Swarthmore College Writing Associates Program alchemy 2 0 1 1 &
The act of writing is the act of making soul, alchemy. —Gloria Anzaldúa Staff
Editors-in-Chief Connor Morrison Alba Villamil
Editorial Board Tim Bernstein James Mao Genevieve McGahey Monika Zaleska
Acknowledgments
The editors would like to thank Jill Gladstein and Chelcie Rowell for their support, the Provost’s Office and Delco Printing. Contents
The 2008 Anti-Yoga Fatwa of the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia: Reasons, Reactions, Resolution, and Significance Andrew Loh ’11 • Religion...... 3
Doctored Wages: The Income Penalty for Motherhood in the Medical Field Neena Cherayil ’11 • Economics...... 15
Pentheus in Drag: The Importance of (de)Gendered Performance in The Bacchae Alex Weintraub ’11 • Classics...... 30
Equivocal Speech in Oedipus Tyrannus Bill Beck ’11 • Greek...... 36
Allen Iverson: The Rise and Fall James Mao ’12 • Sociology and Anthropology...... 46
The Quest for Absolution in Crime and Punishment Madeline Charne ’14 • Russian...... 54
Would American Foreign Policy Be More or Less Effective if the War Powers Resolution Were Enforced? Jenna Zhu ’12 • Political Science...... 59
Alchemy 2011 1
: . - - - - . s s e e e g a x o d n n ’ s s a s g t r r u n i e
n i o o n m n e m l g e i a a
i i r o f o r d r a t o o t t i
o e
a i h A
o u s w t o a a s o m e s y y r r e r r ’ f i i
g a
r r
e i
h r y r . s e c o p s f w e n t o f
s r e
b
o u e
d t p l
o o n l
s r e h a
i p h s d h h a l e t e t
m e v y t e p g c i i n n c c g Z a f u d i n
d n u a n p n
a
l o i t w i e e
a o o s i
s a
o a p E o t l
r n c
g e h a b s m n
o n a
r a t s
c h e . n e e n
a c o t c s e c h n i r c g
r i i i a i f t - x l e
n t u R k a a a n a b J o d e p
i e e c p a e
m
n
i e t e s s s l s
i s d h i e e i r o d r h r e a t m r n h
u n i d d a d m g e
i e t g n o i t
s
r
e s
a w v s s a
c r w k a A e
t c u d h n M
n e
e
p c t
s t o e a n . e c u e ’
o s v h e t n i
i
s P e e i t o e h c e r s o n e
r B
t s m a b e r m e e m
r
n t d e o l n m r g o e s a d l m a n i r e
r n n i h y a i
p e l x h d a , f a v t m J i l a l o s
x e d
B ’
W
a m o i
a i h h .
d r
c e s e e r
c . t e u n s
n h
m r a o h e i h r e s C
a , p b u u o t d c ’ a .
e a
s b i l o a e s l
n a h y s P t a l h s d h t r h
f i
e n i u A L h c t w m n s
e s n
c e s d a
m s c o n i V o e e r s f
S f i y p n n r
a u p
i i
l y i w o e d a a a
a s o
e h u
B e m l r e a
f r m T t
u b s h m k t f u e
r n
a e l d e t
a f r i t o s e o l o s n a d r h a e m a A z e w
r
u b n i t 1 h
o u o M
o f n
u r a , l e p P t T
e o f ,
s S c 1 c i r M
r t n
r
y i g s f A C n ’
. t a
d l 0 t
t o
r o e
s s a a e o e . s e s d a r , f t n 2
h r e i i e s n f d l e P s e a d a r O r t i m i o
g e i m p
i d
r i g r i
o e u p
i , i y c n d h
t t p a & o r h f s
f a a
i t r s e e p
n a s
’ u m c p r l a s y i o d y e i i s
w
u
e
M u p r b ’
e a a n v s n
i E r h
t g s y o
n o t r u
A e h r i o a i w e o r c e
y
o t n t o w i B c
E i
h C S e h
e S h n l g i
, t
n m t t
m r l d
n
o n e n t N a a w w n o T h i o i h o o a d i
n n t a p
c e o t h
s i z i e w n . i m e l
I s C
r i
h i t y s r m
a , v s w a r y t h
t
a w . n a s
i
d t h w e
s y a a e l s g t
a t F y l t e o w t ’ n i e , p
t i r a s e a w r o i l s o a e e S l i n a j a
n i u s m d r o a
h p n
a c i r e o n x a u , s u
w o
k f r h n
s o s y e f h e t c e t
f n e r
s o S o
t s m s
s r t
i s u
d e e i o o l m o u t t a i o
s n l a v d n e h d a
m t A a
a o
e y a I
t
a y a n t h o r y m a
e c s l
n g l
N t e i c e c a
, o i n
h e l i n
a r
e e l n s s h t r
A e y e r r i r e t t e
k l e p
p
A t i
a l e a d . s h e t i p s a t x o
i r t ’
e v r m d g a n
p A e
u e o f T h v c r r
a n
t
o i a A a b o
o h m . a W f t e
e b , e
l o
s h
k
. , n o
p g g e s s i C u v n f i s
t
e w d i
e a
W t l a n a n n
o
f a l
l i n e o l e m
r h p n h . o r a h c o a t t i c h v
t o o i h o
p g f i
r c t o n o
n c k ,
h t u l e w u j u l i e c o s h s s e
c c
d d c o f t p e e e o r o a e r e a i a o n r b n n n n x e p o h i o n f S e t a a i R E e a s g W t a w r W N s 2 Alchemy 2011 Andrew Loh The 2008 Anti-Yoga Fatwa Of the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia: Reasons, Reactions, Resolution, and Significance Andrew Loh ’11
Yoga is an ancient Indian form of exercise in Through this religious body, authoritarian vogue among certain populations for suppos - and ultra-conservative voices have found edly slowing down the aging process; reducing expression. The council has ruled the follow - risks for diabetes, asthma, and heart-related ing books to be haram (forbidden in Islam): A diseases; and maintaining health and flexibili - History of God by Karen Armstrong; The 100: ty in general. In November 2008, the A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History National Fatwa Council of Malaysia, by Michael H. Hart; and Until You Die: Malaysia’s top Islamic body for issuing fatawa , Discourses On the Sufi Way by Bhagwan Shree delivered an edict banning yoga for Muslims. Rajnesh. 10 The Council has also ruled the fol - They claimed that yoga “has elements of lowing activities as haram : praying for the other religions that could corrupt Muslims.” 1 well-being of a non-Muslim; 11 celebrating non-Islamic festivals; 12 Shiite Islam; 13 Set up in 1970, the National Fatwa Council of “Liberal” Islam; 14 tomboys (who wear A 15 16 l
Malaysia issues fatawa on questions referred to trousers); Valentine’s Day; Candlelight c 2 17 18 it by interested parties. A fatwa (plural fatawa ) vigils; and a national Interfaith Council. h is a religious opinion concerning Islamic law e issued by an Islamic scholar (mufti). 3 In My paper looks at the 2008 anti-yoga fatwa as m
response to questions from the people, muftis a case study of the National Fatwa Council. y issue fatawa to guide Muslims towards behav - This specific fatwa is significant because the ior that is consistent with Islamic tenets. Along consequent diverse and publicized public 2 with other government bodies like the reaction towards the fatwa was the first 0 1 Department of Islamic Development attempt in many years that successfully chal - 1 (JAKIM), the National Fatwa Council of lenged the conservative narrative of the reli - Malaysia is tasked with the development and gious establishment in Malaysia. advancement of Islam within the country. 4 In this paper, I first examine the religious rea - The fatawa of the National Fatwa Council are sons given by the National Fatwa Council for not legally binding, although they may be this edict. I then analyze the implications and highly influential. Some fatawa have been reactions to the anti-yoga fatwa from various gazetted into state law, but not all have been subsections of Malaysian society: conservative rigorously enforced. While many of the coun - and progressive Muslims, non-Muslims, yoga cil’s fatawa are concerned with quotidian practitioners; and also from politico-religious issues such as the legality of proclamations of institutions: a dissenting mufti, the Prime divorce via electronic media, 5 using clexane Minister, and Malaysian royalty. Through this and fraxiparine (medicine), 6 text-messaging I synthesize the main counterarguments competitions, 7 multilevel cemeteries, 8 and against the fatwa and its selectivity, lack of body-scanners at airports, 9 other fatawa have intellectual and experiential rigor, conflation been more problematic for the larger of the theory and practice of yoga, and its Malaysian society. logic. Finally I look at the greater significance
3 The 2008 Anti-Yoga Fatwa of the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia
of the anti-yoga fatwa – how it represents a one with god.” 24 Second, the council argued break in traditional Islamic discourse in that yoga “incorporated (1) physical elements, Malaysia, and what this means in a modern, (2) religious elements together with chants and multicultural, and multi-religious society like worshipping, and (3) the unification of one’s Malaysia. self with god,” and declared that “practicing yoga, when it comes together with the three elements, is haram .” 25 Third, the council noted Religious Establishment: that while merely doing the physical move - Rationale ments of yoga without the worshipping or chanting “might not be against religious At a religious seminar, conservative Professor beliefs,” Muslims should avoid practicing it Zakaria Stapa of University Kebangsaan altogether as “doing one part of yoga would Malaysia’s Islamic Studies Center advised lead to another” – “prevention is better than Muslims to give up yoga in fear that they cure.” 26 would deviate from Islam. According to the professor, yoga was dangerous because it The council’s rulings reflect the belief that “originated from the Hindu community and it one’s body and faith are directly related in
1 combines spiritual as well as [Hinduism’s] Islam. Traditionally, Islam has been con -
1 religious aspects… [yoga] brings [Hindus] cerned with orthopraxy (behavioral correct -
0 closer to their god.” 19 Noting that many ness) and is about doing , or performing one’s 2 Muslims take up yoga for its health benefits, religious duties as God has willed. 27 From this
he added: “if Muslims want a healthy body, definition, faith and practice are necessarily y prayers are a right choice” and a “good form intertwined. According to this belief, by doing m of exercise.” 20 Yoga, however, is unIslamic un-Islamic things with one’s body, one’s faith e because it involves “chanting mantras in vari - is at risk of being undermined. Therefore, to h
c ous positions” and could cause Muslims to keep the faith, a good Muslim must avoid
l “stray from their faith because its movements dangerous, potentially Islam-eroding actions.
A are in the style and traditions of Conversely, one’s faith is necessarily strength - Hinduism.” 21 ened by performing Islamic activities with one’s body. The importance of physical, tan - The National Fatwa Council consequently gible action for faith is most striking when one decided to look into the permissibility of yoga looks at the five pillars of Islam. All of them for Muslims. After, in their words, “serious involve an outward, explicit expression of and in-depth discussions” about the “history faith: shahadah ([oral] profession of faith), salah and purpose of yoga,” 22 they ultimately ([oral and physical] prayers), zakah ([physical] issued a fatwa banning yoga. In a press state - almsgiving), sawm ([physical] fasting during ment declaring that yoga was haram , council Ramadhan), and hajj ([physical] pilgrimage to chairman Abdul Shukor Husin declared: Mecca). “[yoga] is inappropriate. It can destroy the faith of a Muslim.” 23 The National Fatwa Reactions: From Islamic Council explained their reasoning for such a Perspectives decision in three parts. First, taking into account yoga’s Hindu roots, the edict held The anti-yoga fatwa elicited a maelstrom of that the “ultimate aim” of yoga was “being opinions, mostly negative, from various sub -
4 Andrew Loh sections of Malaysian society and the interna - and in-depth discussions” about yoga, jour - tional media. Some used a comparative per - nalist Hazlin Hassan writes that spective to frame their criticism. A Singaporean newspaper noted that Malaysia It is unclear what exactly was studied. If coun - “seems to be alone in its concern [against cil members had visited yoga centers, they yoga]” as “yoga centers are flourishing in would have found that most of those in Kuala more orthodox Muslim countries such as Lumpur are staunchly secular. Classes take Saudi Arabia and the United Arab place in air-conditioned halls in trendy, expen - Emirates… in Iran, yoga is so popular that sive gyms with nary a Hindu 'Om' or chant to there are classes for children.” 28 If even vast - be heard. 32 ly more conservative Muslim countries have embraced yoga, why is the Malaysian reli - Social activist Marina Mahathir writes, to the gious establishment (which often looks to its agreement of others, that the council mem - peer institutions in the Middle East for guid - bers “obviously… never went to observe a ance and inspiration) getting so riled up about class.” 33 Yoga practitioner Aspara Rusli stat - it? ed that “if [the council members] actually attended my classes and did some yoga them - In addition to this, veteran religious expert selves, then they would see it is not a big A and former registrar of Muslim marriages, issue.” 34 l c
Pasuni Maulan, noted that “spiritual elements h
in [physical] exercises are not exclusive to In addition to the lack of experiential rigor in e 29 yoga.” Yusmadi Yusoff, a Member of the issuance of the anti-yoga fatwa , others m
Parliament, pointed out that silat , a tradition - highlighted the grave difference in the theory y
al form of martial arts popular with Malay- (as the National Council Fatwa understood it)
Muslims (also a national cultural heritage) was and practice of yoga in real life. In reaction to 2 not banned – even though it had spiritual and the fatwa , the Associated Press reported that 0 religious roots outside Islam. 30 Sisters in Suleiha Merican, a Muslim yoga teacher and 1 Islam (SIS) program manager Norhayati practitioner of 40 years, called yoga “a great 1 Kaprawi pointed out that other exercises like health science.” Merican pointed out that qigong or taichi which stem from Buddhism and there is no religion involved: “We don’t do Taoism were not haram . The fact that these chanting and meditation. There is no conflict practices which had non-Islamic foundations because yoga is not religion based.” In were not forbidden underscored the selectivi - Singapore, Mohammad Yusri Yubhi ty of the judgment – “as if yoga was a wide - Mohammad Yusoff, executive imam of al- spread threat to Islam.” 31 Falah mosque, concurs: “Yoga may have its roots in Hinduism. But if you take away the The most persuasive rebuttals against the meditation and other spiritual aspects, it anti-yoga fatwa were those directly aimed becomes just another form of exercise.” 36 against the reasoning of the National Fatwa Council. A particularly salient critique M. Revathi, another yoga teacher, addresses addressed the experiential rigor of the council the linguistic concerns the council might have in their understanding and analysis of yoga had of yoga: prior to the issuance of the fatwa . While the council claimed to have carried out “serious Some people [mistake] the names of the
5 The 2008 Anti-Yoga Fatwa of the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia
asanas (postures) as religious verses as they Many Muslims have been practicing yoga for were in Sanskrit but there’s nothing religious decades but no one has seen it as a religious about the names… as for the meditation part, matter up to now… there has been no report it’s not religious either. I tell my students to or complaint of any practitioner converting to relax and free their minds, and they can medi - Hinduism or that yoga has caused a Muslim’s tate in whatever language they like. 37 faith to weaken.” 38
There is a definite and absolute chasm Personal testimonies by yoga practitioners between how yoga classes are really conduct - attested to this point: that even probable cause ed for the ordinary Malaysian Muslim and has not been proven. One stated that she did - how the councilors understood yoga to be n’t feel that yoga “has changed [her] faith in from their studies of its “purpose” and “histo - Islam at all. [Her] faith as a Muslim is the ry.” Regardless of yoga’s Hindu roots, in real - same as before.” 39 Engineer Adam Junid told ity, yoga (as most people understand and prac - the BBC that “[yoga doesn’t] interfere with tice it) is divorced from its religious and spiri - the religion at all… in fact it helps you… tual aspects. The gap between theory and [and] can be quite compatible with religion… practice, and the history and reality of yoga is it makes you a better person.” 40 In fact, yoga all the more significant when the National “can go with any religion… or it can go with 1 Fatwa Council’s explanation is reviewed. The those who don’t believe in any religion, 1
0 arguments against yoga virtually all flow from because it’s purely sports,” according to
2 the premise that yoga incorporates Hindu instructor Mani Sekaran, founder of the religious elements like chanting and worship - Malaysian Yoga Society. 41 He wrote to the y ping and ultimately aims at divine unification. National Fatwa Council, stating that “yoga is
m The evidence suggests that the council mem - not a religious concern. It's purely a mind- e bers had not done the relevant research; they body exercise which has very sound tech - h did not realize that yoga with Hindu elements niques of developing people's health and c 42
l – as they understood it – was not found in awareness.” Also, journalist Hazlin Hassan
A mainstream yoga studios. As such, their first writes, cheekily: two premises for banning yoga are moot. My yoga instructor certainly did not make me Furthermore, many others criticized the logic chant any Hindu prayers, and we were never of the National Fatwa Council. Such argu - instructed to 'become one with God', one of ments accused the council of being simplistic the reasons, it seems, that prompted the coun - in its third assumption: that merely practicing cil to order the ban. We were told to envision the physical exercises of yoga (without the anything we fancied during meditation, be it religious chants and worship) would necessar - the deep blue ocean or a majestic mountain ily lead to a deterioration of faith ( aqidah ). top. I certainly never felt the urge to convert to Some of the strongest arguments against the Hinduism just because I was doing a down - anti-yoga fatwa came from this perspective: ward dog movement. We did sun salutations that the National Fatwa Council failed to too, certainly without facing or worshipping prove that yoga, without its spiritual aspects, the sun. 43 has a corrupting influence on Muslims’ faith. Sisters in Islam noted that it is striking that Adding to these personal anecdotes, a long- time yoga instructor expressed “shock” and
6 Andrew Loh
“dismay” over the notion that yoga could National Fatwa Council to come out with fat - undermine Islam: “When we are strong in our was against corruption, violence against religion, why would we want to deviate?” 44 women, cheating etc.” 50 Mahathir contin - She added that she “diligently performed her ued: prayers every day despite practicing yoga” and that “every part of the world that [she] If [the council has] ever found any Muslim has gone to, including Iran, there are many who has converted out solely because of yoga, Muslims who are yoga practitioners.” 45 they should produce evidence instead of spec - Others pointed again to “Muslims in the ulating about the ‘weakness’ of our faith. If it Middle East” who were “doing [yoga] with - is ‘weak’ at all, it is because people like the out any fuss.” 46 Fatwa Council have done nothing to make it strong, constantly weakening it through fear All in all, the council’s explanation that prac - and ignorance. 51 ticing yoga would undermine Islamic faith was dubious – many of the vocal dissenters In addition to criticism, many others also had experiential knowledge of the impact (or offered alternative ways in which the council perhaps more accurately, the non-impact) of should have acted. Member of Parliament yoga on their faith. Because the council never Yusmadi Yusoff stated: “the form of yoga A proved that yoga – as most practitioners practiced in Malaysia is simply a healthy exer - l c
understood it – was harmful or against cise. If the fatwa is on the basis of religious rit - h
Islamic doctrine, the council was wrong to uals or inclinations, then it must be more spe - e have forbidden yoga. cific and detail what parts exactly.” 52 m
Banning yoga outright would be “discrimina - y
Some hypothesized why the National Fatwa tory” and would deny “Muslims a choice of a Council came up with such a bizarre fatwa . healthy lifestyle.” 53 The Straits Times also 2 Housewife Putri Rahim said that she was no agreed that “a ‘halal’ form of yoga should be 0 less a Muslim “after practicing yoga for 10 identified and established so that more com - 1 1 years” and went a step further in condemning pliant Muslims would not be confused.” 54 I the fatwa and its simplistic assumptions: “I am think that this is a very attractive suggestion, mad! Maybe they have it in mind that Islam is for the same reasons as PAS (Pan-Malaysian under threat. To come out with a fatwa [like Islamic Party) Research Chief Dzulkefly that] is an insult to intelligent Muslims. It’s an Ahmad. He suggested that the council “lay insult to my belief.” 47 Others thought that down what is or is not permissible about yoga the ban was a mistake of religious priority. [because] this allows Muslims to be critical of Executive Sharizal Shaarani said that he their own faith and empower them to make could not see how yoga “could affect a judgments based on convictions.” 55 Ahmad Muslim’s relationship with God… It is a petty continued, incisively, that “if one wanted to thing. There are more important fatwas like stray from Islam, there were other ways on corruption for the council to address.” besides yoga to do it.” 56 Ahmad’s comments According to social activist Marina Mahathir, are all the more significant as PAS, an Islamist that the council even “[considered] a yoga party, usually espouses controversially conser - ban” was “a classic case of reacting out of vative social policies. fear and ignorance.” 48 On her blog, Mahathir wrote that she was “waiting for the In fact, there was dissension even in the ranks
7 The 2008 Anti-Yoga Fatwa of the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia
of the religious establishment. The Mufti of of the states. Because fatawa are non-binding, Perlis State, Asri Zainul Abidin, said that “the it is up to the states to gazette them into law. council should have offered an alternative ver - Malaysia is also a constitutional monarchy, sion of yoga, and that fatwas announced in and hereditary monarchs rule nine of this day should not be too rigid.” 57 In a news - Malaysia’s thirteen states. These Sultans have paper interview, he stated that royal power and responsibility to protect the sanctity of Islam and the citizens of their Islam teaches us to use our thinking and rea - soning well… [so] the role of religious lead - states. ers… is not to merely say what is permissible and what is forbidden by Islam… when we talk about a statute or anything about Islam, Secondly, Malaysia is a multiethnic and multi- people want to see how strong those views religious nation. Of its population, 55% are are. Malay (Muslim by law), 25% are Chinese When something is declared ‘haram,’ how (Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Christian), this is conveyed is important, so that people can understand the reason for the ban, and if 8% are Indian (Hindu and Christian), and the the conclusion was arrived at intellectually… last 12% are other indigenous peoples People no longer live in an era when religious leaders are never questioned. 58 (Christian, Muslim, and animist). Ethnicity and religion are intertwined: Malays are
1 What happened subsequently is telling of the Muslim by constitutional definition, and non- 1 conservatism and anti-intellectualism of the Malays are largely non-Muslim – so most reli - 0 religious establishment in Malaysia. Shortly gious issues have a racial tinge to them, and 2 vice versa.
