In this issue:
Featured Feminist: Stacey Abrams
Children’s Theater Classes in a Pandemic
SNL’s Impact: At Home and Around the Globe
Gender Dysphoria and Quarantine
Featured Feminist:
Stacey Abrams
by Eileen Tran
Stacey Abrams is an American politician, lawyer, and author, who has most recently come
into the spotlight due to her continuous activism in ensuring voting rights for all, being credited with registering 800,000 new voters in the state of Georgia for this past 2020 Presidential Election.
Abrams was raised in Georgia with her parents and five siblings, all raised under the ideal that if someone was less fortunate, it was their job to help that person, despite Abrams' family barely being able to survive successfully themselves. Abrams went on to achieve her Bachelor of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (Political Science, Economics, and Sociology), and during her undergraduate career, she held an internship with the EPA and also took part in a protest on the steps of the Georgia Capitol, where she burned the state flag which contained the Confederate flag (a racist symbol) within it.
Following graduation from her undergrad, Abrams continued her journey by acquiring her Master's Degree, and then her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Yale Law School. Abrams then went on to co-found NOW Account, a financial services firm that helps small businesses grow, through which Abrams was able to help create and retain jobs in the state of Georgia. With this and her other numerous business endeavors, she has helped employ even more Georgians, including hundreds of youth who are just being introduced into the workforce.
Abrams' career in law truly took a turning point when she was appointed the Deputy City Attorney for Atlanta, Georgia. Following this, she ran to become the House Minority Leader for the Georgia General Assembly and State Representative for the 89th House District, and she won. Abrams set a new precedent with this victory by being the first woman to lead either party in the Georgia General Assembly, and she was also the first Black person to ever lead in the House of Representatives. Stacey Abrams has been recognized nationally, not only with all these barriers she had broken with these victories but even with all her work leading up to this point. She has been named Legislator of the Year by multiple organizations and has been awarded with the Outstanding Public Service Award, Georgia Legislative Service Award, and an Environmental Leader Award.
Years after securing the victory as House Minority Leader, Abrams began her campaign to run for Governor of the state of Georgia and eventually resigned from her position in the General Assembly to focus on her gubernatorial campaign. Abrams won the Democratic primary election, securing an endorsement from both Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama. Stacey Abrams broke another record with this victory; making her the first Black woman in the United States to ever be a major party's nominee for Governor.
However, the system was likely already flawed and stacked against her in a couple of ways, which would lead to her loss in the election. Firstly, in a recent report, the Commission of Civil Rights listed five voter restrictions it considers to be exceptionally onerous--Georgia is the only state that actively imposed all five of these restrictions. Alongside that, Abrams' opponent during this election, Republican Brian Kemp, was also the Secretary of State for Georgia at the time. This meant that Kemp was directly in charge of elections and voter registration at the same time that he was running for election as Governor against Abrams. On the night of July 28, 2017, Kemp's office had over half a million voter registrations canceled. These registrations were allegedly canceled after thorough outreach that led to Georgia election officials believing that the voters were either deceased or had moved. However, upon further research, it was found that these outreach plans were flawed and that more than half of those voters who had their votes purged were not deceased and still did live at their registered addresses. This voter purge was primarily based on whether voters had voted in the most recent elections, but this did not account for voters who had registered and voted for nominees of color, such as Barack Obama, but who were not interested in voting otherwise. It was found that more than 75% of the registration applications put on hold by Kemp's office were applications belonging to minorities. While Kemp's office was found guilty of violating the law in the election and even with Stacey Abrams' campaign turning out more voters than any Democrat in Georgia's history (including Barack Obama), Abrams lost the election by 50,000 votes.
In response to her loss that was most likely due to the active voter suppression conducted by Kemp's conflict of interest as current Secretary of State, Abrams launched Fair Fight, a nonprofit organization that encourages voter participation and fights suppression, ensuring that every Georgian has a right to share their voice in the election system. Fair Fight also filed to sue the Secretary of State and state election board for voter suppression in 2018 and as of March of this year, the lawsuit is still ongoing. In August of 2019, Abrams established Fair Fight 2020, an organization that would assist Democrats technically and financially to build voter rights protection teams in 20 states.
