. Towards the end
of the play, Tiresias comes along. He is a profit, a seer, and has never been wrong. Tiresias tells
Creon that no one has ever done what he did, he took a live person and put her below ground. He
says that Antigone will suffer a tremendous loss. Creon dismisses Tiresias even though he is
always correct. Creon needs to make reparations at this point but does not listen. He believes that
all power is vested in him.
2
�Creon ends up having a change of heart, but this change is too little, too late. He goes
down to the cave where he sees Haemon crying because Antigone hanged herself. Haemon is
very angry at Creon and he is holding Antigone. He blames his father for her death and tries to
stab him, but ends up stabbing himself. As a result of Haemon’s death, Creon’s wife also kills
herself. Creon becomes very upset and begins to understand that he is responsible for Antigone,
Haemon, and his wife’s death. He was acting from pride and hubris rather than wisdom. From
his terrible experience, he discovers that each is living out his or her destiny. Humans are not in
control of their destinies, the gods are.
PART ONE: ANTIGONE’S SPIRITUAL QUEST OF RESTORATION
The plot of Antigone may seem direct and simple, but there are multiple layers to this
tragedy, including themes of piety, symbolism, justice, the spiritual quest, and the damage of
excessive pride. This thesis argues that the main motivation of Antigone is Antigone’s attempts
to restore the natural, divine order that has been destroyed by Creon. In this part of the thesis, I
will first discuss the origin of Greece’s reverence for the gods in connection with Creon and
Antigone’s actions, then I will discuss the pattern of destruction and restoration of the natural
order of Thebes. Next, I will show how Antigone is on a spiritual quest for the restoration of
Creon’s destruction of the divine law, then I will discuss hubris as the downfall of King Creon,
and lastly I will show that Antigone’s primary motivation throughout the tragedy is divine
justice.
1. GREECE’S REVERENCE FOR THE GODS
3
�Antigone’s reverence for the gods stems from long-standing cultural and spiritual Greek
tradition. For Greek society, the gods are in everything. There is a god of wine, a god of the sea,
a goddess of love, a god of war, a goddess of the night. Justice is a goddess and she is who shall
decide the fate of Polynices. King Creon is but a mortal man. Throughout the play, Antigone
takes the necessary steps to be the carrier of Greek culture and respect the Gods through her
quest. Although the burial of her brother violates Creon’s edict, she is aware that the divine law
takes precedence. The fate of each character within the play is determined by the gods, for Creon
would not have become king without Ares, the god of war. Ares is the one who made Eteocles
and Polynices battle for the crown. Thanatos, the personification of death, carried Polynices and
Eteocles to the underworld, making Creon eligible to take the throne. Antigone truly reveres the
gods like the citizens of Greece and she understands that every mortal man that creates laws
could be overtaken by the gods. Creon’s actions not only destroy the cultural fabric of Thebes
but are also disrespectful to all the gods because he tries to challenge the fate that they have set.
The background of the gods’ creation process of humans is important because in reading
Antigone one must realize that humans must respect the gods because they are the creators of
civilization. In Creon’s disrespect of the gods’ rules, he is disrespecting his creators’ rules. The
gods are in everything because they created everything1. One day, the gods realized that they
were bored because they are immortal and their lives were filled with sameness. Because of their
1
Because the gods created the humans, they are the ones that decide what happens to humans after death. The
sacred burial is part of Greek culture and this is shown in Antigone because Eteocles is declared a hero, so he is
buried. King Creon lets his own beliefs about good v. evil get in the way of the fate that the gods set for people.
Justice is a goddess who is supposed to decide who is good and who is bad, and what the fate of the dead should be.
Polynices dies and is kept above ground when he was supposed to be put underground. With this action, Creon
deems Polynices undeserving of the afterlife. He does not leave the decision to the goddess, Justice, or Hades, the
god of the underworld. When Antigone violates his civil edict, he puts her underground with the dead, while she is
alive. Ironically, the places of the two bodies should be switched, but Creon places them unnaturally above and
below the ground. The unnatural places of the bodies become restored to the natural when Antigone buries her
brother against Creon’s decree and when she kills herself. When she kills herself she restores natural order, because
she becomes a dead person underground instead of a living person separated from civilization.
4
�eternal boredom, the gods thought that it might be fun to populate the Earth with life. Zeus gave
the job of making animal species to Prometheus and Epimetheus ended up working with him.
Epimetheus made the animals while Prometheus would check over the final products.
Epimetheus gave different powers to different creatures. After he finished designing the various
creatures that would inhabit the Earth, he showed Prometheus to see if he was satisfied. He liked
all of the work, except for the humans. This clay form was naked with no special abilities. But,
this did not matter, Zeus had given the brothers a certain time limit and today was the day that
these creatures would be released on Earth. The gods actually had no plans for human beings.
Prometheus said, “...we’ll just have to let this… human… fend for itself for a while”(Waterfield
13).
For the gods, goodness was defined as whether the life lived by a creature was pleasing in
the eyes of the gods. If goodness is defined as whether a life lived by a creature was pleasing in
the eyes of the gods, Creon definitely did not fulfill the standard of “good”. On the other hand,
Antigone’s whole motivation throughout the play is to please the gods, so she would be
considered “good” in their eyes. The gods devised life for the creatures that they had made. They
were in control of everything that would happen to the humans and they would test how the
creatures would respond to things like natural disasters and famine. The relationship of the gods
to humans is comparable to a board game. The gods are the players and the humans are the
moving pieces. This is important in considering the plot of Antigone because Greek society is
supposed to be bound to the gods, not mortal man. When Creon enacts his civil edict, he is
breaking the law of the gods. Creon reverses the board game metaphor by having the moving
piece of the game control the player, instead of the player control the game. This destroys the
natural order of the world in compromising the way fate works.
5
�Prometheus is the one who invented the human being because he felt a connection to
them. Prometheus saw the humans’ potential to resemble the gods. He knew that since the
human lacked any powers/skills, it would not take long for humans to be defeated and eliminated
from Earth. In knowing this, Prometheus decided to invest his own essence into the human
beings. The essence that Prometheus imparted happened to be intelligence. As Descartes points
out, intelligence is the only human connection to divinity. Prometheus could have left the
humans without any mental faculties to blindly follow the gods, but also die. In giving the
humans intelligence, Prometheus gives civilization a divine quality. If the gods did not give
humans intelligence, then Creon would never have become the king. The other gods did not
know that this knowledge was a gift from Prometheus, but the gods were able to see that the men
now feared for the future and decided to have fun with human intelligence.
Additionally, the gods invented sacrifice; men had to ask for better things rather than
worse things and in doing so had to provide something valuable for the gods as they asked.
When Creon breaks the divine laws, he does not even attempt to show respect to the gods
through sacrificial prayer. He acts as if his civil law is the right decision for his kingdom with no
consequence. If Creon asked the gods before he made his civil edict, the fate of the characters in
the play could have been different. The only issue left for the humans was that they needed fire
to succeed. So, Zeus gave the men fire “... and in return men were to sacrifice to the god, giving
the gods the best bits of the sacrificial victim”(Waterfield 14). Zeus also added that whatever is
done today will be final, for this day was the day of fire. Zeus’s addition of fire to Earth shows
that he has the ability to both continue and end the lives of creatures on Earth. When Creon
6
�breaks the law of the gods in not giving Creon a sacred burial, he disrespects Zeus and all of the
other gods2.
The traits of human beings were given by the gods, the trait of intelligence, the warmth of
fire, and even being alive are privileges given to humans by the gods. These abilities and gifts
can easily be taken away. By Zeus, what happens after death is the decision of the gods. The
gods made human beings and as the legend says, the gods also have the ability to sweep humans
off of the Earth. Zeus has the power to punish the other gods for going against his orders, so
what makes Creon think the gods will not punish him, a mere human? If Zeus will torture
Prometheus for decades just for playing a trick on him, one can only imagine how he will
discipline Creon for defying the divine law. In Greek culture, the people revered the gods
because they had respect for the inventors of human society. Without the gods, there would be no
Creon and that is what he fundamentally misunderstands. Throughout Antigone, Creon calls
himself a “supreme” king. “In the right of kinship nearest to the dead, possess the throne and
take the supreme power…”(8). King Creon shows the utmost disrespect towards the gods in
thinking that he has supreme power. Because of this fundamental misunderstanding and
disrespect towards the gods’ position of power, Creon feels that he has the ability to change the
fate of human life. Antigone simply attempts to remind Creon that he is a mortal man, by taking
action for the justice of her brother.
2. THE DESTRUCTION AND RESTORATION OF NATURAL ORDER
2
Unfortunately, Prometheus decided to play a trick on Zeus with his sacrifice. Zeus is the supreme god, so all other
gods report to him. He is the father of all, the supreme king and no one will dare oppose his will. If anyone opposes
Zeus’s will, they will be greatly punished. Zeus was furious with this trick, making for a lesser sacrifice from the
gods, so he decided to take away the humans’ fire so that they would die a slow death. The gods knew that without
fire the humans would not be able to prevail. Against Zeus’s decree, Prometheus gave the humans fire himself and it
was final because it was still officially the day of fire. Because of this, Prometheus was tortured for a long time.
7
�The main theme throughout Antigone is the destruction and restoration of the natural
order of the divine law. There is evidence of this interpretation written into the fabric of the
tragedy. In Creon’s attempt to manipulate Polynices’s fate, he attempted to play the role of a god
and messed up the divine plan3. Everyone knows and reveres the Gods, but Antigone is the one
who took action in the pursuit of Justice and Piety. In going against Creon’s edict and displaying
civil disobedience, Antigone attempts to restore order in the divine plan - therefore being
divinely obedient. First, Antigone gives Polynices his sacred burial, and then when she is
confronted by Creon, she attempts to inform him of his wrongs. Creon makes the exact opposite
effort as Antigone. First, he decides the fate of Polynices after death. He does not give him a
sacred burial and leaves him out for the dogs to eat. He then punishes Antigone for trying to
restore the natural order within Thebes by putting her underground while she is still alive and
plays with fate again by trying to control everyone.
Creon sees Eteocles as the hero and Polynices as the villain for invading Thebes. In
reality, they were both left Thebes from Oedipus. Eteocles and Polynices stabbed each other at
the same time in battle. Creon believes that because Polynices was technically the “intruder”, he
has the ability to punish Polynices after death. In actuality, Justice is a goddess who resides in
Hades and she will make the decision of one’s fate after death. In terms of divine law, it does not
make sense that Creon would decide who gets buried and who is left out for the dogs to eat.
Creon decides that Eteocles will be buried and Polynices would be left above ground to be eaten.
Creon attempts to question why Antigone buried Polynices. In his eyes, he cannot
decipher why someone would break his law. He believes he is the supreme king and that his laws
3
Creon’s disruption of divine order is a display of symbolism. Creon creates a tension between civil law and divine
law that is unnatural. Usually there is a natural hierarchy. According to Antigone, by Zeus, on the very top is Divine
Law, below that is Civil Law, and below that is individual will. In this play, Creon is the symbol of the unnatural and
Antigone is a symbol of the natural. Antigone is on a spiritual quest to make sure Polynices is buried and that the
gods decide his fate, not Creon.
8
�are the ones that should be followed. Because he is the king, he does not think that any law
should be above his. He also believes that Polynices is a bad man for invading the kingdom. In
response, Antigone says, “All the same, these rites are due to the underworld”(20). Antigone
truly believes that the divine law should decide the fate of Polynices, not a mortal man like King
Creon. The divine law is what guides her action to bury her brother. She does not disobey King
Creon’s edict to be a rebel, but because of the divine law. In response, Creon tells Antigone that
“The enemy can never be a friend, even in death”(20). Clearly, Creon believes that Polynices is
the enemy.
Part of the reason that Creon does not want Polynices to be buried is that he believes that
he is the enemy. John Tralau’s philia idea could be referenced in Creon’s scenario. Creon takes
the role of Justice by deciding this. For Antigone, philia does not matter; it is about divine law,
which says that everyone deserves a sacred burial and after that, the gods decide who deserves to
be punished and who goes to heaven. Creon violates this natural order by leaving Polynices
above the ground and making a law that prohibits anyone from burying him. He does this
initially because Polynices apparently invaded Thebes, but he allows this decree to continue
because as a king, he does not want to be proven wrong by a girl.
While talking to his son, Haemon, Creon defends his edict. “There lives no greater friend
than Anarchy”(26). Creon believes that his law is “a cause of order” in Thebes because it is a
law. When one thinks of what a law should imply, the word that comes to mind is order. Usually
the person disrupting the law causes anarchy, except that Creon is actually the one who is
disrupting the divine law. Antigone is the one trying to restore order. Creon only interprets
Antigone as an anarchist because she is breaking his law. It is ironic that Creon makes the word
anarchy feminine. It is as if Creon defines Antigone with the word, anarchy. When in reality,
9
�Creon is the one who causes chaos in his kingdom because he does not follow the divine law and
changes the fate of his whole family.
In conversation with Creon, even Haemon agrees with his supposed future wife. He says
to Creon, “You desecrate by trampling on Heaven’s honour!”(28). In defense of his future wife,
Haemon tells his father that he believes in the same thing as Antigone. He believes that Creon is
disrespecting the laws of divinity. For this accusation, Creon accuses his son of being a
“woman’s follower” and tells him that Antigone will die before her and Haemon get to marry.
Another ploy that Creon uses to defend his bad decision is insulting his son about his gender.
When Haemon disagrees with his father and Creon cannot think of anything to say back, he
simply insults his son instead of saying something that makes sense. By calling Haemon a girl
when he wishes to be identified as a man, Creon destroys the order of the world again. Creon
believes that the word of a man is more powerful than the word of a woman. By relating Haemon
to a woman, Creon is able to justify ignoring his son’s plea. This is clear because he has no clear
rebuttal for Haemon’s statement about the Heavens.
Creon presents his son with more broken logic as he defends his destructive actions.
Creon exclaims, “It is lost labor to revere the dead”(29). This is totally antithetical to Greek
belief. When Eteocles had his sacred burial, everyone revered him, so what is the difference with
Polynices? Both Eteocles and Polynices died, so with Creon’s logic that it is “lost labor to revere
the dead” he contradicts himself. For Creon, the difference between Eteocles and Polynices and
their after-life privileges were solely his decision. He decided that Polynices was bad and
Eteocles was good. In defense of his decision to disobey the divine law he claims that respecting
the dead is a waste of time. Creon should clarify his statement by adding, “It is lost labor to
10
�revere anyone that I think is bad upon death.” The gods made Creon and he should respect their
wishes. In the eyes of the gods, it is not lost labor to revere the gods.
Creon attempts to destroy natural order again by putting Antigone underground in an
enclosed area while she is still alive. Creon is very specific with his intentions in putting
Antigone underground. “Wall her up in some deep catacomb as I have said; leave her alone,
apart, to perish if she will; or if she live, to make her tomb her tenement. For us, we will be
guiltless of this maiden’s blood; but here on earth she shall abide no more”(Sophocles 33). Creon
willingly puts a living person in an underground tomb. He wants her to be apart from the living
“to perish.” If she does live instead of perish, Creon wants Antigone to make the underground
tomb into her home.
When first reading the tragedy, it seems like King Creon’s largest blunder is when he
keeps Polynices from being buried. Many interpretations miss that Creon does the much more
unnatural action of putting a living person underground so that she can no longer reside on Earth.
Creon destroys the natural circle of life by basically burying Antigone alive. He again takes the
authority of the gods and decides that because Antigone disagrees with his civil edict, she can no
longer be part of civilization. It is as if King Creon is trying to keep Antigone from infiltrating
the rest of the kingdom with her pious attitude. In defending his “Supreme throne” he decides
that he has the power to prevent Antigone from living life on earth, robbing her of her wedding
and future children.
Creon’s original decree said that anyone who buried Polynices would be put to death. By
putting a living person underground, he reneges his word. Creon fails to understand that by
changing this part of his law, he could still lose the trust of the people of Thebes because, in a
way, he still did not keep his word. He did not kill the culprit who buried Polynices, he just put
11
�her in a tomb while she was still alive. With this chain of logic, why couldn’t Creon retract the
whole edict? He changed part of it so that he does not have to have Antigone’s blood on his
hands, but this change is basically equivalent to changing the whole law. Creon goes on to say
that he does not have to feel any guilt for Antigone’s blood because he is not having her killed.
Creon should actually feel more guilt for his actions because he did not end Antigone’s misery
before isolating her for the rest of her life, but instead allowed her to live a miserable life
underground with the dead. Creon’s movement of Antigone to an underground tomb shifted the
natural order of the world even more, and as a result, he ended up breaking his own decree
changing the fate of his kingdom4.
The outside perspective of the chorus shows the reader what the people of Thebes
believe. At first the chorus is excited to have a new king, but as the play moves forward the
chorus affirms Greek society’s respect for the gods. The perspective of the chorus is important
because they are viewing the situation at hand from the outside. While both Creon and Antigone
present their views from a subjective perspective, the chorus fills the play with objectivity. After
Creon sentences Antigone to her unnatural fate to live underground, the chorus interprets King
Creon’s actions.
“Happy the man whose cup of life is free from taste of evil! If Heaven’s influence shake them,
no ill but follows till it overtake them, all generations of his family; like as when before the
sweep of the sea-borne Thracian blast the surge of the ocean coursing past above the cavern of
the deep rolls up from the region under all the blackness of the shore, and the beaten beaches
thunder answer to the roar”(Sophocles 23).
4
In Oedipus’s madness he called down Pelops’ curse upon his sons and doomed them to divide their kingdom and
die at each others’ hands (Waterfield 108). This curse falls upon generations to come. It is possible that Antigone’s
fate from the start was to fight Creon and someday fall. Creon ignored the gods and he was definitely punished for
it. But ultimately I question, was fate truly played with or did Oedipus curse future generations with his madness?
Although Creon tampered with fate and was the one to go against divine law, was Oedipus the one to impart this
chaos on his family? Maybe Oedipus’s madness spread to Creon and made him feel like he was King of the world.
All in all, this would just prove even more that divine law is the supreme law and Creon’s decree went against it
causing more heartbreak for his family than the gods already had planned. In making the human being, the gods
planned for humans to make large sacrifices to get what they want. In the end, Creon made the ultimate sacrifice by
going against divine law, for he lost his whole family.
12
�Similar to how Antigone predicts that Creon’s fate will be worse than hers, the chorus also
foreshadows Creon’s self-induced fate. At the moment that Creon sends Antigone down to the
cave, it may seem like his cup of life is free from the taste of evil, but in reality the Heavens are
going to take over Creon’s life and curse his family with death. For King Creon, the cup of evil is
for anyone who disobeys his civil edict, but for the gods the cup of evil is for the overly prideful
man who tries to decide the fate of the dead, i.e. Creon. The chorus compares the fate of Creon’s
family to the blast of the sea overtaking the Greek land in blackness. The chorus references the
death of Oedipus in analyzing the future fate of Creon, which signals a horrible fate of
loneliness.
3. ANTIGONE: ON THE QUEST FOR DIVINE JUSTICE
Antigone’s primary method in restoring the order of Thebes is through her spiritual quest
to bury her brother5, Polynices. Antigone faces death for her religious belief that the burial of her
brother is justified. Despite the consequences of the burial of her brother, Antigone buries him
anyway because she realizes the importance of spiritual existence of the gods in her culture.
Antigone is a symbol of the divine because she knows that she will be punished by Creon - with
death - and still goes through with her pursuit of justice. The play becomes a battle between
divine law and civil law. One of which has to do with the spirit and the other, mankind. By page
5
The entirety of Antigone is a chain reaction all enacted by Oedipus. Analyzing the chain of events from the
beginning of Antigone, Polynices and Eteocles kill each other, Creon becomes king and declares that Polynices
intruded Thebes, so he cannot have a sacred burial. He makes an edict that says anybody who does bury Polynices
will be put to death. Antigone then buries Polynices. She is not killed, but instead put underground while she is still
alive. Creon realizes he was wrong for making the law that prevented the burial of Polynices. Antigone has already
killed herself before Creon’s realization. As a result Haemon tries to kill Creon, accidentally killing himself. Then as
a result of her son’s death, Creon’s wife kills herself. By the end of the play, Creon is left in eternal sadness because
he has lost everyone he cares about. Creon’s law continued a chain of destruction that Greek society hoped would
stop after the deaths of Polynices and Eteocles.
13
�three of the play, Antigone declares what she believes about the burial of Polynices. The
interaction between Ismene (Antigone’s sister) and Antigone shows the contrast between their
motivations.
Ismene: “For my part, I will ask pardon of those beneath, for what perforce I needs must do, but
yield obedience to them that walk in power; to exceed is madness, and not wisdom.”
Antigone: “Then in future I will not bid you help me; nor henceforth, though you desire, shall
you, with my goodwill, share what I do. But what seems right to you; him will I bury”(Sophocles
3).
Ismene feels that the gods will allow her to follow Creon’s edict because he is the one that
apparently walks in power. She feels that to go against Creon’s decree would be madness, so she
basically calls Antigone crazy for disobeying their uncle. At this point, Antigone tries to explain
her actions to her sister, Ismene. She tells Ismene that in the future she does not expect her help
in any endeavor. Antigone will bury Polynices and she does not care that it is a crime on Earth,
what she cares about is what the gods will think. Ismene’s thought process is flawed when
looking at the way the gods conceived the humans. Ismene claims that she will ask for “pardon”
from those beneath so that she could abide by Creon’s human law. On the contrary, when the
gods allowed the humans to live they invented sacrifice. For humans to receive anything from
the gods, a sacrifice that matches the value of the request must be made. What matches the value
of a request to allow a human to make decisions that should be made in the heavens? In Ismene’s
effort to obey Creon’s law she shows blatant disrespect of the gods, which Antigone wants no
part of. Even if on Earth her burial is considered a “capital crime”, Antigone knows that this
“crime” is a pious one. She is choosing to please the gods rather than her uncle. Antigone knows
that the gods will approve of her plan to bury her brother. Therefore, when she takes action and
buries Polynices against Creon’s edict, she acts as a figure of piety.
When Antigone explains her reasoning for burying her brother, she references the gods.
Antigone will not deny that she buried Polynices, even though she realizes that her actions broke
14
�the law. She overstepped King Creon’s law, “Because it was not Zeus who ordered it, Nor
Justice, dweller with the Nether Gods, Gave such a law to men; nor did I deem Your ordinance of
so much binding force, As that a mortal man could overbear the unchangeable unwritten code of
heaven…” (17). Antigone knows that the gods have supreme power and their orders are what
matter. Zeus did not order the people of Thebes not to bury Polynices. Zeus did not pronounce
Polynices a bad person. Additionally, Justice did not decide that Polynices was a bad man or that
he should be punished. A mortal man cannot “overbear the unchangeable unwritten code of
heaven”. These words are powerful. The “unchangeable unwritten code of heaven” is the natural
order set forth by the gods. This means that these rules cannot be changed. A mortal man cannot
decide the fate of the dead. The code of the gods is also unwritten, meaning that everyone knows
this code. Creon broke the gods’ rules knowing that their code is unchangeable and therefore
destroyed natural order. When Antigone buries her brother it is her following her religious
calling, thus she is a spiritual quester.
Creon and Antigone converse before she is taken away to death and Antigone makes one
of her strongest statements. “Am I not come through piety to be held impious? If this is approved
in Heaven, why let me suffer and own that I have sinned; but if the sin belong to these- O may
their punishment Be measured by the wrongfulness of mine!”(34). Antigone took pious actions
only to be treated like she did something impious. Antigone’s actions are approved by the gods.
She has not sinned, yet she is being treated as if she committed the worst crime. Creon treated
Antigone’s spiritual quest as a sinful action. Because Creon is ruled by selfish intentions, for him
Antigone did sin. Antigone’s sin was not against the Heavens, but her “sin” hurt King Creon’s
pride. Antigone disobeyed a mortal man in power because she was following her path that was
set by a higher power: the gods. Antigone foreshadows the end of the play by referencing
15
�Creon’s future punishment, which should be measured by the “wrongfulness” of her punishment.
As Antigone was taken by the guards to her death, she says “I duly performed the dues of
piety!”(35). Antigone realizes that she is going to die for her act of piety and does not regret her
actions. Antigone is the symbol of piety and restoration throughout the play and only performed
the duty that she thought was necessary. Piety is a universal law, one of divinity, that bears much
more power than Creon’s edict and he will pay that price. He is the one who has erred in his
ways, not Antigone.
4. KING CREON’S PRIDE AND HUBRIS: HIS DOWNFALL
Creon’s attempt to rise in position on the hierarchy is fueled by his hubris and pride. With
this selfish motivation, Creon becomes the destroyer of the natural order. Creon’s motivation is
ironic in that hubris is excessive pride or self-confidence but he is too insecure to take advice.
His hubris is the reason that he made and pursued the edict. “In the right of kinship nearest to the
dead, possess the throne and take the supreme power…”(8). In taking “supreme power”, Creon
mimics the actions of a god. He decides that Polynices is a bad person and does not deserve a
burial. When Antigone buries Polynices anyway, he declares that she should not be allowed to
live along with the masses. Creon’s pride and hubris gave Creon the internal power to disobey
the law of the gods and try to be one. With that, he does not even identify the faults of his actions
until Antigone has already died. Creon’s overbearing hubris makes him truly believe that his
actions as a “godly, supreme being” were allowed and correct. He did not want his people of the
kingdom to think that he could not keep his word: a selfish feat, and because of this insecurity,
Polynices was not given a sacred burial. Antigone was buried alive, ultimately killing herself,
upon this sight, Haemon killed himself, and as a result, Creon’s wife also killed herself.
16
�Something that Creon thought would be to his benefit, actually caused him to lose everything
that was important to him. Instead of having a reputation for being inconsistent, he made himself
a reputation for causing his family to kill themselves. Is that any better? Creon’s attempt to be
consistent ultimately brought about sorrow- ending lives.
In his actions, Creon is making assumptions about what the gods want. “Or do you see
Gods honouring the bad?”(12). No god has declared Polynices as “bad”. King Creon made this
assumption on his own. Creon suppresses the hierarchy and puts himself on the highest pedestal
as mortal man. Antigone is his rude awakening, trying to humble him, reminding him that he is
not a god. Creon’s extreme pride infiltrates him and allows him to act like a mad man. Creon
may be in a position of power on earth, but in the Heavens, Creon’s actions will not be seen this
way.
Creon: “And you made free to overstep my law?”