after espousing this (more progressive) view,
y the Mufti had a disagreement with the Department of Islamic Development In the past, many of the Islamic establish - m 59 ment’s policies had been challenged by
e (JAKIM). He subsequently resigned, but activists and civil society organizations (many h not before penning an article for a national
c newspaper that described the “prejudice and of them non-Muslims) on the grounds of l tribulations” he faced for being a progressive human and constitutional rights. The reaction A mufti. The Mufti claimed that he was ostra - of the religious establishment has almost cized for his more liberal views: JAKIM never always been these same charges: firstly, fatawa appointed him to any fatwa panel, and he was only apply to Muslims, secondly, non-Muslims once “tried” by the National Fatwa Council don’t understand Islam, so stay out – this is for his views expressed during an interview on none of your business! The New Straits Times national television. 60 He claimed that it is reports that “easier to move mountains” than “change the minds of these people.” 61 Expecting a backlash from Malaysians on the [anti-yoga] decision, [council chairman] Reactions: from a Secular Shukor reminded non-Muslims not to question Perspective the fatwa… We respect the harmony and free - dom of practice of other races. This is not There are two important historical and politi - something for non-Muslims to interfere in or cal contexts in which the Islamic establish - question as this matter involves Muslims and ment finds itself. Firstly, Malaysia is a federa - their faith. [The fatwa] may not be acceptable tion, and religious issues fall under the powers to other races, but this is about Islamic teach - ings. 62
8 Andrew Loh
Immediately after the ban was announced, site direction which will create divisions.” 68 many (conservative) Malay and Muslim organizations (aligned to the religious estab - Ultimately, I think Sisters in Islam offers the lishment) mobilized to defend Islam against best critiques from both the Islamic and secu - the perceived encroachment of non-Muslims lar perspectives. First, they write about the against the religion. The Majlis Amal Islami unbinding nature and role of fatawa : Malaysia (MAIM) called on all the states to immediately gazette the fatwa. MAIM man - To enlighten and educate the public so ager Mohammad Fitri Aziz Mohammad Muslims can arrange their affairs in accor - Yusof said that “a delay would cause non- dance with Islamic teachings… what is a vol - Muslims to have a negative perception of the untary and optional concept throughout the Islamic authorities in this country and also history of Islam… has been turned into an mar the reputation of Islam.” 63 An article in instrument of law and coercion in Malaysia. Utusan Malaysia asked why non-Muslims were questioning the fatwa but “openly accepted This is unprecedented in Islamic jurisprudence the prohibition of alcohol and pork on and violates a fundamental principle in Islam: Muslims.” 64, 65 Contrary to how the religious that change must occur gradually through edu - A conservatives tried to paint the issue, however, cation and not through force. 69 the ideological cleavage was never really l c
Muslim versus non-Muslim; as we have seen, Such a critique highlights individual agency: h there were many Muslims who questioned the the real value of a fatwa is to empower the e legitimacy of the anti-yoga fatwa as well. individual to make an informed, moral m
choice, and not for states to police the moral - y
The waters are further muddied when we take ity of their citizens. into account Malaysia’s religious diversity. 2 “Many Hindus have been deeply disturbed by Second, fatawa can be gazetted into law if 0 the Fatwa Council’s announcement,” said 1
approved by the state Fatwa Committee and 1 Malaysia Hindu Sangam president Datuk A. the Sultan (they are not tabled for debate in a Vaithilingam. 66 He added that it was regret - legislature), and fatawa dissenters can be table that the National Fatwa Council did not charged in court. Sisters in Islam argue that consult the Hindu Sangam first so that the this violates the Constitution: religious and non-religious aspects of yoga could have been clarified. Vaithilingam ulti - The Syariah Criminal Offences laws state that mately urged the National Fatwa Council to any violation of a fatwa is a criminal offence. “be more sensitive to the feelings of other reli - Any effort to dispute or to give an opinion con - gions in Malaysia while giving guidance to trary to the fatwa is also a criminal offence… Muslims… [as calling] this ancient practice Fatwas having the automatic force of law dis - ‘haram’ and saying that it can ‘corrupt’ a per - regards constitutional limitations on legislation son is very hurtful and demeaning.” 67 on Islamic matters and violates fundamental Ultimately, Member of Parliament Lim Kit liberties guaranteed under the Constitution. 70 Siang said that the fatwa was “sending out a most unfortunate message… Malaysia, Third, Sisters in Islam question the need for instead of moving towards a moderate and fatawa on miniscule issues such as yoga: universal Islam, is moving towards an oppo -
9 The 2008 Anti-Yoga Fatwa of the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia
Fatawa which regulate a citizen’s life to the fatwa could be charged in court, while indi - smallest detail are so wide in their impact that viduals who question the credibility of the they become unenforceable… Islamic fatwa could be held in contempt of Islam.” 74 jurisprudence expert Professor Muhammad Hashim Kamali argues that when statutory Resolution law rules on matters that essentially belong to the realm of morality, and may be deemed to In the end, public opinion compelled Prime belong to the sphere of personal choice and Minister Abdullah Badawi to intervene to liberty, the expected result of such lawmaking contain the fallout from the brouhaha. He would be confusion and difficulty over enforce - said that Muslims “could carry on doing yoga ments. This is likely to erode the credibility but minus the chanting… a physical regime and survival of both laws and the lawmaking with no elements of worship can continue, process, as can be seen with the controversies meaning, it is not banned. I believe that that erupt over the enforcement of these laws Muslims are not easily swayed into polythe - in Malaysia. 71 ism.” 75
This is, I believe, the most important and Most surprisingly, even the normally tacit
1 sober exhortation for Malaysia’s religious Malaysian royalty voiced a statement in this
1 establishment. Sisters in Islam points out that socio-religious debate. As guardians of Islam
0 should the establishment mindlessly issue they had the final say on signing the anti-yoga 2 fatawa under questionable logic without taking fatwa into law. Tunku Naquiyuddin of Negeri into account the realities on the ground, it will Sembilan state took the conservative Islamic y be undermining its own authority, trustwor - establishment to task over the yoga ruling: m thiness, and relevance to the nation at large. e Islam is a progressive religion and the ulama h Given these concerns, Sisters in Islam urges
c (scholars) should be confident of the followers'
l the Government and religious authorities to faith rather than micro-managing their way of
A consider all differing views and be guided by life… If I go to a church or a Buddhist temple, the principles of justice, equality and public is there any fear of me converting? Where do interest when putting into practice precepts of we draw the line? 76 Islam. In coming up with fatawa, the National Fatwa Council must take into consideration Other than Negeri Sembilan, rulers from the country's multi-cultural, multi-racial and Selangor and Perak have also expressed their multi-religious identity, and the needs of disapproval that the monarchies were treated Malaysian Muslims in contemporary situa - like rubber stamps in this matter. Selangor tions. 72 Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah said that “the ban on Muslims practicing yoga has yet to be Against this discourse, it was reported that enforced in the state as the matter needs to be some Shariah lawyers had called on the police studied in greater detail... so that a decision is to arrest groups that criticized the fatwa , not made hastily.” 77 The Sultan also “hoped Muslim or non-Muslim. Shariah Lawyers that in the future, any edict that affected the Association of Malaysia President Zainul general public would be referred to the Rijal Abu Bakar said that “Muslim yoga prac - Conference of Rulers (consisting of the nine titioners and yoga teachers who disobey the hereditary rulers of Malaysian states)…to
10 Andrew Loh avoid confusion or controversy so that imple - defeat was shocking and unprecedented – and mentation would be carried out in a wise the peaceful nature of this realignment manner.” 78 Perak Crown Prince Nazrin Shah marked the political maturity and sophistica - told the state fatwa committee to “consider the tion of the Malaysian electorate. The election fatwa very carefully” as he would “bring it to results are indicative of a more demanding, the Perak Islamic, Religious and Malay more outspoken, and more informed popu - Customs Council (which he chairs) before lace – and they continue to inspire ordinary being presented to the Sultan of Perak for Malaysians to speak up for their rights and consent.” against injustice.
On the other hand, the states of Sarawak and This shift in the Malaysian populace has been Melaka have ruled that yoga is “haram” and reflected in how the nation dealt with the anti- have agreed to implement the fatwa – but yoga fatwa . In the past, it was “unconceivable” even so, would not take “legal action… for Malay Muslims to challenge their clerics – against Muslims who continued to do “they are used to obeying their religious lead - yoga.” 80 Rather, it would be “up to Muslims ers, believing that they know best.” 83 Many in the state to adhere to the fatwa or continue Muslims also “traditionally obey [fatawa] out doing yoga.” 81 of deference, even if they were not A gazetted.” 84 But times seem to have changed l c
Greater Significance – given the fortitude with which rights groups h
and yoga practitioners criticized the National e
While Malaysia gained international notori - Fatwa Council for its lack of intellectual and m
ety by issuing the derided anti-yoga fatwa for experiential rigor, selectivity, and its logic for y
Muslims under suspect circumstances, I think issuing the fatwa . This episode is not anom - that ultimately, the whole episode was benefi - alous; in the aftermath of the 2008 elections, 2 cial for all Malaysians. 82 I think that Malaysia the uproar against the decree reflected a shift, 0 emerged a better, smarter, stronger, and more especially among the more educated, urban 1 1 resilient nation from dealing with the anti- Malay Muslims – who now seemed to have yoga fatwa . “no qualms challenging the authority of reli - gious clerics” and were less likely to take them Malaysians – Muslims and non-Muslims – for their word. Ironically, the absurdity of the showed themselves to be more vocal in anti-yoga edict probably encouraged more defending their civil and constitutional rights. Malaysians to speak up. It is impossible to analyze this development without looking at the greater backdrop of the Sisters in Islam Executive Director Zainah March 8, 2008 general election. The ruling Anwar concurs: she is “just happy that Barisan National (BN) coalition (which backs activists now only need to rally for public sup - the conservative religious establishment) lost port in a Malaysia [which is] far more dynam - its customary two-thirds iron-grip on ic, especially since the March elections.” Parliament, won only 51% of the popular Zainah says that compared with vote, and lost the five states of Selangor, Perak, Penang, Kedah, and Kelantan (and the A few decades ago, activists such as herself and capital Kuala Lumpur) to the Opposition her ‘sisters’ are now no longer the lonely, stub - Pakatan Rakyat coalition. This electoral born voice opposing an elite that claims a
11 The 2008 Anti-Yoga Fatwa of the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia
monopoly over religious issues. Now we have The slipshod way in which the National many voices saying what is Islam and what is Fatwa Council reasoned out the fatwa is reflec - not. 87 tive of a lack of intellectual rigor and logic in the Islamic establishment of Malaysia. The Furthermore, the anti-yoga fatwa episode was religious establishment cannot afford to be in an invaluable learning experience for non- denial: times have changed. Civil society’s vic - Muslims. The growth of the internet and tory against this badly reasoned fatwa is a other mediums of communication meant that promising start towards a vibrant, vocal, and this was one of the first times that non- more informed Islamic discourse in Muslim Malaysians were exposed to such Malaysia. 93 exhaustive coverage of public discourse over a fatwa . That it was horrible prolonged the Case closed for yoga? Perhaps – insha-Allah .94 fatwa’s international coverage: on news sites and agencies such as Fox News, 88 MSNBC, 89 Reuters, 90 the BBC, 91 and the Guardian 92 – which no doubt pressured the Prime Minister and other authorities to act. 1 1
0 Notes 2
1. The Malaysian Insider. “Fatwa council bans yoga 11. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia.
y for Muslims.” November 22, 2008 . Mendoakan orang kafir.
m 2. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia. 12. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia. Hukum
e Jawatankuasa Fatwa Majlis Kebangsaan bagi hal menyerupai merayakan perayaan orang kafir . 2004.
h ehwal ugama Islam Malaysia . 13. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia. Ke arah c 3. Brill Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd Edition. membendung pengaruh Syiah di Sarawak . 1996. l Fatwa . April 22, 2011 . A 14. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia. Hukum 4. JAKIM. Fungsi Jakim . pemikiran liberal dan implikasinya kepada Islam di Malaysia . 2006. 5. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia. Hukum penceraian melalui alat-alat media elektronik . 2010 . 15. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia. Fatwa berkenaan dengan wanita menyerupai lelaki . 2008. 6. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia. Hukum penggunaan ubat clexane dan fraxipane . 2009 . 16. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia. Hukum orang Islam menyambut perayaan Valentine’s Day . 7. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia. Hukum 2005. peraduan SMS dan menyertainya menurut pandangan Islam . 2004 . 17. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia. Hukum penglibatan orang Islam dalam aktiviti candlelight 8. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia. Hukum vigil . 2009. pembinaan kubur secara bertingkat . 2010 . 18. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia. Isu cadan - 9. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia. Hukum gan penubuhan Suruhanjaya Antara Agama. menggunakan pengimbas badan di lapangan terbang . 2011. 19. Malaysiakini . “Coming soon: Fatwa on yoga.” October 29, 2008. 10. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia. Buku-buku atau terbitan yang diharamkan . 2003. 20. Ibid.
12 Andrew Loh
21. Ibid. 44. Melissa Darlyne Chow. “Practitioner defends yoga for Muslims.” New Straits Times . October 22. Mazwin Nik Anis. “Fatwa Council deems 31, 2008. ancient form of exercise from India ‘haram’ for Muslims.” The Star. November 23, 2008. 45. Ibid. 23. The Malaysian Insider. “Fatwa council bans yoga 46. Ibid. for Muslims.” November 22, 2008. 47. The Malaysian Insider . “Fatwa council bans yoga 24. Mazwin Nik Anis. for Muslims.” November 22, 2008. 25. Ibid. 48. The Malaysian Insider . “Fatwa council bans yoga for Muslims.” November 22, 2008. 26. Ibid. 49. Ibid. 27. Ranjit Sau. “Two views on Muslim societies: Maududi and Ramadan.” Islam and Muslim 50. Marina Mahathir. “Tomboys, Yoga… what Societies , Vol. 4 No. 1. 2011. next?” RantingsbyMM . October 29, 2008. 28. Ibid. 51. Ibid. 29. Nur Dianah Suhaimi. 52. Ibid. 30. Shannon Teoh. “PAS, PKR and ordinary 53. Ibid. A Muslims criticize yoga ruling.” The Malaysian 54. Ibid. l
Insider. November 22, 2008. c
55. Shannon Teoh. h 31. The Star . “Mixed reactions to yoga ban.” November 23, 2008. 56. Ibid. e m 32. Hazlin Hassan. “Yoga fatwa: all worked up 57. Hazlin Hassan. over nothing.” The Straits Times . December 10, y
58. Cindy Tham. “Fatwa, Islam, and Malays. The 2008. Nut Graph.” December 1, 2008. 2 0 33. Marina Mahathir. “You can do it as long as you 59. The Star . “Perlis Mufti: Easier to move moun - 1 don’t move.” RantingsbyMM . November 22, tains.” December 1, 2008. 2008. 1 60. Ibid. 34. Hazlin Hassan. 61. Ibid. 35. Shannon Teoh. 62. Farrah Naz Karim. “Yoga ban: don’t question 36. Nur Dianah Suhaimi. fatwa, says council.” New Straits Times . 37. The Star . “Mixed reactions to yoga ban.” November 23, 2008. November 23, 2008. 63. Cindy Tham. 38. Shannon Teoh. 64. Ibid. 39. Ibid. 65. Because alcohol and pork are explicitly forbid - 40. Robin Brant. “Malaysia clerics issue yoga den in the Quran, while yoga is not. fatwa.” BBC News . November 22, 2008. 66. The Star . “Hindu Sangan urges Fatwa Council 41. Ibid. to ‘be more sensitive.’” November 23, 2008. 42. The Malaysian Insider . “Threat to ban yoga test 67. Ibid. boundaries of tolerance.” November 16, 2008. 68. IslamOnline.net . “Yoga Fatwa irks Malaysians.” 43. Hazlin Hassan. Nov 23, 2008.
13 The 2008 Anti-Yoga Fatwa of the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia
69. Sisters in Islam. “Fatwas shouldn’t be law.” 82. Qatar Living . “Malaysia bans yoga.” 2008. November 26, 2008. 83. Hazlin Hassan. 70. Ibid. 84. Ibid. 71. Ibid. 85. Ibid. 72. Ibid. 86. The Malaysian Insider . “Good news in the 73. The Malaysian Insider . “Yoga: No ban for gloom: Check out Malaysia.” December 15, Muslims in Selangor…yet.” November 28, 2008. 2008. 87. Ibid. 74. Shariah Lawyers Association of Malaysia. 88. Fox News . “Islamic Leaders in Malaysia ban “Tindakan undang-undang, hina agama jika yoga for Muslims.” Nov 21, 2008. ingkar.” November 24, 2008. 89. MSNBC . “Malaysian Islamic body bans yoga 75. Reuters . “Malaysian PM okays yoga, fatwa for Muslims.” Nov 22, 2008. council fumes.” November 26, 2008. 90. Reuters . “Malaysia backs down from yoga ban 76. Ibid. amid backlash.” Nov 26, 2008. 77. The Malaysian Insider . “Yoga: No ban for 91. Robin Brant. BBC . “Malaysia clerics issue yoga Muslims in Selangor…yet.” November 28, 1 fatwa.” Nov 22, 2008. 2008. 1 92. Ian MacKinnon. The Guardian . “Islamic ruling 0 78. Ibid. bans Malaysia’s Muslims from practicing 2
79. The Malaysian Insider . “Sultans’ remarks cause a yoga.” Nov 24, 2008.
y stir.” November 27, 2008. 93. Shanon Shah. Tilted World . “Fatwa boleh
m 80. The Malaysian Insider . “No yoga for Muslims in dicabar .” November 18, 2008.
e Sarawak.” December 9, 2008. 94. “ God Willing” in Arabic. h 81. Ibid. c l A Andrew Loh is a senior Honors Political Science major and Honors Islamic Studies minor. He wrote this paper for "Gender, Sexuality, and the Body in Islam," a Religion course taught by Professor Tariq al-Jamil. Andrew spent way too much time following Malaysian current affairs, so writing about the yoga fatwa of 2008 was a way of con - verting time spent on Malaysian news into in-depth research. He had fun writing this paper.
14 Neena Cherayil Doctored Wages The Income Penalty for Motherhood in the Medical Field Neena Cherayil ’11 I. Introduction The following paper is an examination of how a woman’s greater household responsibil - The gendered income differential in the ities after marriage or motherhood influence United States has existed since women first her income in the workplace. Here, an began flooding into the labor market in the increased burden of general household chores mid-20th century. Today, this income differ - and childcare responsibilities leads to an ential continues with women making an aver - increased demand on a new wife or mother’s age of 75 cents for every dollar that men earn time at home. The following discussion will (Arehart-Treichel, 2002). Social revolutions in focus specifically on the work lives of female the 1960s and ‘70s made great bounds in nar - physicians. Women in the medical field earn rowing the male-female wage gap by increas - an average of 20% less than their male col - ing educational attainment among women leagues. This gap further partitions according and passing anti-discrimination, equal pay, to marital and parental status–married female A and equal opportunity laws. Progress in clos - doctors show an 11% wage disparity relative l ing the earnings gap between males and to men, female physicians with one child earn c females has, however, slowed over the past few 25% less than the average male physician, h e decades, prompting inquiry into a new gen - and female physicians with more than one m dered income disparity: the family gap. child earn 33% less (Sasser, 2005). In the con - text of the medical field, the tradeoff between y career and family responsibilities is particular - The family gap refers to a well-documented 2 national trend among all occupations in ly pronounced the job demands an expensive 0 which women who are married or have chil - educational investment as well as a strict time 1 dren incur a 10–15% wage penalty relative to commitment that is often not compatible with 1 unmarried women without children the usual demands of a family household. (Waldfogel, 1998), even after accounting for Therefore, wives and mothers, who are varying educational attainment and work nonetheless productive doctors, must choose experience. Despite this wage disparity, more to spend fewer hours at work in response to and more mothers are choosing to participate growing obligations at home. This means that in the labor market today; in fact, there has women who could contribute the best of their been a 20% increase in the number of full- abilities to the market are not doing so. A time working mothers over the past 30 years, trained female surgeon may, for example, with an even greater increase among young choose to work only part-time or in a different mothers (Sasser, 2005). Even as the broader specialty altogether upon marriage or moth - salary differential between men and women erhood due to the incompatibility of the has narrowed, the family gap has only demanding schedule of a surgeon and increased (Waldfogel, 1998). Could continu - increased responsibilities at home. This is an ing gendered pay inequality be linked to the inadequate allocation of her talents as a sur - widening family gap? geon. Not only is the family gap thus inequitable in terms of paying equally pro -
15 Doctored Wages: The Income Penalty for Motherhood in the Medical Field
ductive women different salaries. It is simply gap...Females do not respond” (Rizzo and wasteful. Zeckhauser, 2005, 2). While the study is care - fully reasoned, it has many shortcomings Scrutinizing wage differentials within a single including the omission of female participation occupation allows for better controls for vari - rates in and varying overall income across dif - able training and educational determinants of ferent medical specialties. The family gap also wage, factors often lost in broad measures of reveals another failing of Rizzo and income disparity. Thus, empirical analyses of Zeckhauser’s argument. Here, one would not the family gap in one particular profession expect a woman’s salary negotiation skills to can be used to examine the broader male- change significantly upon marriage and female wage differential. Economics motherhood. This leaves the sizeable dispari - researcher Alicia Sasser’s work is some of the ty in income upon marrying or having chil - only rigorous economic research on women in dren largely unexplained. Thus, differential the medical profession today. Thus, any dis - income negotiation cannot fully explain the cussion of empirical evidence must rely heav - overall male-female wage gap among physi - ily on a paper written by Sasser in 2005. In cians. this study, Sasser conducted various cross-sec - tional and longitudinal statistical and econo - When discussing the family gap in particular, 1
1 metric tests using the Young Physicians’ it is additionally important to note that it is
0 Survey (YPS) 1 as a data source to test various not just parenthood that is exerting a down -
2 hypotheses mentioned in the Theory section ward pressure on income. Men do not experi - of the following paper. Ultimately, the ence the same penalties for marriage and par - y unequal distribution of household work enthood that women do; in fact, males in m between men and women in the home leads medical and other fields earn a salary premi - e female physicians to reduce their hours in the um for marrying or having children h (Waldfogel, 1998). Given this fact, one may
c workplace thus causing the well-known family
l gap in the medical field. naturally conclude that it is motherhood in
A particular that plays a role in salary determi - II. Theory nation. What’s more, there is currently no national policy specifically designed to Over the years, economists have proposed address issues concerning women, the family, many different hypotheses that attempt to and compensation in the workplace. The fol - explain the well-known salary disparity lowing economic models of the wage dispari - between the sexes. There is, for instance, a ty between mothers and single women are common cultural conception that women are thus proposed in hope of better understand - not as intrinsically competitive or do not ing and potentially addressing the causes of aggressively negotiate salaries as well as men the family gap in income. do. As recently as 2005, a paper by students at the Kennedy School of Government claimed A. Differences in Human Capital that the gendered wage gap in medicine was entirely explained by the fact that, “males set The most common explanation for any dis - higher [salary] reference points, and when parity in compensation is a difference in the they perceive their incomes to be inadequate set of employment-relevant skills, or human they change behavior to close the capital, gained through training and experi -
16 o T F h t o d m e p s a h e p t a m t l i o t i n r h r h p n a n v n n f u r e a u u i a a h d g i e e e e e r e
r c r d t e d m g m i j e n l i u t r n i
n i r t n e e s i r h / c h o o
e s
e t r
. c d , a a
i a
f o t
f d
e e n t r t i l s n n
i t t , i
p b o
r n a
I n
d i g
r m i e a t
1 n c
n s e t e r h
. a c
g e w
o c r
m
h
. ) - ( s t s o C ) - ( s t s o
y C g r c
e
a e i i t c
a l ) ) + + ( ( s s g g n n i i n n r r a a E s E f . T i m s h a n a h i l a
t p
i t o o p
n e e T d m a h r u i i r
e h i t d
i l o a e n t r e t e e e t
h s h
w i c p a a
s n t
a e s g
s
i e e i h
e a p l r e
n l
h e n w
S t
i a m r
k Schooling/Training School
i t t r i n o e y d t i e o s g l
r h s C F i a e o i n h d c
w
n
e n o i n
t r n a t e I I I s m ( c t t v e h l nvestment nve F v d i
a M d G
i i e h i e n i d o Increased yearsSCFinvest In g a t e y e n n ncreased yearsSC v t e w c
i e o e s
a
ing/Training e r d i t s s h c U
e stment W
c g q s a n F e n Motherhood +MarriageEarningsGap Motherhood + t y
t n
o a
w
l o m a b o g m s r t u s n R
y M
a ’ m l f i
i a r e
e s h u m e .
h n i i e m e e
e E
a e s r p
n t g e t m k n g f e e )
A
e n
e
s
c i o i d r m e l
n r t a e 1 e “ n
t e w
p e a t
a
s r e
i a t : l i ,
r c t s n l s l a
a r t r a n d i ,
l
i o g e l a a s H a l
i v e a e l s n
i r a
o 2 o , i l s
r s n m l p e e
e s e
l r c
r i n s d u a 0 a p
n y
n d
e i e e g r i t a
CF invest Period wheremothersearn Period wheremo t and childlesswomendon't and childlesswo MarriageEarningsGap 0 e m t p r
t
( a e “ i
u n h a c c
i S a c s y d 5 m
s c h s c r
o e c u r o c
e a w . i o l C a h .
r
o i a n
n
i
h f n
i r f o p f o i v l h a o i n t s
r g e a F
o n f i
r a e d t D s C r i o e m
t a d t
r t
s ) o n v
t h t e h h h r
n F y s ” m
i a s m
e e e l g e o l n c e c e
h a
e
i p i e r s c o n
f
h g
r p o i
g v
e g
t o i
d e
c l r r e i i t g m u c o y s u e o
d g r
n n w m a u e
ngs Gap h omen don't others earn t a
y
r o o r n i r l b t a v v r r c e
c e n e e r t h a a a w l a g I t v e e y h s i n i e i
a
e
n i n p o l n a a e n e s s
n t i e i e t 1 r r v t t i
l n n n h h d p d d a g ” e r i
s s s - - - - , e n s g t m ,
m c e A c t m g t h s I t b a t s a r c o a a g E E e i h h r h c t a h xperience (Years) xpe o a r v r n n s r e f a m n
a c h a e o i
a r t o o e t s o i
c v d d n c t e e i e e p s n t o n t r a w e w
n a e rience (Years) o ,
o s s g h e d e M h a
t o
u i .
i s S t r n x
h a n S
i e ,
g n o l e h “ n t s d
a o T C
( a o . r
o e s C h f h g e
m m l d
d i h u b m o t r
w
n
h a i ( F s a o b F e
o l g r a e i w e c e t q g o p i n l e
e
s o
m h f
o s l h
a d
t u t w v i o e l p
– e r
a e n
d l s a o i e r a s b t
a y r m o h c u d d r e a d k o
o e r d
n e a d r y s t r
r o o , n i e t
a
l p f , h e
t f c d l e s t
r r
. f c f a u d
n b t i c
i l o
a e t o e
a i l t t o h Married FemalewithChildren c r s e E t n e
e d e r y
i o m n m i o i i c t y e i l n n i r s i l o e a
i m r S S o s n d e h f n e i s s t n
ingle ChildlessFemale ingle ChildlessFemale
e e
a n s k n m B i v g
n
r o l g
f g s d p r e m o i s s
s a i a l g a
o o
n i s
t
a a c
l t l
o n l i i
y e r o w o a t l f
o u
a m m n u r r
i k e y e
p t y o
b
r t , t u d c o a t r o
p i
p i f e i a p h f l a h F ale withChildren s a o n t e o r o a ldless Female t r e r i r
y o c l y o e i e k a l c i m g
n u .
s , o e , n h
r g
s q
r e a t
r e , t r
b a b i n
t i o r a h
e r e u o l T c
M n M a e r a l a o s s
s o s y i o y
i e r n n a
g
h
a
i d r a , e l
p w v g a d F w F n e i i
t n i p u r a s n n o
r r r a s e d M d e d M ’ o e r a a e w
a n s l g g n n N v
r s
u
l
m y t a c
i s s l t
e d c c h e
e
n
n e
t o
l t k o h n s e y r o
a t e
e e m i s e t g , t n
u c h n f w r p
a r r
s n w r a
c s e t a
o l
a
a o t e v e d r
t o i i m s . p r e
d w j f l s n e s n r y c
i C a g a l m e i r i
a f e o
, c o
M d d e l i l
f c a i
h l s t
a e n w a e n c o n p t d t
e i e p S e e d r h e r o t t
r i F w s n l i r a d l
i C t i o n
a e n c g e u i r o i e h M g c d u e a y i e t r g a y s e t s s F n n y e e e i r s s s s s - - . , , ) ) l l
1 1 1 0 2 y m e h c l A 7 Doctored Wages: The Income Penalty for Motherhood in the Medical Field
Singlegle Childless Femalemale Motherhoootherhoodd + Marriage EaEarningsrnings Gap E
a Marrieded Female with Children r n i n
g e1 s
( + ) e22
TTimeimem Out off the MarketM
Experixperienceence (Years) C C Human Capital o o s s InvestInvestmenttment t t s s
( ( - - SSchooliSchooling,h ling, etc...t ) )
FIGURE 2: Human Capital Investment Model – differing years of experience, graph adapted from Blau, Ferber, and
1 Winkler, 2005. 1 experience, and skills to provide quality each additional year of experience on-the-job. 0
2 healthcare within a given specialty” (ABMS, This can be seen as the flatter and subse -
2009). Certification is therefore linked to quently downwardly shifted MFM curve rela -
y higher overall salary in the medical field, and tive to the SCF curve in Figure 3. This mech -
m decreased certification among MFM may anism is unlikely because mere employment
e thus be one explanation of the family gap. itself makes up most of the on-the-job train -
h ing for physicians. Additional training is likely c MFM may also lag in years of experience in to have little impact on income relative to l the medical field relative to SCF. As illustrat - years of experience in the medical field. A ed in Figure 2, young mothers or newly mar - ried women will often interrupt their work B. Lowered Productivity lives to stay home as they transition to moth - erhood or married life. Because these women Instead of differing attainment of human have lost time in the market and consequent - capital between MFM and SCF leading to the ly experience on-the-job, their earnings curve family gap, it may also be the case that women begins lower at point e2. After re-entering the who choose to marry or have children are market, lost time slows down MFM’s overall intrinsically less productive or less committed income growth. to the market than SCF. That is to say, less productive female physicians naturally self- Alternatively, employers expecting fewer total select into marriage or motherhood, and the years of work from MFM employees may also disparity in wage therefore falsely correlates contribute to the lowered income of MFM with these characteristics. The influence of relative to SCF by decreasing on-the-job relatively unobservable traits (such as motiva - training for MFM doctors. In this case, moth - tion or commitment) on the true dependent ers would receive less salary than expected for variable is termed as an omitted variable bias.