With all of Stacey Abrams' impeccable work throughout her entire career in law and political activism, Abrams was then credited with an incredibly high boost in Democratic votes in Georgia, and as previously stated, 800,000 new voter registrations. Following the Democratic win in the state of Georgia, Abrams thanked voters for participating, but then immediately shifted her attention towards the state's two potential Senate runoff races coming up in January of 2021.
Although she has been widely applauded and recognized for her work in transforming Georgia into a battleground state this past 2020 Presidential Election, Stacey Abrams is still not stopping. In Abrams' words, "We got some work to do."
Children’s Theater Classes in a Pandemic
by Rachel Post
Like many theater lovers and artists, I found my love for putting on shows through community theater. I remember saying constantly, “Tuesdays are my favorite days because that’s when I go to rehearsal.” If it were not for the existence of children’s theater in my life, I would not have had a place to channel all my energy and feelings healthily. I was taught valuable life skills like how to function on a team, how to improvise when the stakes are high, and how to get over moments of massive embarrassment. What really cemented my love for the art form, however, was learning theory and practice in theater classes.
Humboldt Light Opera Company (HLOC) is a non-profit organization in my hometown of Arcata, California. This community theater puts on huge-scale musical productions every year with local talent ranging in age from 3-93. One essential part of this company is KidCo, which offers children’s theater classes to the community as well as putting on full productions when capable of doing so. This is where I did most of my early stage time. It was an invaluable resource for me. I grew up making meaningful connections with people my age, younger, and older, I was given the space to explore what performing was for me, and I benefited from mentor-like relationships with my teachers. HLOC even provided me with the resources to organize a fundraising recital for my trip to a theater conference in New York as well as a senior recital, which I did alongside my three closest theater friends, all of whom I met while taking KidCo classes.
Since the pandemic began, KidCo has had to entirely reimagine what is required to teach youth theater. Their home, the Sunny Brae Performing Arts Center for Education (SPACE), was approved to begin offering small, in-person classes shortly before the Fall semester. Now, they offer a combination of in-person zoom hybrid classes where some students join the class over zoom and some come in person, and strictly zoom classes. They currently offer about ten different classes for students aged 3-17, which students attend after their full online school days. While fewer people signed up for classes this semester than in past sessions due to various reasons, the work they have been doing in the last few months to successfully rebuild and adapt the curriculum is sure to draw back students.
I moved back to Arcata in May after living in Long Beach for about three years and was delighted to be approached by my old KidCo mentor and Artistic Director of HLOC, Carol Ryder. She asked me if I would be willing to help out with the zoom aspect of a couple of hybrid classes offered to the eight-and-up crowd. I was happy to accept and help out in any way I could. Because my life was so positively impacted by coming to KidCo classes, I felt it was my duty to help maintain those same opportunities for the kids in the community who are just like I was; needing to channel their energy into something fun. Now more than ever, with online school classes that seem endless and draining, we all need a place to go where we can sing and dance and process our emotions, especially as a kid.
There are, of course, challenges to doing interactive classes with social distancing guidelines enforced. The learning curve is steep and treacherous but I have watched the instructors navigate it with incredible grace. Yes, masks are hard to sing in, yes dancing can be difficult when we have to maintain our six feet distance, yes it makes it harder to act when you can only show half your face, but these classes have never just been about singing, dancing, and acting. At the heart of the experience, is finding community. These young people have the priceless opportunity to be a part of something. They start each class reflecting on the highlights and challenges of the week, they acknowledge that things are much different than they used to be, and they still come and gather to work their creative muscles despite the challenges. For many of them, coming in person or zooming into KidCo is the highlight of their week, just like it used to be mine.
I find myself enthusiastically playing the weekly games with the young students as I monitor the zoom screen, making sure everyone is included. I can’t help but join in because it just feels so good to play pretend. I imagine that’s why it is so important to these kids. With so many elements of their social development taken away from them, what a relief it must be to just spend some time focusing on play. People often question the necessity of theater in our lives but those people overlook the ways performance, ritual, and play have influenced their own growth.