Antigone: “Because it was not Zeus who ordered it, nor Justice, dweller with the Nether Gods,
gave such a law to men…”(Sophocles 17).
Creon is completely shocked when Antigone proudly admits that she disregarded Creon’s law
and buried Polynices anyway. Because of his hubris, he cannot conceive someone disobeying
him--especially a woman. Antigone reveals who she is willing to take orders from. She is not
being an anarchist in her disregard for Creon, but the opposite. Antigone tells Creon that because
no god announced that Polynices could not be buried, she is not following his law. Creon’s sense
of shock after hearing this news reveals that he is a pompous man who does not care if there is
any “supremer power” than he.
Even the chorus feels that King Creon’s hubris is his downfall. The Chorus reflets what
any reasonable person would think and responds to Creon’s reaction to the burial of Polynices.
“Wresting his country’s laws to his own will, Spurning the sanctions of celestial right; High in
17
�the city, he is made city-less, Whoso is corrupt, for his impiety… ”(15). The people of Thebes
can clearly see that Creon is corrupt in the declaration of his edict. His will alone is what caused
him to leave Polynices above the ground and punish him. He goes against the sanctions of the
gods and decides that Polynices is a bad person and invader. The Chorus foreshadows what will
happen later in the play. In the beginning, he is the almighty king, making civil decrees that are
ungodly. By the end of the play, Creon has lost everything because of his actions that directly
reject that of divine law.
Tiresias, the seer and profit, is King Creon’s last hope to make him realize the mistake he
has made. In Tiresias’s words, Creon has sent a “living soul unworthily to dwell within a
tomb”(40). Tiresias is the closest human to divinity, for he has never steered anyone wrong. He
attempts to reprimand Creon’s actions and correct him. Tiresias warns “... to take thee in the evil
of thine own hands… ”(40) will bring him “wails” from his own home and “enmity” from his
kingdom. Tiresias finally is able to inspire Creon to correct his mistakes. “I cannot fight at odds
with destiny”(41). Although throughout the entire play, King Creon acts as if he is the supreme
power, he finally acknowledges that he is not. The gods control the fate of human beings. King
Creon has tampered with fate and realizes too late. Tiresias’s predictions were correct and King
Creon is left in shambles.
5. ANTIGONE’S MOTIVATION: DIVINE JUSTICE
Antigone’s motivation throughout the play is to find justice for her brother, Polynices.
This matters to Antigone because she reveres the divine law. The divine law says that everyone
should have a sacred burial and then the goddess, Justice shall decide what happens next. It is
important to note that the divine law is equivalent to the natural order because the divine law
18
�determines the fate of the people. Antigone does not go against Creon’s edict because of her
relationship with Polynices. She rejects Creon’s edict because it is in opposition to divine law. I
believe that if any citizen was treated the way that Polynices was, Antigone would stand up for
them because she wants justice in her world. Antigone states, “All the same, these rites are due to
the underworld”(20). Antigone is only following the laws of the underworld in the pursuit of her
actions. Her reasoning for her actions is consistent throughout the play with her references to
Zeus or the underworld when justifying her actions. Her reverence for the gods is not specific to
her brother, but it is a universal reverence. She does not care that she is a woman, about the lack
of support from her sister, or that her actions break the civil law of King Creon. What she does
care about is the supreme law of the gods.
An example from the text that supports this reading is found in a conversation between
Antigone and Ismene in which Antigone first tells her sister about her plan to go against Creon’s
edict. Ismene is unsupportive. But Ismene’s words did not affect Antigone’s decision, because
she felt that Ismene misunderstood the importance of Polynices’s burial. Antigone explains,
“Death, so met, were honour; And for that capital crime of piety, Loving and loved I will lie by
his side. Far longer is there need I satisfy Those nether powers, than powers on earth; for For
ever must I lie. You, if you will, Hold up to scorn what is approved of Heaven!”(3). Antigone
acknowledges that her “crime” is in the name of piety. Polynices died for his kingdom and she
loved him, for he is her brother. The satisfaction of the gods is more important than the
satisfaction of a human king. “There need I satisfy those nether powers” means that Antigone
believes that satisfying the gods is of utmost importance. She confronts Ismene and tells her, it is
ok if she disapproves of Antigone’s actions, but Antigone knows that what she is doing is
justified in terms of the divine law.
19
�Creon attempts to curtail Antigone’s plan with his threat of death attached to his edict.
Antigone’s civil disobedience is in direct opposition to Creon’s civil law. Antigone makes a
statement where she shows the world that just because something is the law does not mean it is
justice. She uses her beliefs in the gods to show that the fairness of Greek culture brings people
together. Preservation of culture brings forth a consistent belief system. Humans treat humans
fairly and evenly. Creon opposes this system and decides how to treat Polynices after death when
it is the job of the gods to decide what happens after death. Many critics point out Antigone’s
civil disobedience, but what about Creon’s divine disobedience? How about Creon’s ability to
ignore the cultural fabric of society just because he is in a position of power? Creon’s ignorance
becomes his hubris and defines his downfall in the play.
PART II: VARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS IN CONNECTION AND CONTRAST WITH
ANTIGONE’S SPIRITUAL QUEST OF RESTORATION
The sources in this part provide implicit analyses of the play that, while interesting and
worthy of reflection, are not written in the fabric of the piece. Hegel takes the tragic hero and
makes the tragic collision. Molly Farneth analyzes the role of women within Greek society and
decides that their social roles are what repress them. John Tralau attempts to assign philos to
Antigone and Creon as their motives for their actions. While, from a psychoanalytic perspective,
Antigone is a self-willed victim who echoes herself throughout the play. Given the reading in
part one, I maintain that each of the views in part two misses an essential piece of Antigone:
reverence for the divine law. In this part of the thesis, I will first discuss the Hegelian
interpretation of Antigone, then I will discuss the feminist interpretation of the Hegelian
20
�perspective. Next, I will consider the interpretation that defines the characters of Antigone by
their Philos, then I will discuss the psychoanalytic interpretation of Antigone.
1. THE TRADITIONAL HEGELIAN PERSPECTIVE
Francisco J. Gonzalez’s text highlights the Hegelian view of Antigone. According to him,
it is a “tragic collision” between two characters, Antigone and Creon, who each embody some
sort of good. Both Antigone and Creon have different views, but each view has validity in
Hegel’s eyes. Hegel’s position of tragic collision conflicts with Aristotle’s interpretation of Creon
as the tragic hero. Gonzalez’s interpretation of Hegel’s Antigone is in contrast to the
interpretation of part one in that Hegel considers both Antigone and Creon “good”. But, it falls
short because if both Creon and Antigone are good, then there is no point in what Antigone is
doing and the play itself does not make sense.
Antigone is not about individual characters, but the message that is sent to Greek
society.6 It makes the reader question what justice actually is, what being pious means, and
realize the theme of destruction and restoration of justice. Antigone is a symbol in that she is the
bearer of culture, of the divine law.7 Hegel believes that Antigone is a play about good v. good. I
believe that Hegel’s view is unsupported in the play. Only one character’s view can be right and
that is Antigone. If this were not true, then why would all of Creon’s family end up dead? And
why would he end up admitting his mistake? Creon blatantly disobeys the laws of the gods and
that is why he is fundamentally incorrect in his edict.
6
Gonzalez begins by deconstructing the Aristotelian tragic hero. According to Gonzalez, if Creon is to be called the
“tragic hero” within this play, shouldn’t it be named after him? I believe that this comment is flawed in that the
tragic hero’s importance is in their fatal mistake. Just because someone is the tragic hero, does not mean that they
should be the title of the play.
7
The tragic hero implies that there is a good side and an evil side, when in reality Hegel sees two good sides.
21
�Hegel believes that human law is grounded in divine law and divine law only becomes
“aware of itself” within human law. This is ironic because the two types of laws completely
contrast each other, but need one another to survive. Each good is blind to the other. As argued in
part one, it is true that human law needs the divine law in order to survive, but divine law does
not need human law. This point is essential in deconstructing Hegel’s argument. Gonzalez and
Hegel are incorrect in stating that divine law only becomes aware of itself in human law. Divine
law is enacted within the gods. The divine law is the code that the gods live by and expect
humans to follow, but it does not die without human participation. The divine law stands alone in
its enactment because it is for the gods. Therefore, the laws are in no way equal. Human law
needs divine law and divine law is its own entity. The “goods” are not blind to each other
because Antigone is good and Creon is bad. Divine law and human law are unequal.
Gonzalez continues to state that Antigone does not see how what Creon is doing is good
and Creon does not see how Antigone is doing something good. “The tragedy is that in the
conflict between right and right, each right becomes a wrong without ceasing to be
right”(Gonzalez). In Gonzalez’s piece, he observes the line from the play, “Sooner or later, foul
is fair, fair is foul to the man the gods will ruin” (696-698; Fagles trans.). He argues that Hegel’s
reading pays justice to this line because it applies to both Creon and Antigone. Both Creon and
Antigone fall to horrible fates. Antigone kills herself and Creon loses his family. But part one
establishes a different interpretation. The quote above ends with, “the man the gods will ruin.”
In opposition to Gonzalez’s interpretation, this line is actually completely aligned with the
argument that divinity is superior to human law because the gods do ruin, but it is not Antigone
who is ruined, it is Creon. Antigone dies by Creon’s destruction of the natural fate that the gods
have set forth. The gods ruin Creon because he admits he is wrong (being inconsistent with his
22
�enactment of the law), loses his entire family, and he has defied the law of divinity. Creon learns
that the divine laws are fair and this is foul to him because he loses everything he cares about.
The alternate interpretation from part one to those like Gonzalez’s is that Creon’s
defiance of the gods and his hubris get him into trouble. By defying the divine law he is
attempting to be like a Greek god; thus he is not good. Creon gives us further evidence of this
while talking to his son, Haemon, when he says, “And what worse sore can plague us, than a
loved one’s worthlessness? Better to spurn this maiden as a foe! Leave her to wed some
bridegroom in the grave! For, having caught her in the act, alone of the whole city disobeying
me, I will not publicly bely myself, but to kill her”(Sophocles 25). Creon would rather see his
niece die than admit his wrongs. He is willing to sacrifice his son’s bride to make himself look
better. In making his civil edict, he declares anyone who disobeys it worthless, so he sentences
his son’s bride and niece to death so that King Creon may continue his reign as a “god.” Some
may argue that Antigone is also very arrogant in her stance, and therefore not good in the same
way as Creon, but she is trying her best to stand up for what she believes in. In a way, Creon also
attempts to stand up for what he believes in, but does he really believe that the civil law is
superior to the divine law? The civil law does not have as much standing as the divine law and
this is what Antigone is trying to defend.
Hegel’s view is that although Antigone and Creon both have an aspect of good, they still
destroy each other in their quest to be right. But part one maintained that Antigone is a symbol of
piety and Creon is a symbol of hubris. Antigone’s motive only has standing if she is good and
Creon is not. Antigone would have no reason to break Creon’s civil law if Creon’s view was
equally as “good” as Antigone’s. Contrary to Hegel’s view, they do not destroy each other;
rather, Creon destroys everything while Antigone only tries to fix what Creon has damaged.
23
�2. FEMINIST INTERPRETATION OF HEGEL’S ANTIGONE
Molly Farneth presents a unique, feminist interpretation of the Hegelian reading of
Antigone. While she agrees with Gonzalez that both Creon and Antigone are good, she believes
that gender is what undoes the relationship between them. More specifically, she says that the
difference between human law and divine law can be interpreted as a difference between male
law and female law. This interpretation is interesting because it solely depends on the gender of
the main characters, but it misses the mark because the thematic structure and plot of Antigone
depends on more than gender differences.
The author cites Hegel’s interpretation in that Antigone is about characterizations of
groups according to their gender, and their relationship to the world. Hegel attempts to give a
complete picture of Greek Sittlichkeit in Antigone. Sittlichkeit means how the Greeks obtain
social order within the ethics of their society. Hegel begins by highlighting the harmony within
the Greek society, specifically within Antigone. The opposition between Antigone and Creon is
simply a clash of two, gendered sides who both think they are correct because their gender binds
them to the laws differently. Pursuing one of these laws causes a conflict for the other8.
Many critics have a problem with the fact that Hegel distinguishes Oedipus from
Antigone, making his crime excusable (because he didn’t expect it) and her crime inexcusable
because she buried Polynices knowing that her action would break civil law. Antigone is proud
of herself for standing up for what is justified in divine law: the burial of Polynices. Farneth
acknowledges that there is no real reconciliation between Creon and Antigone. She states, “The
confessions of Antigone and Creon fall on deaf ears”(659). In other words, Antigone never faults
8
The rules about gender conflict do not apply within the family structure. Hegel puts forth that within the family, the
brother and sister have a relationship where desire is not a factor. But, in the brother-sister relationship, the sister is
able to achieve “self-hood”, whereas in a desirous male-female relationship, there will always be a fundamental
inequality of roles. Apparently, “nature assigns the human law to men and the divine law to women”(651). Hegel
believes that this is not because of nature, but because of the ethical norms of society. This is where the term
“character” comes to play. Character for Hegel is a one-sided and unreflective form of identity that is immediate.
24
�herself, and everyone (that matters) that Creon would confess his wrongness to has died. Once he
realizes what he has done, it is too late to save Antigone. As a result of Antigone’s death, Creon’s
son dies, and then his wife dies. Additionally, Hegel categorizes women as the “internal enemy”.
Hegel believes that the community thrives by suppressing the women within it. The gender roles
within the community are what repress women, not women in themselves. The prevailing culture
assigns women to certain roles. As a woman, when Antigone appeals to Creon about the
wrongfulness of his actions, he does not listen. One reason is because of his hubris and excessive
pride as “supreme king”. The other reason is because Antigone is a woman. In Ancient Greece, it
was not common for a woman to be right.
It is true that gender roles are what repress women in Antigone but Antigone’s gender is
not the main cause of her problems. In contrast to both Gonzalez and Farneth, the central issue is
the choice of following Creon’s edict or the laws of divinity; there is no mutual destruction
between Antigone and Creon. I believe that the destruction of everyone is due to Creon’s hubris
and inability to change his ways for the divine law. If the Greeks worshipped the gods as much
as I have learned, wouldn’t Creon’s decree be wrong within the universal law of piety? If so, the
destruction of Creon’s community is due to Creon himself. Gender does play a role in the
dynamic of the tragedy, but ultimately the conflict in the play comes down to one’s belief. If
Antigone was a man and buried Polynices, it would not change her fate. The way Creon reacted
toward his son shows that he still would not have admitted the wrongfulness of his ways. If the
main plot changed in the play and Haemon buried Polynices, according to Antigone’s motivation
of following the divine law, nothing would change in the plot. I believe that Sophocles was
intentional with his choice of making Antigone a woman. But, I think that the point of this
choice was to make a statement: the divine law prevails no matter what gender one is.
25
�3. JOHN TRALAU’S PHILIAN PERSPECTIVE
The ideas above are fully Hegelian, whereas the other views presented will stray from the
interpretation of Antigone as a tragedy of mutual destruction. Johan Tralau concentrates on the
idea of Philia in an attempt to save the Hegelian interpretation and make it less subjective, but
the lack of textual evidence for his view makes it hard to accept.
The Hegelian perspective could be interpreted as subjective because it is about the
characters themselves. While the Philian interpretation takes the entirety of the tragedy into
consideration citing the different communities within it. This interpretation is interesting because
it deals with the loyalty of Creon and Antigone to different parts of their communities. But, the
Philian interpretation is deficient in evidentiary support. The claim that Creon acts in a certain
way because of his loyalty could be interpreted as true because of his selfish motive and hubris.
On the other hand, Antigone definitely did not act as she did because of loyalty to her family, but
instead loyalty to the divine law.
The idea of Philia is different from the Hegelian interpretation because it deals with the
loyalty of Antigone and Creon to the environments around them. He believes that both Creon
and Antigone are unattached to the communities they strive to protect and that Antigone is
self-destructive by arguing for divine laws. Supposedly, both Antigone and King Creon strive to
protect the Greek community, but they have different motivations in doing so. Tralau puts forth
that both Creon and Antigone are unattached to the Theban community. The author uses the
word “Philia” as the guiding principle in his theory. Antigone has her own meaning of who is
Philos. Both Creon and Antigone’s Philos are not the Greek community. For Creon, an enemy of
the city, could never be Philos, hence Antigone. The author points out that Creon’s words could
26
�be used against him. Tralau’s analysis of Creon’s Philos is inconsistent because it seems that not
every enemy of the city is left out of Creon’s Philos. Creon’s own son (Haemon) disagrees with
Creon’s decree yet he is still Philos.
Polynices is Philos to Antigone, so therefore must be buried. Tralau points out that
because Polynices is Antigone’s philos, they could have an incestuous relationship. Tralau does
address the lack of evidence for the incest view by pointing out that Antigone’s mother and
father are also Philos. The loyalty and family issues that Tralau mentions are not for the gods to
decide, so therefore are not the central issue of this play. The author says that Antigone overlooks
the state, but this is because the gods matter over the state. Tralau makes the central issue
Antigone’s loyalty, when in reality the central issue is the law. Creon is a power-hungry man,
while Antigone is trying to do right by the divine law.
Antigone’s definition of philia is complicated because it is about blood relation.
“...Antigone’s understanding of kinship seems to be very narrow: Philia is about being of the
same blood or, rather ‘of the same womb’”(Tralau 390). This may seem arbitrary but it is not
because Tralau puts forth that if Haemon was in the same position as Polynices, she may not
have acted in the same way. If Haemon was not given a sacred burial, Antigone may not have
fought Creon for him because Haemon is only her fiance, he was not born from the same womb
as Antigone. Tralau claims that this definition of Philia is inconsistent because there is no place
for her parents. As argued in the section, “Antigone’s Motivation: Divine Justice”, this point is
not valid because if Antigone’s motivation is divine law, she would have buried anyone, it would
not matter if there was any blood relation.
The author’s interpretation of Antigone and Ismene’s relationship puts them in opposition
to each other. Tralau believes that Antigone disrespects Ismene by denying her the right to die
27
�with her. While in my reading, Ismene wants to protect Antigone by keeping quiet. Antigone
does not strive to be protected, she wants Creon to know what she has done. I would not
misconstrue this notion by saying that Ismene is the enemy of Antigone. When Antigone does
not want Ismene to die with her it shows another way that Antigone protects her sister. She loves
Ismene and does not want her to die for a cause that she does not care about. Thus, Antigone
exhibits philia toward Ismene by saving her from death.
Tralau’s theory of philia within Antigone has several flaws. First, if Antigone’s
motivation were philia, why wouldn’t it include Haemon? There is no solid proof within
Antigone that she would not do the same for Haemon as she did for Polynices. Antigone believes
in the divine law and that is why she acted in the way that she did throughout the play9. There is
no textual proof within the play that says Antigone buried Polynices because he is her brother.
On the other hand, there is textual evidence that Antigone gave a sacred burial to Polynices
because she was following the laws of the Heavens. For example Antigone states, “As that a
mortal man could overbear the unchangeable unwritten code of heaven…” (Sophocles 17).
Antigone acknowledges that man cannot overstep the divine laws that are already in place. This
is a general statement that Antgone puts forth in defending her actions and proving the
wrongfulness of Creon’s decree. The unwritten code of Heaven is that everyone gets a secret
burial, so Antigone is simply asserting that she values the validity of the laws of the gods over
Creon’s law.
4. THE PSYCHOANALYTIC ANALYSIS OF ANTIGONE
9
Polynices was her brother, but the only reason this could be significant is because he is within the direct bloodline
of Oedipus. If Oedipus really did call upon Pelop’s curse, then it was fate that Eteocles and Polynices died a
gruesome death at each others’ hands.
28
�The psychoanalytic interpretation of Antigone is the most subjective interpretation of the
play in relation to the others, for one is forced to look at a play through a completely contrasting
lens. When reading the play with the other views in mind, one does not have to shift his
perspective. The play reads as if any of the views could be easily conceived. Whereas Miriam
Leonard’s psychoanalytic interpretation has to be searched for in the tragedy. This interpretation
is interesting because it is so creative, but it misses the mark because there is not enough
evidence to support it. Additionally, the psychoanalytic perspective overlooks the laws of
divinity, which play an essential role in the tragedy.
Miriam Leonard asks the question: what if Antigone was at the forefront of
psychoanalysis instead of Oedipus? Miriam Leonard poses that Antigone could actually be at the
forefront of psychoanalytical theory because the play raises important issues about feminist and
political issues (Leonard 135). The Hegelian views and philian view place Antigone and Creon
at odds with each other, while this psychoanalytic view concentrates solely on Antigone. Further,
the figure of Antigone herself has become central to feminist and political theory.
Miriam Leonard explores the strengths and weaknesses of Lacan’s analysis of Antigone.
For Lacan, Creon does not matter at all. Antigone is about Antigone herself; she is the central
figure. Lacan moves away from a pious analysis by rejecting Hegel and focusing solely on
Antigone’s desire. In Lacan’s view, Antigone’s desire (to bury Polynices) makes her look like a
disturbing, intimidating, self-willed victim. Loraux and Leonard agree that for Lacan to focus
solely on Antigone, a third of the drama would have to be thrown away, hence all of Creon’s
monologues. Lacan believes that Antigone’s pure desire does not have to do with politics, but
that her choice is one of beauty and purity. Because Lacan paints Antigone out as a figure of
innocence, Lacan believes that for Antigone, the burial of Polynices is a matter of ethics. Lacan
29
�feels that Antigone’s motivation is one with no motive, which makes it an ethical decision. “... it
can be seen that Antigone’s position represents the radical limit that affirms the unique value of
his being without reference to any content, to whatever good or evil Polynices may have done, or
whatever he may be subjected to”(Leonard 142). Lacan’s blatant rejection of Creon and the
emphasis placed on language within Antigone, makes it as if Antigone is echoing herself
throughout the play. Antigone’s language and her actions reflect back to her. Antigone sacrifices
herself for her brother and death follows. Antigone attempts to place her brother below the
ground and she is placed below the ground. Lacan attempts to disassociate Antigone from the
political, but his ideas leave room for some interpretation by Leonard.
While many of Lacan’s ideas are sympathetic to the interpretation in part one, Leonard’s
focus on incest moves us in a direction opposed to part one. Leonard’s main thesis is that Lacan
does not pay enough attention to the cycle of incest apparent in Antigone. Antigone buries her
brother and accepts death, which can be seen as a rejection of patriarchal culture. She stands up
to King Creon and her death denies “generational continuity” to Haemon. Although Lacan
rejects the Hegelian interpretation of Antigone, his ideas continue to reflect Hegel, for both
ignored how odd Antigone’s relationship to Polynices is. Lacan’s idea of incest is different than
others in that he believes that the root of Antigone’s desire is for her mother. The mother is the
root of creation and destruction… giving birth and death to her children (145). Antigone’s drive
to save her brother parallels Jocasta’s original sin of incest (with Oedipus). Jocasta’s husband
dies by the hand of Oedipus and she marries Oedipus. Antigone’s brother kills her other brother
and she breaks King Creon’s law and buries Polynices against his decree. Because of her actions,
she is buried alive leaving her future husband ultimately dead. In both scenarios Jocasta and
30
�Antigone choose another family member over their husband. They choose someone with their
blood.
In relation to my theory of Antigone as the restorer, I find Lacan’s theory of Antigone’s
desire to be insular. Although, I ultimately disagree with Lacan’s view because he makes
Antigone’s burial of Polynices into something avoidable, like a choice she didn’t need to make.
Lacan’s view takes away the legitimacy of the divine law. Antigone does not simply bury
Polynices because she desires to, for it is not her ethics that makes her do so. It is the divine law
that forces Antigone to bury Polynices. This is not a choice on Antigone’s own accord, but a rule
to be followed that shows her reverence for the gods. Additionally, I disagree with Leonard’s
interpretation of the missed aspect of incest. Like I pointed out in Tralau’s philia interpretation,
there is no proof that Antigone is in love with her brother. Antigone is a follower of the divine
law no matter who it concerns10.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the interpretation of Antigone in part one is the most evidence based
perspective. Antigone’s reverence for the gods is written into the fabric of the play. Not only
does Antigone cite the divine law in her defense of her actions several times, but it is a known
fact that all of Greece reveres the gods as part of traditional culture. Antigone is a play about the
restoration of human destruction. The motivations for the destruction and restoration of Thebes is
what moves the play forward. Antigone is on a spiritual quest to follow the divine law of the
gods, while King Creon wants to prove his worth to his kingdom by making a civil edict that
goes against the law of the gods and becomes entrapped by his hubris. While alternate
10
Antigone does not mention Jocasta at all. Oedipus is mentioned by the chorus, but the idea that Antigone imitates
Jocata’s actions is conceived from thin air. The family of Oedipus does experience bad luck, but this is because of
Pelop’s Curse and Creon’s destructive actions.
31
�interpretations make us reflect on the play in fruitful ways, they are not central to the fabric of
the play.
32
�Annotated Bibliography
Atkison, Larissa M. “‘Antigone's’ Remainders: Choral Ruminations and Political Judgment.”
Political Theory, vol. 44, no. 2, 2016, pp. 219–239., www.jstor.org/stable/24768037.
Accessed 3 Oct. 2020.
Atkinson’s piece presents Antigone from the viewpoint of the chorus. The usual readings
of the play inscribe a binary issue between Creon and Antigone. Atkinson believes that both
Antigone and Creon are apolitical while the chorus presents the political perspective. Many
authors have turned to minor characters like Haemon and Ismene for their readings. Atkinson’s
attention to the chorus (and any other attention to minor characters) restores “a multivocal
texture to the tragic universe”(221). One of the unique aspects of the chorus is the unity that the
voices bring to the text. There is a dynamic that allows subjectivity to the reader in deciding if at
certain points the chorus is supposed to be interpreted as a singular person or if the chorus should
be interpreted as many, but it is kind of both at the same time. The chorus is committed to
providing the reader with insight into another perspective of judgment. The chorus is seen as a
council of old men in the reader’s first encounter. They demonstrate a desire for change after the
tragedy of Eteocles and Polynices. They hope that Creon will be a new, different type of leader.
But Creon does not demonstrate the type of change the chorus was yearning for. Instead, Creon
presents a decree that goes against the divine law. It is like Creon forgot that Oediseus’s thrown
was for both Eteocles and Polynices when he makes his decree about Polynices not being buried.