18 i a A h M e t I d c w d t h c h t T t H i a T n n r h i i
f
u a x t n u o o o u o m
u o s h h
g c e e ) - ( s t s o C ) - ( s t s o r C p F l
d
h o o u c n c w r l t o ) ) ) + + ( ( s s g g n n i i n n r r a a E i E i
e o
r e y e t M u s s k
t d d a s o
e . m m p i
m o
i m c
e
r v
.
m i , o s m p t m c s h T c
a l
i p e a a
o n e o
t h a t o l o e k
a e e j o y n h
s o t e d i
n o i
s l n h s s
n a
n d l n d m e
d e e Human Capital Human Schooling, etc... SSchooli
d r
i w a o e c p t a o
e n d
l , i b Investment Invest
p c r
h
t a w w n i l h e a r m
i i w ( y e n
h c r t n t n F t m
r g
n d
h
o o s h h c o o o s a a c i e
o h
o e i
d o r g s e o o m li r l y a g
a s tment s b e F i 2 t
u f o Capital k u
, u
ng, etc... t u d g n s i u e d
d a 0 m
s c I n p d i u Motherhood +MarriageEarningsGap Motherhood +
r c i v a r , r n G b e v t b s 0 h n i l e
g i e t a
r m h p a c e t
r a e t n s g 5 i e
o
s U
h n a t v v b d e e
4 r r i t .
h f g t a o i t m e e b e k o k s q y
s a o
) n R s
o o t e s . p d
e e h r i e d e u n e r
e e e a u E n p
e n t
t - t e l o
s e n e s d
c . f h w i s
p u g
e n
t
, t m n n m t 3 t
e a m h
a G o h l
o s
e t t l : t t e i h w o i n a e i
n
a e r o
e e n a c m H m e o f b t a
t
n
n n a w e a t r g u n
u t
l d e i u y r f S d s a e
r m d t w
o MarriageEarnin
n d p f a c i
i S m
t r
e C
b v f a n t i i e o k o h s r a r r C n f o c t w e e g a p r e
e o m o F m y i r e t i i
e s n a e s e n F e , r n s o r
m
l t
w p d c o
g e y e
p n g t
t r C o o i o o
w o i n h , e o t
k a o
t m
n t s o M a r s a
n n g /
o n n i
r o e t m
g a m n
p
r s k Experience (Years) Experi e e s m
m
d r m c e m t a
h F o i i d
- e o t
a i m b
e a p a f a o a M e o
i d h w o f a r r
i c n r h
l l u s
l u l t
a r
o
l m t n h
n i o p
h
o I h p p h
i t l ngs Gap t r a a m n a a d i u i u ence (Years) a t e i a c k r r e a e d l n n e h v g g d n o o e r r a v l e r r r e a s e d d g e e e e e r
------t t . . p s t t
m e d e a f U h f f n h a g r s M k o s i t u t t z w a e
n a a e i h i n l e e e f n t e t m e p a o a o m m o r a m c r i
n
a t e r t n F c o t l v g F h w p u
p
g t
o
c o i t M e e u e m t e i e M s w a o o o s i e i e t h
o
u
g a
n
e p t i m l m , n
i r m a c t o
o m s n e e
u n n m t o h g B ’ t o p t s
u
d o s d
r u
f a a
r
f t
e o a o
e
l o e p k u r h t e e
U e
a n
n i , r c y l h r . o f v f l e n
t h
r
d u o w k
t o - y i w
a h
4 e
e f r t s – h t b d y l , e D m a . h . i
h m m h e
y
e
n
i h s t e y F a i t n m u d T o l T f e
e f
g i u h e l
e
t o s b o i c f c i h
t
r u l i n
, n f i h
e r e a u e i h c n i u o l i
u
a f a n o l b r . a
f i r n
e e d r h i i s e
t s r s n
r n s d s u e t e k t r n T
a t c r a t
i
a o s
y M
h f i r o e n t f i
s o r e o h c
p a
n t , l n f m
f h f h a t
e s Single ChildlessFemale Sing a
arried FemalewithChildrenarrie i t t c o h d p f e ( t a o g o a o o .
g h f e
r e
t e t e
r f (
u
p n n a
r i
t h n
h e r o I i
e t u h
e
n
gle ChildlessFemale w e
n u r d c o h g c e n e c s
m e s o r n b M s o n t t t i a d FemalewithC
a n t d e
r u o
e c
h
h n m W u c i u r p i t
t
s n
l o
i r c l r i r n e i e u e F o i e g o y f d i n r l e k v n e s f . e i t o f s s
g
o n m
M r n f g a y e c e
s c
m t e a
y T a i c o
t k k i
l r r e a
s
g u g e r U t h o t u b c o u ( e e i r l s . t
h n o v r y o i U e r n
t w p
e r p o a n r n m a v
i e r r
s d o t
g v
, o e c s
l p c c T p ) e . a o o t e c
i
d a , e
e
o
i o n o e z
e I
u m
e a
r t r o o
r d h
s t a s n
e h p k s r n
r U n t r e
h n f t t i
h i t -
c s o N
t e v e s o
s s d t
l d e h
Children w
male d i
u d o i t t h u
p e
t a w t m i
e f
r h r h e a i / n e h a r f f t a o e t a n o l s a e t t a
m i u n v e s m e
n c e a
t t r ) n n e t i s h s
a
g e
m
r r k n
l o a e p r h i o e s p o a g i
e e
e e p n
t t
r n m i C c e
o h n o r f o n
i r a i ) h b
r v d r o o s
s d n
e e
h m d e o s i d i e i i
i a
s o U i r f m n s a g l e e i n d
t f v a e p t
t i v
r
f c e f h s t t r h a t i t t i i a i l t
f e r b i e
o
i n a n e , h h d e i o u n d a a e y o e e
r s s i l n n d g a a g e e e i r r s s s s ------t f l
1 1 1 0 2 y m e h c l A 9 Doctored Wages: The Income Penalty for Motherhood in the Medical Field
Indi!erence Curves (U) ) $ (
s d o o G
t
e Usingle k r a Umarried M
Umother
Increase in NonMkt Time
Budget Constraint
0 Market Time (Hrs) 16 16 Nonmarket Time (Hrs) FIGURE 4: Time-allocation model – differing opportunity cost of market time. Adapted from Blau, Ferber, and Winkler, 2005. achieve with the given U and BC. According C. Discrimination 1 to this model, MFM must reduce their total 1 hours of market work in response to increas - Discrimination against MFM from employers 0 ing non-market demand to stay on an indiffer - is the final mechanism considered only briefly 2
ence curve tangent to the budget constraint. in this paper. There is strong anecdotal evi -
y Reduced hours lead to a lower annual income dence of sex-based discrimination in the med -
m for MFM but the hourly wage rate should ical field, from admission to medical school
e remain the same. (Arehart-Triechel, 2002) to hiring practices
h and promotion preferences (Boulis, 2004). A c Instead of reducing hours in the market, labor supply and demand model can demon - l MFM could also reduce their effort per hour strate the impact of discrimination on MFM A in the market. In this case, MFM are less pro - wage. Here, the positively sloped line repre - ductive to compensate for the additional “sec - sents the supply of MFM physicians willing to ond shift” they must work at home managing work. The negatively sloped line denotes an household responsibilities. Because productiv - employer’s willingness to hire certain laborers. ity and effort are reflected by wage, this mech - MFM may reasonably experience a down - anism would be indicated by a lower hourly ward shift in her appeal as an employee, or wage. In the time-allocation model, the slope alternatively demand for her labor, due to dis - of the slanted portion of the budget con - crimination as shown in Figure 6. A down - straint represents the market wage. As can be ward shift of demand for MFM labor reduces seen in Figure 5, a flattening of indifference her wage. This shift can be caused by a pater - curves as result of increased opportunity cost nalistic or misogynist animus-based “associa - of time spent at work (described earlier) com - tion cost” against MFM. Here, the employer bined with a flattening of the budget con - does not wish to hire MFM due to some arbi - straint due to lower effort leads MFM and trary, inherent prejudice against mothers or SCF to spend the same time in the market but married women. Consequently, the employer with MFM working for a lower hourly wage. reduces an MFM’s salary to compensate for
20 Neena Cherayil
Sin gle , C hi ldl ess
Mar ried ) $ (
Usingle s Marrie d d w/ o Child o ren Uwife G Umother Lower slope = lower market wage
Budget Constraint
0 612Nonmarket Time (Hrs) 18
Market Time (Hrs) FIGURE 5: Time-allocation model, reduced effective effort per hour. Adapted from Blau, Ferber, and Winkler, 2005. the personal “cost” incurred for working with based on an observable characteristic (gen - A MFM. der), by an employer is termed statistical dis - l
crimination. Both cases result in paying differ - c
The downward shift could also indicate the ent wages to different women even if the h presumed cost of employing a woman who curve dictating supply is the same. Here, pro - e the employer anticipates will take years out of ducer/employee surplus is lost (deadweight m the market. The wage differential here com - loss) as the employer price discriminates away y pensates for the labor the hirer expects to lose from the equilibrium market wage w0. The when MFM presumably leaves the market. resulting gap is clear – the wage rate for MFM 2 0 This assumption of a market-relevant trait is intrinsically lower than that for SCF. 1
(years in the workplace or market attachment) 1
ly pp Su r bo La e al m Presumed CostCost of Fe Deadweightg LossLoss Employingy g MWM
w0 ) $ (
e Family Gap g a W
w11
D em an De d m SC an F d M WM
Units of LaborLabbor FIGURE 6: Effect of discrimination on demand for female physician labor. Adapted from Blau, Ferber, and Winkler, 2005.
21 Doctored Wages: The Income Penalty for Motherhood in the Medical Field 1 1 0 2
III. Empirical Evidence ble support for the “reduced hours” hypothe -
y sis where MFM decrease working hours in
m To test whether MFM invest less in human response to growing obligations at home (see e capital, Sasser simply compared average Theory, section B: Productivity). h quantities of human capital between men and Sasser additionally conducted a longitudinal c test to see if differences in earnings or hours
l women, as well as women subdivided into between SCF and MFM persisted before
A SCF and MFM categories (Table 1). marriage or motherhood. This test sought to Emerging trends in the sample means showed answer whether MFM are intrinsically less that MFM displayed similar levels of experi - productive, able, and/or attached to the mar - ence as well as board certification as SCF but ket. Sasser found that there were no differ - were still penalized with gaps of 13% and ences in annual or hourly wages between 15% (relative to men) for marrying and hav - women who later chose to marry and those ing children respectively. Similar studies sepa - who did not (Table 4). A similar fixed effects rately conducted within the narrower primary method, which assumes that unmeasured care (Weeks et al, 2009) and new hospitalist characteristics such as productivity and com - (Hoff, 2004) specialties also found that being mitment stay constant over time, found that female and married/with children was consis - having children had little effect on wage tently correlated with lower salaries despite (Sasser 2005). In fact, “two-thirds of the similar work patterns and human capital increase in the annual earnings gap over time accumulation. In Sasser’s study, MFM did, was due to a significant reduction in annual however, work one less week per year and nine hours of work” (Sasser, 2005, 491) between less hours per week on average, lending possi - MFM relative to SCF, again lending credence
22 Neena Cherayil
to the “reduced hours” hypothesis. productivity in response to greater household A
obligations, the family gap should be l Because a woman does not become less pro - explained entirely by differences in hours or c ductive (as would be indicated by a lower effective effort per hour (hourly wage). Table h hourly wage) upon marrying or having chil - 3 (Appendix) shows the results of various e m dren as shown by Sasser above, the hypothesis regressions that take various personal, market, that physicians who are also mothers are less and professional characteristics such as age, y
motivated or able than SCF in the market - race, and experience into account as controls. 2 place is invalid. The same tests conducted on The regression found that marital status and 0 male physicians, however, found that the pre - children have sizeable impact on the annual 1 sumed marriage premium persisted before hours worked but not hourly earnings. The 1 marriage/fatherhood. This result suggests significance of the annual income gap was that men who are more productive or have additionally reduced when controlling for spe - other wage-enhancing characteristics are cialty (last column). more likely to get married or become fathers. A salary premium for these men would thus Based on this last result, Sasser decided to falsely correlate with marriage and father - investigate the impact of specialty on the fam - hood. This result provides an interesting com - ily gap. Female physicians in the YPS sample mentary on marriage differentials between were more likely to specialize in the less prof - the sexes that is outside the scope of this itable fields with more flexible hours. Here, paper but is interesting nonetheless. Sasser hypothesized that MWM traded high - er earnings for these more “family-friendly” Sasser also compared which portion of the jobs that had shorter hours and less rigorous gap in annual earnings, hourly earnings, and schedules. Table 7 (Appendix) shows OLS annual hours were explained by marriage and estimates comparing family gap in specialty the presence of children using ordinary least fields with low (less than 58 hours weekly) ver - squares regression (OLS). If MFM reduce sus high average weekly hours. This regres -
23 Doctored Wages: The Income Penalty for Motherhood in the Medical Field
sion eliminated the wage penalty associated may therefore falsely predict a persistent neg - with having children in low-hours specialties. ative “family gap” in income when in reality For high-hours specialties (such as surgery), on the effect is only temporary as MFM adapt to the other hand, female physicians still “faced marriage or motherhood. This detail is espe - gaps of 19% for having one child and 32% for cially relevant when considering that the low - having two or more children. [And], the ered annual income of female physicians with annual earnings gap is driven almost entirely children is caused only by fewer working by fewer annual hours worked rather than by hours rather than a reduction in effective lower hourly earnings” (Sasser, 2005). This effort per hour: working mothers may return result suggests that less time spent working is a to previous number of hours as children grow likely cause of the wage gap. older. Additionally, the number of women in the YPS sample, especially the number of Lastly, Sasser tested for statistical and animus- women with children, who were self- based discrimination against MFM by com - employed or practicing in certain fields like paring earnings differentials for self-employed surgery, was too small to allow for more (solo or group practices where the doctor her - detailed analyses that could accurately cap - self determines her own wage) versus institu - ture the effects of specialty segregation and
1 tionally employed physicians. In this test, she employer status. Further longitudinal surveys
1 assumes that self-employed physicians will not that track a larger cohort over a longer period
0 show animus-based discrimination against of time are warranted to gauge the true
2 themselves in determining wage. Sasser’s impact of marriage or motherhood over time. study shows that employer status did not y explain the family gap and even found the dis - It is also important to question the actual data m parity between MFM and SCF to be higher in being compared in many of these studies – e some individual group practices (Table A9 – namely, wage. Physicians are not usually paid h
c Appendix). This result would suggest that dis - by the hour but rather arbitrarily relative to
l crimination on part of the employer does not what others are paid for the same work and
A play a role in the family gap, a conclusion that according to patient insurance policies . Thus, is highly suspect given the plethora of anec - assumptions that hourly wage reflects effective dotal evidence of prejudice against MFM in effort may not be entirely valid. In a paper on the medical field. the constructed hourly wage as a statistical measure, Bashaw and Heywood additionally IV. Future Research note that, “hours and weeks of work may translate differently into earnings for different There is much left to be done in terms of physicians and for different genders. If this investigating the family gap, especially in the translation is itself a source of the gender dif - field of medicine specifically. Although ferential, it is lost in the creation of an hourly Sasser’s statistical tests of the YPS empirical wage for an occupation not typically paid by data are extensive, the pool of data itself may the hour” (Bashaw and Heywood, 2001). The be lacking. The YPS only surveyed physicians authors additionally found that women are 2 and 6 years after completing residency. often concentrated in low-hours specialties Sasser’s fixed-effect estimates of wages can like pediatrics while men work high-hour spe - thus only reflect short-term or transition cialties such as surgery. effects of marriage and motherhood; the test
24 Neena Cherayil
Lastly, Sasser also points out that there is no al legislation on the issue is sparse (Waldfogel, existing research measuring the productivity 2005). Mandated childcare centers for hospi - of female physicians with children relative to tal staff would help to alleviate the burden of the productivity of childless female or male childcare on female physician. Unfortunately, physicians. Productivity in the medical field is, childcare is a personal good that is often not admittedly, difficult to measure because the easily substitutable for many parents includ - work a physician does is difficult to quantify; ing MFM doctors, who have anecdotally been the number of cases seen by a doctor, for found to refuse market childcare (Streahley example, does not necessarily reflect the and Longo, 2006)(Hoff, 2004). A wider amount of work that doctor does since each acceptance of team care by all physicians patient demands a different level of care. where nighttime, emergency, and weekend Nevertheless, it might be useful to see whether calls are shared equally could have another childless female physicians or men see more schedule-tempering effect for female physi - patients per hour or week relative to the work - cians. Both options, while viable, sidestep the ing mother. issue at hand: accommodating the multiple roles of a woman rather than addressing the V. Policy Recommendations fact that men do not contribute in the house - hold. A l
It is easy to misconstrue or write-off the c results of Sasser’s study as a consequence of In this sense, “the image of the ‘go-get-em’ h individual autonomy. Some might argue that woman has yet to be matched by the image of e the family gap is a natural result of women the ‘let’s-take-care-of-the-kids-together’ man” m choosing to reduce their working hours and is (Bickel, in Streaehley and Longo, 2006). y therefore not a reflection of any inherent Suggesting legislation that can somehow radi - inequality. If new wives and mothers decide cally shift the unequal distribution of non- 2 0 to reduce working hours on their own accord, market production seems a daunting task but is just a matter of mimicking the social revo - 1 then the family gap is simply a natural 1 byproduct of individual choice. This shallow lution that brought women in the workplace analysis overlooks the various social and cul - in the home for men. In this vein, many econ - tural norms that promote and reinforce spe - omists vouch for generously paid parental cific gendered behaviors. Conventional US leave provisions for both mothers and fathers. law views household decisions as a private Though many women physicians have chil - matter thus denying the need for an adequate dren during their residency training years, a response to gender inequality in the distribu - mere 16% of American residency programs tion of non-market labor. There are, however, directly address or accommodate female resi - ways to thoughtfully design and implement dents’ new family needs (Straehly & Longo, legislation that can reconcile the exacting con - 2006). The United States national maternity straints of the medical profession with person - leave policy is minimal compared to similarly al demands and wishes. developed countries – allowing a maximum of only 12 weeks unpaid leave. Protected mater - Many studies have found that childcare avail - nity and paternity leave in all occupations ability and expense greatly impact a woman’s would allow women to take leave immediate - ability to work. Yet, employers rarely ever ly following childbirth when the physical offer adequate childcare assistance and feder - demands of maternity are at its greatest while
25 Doctored Wages: The Income Penalty for Motherhood in the Medical Field
also allowing men to pick up the reins later. that female physicians have been able to jug - Not only would this policy allow a more equi - gle work and home life only by reducing hours table distribution of labor in the home, it in the market. Despite increased obligations in would reduce the stigma that physicians (par - the home, MFM dedicate the same effective ticularly females) who take time off for the effort to the job, maintaining steady hourly family are “uncommitted.” earnings. MFM have also managed to main - tain similar human capital attainment as their Salary transparency is a final suggestion that SCF and male counterparts even in the face would serve to counter potential employer of opposing professional discrimination or biases and increase MFM’s awareness of the social conditioning. Moreover, less productive family gap. As mentioned earlier, physicians’ female physicians do not self-select into mar - wages are often determined arbitrarily with riage or motherhood. Rather, doctors who glances over the shoulder to determine how are new wives or mothers specifically choose others are being paid. In the labor market, a more flexible specialties and practice settings firm practicing wage discrimination can only to accommodate increased demands of labor continue to do so if it can minimize resent - in the home. The family gap was not found to ment among its employees. Exposing the dif - arise from explicit statistical discrimination by
1 ference in compensation despite similar work employers though further studies are warrant -
1 patterns might rile up enough MFM aware - ed on all accounts. Generous parental leave
0 ness and ire to force employers to reduce the provisions for both males and females are
2 family gap due to potential discrimination. required to counter the imbalance of labor commitment outside the market. The United y States has come a long way in bringing
m VI. Conclusion women, especially female doctors, into the e labor force. We must now ensure that our h Institutional arrangements and gendered
c nation’s caregivers, in the home and in the hierarchies within the medical field must be l marketplace, are allotted appropriate equi - altered to allow for a successful combination A table and efficient compensation. of work and family activities. It is remarkable
26 Neena Cherayil
Appendix A l c h e m y
2 0 1 1
27 2
8 Alchemy 2011 D o c t o r e d
W a g e s :
T h e
I n c o m e
P e n a l t y
f o r
M o t h e r h o o d
i n
t h e
M e d i c a l
F i e l d Neena Cherayil
References
American Board of Medical Specialties. Sasser, AC. (2005). “Gender Differences in (2009). “What Board Certification Physician Pay: Tradeoffs Between Career Means”
Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall. Children.” J. Econ. Perspectives . 12(1): 137- A
Boulis, A. (2004). “The Evolution of Gender 156. l and Motherhood in Contemporary Weeks, WB, Wallace, TA., and Wallace, AE. c h Medicine.” Annals of the American Academy (2009). “How do Race and Sex Affect the e
of Political and Social Science. Earnings of Primary Care Physicians?” m Health Affairs 28(2): 557 – 566. Hoff, TJ. (2004). “Doing the Same and y
Earning Less: Male and Female Physicians in a New Medical Specialty.” 2 Inquiry . 41: 301 – 315. 0 1 1
Neena Cherayil '11 is a Chemistry major and a wannabe Economics minor. She wrote this paper in the spring of 2010 for Economics 73, Amanda Bayer's class on "Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in Economics". The topic of the paper was inspired by the experi - ences of her own mother, a working Dr. Super-Mom of three, who has provided plenty of anecdotal evidence of discrimination in the workplace. Neena would also like to thank Professor Bayer, who has fundamentally shifted her thinking about complicating "the dis - cipline" – whether it be economics, chemistry, science, feminism, medicine, and/or life.
