RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/11/west-side-story-explores-racial-ethni

Puleez! what would these P.C. fools do with Frank Loesser’s wonderful “Guys and Dolls?” Or how about “South Pacific” and the song “There is Nothing Like a Dame”??? They are sucking the fun out entertainment and national culture…..rsk

Cast and crew of new production wrestle with the classic musical’s racial, ethnic, and political complications

More than 60 years after its Broadway debut, “West Side Story” remains a touchstone of modern American theater. A new Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club production opening this week at Farkas Hall is confronting the cultural missteps associated with the classic musical, turning an ambitious theatrical project into a complex educational experience for cast and crew.

When the artistic team began planning the show, members focused on addressing chronic issues of Latinx representation in casting, a flaw illustrated early on by the Oscar-winning 1961 film adaptation in which the vast majority of Puerto Rican characters were played by white actors, such as Natalie Wood as the female lead, Maria. They also wanted to find a way to reckon with the real and underdeveloped histories of Latinx life in New York in the late 1950s, beyond the show’s stereotypical portrayals.

“‘West Side Story’ has left a big cultural footprint, so there is value in reclaiming the story and depicting it as accurately as possible,” said technical producer Amanda Gonzalez-Piloto ’21, noting that the script for the HRDC production cannot be changed due to copyright restrictions. “We’re working within a limited framework, so we have been asking: What can we do to make a more accurate and respectful cultural representation and also acknowledge there are some seeds of truth in this very flawed creative masterpiece?”

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/11/transexual-boxers/

I am not ardent but I take a passing interest in professional boxing. I try to catch it when it is on TV, particularly if it is taking place in America or if it is a fight in the superb and relatively new Muhammad Ali world boxing super series. Women’s boxing has not figured in my interest. However early this year on the undercard was a fight between Katie Taylor from Ireland and a tough looking Latino woman for the lightweight (130-135 lbs) WBO world title.

I feared for the wholesome looking Katie against this toughie. My fear was misplaced. Katie dominated the fight which had to be stopped before the end.

I looked up Katie Taylor and discover how famous and accomplished she is. She is now only one of seven fighters, male and female, to have held a world title under the auspices of all of the boxing organisations – WBA, IBF, WBO and WBC. Earlier this month I saw her step up a weight division and, in a masterly display of boxing, take the WBO world title in the junior welterweight category (135-140 lbs).

Three male boxers hold the world lightweight title (same weight as the women by the way) across all four boxing organisations. I added up their records. They have fought a total of sixty-six fights with only three losses and fifty-one knockout wins. Yes, fifty-one. Boxing is a dangerous sport.

Over recent decades, steps have been taken to reduce the risks. For example, there are fewer rounds than there used to be in championship fights. Finely graduated weight divisions tend to keep larger and smaller boxers apart. Prior medical checks are more stringent. Doctors are on hand during fights. Referees are much more likely to intervene quickly to protect a hurt boxer than in the past.

Yet, despite the precautions, boxers do sometimes still suffer grievous injuries and even death. Let me add a final point of particular pertinence to my unfolding theme. Women fight two-minute rounds compared with three minutes for men. You see, as the minutes tick by tiredness and the chances of getting hurt increase correspondingly.

Take an imaginative leap. Suppose one of these three male boxers, who I referred to above, decides to wear a frock, have a course of estrogen, and fight as a woman. Katie Taylor would have her block knocked off. In fact, she would be put in grave danger. Forget all those steps to reduce risks. The betting would be on whether she would survive for less or more than a minute.

https://quillette.com/2018/06/05/high-price-stale-grievances/

“Stale grievances are dredged up from history and used to justify double-standards that create fresh grievances in turn. And beneath all of this lies the tacit claim that blacks are uniquely constrained by history in a way that Jewish-Americans, East Asian-Americans, Indian-Americans, and countless other historically marginalized ethnic groups are not. In the midst of this breakdown in civil discourse, we must ask ourselves—academics, journalists, activists, politicians, and concerned citizens alike—if we are on a path towards a thriving multi-ethnic democracy or a balkanized hotbed of racial and political tribalism.”

In the fall of 2016, I was hired to play in Rihanna’s back-up band at the MTV Video Music Awards. To my pleasant surprise, several of my friends had also gotten the call. We felt that this would be the gig of a lifetime: beautiful music, primetime TV, plus, if we were lucky, a chance to schmooze with celebrities backstage.

But as the date approached, I learned that one of my friends had been fired and replaced. The reason? He was a white Hispanic, and Rihanna’s artistic team had decided to go for an all-black aesthetic—aside from Rihanna’s steady guitarist, there would be no non-blacks on stage. Though I was disappointed on my friend’s behalf, I didn’t consider his firing as unjust at the time—and maybe it wasn’t. Is it unethical for an artist to curate the racial composition of a racially-themed performance? Perhaps; perhaps not. My personal bias leads me to favor artistic freedom, but as a society, we have yet to answer this question definitively.