Creon is repeating “the cycle of pain” that Thebes has experienced prior by ensuing vengeance
on Polynices. For Creon, the chorus’s role has been diminished, for his hubris does not allow him
to accept any other opinions than his own. They are no longer advisors and this marginalizes
them. The chorus tries to intervene in the play, but Creon does not listen. The chorus
33
�acknowledges that they are bound to the laws of the gods. “Their law balances together respect
for ‘laws of the earth and the justice, to which one is bound by oath, of the gods’”(225).
Atkinson shows that the Chorus knows that legislation is a process. The power of the individual
can be destructive to the collective Chorus. The only time that Creon listens to the Chorus is in
their plea for Ismene not to be punished along with Antigone. This text also acknowledges
Antigone’s decision to align with the dead rather than with the living. Unfortunately, the Chorus
ends up disapproving of Antigone’s actions. Only after Antigone is dead, does the Chorus
commend her for her courageous act. Additionally, the Chorus tries to persuade King Creon to
listen when in Tiresias’s presence. Ultimately, although the Chorus may have supported
Antigone in the burial of Polynices, they did not support the way she went about it. The Chorus
was careful in choosing when to share their opinions with King Creon knowing that he would not
take people’s advice. The chorus revives the voice of the people within the drama of Antigone.
Atkinson is right in saying that as the reader, one often only concentrates on the two main
characters (Antigone and Creon). The Chorus is a window into what society as a whole believed.
This article helped me to understand the purpose of several passages within Antigone. It is very
valuable to confirm that the prevailing belief was that divinity was the higher power within
Greek culture.
Farneth, Molly. “GENDER AND THE ETHICAL GIVEN: Human and Divine Law in Hegel's
Reading of the ‘Antigone.’” The Journal of Religious Ethics, vol. 41, no. 4, 2013, pp.
643–667., www.jstor.org/stable/24586153. Accessed 5 Oct. 2020.
Farneth suggests that Hegel’s interpretation of Antigone poses a challenge to religious
ethics. The difference between human law and divine law can be interpreted as a difference
34
�between men and women. The author cites Hegel’s interpretation in that Antigone is about
characterizations of a certain group and their relationship to the world. Hegel attempts to give a
complete picture of Greek Sittlichkeit in Antigone. I take this to mean how the Greeks within
Antigone obtain social order within the ethics of their society. Hegel begins by highlighting the
harmony within the Greek society, specifically Antigone. Hegel puts forth that within the family,
the brother and sister have a relationship where desire is not a factor. Apparently, “nature assigns
the human law to men and the divine law to women”(651). Hegel believes that this is not
because of nature, but because of the ethical norms of society. This is where the term “character”
comes to play. Character for Hegel is a one-sided and unreflective form of identity that is
immediate. Bringing this back to the topic of Antigone and Creon, their opposition is simply a
clash of two sides who both think they are correct for different reasons. Pursuing one of these
laws causes a conflict for the other. Many critics have a problem with the fact that Hegel
distinguishes Oedipus from Antigone, making his crime excusable (because he didn’t expect it)
and her crime inexcusable because she knowingly buried Polynices knowing it would break
human law. The author writes about how Antigone acknowledges her guilt. But I disagree. I do
not think that Antigone is that guilty. I think that she is proud of herself for standing up for what
is justified in divine law: the burial of Polynices. Farneth agrees with me about the fact that there
is no real reconciliation between Creon and Antigone. She states, “The confessions of Antigone
and Creon fall on deaf ears”(659). In the next section of Hegel’s writing, he categorizes women
as the “internal enemy”. Basically, Hegel believes that the community thrives by suppressing the
women within it. Hegel reads Antigone as a mutual destruction of characters. One objection that
Farneth puts forth is that Hegel contradicts himself because he naturalizes gender in his later
work. The gender roles within the community are what repress women, not women in
35
�themselves. This article has advanced my understanding of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit
and Antigone within it. I disagree with what Hegel and Farneth have focused on. For I do not
think that there is mutual destruction. I think that the destruction of everyone is due to Creon’s
hubris and inability to change his ways for the divine law. If the Greeks worshipped the gods as
much as I have learned, wouldn’t Creon’s decree be wrong within the universal law of piety? If
so, the destruction of Creon’s community is due to Creon himself.
Gonzalez, Francisco J. “2005 Summer ReadingThe Burial at ThebesHegel on the Antigone.”
Skidmore College, www.skidmore.edu/fye/summer_reading/2005/themes/hegel.php.
Gonzalez’s text highlights the Hegelian view of Antigone. The “tragic collision” is
between two characters who each embody some sort of good. Both Antigone and Creon have
different views, but each view has validity to Hegel. This position of the tragic collision conflicts
Aristotle’s interpretation of Creon as the tragic hero. If Creon is to be called the “tragic hero”
within this play, shouldn’t it be named after him? If there is a tragic hero, it implies that there is a
good side and an evil side, when in reality Hegel sees two good sides. He calls Antigone a “noble
defender of human rights”, which I completely disagree with. Hegel thinks that Antigone is a
play about good v. good. Human law is grounded in divine law. Divine law only becomes “aware
of itself” within human law. This is ironic because the two types of laws completely contrast
each other, but need one another to survive. Each good is blind to the other. Antigone does not
see how what Creon is doing is good and Creon does not see how Antigone is doing something
good. “The tragedy is that in the conflict between right and right, each right becomes a wrong
without ceasing to be right”(Gonzalez). In Gonzalez’s piece, he observes the line from the play,
“Sooner or later, foul is fair, fair is foul to the man the gods will ruin” (696-698; Fagles trans.)
36
�He argues that Hegel’s reading pays justice to this line because it applies to both Creon and
Antigone. Both Creon and Antigone fall to horrible fates. Antigone kills herself and Creon loses
his family. For Hegel, this conflict of tragedy is only a step along the way for absolute spirit.
This piece will be very useful to me in my thesis because it is endorsing a view that I completely
disagree with. There is an evil within this play and it is Creon: trying to be God. The civil law
does not have as much standing as the divine law and this is what Antigone is trying to defend.
Hegel’s view completely contradicts my view with Antigone as the defender of piety.
Honig, Bonnie. Antigone, Interrupted. Cambridge University Press, 2013. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=545637&site=eds-live.
Honig puts forth that Antigone is a figure of conspiracy. Apparently, Antigone
communicates in a way that makes her look like she does things secretly. According to Honig,
the things that Antigone says to Creon go over his head. The author believes that Antigone is a
brave figure for having an open secret. Honig proceeds to point out several scenes in which
Antigone is interrupted. The author believes that these interruptions are an important part of the
play, but are never paid attention to. When Antigone buries Polynices, she is interrupted by
Creon. When she tells Creon what she did, she is taken to a cave. Antigone’s suicide is another
interruption, but this time of her life and her marriage. Honig sees Antigone as a
multidimensional figure. She puts forth that she is not only political, or a defender of the family,
or a creature of desire, but a combination of everything, a heroic but not isolated Antigone. She
conspires using language in an unconventional way. When looking back at the play, I realize that
Creon really does not process a lot of what Antigone says, which kind of makes what Antigone
what is saying like a secret. No one is listening to her. Honig acknowledges that this is an
37
�unusual way of seeing Antigone. She highlights Antigone’s background and references the idea
of kinship as a reading. Honig paints Creon as a totally political figure, which he is as a king.
There are many views set forth in this play. This multidimensional analysis of a conspirator
contradicts my analysis of Antigone as a religious figure. I believe that none of the details Honig
puts forth are relevant to a religious interpretation.
LEONARD, MIRIAM. “ANTIGONE, THE POLITICAL AND THE ETHICS OF
PSYCHOANALYSIS.” Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, no. 49,
2003, pp. 130–154. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44696793. Accessed 4 Oct. 2020.
Leonard poses the question: what if Antigone was at the forefront of psychoanalysis? The
author references Lacan and Irigaray and their different interpretations. The figure of Antigone
has become central to feminist and political theory. For Lacan, Creon does not matter at all.
Antigone is about Antigone herself. Loreaux commends Lacan for moving away from a pious
analysis, which is the opposite of my goal. Lacan focuses on Antigone’s desire and how it makes
her look like a disturbing, intimidating self-willed victim. Lacan believes that Antigone’s pure
desire does not have to do with politics. Although, Leonard argues that in Antigone rejecting
normative standards, she is taking a stand against patriarchy. Psychoanalytical ideas come to
fruition when Lacan brings forth that Antigone picks her brother over her husband implying
incest. Is Antigone’s pure desire incestuous? The author points out that this makes Lacan sounds
Hegelian because prioritization of her brother, Polynices. Lacanian’s idea incest is different than
Hegel’s in that he believes that the root of Antigone’s desire is for her mother. The mother is the
root of creation and destruction… giving birth and death to her children (145). Antigone’s drive
to save her brother parallels Jocasta’s original sin of incest (with Oedipus). In Irigaray’s view,
38
�Antigone wants to govern as much as possible as a woman. According to her, Hegel removes
Antigone from the symbolic order and this takes away her opportunity to be part of the political
world. The author puts forth that by having an anti-political analysis of Antigone, one is
removing Antigone from the political scene. These psychoanalytic interpretations are very
interesting because they offer a new way of looking at Antigone, promoting a different
understanding. They will allow me to refute them easily with my view of Antigone as the
religious hero. The point that interests me most here is Lacanian’s interpretation Antigone’s
incestuous relationship with Polynices that is modeled by Jocasta.
Tralau, Johan. “TRAGEDY AS POLITICAL THEORY: THE SELF-DESTRUCTION OF
ANTIGONE'S LAWS.” History of Political Thought, vol. 26, no. 3, 2005, pp. 377–396.
JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26221709. Accessed 4 Oct. 2020.
Tralau concentrates on the idea of philia, which is a very interesting perspective. This
source is useful to me because, in my opinion, it is an incorrect interpretation. In my thesis, I will
be able to use Tralau’s piece as an example of an erroneous interpretation of Antigone, which
does not give attention to the central issue. Tralau believes that both Creon and Antigone are
unattached to the communities they strive to protect. He thinks that Antigone is self-destructive
by arguing for divine laws. John Tralau attempts to save the Hegelian interpretation and make it
less subjective. The author uses the word “philia” as the guiding principle in his theory.
Antigone has her own meaning of who is philos. For Creon, an enemy of the city could never be
philos, hence Antigone. The author points out that Creon’s words could be used against him.
Polyneices is philos to Antigone, so therefore must be buried. This text interprets Creon as
simple and Antigone as a complicated character. I would argue the very opposite. The loyalty
39
�and family issues that this author mentions are not for the gods to necessarily decide, so therefore
are not the central issue of this play. The author says that Antigone overlooks the state, but this is
because the gods matter over the state. Loyalty is the issue here. Creon is a power-hungry man,
while Antigone is trying to do right by both of her brothers. I do not like the author’s
interpretation of Antigone and Ismene’s relationship. I think he takes the notion too seriously,
missing the point of the play. In my reading, Ismene wants to protect Antigone by keeping quiet.
Antigone does not strive to be protected, she wants Creon to know what she has done. I would
not misconstrue this notion by saying that Ismene is the enemy of Antigone. When Antigone
does not want Ismene to die with her it shows another way that Antigone protects her sister. She
loves Ismene and does not want her to die for a cause that she does not care about. Thus,
Antigone exhibits philia toward Ismene.
Waterfield, Robin, and Kathryn Waterfield. The Greek Myths: Stories of the Greek Gods and
Heroes Vividly Retold. Quercus, 2012.
The background of the gods’ creation process of humans is important because in reading
Antigone one must realize that humans must respect the gods because they are the creators of
civilization. In Creon’s disrespect of the gods’ rules, he is disrespecting his creators’ rules. The
gods are in everything because they created everything. One day, the gods realized that they were
bored because they are immortal and their lives were filled with sameness. Because of their
eternal boredom, the gods thought that it might be fun to populate the Earth with life. Zeus gave
the job of making animal species to Prometheus and Epimetheus ended up working with him.
Epimetheus made the animals while Prometheus would check over the final products.
Epimetheus gave different powers to different creatures. After he finished designing the various
40
�creatures that would inhabit the Earth, he showed Prometheus to see if he was satisfied. He liked
all of the work, except for the humans. This clay form was naked with no special abilities. But,
this did not matter, Zeus had given the brothers a certain time limit and today was the day that
these creatures would be released on Earth. The gods actually had no plans for human beings.
Prometheus said, “...we’ll just have to let this… human… fend for itself for a while”(Waterfield
13).
41
�
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This archive contains materials from Wagner’s annual ‘Senior Presentations.’ This event honors outstanding students from each discipline who completed their Senior Learning Community project with excellence. The work is representative of Wagner’s highest standards, and is exemplary of the diversity of subject matter, public-facing scholarship, and civic-minded professionalism our students have attained through their four years here. These students were specially invited to present their work in a formal setting, traditionally the day of Baccalaureate. Students are encouraged to present their work in a format appropriate for their discipline, and so, the presentations vary in their format. Some might be in the form of a short video, or paper abstracts, while others might be posters or music clips. We expect this archive to serve as a resource for generations to come. Congratulations to our Seniors!
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2017 -
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Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
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2021_Philosophy_Friedman
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Bethany Friedman
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Antigone
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Sarah Donovan
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text
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41 pages
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eng
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Philosophy
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https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/1909/archive/files/631854c56f50faa4c25353e3a78a4089.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=ijHZkAGGsBscS5DnMlCAb%7EdK-HnYu0TX5497E21gLfDDRJHRZ%7EVNGUKD18uGXfZ55F1EwOd0TMqA6C7nN5xF3Y2-zPt2F-L5Zrbmn6Af34W6DUHYiRPYFGGAq1tiBCJ%7EMPZ7EC0qpT7qyWonCBOl7wdGiAwsZcfotUMXtHorXyHDY7nX31GMFOt581%7EE4xTP8-Vh66ju%7ECXX-vaXQQKcZesdrUdxDmU-23aKSlGUZmvLmi8aei9mdGrXl-rIsYaD31m8B6%7Emdceh-r1cRycnLQyBt6QRi5An-Mk8INoeqb0Gb6Xa6RQLlmOmq7Wvxf093dfryDEGSd4ysgLsA9fYYg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
b358586a939afa5d24c1873e0d6e9edd
PDF Text
Text
Social Media Impact on Adolescents Mental Health
in Staten Island
Alexandra Bosco WC-SN, Gabrielle Marco WC-SN, and Victoria Sangiorg WC-SN
Wagner College, Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing
Introduction
NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION LIFELINE - 1800- 273- 8255
●
Adolescents spend a significant amount of time online and typically
1. Primary Prevention:
○
We will be doing health promotion by going to different schools on Staten Island and give an assembly on the acronym O-N-L-I-N-E which will
Twitter is positively associated with mental health problems such as
○
The school nurses will use The Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C‐SSRS) as a screening tool. It measures to identify and assess individuals
●
measures four constructs: the severity of ideation, the intensity of ideation, behavior and lethality. It includes “stem questions,” which if
endorsed, prompt additional follow‐up questions to obtain more information.
year-olds. 2
Dr. Aruna Agni, a child psychiatrist and medical director of the Staten
Island Mental Health Division of Richmond University Medical Center
The school nurse will refer to a social worker and help set arrangements for the adolescents to receive the appropriate treatment to receive the
The consequences of not addressing adolescent mental health conditions
extend to adulthood, impairing both physical and mental health and limiting
opportunities to lead fulfilling lives as adults. 7
●
3. Tertiary Prevention:
○
“College/university students who report being cyberbullied are more likely to
experience depression and generalized anxiety compared to their peer.” 8
at risk for suicide. Questions are phrased for use in an interview format, but can be completed as a self‐report measure if necessary. The C‐SSRS
Depression and other mental health disorders are major risk factors
Mental health conditions account for 16% of the global burden of disease and
injury in people aged 10–19 years. 7
2. Secondary Prevention:
for suicide and suicide is the second leading cause of death for 15 to 24
●
●
●
stress, anxiety, depression, and social phobia.
●
subsequent development of the classic symptoms of depression.” 6
encourage the students to take part in healthy habits with social media and one another.
day. 1
Prolonged use of social media such as Instagram, Facebook and/or
“The concept of ‘Facebook depression’ was first developed in 2011 and is defined
as depression that begins with an extreme amount of social media usage and
communicate via text messaging and social media multiple times per
●
●
Studies have shown that social media harms adolescents' mental
health which has a significant effect on Staten Island.
●
Problem in the Community
Proposed Solution
As for mental illnesses, it is increasing more in Staten Island, Community District
1 inpatient psychiatric units are the highest among the city .5
●
best care possible. Options such as mental health treatment and the reassignment of schooling will be available.
High psychiatric hospitalization rates likely reflect the challenged residents in
under-resourced neighborhoods, including difficulty accessing preventive
stated, “texting and posting also allow kids and adolescents to be
services and early care, greater exposure to stressors and interruptions in health
unkind without being face-to-face. All these things can lead to
insurance coverage. 5
depression, a lot of bullying goes on on social media. Bullying leads to
depression.” 3
Community Assessment and Analysis
References
1.
Byrne E, Vessey JA, Pfeifer L. Cyberbullying and Social Media: Information and
Interventions for School Nurses Working With Victims, Students, and Families. The Journal
●
Tumarkin and Bowles, stated that “the share of white non-Hispanic
residents has fallen from 80 percent in 1990 to 68 percent in 2010,
of School Nursing. 2017 May; 34(1):38–50
2.
Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE) Suicide statistics and facts. [Internet].
while the share of residents who are Black, Hispanic and Asian has
increased.” 4
●
save.2020 [cited 2020Mar9]. Available from: from
https://save.org/about-suicide/suicide-facts/
In Staten Island, 25 percent are obese, 8 percent have diabetes, and 25
3.
Barron AM. Teen social media obsession brings health risks, docs warn [Internet]. silive.
2019 [cited 2020Mar9]. Available from:
percent have hypertension. ,NYC gov “that adults and children have at
https://www.silive.com/news//10/teen-social-media-obsession-brings-health-risks-docs-wa
least 150 minutes of exercise a day. Physically active people are more
likely to have healthier lives and live longer,” exercising boosts energy
rn.htl
4.
Tumarkin L, Bowles J. Staten Island: Then and now. [Internet] [cited 2020Mar9] Available
from: https://nycfuture.org/research/staten-island-then-and-now
and helps decrease a person’s risk for developing certain diseases. 5
5.
New York City Community Health Profiles [Internet]. Community Health Profiles NYC Health. [cited 2020Mar9]. Available from:
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/data/data-publications/profiles.page#si
6.
Guinta, MR, John, RM . Social media and adolescent health. Pediatric Nursing. 2019; 44(4),
196–201.
7.
Adolescent mental health [Internet]. World Health Organization. World Health
Organization; [cited 2020Mar9]. Available from:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescent-mental-health
8.
Mishna F, Regehr C,Lacombe-Duncan, A, Daciuk, J, Fearing, G, Van Wert, M. Social media,
cyber-aggression and student mental health on a university campus. Journal of Mental
Health. 2018; 27(3), 222–229.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Senior Presentations Archive
Description
An account of the resource
This archive contains materials from Wagner’s annual ‘Senior Presentations.’ This event honors outstanding students from each discipline who completed their Senior Learning Community project with excellence. The work is representative of Wagner’s highest standards, and is exemplary of the diversity of subject matter, public-facing scholarship, and civic-minded professionalism our students have attained through their four years here. These students were specially invited to present their work in a formal setting, traditionally the day of Baccalaureate. Students are encouraged to present their work in a format appropriate for their discipline, and so, the presentations vary in their format. Some might be in the form of a short video, or paper abstracts, while others might be posters or music clips. We expect this archive to serve as a resource for generations to come. Congratulations to our Seniors!
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017 -
Rights Holder
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Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Document
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Date Digital
2020
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Poster
Dublin Core
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Identifier
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2020-nursing-Bosco Marco Sangiorg
Creator
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Bosco, Alexandra<br />Marco, Gabrielle<br />Sangiorg, Victoria
Date
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5/1/2020
Title
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Social Media Impact on Adolescents Mental Health in Staten Island
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Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing
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text
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application/pdf
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1 page
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eng
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U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this work. It is provided by Wagner College for scholarly or research purposes only. Commercial use or distribution is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
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Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Nursing
-
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b146820ff38a57f268f6bec5f8c8c736
PDF Text
Text
The Relationship between Diabetes
And the North Shore Community of Staten Island
Brianna Bove WC-SN, Stephanie Johnson WC-SN , Sabrina Martin WC-SN
Wagner College Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing
Problem within the Community
Introduction
❖ By the means of our research there has seen to be a prevalence of
diabetes within the Latino adult population in the North Shore
community of Staten Island. 1
❖ Factors that influence the prevalence of the disease include a lack of
access to health care, poor diet, as well as limited activity and
neighborhood resources.
❖ Our research includes what we can do as a community, and what
types of effort can we put into play in order to change the dynamics of
the prevalence of diabetes affecting the people of the North Shore
portion of Staten Island.
❖
❖
Diabetes mellitus is defined as a result of an excess of sugar in the
blood. Type 2 diabetes can be a result of poorly controlled diets, lack
of essential exercise or as a result of and underlying disease.
North Shore has a lower economic status in Staten Island. Obesity is
an epidemic on Staten Island with 63.5% of adults aged 24-64 are
either overweight or obese.2
Proposed Solution
❖ Overall A LIST OF THE DIFFERENT SOLUTIONS MAYBE 3. MAX
MAKE the Community health goal is to see a decline in the
prevalence of type 2 diabetes within the North Shore. In addition, a
decline of obesity among these individuals. With the contributes with a
healthy lifestyles, as well as greater knowledge giving to the
community will support our goal within these efforts.
❖ Some examples of how we plan on doing this is:
❖ The Dexcom application tracks glucose levels 24 hours a day and
is a very helpful and innovative application that engages individuals
with the disease to maintain and control their health.
❖ In order to decrease diabetes mellitus in this neighborhood our
proposed solution includes several components to aid in the
improvement of the health of this community for years to come.
❖ This would improve health in the community and studies have
shown that some continuous glucose monitoring systems may
help reduce A1C1,2levels and reduce the risk for hypoglycemia and
hyperglycemia.4
❖ As seen in the North Shore of Staten Island research show’s that
diabetes has a higher prevalence in this community due to the lower
economic standards.1
Community Assessment and
Analysis
❖ Staten Island as a whole is ranked to be the least populous borough of
New York City, whereas within the city’s 59 districts the North Shore
portion of the island is ranked fourteenth highest population.1
❖ Within the North Shore, a 30.4% Latino race/ethnicity is present as in
comparison to 18.3 % demographic within Staten Island as a whole.1
❖ Access to healthcare is impacted by several factors including health
insurance coverage and provider availability where North Shore
residents have higher uninsured rates between 8.8% to 13.5% when
compared to Staten Island overall’s health insurance rates.3
❖ Our innovative health program consists of an exercise program to
maintain a healthier lifestyle and decrease the risk of type 2
diabetes. Our slogan is “DON'T SUGAR COAT IT, YOU’RE
SWEET ENOUGH”
❖ As analyzed, it is safe to say Hispanic experience a higher burden and
mortality from diabetes than other ethnic groups.
❖ The North Shore residents contain a 44.2% Hispanic origin whereas
Staten Island is at 46.8%.1
❖ Another proposal is to incorporate community board meetings that
will allow the North Shore community to receive information
regarding diabetes.
❖ When income is low and resources limited, residents of those affected
may be compromising their health.
❖ Food pantries seen in lower income neighborhoods “have low
inventories of key food groups such as fruits, vegetables, and dairy
products. Since these individuals have limited options available for
their food choices, this may increase the prevalence of choosing an
unhealthy food option. As a result, this can cause a risk factor for type
2 diabetes mellitus as well as a risk factor for other health issues.1
❖
DEXCOM APPLICATION
❖
Within this application individuals are able to connect a small device
to any subcutaneous areas of the body which transmits blood glucose
readings back to the app on your phone via blue tooth.4
❖ You’ll be able to view your data in easy-to-read graphs, view trends,
statistics and day-by-day data, and even email them to your healthcare
professional right from the Dexcom webpage.4
❖ With their being several hospitals on Staten Island, the North Shores
main resource they have available for them is Richmond University
Medical Center which is in West Brighton. Access to primary care
services can improve chronic disease prevention and management
efforts.
❖ This device is eligible for diabetes age 2 and older. A prescription is
needed to obtain a meter. 4
❖ Physical exercise can increase energy and help us for the future with
everyday life. Studies show that exercise can improve an individual's
health status and reduce numerous of diseases.1
❖ One major resource in the North Shore community is transportation
accessibility. Household income levels have an affect on vehicle
accessibility, which then leads to certain differences in a commuting
method.
❖ According to NYC health, “For every one supermarket in St George
and Stapleton, there are 28 Bodegas, bodegas are less likely to have
healthy food options than supermarkets” The residents in the North
Shore are more likely to buy food at a bodega, rather than to go to a
supermarket because of the unequal ratio.
This being another major factor contributing to
the prevalence of diabetes within the North
shore. 1
❖ Many insurance cover the Dexcom meter along with the doctor
prescriptions making it easily available. 4
❖ DON’T SUGAR COAT IT , YOU’RE SWEET ENOUGH
❖ Our innovative health program consists of an exercise
program to maintain a healthier lifestyle and decrease
the risk of type 2 diabetes.
❖ We would aim to help start an after-school exercise
program available to individuals who want to maintain
their weight and the prevention of diabetes.
❖ The exercise program consists of a Zumba, Yoga
classes in which individuals can dance to burn calories
and maintain a healthy weight and glucose level and
normal A1c level.
❖ COMMUNITY HEALTH MEETINGS
❖ In these community board meetings we aim on having
insurance companies fund these meetings and doing
various activates to help prevent and promote diabetes.
❖ Members would be able to discuss health concerns,
ways to prevent diabetes or if they already have
diabetes, ways to improve it and maintain a normal
A1C level to prevent other health issues.
❖ One activity that can be held during this meeting is
nutritional information can be provided along with
cooking classes to help individuals acknowledge what
to eat in order to maintain a healthy diet and their
diabetic regimen.
References:
1, Mehrota A, Kimiagar B, Drobnjack M, Halkitis S, Bierman
M. The north shore of Staten Island: community driven
solutions to improve child and family well-being. Citizens
Committee of Children of New York [Internet]. New York:
Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York; 2018 Sept
[Cited 2019 Oct]. Available from:
https://www.cccnewyork.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Nort
h-Shore-Report.pdf Level 5, Secondary Source.