29 Pentheus in Drag: The Importance of (de)Gendered Performance in The Bacchae Pentheus in Drag: The Importance of (de)Gendered Peformance in The Bacchae Alex Weintraub ‘11
The character of Pentheus in Euripides’ The place in the forests outside of Thebes. While Bacchae is a fairly typical tragic hero. Faced this scene, as the pivotal turning point in the with the threatening arrival of a foreign play, has received a good deal of scholarly Dionysiac cult to his city-state of Thebes, attention, the impact of Pentheus dressing as Pentheus works in vain to restore order and a woman has been somewhat mischaracter - bring back the group of Theban women, ized. Part of this mischaracterization is due to including his mother Agave, who left the con - an overemphasis on dressing in drag as a rad - fines of the city to take part in the rituals. ically feminizing act for the young prince. I Although Dionysus confirms to the audience would argue that Pentheus’ masculinity is sig - his divine birth and his instigating role in the nificantly called into question even before he Theban conflict as retribution for the death of puts on women’s clothing, and that reducing his mother Semele, herself a spurned member his drag performance to simply an act of male of the royalty, Pentheus is depicted as res - 1 2 1 impotence or of a loss of male power
1 olutely disapproving of worship for the ignores its broader significance to the play.
0 unknown god and even questions his divinity. Along with a rhetorical analysis of the scene
2 Acting with excessive hubris, his obstinate (lines 786-1021), this paper attempts to ana - refusal to acknowledge Dionysus as a legiti - lyze how Pentheus putting on women’s clothes y mate god, even after his power is made mani - can be interpreted as a physical and perfor - m fest in the razing of the Theban palace, leads mative act of unhinging, both in terms of the e to his gruesome demise at the hands of his character’s identity as well as of the theatrical h mother. However, simply attributing
c space. Ultimately, Pentheus’ drag perform -
l Pentheus’ death to tragic flaw fails to account ance underscores the incoherence and repres -
A for the remarkable complexity with which siveness of gender as an oppositional binary, Euripides characterizes him. It becomes clear which in turn helps to better account for the that Pentheus is not merely a tragic character, liminal role of Dionysus in Greek mythology but also a deeply symbolic one, embodying and Dionysiac ritual in ancient Greek society. the complicated ways in which gender and sexuality are internalized and performed by The passage of the text just preceding individuals on stage and off. His fears, desires, Pentheus’ transformation is filled with the and choices throughout the play reflect a rhetoric of shame. For Pentheus, the source of combination of psychological and cultural this shame is cultural, but self-imposed. From tropes that may be mapped onto broader tra - the beginning of the play up until his transfor - ditions of Greek mythology. mation, he is obsessed with preserving the order and integrity of his city-state. He harsh - These mythological, theatrical, and socio-cul - ly and rashly rebukes the activities of Theban tural constellations of meaning surrounding women who have gone to take part in the rit - Pentheus converge when he, upon Dionysus’ uals at Cithaeron as a threat to civil order that encouragement, puts on Maenad’s garb in will render Thebes, and, therefore, his throne, order to watch their Dionysiac ritual taking “disgraced, [and] humiliated in the eyes/ of
30 Alex Weintraub
Helas.” 3 This conception of shame is saturat - [and feminized] by the god,” 7 this interpreta - ed with notions of gender, as demonstrated tion suggests that the wearing of women’s when Pentheus orders his soldiers to arrest clothing might in fact concretize qualities anyone participating in the Bacchus rituals. In already present in Pentheus’ character. Drag an attempt to rally the troops, the young king in The Bacchae is, therefore, not a rendering of questions whether his men would “tamely male into female but the exposing of the fem - endure such conduct in our women.” 4 The inine within the masculine. That Pentheus is a speech’s conflation of civic humiliation with king, the metonymical representative of polit - the military men’s tacit acceptance of the ical and social order, adds a symbolic element women’s unregulated ritual practice hints at a to this exposure, reflecting that it is not just his perceived cultural opposition between passiv - identity being questioned, but also the values ity and masculinity. For Pentheus, simply of the city-state itself. allowing acts that run counter to Greek values would be tantamount to relinquishing claims Despite Pentheus’ expressed antagonism, it is to citizenship and manhood, an opinion that quickly revealed that he “would pay a great reflects broader classical Greek values. As sum” to view the women and their ritual David M. Halperin writes, “War (and other dances. Though not explicitly stated, this A agonistic contests)… served to reveal the inner desire appears to be sexual in nature, and not l
man, the stuff a free Greek male was made simply curiosity. Regardless of its true nature, c of.” 5 That the threat of being “shamefully his desire to watch is intense enough that it h defeated” 6 is posed by a group of Theban leads him to consent to dressing in women’s e women adds an undeniably emasculating clothing, despite acknowledging that he m component to the situation, since their domi - “would die of shame” 8 to be caught wearing y nation was typically assumed, rather than them. This choice is markedly inconsistent with his previous stance for three reasons. 2 having to be secured by military force in bat - 0 First, he mocks his grandfather Cadmus and tle. 1 9 the soothsayer Tiresias as “foolish” and mad 1 In spite of these spirited calls to action, for dressing in Bacchic garb at the play’s Pentheus’ actual response to the Dionysiac opening. Second, he is easily persuaded to invasion is marked by an overwhelming sense dress up as a woman, even though he knows it of inaction, save for the ineffective attempts to will lead to public mockery. This is strikingly keep Dionysus (known at this point as the inconsistent, since avoiding humiliation was Stranger) prisoner. Based on his fail to turn his his primary concern for stopping the rituals in words into action, it might be reasonably stat - the first place. Third, after calling on all the ed that even prior to his later drag transfor - Theban troops to “march/ against the mation, the activities of the Theban women Bacchae,” 10 he opts for wearing women’s have rendered the king impotently feminized. clothing in an attempt to avoid bloodshed, as Although his identification with this hyper- he explains because “women should not be masculine polis is unequivocal, it is also ideal - mastered by brute strength.” 11 These incon - ized and misguided, since it blinds him to not sistencies call into question the legitimacy of only the god who stands before him, but also Pentheus’ earlier statements, all of which to himself. Unlike Kirk Ormand’s argument reflected a pure or, more accurately, excessive that “Pentheus is rendered socially passive masculine identity that unwaveringly support -
31 Pentheus in Drag: The Importance of (de)Gendered Performance in The Bacchae
ed political order and social values. processions, and in particular during Therefore, the decision not only confirms a Dionysiac processions. Mockery is also a part of the expulsion from the city of a phar - certain pre-existing femininity to Pentheus, makos, of which in a sense Pentheus is one (he since it contradicts his own expressed stan - dies for the sake of the city’s failure to propiti - dards of male valor, but also suggests that the ate Dionysus voluntarily). 15 supposedly rugged, masculine character he embodied and spoke of in the first half of the This uniting of the comical with the ritual play might have simply been an artifice con - extends outside of the theatrical diegesis. It structed to dissimulate his true desires to see also implicates the audience, who in their and participate in the Bacchic rituals. As position as both spectator and interlocutor Charles Segal describes, “one-sided commit - replace the Thebans as the group of people ment to male-oriented values involves not who can actually mock and laugh at the newly merely a suppression of women, but also a dressed Pentheus. Before analyzing the king in fragmentation of the male psyche which drag, it is finally important to consider that represses a whole area of human experience Pentheus becomes pharmakos in part due to his and human emotionality.” 12 The marked continued and persistent denial of the power inconsistencies between his earlier self and of Dionysus, who embodies liminality, or the spaces between cultural binaries (like culture
1 the one desiring of watching the ritual help to and nature, man and women, etc.).
1 expose this repression, as the former can
0 maintain its integrity only through the active
2 repression of the latter. Upon his return in his new outfit, Pentheus does in fact make a mockery of himself. As y After Pentheus rationalizes dressing up, he George Maximillian and Antony Grube aptly m exits the stage to go change into his new put, he comes out on the stage “with the e clothes. What occurs in the interim is crucial beastly drunkenness of a puritan on a h for interpreting the subsequent scene. Upon spree.” 16 Dazed and clumsy, he appears with c
l Pentheus’ departure, Dionysus speaks to his his new blonde curls disheveled and the hem
A Bacchae, revealing that he wishes to make of his dress askew. There are also multiple Pentheus the “laughingstock of Thebes” instances of deeply ironic dialogue, which cre - before killing him, as punishment for ate a disquieting humor and highlight the buf - Pentheus’ unwillingness to acknowledge foonery Pentheus currently exhibits. Dionysus Dionysus as a god during their previous offers to be Pentheus’ maid and fix his curls, exchanges. 13 They respond by singing an even though Pentheus is now dressed as a extended ode in which the destruction of Maenad, literally becoming a maiden of the “those you hate” is described as a “gift of the god. Pentheus states that he is in Dionysus’ 17 gods” and an “honor.” 14 This dialogue “hands completely” in allowing him to rhetorically relates the comic with the ritual, rearrange his hair and fix his dress, but he is insofar as the process by which the king is pre - really under his control and is being led to his pared as a sacrificial victim is through his death. He ludicrously questions whether he humiliation. Matt Neuberg describes this rela - could lift “Cithaeron up” to which Dionysus tionship further. remarks the king is finally thinking “as sane men do.” 18 In perhaps the most ironic Jeering, mockery, and buffoonery are a com - exchange, Pentheus speaks of the “luxury” 19 mon feature of Greek rituals, often during of being carried home, even though Dionysus
32 Alex Weintraub and the audience know that he will be carried Indeed, part of the pleasure, the giddiness of back dead. the [drag] performance is in the recognition of a radical contingency in the relation between sex and gender in the face of cultural config - The comic elements of this scene are undeni - urations of causal unities that are regularly ably gendered. Much of the dialogue and assumed to be natural and necessary. activity deals with Pentheus’ appearance and the ability to pass as a maenad. As Jene A. In the context of Greek theatre and The LaRue describes, “there is a perverse and Bacchae , in particular, this drag performance excessive quality about this ‘role reversal’ as would be particularly disruptive. Womanhood the female impersonator strikes poses and as represented on the stage would become ontologically unclear because there would be preens himself.” 20 An example of this is no way to distinguish between Pentheus in Pentheus’ question over the appropriate way drag and the other women, like Agave. As to hold his thyrsus . “But to be a real Bacchante, Kirk Ormand explains, “all speaking parts in should I hold / the wand in my right hand? Athenian tragedy and comedy were taken by 21 Or this way?” This question has two impli - men. Gender on stage was a matter of highly cations for our understanding of Pentheus in visible conventions.” 23 Pentheus’ perform - drag. First, we can see it as confirmation of ance denaturalizes these visible conventions, A the performative nature of his new personali - threatening their coherence. The Bacchae cre - l ty, in that he attempts to play the part of the c ates yet another layer of unhinging with the “real Bacchante” through certain physical h ambiguous appearance of Dionysus. By put - acts, even though he lacks of the proper phys - e 24 iognomy to fit the desired role, since ting on makeup and “girlish curls” to look m like a maenad, Pentheus would, based on pre - Bacchantes are traditionally understood as y female priestesses and followers of Dionysus. vious descriptions of the god’s appearance,
25 2 In this attempt, he tacitly acknowledges an look quite like Dionysus. These different 0 illusionary quality to gender performance, or visual associations produce a dissonance as to what is to be understood as feminine on stage. 1 as Judith Butler has argued, that “acts, and 1 gestures, articulated and enacted desires cre - ate the illusion of an organizing gender Along with these new visual associations, core.” 22 Put simply, by replicating conven - Pentheus’ excessively feminine drag perform - tionalized tropes of women’s behavior, ance ought to be juxtaposed with its inverse, Pentheus hopes to disguise himself as a real his previous persona of the excessively mascu - Bacchante. His failure to do so leads to the line king. Both extremes prove detrimental to second implication, that his performance in its Pentheus, the former blinding him to the truth vulgar excessiveness reveals the absurdity of of Dionysus and the latter leading to his 26 ever being a “real Bacchante.” In attempting destruction for “flouting custom.” As a to occupy a role assigned to women by imitat - maenad, his commitments to female-oriented ing the dress and supposed mannerisms that values appear equally one-sided and equally constitute womanhood, the performance unsuccessful. Neither is maintainable and it is exposes the artificiality and contingency of at this juncture between man and woman that the very codes of femininity. The comical Euripides can reveal the tension and uncer - nature of Pentheus’ blunders facilitates this tainty of these liminal spaces. exposure. Judith Butler continues. Having been transformed into the sacrificial
33 Pentheus in Drag: The Importance of (de)Gendered Performance in The Bacchae
victim of the Bacchic rituals, Pentheus repre - tain assigned spaces at certain assigned times. sents the extreme and violent consequences of In particular Walter Burkert emphasizes social and political values too strictly imposed Dionysos’ association in 5th century Attic rit - to be safely reconciled. Though his drag ual with freely pursued erotic pleasure in the might expose these cultural tensions sur - form of highly intoxicated orgiastic festivi - rounding gender, it does little to resolve them ties. 28 While for their participants, these ritu - or offer any alternatives. This is in part due to al festivities offered temporary opportunities the nature of theatricality. Judith Butler for release from the highly regimented Greek explains that radical acts of theatrical per - social order, they were inevitably bound to formance leave room for distancing between this order by their carefully regulated place - the audience and what is happening on stage. ment in respective city-states’ calendar. Though the audience is able to see the contin - In the theatre, one can say, “this is just an gent nature of gender on stage, through the act,” and de-realize the act, make acting into something quite distinct from what is extremes of Pentheus as man and as woman, real. Because of this distinction, one can the performance can easily be distinguished maintain one’s sense of reality in the face of as existing somehow separately from the nor - this temporary challenge to our existing mal Athenian consciousness. In this way, ontological assumptions about gender
1 arrangements, the various conventions tragedy and ritual may subvert cultural
1 which announce that “this is only a play” boundaries, but prove susceptible to re-inte -
0 allows strict lines to be drawn between the gration without ever transforming them. This, 2 performance and life. 27 in the end, appears to be Dionysus’ role in Greek mythology—the disruption of order y In this regard, the play functions much like without its destruction. He too acts outside of
m the historical Bacchic rituals, in which radical Olympian convention, while being forever e acts are given specific accommodation in cer - inextricably bound to it. h c l Notes A 1. Charles Segal in "Pentheus and 10. Lines 784 and 785 Hippolytus on the Couch and on the 11. Line 953 Grid." 12. Charles Segal, “The Menace of 2. Kirk Ormand in “Oedipus the Queen: Dionysus: Sex Roles and Reversals in Cross-gendering without Drag” Euripides' Bacchae,” pg. 198 3. Lines 779-780 13. Line 854 4. Line 786 14. Lines 900-902 5. Halperin, One Hundred Years of 15. Matt Neuberg, “Whose Laughter Does Homosexuality , 36-38. Pentheus Fear?”, pg 228 6. Line 798 16. Maxmillian and Grube, “Dionysus in the 7. Kirk Ormand, “Oedipus the Queen: Bacchae,” pg. 37 Cross-gendering without Drag,” pg. 4 17. Line 934 8. Line 826 18. Line 945 9. Line 253
34 Alex Weintraub
19. Line 968 25. Line 175, actually a line by Pentheus 20. Jene A. LaRue, “Prurience Uncovered: mocking Dionysus (as the stranger). The Psychology of Euripides' Pentheus,” Another example of the irony of his pg. 15 transformation. 21. Lines 941-42 26. Line 994 22. Judith Butler, Gender Troubles , pg. 173 27. Butler “Performative Acts and Gender Consititution” The Performacnes Studies 23. Kirk Ormand, “Oedipus the Queen: Reader , pg. 160 Cross-gendering without Drag,” pg. 1 28. Burkertt Pg. 167 24. Line 492
References Burkert, Walter. Greek religion . Cambridge, Association 66 (1935): 37-54. Print. Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985. Neuberg, Matt, “ Whose Laughter does Print. Pentheus Fear (Eur. Ba. 842),” Classical Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Quarterly 37.1 (1987): 227-230. Print Subversion of Identity . New York: Ormand, Kirk. "Oedipus the Queen: Cross- A Routledge, 2006. Print. l
gendering without Drag." Theatre Journal c
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and 55.1 (2003): 1-28. Print. h
Gender Constitution." The Performance Euripides. Euripides: Medea, Hippolytus, the e Studeies Reader . 1 ed. New York: Bacchae . New York: Easton Press, 1979. m
Routledge, 2007. 155-165. Print. Print. y Halperin, David, and David M. Halperin. Segal, Charles . "The Menace of Dionysus: 2
One Hundred Years of Homosexuality: And Sex Roles and Reversals in Euripides' 0
Other Essays on Greek Love (New Ancient Bacchae." Women in the Ancient World: The 1 World). New York: Routledge, 1990. Arethusa Papers . Albany: State University 1 Print. of New York Press, 1983. 195-212. Print. LaRue, Jene A. . "Prurience Uncovered: The Segal, Charles. "Pentheus and Hippolytus on Psychology of Euripides' Pentheus." The the Couch and on the Grid." The Classical Classical Journal 63.5 (1968): 209-214. World 72.3 (1978): 129-148. Print. Print. Segal, Charles. Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides' Maximilian, George, and Antony Grube. "Bacchae" . Princeton: Princeton "Dionysus in the Bacchae." Transactions University Press, 1997. Print. and Proceedings of the American Philological
Alex Weintraub '11 is a special Honors major in Visual Studies and Social Thought with a minor in French Literature. He wrote this paper as the final assignment for Rosaria Munson's course on Classical Mythology. He continues to be fascinated by The Bacchae .
35 Equivocal Speech in Oedipus Tyrannus
πῶς εἶ πας : Equivocal Speech in Oedipus Tyrannus
Bill Beck ’11
ἡ ποικιλῳδὸς Σφὶγξ τὸ πρὸς ποσὶ σκο πεῖν rouse the uncanny. I will continue this thread μεθέντας ἡμᾶς τἀφανῆ προσήγετο . (130-1) in Part III, but through the lens of the The multi-layered-singing Sphinx Corinthian messenger. In Part IV I suggest compelled us that the ambiguities in speech and the ambi - to cast off obscurities and examine what guities lurking in the text encourage us to ask, was at our feet. with Goodhart, whether Oedipus killed Laius at all. 2 Moving beyond Goodhart, I will ask: Oedipus Tyrannus is driven as much by des - if not Oedipus, then who? tiny as by messengers. The main tragic action, as Aristotle notes, 1 occurs before the play I. begins; the tragedy unfolds like an onion, and
1 the messengers peel the layers. Their reports ὦ Διὸς ἁδυε πὲς φάτι
1 are revelatory, but each report also compli - 0 cates our interpretation. For an audience O child of Zeus, sweetspeaking rumor 2 aware of the mythic tradition, messengers’ The play’s preoccupation with second-hand
y reports only frustrate and complicate attempts knowledge and reported speech is evident to interpret the play, for the ‘revelatory’ mes - m from Oedipus’ opening lines. He boasts: senger-speeches in fact tell us (as informed e
h Athenians) nothing we do not already know. ἁγὼ δικαιῶν μὴ παρ᾽ ἀγγέλων , c At most, these speeches can only confirm τέκνα , ἄλλων ἀκούειν αὐτὸς ὧδ᾽ l prior knowledge. But even as the messengers ἐλήλυθα (6-7) A peel, their speeches add new layers. Like the ποικιλῳδὸς Σφὶγξ (multilayed-singing I, deeming it insufficient to be informed Sphinx ), their ‘multilayered’ speech impels by other messengers, children – I myself have come here. their interpreters (i.e., the chorus, Oedipus and us) to cast off the unseen ( τἀφανῆ ) and His presence allows him to engage all his sens - examine what is before their feet. es. “His eyes”, Majorie W. Champlin writes, “inform him of petitioners ἱκτηριοις κλάδοι - This paper will examine the role of reported σιν ἔξεστρεμμένοι [wreathed in suppliant’s speech. We will first demonstrate the preoccu - branches]. His sense of smell notifies him that pation with reported speech and the episte - the city θυμαμάτων γέμει [is filled with mological problems opened thereby. In Part II incense ], and to his ears come sounds of I will examine closely Kreon’s report and the chants and lamentations, παιάνων τε καὶ στε - ensuing dialogue with Oedipus to show 1) ναγμάτων [both paeans and groans ].” 3 He how these theoretical problems complicate calls attention to his presence, but the empha - our attempts to understand and interpret the sis is negative; he deemed it worthy not (as play and 2) how Sophocles (mis)directs our usual?) to hear the message relayed by mes - attention to Kreon’s deceptive clarity so as to
36 Bill Beck sengers. For the rest of the play, his presence on stage reminds us how much is spoken by χρησμὸς γὰρ ἦλθε Λαΐῳ ποτ᾽ , οὐκ ἐρῶ Φοίβου γ᾽ ἄπ᾽ αὐτοῦ , τῶν δ᾽ ὑπηρετῶν characters that are not the original source. ἄπο, And indeed his speech turns ironic, for in the ὡς αὐτὸν ἕξοι μοῖρα πρὸς παιδὸς θανεῖν , very next line he identifies himself not by ὅστις γένοιτ᾽ ἐμοῦ τε κἀκείνου πάρα . καὶ τὸν μέν , ὥσ περ γ᾽ ἡ φάτις , ξένοι ποτὲ what he considers himself to be (e.g., king, λῃσταὶ φονεύουσ᾽ ἐν τρι πλαῖς ἁμαξιτοῖς man), but by the titles others have given him: (711-6) ὁ πᾶσι κλεινὸς Οἰδί πους καλούμενος (he who For an oracle about Laius once came – I is called ‘famous Oedipus’ by everyone )4 (8). will not say The irony continues when we realize that the from Phoebus himself, but from one of priest is in fact acting as a messenger for the his servants – people of Thebes. He too constructs Oedipus’ that it was fated for him to die by his identity on the words of others (38-40, 48). child’s hand, He seeks salvation ( ἀλκήν τιν᾽ ), but expects whoever might be born from me and that the solution will come in the form of a him. report ( pheme ), either from gods or men (42-3). And just as the report (phatis) said, As far as the priest is concerned, pheme – not foreign thieves murdered him one day at a three-way A god – carries salvific (and destructive) force.
