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September 2016 OPINION The Stentorian | NCSSM Confronting Gender Norms By VAISHNAVI SIRIPURAPU The notion of man and woman is so ingrained in our society that challenging this binaiy is perceived as deviant. With all of the strict gender- normative marketing and me dia that we consume every day, transgenderism is a concept that challenges these tradi tional gender roles and norms. As a result, perceptions of transgender people vary greatly in society. Transgen derism is an important issue in today’s society precisely because it is so misunder stood. Education and aware ness serve as some of the most effective solutions to the ag gression and negative stigma against being transgender. Due to the harsh gender norms that invade every aspect of our daily lives, transgender ism is an issue that challenges established societal principles and constructs. This results from gendered language and culture being imposed upon us as children, if not by our parents, then subliminally by society. Products from vita mins to socks are marketed as “for men” or “for women”. This strict gender-norma tive environment breeds a strong phobia and a negative stigma against those who do not conform to these expecta tions. Fears of being perceived as too feminine or too mascu line breeds ideals of hyperfem ininity and hypermasculinity. Resistance to challenging the gender roles and norma tive behavior in our society not only affects those who are transgender, but also im pacts everyone in society. There are various reasons why transgenderism is an im portant issue in today’s soci ety. For one, some people are still debating whether or not transgenderism is a real phe nomenon. This debate distracts from a much bigger, more es PHILLY VOICE/WIKIMKDIA COMMONS The transgender pride flag, above, made its debut in 1999. sential conversation: What can we do to provide a more in clusive and supportive society to those who are transgender? Transgender individuals are more likely to suffer physical and emotional abuse. Accord ing to the Williams Institute, 41 percent of transgender people have attempted suicide, compared to 1.6 percent of the general population (Haas, Rodgers, & Herman, 2014). Due to the stigma against transgenderism, there is no re cent data concerning how many transgender people there are in America. Demographic cen suses such as the United States census only allow for two an swers to the question of gen der: male or female, making it considerably metre difficult to accurately survey how many transgendcr and gender non- conforming individuals there are in the United States. Transgenderism is an im portant issue in today’s society precisely because it challenges traditional norms and because the general public is still so uneducated about how to cre ate an inclusive community. The simplified solution to transphobia is education, awareness, and activism. We as allies can learn how best to erase transphobia in our soci ety by being mindful of our speech; referring to transgen der people as “transgender” and not “transgendered,” for exam ple. We must always be open to being educated and challeng ing our pre-existing ideology. In order to promote love and acceptance of all diflerent types of people, national cam paigns, protective laws, and ac tive educational groups should be prominent, preserved, and well-funded. Only when we as humans accept each other can we truly unlock the full potential of all humankind. The Passion of Nate Parker By MAX NOBEL When the controversy sur rounding #OscarsSoWhite erupted after the announce ment that there would be no non-white Oscar acting nomi nees for the second consecu tive year, the Academy of Mo tion Picture Arts and Sciences vowed to impose sweeping changes upon its membership. 683 new members, 41 percent of whom are people of color, were invited into the Acad emy’s ranks. As conversations concerning Hollywood’s inclu- sivity, or marked lack thereof, dominate media coverage, there is an explicit push across the industry to showcase a re newed diversity during the 2017 awards season. The clear frontrunner in correcting this lack of diver sity seemed at first to be Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation, the historical drama based on the story of Nat Turner and the slave rebellion that he led in 1831. Reclaiming and re purposing its title from D.W. Griffith’s KKK-championing reconstruction epic released in 1915, The Birth of a Nation was a passion project for its star Parker, who also directed, co-wrote and co-produced the film. Premiering to mostly en thusiastic critical reception and receiving a standing ovation before it even began screening, the movie won both the Audi ence Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival before its world wide distribution rights were sold to Fox Searchlight for a record-setting 17.5 million dollars. This narrative was compli cated upon the resurfacing of details surrounding the 2001 trial for the rape accusations brought against Nate Parker and his The Birth of a Nation co-writer, Jean Celestin. According to Jeannie Suk Gersen of The New Yorker, “In 1999, when Parker was a nineteen-year-old wrestler at Penn State, he and his