2.Libman K, & Abbate A. Staten Island child wellness
initiative: common agenda. Staten Island Partnership for
Community Wellness; 2017 Mar [Cited 2019 Oct]. Available
from:
http://sipcw.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Staten-Island-Bl
ueprint-Final-R2-1.pdf Level 5, Primary Source.
❖ Regarding health insurance, the uninsured cohort has the highest
percentage of Latinos (81 percent) and the highest baseline A1c (9.4) .
A1c is the lab value associated with diabetes and the glucose levels
ranging from the lowest 4 and the highest 14. The higher your A1c the
more at risk for diabetes related issues to come about. 1
❖ When income is low and resources limited, residents of those affected
may be compromising their health. If the individual is not able to afford
the resources to track as well as control their disease in efforts of
medical supplies as well as diet, it will affect their long-term health
overall
3. Richmond University Medical Center. Richmond university
medical center final chna report 2016. Richmond University
Medical Center, 2016 Dec [Cited 2019 Oct]. Available from:
http://rumcsi.org/Uploads/Public/Documents/FinalCSP.pdf
Level 5, Secondary Source.
4. Dexcom. Dexcom Continous glucose Monitoring [Internet].
San Diego, California: Dexcom; N/A [cited 2019 Dec].
Available from; https://www.dexcom.com
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Senior Presentations Archive
Description
An account of the resource
This archive contains materials from Wagner’s annual ‘Senior Presentations.’ This event honors outstanding students from each discipline who completed their Senior Learning Community project with excellence. The work is representative of Wagner’s highest standards, and is exemplary of the diversity of subject matter, public-facing scholarship, and civic-minded professionalism our students have attained through their four years here. These students were specially invited to present their work in a formal setting, traditionally the day of Baccalaureate. Students are encouraged to present their work in a format appropriate for their discipline, and so, the presentations vary in their format. Some might be in the form of a short video, or paper abstracts, while others might be posters or music clips. We expect this archive to serve as a resource for generations to come. Congratulations to our Seniors!
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017 -
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Date Digital
2020
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Poster
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2020-nursing- Bove Johnson Martin
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bove, Brianna<br />Johnson, Stephanie<br />Martin, Sabrina
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
5/1/2020
Title
A name given to the resource
The Relationship Between Diabetes and the North Shore Community of Staten Island
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
1 page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this work. It is provided by Wagner College for scholarly or research purposes only. Commercial use or distribution is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Nursing
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/1909/archive/files/07658103720f762ecf3d7544df8eeb98.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=JRm4G-ejYrLwDLND5e0jQxWDGlrDvT4AyEMEfWpl5OkJ7D7DEp%7ETznNjPWky2Gf8sVHAdrr5A1kvrbUuiqhE5TC60P3MXEktb8A-%7EvWi7kIrQUP4QMOGOiS-XtYTBMvK-0JeNPBFIuRG%7Ex5eSL4V8RmtuqCZr6ZtamOKYD1QG4xWluIN5tP7j25gyJ0f%7EPt1O%7ELAHSxGaAD%7ERBeuSUKkUsSyRsG9C1wZvtU0LvRT6YZbbNWUrc0EtiLvdT5fPSFzXIUttiuHVxWJaUJ4zlPuV72osdHy9vRq%7EY6Qy7BCZGiEIpOfpo5ZjEMUOaCesoaQWa3pJmoRZ4M5rt9Ytkv2bA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
57171eea528c8fda171ab4336f9f7452
PDF Text
Text
Tick-Tac-No
Wagner College
Dominic Branda WCSN, Cara Angelo WCSN, Aleah Mirand WCSN
Introduction
Problem in the Community
School-age children on the South Shore of
Staten Island are lacking education and
prevention techniques for Lyme disease
and tick bites. Lyme Disease, the most
common vector-borne disease in the
United States, is a bacterial infection you
get from the bite of an infected blacklegged
tick [1].
The major issue with Lyme Disease is, especially in
children, ticks are so small that they may go
unnoticed for an extended period of time, meaning
the infected patient may have no clue that there
was a tick ever on them. The CDC at first reported
their annual estimates of Lyme disease at
approximately 30,000 cases per year [4]. This was
then changed to 300,000 cases in the USA once
studies estimated how many people don’t get tested
for the bacteria [4]. The number 30,000 is accurate
but only accounts for the number of cases reported
by state health departments whereas 300,000 is
the estimated number of cases due to most
individuals never discovering the infectious tick.
According to a CDC study done on Staten Island
“urban landscape composition and configuration
reflects the environmental and ecological
conditions driving the distribution of ticks and
their pathogens” [5]. This makes Staten Island an
opportune spot for ticks with Lyme disease to run
rampant. This is a significant issue when taking
into account how many people have no idea what
Lyme disease is. Especially on Staten Island, where
residents don't expect to find a tick on them in one
of the boroughs of New York City. That is why
education of Lyme disease on Staten Island is vital
in stopping the spread.
Community Assessment and Analysis
The South Shore of Staten Island houses
~165,ooo residents. The demographics
are as follows: 48.5% male, 51.5% female,
with 21.4% of the total population under
18 [2]; unemployment sits at 2.8% [2]; the
rent burden is 40.8%, and 12.3% of
people live below the poverty line [2]. The
median household income is around
$79,000 [2]. This community lacks
education and prevention of ticks and the
harmful effects of tick bites [3].
Proposed Solution
Our proposed solution to the increase of Lyme disease
on Staten Island is the combination of an interactive
computer game and a pamphlet. The video game is
called “Tick-Tac-No” and it is where the
student/player will have three separate places they
need to visit in the game and in order to complete the
game you have to complete all of the tasks and draw a
straight line at the end to get your “Tick-Tac-No”
certificate. In the video game the first stop you learn
about the tick, the second stop will be in a lab where
you discuss how to identify a tick bite, and lastly the
third stop would be the action part where someone at
the playground was bit by a tick and they need your
help [6]. Upon completion of removing the tick the
child will receive a certificate as part of B.F. Skinner’s
positive reinforcement [7].
Reference List
[1] Lyme Disease- CDC. (2020-November 05). Retrieved November 17, 2020,
from https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/index.html
[2] NYC Community District Profiles. (n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2020, from
https://communityprofiles.planning.nyc.gov/staten-island/3
[3]Lyme Disease. (2018). Retrieved November 23, 2020, from
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/lyme-disease.page
[4] How many people get Lyme disease? - CDC. (2018, December 21). Retrieved
November 23, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/humancases.html
[5] VanAcker, M. C. (2019, June). Enhancement of Risk for Lyme Disease by
Landscape Connectivity, New York, New York, USA - Volume 25, Number 6-June
2019 - Emerging Infectious Diseases journal - CDC. Retrieved November 24,
2020, from https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/25/6/18-1741_article
[6]Beaujean, D. J. M. A., Gassner, F., Wong, A., Steenbergen, J. E., Crutzen, R., &
Ruwaard, D. (2016). Education on tick bite and Lyme borreliosis prevention,
aimed at schoolchildren in the Netherlands: comparing the effects of an online
educational video game versus a leaflet or no intervention. BMC Public Health,
16(1), 1–10.
[7] Casas, M. (2002). The Use of Skinnerian Teaching Machines and
Programmed Instruction in the United States, 1960-1970.
�
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Dominic Branda
Aleah Mirand
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Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing
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Malaria Control on Women and Children in Burkina Faso, Africa
Charlotte Tucksmith WCSN, Amanda Leonardis WCSN, David Slachtish WCSN
Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing, Wagner College
Introduction
Malaria causes significant health
problems such as anemia and
jaundice because of the loss of red
blood cells. If not promptly treated,
the infection can become severe and
may cause kidney failure, seizures,
mental confusion, coma, and death.
Burkina Faso is among 10 countries in
Africa with the highest number of
cases and deaths due to malaria
worldwide. In 2015, malaria was the
first cause of outpatient consultations
(48.0%), hospitalizations (22.6%), and
deaths (23.9%) in Burkina Faso; it was
also the main cause of illness among
children (80%) [1].
Our innovative program is called the
Malaria Prevention Program. It
focuses on the lack of knowledge
regarding malaria.
Resources
●International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD)
●U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID)
●The World Health Organization
(WHO)
Community Assessment &
Analysis
● Burkina Faso has a
population of 21,510,181
people, comprising over 60
different ethnic groups. [2]
● 10.4 percent of Burkinabe
children suffer from acute
malnutrition. [2]
● Agriculture employs 80% of
the workforce.
Burkina Faso, Africa
Problems in the Community
● The major health concern in the region
of Burkina Faso is women and children
that are infected with malaria.
● There is a lack of education among this
group. In fact, three quarters of the
women had no formal education. [7]
●A very low portion of the women agreed
with the fact that using insect repellent,
taking preventative medications, and
covering their body were the most
effective preventative measures [7].
Proposed Solution
● Our innovative program is called
the Malaria Prevention Program. It
focuses on the lack of knowledge
regarding malaria.
● This program sends nurses to
Burkina Faso, Africa and educates
the community on preventative
strategies against malaria. It teaches
the effectiveness of using mosquito
nets, indoor residual sprays, proper
clothing, hallmark signs to watch out
for, and even how to treat malaria.
● 40.1% of the population
lives below the poverty line.
[4]
● With the number of women becoming
infected with malaria, maternal and
neonatal morbidity is rising. [7]
● Average life expectancy is
59.0 years. [5]
● In 2019, there were approximately 224
million cases reported worldwide.
Consequently, the number of deaths
resulting from malaria was 409,000 [7]
● Malaria can be prevented with
mosquito nets and wearing clothing
that covers the skin. [8]
References
●Artemether-lumefantrine is very
effective for treating malaria and this
medication should be sent to this
community to prevent fatalities. [9]
● There are fewer than 1
(0.45) physicians per
10,000 people, 3.57
nurses per 10,000
people, and 2.39
midwives per 10,000. [5]
● Most women have poor
housing quality and
unfortunately have no access
to treatment [7]
[1] Ouedraogo, Inoue, Kambiré, et. al (2018). Spatio-temporal dynamic of malaria in Ouagadougou, Burkina
Faso, Springer Link, 138. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12936-018-2280-y.
[2] Indigenous World 2021: Burkina Faso. IWGIA. (2021). Retrieved November 22, 2021, from
https://www.iwgia.org/en/burkina-faso.html
[3] Burkina Faso. Countries and Their Cultures. (1996). Retrieved November 22, 2021, from
https://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Burkina-Faso.html.
[4] Overview. World Bank. (2021). Retrieved November 22, 2021, from
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/burkinafaso/overview#1
[5] World Health Organization. (2012). Burkina Faso. World Health Organization. Retrieved November 22,
2021, from https://www.who.int/workforcealliance/countries/bfa/en/.
[6]World Health Organization. (2015). Guidelines for the treatment of Malaria
[7] Yaya, Bishwajit, Ekholuenetale, et. al (2017). Knowledge of prevention, cause, symptom, and practices of
malaria among women in Burkina Faso. PLOS ONE, 12(7). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0180508
[8] Druetz, Corneau-Tremblay, Millogo, et al (2018). Impact evaluation of seasonal malaria chemoprevention
under routine program implementation. The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene. Retrieved
November 30, 2021, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29260654/.
[9]Tiono, Kaboré, Traoré, et. al. (2008). Implementation of home-based management of malaria. Malaria
Journal. Retrieved November 30, 2021, from https://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/14752875-7-201.
●Only 53% of women knew that
malaria can be prevented. [8]
● Specific community health goals
would be to ensure that all members
in this community are educated on
malaria and be able to identify the
measures to reduce contracting
malaria.
�
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Senior Presentations Archive
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This archive contains materials from Wagner’s annual ‘Senior Presentations.’ This event honors outstanding students from each discipline who completed their Senior Learning Community project with excellence. The work is representative of Wagner’s highest standards, and is exemplary of the diversity of subject matter, public-facing scholarship, and civic-minded professionalism our students have attained through their four years here. These students were specially invited to present their work in a formal setting, traditionally the day of Baccalaureate. Students are encouraged to present their work in a format appropriate for their discipline, and so, the presentations vary in their format. Some might be in the form of a short video, or paper abstracts, while others might be posters or music clips. We expect this archive to serve as a resource for generations to come. Congratulations to our Seniors!
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2022_Nursing_Group13 Tucksmith Leonardis Slachtish
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Charlotte Tucksmith
Amanda Leonardis
David Slachtish
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Malaria Control on Women and Children in Burkina Faso, Africa
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Nursing
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HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
1
Examination of the Removal of Homosexuality From the DSM
Cherliz Cohen
Wagner College, Department of Psychology
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
2
Table of Contents
page
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………………….3
CHAPTER
1
HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM...…………………………….……...….…….…..4
Homosexuality’s Entry Into the DSM…..…………..…………………………………….4
Alfred Kinsey and the Kinsey Report........…………………………......…………..……..6
Evelyn Hooker……………....………………………………………………………….…8
Playboy, Ethics, and Gerald Davison…..…………..……………………………….…….9
Removal of Homosexuality from the DSM………..…………………………………….11
2
AN EXAMINATION OF THE LITERATURE ON EVIDENCE-BASED THERAPY
MODALITIES FOR LGBTQ+ POPULATIONS………...……………………………..14
Theory…………………………………………………………………..………….…….14
Debunking Conversion Therapy…...…………………………………………….………15
Harmful Effects and Ethical Issues Relates to SOCE…………………………….……...17
Affirmative Therapy for LGBTQ+ Clients……………………………………….……...18
Existential Therapy as a Cure for Loneliness Among LGBTQ+ Patients………...……..19
Benefits of Telepsychiatry…………….………………………………………….……...21
3
LGBTQ+ POPULATIONS ACCESS TO MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES ……….25
Problems……….…………………………………………………………..………….…25
Solutions…..………………………………………………………………..……………27
4
REFLECTION……..…………………………………...………………………..………30
LIST OF REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………...33
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
3
Abstract
In 1952, identifying as gay was seen as a mental disorder rather than a sexual orientation within
the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Mental
health professionals were attempting to “cure” the feelings gay individuals had towards the same
sex by harmful therapies referred to as aversion therapy. Men in particular, many wanting to be
“cured,” were put through electro-shock therapies and studies where they made to be nauseous
and sick after viewing images or film of other men. All in all, over sixty years of work by gay
rights activists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and leaders in the mental health community has
ultimately shaped the way individuals from sexual minority communities are viewed and cared
for by medical professionals. After the initial addition to the DSM-1, and the use of aversion
therapy to treat LGBTQ+ populations, there are now safe and effective therapies to assist
LGBTQ+ individuals with their mental health. Studies done by researchers such as Hooker and
Kinsey’s assisted in the eventual removal of homosexuality from the DSM. The position Davison
carried, being one of the first to talk against unethical therapies on gay populations in
conference, also contributed to the eventual removal as well. After studies, conferences, and
protests, the DSM finally had its final removal (2013) of all terms that could overlap with
homosexuality.
Keywords: gay, mental health, men, dsm, therapies, removal, homosexuality
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
4
Homosexuality and the DSM
In 1952, identifying as gay was seen as a mental disorder rather than a sexual orientation
as per the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
Mental health professionals attempting to “cure” the feelings gay individuals had towards the
same sex, performed various harmful therapies, such as aversion therapies. By undergoing these
therapies, individuals, mostly being men, underwent electro-shock therapies and studies where
they were made to feel nauseous and sick. Following important studies run by professionals such
as Kinsey and Hooker, as well as activists and media pushing the opposite message, the idea of
“homosexuality” being a mental disorder was completely removed from the DSM-V in 2013. In
this outline, I’ll be exploring research and data’s effect on homosexuality within the DSM,
focusing on the evolution throughout the editions (I-V), and eventual removal. It’s important to
note that while the term homosexuality was removed from the DSM in earlier editions, terms that
overlap with homosexuality did have a place in the DSM until 2013.
Homosexuality’s Entry Into the DSM
In the mid-20th century, theories regarding adult homosexuality as a disease, deviating
this population from “normal” heterosexual development, began to spread. These theories hold
that some internal defect or external pathogenic agent causes homosexuality in an individual,
which was seen as “morally bad” and “socially evil” (Drescher, 2015). During this time,
American psychiatry was greatly influenced by psychoanalytic perspectives and theories, such as
many regarding individuals identifying as homosexual. In 1952, when the first APA published
the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-I), it listed all conditions
psychiatrists then considered to be a mental disorder.
DSM-I
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
5
Upon publishing, the DSM-1 classified “homosexuality” within the larger “sociopathic
personality disturbance” category of personality disorders (American Psychiatric Association,
1952). The sexual deviation diagnosis includes “homosexuality, transvestism, pedophilia,
fetishism, and sexual sadism (including rape, sexual assault, mutilation)” as examples.
DSM-II
While the DSM-I included uncertainty in terms of whether homosexuality was a disorder,
the DSM-II removed that uncertainty and clearly presented homosexuality and the other “sexual
deviations” as mental disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1968). These deviations were
listed under ten individual diagnostic codes such as: homosexuality, fetishism, transvestitism,
exhibitionism, voyeurism, sadism, masochism, other sexual deviation, and unspecified sexual
deviation. It describes as follows: “This category is for individuals whose sexual interests are
directed primarily toward objects other than people of the opposite sex, toward sexual acts not
usually associated with coitus, or toward coitus performed under bizarre circumstances…. This
diagnosis is not appropriate for individuals who per- form deviant sexual acts because normal
sexual objects are not available to them.”
The DSM-II’s initial release created an uproar of activists and professionals storming
APA conferences and protesting homosexuality’s addition to the DSM. Following the riots and
activism, Robert Spitzer, a technical consultant, and writer for the DSM-II Committee, began a
go-between in this dispute. Spitzer originally believing that homosexuality had its place in the
DSM, he later met with a group of activists, including a secret group of gay APA members, and
was faced with data from researchers such as Alfred Kinsey and Evelyn Hooker (De Block &
Adriaens, 2013). Facing the data and concerns of his colleagues and other professionals in the
field, he drafted the compromise of removing homosexuality itself from the DSM. The removal
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
6
was subject to a revision of “sexual orientation disturbance,” defined not just as same-sex
attraction but as a conflict caused by this attraction or a desire to change it. After a vote by the
APA board of trustees, this change was made.
DSM-III
The DSM II noted that homosexuality by itself did not establish as a psychiatric disorder.
A later edition of the DSM was published in 1980, the DSM-III, renaming “Sexual Orientation
Disturbance” as “Ego Dystonic Homosexuality” (American Psychiatric Association, 1980).
Upon a revision, the DSM-III was later revised, categorizing marked distress about one’s sexual
orientation under “sexual disorder, not otherwise specified” (American Psychiatric Association,
1987).
Alfred Kinsey and the Kinsey Report
Four years prior to the initial publication of the DSM-I, the first Kinsey Report, which
concerned sexual behavior in both the human male and female, was published by Alfred Kinsey.
Kinsey and his fellow researchers sought to accumulate unbiased information regarding sex,
employing firsthand interviews with both heterosexual and homosexual identifying individuals,
to gather such data. The report featured contents such as: homosexual, and heterosexual petting
and outlets. Several subcategories can also be found such as bisexuality and masturbation.
Kinsey’s Study
The Kinsey Report’s first edition consisted of a report that has been referenced in many
studies regarding homosexuality, investigating the evolution of the term and population
throughout the years. The report found that in terms of physical contact to the point of orgasm, at
least 37% of the male population had “some homosexual experience” between the beginning of
adolescence and old age (Kinsey et al., 1948). Additionally, the remaining who were unmarried
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
7
until a certain age, exactly 50%, “have homosexual experience” between the beginning of
adolescence and old age. While receiving this data through a study, the psychiatry field was
hostile to Kinsey’s report, as well as the implications that same-sex sexual behavior was in fact
more common than society and researchers had previously believed.
The Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale
The Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale, more commonly known as The Kinsey
Scale, which can also be found in the Kinsey report, accounted for research findings that showed
individuals did not fit into exclusive heterosexual or homosexual categories. The scale helped
weaken the idea of homosexuality as a fixed condition, providing large-scale evidence about the
differential social distributions and organization of same-sex experience (Nardi & Schneider,
1997). The research gathered showed that sexual behavior, thoughts, and feelings towards either
the same or opposite sex were not always consistent. Instead of assigning people to three
categories – heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual, Kinsey and his team used a seven-point
scale, ranging from 0 to 6 with an additional category of “X.”
People at: “0” report as entirely heterosexual, “1” as largely heterosexual but with
incidental homosexual history, “2” as largely heterosexual but with a distinct homosexual
history, “3” as equally heterosexual and homosexual, “4” as largely homosexual but with distinct
heterosexual history, “5” as largely homosexual with incidental heterosexual history, and lastly
“6” as entirely homosexual (Nardi & Schneider, 1997). Additionally, Kinsey and his team
included “X”, reporting as unresponsive to either sex.
The publication of this report, and later the second edition, caused a “media explosion” as
quoted in the Los Angeles Times. News outlets ran stories on the published report, while church
leaders denounced it. Kinsey’s work reassured individuals questioning their sexuality that they
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
8
were not alone; highlighting a disconnect between certain laws of the land and actual sexual
practice (Mestel, 2004). “Everybody’s sin is nobody’s sin.” said Kinsey, a line quoted often in
reports and articles concerning himself and his studies on sexuality.
Evelyn Hooker
Influenced by a former student by the name of Sam From, whom Evelyn Hooker
developed a close friendship with Hooker began an investigation that would ultimately result in
the removal of homosexuality as a form of psychopathology from the DSM (Milar, 2011). From
informed Hooker that it was her “scientific duty” to study homosexuals, promising her access to
all subjects needed to carry the study out. While she initially demurred the idea, she was later
persuaded by From and her colleague Bruno Klopfer.
Only 5 years after the publication of the DSM-1, the study took place, investigating the
comparison between happiness and the well-adjusted nature of 30 self-identified gay men with
30 heterosexual men, finding no difference (Hooker, 1957). For this study, Hooker gathered the
participants’ results for the Rorschach Test, Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), and Make-APicture Story (MAPS). Following the results, she matched pairs, controlling for their age, IQ,
and education, before submitting all results to “experts” within the field. These “experts” were
unable to determine the sexual preferences of any individual in each of the matched pairs.
Meaning, the experts found no association between homosexuality and psychological
maladjustment. One of the experts, who was sure he can distinguish the groups, asked for
another chance to review the pairings but was no more successful the second time than he was
the first. Hooker’s results suggested that those claiming homosexuality was a mental disorder
were drawing a “false correlation” by only studying homosexuals who had a history of mental
illnesses (Anteby & Anderson, 2014).
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
9
This ground-breaking research not only left a long-lasting impact on how people viewed
homosexuality, and the changed made in the DSM, but also the effect it had on homosexuals at
the time of its release. Following the research, Hooker was awarded the Distinguished
Contribution to Psychology in the Public Interest award from the APA. In response to this honor,
she shared the award with the gay and lesbian community, expressing how pleasurable it had
been for her research and her “long advocacy of a scientific view of homosexuality” could better
the lives of homosexuals and their families (Milar, 2011).
Playboy, Ethics, and Gerald Davison
Gerald Davison is seen by many as the first domino to fall in science’s ultimate
disowning of the “gay cure” (Abumrad, 2018). Taking an interest in Sigmund Freud at an early
age, this led Davison to gain multiple degrees in both Psychology and Social Relations.
Following his PhD, he began teaching, supervising a variety of cases regarding LGBTQ+
individuals, mostly gay men, during his free time. These men were unhappy with their attraction
to the same sex and asked Davison to “turn them.” Not wanting to impose his heterosexual
values on these patients, while also being against harmful therapies used by others such as
aversion therapy (electro-shock therapy), Davison came up with an alternative approach.
Playboy Therapy
Davison along with many therapists around the country were experiencing a high volume
of patients wanting to “fix” their sexual orientation. The overall approach did not start with
Davison alone, though. Other therapists used behavioral therapies with LG (lesbian and gay)
identifying clients, most being aversion therapy, also known as electro-shock therapy. Many
even nauseated their patients with injections for results or shocked the idea of men “out” of the
patient.
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
10
After attending a guest-speaker even at Stony Brook held by M. P. Feldman and watching
the film they displayed of aversion therapies they ran, Davison was bewildered (Abumrad,
2018). One example of the film shown was a male identifying patient being shown photos of
other naked men, and after each photo, Feldman shocked the patient. Davison was against
Feldman’s treatment of purposely inflicting pain on patients and thought “Do we really have to
do it this way? Are there other ways to do this?”
Taking the basic idea of aversion therapy and completely transforming it, where instead
of shocking the image of men out of a man, he would gently encourage positive gay thoughts,
and map them onto another body. Davison asked his patients to find a copy of Playboy
Magazine, what he found to be a source of material of attractive women. He instructed them to
“masturbate with the homosexual image”, then at that point of a possible climax, to switch over
to the images of women, and climax. Meaning, instead of shocking the image of men out of a
man, he’d gently encourage positive gay thoughts, and map them onto another body. Davison
defined this as “orgasmic reorientation.” This approach seemed to work, proving itself as
effective for the patient after a few “sessions” (Abumrad, 2018). Following its success, many
medical professionals adopted his therapy and used it with their patients wanting the same
outcome.
Ethical Issues
In 1972, Davison became the youngest president of the Association for the Advancement
of Behavior Therapy. After attending several conferences, where other therapists showed film of
aversion therapies they put their gay participants through for studies, he was hit with a realization
(Abumrad, 2018). His presidential address, still spoken about today in documentaries, podcasts,
and other publications, would change the way people discuss homosexuality and the way they
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
11
view him. Addressing all therapists, as well as the audience who sat before him, he revealed that
he had some concerns regarding ethical issues that he has been “wrestling with for years”
regarding how homosexuality is approached in studies and therapeutic settings (Abumrad, 2018).
He asks, “what does it actually mean to help these people?” (Caruso, 2022). Davison then
highlights that the problem that gay identifying men are asking therapists, including himself, to
solve is a problem that they created and labeled as a problem. Following this, he then asks “Even
if we could affect certain changes, there is still the more important question of if we should… I
believe we should not.” The room was silent, before being met with a short applause.
Afterwards, Davison was ignored by most. He did admit that some people did come around
(Abumrad, 2018).