intersection. l
Thus the first mention of pheme is also an c articulation of its ambiguity; pheme (and syn - Iocasta conflates the oracle with the rumors. h onymic phatis) can carry the prophetic weight χρησμὸς (an oracle ) governs the whole sen - e of ‘oracle,’ the neutrality of ‘report’ or the tence, but the description of Laius’ murder m triviality of ‘rumor’ (LSJ, A1-2). The text (ξένοι ποτὲ λῃσταὶ φονεύουσ᾽ ἐν τρι πλαῖς y encourages this ambiguity. ἁμαξιτοῖς ) was never part of any oracle. It is 2 ὥσ περ γ᾽ ἡ not even “just like the phatis” ( 0 Throughout the play, characters confuse φάτις ); it is the phatis (!). Even to consider 1 human messages for oracles and vice versa, “trivial and ancient words” ( κωφὰ καὶ παλαί᾽ 1 with the result that oracular declarations ἔπη) or the unnamed rumors that Kreon (θεσ πίσματα ) and gods’ oracles ( θεῶν μαντεύ - reports a phatis is questionable, if not incorrect ματα ) are forsaken in favor of trivial and (290, 114-23). As we saw earlier, phatis carries ancient words ( κωφὰ καὶ παλαί᾽ ἔπη) (290). an inherent ambiguity. By this point in the When Oedipus announces his decree to the play, it has been used four times: once invocat - city, he says that “the god’s Pythian oracle just ed by the Chorus as the child of Zeus, twice in now spoke out clearly to me” ( τὸ Πυθικὸν θεοῦ reference to Teiresias’ mantic knowledge and μαντεῖον ἐξέφηνεν ἀρτίως ἐμοί ), though we once (again by the Chorus) in reference to know that Kreon actually brought him the public rumors ( τὰν ἐπίδαμον φάτιν ) (151, 310, god’s φήμη (242-3). 5 And as Iocasta will 323, 496). In choosing the last definition, remind us, the etiology can and should be Iocasta likens and so reduces the oracle to removed one more degree, since the report mere rumor; in her version they are parallel Kreon bears is not even “from Phoebus him - and inseparable. In Iocasta’s evaluation – and, self but from one of his servants” ( Φοίβου γ᾽ as I would argue, in our interpretative efforts ἄπ᾽ αὐτοῦ , τῶν δ᾽ ὑπηρετῶν ἄπο) (712). In the – rumors, reports, and oracles are given equal same breath she reports the (report of the) weight, and have equal credibility. The differ - oracle:
37 Equivocal Speech in Oedipus Tyrannus
ent types of second-hand reports are not dif - When Oedipus asks whether there was some ferentiated between on the basis of the messenger, Kreon answers, “they are dead” authority of their primary sources; they are (θνῄσκουσι ) (118). Once again, the sense is rather linked by the fact that they are second- clear but this avoids the question. We are jus - hand. tified in asking: who died? Kreon’s language II. seems unequivocal, but his clarity in fact obscures the truth and omits details that are παῖ Μενοικέως , central to Oedipus’ inquiry. τίν᾽ ἡμὶν ἥκεις τοῦ θεοῦ φήμην φέρων ; Ironically, Oedipus offers one of the few Son of Menoeceus, What report from god have you brought? instances of direct and straightforward speech, but even this is not truly devoid of Kreon’s first dialogue with Oedipus yields a equivocation because it is spoken unknowing - similar conflation. Kreon’s report seems ly. Kreon says, exceedingly clear; there seems to be no equiv - ocation in his voice. When Oedipus questions τούτου θανόντος νῦν ἐπιστέλλει σαφῶς τοὺς αὐτοέντας χειρὶ τιμωρεῖν τινας . him, Kreon satisfies the object of inquiry in a (105-6)
1 single word – the first word – then elaborates. 1 Oedipus asks what report he bears; Kreon With him dead, now he commands us 0 (deceptively) answers, “a good one” ( ἐσθλήν ); clearly 2 to personally pay back the murderers,
then he suggests that he would consider any whoever they are.
y report good, since even grievous things might turn out well (87). When Oedipus asks how m Oedipus answers as though τινας 9 had been a
e the city might purify itself and what was the question. His response, οἳ δ᾽ εἰσὶ ποῦ
h manner ( τρό πος ) of the misfortune, Kreon (Oideisipou ), unknowingly solves the riddle; he c answers in a word – murderers ( ἀνδρηλα -
l pronounces his own name. But still, he only τοῦντας ) (100). Again, his answer seems to A forestall equivocation, but Kreon never seems to pronounce his name; he does so answers the second question. When Oedipus inaccurately. asks where in the world ( γῆς ) the murderer Let’s focus on the particulars of Kreon’s could be, Kreon answers, “in this land” ( ἐν report – that is, the report said to have come τῇδ᾽ ἔφασκε γῇ ) (110). Oedipus’ use of γῆς (land, world ) is admittedly an idiom, but from the Pythia. The first words could not be Kreon’s answer (lexically, at least) specifies less ambiguous: “Lord Phoebus commanded nothing. As Dawe notes, this is “not a helpful us clearly” ( ἄνωγεν ἡμᾶς Φοῖβος ἐμφανῶς 10 answer to Oedipus’ question…if the γῆ in ἄναξ ) – verb, object , subject, adverb signify - 11 both cases is the territory of Thebes.” 6 When ing clarity, adjective . As if to avoid ambigu - Oedipus asks where Laius was murdered, ity, he consistently repeats the verb of com - Kreon answers in a word: “an mand when he responds to Oedipus’ ques - tions. But without warning, the subject ambassador/witness” (θεωρός 7) (114). While the sense is clear (i.e., Laius was abroad), changes. Oedipus’ question offers choices 8 and Kreon’s KP. τούτου θανόντος νῦν ἐπιστέλλει answer technically evades Oedipus’ question. σαφῶς
38 Bill Beck
τοὺς αὐτοέντας χειρὶ τιμωρεῖν τινας . and “the one sort of thing” ( τὸ ποῖον ἓν ) he OI. οἳ δ᾽ εἰσὶ ποῦ γῆς ; π οῦ τόδ᾽ εὑρεθήσε - knows. Whoever is the “someone” ( εἷς τις ), he ται ἴχνος παλαιᾶς δυστέκμαρτον αἰτίας ; (in Kreon’s imagination, at least) shares KP. ἐν τῇδ᾽ ἔφασκε γῇ : τὸ δὲ ζητούμενον Apollo’s speech – that is, he ἔφασκε like 110 Apollo, his speech (as reported by Kreon) is ἁλωτόν , ἐκφεύγει δὲ τἀμελούμενον . oracular in tone and style, 13 and the knowl - OI. πότερα δ᾽ ἐν οἴκοις ἢ 'ν ἀγροῖς ὁ Λάϊος ἢ γῆς ἐπ᾽ ἄλλης τῷδε συμ πίπτει φόνῳ ; edge is esoteric. The text seems conscious of KP. θεωρός , ὡς ἔφασκ oν, ἐκδημῶν , π άλιν its own uncanniness. 14 What kind of ἓν (one πρὸς οἶκον οὐκέθ᾽ ἵκεθ᾽ , ὡς ἀπεστάλη .115 t h ing ) is that to know? How could the “some - OI. οὐδ᾽ ἄγγελός τις οὐδὲ συμ πράκτωρ one” ( εἷς τις ) know that and nothing else? On ὁδοῦ κατεῖδ᾽ , ὅτου τις ἐκμαθὼν ἐχρήσατ᾽ ἄν ; the surface it sounds more like a bad alibi. We KP. θνῄσκουσι γάρ , π λὴν εἷς τις , ὃς φόβῳ , will return to the implications when we dis - φυγὼν cuss the messenger and the herdsman – that ὧν εἶδε πλὴν ἓν οὐδὲν εἶχ᾽ εἰδὼς φράσαι . OI. τὸ ποῖον ; ἓν γὰρ πόλλ᾽ ἂν ἐξεύροι is, the purported “someone” ( εἷς τις ). μαθεῖν , 120 ἀρχὴν βραχεῖαν εἰ λάβοιμεν ἐλ πίδος . For now, the important points are these: 1) KP. λῃστὰς ἔφασκε συντυχόντας οὐ μιᾷ ῥ Kreon’s clarity is deceptive. What seems ώμῃ κτανεῖν νιν , ἀλλὰ σὺν πλήθει χερῶν . A unequivocal is in fact only a masked form of l
equivocation. 2) Kreon’s speech leads us (and c Kreon speaks as though the source of his Oedipus and the Chorus) to confuse the h knowledge were singular. He repeats the same words of the divine with the words of messen - e φάσκω verb of speech, , three times in a row – m gers. This happens in two ways: 1) the each with a different subject. The first (110) ambiguous subjects in his three uses of y refers to Apollo; the second (114) has no φάσκω frustrate our (and all interpreters’) expressed subject, and the implied ‘they’ has 2 ability to distinguish between the words of no antecedent (implied or expressed) in the 0
Apollo and those of others – messengers, the 1 entire dialogue. We must ask: who are “they”?
public or the lone survivor; and 2) Kreon’s 1 The natural solution seems to be to supply clarity deceives us into believing we know ‘the city’ or ‘people,’ but even this is compli - Apollo’s words. But when we see that Kreon is cated somewhat, since all Kreon’s other refer - monoglossic – that he does not adapt his ences to the people of the city include himself speech to replicate its source – we realize that (ἡμᾶς ). Even if we amend the text to read we have not in fact heard Apollo’s words, but ἔφασκε , the only alternative offered in the his. What Kreon bears is not even a φήμη apparatus criticus, 12 the subject is uncertain. (report ) as Oedipus believes, but a report of a Who would he/she/it be? Could Apollo have φήμη (86). 15 given an account of Laius’ travel plans? It would not only be uncharacteristic of an ora - III. cle, it would reveal to us an account of ἡὁποικιλῳδὸς Σφὶγξ ἄγγελος Apollo’s words that appears nowhere else in the play. Or is Kreon remembering the words The multi-layered-songed Sphinx of Laius himself? In either case, the subject messenger changes, subtly but with heavy implications. When Kreon uses ἔφασκε again, the topic of The messenger is the second bearer of ‘good’ conversation has shifted to “someone” ( εἷς τις ) news. He is the most enigmatic and poetic
39 Equivocal Speech in Oedipus Tyrannus
speaker in the play. Like Kreon, he is neither ‘Oedipal flaw.’ 18 This is to say – in rejection of a direct source of information nor even a sec - Lear’s model of Oedipal “knowingness” 19 ond-hand source; he is tertiary (940). It is as if and in revision of Goodhart’s notion of his distance from the original source has given Oedipus’ “mantic blindness” and critical vio - him poetic license, or as if the misunderstand - lence – that Oedipus’ propensity to interpret ings that result from his report reflect his dis - on insufficient information is perhaps less a tance from the source. Like Kreon, his lan - reflection on Oedipus than on his enigmatic guage is clear until he begins the φήμη proper. interlocutors. Iocasta assumes that the report Even when his language per se is unambiguous, nullifies the god’s words, and thus that the our (ironic) knowledge of the myth renders gods’ oracles ( θεῶν μαντεύματα ) are dead. In the entire speech ποικίλως (multilayered ). 16 effect, the messenger’s words replace Apollo’s The messenger does not, for example, speak as the prophetic voice of authority. We will evasively or enigmatically when he says, return to this thought. “good news for your home and your husband, O wife” ( ἀγαθὰ δόμοις τε καὶ πόσει τῷ σῷ , It is worth pausing to revise Goodhart’s con - γύναι ), but our knowledge 17 imposes multiple clusion in Λῃστὰς Ἕφασκε : Oedipus and Laius’ layers onto his words. Many Murderers , to which I am indebted. In
1 short, he argues that modern critics commit
1 When the report begins, his language and recommit Oedipus’ “critical blindness” 0 becomes abstruse. When Iocasta asks whether and tend to read the myth onto the play, 2 Polybus is still in power, he responds, “not thereby ignoring the equivocation and ambi -
20 y now” ( οὐ δῆτ᾽ ) (942). Here he actually guity crucial to the text. Literary critics, he answers the question, and indeed does so in writes, have tended to “consign Sophocles’ m 21 e what we might now call a Kreonic way, fulfill - equivocation” to “critical oblivion.” In his
h ing the object of inquiry in the first word. But own words
c he elaborates, “since death holds him in l tombs” ( ἐπεί νιν θάνατος ἐν τάφοις ἔχει ) (942). Rather than a critique of Oedipus via the A His language becomes cryptic and myth, Sophocles' play is a critique via euphemistic, and borders on incomprehensi - Oedipus of us… bility. As if she has not fully understood, Rather than participate in the play's Iocasta attempts to clarify: “What do you crisis…we might follow instead Sophocles' mean? Polybus has died, then?” ( πῶς εἶ πας ; ἦ investigation of the enabling conditions of τέθνηκε Πόλυβος , ὦ γέρον ;) (943). She tries to any Oedipal reading: of Oedipus manifesting the idolatrous and self-destructive limits of rephrase the messenger’s report in straightfor - such critical blindness, of the Chorus institut - ward language. His response is even more ing that paradigmatic blindness in traditional evasive: “If I don’t speak truth, I deserve to morality, and of the classical critical tradition die” ( εἰ μὴ λέγω τἀληθές , ἀξιῶ θανεῖν ) (944). which for twenty-four hundred years has per - petuated that critical Oedipal institution and A simple ‘yes’ would suffice. Instead he speaks for which in our day such blindness and vio - a conditional sentence that clarifies nothing; lence continues to assume the status of insight maybe he does deserve to die. Despite the itself. 22 noncommittal response, Iocasta understand - ably (mis)interprets his words as an affirma - Goodhart is right to caution critics from tion. In so doing, she commits the so-called “mythopoesis,” 23 but to speak of an “Oedipal reading” 24 and equate it with “critical blind -
40 Bill Beck ness” is to misread the equivocation and to like an oracle; like Apollo to his suppliants, the consign Oedipus (yet again) to unfair critique. messenger forces Oedipus to become an inter - Goodhart is, in a sense, guilty of the critical preter. And Oedipus tries to clarify the mes - blindness he identifies. Just as Oedipus tends senger’s riddles: “Did he die suffering by ill - to overlook (or as I would argue, tries to make ness, as it seems?” ( νόσοις ὁ τλήμων , ὡς ἔοι - sense of) equivocation, Goodhart sees the κεν , ἔφθιτο ) (962). When the dialogue ends, equivocation but looks beyond to Oedipus. we realize that Oedipus has not drawn his He recognizes Oedipus’ misinterpretation but conclusions from the messenger’s words, but does not realize that the world of the play from his own interpretation of the messen - does not allow for any “accurate” interpreta - ger’s riddles. It is perhaps worth asking, with tions. It is a world of deceptive appearances Goodhart, whether Polybus actually died. 25 and uncertain truths, where speech is both unverifiable and misleading. Whether the consequence of false interpreta - tion or not, Oedipus concludes that oracles The messenger resumes his report with are dead (971-2). “Unable to measure new Oedipus. Oedipus has already heard quite things by old, transfixed by the speaker when explicitly from Iocasta that Polybus is dead: he speaks of pity and fear (whether at Delphi “Polybus is no longer: he has perished” or at Thebes), Oedipus invests prophetic lan - A (οὐκέτ᾽ ὄντα Πόλυβον , ἀλλ᾽ ὀλωλότα ) (956). 26 l guage with the power of truth.” As we saw c
He wishes, along with Iocasta, to hear the from our discussion of Kreon, accounts of h message from the messenger, as if to avoid the Apollo’s words throughout the play seem e misunderstandings perpetuated by reported (ironically) straightforward. These are the m speech (but remember: the messenger is him - words that Oedipus rejects. Instead, he (and y self only a tertiary source). He asks the mes - we with him) imbues the mantic-imitators senger to be his σημάντωρ (i.e., one who gives with the power of truth. In other words, 2 0 signs ); but he should be careful what he wish - Oedipus assigns prophetic authority based on es for (957). The messenger, despite his prom - 1 language rather than (vocational) position. 1 ise to announce clearly ( ἀπαγγεῖλαι σαφῶς ), speaks in symbols (958). Indeed, his promise And in a sense, the messengers are the for clarity results in the opposite. To confirm prophets of the play. 27 Their words may be the death of Polybus, he says, “Know it well: ambiguous, but the burden is ours to interpret that man has walked the fatal path” ( εὖ ἴσθ᾽ them. They possess wisdom from the gods ἐκεῖνον θανάσιμον βεβηκότα ) (959). Like (e.g., Kreon’s φήμη or Teiresias’ mantic sight), Iocasta before him, Oedipus tries to clarify; he and they offer our only insight into the words even offers choices for the evasive messenger: of Apollo. They also offer the only knowledge “Did he deal with deceit or illness?” ( πότερα from outside the tragic action. In the case of δόλοισιν ἢ νόσου ξυναλλαγῇ ) (960). The mes - the messenger and the herdsman, the knowl - senger misses his cue, avoids the particulars of edge they happen to have is uncanny. The the question, and instead responds with a messenger that announces the death of euphemism: “a small imbalance puts to bed Polybus also happens to be the man that ancient bodies” ( σμικρὰ παλαιὰ σώματ᾽ brought baby Oedipus to Polybus. The shep - εὐνάζει ῥο πή) (961). He has started to sound herd that witnessed the death of Laius also
41 Equivocal Speech in Oedipus Tyrannus
happens to be the man that found Oedipus in messenger has concealed knowledge of the meadows of Cithaeron. It is difficult for Oedipus’ birth for Oedipus’ whole life; and an audience not to regard their messages as the herdsman has hidden his knowledge both oracles from Sophocles, and to accept their of Oedipus’ birth and of Laius’ murder. I will words as truth. For both Oedipus and the argue that all this hidden knowledge, at least audience, then, the messengers have a (decep - in the case of the messengers (i.e., the messen - tively) prophetic authority. ger and the herdsman), may indeed carry murderous implications. IV.
Silent Prophets, Duplicitous Messengers, It is important to note that Oedipus is never Potential Murderers proved as the murderer of Laius. Indeed, The evasiveness of the messengers’ words Goodhart has convincingly argued that 29 does not escape Oedipus. Though he seems “Oedipus may not have killed Laius,” and unaware of Kreon’s attempts to avoid his to think otherwise would be to read the myth questions, we learn when Oedipus rages at onto the play. If not Oedipus, then who? Teiresias that he has been suspicious of
1 Kreon’s intentions. And perhaps there is rea - SUSPECT #1: The Messenger 1 son for his suspicions. Not only has he been 0 evasive; he reveals himself at the play’s end to We have already pointed out the 2 equivocation in the voice of the messenger.
be eager to depose Oedipus and, as we When he speaks with Oedipus later in the y “know” (from the mythic tradition), he will play, he is still evasive, but in a different way.
m take power for himself. It is particularly diffi - His speech is no longer poetic, but is evasive e cult not to read Kreon in this light, especially and now self-contradictory. When Oedipus h considering that Sophocles’ Antigone was pro -
c duced before Oedipus Tyrannus .28 That asks, “but why did he call me his son?” ( ἀλλ᾽ l Oedipus accuses Kreon of sedition directs our ἀντὶ τοῦ δὴ παῖδά μ᾽ ὠνομάζετο ), the messen - A attention to Kreon’s credibility. We begin to ger answers, “A gift, once – know it – taken wonder how well he represented Apollo’s from my hands” ( δῶρόν ποτ᾽ , ἴσθι , τῶν ἐμῶν words, and what’s more, we wonder what he χειρῶν λαβών ) (1021-2). As Dawe notes, “the is hiding and why. In a play that is essentially messenger does not answer Oedipus’ question 30 a murder mystery (e.g., Columbo, because we precisely in the terms in which it is put.” foreknow whodunit), even minor suspicions Indeed, his response borders on falsehood. carry heavy (even murderous!) implications. Can Oedipus, the discarded child, really be considered a gift? And we must ask: a gift Every main character has something to hide. from whom? Then Oedipus asks an either/or Oedipus has been harboring the secret of his question: “When he you gave me to him, had murders for twenty years; Kreon has (perhaps) you bought me or chanced upon me?” ( σὺ δ᾽ been concealing his plans to usurp the throne; ἐμ πολήσας ἢ τυχών μ᾽ αὐτῷ δίδως ;) (1025). Teiresias has held silence about Oedipus’ fate; The messenger chooses neither option. Iocasta knows – or during the course of the Instead he answers, “I found you in the woody play realizes – that Oedipus is her son; the glens of Cithaeron” ( εὑρὼν να παίαις ἐν
42 Bill Beck
Κιθαιρῶνος πτυχαῖς ) (1026). He seems to were you wayfaring ( hodoproeis ) along these choose the latter – that he “chanced” upon places?” ( ὡδοι πόρεις δὲ πρὸς τί τούσδε τοὺς Oedipus. This, at least, is how Oedipus inter - τό πους ;) (1027). There are only two characters prets his response. But either he (and we with identified as hodoporoi (“wayfarers”) in the play: him) are proven wrong or, as I suggest, the Oedipus and the messenger (801). The only messenger is proven a dissembler. When other appearance of the word occurs when Oedipus pleads for more explicit information, the chorus reveals the rumors concerning the messenger says, “I don’t know: the slave Laius’ murder – “it was said that he died at knows better than me” ( οὐκ οἶδ᾽ : ὁ δοὺς δὲ the hands of some wayfarers” ( θανεῖν ἐλέχθη ταῦτ᾽ ἐμοῦ λῷον φρονεῖ ) (1038). Surprised, πρός τινων ὁδοι πόρων ) (292). If we don’t Oedipus tries to resolve the apparent contra - impose the mythic tradition onto the play, we diction: “So then you took me from someone have reason to suspect the messenger’s inten - else, and didn’t yourself find me?” ( ἦ γὰρ παρ᾽ tions. His interaction with the herdsman adds ἄλλου μ᾽ ἔλαβες οὐδ᾽ αὐτὸς τυχών ;) (1039). to our suspicions of him, and adds yet anoth - We can read this in two ways: 1) the messen - er suspect. ger defines εὑρὼν as “having been given” (which would require a seriously idiosyncratic SUSPECT #2: Herdsman understanding of Greek) or, as I suggest, 2) A like a good detective, Oedipus has revealed When the herdsman walks on stage, we meet l c
the contradiction latent in the messenger’s the “someone” ( εἷς τις ) from Kreon’s report, h
words. Oedipus asks who is “the slave,” and if the sole surviving witness to Laius’ murder. e he even knows how to speak clearly; in Already there is a contradiction, for Oedipus m
response the messenger becomes even more says without the slightest equivocation that he y
vague. He responds, “he was called one of killed “everyone all together” ( τοὺς ξύμ πα- those associated with Laius, I suppose” ( τῶν ντας ). 31 Either they speak of different inci - 2 Λαΐου δή που τις ὠνομάζετο ) (1041-2). This dents, or someone is mistaken (or lying). 0 could hardly be more noncommittal. He is 1
Famously, Oedipus neglects this thread of 1 not even “someone of those of Laius;” he is inquiry. 32 Instead, Oedipus asks about his “called someone of those of Laius.” The δή που association with the messenger. He answers adds even more uncertainty. His uncertainty is like a guilty suspect in a detective movie: particularly suspect in the next scene, when he “What did he do? What sort of man are you claims to have herded sheep with that same talking about?” ( τί χρῆμα δρῶντα ; π οῖον man “for three whole six-month-long peri - ἄνδρα καὶ λέγεις ;) (1129). Or, better yet, he ods” (1137-8). We should expect, then, that he answers like someone confronted with his would be able to give a bit more information accomplice in a crime long past. He denies about the slave in question. prior knowledge of the messenger even after Oedipus points him out (1131). Then the It is difficult to know what to make of these messenger eagerly tries to remind him. It is inconsistencies and ambiguities, but I believe difficult, at first, to know who is lying, for even he is implicated (though in no concrete way) when the herdsman concedes recognition of as a potential murderer. And I believe the messenger, he adds, “though it’s been a Oedipus’ language (unknowingly, perhaps) long time” (1141). Is he hiding something or is accuses him. When Oedipus asks why the the messenger deluding an old man? Soon messenger was in Cithaeron, he says, “Why after, he admits his lie. Even after his confes -
43 Equivocal Speech in Oedipus Tyrannus
sion, his speech is guarded and evasive (e.g., alibi given by a guilt-ridden regicide. In the τῶν Λαΐου τοίνυν τις ἦν γεννημάτων ). Just as analysis of these two suspects, I have not tried Teiresias’ silence evoked Oedipus’ suspicions, to convict the “real” killers of Laius; I have the herdsman’s evokes ours. only tried to show that the text implicates multiple (if not most) characters as suspects. Though it is not pursued by Oedipus, we should try to piece together the herdsman’s So can we really blame Oedipus? Is he not (reported) involvement in the murder of stuck in a Sophoclean Twilight Zone 33 of which Laius. He accompanied Laius on the trip. He we are only spectators? Much has been made saw the murder, but knows nothing except of his “Oedipal flaw” – his irascibility, his that many robbers killed Laius. When he propensity to interpret on insufficient infor - returns to Thebes, he begs Iocasta to release mation and his inclination to treat others as him, so that he may be far from the city. We riddles to be solved. But Oedipus lives in a assume that the herdsman asked to leave world that perpetuates misunderstandings. because he knew the oracle concerning His parents are not his parents, he happens to Oedipus. Indeed, his conversation with marry his mother, and he happens to meet his Oedipus seems to indicate this knowledge. If father on the road while trying to escape his he asked to leave Thebes because he feared 1 (other) father. He cannot even trust his senses;
1 Oedipus’ fate, and because he saw Oedipus he knows he killed everyone ( τοὺς ξύμ παντας ),
0 kill Laius, then why did he say Laius was killed but there was “some one” ( εἷς τις ) survivor. 2 by robbers? As I suggested earlier, the ἓν (one Clear speech is proven a fiction, and demands thing ) he claims to know sounds like a bad for candor produce the opposite. y
m Notes e 1. cf. Poetics, 53b29-32 the interrogative pronoun. h 2. Goodhart, 1978. 56. 10. Caveat: ἡμᾶς is also the accusative subject of c 3. Champlin, 1969. 337-45. 337. the infinitive. l 4. While this could be said of any name, since the 11. In other words, an anomaly in Sophoclean A idiom for naming ( καλούμενος ) is passive, Greek – a sentence with straightforward syn - Oedipus identifies himself with adjectives that tax. must necessarily be determined by others and 12. The apparatus criticus lists variant readings depend entirely upon the speech of others. He and areas of textual uncertainty in the manu - even identifies the reporters (i.e., πᾶσι ) that script tradition. have made him ‘famous Oedipus’. 13. I am referring to the metonymic and elusive 5. R. D. Dawe, 1982. 119. ad. 243. μιᾷ ῥώμῃ and πλήθει χερῶν . 6. Dawe, ad. 110. 14. I mean “uncanny” in precisely the Freudian 7. Dawe, ad. 114: “used of those on a mission to sense. Like a magician, Sophocles directs our consult the Delphic oracle.” attention to Kreon’s clarity (superficial and 8. Explicitly so; it is introduced by πότερα deceptive though it is) while simultaneously (“ which of the two ”) pulling equivocation and inconsistencies out of 9. τινας is both an interrogative pronoun his hat. The princess in Herodotus’ (“who/what?”) and an indefinite adjective Rhampsinitus story experiences an uncanny (“some/certain/any”). In this context τινας is sensation because she looks at the thief but an indefinite adjective in agreement with “the ends up holding a severed hand; we experience murderers,” and I have translated it as “who - the uncanny because the dialogue seems to ever.” But Oedipus responds as though it were reveal and clarify, but when Kreon walks off
44 Bill Beck
stage, we are left with less understanding and who alone escaped the Phocal massacre...will more to scratch our heads about, as if we mis - confirm...that the murderers of Laius were heard or misunderstood a turn of phrase. many and not one. If the Herdsman indicates 15. Or as Iocasta might suggest, a report of a a single murderer, then culpability for the report of a φήμη . We are reminded of the crime would see to incline uniquely towards magnetic rings in Plato’s Ion. Oedipus. But if the Herdsman speaks of many 16. cf. Philoctetes , 123. murderers, then it would seem just as 17. i.e., that his “good news” is actually tragic news clear...that Oedipus is innocent of the Phocal and that the husband/wife pair he identifies is guilt.” also mother/son 32. cf. Freud, The Uncanny . “He can keep us in the 18. Goodhart, Sandor. 1978. dark for a long time about the precise nature of 19. Lear, Jonathan. 1998. 33-55. the presuppositions on which the world he 20. Goodhart, 1978. 57. writes about is based, or he can cunningly and 21. ibid., 65. ingeniously avoid any definite information on 22. ibid., 66-7. the point to the last.” Sophocles does precise - 23. ibid., 65. ly that. 24. ibid., 66. 33. cf. in particular Episode 2a, “Wordplay” from 25. ibid. The New Twilight Zone television series. In the 26. ibid. 67. episode, the main character finds himself in a 27. For a similar idea, see Robert L. Kline, world of rapidly changing language. When he A “Prophecy and Perception in the Oedipus wakes up in the morning, “dog” signifies l c Rex” in Transactions of the American Philological “dog;” but by lunchtime, “dogs” have become h Association (1974-), Vol. 105 (1975), pp. 208. “encyclopedias,” “tricks” become “trumpets,” e 28. The important point here is that in Antigone , and “lunch” becomes “dinosaur.” When he m Kreon is particularly cruel and ruthless. He is gets home for dinner, the signifier of “dog” has often read as an archetypal despot. once again evolved to “Wednesday.” All the y 29. Goodhart, 56. words he hears are familiar (the language is 2 30. Dawe, 198 ad. 1021. consistently and identifiably English) but the 0 31. This arithmetical disparity would, of course, meaning eludes him. At the end of the episode 1 be enough to exonerate Oedipus (in an he sits down with a book of ABCs to relearn 1 American court of law). As Goodhart notes, his language. “His one slight hope, he asserts, is that the man Works Cited Champlin, Marjorie W. “‘Oedipus Kline, Robert L., “Prophecy and Perception Tyrannus’ and the Problem of in the Oedipus Rex” in Transactions of Knowledge.” The Classical Journal 64.8 the American Philological Association (1969): 337-45. 337. (1974-), Vol. 105 (1975), pp. 208. Dawe, R.D. Oedipus Rex . Cambridge: Lear, Jonathan. “Open Minded: Working Cambridge UP, 1982. Print. 119. ad. 243. Out the Logic of the Soul,” Knowingness Goodhart, Sandor. " Λῃστὰς Ἕφασκε : and Abandonment: An Oedipus for Our Oedipus and Laius’ Many Murderers." Time . Harvard University Press. 33-55. Diacritics 8.1 (1978): 55-71. Print.