One thing, however, is clear. If the races were reversed—if a black musician had been fired in order to achieve an all-white aesthetic—it would have made front page headlines. It would have been seen as an unambiguous moral infraction. The usual suspects would be outraged, calling for this event to be viewed in the context of the long history of slavery and Jim Crow in this country, and their reaction would widely be seen as justified. Public-shaming would be in order and heartfelt apologies would be made. MTV might even enact anti-bias trainings as a corrective.

Though the question seems naïve to some, it is in fact perfectly valid to ask why black people can get away with behavior that white people can’t. The progressive response to this question invariably contains some reference to history: blacks were taken from their homeland in chains, forced to work as chattel for 250 years, and then subjected to redlining, segregation, and lynchings for another century. In the face of such a brutal past, many would argue, it is simply ignorant to complain about what modern-day blacks can get away with.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/11/praise-traditional-gender-identity-jason-d-hill/

We are witnessing a moment in Western civilization when heterosexuality is under assault. It is being reconstructed and used as a scapegoat for every neurosis one twists in agony over on a psychologist’s couch, and every setback one experiences in the name of some vague concept called “intersectionality.” We are living in a precarious moment when masculinity is denounced as toxic and rapacious, a moment when people are forgetting that it was mostly men who risked their lives to create Western civilization.

All of us, gay or straight, are the legatees of traditions forged in the crucibles of those possessing traditional gender identities, where great wars were fought by men, and where the very emancipatory moral vocabularies non-traditional persons pursue to rescue them from the oppression they claim to live under — were created in a world mostly by men with traditional identities

One of the most annoying questions I am often asked is: How can you be gay and be a supporter of traditional gender roles and identities, and believe that heterosexuality and masculinity in the civilized Western democracies are becoming endangered phenomena? 

The question is annoying because it assumes that one’s sexual orientation is predictive of one’s political and moral values, and that such values form an unalterable part of one’s moral constitution.

I do not believe anyone decided to choose his or her sexual orientation. I think most of us found ourselves just naturally being attracted to someone of the opposite or same sex before or after puberty and grew into a sexual orientation. I’ve never met a single person who consciously chose his orientation the way, say, one chooses one’s favorite books, values, or belief systems after subjecting them to critical scrutiny. Attraction to another person even in adulthood seems to be a phenomenon that one is simply pulled toward. 

https://pjmedia.com/trending/georgia-state-lawmaker-proposes-making-gender-transition-surgery-for-minors-a-felony/

Republican State Representative Ginny Ehrhart from Georgia wants to make it a felony for doctors to perform gender transition procedures on minors, including mastectomy, vasectomy, castration and other forms of genital mutilation, and ban the prescription of puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormone therapy.

State Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, said the legislation aims to protect children from having irreversible procedures done when they are young. Current law requires a parent to consent to surgery or for a minor to be prescribed medication.

While the bill is still being drafted, Ehrhart said Georgia medical providers who perform surgeries or administer or prescribe medications that assist minors with gender transition could be charged with a felony. The legislation would not affect doctors working with adults who seek to undergo gender transition.

“We’re talking about children that can’t get a tattoo or smoke a cigar or a cigarette in the state of Georgia but can be castrated and get sterilized,” she said.

While this seems like common sense to most people, Jeff Graham, the executive director of Georgia Equality, an LGBT rights group in the state, blasted the proposed legislation. “This legislation would criminalize decisions that are made carefully within families in consultation with medical professionals and mental health professionals. Supporting children in recognizing their gender identity is not only humane, it saves lives and strengthens families.”

https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/24/it-should-be-illegal-to-give-children-transgender-hormones-and-surgery/

The left uses children as political pawns in the gender war and calls it a moral good, but the consequence of forcing kids into transition is denying them the ability to choose their own future.

When I was a child, I was fascinated with makeup. My grandmother would often let me sit on a small pink crushed velvet stool in her bathroom while she “put on her face,” as she liked to say. After putting every platinum blonde curl in place, she would carefully pout her lips and apply a thin layer of ruby red lipstick.

I watched, captivated by her transformation and the satisfaction on her face when every line, every shade was perfectly applied. My mother remembers catching me modeling my sister’s clothes, unaware of her presence and therefore entirely un-selfconscious of my movements. Everything about the female world inspired my imagination, and I longed to be connected to it.

A large contributing factor into this obsession was my grandmother’s open and repeated wish that she had a beautiful granddaughter to dress up and show off at social events. Per my father’s wishes, I was denied the ability to see my mother until I was about seven years old or so, and thus my need for a female role model fell squarely on my grandmother’s shoulders.

My grandmother improvised, highlighting my hair, painting my fingernails, and surrounding me exclusively with her female friends. Around my father, I had to pretend, as he grew aggressively angry whenever I presented the slightest feminine tendency.

At school I blended in with my female peers, who seemed to appreciate having a boy to give them attention, but it was safety for me. The boys were cruel and aggressive, and they never ceased in tormenting me daily. I only felt safe and free to be myself when I was alone with women. I would cry myself to sleep praying for G-d to turn me into a girl when I woke up so I could finally be free from the constant stress and conflict of my daily life. Each day I woke up sad and afraid.