These ethical issues he had concerns about were further investigated in his paper
published in 2001. The paper reviewed several conceptual and ethical issues surrounding the
study and treatment of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, with an emphasis on the overlooked
political and ethical aspect of what therapists choose and are allowed to treat, towards the goal
patients themselves want to work towards. Davison discusses both relevant and irrelevant issues
concerning sexual orientation and the role of therapist biases in assessing and treatment planning,
the need for better understanding of how LGB (lesbian, gay, bisexual) patients are construed and
the associated risks of stereotypes, the challenges of coming out and the way therapists can help
patients make and implement improved choices, the deleterious effects these can have on them,
and more (Davison, 2001).
Removal of Homosexuality from the DSM
Over sixty years of work by gay rights activists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and other
leaders in the mental health community had ultimately shaped the way individuals from sexual
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
12
minority communities are viewed and cared for by medical professionals. Following the initial
addition to the DSM-I and its eventual removal in 2013, we can safely say that aversion therapy
isn’t a common practice used to treat homosexuality. Subsequently after Kinsey, Hooker,
Davison, and several other mental health professionals’ studies and publications, as well as
protests happening throughout this time on the streets and within conferences took place to
remove homosexuality from the DSM, the DSM-IV, and later DSM-V was published. The DSMV, finally removing homosexuality as a diagnosis that can be “cured.”
DSM-IV
Following the publication of the DSM-IV, homosexuality was removed all-together,
while still including terms that can overlap. The distress over one’s same-sex sexual orientation
and identity remained in the manual, under different names, such as “transsexuality” and GID
(gender identity disorder), up until the DSM-V (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). This
shift in focus highlights the importance of cultural context in which a diagnosis may be made
(McHenry, 2022).
DSM-V
As noted within the DSM-V, cultural normatives have had an impact on what is
considered pathological, and as norms shifted during the gay rights movement, so did the
conceptualization of homosexuality (McHenry, 2022). Upon the release of the fifth edition,
homosexuality’s removal stayed in place while GID, and other terms that may overlap with the
term homosexuality had been removed (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The DSM-V
did not include any diagnostic category that can be applied to people based on their homosexual
orientation, though it does include a separate, non-mental disorder diagnoses of gender dysphoria
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
13
to describe the significant distress individuals may feel with the sex and/or gender they were
assigned at birth.
Conclusion
Studies such as those performed by researchers such as Hooker and Kinsey assisted in the
eventual removal of homosexuality from the DSM. The position Davison carried, being one of
the first to talk against unethical therapies on gay populations in conference, also contributed to
the eventual removal as well. After studies, conferences, and protests, the DSM finally had its
final removal in 2013, eliminating all terms that can overlap or connect to homosexuality.
The APA’s diagnostic revisions made throughout the years was the beginning of the end of
organized medicines official participation in the social stigmatization of homosexuality as we
know it today. Similarly, shifts progressively took place in various fields and other mental health
communities. Because of this, debates about homosexuality shifted away from medicine and
psychiatry and into more political and moral realms. In doing so, cultural attitudes about
homosexuality changed in several countries, normalizing their views on homosexuals and
homosexuality.
Most importantly, because of the modifications seen in the field and within the DSM and
removing the diagnosis of homosexuality, this led to an important shift from asking questions
about “what causes homosexuality?’ and “what is the cure to homosexuality?” to focusing
instead on the health and mental health needs of LGBTQ+ patients and populations. Mental
health and other medical professionals can attend conferences and take courses and other sorts of
training throughout or after, receiving their degrees, providing more insight on how to treat
minority populations such as the LGBTQ+ community.
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14
An Examination of the Literature on Evidence-Based Therapy Modalities for LGBTQ+
Populations
Data collected in 2021 by New York City’s Department of Health found that an estimated
7.1% of adults in the United States identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community (New York
State Department of Health, 2022). LGBTQ+ is an acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, and queer or questioning. While homosexuality is not a mental disorder (and has not
been considered as such since the DSM-II), data does suggest that people within the LGBTQ+
community experience higher rates of some mental health conditions (Whaibeh et al., 2019). To
better understand why LGBTQ+ adults are more susceptible to mental illness than
cisgender/heterosexual adults, we will explore the prevailing academic literature on mental
illness within the LGBTQ+ community and look to research which has studied the effectiveness
of several psychotherapy treatment modalities when used to treat adult members of the LGBTQ+
population.
Theory
Modern-day research has established that homosexuality is not a mental disorder; it
cannot be “treated” or “fixed”. LGBTQ+ individuals do, however, on average experience more
mental health adversities than cisgender/heterosexual people. There are several explanations for
this overrepresentation of mental illness in the LGBTQ+ population. For one, LGBTQ+
individuals are often scrutinized by family/peers for their gender identity/sexual orientation
starting at a young age. Despite the push we see today for widespread acceptance of LGBTQ+
identities, there is still an abundance of homophobia/transphobia ingrained into our society,
causing stress and other mental health issues to the population. As such, many LGBTQ+ people
(especially adults/elders) have likely been exposed to a significant amount of discrimination
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
15
throughout their lives for their identities. In turn, these people may internalize discriminatory
remarks made against them, leading to diminished self-esteem, depression, anxiety, shame, and
other negative feelings surrounding their gender identity/sexual orientation. Because of this, the
focus of therapy for LGBTQ+ individuals should primarily be about helping them to feel
confidence and pride in their identity and unlearn societal expectations for gender/sexuality.
Essentially, a therapist working with a homosexual client would not aim to treat the homosexual
feelings; instead, they would work to alleviate the negative feelings the client has about their
sexual orientation because of societal stigma/internalized homophobia.
Minority stress theory has illustrated how experiences such as those listed above have
caused stress, translating into health disparities for sexual and gender minority populations. This
theory suggests that sexual minorities, underrepresented gender identities, and other sexual
identities apart of the LGBTQ+ population experience chronic stressors related to their identity.
Having to experience discrimination and oppression can lead to the feeling of stigmatization,
putting those at a higher risk for developing mental health disorders.
The psychodynamic theory on the other hand covers the mental processes one may
develop in the early stages of their life and the effect it may have on their behavior and mental
states. An example of this would be an anxiety disorder development in the future for a queer
child who received a negative reaction from their parents when coming out. Acts of homophobia
and other types of discrimination can lead to lasting effects in the future.
Review of Literature
Debunking Conversion Therapy
In the past, conversion therapy techniques were very popular among mental health
clinicians and were used in attempts to turn those attracted to the same sex, heterosexual or make
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
16
people with gender dysphoria feel comfortable in their sex assigned at birth. Conversion therapy
was masked with alternative names such as sexual reorientation therapy (SRT), sexual
orientation change efforts (SOCE), ex-gay therapy, or gender identity change efforts (GICE).
Once homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, also known as the DSM, and no longer considered a mental disorder, its popularity
began to drastically decline; this is especially true as more research supported the notion that
homosexuality is unchangeable, and conversion therapy techniques are ineffective (Higbee et al.,
2022). Despite this, some people still attempt to facilitate conversion therapy today. Techniques
range from painful aversion therapies, electric shocks, chemical castration, to (in extreme cases)
corrective rape. However, more commonly conversion therapy focuses on prayer, talk, and
therapy that attempts to diminish the individual’s same-sex attraction or gender expression
through humiliation and forced adherence to strict gender roles (Higbee et al., 2022).
Homosexuality had not been considered a mental disorder in the DSM since 1973, and in
2013 gender nonconformity underwent a similar change from “gender identity disorder” to
“gender dysphoria,” implying that being either non-binary or transgender does not present as a
mental disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). That all being said, conversion
therapy is still being exploited by religious leaders and groups and select mental health
practitioners as a form of social control (Higbee et al., 2022).
Conversion therapy has been scientifically proven to be ineffective, leading to significant,
long-term psychological harm (Higbee et al., 2022). Many pro-conversion therapy studies and
research utilize biased samples, including clients who have recently undergone such therapies,
distorted the statistics and failed to analyze whether conversion therapy remains effective in the
long term. Even then, such studies only show a 30% success rate (Higbee et al., 2022). Through
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
17
the lens of queer theory, the debate whether conversion therapy is effective is insignificant
because the existence of conversion therapy is rooted in religious homophobia, transphobia and
cisheteropatriatchy.
Harmful Effects and Ethical Issues Related to Sexual Orientation Change Efforts
Sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) are practices intended to eliminate same-sex
attraction. SOCE are usually based on the inaccurate belief that sexual attraction towards the
same sex is not inborn, but instead, develop in response to pathological, relational, or
environmental experiences, and therefore can, or should be altered (Przeworski, et al., 2020).
These practices include various approaches that have been practiced, including Christian,
psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, and integrationist approaches. While
SOCE-oriented therapies, such as those listed, and therapists violate the American Psychological
Association’s ethical guidelines for working with LGBTQ+ members, affirming therapists are
efficacious and consistent with the same guidelines.
Psychoanalytic and psychodynamic approaches to SOCE are based on the idea that poor
parental relationships can prevent an individual from progressing through a “typical”
psychosexual development – which can often lead to same sex attraction. Therapies attached to
this often consist of hypnosis and psychoanalytic techniques. While studied, the idea that same
sex attraction results from familial dysfunction or childhood trauma have been discredited, as
there is a lack of evidence and data to support this theory altered (Przeworski, et al., 2020). On
the other hand, cognitive-behavioral SOCE are based on the perspective that sexual orientation
can be alerted by overcoming cognitive barriers to heterosexuality. Methods include
masturbatory reconditioning and aversion therapy, in which a negative response to same-sex
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
18
attraction is conditioned by an electric shock when shown pictures or videos of same-sex
couples. These methods are now deemed unethical and inhumane.
Other forms of SOCE include, but are not limited to, abstinence training and teaching
traditional gender roles, biological methods such as electroconvulsive therapy, surgeries such as
lobotomy, castration or removal of ovaries, or hormone therapy. These have all been used
historically but are also considered unethical and are currently infrequently used (Przeworski, et
al., 2020). Finally, religious methods of SOCE are among the most prevalent methods still used
today. Examples of such involve prayer, scripture study, relying on God to change one’s sexual
identity or orientation, and threats of damnation (Przeworski, et al., 2020).
Existing data proves that SOCE are not efficacious in altering sexual orientation, while
studies saying otherwise usually include biased information and data, weakening the validity of
the results and study (Przeworski, et al., 2020). As mentioned, many of the methods used
historically are considered unethical, harmful, and inhumane. Negative outcomes associated with
SOCE, making those harmful, are as follows: depression, relationship dysfunction, anxiety, and
increased homonegativity.
Affirmative Therapy for LGBTQ+ Clients
Affirmative therapies are psychotherapy treatment modalities which seek to
depathologize LGBTQ+ identities. It is used to validate and advocate the needs of sexual and
gender minority clients (Hinrichs et al., 2017). Mental health clinicians may use affirmative
therapy techniques to help an LGBTQ+ client foster a more positive conceptualization of their
self-identity. During this treatment, a therapist would actively help their client to recognize the
dangers of heterosexism, and above all else, be unequivocally supportive of their client’s sexual
identity and related experience (Medley, 2021). Like humanistic approaches to psychotherapy,
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
19
affirmative therapy techniques are best used in tandem with other psychotherapy modalities. For
example, some research suggests that combining affirmative therapy techniques with attachmentbased therapy techniques for an LGBTQ+ client could help them improve their view of their self
while also improving their relationships with the people around them.
Many may argue that affirmation begins before a therapist meets their client. This may be
via intake forms that don’t assume heterosexuality, or ask for preferred pronouns, posting of a
nondiscrimination policy on one’s website, or simply by having a rainbow flag in a waiting
room. Behaviors such as these communicate to a client that they are accepted and will be
provided affirmative care (Hinrichs et al., 2017). As mentioned in the American Psychological
Association (APA) guideline, it is important to consider how cultural and contextual factors
intersect with sexual orientation and gender identity when providing healthcare to LGBTQ+
individuals (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Affirmative psychotherapy also requires
the therapist to know about and assess personal attitudes toward issues of sexual orientation or
gender identity.
Health care providers are encouraged to consider the diverse identities and backgrounds
of their LGBTQ+ identifying clients to provide said affirmative treatment. While providers
working in metropolitan areas may have more resources and funding compared to those working
in rural settings, it is imperative for them to have knowledge on programs offered in other local
communities. If none are offered in proximity, they are also encouraged to seek out guidance
from nationwide programs that can assist with identifying LGBT-inclusive services (Hinrichs et
al., 2017).
Existential Therapy as a Cure for Loneliness Among LGBTQ+ Patients
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
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A major issue faced by mankind that has served as a struggle throughout history is
loneliness. Especially concerning LGBTQ+ individuals, a failure to connect with others within
inner or outside communities can have disastrous consequences. The symptoms are greater for
those who experience marginalization, discrimination, and alienation in society, leading to
detrimental outcomes such as: substance abuse, HIV, and suicide (Ratanashevorn et al., 2021).
It is not easy for LGBTQ+ identifying individuals to find others who fit with their version of
what existential isolation or those who share similar communities in heteronormative societies.
Not being able to connect with others on experiences shared by the more dominant culture and
traditions is just one of the various factors affecting LGBTQ+ individuals. Another factor that
plays a role in feeling isolated from others is one’s need to force conceal their sexual or gender
identity for safety and acceptance from others. Lack of family support also leads to more
loneliness among LGBTQ+ youth. All in all, LGBTQ+ individuals are most vulnerable to feeling
existential isolation because it’s more challenging for them to alleviate the pain that comes with
isolation (Ratanashevorn et al., 2021).
Isolation and loneliness serving as a central concern, this makes existential therapy a
compatible approach for addressing issues among individuals in the LGBTQ+ community.
Based on the principles of existentialism, this theoretical approach allows existential therapists to
address these issues in LGBTQ+ clients. Existential psychotherapy is a dynamic therapeutic
approach that focuses on concerns that tend to be rooted in the individual’s existence
(Ratanashevorn et al., 2021). This type of therapy mainly investigates ways to move past surface
everyday concerns and explores existential situations. By uncovering issues related to their
ultimate concerns, assisting these clients by confronting existential givens, the therapist can
possibly alleviate a client’s pain.
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
21
It is important to emphasis that said approaches can be tailored to a LGBTQ+
individual’s personal experience, best fitting with their identities and culture. Existential
therapists hold a phenomenological stance, allowing the affirmation of the client’s lived sexual
and gender experiences on both the essentialist and constructionist aspects of sexuality
(Ratanashevorn et al., 2021). Conclusively, the therapists are tasked with having a therapeutic
and affirmative viewpoint towards LGBTQ+ identifying individuals. Because of this viewpoint,
a solid foundation to work meaningfully with these individuals is created, assisting in tackling
issues such as loneliness and isolation.
The therapist providing the existential therapy to their client has the duty of providing a
safe and affirming environment and relationship to counter their sense of isolation
(Ratanashevorn et al., 2021). When the client has the desire to alleviate isolation, entering their
therapeutic relationship, the therapist automatically becomes their companion to heal said
isolation. The emphasis of this type of therapist is to build a genuine relationship and alliance
between the therapist and client, neutrally validating the client’s lived experience (Ratanashevorn
et al., 2021). Meaning, the formed therapeutic relationship created early in the treatment is
necessary for clients to form meaningful relationships in the following phases of their treatment.
Benefits of Telepsychiatry
Across the USA, there has been an increase in mental illness issues and those
experiencing such symptoms. Patients continue to encounter many barriers to accessing health
care, only 43% receiving treatment, such as individual or group therapies (Whaibeh et al., 2019).
This serves as a large challenge for underserved LGBTQ+ individuals who experience a higher
rate of mental health conditions, with a higher suicidality. These individuals face specific
barriers at a clinician, individual, and systemic level.
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The state of LGBTQ+ mental health is most challenged, as they are underserved and
often, a poorly served population in health care settings. LGBTQ+ identifying individuals face
discrimination from select providers and prejudice from medical institutions, causing an increase
in mental health needs linked to depression, anxiety, and substance abuse (Whaibeh et al., 2019).
Additionally, those living in more rural areas, facing geographic isolation face higher barriers
when accessing mental health services in an already limited pool of mental health providers in
the area. While approaches are urgently needed to overcome said barriers, telepsychiatry serves
as a step in the right direction, allowing clients to gain access to the help and assistance they
need.
Another barrier that LGBTQ+ individuals face is the shortage of culturally competent
clinicians (Whaibeh et al., 2019). Culturally competent healthcare providers are those able to
understand the cultural influences necessary to guide the treatment of patients belonging to a
specific community. In the context of LGBTQ+ clients, this entails sensitivity and knowledge
on understanding issues faced by LGBTQ+ communities. By doing so, these mental health
providers can become self-aware of biases and assumptions made about their client. Having a
shortage of culturally competent healthcare providers stems from the lack of education and
training provided, making them incompetent to approach care with LGBTQ+ clients. Even
though psychologists and psychiatrists in the United States carry positive attitudes towards
LGBTQ+ identifying clients, they still do not acquire the level of training, experience, or
knowledge to provide for their needs (Whaibeh et al., 2019).
Fortunately, telepsychiatry has emerged as an approach to possibly help overcome these
barriers faced by individuals. Also known as telemental health, telepsychiatry is the use of
communicative technology to deliver psychiatric (and other) services remotely. As of recently,
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
23
telepsychiatry has emerged as an interprofessional field with a community of primary care
physicians, nurse practitioners, psychologists, social workers, and nurse’s (Whaibeh et al., 2019).
Potential clients and patients can choose providers based on profiles, experience, and sometimes
past client reviews on websites and phone applications. Not only that, telepsychiatry is a more
convenient and cost-effective alternative for in-person psychiatry services, serving as a time
saver while eliminating travel expenses and less time away from work (Whaibeh et al., 2019).
Conclusion
For years, society discriminated and oppressed those with varying sexual and gender
identities while practitioners spent their ways trying to convert them to heterosexual for their
research. Even after the American Psychiatric Association code was modified to acknowledge
the variety of sexual identities as normal, deeming conversion therapy as unethical, LGBTQ+
individuals are still reporting high numbers of unsupportive therapy, having less access to
competent professionals in the field. With the shortage of culturally competent providers with the
proper training needed to provide psychiatry help to LGBTQ+ clientele facing sexual and gender
identity issues, the pool of providers isn’t as endless as it is for heterosexual clients.
Fortunately, being past the time where conversion and other sexual orientation change efforts
(SOCE) stood as the only therapies available for LGBTQ+ individuals, there are now various
therapeutic options to alleviate feelings of isolation, body dysphoria, and other mental health
issues faced. Psychotherapy treatment’s such as existential, affirmative, and psychotherapy are
just a few to name.
All in all, research and alternative therapies should be improved upon by competent
professionals best suited to understand the intersectionality of minority groups and psychology.
By adopting gay affirmative attitudes and being active within LGBTQ+ communities, avoiding
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
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heterosexism languages, respect can be shown in various ways. Respect for LGBTQ+ individuals
and the mental health issues they face make for greater application in research and future
therapeutic studies, forming a deeper understanding of all human experiences and emotions
(Vicknair, 2015).
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25
LGBTQ+ Populations Access to Mental Health Resources
LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, etc.) individuals are often stigmatized and
discriminated against in various settings. This population is expected to experience inferior
mental health outcomes compared to cis-gendered and heterosexual people, a phenomenon
healthcare providers need to take note of and act on (Moagi et al., 2021). Facing such barriers,
they’re at higher risk for substance use, bullying, depression, and other mental health issues
compared to the general population. Due to the lack of healthcare providers’ awareness,
stigmatization, and insensitivity to the unique needs of this community, LGBTQ+ individuals
experience significant health inequities with well-documented negative health impacts (Hafeez et
al., 2017). The community faces many issues on a clinical and personal level. All in all, there are
many ways to address such issues, especially when coming to mental health complications.
Problems
LGBTQ+ individuals, on average, experience a myriad of mental health disparities as
well as an amplified risk of suicide compared to cisgender/heterosexual individuals (Madireddy
and Madireddy, 2022). There are several explanations for this overrepresentation of mental
illness in the LGBTQ+ population backing this statement. For one, LGBTQ+ individuals are
often scrutinized and stigmatized by family, peers, and healthcare providers. Those who
experience internalized stigma may feel as though they do not deserve respect from healthcare
providers or, the same access to healthcare as their heterosexual peers (Moagi et al., 2021). As a
result, they may not disclose relevant information to their providers, or avoid seeking treatment
overall! These individuals find it troubling to share their sexual orientation or gender identities
with providers who may be inept at understanding the experiences and challenges of their
(LGBTQ+) community. Given the frequency of said experiences in a negative light in various
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
26
settings, in both overt and coverts forms of discrimination, many find the decision as feeling like
a “risk” (Henriquez and Ahmad, 2021). Furthermore, stereotypes attached to LGBTQ+
identifying individuals within the healthcare services lead to fear of communicating with
providers about mental health hardships, delaying such services that they may need (Moagi et al.,
2021). These factors alone may inhibit the access to structural, interpersonal, and psychological
resources.
Despite the push we see today for widespread acceptance of LGBTQ+ identities, there is
still an abundance of homophobia and transphobia ingrained into our society, causing mental
health issues to the population. As such, many LGBTQ+ have likely been exposed to a
significant amount of discrimination throughout their lives for their identities, on social media, at
school, or by immediate friends and family. Such discriminatory remarks made against them
often leads to diminished self-esteem, depression, anxiety, shame, and other negative feelings
surrounding their gender identity/sexual orientation. An emphasis on addressing the broad
health, mental wellbeing and needs of LGBTQ+ is needed, rather than exclusively using an
illness-based focus such as AIDS or HIV. Meaning, we see studies and research done by the
CDC (The Center for Disease Control) and other physicians about how much of the homosexual
identifying population carries HIV or AIDS, but not enough research including other identities
within the LGBTQ+ community (Hafeez et al., 2017). Even then, LGBTQ+ individuals find it
difficult to report their sexual identities to their clinicians, some of those clinicians not well
trained in addressing such (Hafeez et al., 2017). This lack of communication is responsible for
the poor therapeutic alliance, lack of related education, inadequate screenings, and interventions
for physical and mental illnesses.
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27
Solutions
Stakeholders and contributors in the community need to assist in developing a cohesive
plan to deal with the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ individuals. Policy makers can engage key
stakeholders in formulating social and news media campaigns to address these social inequalities
and lack of effective and inclusive health care through such messages (Hafeez et al., 2017).
Parents, teachers, medical professionals, and peers can also enhance the experience of LGBTQ+
identifying individuals. Parents and youth especially should be at the front and center of these
interventions, speaking on their personal experiences whether it is their identity, their child’s
identity, or another family members identity.
Physicians and mental health professionals should be culturally sensitive to meet the
basic needs of the LGBTQ+ population. They should be trained and educated to provide
nurturing, open communication, and empathetic care to this population, in a respectful manner
(Hafeez et al., 2017). Inservice training using reflective techniques may assist in facilitating
mental healthcare providers’ awareness of their own stereotypes and beliefs that may hinder
management in management of LGBTQ+ individuals. Additionally, such professionals need to
address the concerns of LGBTQ+ individuals in their research, taking physical and mental wellbeing, social welfare into account.
Regarding pediatricians, the most important element of their primary care includes
assessing and supporting youth’s mental health. This element plays a significant role in
LGBTQ+ youth and young adults, who are prone to experiencing stressors associated with
family rejection, self-nonacceptance, and stigmatization (Madireddy and Madireddy, 2022).
Therefore, pediatricians must be aware of how to apply principles of mental health practice to
LGBTQ+ youth as well as have resources available as needed.
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Suggested by LGBTQ+ identifying individuals to improve their access to mental
healthcare services, they wished for a “responsive, seamless, and holistic services,” while being
treated with dignity and respect (Moagi et al., 2021). LGBTQ+ individuals also described the
importance of building queer-friendly health and community services, including supportive and
inclusive, safe spaces in their community (Henriquez and Ahmad, 2021). Lastly, they request
that mental health practitioners provide psychoeducation at their workplaces and for significant
others (Moagi et al., 2021). A concern voiced by transgender individuals is the refusal of care by
healthcare providers due to “lack of knowledge.” By this, some providers decline prescribing or
treating transgender patients due to uncertainty of how hormones might “intersect/affect” care
(Henriquez and Ahmad, 2021). An FTM (female to male) participant apart of Henriquez and
Ahmad’s study voiced that he understood the reasoning to a certain degree but emphasized that
these providers were unwilling to get the training needed to treat patients such as himself. Other
participants spoke on the same solution, talking about how these medical professionals should go
through training necessary to treat them, noting that there are websites dedicated to showing
providers how “easy” it is to prescribe transgender identifying individuals (Henriquez and
Ahmad, 2021). Lesbian, gay, bisexual. and queer individuals agreed with this, demanding a good
practice guideline be put in place, while requiring additional training for mental health
practitioners on LGBTQ+ issues and terms (Moagi et al., 2021).
Conclusion
All in all, healthcare and mental health resources are both lacking for LGBTQ+
populations. Either because said treatment isn’t offered, or select professionals do not have the
proper training, it makes it difficult for LGBTQ+ individuals to receive the proper care. The lack
of resources leading to horrible outcomes such as suicide and deteriorating physical and mental
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
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health, should be a wakeup call for politicians and current and future medical professionals
everywhere. By receiving a further education in treating a minority group such as the LGBTQ+
population, this can lead to bettered health outcomes for said individuals.
�HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE DSM
Chapter 4 redacted to remove personal reflections and any identifying information.
30
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�
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Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
Christina Ottrando
Senior Thesis
BU 400 Thesis and Practicum
Nicolais School of Business
Wagner College
Spring 2021
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�Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
Abstract
This paper illuminates a plausible theory suggesting that different types of social media
and social media networking companies (i.e., Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) are deliberately
addicting users to their products for immense financial gain. In particular, it argues that social
media companies are continuing on the path of immense financial growth and show no signs of
slowing down. This paper uses relevant case studies, filings from the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission, and graphs to emphasize the hypothesized theory.
Keywords: Social Media, Addictive Behaviors, Cost of Operations, Users, Hour Spent, Research
and Development, Suicide, Depression, Anxiety.
Introduction
Starting in 2003, MySpace became popularized as it was the first recognizable social
media site with over 100 million active users. MySpace was originally founded with the intent of
sharing music and concert dates. However, it soon became a social media sensation as the once
simple site turned complex as users were able to create profiles, post photos and videos, and add
friends.