Bill Beck '11 is an honors major in Greek and Latin. He wrote this paper for his Greek Drama seminar with Bruce King. He was initially intrigued by the idea that every Greek tragedy, insofar as it is a sort of fan fiction of the mythological tradition, is necessarily inscribed with expectations and assumptions. The audience thinks it knows the storyline before it gets to the theater and leaves with the same belief, even when its assumptions are (as often) not borne out in the text. Bill would have been a detective but then feared he would lead investiga - tions only to convict himself. Instead he's going to grad school to read more Greek. 45 Allen Iverson: The Rise and Fall Allen Iverson: The Rise and Fall James Mao ’12
Introduction Simply by the choice of his profession, Iverson has always been at the bottom of a For basketball fans, critics, and players alike, particular hierarchical order. In that regard, the name Allen Iverson has long held conno - he is indistinguishable from the thousands of tations of resiliency and tenacity. In the prime professional athletes in the world. Consider of Iverson’s National Basketball Association the portrayal of Iverson in photographs: in (NBA) career, it was common to hear him both the January 30, 1995 SN story and the described as a “warrior.” 1 But the peak of his April 23, 2001 SI story, he is shown listening playing days cannot be considered without attentively to the authoritative figure of his contrasting this admiring depiction with the coach. The SI photograph is even paired with unflattering portrayal afforded the superstar a woefully incongruous caption, “To win, in less fortunate times. The career narrative of Iverson and [Coach Larry] Brown have to lis -
1 Allen Iverson is not simply that of a basketball ten to each other” (emphasis added), as 1 player, but that of an intersection of race, though this were an egalitarian relationship. It 0 class, and counterculture. is not an egalitarian relationship, precisely 2 because as an athlete, Iverson is a “manual worker, at the bottom of a chain of command y To explore the nuances in his career arc, three articles in particular have been dissected in insofar as [he] takes orders from coaches.” 2 m Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu frames the same
e depth. The first is a Sporting News (SN) fea - relationship in a slightly different fashion. h ture from his Georgetown University days
c prior to his 1996 entrance into the NBA; the While the dominant societal order privileges l second is a Sports Illustrated (SI) cover story “organized, signposted, cultivated nature,” A from 2001, arguably the apex of his profes - sports represents the “taste for natural, wild sional career; and the third is a SLAM maga - nature.” 3 The apparent task of Iverson’s zine online blog post from 2009, after his sec - coaches, then, was to instill the “no-non - ond retirement from professional basketball. sense” 4 mentality that the dominant order These stories are fairly representative of the required. consensus media representation of Allen Iverson during their respective time periods. As noted, this is a hierarchal position occu - On the surface, they appear schizophrenic in pied by virtually any athlete. The nature of their commentary on the same individual, but Iverson’s choice to be a professional basketball by adjusting for Iverson’s racial, class, and cul - player, however, is absolutely informed by his tural contexts, these media portrayals become cultural upbringing. Through examination of intelligible as the consistent inability of a stig - Iverson’s cultural background, the underlying matized and disadvantaged individual to find tensions of race, class, and counterculture that greater societal success. persist in his media portrayal can be fully exposed.
46 James Mao
Fifteen Years in Jail For a 17- The convergence of the black race and jail is Year-Old Boy a well-chronicled phenomenon. Prisons are, as Loic Wacquant writes, the “unbridgeable 8 The most immediately obvious landmark social and symbolic gulf” between whites moment in Iverson’s upbringing, his four- and blacks. It is telling that the white-domi - month jail stint in 1993, has unquestionably nated justice system was so inclined to try shaped the media’s perception of him. Iverson as an adult, for that way jail time Indeed, all three of the articles analyzed here would be easier to mete out. Prison promotes make note of the racial injustice that led to the “social isolation” 9 of black people who jail time. The entire episode was retroactively were born without the cultural capital that chronicled in a 2010 documentary, No Bourdieu deems necessary for societal success, Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson , which unfor - and who will continue to be institutionally tunately could not be accessed at time of writ - barred from acquiring such capital. For ing. Nevertheless, there are a few facts about Wacquant, prison is the next logical extension the trial that are key to understanding the per - of the ghetto, where poverty is contained. petual disadvantage Iverson would be saddled Crime and disorder, too, are contained in the ghetto. Sociologist Douglas Massey extends with later in his career. A the analysis: as a result of Republican admin - l
To begin with, the case itself must be elucidat - istrations’ efforts to combat crime and drugs c ed: On Valentine’s Day in 1993, Iverson and in the 1970s and 1980s, black people who h a group of friends—all black—entered a were already more likely to be involved in e bowling alley in his hometown of Hampton, such disorderly conduct due to their social iso - m VA. A group of white men from the neighbor - lation found themselves facing “imprisonment y ing town exchanged words with Iverson’s [that] was more likely to involve a long sen - 2 tence.” 10 The oppressed minority bore the group, allegedly using racial slurs. One of 0
Iverson’s friends punched one of the white weight of “stigma, constraint, terror, confine - 1 men, and a fight broke out. Soon, chairs were ment, and institutional encasement,” 11 and 1 being thrown and more people had joined in even a hometown hero like Allen Iverson and though there were numerous injuries to found himself unable to escape the weight of fighters and bystanders alike, nobody was hos - history. Against this backdrop, fifteen years in pitalized. “Within days, four of the black prison for a black male who threw chairs youth, all of them athletes, including Iverson, against white provokers seems almost expect - the most prominent, were picked up and ed. charged in the brawl. On the other hand, not a single white [person] was charged with any - That Iverson was the hometown hero may thing.” 5 Thus, one key point is that this was a even have been detrimental to his freedom, very racially charged case—indeed, No which is the third key point to consider in his Crossover claims it as the case that tore trial. As SN describes, “Over that weekend [of Hampton in two. 6 A second key point is that the hearing], Iverson attended a Nike all-star the state insisted on trying Iverson, who was basketball game in Indianapolis, a fact that 17 at the time, as an adult. He received a 15- purportedly irked [presiding judge] Overton year jail sentence 7. though it in no way violated any legal restric - tions on Iverson’s movements.” 12 Attending
47 Allen Iverson: The Rise and Fall
all-star games is part of any prominent ama - nomic, social, and cultural capital, and notes teur basketball player’s itinerary. But because that within cultural capital there is dominant Iverson was a black athlete labeled as “trou - culture and there is dominated culture. 16 Of bled,” 13 his celebrity status helped stigmatize dominant culture, Bourdieu writes, him further. As the 2009 article in SLAM “[Legitimate culture] tends in fact to impose notes, Iverson has the Tupac, “Me Against the the norms of its own perception and tacitly World” appeal. He embodied, and maybe still defines as the only legitimate mode of percep - does embody, the hip-hop culture. It would be tion the one which brings into play a certain naive to suggest that this did not impact Judge disposition and a certain competence.” 17 Overton’s reaction. And it would be infinitely Dominant culture is that of the straight-laced, more naive to suggest that the fact that Allen middle-class white man, not the illegitimate Iverson represents hip-hop culture did not— culture of the “25-year-old rapper.” 18 and does not—shape the way he is regarded Unsurprisingly, even in the 2001 SI cover in society. The twin stigmas of incarceration story, when Iverson was at the peak of his and hip-hop culture are the guiding principles popularity (he would lead his team to the by which analysis of his media portrayal must NBA Finals later that year), his utterly domi - be conducted. nated culture is underlined. As the article
1 recounts, in 1999, “Larry [Brown, Iverson’s 1 The Face of the Hip-Hop coach] required coats and ties for the first 0 Revolution round trip to Orlando. Allen removed his 2
untied boots, his floor-sweeping jeans, his
y How profoundly Iverson has shaped, and untucked T-shirt and double-sized leather 19
m been presented as the poster child for, the hip- jacket.” The jarring contrast between
e hop culture cannot be understated. In orderliness and distasteful informality high -
h American society, however, hip-hop culture is lights the disparity between public expecta - c associated with black culture. And, as dis - tion and Iverson’s own preferred presentation. l cussed, black people are associated with the And it makes clear that the suit and tie are A vicious cycle of poverty and crime. The “what [are] worthy of being seen.” 20 Their SLAM article, entitled “What’s Next for Allen absence, compounded with the fact that “he Iverson?”, reminisces on the influence Iverson carries a felony conviction and jail time with wielded: “Go to Anyhood, USA, back then, him to every stop along the way, to every and you could see the impact that he had on arena, to every game” 21 means Iverson faces the people. He was one of us. He came from an uphill battle in most every social context. where we came from.” In other words, the ghetto: the urban underclass that “[concen - That uphill battle is the battle of the stigma - trates] poverty in inner-city neighborhoods.” tized. As Erving Goffman explains in his sem - 14 Iverson himself hails from a low-income inal book, Stigma: Notes on the Management of neighborhood in Hampton, where “you see Spoiled Identity , “We construct a stigma-theory, violence, shooting, drugs, that kind of stuff all an ideology to explain [the stigmatized’s] infe - the time.” 15 His is a culture that is, to use a riority and account for the danger he repre - Bourdieuian term, dominated. sents.” 22 Larry Brown, in the SI story, thought that “one picture [in which Iverson Bourdieu makes distinctions between eco - looked clean-cut and wore a proper suit]
48 James Mao could begin to relax the white people made SLAM magazine exemplifies the sentiment. A tense by Allen’s tattoos and cornrows and ’do more urban-oriented, player-friendly maga - rag” 23 —in other words, he thought that the zine, SLAM’s audience and staff alike were danger Iverson posed to dominant culture especially drawn to the rebellious image of could be tempered. But what Brown failed to Iverson; Iverson has appeared on the cover of grasp was the depth of the stigmatized’s the magazine twelve times in his thirteen-year plight. Even if there were to be nascent career. Bryan Crawford, the author of the acceptance of Iverson’s counterculture—and 2009 blog post “What’s Next for Allen the SI article indicates that by 2001, there Iverson,” writes, “Du-rag, check. Baggy was—such acceptance could only be clothes, check. Mitchell & Ness jerseys, check. ephemeral. “The stigmatized…should not It was hero worship at its finest.” Certainly, for test the limits of the acceptance shown a time the cultural force that was Allen them” 24 ; indeed, by the waning years of Iverson managed to win over skeptics (who Iverson’s career, the feel-good, undersized were all presumably, as Goffman would say, warrior story had worn thin. 25 No matter “normal” as opposed to Iverson’s “stigma - how many accolades Iverson has won, or even tized”). “In living rooms and NBA arenas everywhere,” the 2001 SI article says, “people
how many charity foundations he has started, A who once recoiled from Allen now watched
the simple fact is that the circumstances of his l him in a conflicted state of grudging wonder upbringing and the stigma of a once-incarcer - c 28 ated black man have permanently tarnished at his will and his work ethic.” What used h him. to be “not an ideal citizen” 29 had become will e and work ethic. Again, it must be emphasized m
Bourdieu expands on such determinism in his that such a transformation was wholly fleet - y discourse on the nature of cultural capital. ing. The cult of Iverson, so to speak, was driv - 2 According to Bourdieu, “structural en by those who shared or identified with his 0 26 culture. relations” dictate that success in accumulat - 1 ing cultural capital is largely decided at birth. 1 But the life of the disadvantaged is not one of Keepin’ It Real: the constant inferiority. Rather, the stigmatized Ghetto Ethos and the disadvantaged do have the opportuni - ty to achieve momentary societal success. Part All the supporters and acceptance in the of this success is fueled by what Goffman calls world would still make dominant cultural cap - the “cult of the stigmatized,” where those ital unattainable for Iverson. More condemn - who accept and understand the stigmatized ing for him, it has become readily apparent counter the “stigma-phobic response of the that even the acquisition of immense eco - normal being.” 27 In Iverson’s case, his cult of nomic capital—straight from the pockets of personality was not simply built upon a base the dominant, “normal” franchisers, no less— of converted believers in the white-dominated has failed to translate to social and cultural mass media. The specific nature of his cultur - capital. In fact, the latest news on Allen al background allowed his particular cult of Iverson is that he is facing divorce proceedings the stigmatized to be a cult quite impressive in and has developed gambling and alcohol magnitude. problems. 30 Iverson seems to have drawn a full circle in the arc of an impoverished black
49 Allen Iverson: The Rise and Fall
man: disorderly and threatening. His counter - society is doomed and has always been culture has led to a backlash, including, doomed to failure. But that may have been a amongst other changes following the hip-hop false approach to the discussion. Given the era in sports, the institution of a dress code in strong indications that Iverson has never even the NBA. 31 But even this analysis of the rela - aimed for such an ascension, the conclusion tionship between the cultural and economic must be that his commitment to his dominat - capital that Iverson cannot reconcile is too ed culture has led to self-inflicted harm, in simplistic. To conjoin these factors, it is neces - terms of negative media representation and sary to look closer at what implications the public perception. Keepin’ It Real is his com - nature of his upbringing has had on his mitment to his counterculture. “It meant stay - choice of profession. ing inside the circle, never looking beyond it to find himself.” 36 At the apex of his media “I make all that money,” Iverson says in the SI popularity, in 2001, Iverson and Keepin’ It article, “and it ain’t enough. I gotta make Real were celebrated and lionized. That more to help all the people around me.” 32 ended when he had surpassed “the limits of Such is the paradox facing Iverson—the rich - the acceptance shown [his stigmatized sta - er he gets, the more money he has to make. As tus].” 37
1 Iverson describes, the ghetto mentality is that
1 if one makes it beyond its borders, it is his or What this dichotomy of acceptance and 0 her obligation to lift up everyone left behind. stigmatization reflects is the contingent nature 2 Indeed, it is a mentality firmly ingrained in of Iverson’s societal acceptance. Goffman
y Iverson. Even in 1995, Iverson remained fully himself does not expand too much on the committed to speaking about his future poten - mechanisms by which the normal accept the m
e tial in the NBA in terms of his family: “what stigmatized. With Iverson, however, it seems 33 h he will buy for his mother, do for his sisters.” that his stardom was, like any celebrity’s,
c For all the wealth and critical acclaim that manufactured by the mass media who had l Iverson has acquired, it becomes clear that in momentarily jumped onto the bandwagon of A the context of accumulated capital, he the stigmatized. And because the mass media remains connected to his socially inferior had helped create this “intensity of signifi - roots. In short, he cannot achieve “a sort of cance,” 38 such significance needed to be withdrawal from economic necessity.” 34 The moderated in acceptable terms. But Iverson reason for that can be explained by the motto has never sought this kind of moderation. For he pledged upon entering the NBA in 1996: Iverson, life and basketball were “not about Keepin’ It Real. 35 winning the Right Way, but any freakin’ way you could.” 39 His insistence of exceeding the The ethos of Keepin’ It Real means that, limits of acceptance ultimately led to the col - given the severity to which Iverson’s situation - lapse of what momentum had been afforded al context and cultural background remains Iverson’s positive media image. constantly disadvantageous, he has not even attempted to acquire societal success in terms Since it is the dominant culture, or the of dominant cultural capital. Thus far the dis - Goffmanian “normal,” who dictate the cussion has been framed around the concept acceptable limits of behavior, analysis of that Iverson’s quest to ascend the hierarchy of Iverson’s ephemeral acceptance around 2001
50 James Mao and the subsequent fallout is clarified by Iverson, much as chloroform was used to drawing comparisons with an analogous con - silence women in Poovey’s account. Silencing text in which behavioral restrictions are occurs in the mandate of Iverson’s coaches, to imposed upon a group. This context is one in rein in this “bundle of quickness and ener - which the so-called “hysteria” that women gy,” 45 a phrase that emphasizes the “wild display during childbirth needs to be sup - nature” Bourdieu labels sports with. But such pressed, as Mary Poovey describes in “Scenes a silencing was arguably never more apparent of an Indelicate Character: The Medical than in the cover photograph of that very ‘Treatment’ of Victorian Women.” In this same 2001 SI story. The photograph is one of article, Poovey details how using chloroform a half-naked Iverson, tattoos on full display, as an anesthetic that would render uncon - his arms overlapping in front of him in an X, scious women in labor became acceptable in each hand grasping a bouquet of flowers. It is some circles of medicine. The purpose was to not an image of the stigmatized’s success. quell the natural sounds and movements With the arms crossed and the flowers firmly exerted by a woman during childbirth, which grasped, it is as though Iverson has finally was considered “hysteria… the norm of the been contained. It is an image of a tamed female to its logical extreme and a medical individual, finally fit for public celebration. category that effectively defines this norm as A 40 l inherently abnormal.” Plainly speaking, the The Fall of Allen Iverson c male doctors sought to suppress the natural h response in order to examine an artificially As this analysis has shown, that celebration e “silenced body.” 41 The effort to silence the would inevitably end. Now in 2010, that m natural and unconstrained is found in much has clearly played out in reality. But the y Iverson’s case as well, however unlikely the final element of Iverson’s fall, as it were, is 2 connection may seem. that what propelled him to be celebrated (his 0
relentlessness and talent) ultimately became 1
The NBA, the most immediate authoritative cause for criticism. Prior to his most recent 1 institution over Iverson, sought to tone down retirement, Iverson complained that he need - the brash player’s image early on in his career, ed a greater role on his new team in going to such lengths as airbrushing his tat - Memphis. “Should he have [been a starting toos from photos. 42 Even in 2001, the contro - player] in Memphis [and taken on a more versy of Iverson’s lyrics in his rap CD resulted prominent role]? Absolutely,” writes in the CD never being released. 43 Clearly, as Crawford in SLAM. So the talent was there. Iverson rose to stardom, the Goffmanian But what was once taken to be outspokenness “normal” still sought to conduct damage con - was now insolence. Instead of being described trol; the aim was to suppress as much of the as tenacious, Iverson was now described as natural outspokenness and candidness that “crying [and] pouting.” 46 He had, in short, Iverson quickly became known for. That acted in excess of societal standards. Poovey explains how an institution would want to emphasizes that the prevailing norm is that conceal messages that were “virtually all “human emotions are very much under moral about loyalty and strength,” 44 as Iverson’s 21 control.” 47 What chance did a man as stub - tattoos were. The portrayal of Iverson, the bornly candid as Allen Iverson stand? media hoped, was to be one of a silenced
51 Allen Iverson: The Rise and Fall
So the career narrative of Iverson goes. him at all times has proven to be too much to Already saddled with unacknowledged but overcome. There does not seem to be any deep disadvantages, he further deteriorates indication that this will change, either: he is, his position by not actively working within the as mentioned, a burnt-out star fallen on hard constraints of social acceptance. Whether his times, a victim of alcoholism and a failed conscious motivation is to deviate from the marriage, banished from the NBA to play pro - dominant culture cannot be speculated upon. fessionally in Turkey—hardly a hotbed of But the body of work he has presented, on basketball. The intersections of Iverson’s and off the basketball court, reveals a man race, class, and culture were ultimately unsus - who remains irrevocably rooted to his cultur - tainable for social acceptance, even for a man al beginnings. Perhaps it is a little extreme to who was once the face of the Philadelphia say that Allen Iverson’s fate was predeter - 76ers basketball franchise, of the entire city of mined, or that a man such as Allen Iverson Philadelphia. His meteoric crash will serve can never acquire so-called dominant cultural only to fan the flames of the notion that his capital. A more palatable conclusion is that kind of culture, his unshackled and uncom - despite the existence of opportunities for suc - fortably honest presentation of self, is one that cess, however limited, the baggage and deserves to remain dominated.
1 stigmatization that Allen Iverson carries with
1 Notes 0
2 1. Smith, Gary. "Mama's Boys:." Sports the Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy .
Illustrated 23 Apr. 2001. pp. 65. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1987. y 2. Collins, Randall. Interaction Ritual Chains . Print. pp. 58. m Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 2004. Print. 10. Massey, Douglas S. Categorically Unequal: e pp. 266. The American Stratification System . New York: h
c 3. Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: a Social Russell Sage Foundation, 2007. Print. pp. l Critique of the Judgement of Taste . 98. A Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1984. 11. Wacquant. pp. 50. Print. Pg. 220. 12. Falkner. pp. 31. 4. Falkner, David. "‘The Agony and the 13. Falkner. pp. 28. Ecstasy’" The Sporting News 30 Jan. 1995: 26-32. Print. pp. 32. 14. Wilson. pp. 61. 15. Falkner. pp. 31. 5. Falkner. pp. 27-28. 16. Bourdieu. pp. 99. 6. No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson . Kartemquin Films. Web. Accessed on 12 17. Bourdieu. pp. 28. May 2010. 18. Smith. pp. 56. 7. Falkner. pp. 28. 19. Smith. pp. 59. 8. Wacquant, Loic. "From Slavery to Mass 20. Bourdieu. pp. 28. Incarceration: Rethinking the 'race 21. Falkner. pp. 27. Question' in the US." New Left Review 13 (2002). Print. pp. 49. 22. Goffman, Erving. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity . 1st ed. New 9. Wilson, William J. The Truly Disadvantaged:
52 James Mao
York: Simon & Schuster, 1963. Print. pp. 35. Smith. pp. 64. 5. 36. Smith. pp. 64. 23. Smith. pp. 59. 37. Goffman. pp. 121. 24. Goffman. pp. 120-121. 38. Collins. pp. 279. 25. Crawford, Bryan. "What’s Next for Allen 39. Smith. pp. 65. Iverson?" SLAM Online. SLAM Magazine , 19 Nov. 2009. Web. 12 May 2010. 40. Poovey, Mary. "Scenes of an Indelicate Character: The Medical ‘Treatment’ of 26. Bourdieu. pp. 106. Victorian Women." Representations 14 27. Goffman. pp. 31. (1986). pp. 147. 28. Smith. pp. 66. 41. Poovey. pp. 140. 29. Falkner. pp. 31. 42. Taylor, Phil. "Tattoos May Be Unsightly, 30. "Report: Allen Iverson Facing Trouble." but Airbrushing Them out Looks Worse." ESPN: The Worldwide Leader In Sports . 9 Sports Illustrated - SI.com . 27 Jan. 2004. Web. Mar. 2010. Web. 12 May 2010. 12 May 2010.
31. Eligon, John. "N.B.A. Dress Code 43. Smith. pp. 63. A
Decrees: Clothes Make the Image." The 44. Smith. pp. 64. l New York Times . 19 Oct. 2005. Web. 13 c
45. Smith. pp. 65. h May 2010. 46. Crawford. e
32. Smith. pp. 64. m 47. Poovey. pp. 147. 33. Falkner. pp. 32. y
34. Bourdieu. pp. 53. 2 0 1 1 James Mao is a junior Honors major in Political Science with a minor in Economics. He wrote this paper on Allen Iverson's dominated and stigmatized culture for Professor Robin Wagner-Pacifici's Social Inequality course. The course remains one of the most enlightening he has taken at Swarthmore. He has been an Allen Iverson fan since the famous Jordan crossover in 1997, and was sadly unsurprised to see the media celebrate Brigham Young University's star player Jimmer Fredette this year – Fredette controls the basketball as much as Iverson did, but only one of them has been called a ball-hog and a team cancer. James continues to despair over the 76ers and root against the Lakers.
53 The Quest for Absolution in Crime and Punishment The Quest for Absolution in Crime and Punishment Madeline Charne ’14
Author’s note: The crime in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment occurs very early in the novel, leaving the rest of the novel to entertain theories of punishment. The story centers on Raskolnikov, an isolated young student. In his isolation, he begins to process, somewhat obsessively, the concept of the uberman (superman); this is the idea that some men, because of their superior intellects and the great contributions they can make to the world, are exempt from certain moral laws. As Raskolnikov mulls over this idea, he begins to place himself in this cate - gory of ‘the extraordinary man’.
To prove this status to himself, he decides to murder Alyona Ivanova, a pawnbroker. He justifies his act with the belief that the woman is human vermin and that killing her would be a service to mankind. In a state of semi-insanity Raskolnikov commits the murder with an axe. He also, 1 however, kills the woman’s sister, a simple and kind woman named Lizaveta. Raskolnikov 1 steals some things from the apartment; including Lizaveta’s cross necklace, and makes his 0 escape. 2
y Throughout the remainder of the novel, Raskolnikov descends into a paranoid state of fear and
m self-justification, which demonstrates clearly that he does not possess the clean conscience and
e moral superiority of his uberman. In the process of his self-inflicted punishment he confesses his
h crime to Sonya, a prostitute who functions as a symbol of grace and sacrifice, who urges him to c ‘take up his cross’ and face the consequences of his crime. This he eventually does, serving his l time in Siberia with Sonya at his side. A
Forgive men when they sin against you. -Matthew 6:15
Crime and Punishment , by Dostoevsky, is a book never feels guilt for the “justified” murder of about murder. Specifically, it is a book about a the “scum” Alyona, he is tortured by his guilt murder. Although two murders do take from murdering an innocent woman. He only place—the intentional killing of Alyona and mentions Lizaveta four times after he kills her, the accidental slaughter of her sister, but she appears in nearly all of the book; once Lizaveta—it is the unintentional murder of Lizaveta is dead, Raskolnikov (and, through Lizaveta that serves as the focal point of the Raskolnikov’s thoughts, the narrator) uncon - remainder of the novel. While Raskolnikov sciously projects her onto Sonya. To
54 Madeline Charne
Raskolnikov, Sonya is merely the embodiment describe Sonya. Early on in the novel, of Lizaveta. This transitive fantasy allows him Raskolnikov hears Lizaveta described as “like to seek forgiveness, and eventually, to find a little child” (64). He projects that same absolution through Sonya for his murder. childlike quality onto Sonya, describing her as “looking almost like a little girl,” being “timid From the first moment that Sonya appears to as a little child” (236), seeming “almost quite Raskolnikov he projects his image of Lizaveta a child” (238), and “smiling like a child” (409). onto her. His first impression of Sonya is as No other character in the book describes she steps into the apartment in which her Sonya as childlike, and in fact the other men father is dying: “Timidly and inaudibly, a girl in Siberia see her as their “tender, fond little came in […] Sonya stood in the entryway, just mother” (546). Raskolnikov merely sees these at the threshold but not crossing it, with a lost youthful qualities in Sonya because he knows look, unconscious, as it seemed, or everything that they existed in Lizaveta. Similarly, just as […] From under [her] hat, cocked at a boyish Lizaveta is described as being “terribly angle, peered a thin, pale, and frightened little awkard[ly] built,” but having “such a kind face, mouth open and eyes fixed in terror” face and eyes” (64), Sonya too is described not (183). Although this description at first seems as beautiful, but as having entrancing eyes: objective, it is in fact an example of “She could not even have been called pretty, A Raskolnikov manufacturing parallels between but her blue eyes were so clear, and when they l c
Sonya and Lizaveta. The first—and last— were animated, the expression of her face h
time Raskolnikov sees Lizaveta in the novel, became so kind and simple-hearted” (238). e he describes her in much the same way: Both women are also described using the m
“Lizaveta was standing in the middle of the words “honest” (Liza on 62, Sonya on 297), y
room, with a big bundle in her hands, frozen, “meek” (Liza on 64, Sonya on 421, both staring at her murdered sister, white as a together on 275), and “enslaved”—Lizaveta 2 sheet, and as if unable to utter a cry” (79). by her sister (64), and Sonya by her profession 0 Both Sonya and Lizaveta seem to have acted (323). These words are all used by either 1 1 in much the same way when entering the Raskolnikov himself, or by the narrator por - room: they stand still, gazing into the room in traying Raskolnikov’s thoughts, and it is this silent horror. Whereas Raskolnikov truly saw parallel word choice that illuminates Lizaveta standing still, dazed, and silent, he Raskolnikov’s use of Sonya as an embodiment projects those qualities onto Sonya, describing of his victim. her as seemingly unaware of the world around her, when a few moments into the The corresponding descriptions of Sonya and scene it becomes clear that she is in fact very Lizaveta are not natural, but are contrived by involved in and conscious of the action going Raskolnikov to serve his own purpose. In real - on in her father’s apartment. In this parallel ity, Sonya and Liza are very different charac - introduction of Sonya, Raskolnikov establish - ters. Looked at objectively, they share very few es the connection that he has created between characteristics: Liza is “at least six feet tall,” the two women. while Sonya is “quite small and thin” (238); Liza is 35, while Sonya is only 18; Liza is a Raskolnikov’s continued attempts to manu - tradeswoman, while Sonya is a prostitute. facture connections between the two women These contrasting characteristics may seem are visible in the language that he uses to trivial—after all, these are superficial points of
55 The Quest for Absolution in Crime and Punishment
description—but they are the objective char - begins by using Lizaveta’s name, transitions acteristics that Dostoevsky includes about through using both Lizaveta and Sonya, and Sonya to differentiate her from Lizaveta; it is ends with the exclamation, “Sonya, Sonya! only within Raskolnikov’s twisted mind that Gentle Sonya!” It is within this passage—the the two women conflate. first time Raskolnikov confronts the character of Lizaveta since he killed her—that he truly Notwithstanding the fact that Raskolnikov has transforms Sonya into Liza, although his no compunctions about his murder of delirium prevents him from consciously real - Alyona, he cannot escape the guilt he feels izing this transformation until later on in the from killing Lizaveta. It is this guilt that makes novel. him force Sonya into the character of Lizaveta, manufacturing parallels between the Once Raskolnikov sees Sonya as an embodi - characters even where they do not truly exist. ment of his victim, he is able to seek true The first time that Raskolnikov mentions absolution and forgiveness for his crime. He Lizaveta after her death, he relates her to needs Sonya to pardon him, because it is only Sonya: through her understanding that he can reach absolution. Although a religious man might “Oh, how I hate that little old crone now! If seek absolution through God or a priest, once 1 she recovered, I think I’d kill here again! Poor
1 Lizaveta! Why did she have to turn up Raskolnikov concludes that he does not
0 there!...Strange, though; why is it that I almost believe in religion, he must find forgiveness
2 never think of her, as if I hadn’t killed through the victim of his sin. It is for the sake her?...Lizaveta! Sonya! Poor meek ones, with of redemption that Raskolnikov decides to
y meek eyes…Dear ones!...Why don’t they weep?...Why don’t they moan?...They give confess his sin to Sonya: “This Lizaveta…he m everything…their eyes are meek and gen - didn’t want to kill her…He killed her…acci - e tle…Sonya, Sonya! Gentle Sonya!...” (275) dentally…He wanted to kill the old h woman…when she was alone…and he went c In this moment of delirium, Raskolnikov
l there…And then Lizaveta came in…Then shows that he feels guilt from his murder of
A he…killed her, too” (410). Lizaveta, even though he feels none for what he did to her sister. He also wonders at himself He confesses only to the murder of Lizaveta, for his ability to feel guilt towards Liza’s death, showing once again that he only considers but never to think of Liza herself. Yet even as one of his two murders to be a sin. As he con - he questions this apparent contradiction, he fesses, his unconscious conflation of the two discovers the answer: He asks, “why is it that I women moves further towards his conscious - almost never think of her, as if I hadn’t killed ness: her?” and he answers, “Lizaveta! Sonya!” He is able to confront his guilt over Lizaveta’s As soon as he said this, a former, familiar sen - death without explicitly thinking of Lizaveta sation suddenly turned his soul to ice: he because Sonya has become Lizaveta’s replace - looked at [Sonya], and suddenly in her face he seemed to see the face of Lizaveta. He vividly ment. When he says, “Lizaveta! Sonya!” it is recalled the expression of Lizaveta’s face as he as if he is exclaiming the same name twice. By was approaching her with the axe and she was the end of this first passage, Raskolnikov has backing way from him towards the wall, her entirely transformed Sonya into Lizaveta, as hand held out, with a completely childlike fright on her face, exactly as when little chil - demonstrated by the fact that the passage dren suddenly begin to be frightened of some -
56 Madeline Charne
thing, stare fixedly and uneasily at what fright - pushes her away. It is only later that he comes ens them […] Almost the same thing now back to her and essentially admits his desire: happened with Sonya as well. (411) “Sonya silently took two crosses from a draw - As he confesses his sin to Sonya, he believes he er, one of cypress, the other of brass, she is confessing to Lizaveta as well. This is a crossed herself, crossed him, and hung the “familiar sensation,” as he has purposefully cypress cross around his neck. ‘So the brass confused the two women before. He allows one, Lizaveta’s, you’re keeping for yourself— Sonya to be Liza, and with that assumption of can I see it?’” (522). By voicing aloud the fact identity he is able to confess his guilt to his vic - that Sonya is wearing Lizaveta’s cross, tim. Yet the similarity in Sonya and Lizaveta’s Raskolnikov is finally becoming aware of the actions and gestures does not necessarily identity conflation that he has been uncon - come entirely from Raskolnikov’s imagina - sciously making throughout the rest of the tion. As Raskolnikov confesses his crime to novel. Moreover, by allowing Sonya to cross Sonya, he strips her of her true identity and him while she wears Lizaveta’s cross, he is entirely replaces that identity with Lizaveta’s. finally receiving Lizaveta’s blessing, and can Through this transference, he kills her just as start on the path to absolution. It is at this he killed Lizaveta. In this moment, Sonya the moment that Raskolnikov finally obeys A unique person is killed and replaced with Sonya’s wishes and follows her prescribed path to redemption. l Sonya the embodiment of Lizaveta. c h
It is not long after this “murder” that Sonya It is not until the Epilogue, though, that e realizes what has happened. Yet she does not Raskolnikov is able to truly absolve himself of m react as most people might when they realize the sin of Lizaveta’s murder. Earlier he had y their identity is being taken from them, lash - realized that, for him, Sonya had been trans - ing out in fear, anger, or rebellion; instead, she formed into Liza, but now he is finally able to 2 0 allows herself to be used on Raskolnikov’s truly ask for Liza’s forgiveness: “Something lifted him and flung him down at her feet. He 1 path to absolution by consciously opening 1 herself up to the identity of Lizaveta. Once wept and embraced her knees” (549). In this Sonya hears his confession, she grants his motion, Raskolnikov begs forgiveness, and in wishes and begins to truly embody Liza: “You a look Sonya, and through her Liza, forgives don’t [have a cross] do you? Here, take this him. When later he states that, “he knew by cypress one. I have another brass one, what infinite love he would now redeem all Lizaveta’s. Lizaveta and I exchanged crosses; her sufferings” (550), he does not mean the she gave her her cross, and I gave her my lit - suffering that he has caused Sonya, but the tle icon. I’ll wear Lizaveta’s now” (422). By suffering that he has caused Lizaveta. Thus agreeing to wear Liza’s cross—the same cross the Epilogue ends with Raskolnikov starting she was wearing when she was murdered— on his path to absolution—a path that is only Sonya is essentially telling Raskolnikov that made possible through Sonya’s sacrifice of she will allow her own identity to be replaced. her own identity. This is the moment that Sonya brings his unconscious action of projection into the con - Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky is a book scious world by acknowledging the projection, about a murder, but more importantly it is a yet Raskolnikov is not yet ready to conscious - book about a winding path through shame, ly recognize his desire for absolution, and he guilt, and sin to eventually reach redemption.
57 The Quest for Absolution in Crime and Punishment
Raskolnikov unconsciously projects the char - Raskolnikov’s sin that Sonya serves as the acter of the woman he murdered, Lizaveta, moral compass for the novel. As the moral onto another, Sonya, in an attempt to find quandaries in the book revolve mostly around absolution for his crime. It is only through the sin of Lizaveta’s murder, the woman who Sonya’s recognition of, and eventual surren - embodies the victim of these moral conun - der to, this projection that Raskolnikov is able drums is put in a position to judge them. to reach the path towards redemption. It is because she embodies the victim of
Madeline Charne, class of 2014, is a potential Honors English major, Interpretation Theory minor. She wrote this paper on identity transference in Crime and Punishment for Brian Johnson’s Russian Novel course fall of her freshman year. Thanks to the discussion in this course she was able to take a book that she had read many times before and look at it in an entirely new and insightful way. Madeline would like to thank Professor Brian Johnson for the help, encouragement, and guidance she gave her in the process of writing this paper, and 1 throughout the course of her freshman year. 1 0 2
y m e h c l A
58 Jenna Zhu
Would American Foreign Policy be More or Less Effective if the War Powers Resolution Were Enforced?
Jenna Zhu ’12 I. Introduction circumstances …
The Constitution is famously described as an [In such situations] submit within 48 hours… invitation for Congress and the executive a report… setting forth… the circustances… branch “to struggle for the privilege to direct the constitutional and legislative authority … foreign policy.” 1 While the President holds the the estimated scope and duration of the hos - power over troops as “Commander-in- tilities or involvement… Chief,” 2 Congress has the power “to declare war,” as well as the power of appropriating Upon submission of such a report the resolu - money in the Spending, Army, Navy, and tion specified that a clock would be set in motion, requiring that: Necessary and Proper Clauses. 3 This separa - A tion of powers creates the struggle for power l
Within sixty calendar days after a report is c that characterizes the formation of modern submitted… the President shall terminate any h American foreign policy. use of United States Armed Forces… unless e the Congress…has declared war or has enact - m Since Truman’s unilateral decision to put
7 y troops in Korea in 1950, Congress’s foreign ed a specific authorization for such use… ”
policy power has been on the decline. While 2 Scholars have long disagreed about the role of Congress made reasonable efforts to recap - 0
Congress in terms of formulating and carry - 1 ture its power 4 between the Korean and
ing out foreign policy. The War Powers 1 Vietnam wars, no formal claims were made Resolution presents an interesting case study until November 7, 1973, when the 93rd to address this question for the following rea - Congress passed the War Powers Resolution sons: over President Nixon’s veto. 5 As they were “[. ..][i]mpatient with the difficulty of utilizing 1. The rule of the War Powers traditional means [ . . . ] to force the executive Resolution is beyond the jurisdiction of branch to end the war in Vietnam, and deter - the legal system. 8 mined to ensure that no future commitment of U.S. armed forces [ . . . ] take place with - To date, no case of the legislation has come out prior approval [ . . . ], Congress passed before the Supreme Court, and it is doubtful this unprecedented legislation.” 6 Among that it will ever provide a ruling. 9 Therefore, it other things, it required that the president: is likely that the topic will continue to be a subject of debate. Consult with Congress before introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities or into situations where imminent involvement 2. If enforced, the War Powers in hostilities is clearly indicated by the
59 Would American Foreign Policy Be More Or Less Effective if the War Powers Resolution Were Enforced?
Resolution may have an effect on uses of diency or constitutionality, and it is deter - American force abroad. mined largely in terms of the level of cooper - ation between the president and Congress, for Following this logic, if it could have had this reasons which I will expound upon in discus - effect on past conflicts, then, if enforced, it sion. I conclude that the War Powers may have a similar effect on future actions Resolution, if enforced along with other poli - taken in the realm of foreign policy. Since its cy measures that strengthen Congress’s role, lack of enforcement has also had an effect, we would make American foreign policy more can assume that its usage will have a meaning - effective, although, if enforced on its own, it ful impact. would not.
Given the relevance of the topic and the like - ly policy implications that result from address - II. The War Powers Resolution ing this case, I therefore, attempt to answer Would Have No Effect the following question in this paper: No president has ever admitted the constitu - “Would American foreign policy be more or tionality of the War Powers Resolution, and less effective if the War Powers Resolution 1 their actions reflect an underlying belief in its
1 were enforced?” unconstitutionality. For nearly all of the U.S.’s 0 uses of force since passage of the act, no pres - 2 I submit that it would become more effective ident has recognized and acted in accordance as a result of the increased legitimacy of the
y with the consultation clause (Sec. 3) of the foreign policy making process. War Powers Resolution. In America’s politi - m
e cally-charged actions in Lebanon (1983), Through the course of the paper, I will pres -
h Grenada (1983), Libya (1986), and the Persian ent three possible outcomes: c Gulf Crisis (1987), for example, President l Reagan submitted ex post reports of his deci - A 1. The War Powers Resolution would sions to commit troops, noting that he acted in have no effect a manner “consistent” with the War Powers Resolution, but not “pursuant” or “according 2. The War Powers Resolution would to” it. 10 To Reagan, this distinction, while ten - have a positive effect uous, established his actions as beyond the purview of the act, giving him significant 3. The War Powers Resolution would leverage against Congress. have a negative effect Like Reagan, most presidents have tended to I also give policy recommendations for how disregard the legitimacy of the act; however, Congress ought to address the War Powers most have acted along the lines specified in Resolution and its proper role in foreign poli - the resolution, even if they do not follow it to cy making. I will use legitimacy as a measure 11 of effectiveness of foreign policy, on the hypo - the letter. They tend to give notification to thetical basis that legitimacy of process Congress for most instances of their uses of ensures formation of good public policy. It is force (although usually after-the-fact), and to preferable over other measures such as expe - seek congressional approval for engagement
60 Jenna Zhu in large-scale wars, such as the First Gulf War (since the Nixon administration had already and the Iraq War. Prior to the passage of the withdrawn U.S. ground forces from the coun - resolution in 1973, however, presidents large - try by that cutoff date). However, the amend - ly ignored the role of Congress in foreign pol - ment did have the practical effect of “prevent - icy making, and presidents did not make deci - ing the reintroduction of U.S. air and ground sions to use force abroad pre-1973, in a forces when the situation in Cambodia later majority of cases. 12 After the passage of the deteriorated,” 14 which contributed to keeping War Powers Resolution, this pattern contin - America out after its hectic days of withdraw - ued to hold true, although this period saw al. In Indochina, as well, in 1973 and 1974, more instances of small-scale uses of force. Congress placed no fewer than seven restric - Presidents found themselves increasingly tions on the use of funds appropriated for mil - beleaguered by agitating Congresses in the itary activities in North Vietnam, South years from 1973 to 2003, and they responded Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, but since U.S. by committing troops first and then giving involvement was already on a downturn, it is notice to Congress second in most notable impossible to trace the causal chain from the instances of American use of force, such as withdrawal to Congress’s action. There is the Iran Hostage Crisis (1980), El Salvador even reason to believe that the War Powers (1981), Lebanon (1983), the Persian Gulf Resolution would not have stopped the A l
Crisis (1987), and the invasion of Panama Vietnam War, the very conflict that shaped its c
(1989). This also holds true for the large conception. 15 In compliance with section h majority of United Nations actions the U.S. 2(c)(2) of the resolution, the use of U.S. armed e carried out in the post-Cold War world, such forces in Indochina was clearly done “pur - m as Kuwait (1990), the Persian Gulf War suant” to “specific statutory authorization.” y
(1991), assistance to Somalia (1992) and There was also sufficient consultation to satis - Bosnia (1993), Haiti (1994), and Kosovo fy the mandate of section 3, and the reporting 2 0 (1991), as well as present-day antiterrorist requirements of section 4 were not likely to 1 16 actions, such as the Iraq War (2003). The War have influenced the course of events. 1 Powers Resolution, therefore, has largely been Finally, it was not even until the 1970s, years seen as a failure. 13 after the commitment had been made and troops deployed, that Congress could muster a This history, therefore, means that it is impos - majority to limit funding for the war, which sible to know if the War Powers Resolution was much less direct of an order than that the made a difference in the conduct of certain troops be withdrawn. 17 Predictably, the War wars, especially given that its noticeable Powers Resolution would have had a null effects were largely symbolic. Consider, for effect. example, the Church-Cooper Amendment, a prohibition to a foreign military sales bill that Part of the inefficiency of the legislation is prohibited the expenditure of funds to sup - due to the wording of the resolution. The port U.S. military expenditures in Cambodia statute itself, shaped by political compromises, after July 1, 1970, which established a prece - is weak and not well-designed to hold up con - dent for the War Powers Resolution. It is diffi - gressional authority. According to historian cult to assess whether the ensuing disengage - Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., “[a]ll that was nec - ment was a result of growing congressional essary was a statute with two main elements: insistence or if it would have occurred anyway