Returning to my youth theater roots has been one of my biggest saving graces since moving home. Every time I get to go to class and be in a place where there is implicit permission to be creative, I start to feel better about everything horrible that plagues me. As a graduating college senior getting a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts during a global pandemic, I often feel like my future and my career have both been ripped from me. In a way, getting to come back to KidCo helps to remedy those feelings by reminding me where I started and why I do theater in the first place: for fun. So I encourage you to support your local children’s theater programs. In these dark times, they are like a beacon of light offering permission to have a little fun, even when it feels like the world is ending.
SNL’s Impact: At Home and Around the Globe
by Rory Smith
On Saturday, November 7, the Associated Press projected that Joe Biden would be the next U.S. president after the vote tallies in several swing states, especially Pennsylvania, showed Biden leading. Soon after, world leaders began to issue congratulations to the new president-elect and vice president-elect, including Angela Merkel of Germany, Justin Trudeau of Canada, Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, and Emmanuel Macron of France, to name a few. But the catharsis that many Americans were waiting for was to come later that same night, not from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris themselves, but from Saturday Night Live.
Saturday Night Live has been providing hilarious and insightful commentary on the political landscape since its inception in the 1970s. For this election cycle, Alec Baldwin reprised his role as Donald Trump, with Jim Carrey and Maya Rudolph joining to play Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Another welcome presence on this most recent episode was host Dave Chappelle, who hosted the same post-election episode four years ago. With Saturday Night Live’s prevalence in American pop culture, especially during election season, we at Feminist Theatre Makers wondered whether other countries have an equivalent live comedy sketch show.
As it turns out, Saturday Night Live does have international versions that have been released to varying degrees of success. They use the same name and opening credits theme, and some versions attempt to remake American sketches, like Spain’s nearly identical version of the “More Cowbell” sketch. Spain kept the Saturday Night Live title, but it aired on Thursday nights during primetime, and unfortunately, only survived a 12-episode run. South Korea’s version uses the same format as the U.S., complete with Weekend Update and Digital Shorts, but the jokes are specific to Korean culture, which has led to the show finding greater success. It is now eleven seasons deep, and the most popular of the international versions. Japan’s version draws on the traditional konto style of slapstick comedy, which is more similar to stand-up than sketch comedy. Other countries, such as Finland and Brazil, have instituted SNL spinoffs which died after one season due to failing to develop a unique cultural identity. However, from my research, it seems the Polish SNL Polska, was one of the only international spinoffs that included political satire about its government, which took a swerve towards hardline right-wing conservatism in 2015. The show is offered through an Internet-only subscription service, so it is not subject to as much censorship as it would be on network television. Jurek Dzięgielewski, SNL Polska’s head of content, noted that the biggest challenge was getting a Polish audience to feel comfortable laughing at outright silliness and controversial jokes, because there hasn’t been a prevalent comedy scene in that country before now, a leftover of totalitarianism during the Cold War.
While the international versions of Saturday Night Live each try to bring cultural relevance to their audiences, many spinoffs were shunned by audiences for relying too heavily on the original formulas. SNL South Korea, Japan, and Poland each take what works for them from the original show, and add their own spin to make the show resonate in their respective countries. Here in the United States, the next few months before the inauguration are certain to be hectic, but we can count on Saturday Night Live to help us cope with the crazy.
Gender Dysphoria and Quarantine
By Mattie Limas
It has been 247 days since the President of CSULB, Jane Close Conoley, officially notified the campus that all in-person classes were to be suspended, establishing online classes as a substitute. In the time since, Venus has had a full year revolution around the Sun, Zoom has risen to the top video conferencing app, and the amount of times I’ve been misgendered has surpassed a countable number.
It seems that a new atrocity or major world event happens every day, and the overzealous hold we have on our screens does nothing to remedy overexposure; with our timelines endlessly stuffed with information, it is easy to overlook how quarantine has exasperated the emotional and mental energy of the many trans and non-binary people who are stuck at home. I am one of the aforementioned people.