team mate Jean Celestin, both black, were arrested and tried for hav ing sex with an eighteen-year- old white female student at their apartment while she was too intoxicated to consent... At the 2001 trial of Parker and Ce lestin, [their friend Tamerlane] Kangas testified that, from a doorway, he saw Parker on top of the complainant, while she was still and silent. Parker mo tioned to Kangas and Celestin to join him, Kangas said, and Celestin did, but Kangas chose to leave, because he ‘didn’t believe that four people at one time was—you know, it didn’t seem right.’” But according to Roxane Gay of The New York Times, “Mr. Parker was acquitted, based partly on testimony that he and the victim had previ ously had consensual sex. Mr. Celestin was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to prison, but the conviction was eventually overturned.” “In 2002, the Women’s Law Project filed a federal Title IX lawsuit against Penn State on behalf of the complainant, who had dropped out of school, for allegedly failing to protect her from harassment by Parker and his friends following her rape allegations. The lawsuit claimed that the men hired an investigator who showed other students her photo, that they followed her around campus hurling sexual epithets, and that they made harassing phone calls to her room. Penn State settled that case for $17,500,” says Gersen. In 2012, follow ing years of struggling with se vere mental illness, including psychosis, the victim succeed ed in her third suicide attempt, at the age of 30. The Birth of a Nation is it self embroiled in that personal history. The 1915 film whose name it appropriated perpetu ated a stereotype of black men (largely portrayed in the film by white actors in blackface) as having an inclination to wards raping white women. The 2016 film is now adulter ated by the perceived rape of a white woman by a black man. There is also the 2016 film’s plot, portraying the sexual violence by white men upon a amples where the public was asked to separate art from art ist as a comparison. Roman Polanski, the acclaimed direc tor of such cinematic classics as Rosemary’s Baby and Chi natown, pleaded guilty to the statutory raping of a 13 year old in 1977, fleeing to Europe before his sentencing, where he has remained ever since. Despite this, he has continued to make films, including The Pianist (2002), which won 3 Oscars, including a Best Direc tor win, which was met with a standing ovation. Bill Cosby, the formerly beloved black stand-up comic MAKK MANN (VIA DEADLINE) The reputation of actor, director and producer Nate Parker was tarnished after he was involved in a rape scandal. black woman (played by real life sexual assault survivor Ga- brielle Union), and making the brutal gang rape of Nat Turn er’s wife, an event with limited historical evidence, the turn ing point in Turner’s choice to lead his historic slave revolt. Parker’s attempts to confront his viewers with their coun try’s unresolved history are confounded by his inability to confront his own. The conver sation on race in America that he aims to promote is tainted by his personal history. One could look at other ex who broke boundaries regard ing race and entertainment with his sitcom The Cosby Show, had decades of sexual assault allegations catch up to him as news of accusations by now 60 women became viral in Oct. 2014. Organizational ties were severed, reruns were pulled, projects were can celled, honorary degrees were rescinded, and his legacy was brought down with him. Mel Gibson, star of the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon films and the Oscar-winning director of Braveheart and the enduringly controversial, com mercially successful The Pas sion of the Christ, had suffered from alcoholism and allega tions of domestic abuse prior to making anti-semitic com ments following a DUl arre.st in 2006. He was shunned to a far greater degree than Roman Polanski and convicted rapist Mike Tyson, sexual assaulters Tupac Shakur and Rick James, and abusers John Lennon, Josh Brolin, and Sean Penn. After a four-year hiatus, he found only middling success in the roles taken over the following six years. His quest for redemption within the industry and public is only now coming to fruition, with the successful premier at the Venice Film Festival of his conscientious objector WWIl drama Hacksaw Ridge, his first directorial effort since the surfacing of his anti-semitic re marks one decade ago. Nate Parker has shaped The Birth of a Nation as an intrin sically personal film, the story of a rising black actor who for goes promising career opportu nities to write, direct, produce and portray a story of historical and contemporary importance. His 1999 rape case informs both the portrayal of the film’s events and the film’s conse quent significance. The ques tion of separating him, or any of the other artists mentioned, from their art yields no con clusive answer. This will not be the last time we are asked to weigh works of art against the artists who made them, and it is important that we are in formed and thoughtful in how we respond. The Birth of a Nation will be released in theaters on Oct. 7.
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