61 Would American Foreign Policy Be More Or Less Effective if the War Powers Resolution Were Enforced?
1) an obligation laid upon the President to Ford had ordered the deployment of U.S. report at once to Congress, with full informa - troops to recapture an American container tion and justification, whenever he sent troops ship seized by Khmer Rouge forces off the into battle and keep on reporting so long as coast of Cambodia, members of the adminis - the hostilities continue and 2) a declaration by tration complained that the forty-eight hour Congress of its right at any point to terminate deadline forced them to waken President Ford such military action by concurrent resolu - at 2 a.m. to sign the report so that it could be tion.” Instead, the War Powers Resolution is a delivered to empty Capitol Hill offices by 2:30 compromise satisfying both the House and a.m. For the three cases where weapons were Senate, with far too many loopholes and employed, the operations were over by the opportunities for abuse. What Congress want - time the President made his formal report to ed was strength in consensus, but what they Congress. While Senator Jacob Javits, one of got instead was weakness in compromise. the original proponents of the War Powers Furthermore, the idea that giving the presi - Resolution, decried the president’s behavior dent leave to send troops with prior consulta - as the “old, discredited practice” of informing tion with Congress would be enough to “selected members” after the decisions had ensure an easy withdrawal was a total miscon - already been made, the American public ception on Congress’s part. As the well-docu - 20 1 seemed to care little. The rescue operation
1 mented rally effect would predict, most wars was widely hailed as a success, and the Senate
0 are popular within at least the first few Foreign Relations Committee even went so far
2 months of their launch, and, as William as to unanimously adopt a resolution praising Howell and Jon Pevehouse find, wartime con - the rescue operation. Staff director Pat Holt y gressional unity is often an illusion. 18 These writes, “The evacuation was a violation even m factors often make pullout of a conflict situa - by [State Department legal advisor] Monroe e tion incredibly difficult and bind Congress so Leigh’s interpretation [ . . . ] Nevertheless, [it] h
c that it has little choice to but accede power to could be counted an operational success, and
l the president, even if prior consultation were there was little disposition in Congress to
A to occur. The War Powers Resolution, there - quibble.” 21 Deafened, apparently, to argu - fore, may arguably enhance, rather than rein ments protesting the legitimacy of the inci - in, presidential power, even if it was created dent by the sound of popular support, mem - with the opposite intent. 19 Rather than offer - bers of Congress swallowed the bitter pill of ing a concurrent resolution, the act should their impuissance against Ford and showed lit - have given more acting power to Congress in tle to no public opposition. As the New York order to have some meaningful political sway. Times notes, “Criticism at a welcome moment Due to the entrapping nature of military of success would be politically risky at best.” 22 involvement, Congress is often left with its Success and legitimacy of political action, hands tied, forced to accede and losing power may, at times, therefore, be mutually exclusive. and credibility with each successive conces - sion to the president. Congress has also failed to strike back against a growing imperial presidency. In response to However, presidential disregard for the War President Clinton’s unauthorized actions to Powers Resolution has often been necessary, deliver humanitarian aid to Bosnia in 1993 and even beneficial, at times. In the Mayaguez Congress considered but failed to enact crisis in 1975, for example, in which President
62 Jenna Zhu restrictions on military initiatives after Clinton Powers Resolution, on all five fronts, would allowed U.S. troops operating under NATO decrease effectiveness. command to engage in airstrikes against Serbian positions and reported U.S. military To begin with, Congress has a number of involvement to Congress as a fait accompli. 23 structural limitations on its ability to be a Other attempts to curtail military operations strong actor in foreign policy, especially in through appropriations restrictions, such as comparison with the president. Multiple veto restriction of U.S. operations in Angola points, high transaction costs, and collective through the Clark-Tunney Amendment, in action problems make Congress a burden - Nicaragua through the Boland amendments, some force to mobilize, and the bureaucratic and in Somalia through a compromise meas - politics it suffers from often undermines its ure arrived at with President Clinton, have capacity to govern. In the case of the U.S. also produced mixed results, at best. 24 It may, invasion of Panama in 1989, for example, therefore, be a failure of Congress to uphold Congress did not even bring up President’s the War Powers Resolution, rather than a fail - Bush’s War Powers Resolution violation ure of the resolution itself, that has resulted in because they were not in session at the time of the political maelstrom of flipped roles the incident. This inability to summon its A between a growing presidency and a shrinking forces quickly makes Congress strategically disadvantaged to act decisively, a weakness l Congress. 25 If Congress were truly serious c about taking its war power back, it would do that the president, blessed with unilateral h so, in spite of, not because of, the War Powers “power without persuasion,” does not suffer e Resolution. from. Coupled with this strategic disadvan - m
tage is an informational one. When conflicts y
erupt abroad, the president is often the first to know about it, and is best situated to decide 2
IV. The War Powers Resolution 0 on the appropriate course of action. Would Have a Negative Effect Presidents enjoy a massive network of nation - 1 1 al security advisors, an intelligence communi - In a testimony before a subcommittee of the ty, and diplomats and ambassadors stationed House Foreign Affairs Committee on Congress, around the world, an informational support the President, and the War Powers ,26 on July 1, system to which Congress has nothing compa - 1970, Former State Department Legal rable. Presidents also stand at the front end Advisor John R. Stevenson pointed out five of the policy-making process, and thereby principal objectives of foreign policy. It place on Congress the burden of taking posi - should: (1) enable the country to respond tive action in order to limit his powers. When quickly; (2) permit secrecy prior to the use of President Reagan “consulted” with congres - armed forces where required; (3) provide a sional party leaders in March 1986 about means of taking decisive action which reflects planned air strikes against Libyan terrorists, a national determination; (4) be based upon a for example, he did so when the planes were maximum amount of information; and (5) already en route to North Africa. There was ensure that the type and amount of force used very little, obviously, that Congress could have is adequate to meet the danger posed. If these done to reverse the action, and in less than a five objectives are the true objectives of for - quarter of the time it would have taken mem - eign policy, then enforcement of the War bers to resolve their differences and enact
63 Would American Foreign Policy Be More Or Less Effective if the War Powers Resolution Were Enforced?
authorizing legislation, the military had days later. Andrew Rudalevige, for example, already completed its bombing campaign. thinks that Congress’s decline since World Congress, therefore, is not suited to act unilat - War II had largely been a result of the same erally, while the President is. Unfortunately, factors: developments in the military, technol - that is often the type of action that foreign ogy, information, and a globalizing world. 29 policy making requires. Congress was caught in an identity crisis, torn between imperial desires and a slow design. For this reason, Senator J. William Fulbright Given its institutional nature, it had no choice once put forth an argument on the proper role but to be left behind, creating a gap where of Congress in foreign policy. He believed that cooperation could have been fostered and Congress had the unique power to determine leaving holes too vast for the president to fill of the direction, purpose, and philosophy of for - his own efforts. This action has had a negative eign policy, while the executive had the power impact on foreign policy since its inception, to determine the day-to-day conduct of for - and the effects of it still continue to resound in eign relations. The trouble was, however, that the hollows of modern American history Congress had reversed the order. He said of today. Congress, “[w]e have tended to pry and snoop in matters of detail” and resigned from 1 III. The War Powers Resolution
1 the responsibility of shaping of the purposes Would have a Positive Effect
0 of foreign policy. Congress’s powers were lim -
2 ited in a way that the President’s was not, but
Nevertheless, there is still a possibility for the it had tried to reverse its roles (often for polit - y War Powers Resolution’s redemption. Since ical reasons 27 ), with unsatisfactory results.
m Congress and the President would be forced
e to work together if the War Powers This argument is particularly compelling in h Resolution is enforced, such an act may be
c post 9/11-America, where conventional war - helpful to providing more well-thought out l fare and Cold War threats have been sub - and sound decisions in foreign policy. The A sumed by the growing threat posed by non- War Powers Resolution could, therefore, be state actors and the “Global War on Terror.” good for American foreign policy because, if Since non-state actors, such as terrorists, have enforced, it could not only increase the legiti - taken on a new level of importance in inter - macy of Congress, but it would also lead to national affairs in the 21st century, this act has better decisions. 30 Since the passage of the significant consequences for America and for War Powers Resolution, 118 reports have its future foreign policy, especially in its cur - been submitted by presidents as a direct result rent age of renewed vulnerability. of the legislation, with Presidents Clinton and Furthermore, since the speed and destructive George W. Bush topping the records (submit - capacity of modern weaponry has overtaken 31 that of previous weapons, it is especially exi - ting 60 and 29 reports, respectively). This gent that the president can protect the coun - behavior has increased the legitimacy of try from and counter such an attack, should it Congress by giving recognition to its war pow - happen. For these reasons, the Senate Joint ers. Resolution 23, “Authorization for Use of The basis of the passage of the War Powers Military Force” 28 was passed in Congress Resolution was that, while Congress may be September 14, 2001 and signed into law four
64 Jenna Zhu just as likely to make mistakes as the presi - Foreign Assistance Act of 1974, which elimi - dent, the likelihood that both would make one nated all military funding for the government together would be smaller than if each were of South Vietnam and effectively ended the to make decisions on its own. The resolution Vietnam War 34 (hence, John Glennon’s argu - signaled the development of a “new over - ment for purse-string restrictions 35 ). There is sight” based on decision-sharing, rather than also the power of impeachment, which legal investigation. 32 The purpose of this act was to scholar David Gray Adler claims is the ulti - create better policy, specifically by making the mate war power due to its threat of irre - process of conducting war more legitimate. versibility. 36 Congress could also claim more With U.S. forces fighting a “secret war” in control over secret military and political oper - Laos and the president unilaterally entering ations organized by the CIA and streamline wars in Vietnam and Lebanon, Congress was its relationship with the intelligence commu - more than disillusioned with presidential initi - nity, while others even argue for Congress’s ations of warfare in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and greater control of troop deployment. 37 The sought to limit such potential abuses of political and electoral costs of enforcement, 38 33 force. When President Clinton suddenly furthermore, would be extremely difficult for ordered airstrikes on Iraq on December 16, Congress members to pay, and given that A 1998, for example, there seemed to be little most of Congress’s power stems from its con - l justification for his action. Such abuses of trol over appropriations and presidents do not c power were what Senators Javits and recognize the legitimacy of the War Powers h Fulbright, key supporters of the War Powers Resolution. Either way, the costs seem to out - e m Resolution, hoped to prevent in putting forth weigh the benefits of enforcing the War the act, which, if enforced, could make a sig - Powers Resolution. y nificant impact on curtailing presidential uni - lateral action and possible mistakes. 2 However, there may be some serious problems 0
that come about as a result of not enforcing 1
V. Discussion and the resolution. Congress, for one, would lose 1 Recommendations its legitimacy, which may come with serious harms. Congress is meant to be an effective The question of whether to enforce or not to check on the President, 39 and the open and enforce the War Powers Resolution remains. public deliberation of ideas and popular opin - Given that the measure of effective foreign ion in Congress tends to refine ideas in a policy is legitimacy of the process, or the level process that constitutes the essence of democ - of cooperation between Congress and the racy. Since Congress is far less likely than the president in its formation, in this case, let us president to be subject to the tendencies of consider what would happen if we do not ideology or personal whim, the loss of its par - enforce the resolution. ticipation in foreign policy is an immense loss in decision-making power. Furthermore, as First of all, Congress has many other ways to Congress is the representative body of the cit - influence foreign policy besides enforcing the izenry, in the words of Senator Dale Bumpers, War Power Resolution. It has the power of “[r]elegating Congress to the role of cheer - authorization and appropriations, which has leader and check-writer for the president’s for - pulled many a string before, such as the eign policy would do the same to the
65 Would American Foreign Policy Be More Or Less Effective if the War Powers Resolution Were Enforced?
American people.” Therefore, the loss of war President, or vice versa, but how the Congress power, even implicitly through not enforcing and the President can both be strengthened to the War Powers Resolution, may signal a loss do the pressing work that falls to each to do of democracy that will have extended impacts and to both to do together. 41 In that light, it on foreign policy from multiple second-order would make sense to enforce the War Powers effects. 40 Resolution, but with the following amend - ments: However, that is not to say that enforcement of the War Powers Resolution would be a 1. Shorten the time limitation to twenty panacea for every ill in American foreign pol - days icy, either. We must remember that when we ask for good foreign policy, we are asking This limits the opportunity for mischief or Congress and the executive to strike a rare irreversible action abroad. balance, which actually is a very difficult job. On the one hand, we want the informed con - 2. Form a consultation group. sent of a deliberative representative body; on the other hand, we also want political expedi - The President is to consult with a permanent
1 ency and decisiveness by an informed leader. consultative group of 18 Members consisting
1 Could it be, then, that in different situations, of the leadership and the ranking and minor - 0 we need different things from different actors ity members of the Committees on Foreign 2 in the foreign policymaking process? Relations, Armed Services, and Intelligence,
y which should be able to determine the proper Unfortunately, there is no formula for the procedures such as report of an introduction m making of good foreign policy. At any point in of forces or introduction of a joint resolution e
h American history, it has taken the thoughtful of authorization or withdrawal that would
c deliberation of Congress, as well as the deci - receive expedited procedures. 42 This perma - l siveness of the President, to make any success - nent group will institutionalize the consulta - A ful venture in American foreign policy work. tive function between Congress and the presi - No single action is makes or breaks American dent, and will require regular meetings to foreign policy, but neither is any one action as brief Congress on foreign policy develop - effective when formed unilaterally as when it ments. is created in consultation with both. The deci - sion is likely to be stronger, sounder, and bet - Congress should also increase its use of other ter-deliberated, and it is only with, rather than executive check functions, especially over - despite, Congress, that the president can sight 43 and appropriations, and it should make effective foreign policy decisions. adopt measures to improve the flow of infor - mation between Congress and the executive. Therefore, the War Powers Resolution could, For example, there ought to be greater if enforced, make policy better, but even if it involvement of executive advisors, such as the were to, it would not be enough to make a Secretary of State and the Secretary of good foreign policy. As Dean Acheson put it, Defense, who can appear on regular intervals “The central question is not whether on the floor of the House and Senate to Congress should be stronger than the answer questions on the country’s foreign
66 Jenna Zhu relations. 44 There also ought to be the forma - tion of a joint committee, serviced by the staff Only through prudent use of cooperative of Capitol Hill and the executive branch, to measures can we begin to foster respect for meet at regular intervals for full exchange of the legitimacy of congressional procedures in views on important foreign policy and nation - foreign policy making, and it is only through al security issues. Finally, because Congress both legitimate and meaningful deliberative can shape public opinion so much, there processes that American foreign policy can ought to be greater use of the media by become truly effective. Congress to influence the public’s willingness to back the president during the lead-up to war. 45 References 1. Corwin, Edwin S. The President: Office and by 75-18 in the Senate. Powers . 6. Blechman, Barry M. and W. Philip Ellis, 2. The Constitution. However, Congress The Politics of National Security: Congress and itself has only declared war five times: in U.S. Defense Policy, X . A the cases of the War of 1812, the Spanish- 7. Public Law 93-148, 87 Stat. 555, 50 U.S.C. American War, the Mexican-American l
1541-48. c War, World War I, and World War II. 8. See the following cases: Dellum vs. Bush, h
Meanwhile, the U.S. can count over 200 e Wright-Corwiss, Bush, etc.
instances of using force abroad. m 9. The judiciary branch, in comparison to 3. The Appropriations Clause, furthermore, y the legislative and executive branches. and the Statement and Account Clause, by prohibiting the spending of public rev - 10. Text of Reagan actions submitted to 2 enues without appropriation and requir - Congress. 0 1
ing periodic accounting of how public 11. For a list of the reports that Presidents 1 money is spent, respectively complete this have made to Congress as the result of the package of controls. In the event of their War Powers Resolution up to 2003, see failure, Congress also has the power of Appendix 1 of “The War Powers supply, allowing it to determine through Resolution: After Thirty Years.” appropriations the magnitude and dura - 12. Especially since President Nixon. tion of U.S. military involvement, as well as the traditional powers of impeachment 13. Much controversy exists over the proper and the Senate’s treaty-making and role of Congress in foreign policy, but appointments power. Banks, William C. most scholars acknowledge that the and Jeffrey D. Straussman, “A New Constitution gives to Congress the war Imperial Presidency? Insights from U.S. power. Consider, for example, Thomas Involvement in Bosnia.” Jefferson’s famous quotation of the lead - ing role Congress was meant to play in 4. See, for example, the recapture of con - committing U.S. forces to combat in corre - gressional power before WPR. spondence with James Madison, “We have 5. The veto was overridden by a vote of 284- already given … one effectual check to the 135 in the House of Representatives and dog of war by transferring the power of
67 Would American Foreign Policy Be More Or Less Effective if the War Powers Resolution Were Enforced?
letting him loose from the Executive to the reported to Congress as required by the Legislative, from those who are to spend to Resolution shortly after the initiation of those who are to pay.” Madison further sustained United States bombing of the echoes this sentiment in a letter to North or the introduction of regular Jefferson, in which he states, “The United States combat troops in the South, Constitution supposes what the History of Congress would have speedily authorized all Governments demonstrates, that the a continuation of the war.” Executive is the branch of power most 17. See, for example, Robert Scigliano, “The interested in war, and most prone to it. It Powers Resolution,” p. 4-8 for an indica - has accordingly with studied care vested tion of early support in Congress of the question of war in the Legislative President Johnson’s wartime policies. [branch]...” Further evidence that the Founding Fathers intended Congress to 18. Howell, William H, and Jon C. Pevehouse, have the final say in the use of U.S. forces “When Congress Stops Wars,” Foreign comes from the fact that the Affairs . Constitutional Convention had at first 19. Other reasons why the WPR enhances given Congress the power to “make” war, presidential power include that it is obso - lete, etc.
1 but then changed the wording to
1 “declare” war. According to Madison, he 20. Washington Post , May 25, 1975, in “War
0 and Elbridge Gerry moved to make this Powers: A Test of Compliance, Hearings,” 2 change only to provide for very special cir - p. 67. cumstances, “leaving to the Executive the y 21. Pat Holt, The War Powers Resolution , p. 15- power to repel sudden attacks.” Cited in
m 16. Javits, Jacob R., “The War Powers e Resolution and the Constitution: A 22. The New York Times , May 18, 1975. h Special Introduction” from The President’s c 23. In the document to Congress, President
l War Powers , Demetrios Caraley, ed. (New Clinton noted that the U.S. forces “partic -
A York: The Academy of Political Science, ipate in these actions pursuant to [my] 1984), 2. Letter from James Madison to constitutional authority to conduct U.S. Thomas Jefferson, 2 April 1798, cited in foreign relations and as Commander in “Public Interest Report,” op.cit, 4. Chief.” This statement reflected an under - Gunther, Gerald, Cases and Materials on lying belief that was a common refrain Constitutional Law , tenth ed., (Mineola, that he repeated in reporting for his N.Y.: The Foundation Press, 1984), 418. actions in Haiti and Kosovo, as well as is 14. Crabb Jr., Cecil V. and Pat M. Holt, surprise missile strikes in Sudan, Invitation to Struggle , 141. Afghanistan, and Iraq during the later part of his career. 30 Weekly Compilation 15. See, for example, Robert F. Turner’s The of Presidential Documents. War Powers Resolution: Its Implementation in Theory and Practice . 24. Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 1994, 107 Stat . 1457-77, §8146, 107 16. Graham Allison, for example, writes in Stat. “Making War,” “Most Americans sup - ported the war effort in 1965… It seems 25. Fulbright supported the passage of the fairly certain, if President Johnson had War Powers Act. As cited in The Imperial
68 Jenna Zhu
Presidency. of the international body requirement. 26. Hearings Before the Subcommittee on National Nancy Kassop, “Presidents Have Security Policy and Scientific Development Usurped.” (Washington, 1970). 31. War Powers Resolution: Presidential Compliance . 27. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. writes, “The 32. Sundquist, James L. Presidency had become the great alibi for 33. Ely, “The Unconstitutionality of the War members of Congress who preferred to They Didn’t Tell Us About.” avoid accountability for national security decisions lest they lose the support of one 35. Glennon, Michael. “The Case for Purse- or another faction of true believers back String Restrictions.” home. Moreover, Congress tended to be 36. Adler, David Gray. an assembly of loners [ . . . ], concerned 37. Schlesinger, Jr., The Imperial Presidency , p. with shoring up individual power bases 316, 307. and carving out individual reputations 38. Mayhew, David. Congress: the electoral connec - and susceptible only under the most tion . extreme provocation to a sense of institu -
tional responsibility.” It is these precise 39. Senator Thomas Eagleton, for example, A
factors that make also make Congress so states, “[T]he founders understood that l immobile in times of crises and war. the line between dynamism and arro - c gance, between decisiveness and tyranny, h
28. P.L. 107-40 (September 18, 2001); 115 e is a precariously thin one,” an anti-imperi -
Stat. 224. m alist view which the Founding Fathers 29. Andrew Rudalevige, The New Imperial shared in their vestment to Congress, the y Presidency . most democratic branch of American 2
30. As Nancy Kassop, for example, writes that government, war powers which it shared 0
the Constitution, at a bare minimum, has with the executive. 1
six requirements, among which include 40. See, for example, Ole Holsti’s work on 1 that the president’s status as commander why public opinion matters, as well as in chief is confined to the authority to democratic peace theory. conduct military operations when 41. A Citizen Looks at Congress (New York: Congress determines and that the consti - Harper & Row, 1957), p. 56. tutional requirement that Congress approve the use of military force is not sat - 42. S.J.Res. 323 , introduced May 19, 1988. isfied by the approval of other internation - 43. See, for example, the bureaucratic politics al bodies, such as NATO or the United that dominated the case of the 9/11ter - Nations . Presidents have been violating rorist attacks. each of these requirements increasingly so 44. This strategy has worked in the past when since the turn of the twentieth-century. Secretary of State Rogers met with 67 The Truman administration cited the members of the Senate on March 25, United Nations and other treaty-based 1971 for an “extraordinary exchange of obligations as authorization for the unilat - views” on the administration’s Middle eral commitment of troops in Korea in East policy. This closed meeting marked 1950, for example, in a flagrant violation one of the few times that a Secretary of
69 Would American Foreign Policy Be More Or Less Effective if the War Powers Resolution Were Enforced?
State appeared before the full Senate. The Media, Elite Opinion, and Public Support . Congress, the Executive, and Foreign Stanford: Stanford University Press. Policy. Council on Foreign Relations. p. Brody, Richard, and Catherine Shapiro. 157 1989. “A Reconsideration of the Rally 45. Evidence suggests that regular use by the Phenomenon in Public Opinion.” In media to voice arguments against military Political Behavior Annual , edited by S. Long. action and underscoring the risks Boulder: Westview. involved, Congress may be able to temper some of the rally effects during war time. Brody, Richard. 1991. Assessing the President:
Jenna Zhu a junior majoring in Political Science. She wrote this paper for Professor Dominic Tierney’s course in American Foreign Policy. 1 1 0 2
y m e h c l A
70 Alchemy 2011 1 7 7
2 Alchemy 2011 p F a e A n o W e e p e T p g T i p T n x d d n u e f u a u a a i u h h h
n e p n
i
g t p p r b b t t t t t e e e h
a h y e e a h h o e e h l l w
i i l o
c r e W g r r e r o p l c c e f d a a y t r
s s i
i
a a
r a e r , a i n . e m
l w n s r
s v t t
i s p d n
t w g i n
i i c t t e e a r t e o o r e
e ,
d a i f r u s e e
s t r n n n r d a l s l s
a h
u i c m s l t i a n .
g
t a r s
e t t o
a e t
f e y
A
w u y d i o a h
o A n
w c n . q s a r b
i f e u r c a . c n
u s e e m r
e
o r t t e s t g
s e l p i h h
e h o l o r d r u o u d w
a
d o i e e c f a
b s s o m
p t d e i r i
a s
t m C h a p n t f s e
l
v
n h e l t
p e a t g i r o - w e i m n t h o e s
s p r
s h l s s
t u
t e n e s a u e
t e o p p
e i P r c t p o y m o r a l
a o e r i e r
m p t
a i n n s c
p r r h o c d e p e o u d s e o t e t , o g e e i , a
a r
t i p
u r f
u n r o h a t c n i t r f
r a l e r t o s o n t o t n o o d t e e d i o m
p l n
m t r d s t
d l e p
c i a h e s o i c
e e b
c o
r n d
n w r a w i l s b y t
o s n o u d r
o t l h o e
i e i l c
o u s c t e e
n
e a , f
e h i o f i
p g v s w d
i g &
d a s f
S r t h i a s m n
e t t n a i d h a g . e w p l h a
r o t l d e n e e n u e a i e e e t a n n v
g m i t
r
g p r d d n e i t c g e s a o t h
r a r
b e i e e
h u d a n y c o t e p . l c e m o t
i m o
f f e e n h r W s s a
w n
s s u r t w o e o m r s
s a o
s e o p u a g s r r a t o i g .
e a s o s u d f e b r l r e .
t o i r
m e
j k t s r
i l t e m v N h o y c r o t h
c e u e e w a
k e f e a e o t n
d n d l
e
i n i l e
t e a t
t e d y n m h p d h . d f
P r n
t o o e e i e a
o f a e t t u r o n
r a c
o r i r s
s b n s r
s c s i e p r o c
t
; e o u
i l t
p o u u n e a i
o h d r o t t r n b c a l s a h
o y
o f t r
b s l l . t e w
i
i s f e
i e o c o b o d c
W t e v . a e h a n h a
c e i r v F t t e s e r u
a r g h i e p e d
i l a
o r s u n r a c
p r
t a n , t t h m o t i a t
i a h c o o
, h o l c o
w t p e
l n e u r c e e p y c s i e o n a s , a e r r s r r
r
s u i
s
t
m e w o
s e . p p s
a g p
t f i c
v e O a a i e t p h a
l c a s
d e
p p u o e e r
l n f a i e e u e o t x r t l u s l f r
r o r
a f c y p . f t t
s s
o m i
h i t
a e
p W i t t t r f f e n c o h h h o o t
l o i t i n h d a e e e e r r r - -
n
1 1 0 2 y m e h c l A