In September of 2006, the era of MySpace came to an end as Facebook opened its free
website to anyone over the age of 13 to connect with friends, “like” pictures, music, videos, and
articles, share their own relationship status’s, thoughts and opinions, plan events, and establish a
timeline.
Fast-forward to today, Facebook has over 2.7 billion monthly active users (and counting)
with a net worth of $872.13 billion (Facebook, 2021) and is no longer the only networking site
that helps us share our lives. Other sites such as Twitter and Instagram have also made it easy to
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�Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
connect with family and friends on a real-time basis. However, social media can be very
influential in both positive and negative ways.
In the current paper, I further explore the social media websites of Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitter. I focus on the research and development of these companies and emphasize how
they are profiting off of their users.
I first begin this paper with a detailed description of social media, Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitter and, second, explain the addiction to social media as it exists in the world today.
Third, I examine the side effects of social media as it has been proven to cause depression and
anxiety based on a survey made by Kingdom's Royal Society for Public Health. This paper is
concluded with a financial analysis of Facebook and Twitter, along with how they are profiting
off of everyone, including you.
Literature review
Introduction to Social Media
What is it?
Social media are forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social
networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share
information, ideas, personal messages, and other content, such as videos (Merriam-Webster,
2021). Social Media plays a crucial role in connecting people and developing relationships, not
only with key influencers and journalists covering your company's sector, but also provides a
great opportunity to establish customer service by gathering input, answering questions and
listening to their feedback. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others have
made it possible for individuals to access information at the click of a button. About 3.5 billion
people out of 7.7 billion to be exact (PewResearchCenter, 2019).
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Social Media Companies
Instagram
Instagram is a free photo and video sharing app available on iPhone and Android.
People can upload photos or videos to our service and share them with their followers or with a
select group of friends. They can also view, comment and like posts shared by their friends on
Instagram. Anyone 13 and older can create an account by registering an email address and
selecting a username (Instagram, 2021). In 2010, at the age of 27, Kevin Systrom began building
what today is Instagram. Within a year, 500,000 people a week were signing up for the app's
photo-sharing network. (Forbes, 2012). Fast Forward 11 years, and over one billion people are
currently using the app which is now worth roughly $101 billion (Bloomberg, 2021).
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking site that makes it easy for you to connect and share with
family and friends online. Originally designed for college students, Facebook was created in
2004 by Mark Zuckerberg while he was attending Harvard University. However, by 2006,
anyone over the age of 13 with a valid email address could join Facebook. Today, Facebook is
one of the world's largest social networks, with more than 2.7 billion users worldwide and worth
over $872.13 billion (GCFGlobal, 2021; NASDAQ, 2021). Facebook bought Instagram for $1
billion in 2012, a shocking sum at that time for a company with 13 employees. Instagram today
has over one billion users and contributes over $20 billion to Facebook's annual revenue (CNBC,
2020).
Twitter
Twitter is a 'microblogging' system that allows you to send and receive short posts called
tweets. Tweets can be up to 140 characters long and can include links to relevant websites and
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resources. You can create your own tweets, or you can retweet information that has been tweeted
by others. Retweeting means that information can be shared quickly and efficiently with a large
number of people (UKRI, 2021). The snappy nature of tweets means that Twitter is widely used
by smartphone users who don’t want to read long content items on-screen. Twitter currently has
353 million users and has a market cap of $53.48 billion.
Social Media “Addiction”
The word “addiction” brings to mind alcohol and drugs. Yet, over the past 21 years of my
life, I have witnessed a new type of addiction emerge: addiction to social media. A quote from
The Social Dilemma, “There are only two industries that call their customers “users”: illegal
drugs and software,” sends shivers down my spine. “Internet addiction is known to have the
same pattern as individuals with drug addiction and alcoholism which in pathology has a
negative impact on the lives of individual pathology” (Kavaklı, M., & İnan, E.,2020). We’ve
simply created a world where online connection has become primary. Especially for younger
generations. And yet, in that world, anytime two people connect, it needs to be manipulated by a
sneaky third person behind a screen. So, we’ve created an entire global generation of people who
were raised within a context with the very meaning of communication, the very meaning of
culture, is manipulation” (The Social Dilemma, 2021).
As we move away from having a tools-based technology environment to an addictionand manipulation-based technology environment, the hours spent looking at the screen just
continue to get longer. According to the eMarketing Organization, on average, global internet
users are spending roughly 2 hours and 44 minutes on social media sites every day (2020). This
statistic is strictly time spent on social media and does not include the time spent staring at the
screen when using facetime, texting, taking photos, etc. Individuals from age 16 to 29 are
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�Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
spending the most time on social media platforms at 3 hours daily while the average United
States aged adult was spending anywhere from 1 to 2 hours each day. In essence, this means that
the average individual will spend over 6 years of their life on social media (PewResearch,2021).
In 2012, Harvard University conducted a series of experiments that involved hooking up
volunteers to a magnetic resonance imaging machine (MRI) and found that regions of the brain
associated with the reward center were strongly engaged when individuals talked about
themselves. And when people got to share their thoughts with family or friends there was an
even larger amount of energy in the reward center of the brain. In contrast, when these subjects
were told that they could not talk about themselves, there was little to no activity in the reward
part of the brain. This can act as evidence as to why people are constantly revealing so much
personal information on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter and enjoy the
attention of it.
These social media websites are not unaware of the harm they are doing to society as they
have purposely sought out ways to make their product more addicting. Just like Tobacco
companies eventually added sugar and menthol to cigarettes so you could hold the smoke in your
lungs longer, Facebook added photo tagging and likes, and Instagram added stories and
actionable insights to keep your fingers scrolling.
During an interview with CBSN, former Facebook executive Tim Kendell, told CBS
News’ that “it all boils down to the social media giant's advertising-based business model, in
which the objective is to get more people to pay attention to your product and to pay attention
longer each and every day” (CBS News, 2020). In summary, these advertising-based business
models are combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that is constantly evolving and
constantly searching for new ways to get us to look at the screen. Weather this is a notification
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�Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
for a new friend joining Facebook, or an old memory on your timeline, these algorithms have
their own goals and own way of pursing them.
There data shines light on the idea that social media usage is connected with serious
mental health issues and tech giants such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have done nothing
to address the issue or take any accountability.
Social Media Effects of Mental Health
Depression and Anxiety
Social media has a reinforcing nature. Using it activates the brain’s reward center by
releasing dopamine, a “feel-good chemical” linked to pleasurable activities such as sex, food,
and social interaction. The platforms are designed to be addictive and are associated with
anxiety, depression, and even suicide.
Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities you once
enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease your
ability to function at work and at home. Anxiety feels different depending on the person
experiencing it. Feelings can range from butterflies in your stomach to a racing heart. You might
feel out of control, like there’s a disconnect between your mind and body (Healthline, 2018).
Based on a 1,500 persons survey ages 14 to 24 made by Kingdom's Royal Society for
Public Health, the result on the negative impact of uncontrolled Instagram usage shows that
Instagram is the worst social networking site which causes a decrease in the quality of sleep,
bullying, FoMo (fear of missing out), low self-esteem, as well as an increase of anxiety and
depression (Kavaklı, M., & İnan, E.,2020).
The anxiety and depression feelings are coming from a “compare and despair” attitude
set by the unrealistic expectations of the app. Although it is natural human instinct to compare
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yourself to others and constantly evaluate yourself, these applications are heightening that ability
with the touch of a button to do so. Instagram’s algorithm puts the most popular posts at the top
of your feed, most of which are posts by celebrities and influencers such as Kim Kardashian,
Kylie Jenner, and Bella Hadid. Then you have young children and adults constantly seeing these
photos and videos that were edited, filtered and morphed for hours thinking this is what a normal
body should look like presenting a false representation of life.
The chart below presents the negative psychological effects that social media usage has
on our metal health leading to depression and anxiety.
Figure 1: Negative Effects of Social Media on Your Mental Health
Eating Disorders
In 2019, Instagram had to introduce a new set of rules regarding the promotion of diet
products and cosmetic surgery after a BBC news report declared that eating disorder content on
Instagram was out of control after noticing children were sending graphic images of weight loss
and advice on how to make eating disorders more extreme.
In an online survey conducted by the United States National Library of Medicine
National Institute of Health, 680 social media users were assessed using their social media usage,
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eating behaviors, and orthorexia nervosa symptoms, an eating disorder that involves an
unhealthy obsession. “Orthorexia symptoms are associated with healthy lifestyle choices such as
eating more fruit and vegetables, eating fewer white cereals, shopping in health food stores,
exercise, and reduced alcohol consumption. But orthorexia nervosa is also associated with
significant dietary restrictions, malnutrition, and social isolation” (United States National Library
of Medicine National Institute of Health, 2017).
The results of this experiment directly correlated higher Instagram usage with a greater
tendency toward orthorexia nervosa and unhealthy eating habits. This result can be due to the
fact that #fitinspiritation tagged photos on Instagram tend to show images of thin and toned
bodies with objectifying elements. These findings highlight the implications that social media are
causing for the psychological wellbeing of many individuals.
Financial Analysis of Social Media Companies
Facebook
As the economy contracts and many companies struggle to survive, the biggest tech
companies are amassing wealth and influence in ways unseen in decades.
On May 18th, 2012, Facebook Inc. (FB) shares hit the public market trading on the
Nasdaq Exchange (NASDAQ) with an initial public offering price of $38 per share (Yahoo).
Becoming a public company is the process of taking a private company public and issuing stock
to investors who would like to invest in the company. The offering of stock is “the foremost
important channel of new capital flow to young companies” (Gregoriou). A shareholder is a
person, company, or institution that owns at least one share of a company's stock, which is
known as equity. The company’s most important goal is to maximize shareholder wealth which
stems from dividends and price appreciation. To make these two things happen the Chief
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Executive Officer (CEO) must develop long term strategies, implement the right processes and
create a plan to see what the company needs to do on a day-to-day basis. If a company follows
this process to the end, it should lead to the maximization of shareholder wealth. Companies
such as Facebook contribute their success to their day-to-day operations and their financial
statements which show they are able to maximize shareholder wealth.
Facebook is one of the five largest publicly traded companies in America and rose 37
percent in the first seven months this year, while all the other stocks in the S&P 500 fell a
combined 6 percent, according to Credit Suisse (Eavis, P., & Lohr, S., 2020). “The performance
of social media stocks is not associated with macro-level sentiment, but rather with firm-level
attention paid by potential investors” (Chiou, W.-J. P., Knewtson, H. S., & Nofsinger, J. R.,
2019). And currently, Facebook's stock is worth $306.21 and shows no sign of slowing down.
During the first three months of 2021 Facebooks revenue rose to $26.17 billion, a 48%
increase from the end of 2020. Net income has also increased by almost 100% rising to $9.5
billion. And basic earnings per share (EPS) increased from $1.72 to $3.34. Facebook’s total
assets, total liabilities, and total equity have also seen a consistent incline from the beginning of
2020 to today, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Facebook’s day-to-day success is based on their ability to effectively implement the ten
strategic decision areas of operations management (OM) seen in the table below.
Table 1: Facebooks Ten Decision Areas of Operations Management
The Ten Decision Areas of Operations
Management
1. Design of Goods and Services
2. Quality Management
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How Facebook Achieves the Ten Decision
Areas of Operations Management
• Continuous innovation of new
products and abilities.
• Implement suitable human resource
policies.
�Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
•
•
•
•
3. Process and Capacity Design
•
4. Location Strategy
•
•
5. Layout Design and Strategy.
•
•
•
•
•
•
6. Job Design and Human Resources
•
7. Supply Chain Management
•
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Address issues based on user
experience
Collect customer feedback daily.
High quality servers.
Uses code ownership to make sure
each developer is personally
responsible for the quality of their
own work.
Online AI technologies facilitate
efficient dissemination of data among
work teams in the company’s
facilities.
Keeps its headquarters near the best
talent pools and markets such as
Silicone Valley in California known
for cloud computing technology.
Overseas offices are put in place for
easy access to the cheap labor market.
Employees are empowered to take
control of their workspaces.
Employees are allowed to bring in
artists, designers, and friends to design
the office space and walk around.
Cultural artifacts are used all around
the building to inspire designers.
No cabins or cubicles.
Cafes, ice-cream shops, banks, and
restaurants are placed all along
Facebook’s campus.
Free lunch and snacks at its offices
Facebook, uses interns, new graduates,
PhD, and early-in-career hires to shape
the future of the company.
The company’s headquarters are
centered flooded with endless access to
equipment supply, the labor market,
energy, and top of the line
environmental operational conditions.
�Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
8. Inventory Management
•
9. Scheduling
•
•
•
•
10. Maintenance
•
Uses just-in time (JIT)
inventory system which is a
management strategy that has a
company receive goods as close as
possible to when they are actually
needed, similar to Amazons delivery
system.
Flexible scheduling to ensure
employees comfortability.
Four months of paid time off for new
mothers and fathers
A wellness allowance to finance gym
membership or other healthy activities
An extensive healthcare plan for each
employee.
Takes advantage of the environment
around its offices to keep costs low.
For example, the Sweden data center
capitalizes on the country’s cold
climate to minimize maintenance cost
of the building.
Thompson, Andrew (2022). 10 Critical Decisions of Operations Management. 10 Critical
Decisions of Operations Management | Kettering University Online.
https://online.kettering.edu/news/2016/09/21/10-critical-decisions-operations-management.
Twitter
On November 7th, 2013, Twitter Inc. (TWTR) shares hit the public market trading on the
NASDAQ with an initial public offering price of $44.90 per share (Yahoo). For Twitter, millions
of users who have been quarantined in their houses due to COVID-19 have caused a spike in the
social media company's traffic and user sign up. However, due to the shutdown of many
businesses, Twitter’s mainstream of revenue coming from selling advertisements has seen a
decline (Twitter, 2020). Despite this, Twitter still managed to pull a powerful price move to beat
earning expectations in Q1 2020 ending March, delivering adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of
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$0.11 compared to a consensus estimate of $0.10. In addition, Twitter's stock price is currently
worth $67.00 despite its ups and downs in the past year (NASDAQ, 2021). Twitters successful
day-to-day operations is also based on their ability to effectively implement the ten strategic
decision areas of operations management seen in the table below.
Table 2: Twitter’s Ten Decision Areas of Operations Management
The Ten Decision Areas of Operations
Management
1. Design of Goods and Services
How Twitter Achieves the Ten Decision
Areas of Operations Management
•
Continuous innovation of new
products and abilities.
2. Quality Management
•
Models its company off of creativity,
empathy and global business.
3. Process and Capacity Design
•
AI technology determine what tweet
recommendations to suggest on users'
timelines.
4. Location Strategy
5. Layout Design and Strategy.
6. Job Design and Human Resources
7. Supply Chain Management
13 | Page
•
Employees work from home
permanently as it increases
productivity and provides a better
work-life balance.
• Employees work from home
permanently.
• Does not target specific companies or
competitors from which to hire
people.
• Does not conform its hiring to
individuals who have certain types of
degrees from a specific list of colleges
and universities
• Focus on specific skill sets and talents.
• Ensures a positive candidate
experience.
• Cloud-based services connect everyone
in the supply chain, providing a more
�Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
8. Inventory Management
9. Scheduling
•
•
10. Maintenance
•
strategic approach for inventory
deployment and improvement.
Collect their own data.
Working from home allows for flexible
work hours.
Twitter's plans
to work from home indefinitely cut
costs for both the employees and
company.
Thompson, Andrew (2022). 10 Critical Decisions of Operations Management. 10 Critical
Decisions of Operations Management | Kettering University Online.
https://online.kettering.edu/news/2016/09/21/10-critical-decisions-operations-management.
Profiting Off Our Addiction
The primary way social media companies like Facebook and Twitter make money is
through selling advertising. The concept of selling advertising while offering a free service is not
new. This means that every time you log onto a social media platform, and click, look at, or like
anything, AI technology collects this data which is then sold to other companies without our
permission. For example, almost all of Twitter's revenue - about 85% of it - comes from
advertising on its site (Tse, T. C. M., 2018). However, social media companies have jumped
from selling advertising to selling our personal information. “Based on the theoretical
perspective presented using CPM, four main constructs for measuring users ‘concern for
information privacy on social media platforms are introduced, including 1) unauthorized access
and secondary used of personal information—information access, 2) information collection—
collection, and 3) erroneous storage and representation of personal information—errors”
(Bennet, A. 2014).
Hypothesis
H1: Social media companies are deliberately addicting users to their products.
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H2: Social media companies are continuing on the path of immense financial gain.
Methods
Subjects
Subjects include some of the roughly 3.96 billion individuals who use social media,
which accounts for roughly half of the global population (Digital Marketing, 2020).
Subjects
Social Media Companies
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Cost of Operations
Research, Development, Marketing and Sales
Measures
Variables will include the time users spent on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
(Coombe, Curtis & Orlowski, 2021). Variables will also include the cost of Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitter research and development, and marketing and sales departments, and profit from the
date of the companies’ founding to 2021 Data will be gathered from each company's annual
report filed under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Analysis will examine changes in the cost of operations, profit, and the time users spent
on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Analysis will examine whether Facebook, Instagram, and
Twitter endorse, research, and create addictive behavior. Analysis will determine whether
individuals are spending more time on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, leading to each
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company’s upward profitability trend. Data will also be gathered on the number of individuals
currently signed up in that year.
Table 1: Components of Study
Variables
Time Spent by
Individuals
Cost of
Operations
(Research and
Development,
and Marketing
and Sales)
Centers for
Disease and
Control
Prevention
Statistica
Company Data
Securities and
Exchange
Commission
Filings
Data Source
Facebook,
Instagram,
and Twitter
Centers for
Disease and
Control
Prevention
Statista
Database
company
Securities and
Exchange
Commission
Filings
Annual
Growth Rate
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
Filings
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
Filings
Type of data gathered
Qualitative
Quantitative
Quantitative
Quantitative
Qualitative
Social Media
Company
Suicide Rate
Instrument
Facebook,
Instagram,
and Twitter
Data
Company
Number of
Average Hours
Annual
Types of scores produced
Name
Deaths
Spent
Revenue
Profit
Adapted from: Rudestam, K.E. & Newton, R.R. (1992). Surviving Your Dissertation. Newbury Park, California:
Sage Publications, Inc. page 140.
Hypothesis
H1: Social
media
companies
are
deliberately
16 | Page
Table 2: Hypothesis, Instruments, and Statistical Analysis
Instrument
Cost of
Operations
(Research and
Social
Time Spent Development, Annual
Hypotheses
Media
by
and Marketing Growth
Variable
Company
Individuals
and Sales)
Rate
Relationships
Statistical Test
Social
Media
Company
Correlation;
regression; line
charts
Time Spent
by
Individuals
Cost of
Operations
Cost => Time
Profit
�Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
addicting
users to their
products.
H2: Social
media
companies
are
Social
continuing on
Media
the path of
Company
Profit
Cost =? Time=>
immense
Social
Time spent
Profit
Correlation;
financial
Media
by
Cost of
regression; line
gain.
Company
individuals
Operations
charts
Adapted from: Rudestam, K.E. & Newton, R.R. (1992). Surviving Your Dissertation. Newbury Park, California:
Sage Publications, Inc. page 140.
Procedure
In conducting this study, I did extensive research on these three social media companies
while analyzing their financial filings under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC). I also found peer reviewed articles and case studies that provide evidence when showing
the negative side effects of social media on mental health and the continuous increase of social
media companies profitability.
Data was collected by using the following databases, Business Source Premier as well as
EBSCO Discovery Service. From there I used the search terms, Facebook finances, Instagram
finances, Twitter finances, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in their connection to
addictive behaviors, suicide, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders such as orthorexia nervosa
symptoms. Other sites used were The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fox News, ABC, CNN,
Yahoo Finance and the New York Times. These articles provided knowledge on the respective
company.
From the above articles and documentaries, I analyzed the addictiveness of social media
and how it was continuously impacting our mental health in more than one negative ways
throughout the years leading up to today. From there, I analyzed a study done by the Centers for
17 | Page
�Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
Disease Control and Prevention on U.S. Suicide Rates in Pre-Teen Girls from1999 to 2017.
Furthermore, I was able to perform a financial analyzation of the Annual Revenue of Twitter and
Facebook from 2009 to 2020 and present the issue that they are continuing on a path of financial
growth with few signs of slowing down. And lasty, I created a line graph that represents the
number of social media users against the suicide death rate of individuals from 15-19 years of
age.
Results
Continuous Profits
Figure 2: Annual Revenue of Twitter and Facebook, 2009 to 2020
Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
This chart presents the persistent growth of Facebook and Twitters annual revenue from 2009 to
2020.
Dying for Likes
18 | Page
�Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
Deaths (Per 1,000,000
Females)
U.S. Suicide Rates
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1999 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Year
US Suicide Rates Girls 10-14
US Suicide Rates Girls 15-19
Figure 1: U.S. Suicide Rates in Pre-Teen Girls, 1999 to 2017
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Figure 1 shows a gradual increase in the suicide rates of Pre-Teen Girls from ages 10–14 and 1519.
Killing for Profits
19 | Page
�Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
Figure 2: Annual Revenue of Twitter and Facebook, 2009 to 2020
Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
This chart presents the persistent growth of Facebook and Twitters annual revenue from 2009 to
2020.
The Link
Figure 3: Number of Social Media Users on the Rise with Suicide Rates
Source: Centers for Disease and Control Prevention, 2018 and Pew Research Center, 2021.
The chart above presents the comparison in the number of social media users against the suicide
death rate of individuals from 15-19 years of age.
Discussion
The results of Figure 1 indicate that suicide rates have soared over 150% in the United
States in Pre-Teen Girls from 1999 to 2017. The largest spike in this data can be seen after the
20 | Page
�Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
year 2009 when social media was available on all devices. In 2008, the suicide rate of preteen
girls from 15-19 was 32 individuals and 5 for preteen girls ages 10-14. These numbers are
heavily increased and some almost doubled as 2016 saw rates of 53 (Ages 15-19) and 17 53
(Ages 10-14).
Different types of social media and social media networking companies in Figure 2 (i.e.,
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) are seeing persistent growth in their annual revenue as they are
thriving financially off of the social media addiction created. Facebook and Twitter have both
gone from making $1 billion in a year to roughly over $90 billion.
The thesis results in Figure 3 also show a correlation as more and more individuals are
suffering from depression leading to suicide, companies like Facebook and Twitter are thriving
financially off of the addiction.
This is where I want to draw the connecting line between social media addiction,
negative mental health effects, and social media companies’ profits.
Conclusion
This study explained the different types of social media and social media networking
companies (i.e., Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) and uncovered the success behind them as it
relates to their day-to-day operations, and shareholder wealth using the ten strategic decision
areas of operational management. It proposed the idea that social media usage is linked to
negative mental health effects. In addition, it showed the persistent growth of Facebook and
Twitter’s annual revenue over time. Lastly, it discovered the link between the number of suicides
in young adults and the number of users signed up for social media networking sites. Moreover,
this study sheds light on the true nature of social media companies as they are deliberately
addicting users to their products for financial success.
21 | Page
�Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
Thank you for such an amazing and challenging semester. Best, Christina.
References
About Facebook. (2021). https://about.facebook.com/.
About Instagram's Official Site. Instagram. (2021). https://about.instagram.com/.
Bennet, A (2014). Social Media: Global Perspectives, Applications and Benefits and Dangers.
Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
Chiou, W.J.P., Knewston, H.S., & Nofsinger, J.R. (2019). Paying Attention to Social Media
Stocks. International Review of Economics and Finance, 59, 106-119.
https://exproxy.wagner.edu:2310/10.1016/j.ired.2018.08.009
Company Filings. (2019, June 30). Financial Statements. Retrieved from
https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/viewer?action=view&cik=1428439&accession_number=
0001564590-19-042335&xbrl_type=v
CVA, K. (2017). Https://www.medwinpublishers.com/jobd/jobd16000139.pdf. Journal of
Orthopedics & Bone Disorders,1(7). doi:10.23880/jobd-16000139
Eavis, P., & Lohr, S. (2020, August 19). Big tech's domination of business reaches new heights.
Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/technology/bigtech-business-domination.html
Flores, J. (2020, October 4). Ex-Facebook executive says company made its product as addictive
as cigarettes. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-addictive-ascigarettes-former-executive-says/.
Gregoriou, G. N. (2006). Initial public offerings. [electronic resource] : an international
22 | Page
�Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
perspective. Butterworth-Heinemann. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat03980a&AN=ebr.EBC270
3229&site=eds-live
Kavaklı, M., & İnan, E. (2020). Psychometric properties and correlates of the Turkish version of
INSTAGRAM ADDICTION Scale (IAS). Klinik Psikoloji Dergisi, (0), 1.
doi:10.5455/kpd.26024438m000037
McDavid, Jodi (2020) "The Social Dilemma," Journal of Religion & Film: Vol. 24: Iss. 1,
Article 22.
National Institutes of Health. (2017). National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of
Health. U.S. National Library of Medicine. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/.
Pew Research Center. (2021, April 26). Demographics of Social Media Users and Adoption in
the United States. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech.
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/.
Thao, D.P., Thuy, P.T.T., & Anh, P.T (2020). Sustainability of Financial Performance of a Social
Media Giant – a Case Study. Journal of Security & Sustainability Issues, 10(2), 683.
Thompson, Andrew (2022). 10 Critical Decisions of Operations Management. 10 Critical
Decisions of Operations Management | Kettering University Online.
Turner, P. G., & Lefevre, C. E. (2017, June). Instagram use is linked to increased symptoms of
orthorexia nervosa. Eating and weight disorders : EWD.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5440477/.
23 | Page
�Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
Twitter. (n.d.). About Twitter | Our company and priorities. Twitter. https://about.twitter.com/.
Yahoo! (n.d.). Yahoo Finance - Stock Market Live, Quotes, Business & Finance News. Yahoo!
Finance. https://finance.yahoo.com/.
2016, admin 21 S., admin, 21 S. 2016 by, 2021, admin 28 A., 2021, admin 15 A., 2021, admin 6
A., & 2021, admin 19 M. (n.d.). 10 Critical Decisions of Operations Management. 10
Critical Decisions of Operations Management | Kettering University Online.
https://online.kettering.edu/news/2016/09/21/10-critical-decisions-operationsmanagement.