My Struggle with Gender

As I grew up, I learned how to mimic my male peers just enough to avoid suspicion and to exploit my gentle nature as something adults found positive around their daughters. I was just “creative” or “sensitive” or, as was popular at the time, “in touch” with my feminine side to anyone who observed me.

But to me, I was struggling to feel a sense of holistic unity, divided by too many outside expectations that never quite fit into place. I explored transgender transition as a young adult and attempted to dress as a girl, change my voice, and wear makeup, but as the years passed, none of this felt quite right.

Eventually I found a balance between adolescent self-obsession and adult responsibility that did not allow for endless changes in identity or character, and I essentially grew up. Who I am now is everything left over from when I gave up on trying to be someone else, and for that I am grateful.

https://amgreatness.com/2019/10/23/gov-abbott-two-gov-offices-looking-into-case-of-little-boy-transitioning-to-girl-against-dads-wishes/

Texas governor Greg Abbott announced Wednesday evening that the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is looking into the sad saga of James Younger, the seven year-old boy who may be forced to undergo chemical castration at the behest of his mother.

On Monday, a jury in Dallas ruled in favor of the boy’s mother, Dr. Anne Georgulas, allowing her to continue “transitioning” James to “Luna” using puberty blockers and eventually cross-sex hormones. The child has reportedly been “transitioning” into a girl since he was three.

Meanwhile, the boy’s father, Jeffrey Younger, will be required to “affirm” that his son as a girl, despite his religious and moral objections, and will be forced to take a class on transgenderism.

A few minutes after the governor’s tweet, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) also commented on the case, calling it “horrifying & tragic” and characterizing the procedure as “nothing less than child abuse.”

https://mashable.com/article/national-period-day-what-is/

We rarely talk in public about periods, but this is changing with Saturday’s first-ever National Period Day. 

On this day, people in all 50 states are rallying to highlight an invisible problem — period poverty. Many menstruators (not all people who menstruate are women; transgender men and non-binary people get their periods too) cannot access or afford essential items to manage their periods, like tampons and pads. This is in part because 35 states in the U.S. levy a sales tax on menstrual products, considering them non-essential. 

Everyone, whether a menstruator or not, is welcome to join in on the rallies. 

Nadya Okamoto, 21 years old, is leading the clarion call. Okamoto founded PERIOD, a youth-run nonprofit that supplies people with period products, when she was 16 years. She was drawn to the issue when she learned about period poverty while talking with people experiencing homelessness who couldn’t afford menstrual products, as Mashable reported in 2018. Okamoto was a homeless teenager herself at the time.

PERIOD @periodmovement

If faces were bleeding, someone would do something THIS SATURDAY is the first-ever #NationalPeriodDay. We’re hosting rallies in all 50 states to demand menstrual equity and an end to the #tampontax. Find your local rally at http://nationalperiodday.com . @SeventhGen @BBDOSF

https://quillette.com/2019/10/18/the-defenestration-of-domingo/

The #MeToo movement has ended the U.S. career of legendary 78-year-old Spanish tenor Placido Domingo, one of classical music’s greatest ambassadors and impresarios. For nearly half a century, his intense stage presence and warm, soaring voice captivated opera audiences; during the 1990s, he reached millions of new listeners as a member of the itinerant Three Tenors. In recent years, long after most singers have retired from the stage, he has continued a grueling international performance schedule, now singing baritone roles with remarkable pitch control and legato.

Domingo’s entrepreneurial drive has been as untiring as his stage career. He was pivotal in creating Los Angeles’s first full-time opera company, LA Opera, the culmination of two decades of artistic diplomacy in Southern California. As LA Opera’s general director, he wooed philanthropic support from philistine Hollywood and the city’s political class. In 1993, he founded the international opera competition, Operalia, one of several institutions he has established to promote young singers. He led the Washington National Opera as general director from 1996 to 2011, and his conducting career has spanned opera pits and concert stages around the world.

He has championed the unjustly neglected Spanish opera form, Zarzuela, which he sang growing up in Mexico City, and his charitable endeavors have extended beyond classical music; he led fundraising for Mexico City following its catastrophic earthquake in 1985. Testimonials to his kindness, generosity, and bottomless work ethic abound. Helga Rabl-Stadler, the president of the Salzburg Festival, the most important classical music gathering in the world, recently praised Domingo’s “appreciative treatment” of festival employees: “He knows every name, from the concierge to the secretary; he never fails to thank anyone performing even the smallest service for him.”

On August 13, 2019, however, the AP announced that nine females, all but one anonymous, were accusing Domingo of making unwanted sexual advances decades ago. The accusers—chorus singers, a few small-time soloists, and one ballet dancer—alleged wet kisses, solicitations to rehearse at his apartment, whispered blandishments while on stage, a hand down a shirt or up a skirt in cabs, and persistent phone calls.