Living in Long Beach and commuting to CSULB, away from my hometown, has done a mountain of good for my mental health and feeling secure in my identity. Being around supportive people both at school and in the city allowed me to come out as gender non-binary; and wearing the clothes and accessories that made me feel whole was easy because I didn’t have to explain myself to anyone. For those of you who don’t understand the enthymematic statement about my “clothes and accessories,” allow me to explain to you the concept of gender dysphoria.
Transgender and non-binary individuals typically have form(s) of gender dysphoria - a dissatisfaction or dissociation from one’s body due to gender identity and not appearing as that gender. This can come in all forms of the trans and non-binary experience, whether being the clothes they wear, the name they’re called, or the presence of certain body parts not representing or indicating the desired gender. For many genderqueer folx, being away from toxic or unsupportive environments (ie. high school, family, workspaces, etc.) allows them to fully come into their identity in a way that wasn't possible before. Having access to other queer people, support groups, and a sense of autonomy over one’s life are all things that are available to many college students who move away from home to go to school.
So what happens when a death-causing disease sweeps the world and people are forced to move back home into possibly unsupportive environments? Not a lot of good, I can tell you that.
Before I continue, I would like to preface that I am a queer person who does not experience as much dysphoria as other trans and genderqueer people and that I benefit from the privilege of passing as a cis male. So, as I continue, keep in mind that this is my experience and not at all reflective of the entirety of the genderqueer community, though I hope that my story may help you understand to some degree.
As I was packing up my clothes to move back home 2 hours away, I remember seeing all of my skirts and tops that probably would not see the light of day for the next few months (and still haven’t). Coming out to my family as non-binary at the time seemed to be out of the question. My family has been supportive of me being attracted to men and had never had any real aggression towards me in the past, but I knew in my gut that coming out as genderqueer and presenting myself in the way that I had been doing in Long Beach was something that I wasn’t ready to do at home. Now, most of the clothes I wear only accentuate my already masculine appearance; some of the times this is fine and doesn't cause me much pain, but most of the time it is like willingly putting myself into an iron maiden torture device. All of this to avoid an uncomfortable conversation followed by side-eye looks and more uncomfortable conversations.
And with the access to endless screen time, I find myself following other genderqueer people who are able to present as they wish, unhealthily comparing myself to a certain ‘queer aesthetic’ that I cannot personally be in for the time being. So, I continue to present myself as male for the benefit and comfort of others, those who I live with and see on a daily basis. I remember having a kind of culture shock coming back home: in situations where I used to militantly declare my pronouns as “they/them,” I now find myself in a catatonic state when my father says “he.” The walls and furniture that I used to live in when I identified as cisgender now seem to mock me for my inability to come to my own defense.
This is only one experience and a relatively lax one in comparison to the many LGBTQIA+ people who are home and possibly in danger for simply being who they are. For those who recently have come out, they are unable to access medical assistance for things like hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgery (not to mention that these things were already hard to come by and afford beforehand). It can also mean that they are deadnamed (when a trans or genderqueer person is called by their birth name instead of their chosen name that is more reflective of their identity), called by the incorrect pronouns, generally mistreated, or even physically assaulted.
So, what can we do?
First and foremost, if you believe that you are in danger, please contact the Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860.
If you know people who may be in an unsupportive or dangerous environment, reaching out and checking in can be the first step. If you have the financial ability, many social fundraising platforms have seen a rise in trans people, especially sex workers, setting up donation sites for financial help. This includes the Homeless Black Trans Women Fund, The Trans Women of Color Collective, and The Okra Project, among many more. For further information, a list of Organizations are found in the Vice article “Donate to These Orgs to Support Black Trans People,” link found here.
Even more than that, it is important to spread awareness about how trans and gender-nonconforming people are in desperate need of mental health resources as well as accessible and affordable healthcare. And more, we should be advocating for measures that would address the need for care after quarantine is lifted, specifically for high-risk LGBTQIA+ people.
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