24 | Page
�
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Senior Presentations Archive
Description
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This archive contains materials from Wagner’s annual ‘Senior Presentations.’ This event honors outstanding students from each discipline who completed their Senior Learning Community project with excellence. The work is representative of Wagner’s highest standards, and is exemplary of the diversity of subject matter, public-facing scholarship, and civic-minded professionalism our students have attained through their four years here. These students were specially invited to present their work in a formal setting, traditionally the day of Baccalaureate. Students are encouraged to present their work in a format appropriate for their discipline, and so, the presentations vary in their format. Some might be in the form of a short video, or paper abstracts, while others might be posters or music clips. We expect this archive to serve as a resource for generations to come. Congratulations to our Seniors!
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Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
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2021_Business_Ottrando
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Christina Ottrando
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5/1/2021
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Big Tech, Big Profits, and an Addiction to a Black Mirror
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Shani Carter
Business
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text
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24 pages
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eng
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Business
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110b256d9f52abf73fc484abefe9d1f5
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Text
Wagner College
Introduction
● Depressive disorders are among the
many public health challenges in
adolescents.
● In Paterson, New Jersey there has
been an increase in Depression and
mental illness, due to the low-income
rates and high poverty rates [1].
● The innovation of a health care clinic
in Paterson, New Jersey will help to
focus on the community’s needs.
● What interventions can we propose in
Paterson, New Jersey that will
decrease depression and create a
positive environment in the
community?
Community Assessment
● Paterson, New Jersey has a
population of 145,000 people.
Paterson is made up of mostly
Hispanics and African Americans.
35.5% of the populations are
Hispanics, 24.9% are African
Americans, 9.16% are white, and
3.73% are Asian[1]
● In 2019, universities in Paterson, NJ
awarded 1,557 degrees.
● Males in New Jersey have an average
income that is 1.38 times higher than
the average income of females, which
is 61,412. Paterson median income is
$40,000 while New Jersey as a whole
is $84,632.[1]
There are many mental health and
addiction resources, detox clinics, adult
residential treatments, halfway houses,
and intensive inpatient and outpatient
services.
References
1.
Paterson, NJ. (2020). DataUSA
h8ps://datausa.io/profile/geo/paterson-nj/
2.
A Research Report: The Profile of Substance Use and Other Indicators
of Well-Being Among Youth in Paterson, New Jersey. (n.d.). from h8p://pcasa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/P-CASA-ATOD-REPORTEdit_Final61516.pdf
3. Depression among adolescent students in South India: How ... [Internet].
[cited 2021Mar30]. Available from:
h8ps://www.indianjpsychiatry.org/ar^cle.asp?issn=00195545;year=2016;volume=58;issue=3;spage=349;epage=350;aulast=Trivedi
Resources available:
● In 2014, the Clinic partners with the
Passaic Board of Education for the
ACCESS After School Program. There
are after school programs to help
children with mental health.
● Passaic County Family Support
Organization (FSO)
● Passaic County Care Management
Organization (CMO)
● Guide to Mental Health Services in
Passaic County.
● Outpatient mental health service, St.
Joseph’s Health which offers a full
range of outpatient services[2].
Problem
Solution
The major problem that we are focused
on is how depression affects
adolescents.
The strongest risk factors for depression
in adolescents are:
● Family history of depression [3]
● Exposure of psychosocial stress [3]
The community that we focused on is
adolescent in Paterson, New Jersey
and how depression affects the
population.
● Our proposed solution is to develop an
innovative health program, We Care.
We Care is a nursing clinic in the
community that promotes self-esteem,
healthy lifestyle and positive attitudes.
Rates of adolescent depression in *
Patterson
● 25.8% & National (U.S): 11.4% [1]
Goals:
● Adolescents will verbalize cues,
triggers and symptoms of depression.
● Adolescents will demonstrate coping
mechanisms to reduce depression.
● Adolescents will attend activities
related to an individualized plan based
on their stressors.
Paterson female adolescent population
affected: 32.8%
Paterson LGBTQ population affected:
51.5% [1]
The community in Paterson, NJ is
affected by the prevalence of
depression among adolescent, which
has been leading to higher suicidal
ideation rates.
● Paterson, NJ :14% [1]
● National rate-:17% [1]
Four Aspects that affect the adolescent
population in Paterson, NJ is:
● Family cohesion [3]
● Social support [3]
● School importance [3]
● Neighborhood sense of
community/attachment [3]
● The clinic will start by providing
education in the schools and
community regarding mental health in
adolescents. This education will include
the signs of depression, the types of
stressors related to depression, and the
destruction of the idea of mental health
stigma in the community.
● For example, if a child is dealing with
being overweight and not having many
friends, then that child will receive an
individualized plan to see a nutritionist,
and the patient will be able to use the
exercise equipment in the clinic and
participate in activities.
● The possible activities of this clinic
include forming a social club, playing
games, introducing a nutritional
spokesperson, having a movie night,
exercise nights, family nights and
dance nights.
● When the program starts to develop, a
goal is to receive city funding and
donations to create free health care in
the community for the clinic, so it can
be easier to seek help.
● We Care was inspired by the
framework of Betty Neuman’s Systems
Model Theory. This theory shows that
each person has a response to its
environment.
�
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Senior Presentations Archive
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This archive contains materials from Wagner’s annual ‘Senior Presentations.’ This event honors outstanding students from each discipline who completed their Senior Learning Community project with excellence. The work is representative of Wagner’s highest standards, and is exemplary of the diversity of subject matter, public-facing scholarship, and civic-minded professionalism our students have attained through their four years here. These students were specially invited to present their work in a formal setting, traditionally the day of Baccalaureate. Students are encouraged to present their work in a format appropriate for their discipline, and so, the presentations vary in their format. Some might be in the form of a short video, or paper abstracts, while others might be posters or music clips. We expect this archive to serve as a resource for generations to come. Congratulations to our Seniors!
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Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
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2021_Nursing_Allen-Allen-Philip
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Christopher Allen
Jonathan Allen
Jasmine Philip
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5/1/2021
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Depression in Adolescents of Paterson, New Jersey
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Lorrie DeSena /Josephine Marcantonio
Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing
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Nursing
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a884039db88b497671f1455930137be4
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Text
Soviet Women fighting for their Rodina
By Christopher Araimo
As the summer of 1942 rolled on, the 1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment of the Red Army
was posted on the western outskirts of the key city of Stalingrad. This unit was composed of
grammar school age girls and some college age women. While the British used women in an AA
role during the early years, these units were almost never on the front line compared to the
1077th. As the women of the 1077th began their morning, preparing to face that day’s onslaught
from the air, as they were targeted relentlessly by German dive bombers with greater frequency
in what was the lead up to what was about to happen. Over the horizon came Hitler’s mighty
blitzkrieg, its goal was a direct order from the Fuhrer himself, to destroy the city bearing the
name of his enemy, Stalingrad. The 1077th were the only units in the immediate line of advance
of the German Panzer tanks. The women did not flee, they did not surrender as they knew that
fate for them was worse for death, they lowered their AA guns to their maximum depression and
began opening fire on the leading Panzers, even though their weapons were in no way designed,
nor had they been trained, to combat tanks.
Despite being under intense fire, and hopelessly outgunned, the Soviets manning the guns
fought to the last. This stunned the Germans who traded “shot for shot” with them. As part of the
Nazi propaganda movement, Germans had been taught that all the people to the East, the Slavs,
were what was called “Untermensch” meaning “under” or “sub” human. How could these lesser
men fight so ferociously and by all accounts bravely. As they looked over the corpses, the
Germans were even more shocked. 1 And thus, the first heroes to die protecting the most vital city
1
Anthony Beever, Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege:1942-1943 (New York: Viking-Penguin Books, 1999), 106-108.
�in the Soviet Union short of Moscow, were teenage girls, and they would not be the last. Across
the Soviet Union at the time, many women were trying to find a way to fight with a rifle or to
serve as combat medics on the frontline. Others were being recruited to form three special all
women air wings of the Soviet Air Force. Having been lobbying since the start of Operation
Barbarossa and the early days of The Great Patriotic War for combat roles, young college age
women from all parts of the Soviet Union, wanting to protect their Motherland were now in the
foxholes and cockpits, ready to fight.
This thesis paper will examine the hurdles women overcame to be able to serve and the
ones they faced while they did so, examine why the Soviets did adopt them into the army, and
most importantly, what made these women enlist with such enthusiasm and force, and go on to
perform admirably?
My answer to the prior questions posed, which I will argue in this paper was that as a
result of the prewar years cultural changes, women had a feeling of more equal footing to men in
the USSR than other nations, this combined with a kind of nationalism unique to Russia, inspired
many women to take to the front and fight alongside men to protect their Motherland as they
were just as capable, willing, and determined as the men, if not more so.
Up until Gorbachev’s détente and the collapse of the Soviet Union, not many scholars
have been able to really study the history of this topic and hear the real story from those who
were still alive about their unvarnished experiences. Up until this point only what all aligned
with the Soviet vision of the post war time was allowed to be printed. This image was of Soviet
women as taking care of their husband or male relative who fought in the War, and to reproduce
to help make up for the massive casualties the Soviet Union suffered. This began right from the
end of the War, with the famous quote “do not speak of the services you rendered, let others do it
�for you, that will be better” given by President Kalinin to a group of demobilizing women
pilots. 2 As we will see however, no one spoke for them. It was the collapse of the Soviet Union
that really opened this under studied field for scholars. Since then, there have been many primary
source accounts told by these women, and scholarly work done in the now somewhat opened
military archives in modern Russia. In writing about Soviet women and their experiences in
combat during World War Two, or, as many of them still call it, The Great Patriotic War, I found
the following three books to be the most helpful and insightful on the topic in terms of providing
primary source material. The first is a compilation of first-hand oral accounts from women who
served in all capacities, written by Nobel Prize in literature winner Svetlana Alexievich, The
Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II. 3 It has only been
translated into English in the last five years. The second work is a memoir, also originally
published in Russian and recently translated to English, Lady Death: The Memoirs of Stalin’s
Sniper. 4 This is an autobiographical memoir from Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who was a Soviet
sniper during the War and had over three hundred kills. Lastly, there is Reina Pennington’s book
Wings, Women, & War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat. 5 It combines first-hand
accounts given by women who served, with her own commentary and observations. Probably the
most eminent of these scholars, Dr. Pennington, holds a Ph.D. in the field of Russian history and
a certificate in women’s studies from the University of South Carolina and teaches the subject at
the University of Norwich. It is an excellent primary source, with important commentary by one
Reina Pennington, “’Do not speak of the services you rendered’: Women Veterans of Aviation in the Soviet
Union.” The Journal of Slavic Military Studies 9, no.1 (1996), 143.
3
Svetlana Alexievitch, The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II. Translated by
Richard Pevear, and Larissa Volokhonsky. New York City, New York: Random House, 2018.
4
Lyudmilla Pavlichenko, Lady Death: The Memoirs of Stalin’s Sniper. Translated by Martin David Foreman.
Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK. Greenhill Books, 2018.
5
Reina Pennington, Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat. Lawrence, Kansas:
University Press of Kansas, 2001.
2
�of the top scholars in the field and probably the most cited scholar in this thesis, as she has
written numerous articles in this field for academic journals in addition to her book. Another
highly regarded scholar on this topic, who has worked with Dr. Pennington as they are among
the few in this field, is Dr. Roger R. Reese who got his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and is
the Director of Graduate Studies and Professor who specializes in Social and Military History of
the Soviet Union at Texas A&M. He has written multiple books and journal articles about
Russian and Soviet Union military history, among them Why Stalin’s Soldiers Fought: The Red
Army’s Military Effectiveness in World War II. 6 In this work are two chapters dedicated to
discussing the role of women in combat during that time. There is also the excellent work, Soviet
Women on the Frontline in the Second World War which was written by Roger D. Marwick, a
professor of Modern European history at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and his writing
partner on this book Dr. Euridice Charon Cardona also of the University of Newcastle. 7 What is
great about these three scholarly works is that they all tell a unique aspect of the war while
bringing their own views based on their scholarly research of why these women did what they
did and achieved the success they did, to each work.
On Sunday, June 22nd, 1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, a massive
invasion of the Soviet Union. Despite warnings from the United States, Great Britain, and their
own spies in Nazi Germany and Japan, this took Soviet High Command completely by surprise.
Almost two years earlier in August 1939, the Foreign Ministers of each nation met and signed
the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, named for the two men, which was a pact of non-aggression
Reese, Roger, Why Stalin's soldiers fought: The Red Army's military effectiveness in World War II. Lawrence,
Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1996.
7
Roger Marwick and Euridice Charon Cardona, Soviet Women on the Frontline in the Second World War. Palgrave
Macmillan, 2014.
6
�between the two politically hostile nations. Stalin and his ministers could not believe Hitler
would violate the pact so quickly and went into a depression, leading Foreign Minister Molotov
to have to tell the nation. Stalin finally addressed his panicked nation on July 3rd and put aside
the struggle of communism, which many of the people of the Soviet Union associated with the
Red Terror and fear. Not many were willing to fight for the country, and in the western states,
like Ukraine, the Nazis had been welcomed as liberators. Knowing this, Stalin instead addressed
the people of the nation as “brothers and sisters,” calling it “A Great Patriotic War” and one that
“all people” must respond to (Find Footnote). His speech was galvanizing to the nation, among
them many women who wanted greatly to protect the Motherland. A great example of this is an
account provided by Elena Antonovna Kudina, who was a private and driver in the war, about
her family’s reaction to the speech.
“But when Stalin began to speak … He addressed us: “Brothers and sisters …” Then
everybody forgot their grievances … We had an uncle sitting in a labor camp, mama’s
brother, a railroad worker, had been arrested at work … You know who arrested him?
The NKVD … Our beloved uncle, and we knew he wasn’t guilty of anything. We
believed it. He was decorated after the Civil War … But after Stalin’s speech Mama said:
“We’ll defend the Motherland and sort it out later.” Everybody loved the Motherland. I
ran to the recruiting office at once. I had angina, I still had a high temperature. But I
couldn’t wait …” 8
Unfortunately for Kudina, in the early stages of the war, Women were not allowed into armed
and dangerous roles. It was thought even in the more socially equal socialist state of the Soviet
Union that men were still meant to be the soldiers. The Stalinist State did consider women to
have an important role in the country, at least based on the Country’s latest Constitution.
Marwick points this out, as well as the unique burden and responsibilities during the thirties and
war years, in his contribution in the academic journal, The Palgrave handbook of women and
gender in twentieth-century Russia and the Soviet Union. He writes about the constitution and
8
Alexievitch, The Unwomanly Face of War, 22.
�the state, “Article 122 of the December 1936 ‘Stalin’ Constitution granted women ‘equal rights
with men in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social, and political life’. The explicit
assumption was that the Soviet Stat was now a socialist state that could provide the material
wherewithal for women’s emancipation from the burden’s of domestic women and motherhood.”
And “Henceforth, the ‘model of womandhood’ prosyletised in women’s magazine ‘combined
pre-revoluntary traditions, including the Orthodox Church’s emphasis on the sanctity of
motherhood and the literary trope of the strong self-sacrificing Russian peasant woman’. The
centrality of the family and motherhood meshed with the discursive reconfiguration of the 1930s
of the Soviet Union as the Soviet motherlamd, as rodina-mat (literally: motherland-mother).
When war came, rodina-mat resonated with Stalin’s call for women on the homefront to give
their all to the military struggle.” 9 We will see this feeling of mothers of the motherland in many
of the testimonies provided like the one above as well as others such as the next one which
shows the youthful determination the younger generation had that in a way romanticized war. As
Sergeant Major Elena Pavlovna Yakovleva recounted: “We went to the recruiting office time
after time … And when we came yet again, after I don’t know how many times, the commissar
almost threw us out “If you had at least some profession. If you were nurses, drivers … What are
you able to do? What will you do at the front?” But we didn’t understand him. This question had
never presented itself to us: what will we do? We wanted to go to war, that’s all.” 10 The Soviet
Union however did press them into many roles in factories from the outset to help rebuild the
Army that would be shattered over the next six months materially and in terms of manpower. It
was only when the staggering number of casualties came in from the early stages of the defense
Roger Marwick, “The Motherland Calls: Soviet Women in the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945,” The Palgrave
handbook of women and gender in twentieth-century Russia and the Soviet Union, no.1 (2018): 218-219.
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54905-1
10
Alexievitch, The Unwomanly Face of War, 26.
9
�of the Motherland, did women finally start to gain leverage in trying to achieve more important
and, in their mind, impactful, roles. As Dr. Reese states with numbers “Initially, in June and July
1941, the Red Army rejected female volunteers; only weeks later when it was clear that the war
would be a long one, did it begin to accept their applications. Female applicants, some of whom
had been turned away by the army, deluged the opolchenie (local combat divisions) and other
volunteer units which accepted them by the tens of thousands. By the eighteenth day of the war,
10 July 1941, nearly 200,000 women had volunteered for the opolchenie.” 11 These women,
despite the hardships and cruelties under the Stalinist State, still wanted to do whatever they
could to protect the Motherland, and felt they were just as capable as their male relatives and
friends who were out there dying already. They would go on to serve in these over the next few
years of the war as the situation got more dire for the country, and this paper will lay out all
those ways they served and the chronology behind each of the ways they were able to break
through in a particular field of soldiery. It will then discuss the ways they were treated during the
war, both by their allies and the Nazis, as well as their life after the war and how their experience
as veterans was noticeably worse and lesser regarded then that of the men who had served.
As Professor Marwick and Dr. Cardona state at the beginning of their section on Soviet
nurses, “Women nurses and doctors were the acceptable feminine face of the Soviet Union at
war.” 12 It helped fit the image of what Stalin wanted most women to be, the caretakers of the
nation, mothers and healers. Couple this with the mass influx of anywhere from 16-year-old girls
to college aged women in wanting to serve and they would go on to make up a large part of the
medical corp. According to the statistics provided in a chart by Prof. Marwick and Dr. Cardona,
of Red Army medical personnel women comprised 43% of surgeons, 46% of doctors, 57%
11
12
Reese, Why Stalin's soldiers fought, 267-268.
Marwick and Cardona, Soviet Women on the Frontline in the Second World War, 56.
�medical assistants, 100% nurses, and 40% paramedics. 13 This is what lead to the marked
separation in roles that women had in the Soviet Union as opposed to other nations. Many of
these roles were not filled by women in other armies, and the role of the nurse was drastically
different. Before the war, the Soviet Union employed many women in medical jobs to begin
with, and women were often seen as healers of the nation, so they had the knowledge to do the
job. Couple that with the severe shortage of men after the horrendous losses at the start of
Operation Barbarossa, and the need to have every man available in a fighting role and you can
see how women were called upon for that role almost immediately. The difference however with
the nursing in the Red Army is that nurses were often given weapons to defend themselves as
they were on the frontlines rescuing the troops wounded in action and bringing them safely back
to friendly territory while under enemy fire. They were expected to use their weapons to defend
themselves and their wounded charges, and many were killed in this line of duty, unlike any
other nation in the War. It is estimated that 126,000 women who served in the medical field were
killed. 14 Yet knowing these risks did nothing to deter the women who wanted to serve and who
kept up their fervent push for more roles.
With the realization the War was going to be a long and brutal one, with tremendous
defeats accompanied by huge losses in manpower, In March of 1942 the first of many decrees
were made to free up women to serve in more auxiliary roles so more men could go to the front.
“It authorized the NKO (People’s Commissariat for Defence) to mobilize one hundred thousand
“girl-Komsomol members” to replace male soldiers.” 15 Among the jobs they would go into was
the role of anti-aircraft gunners. This was a job that the British also used their women for, but
Marwick and Cardona, Soviet Women on the Frontline in the Second World War, 58.
Marwick and Cardona, Soviet Women on the Frontline in the Second World War,) 66.
15
David Glantz, Scraping the Barrel: The military use of Sub-Standard Manpower (New York: Fordham University
Press, 2012), 168.
13
14
�mostly in mixed units that would only occasionally be deployed across the Island and did suffer
causalities, though only in the hundreds. Whereas in the Soviet Union
“There were no limits on what Soviet AA gunners could or were expected to do. To aim,
load and fire the guns was to expose the crew to direct attack by enemy aircraft. Soviet
women not only did this, suffering death and injury in the process, but in doing so
excelled at military tasks that had hitherto been the preserve of men, undoubtedly
facilitated by the traditional rigors of manual labor which Soviet women had endured
well before the outbreak of war.” 16
Their antiaircraft batteries were either close to frontlines or protecting key cities that were about
to be attacked as well as more industrial ones further inland. But this exposed them to close in
bombings from planes and from being overrun by ground forces. As this essay mentioned at the
start, one need only look at the heroism of the 1077th anti-aircraft Regiment. They faced direct
ground combat that they were ill prepared for, with weapons not designed for the role, and
against a superior force with no chance of success. It says something that in Anthony Beevor’s
acclaimed book on Stalingrad, during which he talks only in passing about other women during
the Battle of Stalingrad, he takes three pages to describe the battle between the 1077th and the
enemy Panzers. Their tenacity and dedication to fight to the last is shown in a letter Beevor cites
from a German soldier, “It is completely wrong to describe them as ‘soldiers in skirts,’ The
Russian women has long been fully prepared for combat duties and to fill any post of which a
woman might be capable. Russian soldiers treat these women with great wariness.” 17 This was
something not seen in any of the other theaters of war during the Second World War. Also, by
this time in the war, most nations involved realized that one of their most effective anti-tank
weapons in their respective arsenals were usually their higher velocity anti-aircraft cannons,
especially those that could depress their gun elevation to be able to hit tanks. The Soviets and
16
17
Marwick and Cardona, Soviet Women on the Frontline in the Second World War, 161.
Beever, Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 108.
�Germans were two who frequently employed this tactic. Knowing this we still see many antiaircraft roles near the front, which could become de facto anti-tank guns in emergencies were
ordered to be crewed by women in Soviet High Command. It seems likely, especially once
reports like that of the 1077th came back, that the army brass knew these women might be put
into situation like that again and found them to be acceptably suited for it. This especially seems
likely the later the War went on, as they now had men able to do the role, but still had these
women in the role of anti-air gunners. The women served with distinction even though they had
to kill, and they suffered from it just as any man who would serve might, especially in the unique
role as an anti-aircraft gunner. Sergeant Vera Borisnova Sapgir was one of them. When recalling
her experience of having to kill, she said
“Fortunately, I … I didn’t see those people, the ones I killed … But … All the same …
Now I realize that I killed them. I think about it … Because … Because I’m old now. I
pray for my soul. I told my daughter that when I die, she should take all my medals and
decorations, not to a museum, but to a church. Give them to the priest … They come to
me in my sleep … The dead … My dead … Though I never saw them, they come and
look at me. I keep searching with my eyes, maybe someone was only wounded, badly
wounded but could still be saved. I don’t know how to put it … But they’re all dead …” 18
What really separated Soviet women from those of the other nations, was when they
started to take on the role of soldiering and being thrust into a role that had been male dominated
for most of history for the first real time. The catastrophic losses of manpower from the early
months were originally filled by men from factories, hence why women had taken up the
traditional male jobs during the pre-war and wartime years. The State and Central Committee
were ambivalent towards the idea of women fighting, while many in the Army were opposed to
it, but once large numbers of women began to deluge local Komsomols, which was the youth
party headquarters, the Central Committee became open to the idea. What helped them and the
18
Alexievitch, The Unwomanly Face of War, 62.
�women was the argument that women had already shown they could handle the traditionally
male jobs of heavy factory and anti-aircraft work; thus, why could they not do the male job of
soldiering just as well? 19 However conscription was very localized, many of the women who
fought as soldiers on the frontline were those who were closest to it, wanted to fight, and were
allowed to for necessity. The only real group set up specifically for women infantry, was the
Women’s Volunteer Rifle Brigade, and was counterproductive to any woman who wanted to see
front line combat. It was trained at camps far from the frontlines and was never really intended,
despite the enthusiasm of the women there and the fact they were training them, to be a front-line
unit. Women would frequently run away from the camps to try to get to the front and see combat
while others tried the bureaucratic way to see combat. This can be seen in a letter written by one
of the women in the training battalion, Trainee Shtyrkova to a male comrade who seems to be a
higher up in the military. In part it reads
“I have been in the ranks of the RKKA for 8 months. Now I am in an anti-tank gun
training battalion and am learning to be a tank destroyer. However, I am beginning to
doubt that we will ever get to the front. I beg you therefore to enlist me in any active unit;
but only at the front. There I cannot only save the lives of the wounded but also succeed
in destroying fascist tanks. I know exactly what to do and I love my gun.” 20
In the cities that were on the frontline, women would take up arms and help defend if the
situation was dire, and it often was during 1941 through the winter of 1942-3 when the Soviets
were often still on the defensive and being pushed back. As Dr. Pennington writes about how one
of the women, who fought in the frontline city of Smolensk, was able to become a soldier for the
Red Army
“The situation was fluid near the rapidly shifting front line in 1941, where broken and
disorganized military units often recruited on the spot. After surviving a German
bombing attack in the first weeks of the war, Katiusha Mikhailova went directly to a
military headquarters in Smolensk to volunteer for combat duty. She was rejected. Then,
19
20
Reese, Why Stalin's soldiers fought, 279.
Marwick and Cardona, Soviet Women on the Frontline in the Second World War, 181.
�as the city came under attack, she found the commander of a rifle unit who desperately
needed medical staff. She says he gave her a uniform and a rifle, and that was how she
joined the Red Army.” 21
This was an experience that many of the women who fought would go through and it’s
remarkable how similar the stories are. Often it was through sheer badgering and perseverance,
combined with the desperation the male officers were facing, that lead to these women joining
up. At a time when men at the front were deserting from shell shock and low morale, women
were pretty much begging for the chance to serve with a rifle in their hand alongside their male
counterparts.
In the areas of the Soviet Union that fell to the Nazis, provided the village wasn’t
destroyed and its occupants killed or sent to the death camps, a number of women turned to
becoming partisan fighters. Some were those who managed to escape the annihilation of their
village and join up with other local partisans. They were aided by the fact that they had the
greatest weapon on their side, knowledge of the geography and climate of the Motherland. They
would handle all sorts of roles for the local partisan groups, including sabotage and espionage,
and some would be armed during these missions. The life of a partisan was always hanging in
the balance, as if they were discovered, a quick death by gunshot might be the best they could
hope for. Even those who survived often had to experience horrors beyond belief, as former
partisan Fekla Strui recalled of losing her legs;
“My legs were taken off right there in the forest. The operation took place in the most
primitive conditions. I was put on a table to be operated on, there wasn’t even any iodine,
and my legs were sawn off with an ordinary saw, both legs … the operation was
performed without anesthetic, without anything.” 22
Reina Pennington, “Offensive Women: Women in Combat in the Red Army in the Second World War” The
Journal of Military History; Jul 2010; 74, 3; ProQuest Central Essentials .780.
22
Pennington, “Offensive Women: Women in Combat in the Red Army in the Second World War” 797.
21
�Yet still women continued to volunteer with local partisans and even push the men to put them
on more dangerous missions.
The biggest field that women achieved success in, at least in ground combat, was, to the
surprise of many men, sniping or marksmanship. If we look at the prewar years however, it
shouldn’t have been all that surprising. In the rural areas, women knew how to hunt just as well
as their male counterparts, and hunting in the Russian winter snow is a slow laborious task.
Those in the city, especially those in colleges or factory work, both of which were comprised of
eighteen- to thirty-year-olds, were often part of shooting clubs through the local Komsomol. This
meant that most of the women who were the prime age to fight already had experience with
some degree of shooting and marksmanship. Despite this, it was still felt at the time that women
were not meant to be snipers. Snipers must have the ability to lay motionless for hours or
potentially days, all the while hyper focused on looking for their target. Once they find the target,
they must factor in everything from weather to wind direction and speed, to their own breathing
and body rhythm, because they only get one shot. Looking through their scopes they will see
every detail of their target, before the will have to take the shot to kill them. It is one of the most
daunting forms of warfare, some would say requiring the ability to be cold blooded killers, and it
was felt women could not handle this role as for those reason. Women however were able to
prove their male counterparts wrong during the first year and a half of the War, as they engaged
on the ground and were shown to be able to kill. Some were dragooned in frontline cities to be
snipers immediately, and they were able to handle it even without formal training, but more
importantly they could kill and keep going. They were motivated by every bit as much hatred as
their male counterparts towards the Nazis. No doubt, it affected them, but they were able to steel
�themselves just like the men. Former sniper Klavdia Grigoryvena Krokhina recalled about her
first experience with killing and subsequent justification of it.
“The first time is frightening … Very frightening …
We were in hiding, and I was the lookout. And then I noticed one German poking
up a little from a trench. I clicked, and he fell. And then, you know, I started shaking all
over, I heard my bones knocking. I cried. When I shot at targets it was nothing, but now:
I – killed! I killed some unknown man. I knew nothing about him, but I killed him.
Then it passed. And here’s how … It happened like this … We were already on
the advance. We marched past a small settlement. I think it was in Ukraine. And there by
the road we saw a barrack or a house, it was impossible to tell, it was all burned down,
nothing left but blackened stones. A foundation … Many of the girl’s didn’t go close to
it, but it was as if something drew me there … There were human bones among the
cinders, with scorched little stars among them; these were our wounded or prisoners who
had been burned. After that, however many I killed, I felt no pity. I had seen those
blackened little stars …” 23
These women knew what the horrors of War would entail yet still volunteered for these
incredibly dangerous roles and went on to fulfill them with great distinction.
Whilst many women served as snipers, some with notable distinction, there is one woman
who is synonymous with the image of the Soviet women sniper, and that is Lyudmilla
Pavlichenko. There are two main reasons for this. First was that her 309 confirmed kills were the
most by a woman sniper, and second was that she was also one of the few women soldiers from
the Soviet Union who was known to the West through Russian propaganda spreading her
exploits. She felt the call to serve for the same reason as many. Pavlichenko describes at a point
in her memoir, her feeling towards the invading Nazis and how it grew as she saw their
atrocities, which was also very similar to the motivation discussed earlier of fear and anger at the
Nazis were a very big motivator for these women. She writes
“When I first went to war, I felt only anger at the Germans for disrupting my
peaceful life, for attacking us. But what I saw later engendered within me such an
inextinguishable hatred that it was difficult to express it in any other way other than a
bullet through a Nazi’s heart.
23
Alexievitch, The Unwomanly Face of War, 10.
�In one village retaken from the enemy I saw the body of a thirteen-year-old girl.
The Nazis had butchered her. That was how they demonstrated their ability to wield a
bayonet – the brutes! I saw brains splattered on the walls of a house, and besides it the
body of a three-year-old child. Germans had lived in that house. The child had played up
and cried, preventing these beasts from getting some rest. They did not even allow the
mother to bury her child. The poor women went out of her mind …” 24
This hatred of the Nazis was experienced by many women who saw or heard of the atrocities that
were being carried out by the advancing German Army. They knew what their fates may be if
their village, town, or city, was overrun. Many women recall similar experiences to Pavlichenko
which would cement their hatred of the Germans and further motivate them to try want to kill
enemies of the Motherland to protect themselves and their loved ones.
Pavlichenko had taken up shooting during her pre combat years when she worked in a
factory, like many women her age, and on the advice of a male colleague. She had a natural
ability at it, which combined with the hours she spent on the hobby before the war, led her to
have the natural skills required of a sniper. She volunteered and was assigned as a sniper during
the start of the Siege of Odessa, during which she married her husband, fellow sniper Alexei
Kitsenko, only to have him get killed a few days later. He was wounded badly by a mortar shell,
but they kept him alive for four days before he died in her arms. 25 This furthered her hatred of
the Germans and she promised to kill one hundred fascists in his honor. She was eventually sent
from Odessa to Sevastopol to fight in the siege of that city. She describes that siege as
“Legendary Sevastopol,” which is the chapter title for that section of her memoir. Her feats of
marksmanship and killing had made her very famous within the Red Army, thus when she was
wounded during the siege, she was evacuated to Moscow where she would recover but never was
sent back to combat as she was a valuable propaganda tool.
24
25
Pavlichenko, Lady Death, 171.
Pavlichenko, Lady Death, 142.
�This led to a remarkable experience for Pavlichenko, after some months helping the Red
Army with propaganda, she was taken to meet and asked by Stalin himself to go to America and
Canada on a good will tour to rally support. Given her accomplishments, gender, and age, being
only college age, she was asked to go along with two other male soldiers, whom she knew. She
describes her first meeting with the leader of the Soviet Union,
“We were probably in Stalin’s office for about twenty minutes, although we were
unaware of the passing of time. Time stood still for us. Mikhailov introduced us one by
one, with me last. Joseph Vissarionovich merely said a few sentences about the
responsible mission of the Party and government, the Allies, who were unwilling to open
a second front, and the American people, who needed to know the truth about our
struggle against Nazism.
‘Do you have any requests comrades?’ he asked.
Krasavchenko and Pchelintsev were in a state of profound paralysis and a pause
hung over the office. I was not affected in the same way. I experienced something
different: an unprecedented enthusiasm. I wanted to hear words from the supreme
commander-in-chief which were addressed specifically to me.
‘Yes, Comrade Stalin, I have a request,’ I said softly. ‘We really need an EnglishRussian and Russian-English dictionary, with a grammar textbook as well. Because it is
important to know your allies well, just like your enemies!’
‘Well said, Comrade Pavlichenko.’ The leader of the world proletariat smiled.
‘You will receive the books. From me personally.’” 26
This was an important meeting for Pavlichenko because it established in her a personal
connection to Stalin, and they visited again upon her return. It also is a telling because it shows
that enthusiasm to serve the Motherland and Comrade Stalin that he invoked across the nation
after his earlier mentioned speech and again shows how it was a catalyst for many women to
serve. Pavlichenko also describes at a point in her memoir, her feeling towards the invading
Nazis, which was also very similar to the motivation discussed earlier of fear and anger at the
Nazis were a very big motivator for these women.
Pavlichenko’s visit to the United States was quite remarkable, for after stopping for a
night in Miami after flying in from the Soviet Union via a stop in Africa, she and her two
26
Pavlichenko, Lady Death, 179.
�companions were taken by limo to the White House, where despite the early hour, they were
greeted by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The next day they had breakfast, Pavlichenko, her
compatriots, the First Lady and some of her invited guests who led various aid campaigns, and
some army translators. It was during this breakfast when Eleanor addressed Lyudmila with a
question, as Pavlichenko recounted in her memoir.
“Suddenly Eleanor addressed a question to me, and this question was translated
into Russian to me by a young man with a lieutenant’s epaulettes: ‘If you had a good
view of the faces of your enemies through telescopic sights, but still fired to kill, it would
be hard for American woman to understand you, dear Lyudmilla.’
The interpreter tried to soften the force of this sentence somehow. It sounded
polite, but had a certain unpleasant undertone. The First Lady looked at me intently,
without dropping her gaze. Why had she asked this question was not quite clear. Maybe
she had decided to subject me to a test. We had already been told about publications in
some British and American newspapers which suggested that we were not frontline
soldiers or snipers, but merely Communist propagandists specifically sent to address the
international student assembly. This meant that the president’s wife would have to be
given a clear and comprehensible answer.
‘Mrs. Roosevelt, we are glad to visit your beautiful, prosperity country. Many
years you do not know the wars. Nobody destroys your towns, villages, plant. Nobody
kills your inhabitants, your sisters, brothers, fathers,’ I said slowly, and for some reason
my words took those present by surprise.
Of course, my speech was not notable for its elegance: there were some mistakes
in pronunciation, in the use of tenses, and the sentence construction was too basic. But
the Americans got the meaning of it. I explained to those living in a state far from the
struggle against Fascism that we had come from a place where bombs were destroying
towns and villages, blood was being spilt, where innocent people were being killed, and
my native land was undergoing a severe ordeal.
An accurate bullet was no more than a response to a vicious enemy. My husband
had lost his life at Sevastopol before my very eyes and, as far as I was concerned, any
man I saw through the eyepiece of my telescopic sight was the one who killed him.
Strangely enough, Eleanor was embarrassed. She hurriedly looked away and said
that she had not wished to offend me; however, she thought this conversation was very
important and we would continue it in a more suitable setting, but now, unfortunately, it
was time for her to go. The First Lady rose from the table and hurriedly bidding us
goodbye, left the small dining room.
‘What did you just say to her?’ Nikolai Krasavchenko knitted his brows and,
exploiting his status as head of the delegation, looked me very sternly in the eye.
‘Nothing in particular.’ I brushed him off. ‘We can’t let the cheeky Yanks get
away with things.’” 27
27
Pavlichenko, Lady Death, 183.
�This was the first real example Eleanor Roosevelt had, of direct contact with a soldier of
the Soviet Union, and a women soldier at that. It is very revealing of how the two different
countries view women’s roles in the war and how American women might not even respond to a
woman fighting at the front. But it also shows the geopolitical differences between the two
nations, as one was very much more war weary than the other, as Pavlichenko’s words state. She
and her compatriots were equally bewildered by the American press and the interest they had and
questions they presented, as Pavlichenko referred to it as a “slinging match” between her and the
journalists after a student rally her group spoke at. She then again was met by Mrs. Roosevelt
after this event to invite them to a dinner held by a former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union.
Eleanor even insisted on taking Lyudmila herself, even driving the car. It was here the
Pavlichenko’s opinion of Mrs. Roosevelt started to change. Her initial perception was based on
her preconceived views, based on what the Soviets described as the Roosevelt’s privileged
upbringing. Eventually she then took her, and her two fellow soldiers, to meet the most powerful
man in America, her husband, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She describes him as
“without question he was a very exceptional man, possessing a sharp mind a strong will” as they
chatted about the war. She found him very engaged on the aspects of the Soviet struggle at the
time, and his knowledge of the battles they had fought. They even joked about the American
press. It’s then Pavlichenko brings up an amazing part of the story, in terms of Franklin
Roosevelt and his views and helping the Soviet Union in the war.
“I could have gone on joking, but I wanted to ask Roosevelt that most important
question – about more active assistance for the Soviet Union, about the opening of a
second front in Western Europe which would draw away some of the German divisions
now fighting on the banks of the Volga.
Roosevelt seemed to guess what I was thinking. ‘Tell the Soviet government and
Mr. Stalin personally’, he said pensively, ‘that it’s difficult for me at the moment to
render more real assistance to your country. We Americans are still not ready for decisive
�action. We are held back by our British partners. But in their heart and soul the American
people are with our Russian allies.’” 28
Pavlichenko finished her trip to the United States able to call Eleanor Roosevelt a friend. She
talks about the correspondence they kept with each other after the war. Upon her return to the
Soviet Union, she again met with Stalin to discuss the trip. It was in this meeting, that he asked
her not to return to the front, as she wanted, but to become a teacher of rifleman and pass on her
knowledge to hundreds of potential snipers in the hopes of contributing more for the war effort.
He also awarded her with that most prodigious title, Hero of the Soviet Union, in recognition of
her exemplary service. After the war ended, she completed her degree and served for a time with
the Navy before a medical discharge. Even though she had a pension for her service, she would
then help design some of the next generation of sniper rifles for the Soviet Union, including the
famed Dragunov. She did suffer however, especially over the death of her husband during
Sevastopol, from what we now call post traumatic stress disorder, and died shortly after finishing
her memoir. Her legacy to a generation of Soviet women was unmatched though, she represented
to them what Vasily Zaitsev was to the men of the Red Army, their most famous hero.
The final way that women served in the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War was
arguably the one they have been most remembered for, although you can make a case for the
snipers just discussed. But this new role was as members of the Soviet Air Force. In fact, there
were three whole “wings” that were crewed and staffed exclusively by women, at least at their
inception. What is amazing about these three groups is the story behind how they were able to
get started, and the jobs they took on once they had their units officially made. You see, the
United States made use of women pilots, but only as cargo carriers usually behind enemy lines,
and never to engage the enemy. The women of the Soviet Union Air Force, however, were
28
Pavlichenko, Lady Death, 193.
�placed into combat roles and expected to kill Nazis. They excelled at it. The following section
will discuss their history and how they were able to get into the air and then become the force
that inspired fear in the Germans.
It’s important to start with the fact that in the prewar years, women in the Soviet Union
were big fliers. Many joined flight clubs as a hobby and others were barnstormers across the
country, and a very select few at the time were able to get a military commission. But by far
what these prewar women became famous for was setting international flying records. Many
Americans are familiar with the exploits of Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh, but the
Soviet Union had many such tales and icons of their own when it came to flight, and the most
famous one was held by a flight crewed by three women who all were early female members of
the Soviet Air Force. In what would come to be called the Flight of the Rodina, (Rodina is
Russian for Motherland) three women, Marina Raskova, Polina Osipenko, and Valentina
Grizdubova, set off in a plane called the Rodina in a harrowing flight across the Soviet Union.
Stalin himself had a personal appreciation for the mission and aided the women in their
preparations. The goal of the flight was to reach Komsomolsk which was in the furthest eastern
reaches of the vast Soviet Union, which was a major feat to undertake leaving from Moscow. It
was a dangerous undertaking and almost ended in disaster. As Dr. Pennington describes it in her
book “The aircraft completed most of its planned route, but poor visibility near the destination
prevented the crew from locating one of the few possible airfields in the area. They were running
low on fuel, and the women realized they would have to make a forced landing. The aircraft’s
emergency procedures called for the navigator to bail out before a forced landing.” 29 The
aircraft’s navigator was Raskova, who bailed out before the plane itself crash landed in the snow-
29
Pennington, Wings, Women, and War, 16.
�covered forests of central-eastern Russia. The women who crashed made a shelter from the
aircraft and had some emergency supplies, so they had some slight protection from the elements
as they awaited rescue, but Raskova wondered the forest, in a flight suit not designed for the cold
weather, for several days until she located the crash site and met up with her compatriots shortly
before they were to be rescued, as Stalin would not allow such a historic event end in disaster. In
the end “it broke the women’s international straight line distance by more than 1,500 kilometers
and at the same time established a new women’s international nonstop broken line distance
record.” 30 The three women would go on to become huge propaganda tools for the Soviet Union,
as their story captured the headlines in the nation, and personally were toasted by Stalin at
numerous events, including one where he said: “today these three women have avenged the
heavy centuries of oppression of women.” 31 Raskova because of her struggle in the wild, drew
the most attention, but all three were appointed Hero of the Soviet Union, the first woman to
receive it and only ones before the war. 32 The flight itself, while not reaching its destination, was
still a notable achievement over the rest, you see the flight even flew for longer than Charles
Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight. So, it should be no surprise that the Soviet Union gave it such a
hero’s reception and publicized it in great detail, while it was not mentioned much in the western
countries where it was inconceivable for a group of women to attempt this. It surely played into
the stereotype they had, especially the Nazis, of Soviet Women as masculine brutes. But it would
go on to have a major impact on the future of women aviation in the Soviet Union, and that
would be thanks to this event and the connection Stalin developed with these women, especially
Raskova.
Pennington, Wings, Women, and War, 17.
Pennington, Wings, Women, and War, 17.
32
Pennington, Wings, Women, and War, 17.
30
31
�It was this connection that allowed Raskova to appeal to Stalin and the Central
Committee to form air groups made entirely of women, from pretty much the start of the War.
Like most situations detailed in this paper, women immediately flocked to volunteer and were
turned away. It isn’t known for sure how the origins of these units came to be, if it was from a
committee in the government, the main Central Committee, or even Stalin himself. Regardless,
he approved of it, and Raskova is often credited with using her connections to get them formed.
There were three wings that were formed, the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, the
125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment, and the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment with Raskova
as the group Commander. 33 From the onset the three groups were crewed entirely by women, as
well as having every ground role filled by a women engineer or technician. Eventually they
allowed some men into the ground roles later into the role, but by and large these three groups’
pilots and bombers were all women. Their roles were dangerous ones, especially given the
airplanes and equipment, or lack thereof in some cases, that they had to contend with. Alexandra
Semyonovna Popova, a Lieutenant of the Guards pilot in one of the bombing units, describes
what they had to contend and suffer with, while at the same time why they pressed on and the
pride they felt in doing this extremely dangerous job. 34
Many of these women felt similarly and suffered similarly yet were highly effective in their
specific roles. The 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment for example proved to be
deadly night bombers that struck fear into the Germans. So effective where they in their role, that
Pennington, Wings, Women, and War.
“The planes they gave us were Po-2s. Small, Slow. They flew only at a low level. Hedge-hopping. Just over the
ground! Before the war young people in flying clubs learned to fly in them, but no one would have imagined they
would have any military use. The plane was constructed entirely of plywood, covered in aircraft fabric. In fact, with
cheesecloth. One direct hit and it caught fire and it caught fire and burned up completely in the air, before reaching
the ground. Like a match. The only solid part was the M-11 motor.
Later on, toward the end of the war, we were issued parachutes, and a machine gun was installed in the pilot’s cabin,
but before there had been no weapons, except for four bomb racks under the wing – that’s all. Nowadays they’d call
us kamikazes, and maybe we were kamikazes. Yes! We were! But victory was valued more than our lives. Victory!
33
34
�the Nazi propaganda machine began to refer to them as “Night Witches” because, as one Soviet
veteran recounted, they believed “that the Russian women were given special injections and pills
to “give us feline’s perfect vision at night.” ” 35 These three groups fought with distinction under
Raskova who they revered as their commander. It was during the Battle of Stalingrad, a battle in
which all three groups played a vital role in the battle for air superiority in the skies over the city,
that Raskova perished in a crash landing. Her death was a great loss to the rest of the women,
who looked at her like a mother, despite not being much older than most of them. Indeed, the
whole country including Stalin felt the loss. Further proving the connection that existed to some
degree between the two, Stalin ordered that she be the first to receive a state funeral during, and
despite, the ongoing war. 36
While Raskova was the most famous women of the pre-war and flew until her death,
there is one pilot, who trained under her, and would go on to became famous for her aerial
exploits. Her name is Lilya Litvyak, and she was both a bomber and fighter pilot who achieved
fame in the skies over Stalingrad. What is fascinating about her, is that by the time she made her
fame in Stalingrad she had been assigned to a male regiment of fighters. This is where she
excelled immediately as one of her earliest air clashes shows,
“On September 13, she entered a dogfight against Germany’s Jagdgeschwader 53 unit,
among the most lethal fighter pilots on earth. Litvyak came through unscathed and
brought down her first Nazi plane, piloted by Erwin Maier, who was immediately
captured by the Soviets. Later that day, Maier’s captors introduced him to Litvyak. It
took a long time to convince him that this tiny blonde woman—little more than a girl—
had been the one to end his war.” 37
Douglas Martin, “Nadezhda Popova, WWII ‘Night Witch,’ Dies at 91,” New York Times, July 14, 2013,
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/world/europe/nadezhda-popova-ww-ii-night-witch-dies-at91.html?referringSource=articleShare
36
Reina Pennington, Amazons to Fighter Pilots: A Biographical Dictionary of Military Women Connecticut:
Greenwood Press, 2003. 354.
37
Edward White, “The Short, Daring Life of Lilya Litvyak,” The Paris Review, October 6, 2017
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/10/06/short-daring-life-lilya-litvyak-white-rose-stalingrad/
35
�This is a telling story because not only does it show the success, she was able to achieve in her
first real dogfight, but it also allows one to have a microcosmic look at the views of the two
combatants in how women should behave during war and their views on appropriate roles. After
this she took on the title “The White Lily of Stalingrad” based on her name and the fact she
painted a white lily on her plane. 38 The ‘Lily’ would go on to become an ace, which requires five
confirmed kills, over the skies of Stalingrad and by the time she was shot down she had a kill list
of 13. The deaths of both these women, along many of their other comrades affected each
woman, yet most steeled themselves and continued to fight on in the skies against the fascist
invaders just as bravely as the men of the Red Air Force.
As all the examples presented demonstrate, not only did women serve in a dedicated
combat role during the Second World War in the Soviet Union, but they also did so across a
variety of roles, and with distinction! Despite this, with exception, by the end of the war most
women were being drummed out of service. Even as early as 1945, they were being depicted in
Pravda as accompanying their husbands during the push to, and triumphant return from, Berlin. 39
This was deliberate on the part of the Central Committee. Among reasons given, besides
reverting to pre-war sentiments, was the need for women to reproduce to make up for the number
of lives lost during the Great Patriotic War. Yet the depths with which the Soviet’s went to
ignore the contribution that women gave to achieve their ultimate victory, which included a great
many deaths and even more rendered invalid, stunned even some of its most revered leaders
from the War. Dr. Pennington points out a great example of this from Marshall Georgy Zhukov’s
1959 memoir, in which he writes
38
39
Temar Ketko, “Not victims: the image of Jews in World War Two,” Jewish Culture and History (2017): 282
Marwick and Cardona, Soviet Women on the Frontline in the Second World War, 233.
�“I can't overlook one very important question which, in my opinion, is still
weakly covered in military literature, and at times unjustifiably forgotten in our reports
and work on the generalization of the experience of the Great Patriotic War. I have in
mind the question about the role of women in war, in the rear but also at the front.
Equally with men they bore all the burdens of combat fife and together with us men, they
went all the way to Berlin.” 40
This was one of the most revered Military leaders of any nation, who also played a major role in
Khrushchev’s rise to leader of the Soviet Union in the 50’s. If he was aware of this, clearly
others were as well, yet the Union remained silent until the start of the Cold War thawing of
tensions. It was then that these silenced women were finally able to start to tell their stories and
connect with fellow veterans. As one put it to Alexievich when interviewed for her book,
“I want to speak … to speak! To speak it all out! Finally, somebody wants to hear
us. For too many years we said nothing. For decades. The first year, when I came back
from the war, I talked and talked. Nobody listened. So I shut up … It’s good that you’ve
(Alexievich) come along. I’ve been waiting all the while for somebody. I knew
somebody would come. Had to come.” 41
These women’s stories have since become more known, and present-day Russia has taken steps
towards recognizing the role these heroic, yet every day, women played in victory not just for the
Soviet Union, but for all freedom loving people who wanted to triumph over the specter of
fascism. Still, we have a long way to go in giving these women, however belatedly, the proper
respect and credit they deserve. More study hopefully will be available as the archives in Russia
hopefully become open to researchers. Until then, given the age of the few remaining women
veterans, we must ask them for their service one last time, in telling their stories to any who will
listen, of how women are just as capable of waging war as men, be that a blessing or curse.
40
41
Pennington, “Offensive Women: Women in Combat in the Red Army in the Second World War” 820.
Alexievitch, The Unwomanly Face of War, 20.
�Bibliography
•
Alexievitch, Svetlana. The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World
War II. Translated by Richard Pevear, and Larissa Volokhonsky. New York City, New York:
Random House, 2018.
•
Beever, Anthony. Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege:1942-1943 New York City, New
York.Viking-Penguin Books, 1999
•
Glantz, David. “Soviet Use of ‘Substandard’ Manpower in the Red Army, 1941–1945.”
In Scraping the Barrel: The Military Use of Sub-Standard Manpower, edited by Sanders
Marble, 151–78. Fordham University Press, 2012.
•
Ketko, Temar “Not victims: the image of Jews in World War Two,” Jewish Culture and
History, (2017) 274-290, DOI: 10.1080/1462169X.2017.1326370
• Martin, Douglas. “Nadezhda Popova, WWII ‘Night Witch,’ Dies at 91.” New York Times,
July 14, 2013 , https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/world/europe/nadezhdapopova-ww-ii-night-witch-dies-at-91.html?referringSource=articleShare
•
Markwick, Roger and Euridice Charon Cardona. Soviet Women on the Frontline in the
Second World War. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
�•
Marwick, Roger. “The Motherland Calls: Soviet Women in the Great Patriotic War, 19411945,” The Palgrave handbook of women and gender in twentieth-century Russia and
the Soviet Union, no.1 (2018): 217-232. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54905-1
•
Pavlichenko, Lyudmilla. Lady Death: The Memoirs of Stalin’s Sniper. Translated by Martin
David Foreman. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK. Greenhill Books, 2018.
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Pennington, Reina, Amazons to Fighter Pilots: A Biographical Dictionary of Military
Women. Greenwood Press, 2003.
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Pennington, Reina. “’Do not speak of the services you rendered’: Women Veterans of
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Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2001.
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World War II. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1996
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•
�
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This archive contains materials from Wagner’s annual ‘Senior Presentations.’ This event honors outstanding students from each discipline who completed their Senior Learning Community project with excellence. The work is representative of Wagner’s highest standards, and is exemplary of the diversity of subject matter, public-facing scholarship, and civic-minded professionalism our students have attained through their four years here. These students were specially invited to present their work in a formal setting, traditionally the day of Baccalaureate. Students are encouraged to present their work in a format appropriate for their discipline, and so, the presentations vary in their format. Some might be in the form of a short video, or paper abstracts, while others might be posters or music clips. We expect this archive to serve as a resource for generations to come. Congratulations to our Seniors!
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